I Am Number Four

Chapter Two: Another One

It was nearly half an hour after Daniel and Nicole had left the party that Avalon felt her heart start to burn; she hadn't felt like this in a while and she swallowed moving to rub her chest hoping that she was wrong. 

Sitting with a few of her other friends the pain made her blink back tears and Avalon didn't know why this was happening to her; she had only felt this pain twice before in her life. 

The first was when she was nine years old back when she and her parents lived in New York; she had awoken that night screaming in pain unsure what was happening. 

The next was when she was twelve, she had been on a trip with her school to the Denver Zoo in Colorado; the teacher in charged had panicked when Avalon had started to scream in agony. 

Her parents passed it off as an un-treatable heart condition that played up every now and then but Avalon knew better; it was something else, something that linked to her past, the past that her parents refused to talk about. 

Just as the burn started to weaken slightly, Avalon heard Nicole's terrified scream and jumped to her feet racing towards the sound wondering what was happening to the girl that she called her best friend. 

Reaching the water's edge, Avalon came to a complete stop at the sight of Nicole; her hands were covering her mouth and her eyes were locked on something in the water. 

Avalon's eyes landed on Daniel who was holding his right ankle which was currently producing a bright light that seemed to draw in more attention than Nicole's scream as the whole party came to a stop while they stared at him. 

'Help him... hide him from them...' a voice whispered in her mind making Avalon shake her head before leaping into action as her other friends tried to comfort Nicole. 

Avalon rushed to Daniel's side and quickly grabbed on to his arm, they couldn't stay here and she knew that they had to get out of here before people started asking questions he couldn't answer.

***

Traveling a little away from the beach taking the forest as a route so that they wouldn't be stopped along the road, the two of them came to a stop allowing them to rest for a moment before they could carry on. 

Daniel sat down and looked at Avalon, who leant against the tree across from him; she shouldered her bag properly glad that she had remembered to grab it before they had left the party. 

"Why did you help me?" Daniel asked weakly feeling his energy leaving him slowly, she had seen the glow of his new scar and he had been trained not to trust anyone even if he knew that they weren't really a threat.

 Avalon took a deep breath and looked at Daniel, he had no reason to trust her but she wasn't going to judge him for what had happened; she could already imagine what the people at school would be like on Monday. 

"You needed help and I couldn't just leave you there in pain," Avalon replied still not sure why she had reacted the way that she had, she had no idea what the voice in her head had been but she had listened to it regardless. 

Avalon closed her eyes before placing her right hand on over her heart, the burning was still there but weaker than before when she opened her eyes she noticed Daniel watching her in concern. 

"You okay?" Daniel asked noticing that she looked paler than she had the last time he had seen her; he wasn't in the best condition himself but he had just witnessed one of his own being murdered. 

Avalon nodded before a rustling of the tree ahead of them court her attention, she held her breath hoping it wasn't one of the bonfire goers since she didn't want any trouble.

Daniel was silent for a moment, his eyes swept the area wondering who it could be and knowing that there was only one person that came out this way; he wasn't sure how his father-figure was going to react. 

"Henri," Daniel called out making Avalon jump as a man appeared from the other side of the tree; Henri took one look at Daniel before sighing and looking at Avalon. 

This was the last thing the two of them needed and he couldn't imagine what had happened, he only knew that this meant that they were going to have to move again. 

"You okay?" Henri asked after a couple of minutes deciding he would ask later about the girl who was with Daniel; he didn't have time to deal with this and he knew that it was dangerous. 

They didn't need to drag anyone else into their mess, the less people who knew about them the better especially with the Mogadorians still hunting them down. 

"I've been better, Avalon helped me get home," Daniel replied carefully, he could already imagine what Henri would say but he didn't care; she had sort of saved him back there and Daniel knew that this would probably be the last time that he ever saw Avalon. 

Henri eyed the brunette, she looked sort of familiar but he dismissed it knowing that they didn't have time to chat; if people had seen what had happened then it would likely attract the Mogadorians to them faster. 

"We better be getting home," Henri said moving to help Daniel to his feet, they would have to get moving and he doubted that it would be a quick clean up job. 

Daniel had started to grow attached to things and Henri knew that it was only going to cause them trouble sooner or later; they were meant to be sticking to light things.

***

Quickly avoiding any questions from her parents when she arrived home, Avalon quickly disappeared upstairs claiming that she had some things that still needed packing to do. 

Closing her bedroom door behind her, Avalon dumped her bag by the door before moving to lay down on her bed; she ran her fingers through her hair thinking about what she had seen. 

She had never seen anything like that before in her life and it nagged at her mind as Avalon thought about Daniel; she would never see him again since she was moving. 

Shaking her head, Avalon looked over at her cat and smiled before moving to stroke her; she was glad that at least she had one friend in the entire world. 

Avalon had no idea what she would ever do without Midnight and she was just glad that they would have each other after another move, it was getting hard to make new friends after each move and she was starting to get lonely. 

There was only two more years of high school and Avalon couldn't wait to go off to college, she would be able to stay somewhere for longer than a couple of years and she was already thinking about what college she wished to attend. 

"I think we're going to be okay," Avalon murmured kissing Midnight's nose, she smiled as the cat purred before rolling onto her back; she stared up at the ceiling and wondered if she would ever be normal. 

If it wasn't her heart condition then it was the constant moving about, it made Avalon wish for a normal life and she knew that would only happen when she left her parents behind. 

Of course, Avalon loved them but they didn't seem to understand how difficult this was for her; she wanted to be normal and live somewhere for longer than a couple of years, this constant moving around just wasn't for her.