5.3 – Missed Warnings

Sariel’s POV

This isn’t really part of the story, but I felt like remembering it. That day, Max came out of prison. Dad was all about being careful, he just spent a night in prison, let’s not be too harsh on him, etc. I wasn’t really caring at that point. I was dreading the bullying that was going to happen soon.

Mary was only a few days from taking her visit to China. She had certainly earned it. She’d been a great help around the house and never once picked a fight with Max.

But I remember her telling me of when she’d be a martial arts expert and would kick Max’s butt so hard he’d cry, and then she’d let him be her brother.

Mimi had been the first to hear Max arrive. She’d barked excitedly making sure everyone knew her master was finally back.

Max had come in radiating a new feeling. It’s hard to describe, but he seemed different. He’d immediately said hi to Mimi while we stood there waiting for him to look at us.

Surprising us all he’d flashed a huge smile in all our directions (including dad and Mary) and said hi. Just like that. Mary had choked on the overwhelming happiness. Dad had coughed in slight surprise and Uncle Collin had kept silent. I’d just raised a disbelieving eyebrow. My brother wasn’t this friendly.

I’d gone straight up to him and asked if prison had been fun.

Surprisingly he’d laughed at my apparent joke! He’d said it was okay. I asked him if something happened and he just replied it was confidential.

At the word confidential my uncle had turned back to him saying that that sounded familiar. I remember feeling a little left out as my brother and my uncle shared a look.

(It’s horrible, see the picture in the background on the wall? There’s supposed to be Cain’s face on it but a bug made all the paintings go blank!)One look at my father made me remember that my uncle used to be a jerk. But then he went to prison, and when he finally came back from wherever he’d gone he was a much nicer person.

I’m still not sure what’s going on with that prison. But really this isn’t that important to the story. This event simply triggered my nightmare.

That night a horrible past invaded my dreams.

I had awoken with a muted scream, my heart beating crazily inside my chest.

I dreamed of my mother’s death. I’d seen Mary’s crazy mother laughing and stabbing my mother repeatedly in the chest. I’d seen her once again telling us not to come near, and when Max moved she scratched mom’s cheek. It was horrible.

It was impossible for me to fall back asleep with the images waiting beneath my eyelids. Luckily I hadn’t woken anyone, and I had decided to take a walk to clear my head.

Dad told me I inherited that from my grandpa, Balthier, one night when he caught me. I’d gotten better at sneaking out since.

I remember it’s after watching my twin sleep for a few seconds that those first thoughts got into my mind.

I was the only one still with a problem.

Dad had gotten over mom’s death, Mary had found a way to counter Max’s bullying, though it didn’t seem she needed it anymore (not that that would stop her from going to China), and Max was smiling in his sleep! He was friendly to Mary, he was happy with dad and he laughed with our uncle. He was a lot more social, yet he still wouldn’t tell us what happened in prison.

And then there was me. Having nightmares about my mom’s death. The nightmares weren’t every night. Every time something shocked me in my life (i.e. running someone over with dad’s car or seeing my brother being mega friendly) I’d get that nightmare again.

At first I accepted it, but that night for some reason, seeing Max being…himself just dragged me down.

Mary doesn’t usually talk in her sleep, but that night she did. She muttered the words ‘don’t go’. I didn’t turn back to look at her, I’d just grabbed a jacket and headed outside. I didn’t stop to wonder whether Mary was talking to me, and whether she’d had a premonition. She was a clairvoyant for god’s sakes! I should’ve acknowledged the warning!

I hate myself for missing so many obvious signs.

After confirming my father was too focused on talking on the phone (something about the house, the foundation, etc.) I’d headed out. Rosa, hearing me open the door, was quick to follow.

I miss Rosa. I remember she was very, very friendly! Actually, on that same night she sped out in front of me because she smelled another dog. By the time I got outside she was playing around with the dog, and its owner seemed distressed.

The guy was pretty timid. He left with his dog quickly and I grabbed a winter coat when the cold air had hit me.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Rosa was with me. She was always so affectionate, and she followed me around everywhere! She was a little too easily distracted so I always had to keep her on leash.

But that’s obviously not important to the story.

No, the important thing to know about this night is who I met on the beach.

Charles.

Though at the time I didn’t know his name. He was in the middle of transforming into a human, and I’d just arrived.

Looking at him going through that transformation sort of dawned on me that I was trying to date a werewolf.

At that point, thoughts of my nightmare had already left my mind and I was left with the desire to touch his firm shoulders.

Rosa barked and jogged away.

Was that another warning? Very, very likely.

“Uh sorry, didn’t mean to intrude on your….transformation.” I’d awkwardly said as he’d noticed my presence.

“Oh sure! You enjoy sniffing in other people’s business? Just leave us alone!” He’d suddenly erupted. Of course at the time I didn’t stick on the ‘us’, more on the fact that I was trying to be nice and he wasn’t. It never occurred to me that he could have a mental problem.

“Look I’m just trying to be nice here! Is that so hard? It’s not like I followed you here anyway!” I’d countered. At that, his face seemed to soften a bit.

(Okay, this is completely unrelated, but that old person in the background is Rya. You know, Clarice’s daughter who was super mean to Serenity, Balthier’s witch big sis. She still breathes!)

I’m sure he did it on purpose, but his eyes started to look kind of sad and my heart melted at the sight. My eyes kept drifting to his lips. At this point I had been developing a huge crush.

Unable to resist, I’d pulled him towards me and kissed him.

Nervous, I had surveyed his reaction. If all went well this would have meant the start of our relationship!

He ended up running away without another word.

“Ah sh*t! What did I do?”

“I need your help.”

A strangely white girl had taken Charles’ place and had said that.

Turns out she was friends with my brother Max, but she wanted to be more than that. She had asked me for advice on how to approach him!

I had felt frustrated at Max’s suddenly very busy romantic life. He had a bunch of girls running after him. And I had to run after the one boy! I feel rather ashamed to admit I lashed out at the white girl, telling her to just let him go, he was a jerk anyway (putting aside how nice he acted the day before).

To this day I still don’t know who she is. But I remember what she said.

“I could’ve helped you in return.  God knows you’ll need it.”

I had paid no heed to her words.

Another missed warning?

Probably.

I ended up spotting these two at the beach! It’s Nathan (you know Balthier’s fairy brother) and his son Ewen. He doesn’t look bad at all! He has his dad’s hair and the same green eyes as Balthier.

Aw man, I can’t get enough of Cain! I miss him already! I put him as many times as I could in this chapter. And I ended up stalking him and taking plenty of pictures of him just cause I could. He was really a great heir to work with XD.

But you know, so far Sariel hasn’t let me down…It’s everybody else who had. I wasted a bunch of precious time cause the full moon decided to come out and Charles transformed into werewolf and would NOT change back till the morning came.