Take Courage, My Heart

Chapter Twenty

I woke up in an empty bed. Again. At this point, I had started to get used to it. Leander didn't sleep much –if at all– but when we had gone to sleep earlier, after our shared shower, I had figured he would stick around. I had fallen asleep halfway on top of him too. If anything, the fact that he had gotten out from under me without waking me up was a feat.

With a heavy exhale I pushed the comforter off and rubbed my eyes. The sun was no longer shining through the window, but it was still out, so night hadn't fallen yet. I stretched my arms upward and got up with determination in my bones.

Video game shooting and music echoed from the TV room, and I could hear Annerose and Keisuke talking and playing. Leander's and Ezra's heartbeats were muffled and distant and as I went down the stairs I realized they were both in the computer room. I turned and headed that way, still trying to shake sleep off.

I knocked on the door and didn't wait for an answer, opening and going inside the noisy room with a small smile.

"We are figuring out the money situation," Ezra started saying as soon as I was inside. I frowned at him a little and he smiled when he noticed from over his shoulder. "The job yesterday. We made a bank account with the fake IDs we have been fixing up for you."

I hadn't been aware that they had been in the process of making me IDs and bank accounts.

"It's only temporary until we can–"

"Could you two come to the TV room for a little bit?" I asked abruptly, cutting Leander short and clasping my hands in front of me in a way to calm my nerves. "I kind of want to talk to all of you..."

Whether it was my tone, posture, or overall demeanor, both of them stilled for a split second and then sat up quickly. I gulped down some air and then turned around and walked out of the computer room. Their footsteps echoed from right behind me as they followed me, and I did my best to not let that affect me.

Keisuke was still focused on the video game that they had been playing but Annerose was looking our way when we entered the room. It was clear in her eyes that she had heard what I had asked Ezra and Leander. Her tongue was poking her cheek and her eyes were clouded with worry as we all came inside, at which point Kei stopped the game and turned to us.

"What's up?" he asked lightheartedly.

"I... uh, why don't we all sit down?" I stuttered out and his expression quickly transformed into one that mirrored everyone else's.

"Okay, now you are just worrying us," Leander said with an awkward laugh, sitting down by Annerose, as Ezra went to tuck himself right by Keisuke. I remained on my feet, my back to the TV looking out at the vampires I had come to call my friends in the last few weeks.

"It's about the nest yesterday. It made me think of Vincent and I realized I have to explain some things for everything to make sense. Well, I kind of have to explain everything, I guess," I started, fighting the urge to pace. My gaze fell on Leander and the softening of his expression only worked to tighten the knot in my gut.

"You don't have to explain something you are not comfortable getting into," he said and everyone else agreed with nods and hums. I quickly shook my head.

I had to explain stuff. Because if I was going to talk about how I ended up in a nest I had to talk about the facility I had run away from. And if I talked about that I had to say how I had ended up there to begin with.

"I come from a big family," I said, going to sit on one of the two armchairs that were by the wall the TV was mounted on. I brought my legs up and hugged them close to my chest, minimizing the exposure I felt. "I have five siblings. A brother, who is two years older than me, a sister who is three years younger than me, two twin brothers who are six years younger than me, and a sister who is ten years younger than me. I grew up in the suburbs of Lewiston, Maine. My mom's an event planner, my dad's a banker. We grew up well off. Like, money was never really a worry despite being such a big family and my parents made sure to save some money in order for me and my siblings to eventually go to college.