The Other Side

Chapter 6

I sat at a table in one of the many dining rooms in the mansion, slowly and absent mindedly chewing my sandwich. Last night's... dreams, I supposed, had been strange. I had vague memories of talking to that same girl from earlier but couldn't quite remember everything she'd said. I knew I'd been able to talk back to her, but what had I asked? The only thing I really remembered was the last word she'd said: "escape". Escape from what? From who? Who was she?

My phone vibrating in my pocket drew me out of my thoughts, and I reached in to pull it out. It was a text from Hunter. A picture of him and Kira at a dog park, the dogs in the background slightly blurry from running around. The message read Here's hoping some cute dogs will make you smile. How're you feeling?

I'm alright. I texted back. Still sore and still confused but doing better. I didn't think it was a good idea to tell Hunter that some strange girl had been contacting me telepathically. With everything else going on, it would be best to keep that to myself until I figured more out about it.

"Hey, Alex." Landon's voice came from the door behind me.

I turned around in my chair, not thinking first and stretching the wound on my side. "Ow..." I whispered quietly as I slowly spun back to face the table.

Landon chuckled. "How long is it going to take you until you remember how injured you are?"

"Until I'm healed." I took another bite of sandwich. Looking back down at my phone, I saw that Hunter had sent back a crying emoji and a heart. I snorted and put the device back in my pocket. "Speaking of which, when am I going to be able to do another round of healing? I'm feeling pretty energetic."

Landon took a seat at the chair next to me. "I had wanted to wait one more day, but if you're feeling good, we can do it today." He grabbed a french fry from my plate and popped it in his mouth.

"That sounds good." I nodded. "You know," I continued, moving the plate slightly out of his reach, "you don't act very.... Princely."

"Disappointed?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, eyeing my fries as if he wanted to take more.

I shook my head. "No, not at all. I'm glad you're not all high and mighty," I responded with a small smile. "I'm pretty much the polar opposite of someone like you so it makes me feel a little less out of place." I looked at him from the side of my eye. "Do you act this way with everyone?"

"Why, you want to feel special?" Landon joked.

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "Hardly. I was just wondering if you were like this with your father, for example."

He laughed, shaking his head. "No, not a chance. My father is all manners and looks, if I acted like I did with you he'd have my head on a pike. Same with Lancius. Lamont doesn't care much. I'm hoping he'll be the only one you'll ever have to meet."

"Did your parents really have to name you all L names?" I asked, trying to remember which one was which. "It's so hard to keep track."

"My mother's name was Reina, if she'd had her way, I'd probably be a James or a Thomas or something along those lines. My father, even though the matching first letters is a little strange, was more creative with the names," he said with a shrug. "You still look confused."

"Lancius is the middle brother, right?" I asked stupidly.

Landon chuckled. "Yes, that's him."

We continued talking and Landon stole a few more fries from my plate before I finished my sandwich. I started to get up to bring my plate to the kitchen, so used to cleaning up after myself that it took me a moment to realize why Landon was looking at me so strangely.