being nearly dead

Andorra la Vella

  Breakfast was quiet. Felix had gone to call Ava down since the rest of them went quiet when he asked who would get her. She got dressed quickly and sat where she had been told to, but she wouldn't speak. Neither would Silas nor Nix. Felix looked between the three of them and exchanged confused glances with Cara who seemed to be delighted by it.

  "So, Nix," Cara started halfway through the meal, "how is Grace? I haven't seen her here in a while, well, until last night."

  Oh God, Felix thought.

  "Grace was here?" Ava shot her gaze to him but she didn't respond the way Cara wanted. "What did she say? What have the Elders said? Anything about my memories?" she seemed to push past their argument the night before. It wasn't important in the face of her old life.

  Nix took a long breath as they watched him, all except Silas who had refused to look at him. Out of anger or fear, he wasn't sure himself. "They're talking of sanctions against me for bringing you here... I've become an outlier."

  Cara laughed and Felix shot her a look. The difference between them was that Felix knew when to be serious, while she was still stuck in a child's mischievous mind without many thoughts of consequence. "You've followed the family tradition," she said with a cheeky smirk. Felix bore holes into her head. "Don't act like you're not surprised Nix turned bad boy," she told him.

  "Cara, shut up," Silas said unexpectantly which made her look down. The only one who could get her to stop. Luna watched him carefully. "Are you going to take her back to them?" he looked at him now.

  Nix hesitated. Only because of who had asked. "No... They won't be able to protect her, I know that. It would be to sign for her extinction if I did that."

  "Extinction?" Ava echoed at the other end of the table, her eyes bled concern.

  "After death you still have a chance at life again... at some happiness but this- whoever is hunting you, means to eradicate your soul. Wipe you out entirely," Nix explained.

  Her chest felt like it was closing. "You're scaring her," Silas told him.

  "She should be scared," Luna said for him and fleetingly glanced at Ava, "she has every reason to be."

  Felix stood abruptly and took a long breath. "Come, Ava, you don't need this," he extended his hand for her. She looked at it then took it, he led her upstairs. They stopped by his room as he opened the door. "Don't worry," he told her as he pulled her inside. He opened the window and climbed through. "Come on, there's nothing scary up here." His room was immaculately clean, amazingly.

  She watched as he scaled the vine frames of the building. She copied his movements but lost her footing as she reached the top. She squealed but he caught her hand and with one swift movement pulled her over onto the roof. They ran up the roof tiles to the point where the backside and frontside met.

  He sat on the edge and she joined him. "They talk too much..." he told her as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

  She looked out at the view. The forest went on for many miles but behind it was the horizon of a town. "What's there?" she pointed to it.

  "Andorra la Vella, the capitol of Andorra. It was once just simple market stalls for poor farmers, now there are hotels and mountain resorts, skiing. It's insane what time can do."

  "Wow..." she tried to focus her eyes to see it but it was too far in the distance.

  "Andorra also has the largest annual cigarette consumption," he winked and nudged her then took a drag of his own.

  "I'm assuming that's not where the habit came from?" she played along.

  "Nope, years of hard work and dedication," he grinned.

  "How do you remember everything?" she asked out of the blue as he took another breath of smoke to soon let it go.

  "I don't know, I wish there are times I could forget, it would make it all so much easier."

  "Really?" He put the cigarette to his lips and nodded. "Like what?"

  He chuckled as the smoke tumbled from his lips, he gave a small cough as a laugh. "Not all things in life are precious. For example," he lifted the cigarette, "my father beat my mother... and I was too young to do anything about it."

  "My God... Did he... ever hurt you?" she knew it was a sensitive topic but he seemed to be the most open and the most likely to tell her.

  He shook his head. "No, not me... Silas though, he was always an easy target, the boys at his school thought the same... he took far more than he could take." She didn't reply, she looked down now. "I think it was to absorb his anger from us. Whenever we screwed up, he'd always do something worse... to get his attention it looked like it."

  "He can't be bad..."

  "Who? Our father? No, he was a dick-"

  "Silas... I can't believe he's bad. What has he done to make Nix so hateful?"

  Felix partially shrugged. "I guess Silas' troubles started when he was thirteen."

  She sat straighter, she thought she was ready to hear this. "What did he do?"

  He turned to her and, without expression, said: "He killed our father."