Meeting Maia

Escape

That night Jonas crawled under the covers beside me.

"Raph?"

"Yeah?"

"If I asked you to, would you break it off with Maia?"

"If you asked me to do something like that, you wouldnt be a very good brother. So, no, I guess. We were just made for each other and I dont think we could ever break it off."

"Right." he replied. He turned over but I knew he wasnt going to sleep so I faced his back. His top was riding up. When had he gotten so muscular? He hadnt looked like that begore we left almost two weeks ago, did he? I had always been more muscly than him. Maia sauntered in, smiling at me. Jonas got up and left again. I sighed and then turned to Maia.

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep without Cleo."

"Competition for me?"

"Yeah, maybe I'll be gay for her. Then I will have dated all of you!"

"Haha. I'd rather you didn't. Your mine and I wont ever give you up."

"Good thing I dont ever want to leave."

When the door was smashed to the ground at four o clock this morning, the five of us decided to run. Luckily, Cleo and Klaus had decided to pack two bags last night in preparation.

I shuddered as I heard the door splinter from its hinges. Maia lurched upright from the warm embrace of my arms. We had obviously fallen asleep last night without realising.

Fear lanced up my veins and I felt myself nearly set alight. Maia turned to me, her figure drenched. I was obviously a hotter temperature than normal humans but that was the last thing on my mind now.

The door burst open. Cleo raced in a backpack strapped across her weakened shoulders. Klaus and Jonas followed at her heels, each carrying another backpack. Maia grabbed hers from the floor of my bedroom but I swung it onto my back. She smiled gratefully at me.

"Out the window! I can get us over the river only." I glanced at the river which was right next to the house. I was slightly disappointed but I knew how tiring Klaus found carrying five people.

Jonas grabbed the chest of draws and chucked it through the window, smashing the glass.

"Jump!" shouted Klaus and we all leapt out the top floor window. We sailed just over the water but Klaus ran out of energy, having just woken up. We began tumbling towards the water. Maia spread her arms and the water embraced us and pushed us onto the other side of the river. We were dripping wet but were all alive. Klaus held his hand out and all the contents of the shattered draws flew towards us. Clothes. Cleo and Maia caught them in their arms. Maia flicked her hand and the river became a rough current, making it hard to follow us. Jonas and I hooked our arms beneath Klaus, who had passed out on the floor, and dragged him into a small cave about a mile away from the river.

As we jogged away, we heard annoyed screams from the Catchers raiding the house, finding it empty.

The clothes, luckily, were for males and females, though the woman was quite a bit bigger than Maia and Cleo's slim figures but Cleo ripped some of the fabrics up and stitched them together using some unravelled string from the clothes and a thin stick. They were scruffy but Maia and Cleo could pull of the tight tops and skirts. Cleo's whole aura seemed to brighten in the tight clothing she was used to but she was borrowing a pair of the woman's flats; her heels were completely ruined. Klaus stayed unconscious for a whole day. We were almost going to leave him, believing he was dead.

The next day, when he woke up, he screamed a string of swear words and grabbed Maia's shoulders, crying for her to wake up, calling her 'mom'. Cleo pressed her hand to his shoulder and I tried to prise his fingers off of Maia. He blinked a few time before he awoke. He then cried onto Cleo's shoulders. Maia had finger nail cuts along her upper arms and top of her black from his nail indents. She allowed me to check it over before accompanying Klaus.

"He's angry, my dad." Klaus said, "He wants to upset me, to weaken us. You have to go on without me, find him and kill him and then get Kyle."

Cleo crashed her lips to his. She pulled back and he looked surprised.

"I'm not leaving you." she whispered into his ear and curled up against him. Jonas looked at me, I shook my head, indicating that we should not interfere.

He shrugged and left. Maia pressed her arms around my neck and I leaned forwards to kiss her, wrapping my arms around her waist. Ash and vapour clouded our peripheral vision but we laughed, enclosed in our own little area. She ran her fingers up and down my arms, kissing me fiercly. I didnt care; I kissed her back.

Suddenly, she stopped abruptly. I looked at her confused. Her fingers hovered over my arms, not quite touching me. I looked at my arm and saw the indent where she had first touched me. She looked at me in horror.

"I marked you?" she had tears in her eyes, threatening to spill.

"No, Maia-" I began but she turned and ran out of our little ash and vapour bubble. I sunk to my knees, isolated in our spot.