The Animal Inside

Chapter Twenty-Two: Familiar Names and Faces

I spent the next few days getting used to the house. Well, house wasn’t the appropriate term. It was a mansion. There was no doubt about it. Kody took joy in showing me all around the house, and telling me about its history. The house had been owned by Adrian’s family. Adrian was recently given access to all the estates that were in his name; when he turned eighteen.

Then there was the garden. It was superbly kept, with gardeners coming twice a week to maintain it. Taking a walk though the garden made me feel calm, as if there was nothing in the world that could hurt me.

After a few days it hit home what I had done; how I had run away. For the first few days my phone rang almost nonstop. Everyone from Gaia to Lock and even Jason called. I ignored everyone’s calls. At several points, I thought about blocking everyone, but I didn’t have the heart to. After about three days, the calls all but stopped. I received the occasional call. I never bothered to check my voice mail. I was bound to have about a hundred new messages.

Kody and I were sitting on the couch in the living room. He was shooting more virtual people and I was engrossed in a book. Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my pocket, telling me someone was calling me. I pulled it out and looked at the I.D.

Answer it

My finger hovered over the answer button for a moment, then I tapped it and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hi Dex.”

“Kefira? Are you ok? We’ve been going crazy worrying about you. You just disappeared.” I tuned out his rambling.

“Who’s that?” Kody whispered loudly.

Adjusting the phone so Dex couldn’t hear me, I told Kody it was one of my friends from the Academia.

“Is it that idiot who cheated on you? Let me talk to him; I’ll sort him out.” Kody reached for my phone, but I waved him away. I had told him about what had happened, starting from discovering my abilities to the break up with Lock.

“Kefira? Are you still there?”

“Sorry Dex, I got distracted by an annoying idiot.”

“Love you too,” Kody taunted, and went back to his game.

“Did you hear what I said?” Dex asked.

“You were ranting about how everyone is so worried about me. Why? I’m perfectly fine.”

“But we didn’t know that!”

“There’s no need to yell. And you should know that I was fine. I left Gaia a note.”

“The note! That only made Gaia more worried. All of us actually.”

“All of you?”

“Yes. All of us. Lock included.”

I snorted in disbelief.

“Lock is worried about me? I’m surprised he had time worry while spending all that time with his new girlfriend.”

“For the last time Kefira, Lock was not, and is not, dating Noa.”

“Is that Kefira? Did you get her? Pass it here.” I heard a faint voice in the background. Please don’t hand the phone over Dex, I prayed silently. The phone crackled as it was passed over to another person.

“Kefira! God, I was so worried,” said Lock. I sighed angrily.

“Put Dex back on the phone.”

“No. I want to talk to you.” He sounded like a five year old.

“Well I don’t want to talk to you after what you did. Put. Dex. Back. On. The. Phone.”