Commencement- an act or instance of commencing; beginning:
(Early morning of April 7th, 2014)
Guertin Newcastle wasn’t particularly fond of people. He wasn’t very fond of bitchy teenagers either, but there wasn’t an easy or healthy way to avoid both of those things. It didn’t help that he had invited the kids over to his house himself. They were his problem now. He let out a sigh, taking in the blob of bodies swarming around his door.
He violently coughed out his lungs, simply pointing and gesturing to the entrance. “Go in there now or so help me...” He wheezed, limping slightly into his own home. He left the vampire kid in the foyer. The kid smelled like death and also looked the part. Guertin didn’t want to deal or look at him.
Xavier gave him a look, kicking at the floor and sticking his lower lip out as far as it could go. “Why can’t I come and talk? I want to know what’s happening!” He whined, trying not to strain his neck. Flailing and throwing your jaw open further than it should happens to be tiring business. Guertin let out a sigh, giving the young vampire the stink eye.
“You should know why, Xavier Riddle.” He spat, pushing the tall boy out of his way. “You helped start this, unless you had forgotten.” He chuckled loudly, stroking the fine hairs on his chin. “Your whining is not welcome here, Riddle, nor has it ever been.” He shot an icy glare from a pair of even colder eyes, hobbling into the next room to check up on Lacië.
“It’s remarkable.” Andy muttered in awe, watching her friend’s wounds clean themselves under her washcloth. “How is she able to do this? It’s only been a few hours and she’s almost completely healed herself.” She sat on across Guertin’s old loveseat, Lacië’s limp body sprawled across her lap. “Sure, there’s bruising and proof of the wound.” She had tied back Lacië’s hair, which was drenched with maroon blood, into a braid to keep her hair out of the way.
Delael gasped, running his fingers across her forehead. “She’s amazing. She got dragged across nails, thrown down stairs, and beaten. But yet, she shows little visible proof that the last 24 hours even happened.” He rubbed the hardened blood from his fingers. “This shouldn’t be possible.” He spoke bitterly, taking a seat on the floor.
Guertin stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. “Lacië shouldn’t be possible in the first place. You kids do know that, right?” He mirrored their confusion, squinting his eyes at her seemingly-lifeless frame. “It’s a weird faerie thing. They could heal themselves exponentially fast. There was no stopping them. Any conflicts with the faeries resulted in human’s having to pay them taxes or something.” He shrugged, his booming voice entering his living room darkly. “Your friend Lacië isn’t like you. She’ll never be like you.”
Andy looked at him, her eyes hurt and downcast. “What the hell does that mean? Of course she’s like us. We’re all people of some form.” Delael shot her a look. “Well, except for Delael, but he’s a different story.”
Guertin scoffed, peering down into his floor then up into his stained ceiling. “Your friend Lacië is the first of her race to be allowed to live. But we can’t forget the fact that Ryuko has threatened to execute her, remember? They kept few of her kind alive. Many, many years ago. Past all our times.” They all gawked at him, Lacië stirring lightly in Andy’s lap. “They experimented. They tested what changes were made to the human fetus inside of a faerie.” He explained, watching the fluttering of Lacië’s eyelids. “Not a lot of things are changed in the DNA. Things are added. Characteristics of faeries are added.”
Lacië let out a yawn and rolled into an upright position, wiping dribble from the side of her mouth. “Uh, what’d I miss?”
Guertin looked at her, his eyes hitting the floor before eye contact could be made. “Nothing important. How’s your head?” He small talked casually, shooting Delael and Andy a look. They nodded towards him. They weren’t going to stress her. They weren’t going to stretch her any thinner than she already was.
