The Alium Stories- Demeter

Chapter 2 (1560 words)

"I need to get those cactus spines out of your chest, will you let me do that?" I turned to Elliot, meeting his dark eyes. He seemed to be fighting an internal battle with himself, but a deep breath made him wince before he nodded. "That's the broken rib. I need to clean out the other wounds before I can prompt your body to heal, otherwise, you could be healing around bacteria and at risk for an infection." I grabbed a pair of tweezers. "The faster I get them out, the faster you can get rid of that problem rib."

"I have experience with infections," he said, his voice low, pointing at a circular scar near his belly button.

"Doesn't mean you need further experience," I countered, sitting on the floor in front of him and setting to work on all the protrusions I could find.

"This doesn't bug you?" he asked after a period of silence. "It sure as hell bugs me."

I had to look up at him to look him in the eyes. "One, I'm training to become a surgical tech, I've seen the insides of a human being on more than one occasion. Two, my sister Andi literally only has one leg. And three," I pushed up the sleeve of my sweatshirt, bearing my forearm to the light and to Elliot's scrutiny.

Scattered up and down my forearm were dozens of small, pink, circular cigarette burns, telling the fractured story of my past. "I didn't come into my healing powers until I was ten, and by that time they had already healed themselves, mortally slow," I explained. "I can't heal anything mental, or past injuries that the body already deems healed."

"How?" He asked seriously.

I pulled my sleeve back down and turned my attention back to his very muscled chest. "I had a stepdad that was an asshole. He gave my mom worse marks. She didn't have the courage to speak up to him once he set his sights on me. One day he beat her so much her body gave out, she was so weak. I ran away from home that night, no longer having her to tie me to him. I was seven."

He was silent for a long while, only a slight wince every time I pulled out a spine.

"Have you met James yet? He runs numbers for Pike's nightclub, often in Chinese because he's a smart ass." Elliot nodded his head that he had. "I met him on the street, he was eight and I was seven when I met him. We survived on the streets together for almost two years before we got picked up and put into the system. Luckily, Olive, Pike's sister, and Molly found us and took us into this crazy wonderful home." I finished explaining.

"How come they didn't just return you to your stepdad?" He asked.

"Well, I used to go by my dead father's last name, not his, so they couldn't really tie me to him. Plus, he was probably in jail on drug charges or something. Also, he was in Arizona, not Texas." I had the feeling that not focusing on him made some of his weariness about sitting with his shirt off go away.

"You guys traveled two states away, as kids?" he seemed incredulous.

I laughed quietly before answering him. "Well, when I first ran I stole some money from the shit bag, and I was rightfully terrified of what he'd do to me, so I got on one of those greyhound buses that always smell like ass. I told the bus driver I was going to my aunt's house in Oklahoma, and so I wound up in Oklahoma. I found Jackson there and we've worked together ever since."

"How are you not extremely messed up from that?" he looked at me seriously. I raised an eyebrow at his question, and his face crumpled in embarrassment as he realized what he asked. "Sorry, I'm usually a quiet person, I don't know where that came from."

"It's alright," I said. "I was a super angsty teenager, I guess, but I realized one day I couldn't really do anything to change what had happened to me, and I could only learn from it. I'm a hell of a bargain hunter," I joked. "Stems back from living on the streets and stretching whatever dollar we had. We practically lived off dollar store canned fruits and veggies."

"What is this place, anyway?" Elliot asked after another bout of silence.

"This house actually used to be a shitty motel, but Molly's parents are loaded and gave her money to 'go for her dreams'," I put the last part in air quotes. "They probably meant university, but instead she bought this foreclosed property with her then-girlfriend, Olive, and used the manpower of the motorcycle club to help fix it up to make it into a home that they could adopt Alium children into. All the walls were painted by Olive, she's a very talented artist."

"How many people live here?" He winced again, and I gave him an apologetic look.

"There are fourteen kids plus Molly and Olive, and whoever from Pike's crew that wants to crash here from time to time. We have a lot of room."

"Wait, you have thirteen brothers and sisters?" He exclaimed, looking at me with a wild face, some of his humor from before coming back. "And I thought having one sister was bad enough."

"You know how its super common for Alium to have multiples, like twins and triplets? Molly could never stand to break apart siblings, so she just adopts the masses." I motioned for him to turn around, so I could work on his back, and he did so hesitantly. His back was much the same, scars scattered along the rugged plane of his back, but like I told him earlier it really didn't bug me. "That's why James and I were adopted together, even though we aren't blood-related."

"That's a lot of mouths to feed." He suggested, turning his head to continue talking to me.

"Molly loves cooking, and she teaches us all to cook. None of us are really picky eaters, so that makes it easier. Plus, the whole loaded grandparents thing." I continued picking out spines, dabbing gauze on any holes that felt like bleeding. "You said you had a sister?"

"Younger sister, Anne. She has two kids, twins actually, Luke and Leah."

I snorted. "I'm sorry, Luke and Leah? Like, from Star Wars?"

He nodded, a small smile lighting up his face. "Yeah, their dad is kind of a giant nerd, but Leah is spelled different from the movie princess. They're a couple of transporters, came into their powers really early. Kind of terrifying, actually. One second you're holding a baby, the next thing you know, you're no longer holding a baby."

I laughed at that. "Yeah, Park and her twin Dani are transporters too. You don't ever get used to it." He laughed along with me, and I decided I liked the sound of his low, hearty laugh.

"Why did you decide to come to Texas?" I asked after our laughter subsided.

"Anne and David live down here, and I wanted to be closer to my niece and nephew. I came from California." He said.

"There could be worse places to be from," I joked, finally pulling out the last spine. I stood up and grabbed the washcloths, running them under fresh water and adding a dab of soap. "The soap might sting a little, so I'm sorry in advance."

He tensed again when I touched the washcloth to his back and began wiping away the blood. I made sure to clean out all the cuts and scrapes brought on by both the gravel and the cactus while trailing my bare hand across his back to give his cells a prompting to heal. I felt him shudder under me, and I stopped.

"I'm not hurting you, am I? I'm told the healing can feel a little strange."

"No, it's fine." He ground out, sounding like he was angry. I quickly finished on his back, the first of the cuts already beginning to stitch themselves back together.

"You can turn back around, now," I said quietly, going back to the sink and washing off the cloth again. When I turned back around, he seemed to be shaking, his eyes closed and his hands gripping the material of his jeans tightly. "Elliot?"

"I need to get out of the house. Please." He said slowly. "Before I shift."

"Oh. Oh." I said stupidly. I opened the door and gestured for him to follow me, and led him down the hall in the other direction away from where people were congregating in the front room. "Here," I told him, holding the door open for him. "We have a decent sized amount of land, you can use that."

He nodded stiffly before passing me and heading out into the darkness. He stomped to the trees, disappearing among the branches. I heard a ripping of clothing, and then the loud roar of a bear. If Molly wasn't awake, she sure as hell was now.

A bear, I thought to myself. How fitting. I closed the door and headed back to the bathroom, beginning to clean up while I waited for Elliot.