The Last Hope

18 Aria

“Okay, could you all stop here, please?” I asked them kindly.
“Excuse me?” Kota sassed.
“Why would we wait here?” Auna asked. “We can push harder if we’re slowing you down too much.”
“Auna, that wouldn’t matter. She has to get it through her thick skull that we’re just as big a part of Rae’s life as she is.” Dakota yelled annoyingly. I let out a harsh, humorless laugh.
“I’m going to ignore how ignorant that comment was. Besides; that’s not why I’m asking you all to hang back. I think Echo and I should go in alone at first. Partly because our siblings would probably just jump into a fight with you four, and win. Also, though, this is something that you couldn’t imagine what she’s feeling. She needs these few moments to reconnect alone with our family. That’ll also give me a few moments to explain to them why you all need to join us.” To which everyone stayed silent. They all knew I was right, and being reasonable about this. Echo looked at me with watery, full eyes. She looks at me like I'm the first person to ever hear her. The thought of that made my chest squeeze. “The shack is just over the hill, you can’t miss it.”
They all looked around for a decently comfortable place to sit while they wait as I turned to walk back up the hill. Echo was looking down at me; I could feel her gratitude for telling the others to stay back for this.
“Are you ready?” I asked her before we opened the door.
“As ready as I’ll ever be I suppose.” She gulped.
I reached out and opened the door, and she gripped tight on my hand.

~Echo~

The shack is built into the side of a hill, so all you see when you first walk in is a long staircase going upwards. As we reach the top of the stairs, the space opens up into the main living area of the shack. Three couches sat to our right, with everyone sitting there waiting awkwardly. My eyes started to blur again as I looked at them. A gorgeous woman with dark skin and nearly white hair stood up first. At first her purple eyes confused me but it only took me a second more to recognize her as Nyx.
She has gotten so tall and incredibly beautiful. She wore a shy smile, excited but obviously cautious. As I stepped closer, I could recognize features she had when she was younger. There was a cluster of four freckles on her neck. Her eyes were the deep purple like it was when she was a child, but with the gloss of beginning tears. She even had the same dimples… I stopped short a few paces short of her when I realized that not only I knew her, but so did Rae. I furrowed my brows at her, but before I could say anything, she closed the distance quickly and pulled me into a tight hug. There was a small part of me that wanted to pull back and question her. A bigger part of me felt so safe, warm, and home. Everyone else crowded around me and tangled their arms around me. I could feel their hot breaths as they tried to not cry. Slowly, the grips around me softened.
I studied their new faces, noting all of the similarities and differences. Jasper was definitely not the child I last saw. His features were much more angular and prominent. He looks so thin and sickly, though… his hair looks like it used to be a mohawk that hasn’t been shaped for a long time now. His eyes are sunken in and dark. I can feel his relief that I am here again, but also a twinge of anger, and grief. He comes up to me, he also has at least six inches of height more than I. he cups my cheek with his hand and lets two plump tears fall down his face as he says;
“I can’t believe we actually got you back… It wasn’t all completely in vein…” before he choked on his words and excused himself from the room. Everyone fell silent as they looked at Aria with meaningful looks. I slowly started to feel like an outsider again. I remember that I don’t actually know these people. So much time has passed, has aged my family, driving a wedge between us. After a few moments, Axle loudly clapped his hands to snap everyone out of their stares.
“Well, Aria and Echo are probably hungry” He looked at me, “We have food waiting in the oven.” Just then my stomach growled, as I remembered that I haven’t eaten anything in the past two days. I also remember my friends waiting just down the hill a ways.
“Actually, before we go eat, I have something I needed to talk with you about.” I sucked in my lip awkwardly. “You see, I had some close friends back when I was Rae. And they found us just before the Dolofonos got to us-“
“What?! The Dolofonos found you? When? What happened? Are you two okay?” Abe sputtered at us.
“I distracted it while the others hid in the safe room.” Aria softly chimed in, I think she wanted to be the one to explain.
“What do you mean you ‘distracted it’?!” Axle raised his voice.
“I pretended as though I was just heading into town. They searched the cabin and… questioned me, then left. Yes, I got a few broken bones, but I am fine. No biggie.” She shrugged.
“No big deal? They could have killed you!” Axle yelled.
“I’m not that easy to kill, Brother. They wouldn’t put that much effort into trying.” She added. My heart squeezed hearing her say that with so much confidence, knowing how much fear I could feel on her the other day as she was saying her good-byes to me… “There was nothing else that we could have done. They would have burnt the cabin down if I hid with them. Trust me; I thought of every alternative and that was the only option and you know it.” She added.
“Now, we also have some of the people from my… other life with us. They wouldn’t have accepted being left behind, as well as I didn’t want to. That is what you need to know, that they’re here now, a dozen yards away. They’re going to be staying with us here.” I watched their reactions closely as they exchanged concerned looks.
“Echo, you see, we can’t have humans live with us. They can’t even know about who we are, and we can’t hide it all the time. It would endanger their lives as well as ours.” Nyx added kindly.
“Hah! They’re not actually human.” Aria added bluntly. “There are two vampires and two mages. One seems to be closer to a warlock, though.” Nyx looked at me confused as she processed what Aria said.
“That’s nearly impossible. There are such few of us here in this world, especially vampires. There’s maybe a hundred or so in the whole world. And you befriended two of them?” Nyx asked skeptically. I just shrugged and nodded. “How do we know they’re not working with the Dolofonos?”
“They didn’t even know he existed. Auna told me how she thought they were only a myth from the other world as a tactic to scare the young vampires from considering crossing here.” I assured her, thinking back to my conversations with Auna.
After a few more minutes of answering their questions and assuring them that we would be safe in the house with them, I ventured out to go find them. It is far past dark now, and I lose my footing a couple times as I try to deftly find my way to where I left them. As I got there, they had all fallen asleep, except for Dakota.
“Hey… you can all come in now.” I told him.
“Ah, so you’re done reconnecting with your real family?” he asked sharply.
“No. I won’t be for a little while. I haven’t seen them since I was four, Dakota. And if you have such a big problem with this, you don’t have to be here. No one’s forcing you to stay.” I snapped at him.
“Rae, I spent all these months looking for you. I nearly worked myself to death trying to find you. I just wish I knew how badly you didn’t want to be found.” He stood up and looked me in the eyes, but without touching me. “I just wish…” he stopped. “I’m not going anywhere yet. I’m going to be around to make sure you’re safe like I should have always done.” He added strongly as he pushed Alec’s foot, waking him and Auna before passing me towards the cabin. I didn’t move for a second: anger and sadness filling my chest. Why couldn’t he understand that I’m also going through so much? I know he worked hard to find me, and I can imagine how much guilt and grief he felt when Aria rescued me. I don’t want him out of my life, but I need to be able to organize where my priorities are.