I CAN'T SAVE US ↠ KAI PARKER

13. the map of moments

Portland, Oregon

If Kai hadn't explain why we drove off the main road to an almost none-existing one to get to his 'childhood home', I would've definitely thought this was it. The whole thing was too 'girl gets lured by hot serial killer' much, I could already see the headlines. Though, I doubt anyone would stumble across my body immediately, the nearest house was probably two miles away and by the looks of it, I was completely sure it was abandoned.

Rationally, the sane part of me would've suspected about of how real was this 'childhood home' of his when we arrived to an empty vast field of nothing but a burnt tree stump and rubble, that was until we crossed the destroyed brick fence and everything around us completely changed drastically, revealing a massive house in front of us and every dying plant turned greener, reminding me once again that I was accompanied with a witch, not just a vampire.

"For some reason I keep forgetting that vamp-hearing and super speed is not all you got under your sleeve" I said as we stood in front of the property.

"Sorry, that's on me. Keep forgetting you don't remember all of the cool tricks I showed you" he apologized as he walked towards the front porch.

"Cool tricks, uh? Well, if I wasn't impressed by Jer's amazing 12-year-old-magician tricks, I doubt I'd be much impressed with yours" I teased him and he chuckled.

"I think my magic tricks were the only reason you kept me around for so long, but you weren't that amused with massive spells..." he said taking his jacket off as the sun shun down on us intensely and I was glad I opted for a summer dress instead of jeans, not like if I had much of a choice after all I'd packed for a hot beach-y road trip not reuniting with my compelled past "Figures, surrounded by vampires and hardcore witches, you'd be completely taken by me doing something as simple as turning a branch into a rose or making it snow in a hot afternoon out of the nowhere"

"You did that for me?" I asked and my heart squeezed out an extra beat.

"Uh... sometimes when you were feeling down, as your very good friend, I did some easy witchy stuff to cheer you up" he answered sitting on the stairs and he patted the spot next to him so I would sit there "No biggie"

"So, this is where you grew up" I said sitting next to him and he nodded in response "Why did you bring me here? Isn't this the first place they'd come looking?"

"Just bringing my girl home to meet the in-laws and all that" he teased and I shook my head "though you won't be meeting my parents, lucky for you, because they were pretty shitty hosts"

"Kai,–"

"Fine, I was feeling in the mood for haunted house tour" he said and I would've thought he was in the mood for cracking a few jokes but the pessimist look on his face told me otherwise.

"Haunted house?" I asked deciding to go along with it, hoping he would eventually tell me why his mood had suddenly changed.

"It's abandoned... the house" he answered indifferently playing with his rings.

"Do you have any more family here in Portland?" I asked cautiously, knowing it was a touchy subject.

"Nope, just me now" he clipped carelessly and I nodded.

"Did you had any siblings?" I inquired and he tensed up a little bit.

"I'm an only child" he answered a bit coldly and I regretted bringing the subject up immediately, it had probably made him remember all the terrible things about his childhood. He was an only child and his parents had treated him like a freak, I couldn't possibly even begin to imagine what that must've been like and I suddenly felt shattered at the thought of a young Kai, all alone suffering at the hands of the people that were supposed to nurture him.