Monster

by Yolanda Olson

  Sighing I swung my legs back and forth and rapped my fingers impatiently on the slab. I took a deep breath and I let it out. I heard another shout outside, very faintly, as someone was hurled through the air. I knew that sound all too well.

  I stood up and started pacing. I wish I could see things like Cody or read minds like Kaeden. I wish that I could shape shift like Charlie. All or any of these things would allow me to know what was going on without being seen or recognized.

  I let out a loud sigh and plopped down onto the floor. I crossed my legs under myself and decided that this might be a good time to reach that enlightenment I was trying to reach in Wyoming. I took a series of calming deep breaths, and held out my arms; forefingers to thumbs again.

  I closed my eyes and felt myself quickly falling into a state of calmness. It went a lot faster than it did before and I was left wondering subconsciously if it had something to do with the mausoleum I was in.

  My body began to feel light. I felt as if I were nothing more than a feather. I felt an enormous amount of peace washing over me and felt only happiness. It was hard to believe because I had never tried this more than once before, but I felt like I was almost there.

  “What are you doing?”

  Jumping I opened my eyes and groaned. Why was I always getting interrupted when I tried to do this?

  In the doorway stood Kaeden, Charlie, and Cody. Cody was giving me a goofy grin, obviously amused by what I was doing.

  “I’m trying to reach nirvana. It’s something I read about. So far every time I try it, I get interrupted,” I muttered standing up.

  “Oh. Okay,” he said glancing at the other two. Charlie seemed to be genuinely interested in what I was saying while Kaeden seemed as skeptical as Cody.

  “Oh it doesn’t matter now,” I grumbled.

  “Aw, come on dolly. Don’t get mad. Hey if it makes you feel any better, we can finish that walk.”

  He came over and put his arm around my shoulders. I looked at him and just shook my head. There was no point in trying to act like everything was normal or okay anymore.

  “Actually, I have a better thought.”

  “What’s that?” he asked me.

  “Kaeden, how is it that the sun is up and you’re out and not being burned to a crisp? I mean that’s kind of not fair, considering that I couldn’t be out in the day.”

  Smiling, he walked over to where I had been sitting when I first came in and looked thoughtful for a moment. It was clear he was thinking of a way to explain.

  He looked out the door into the daylight, then back at me. “I guess you know one of my secrets then. I know that it’s some hidden law that we aren’t allowed out in the daytime because the sun will burn us,” he said holding his hands up theatrically. “Of course that’s true. In a way. Well. Not really,” he said chuckling.

  “Which is it?” Cody asked curiously.

  “It’s a lie. To keep order though I let Ava believe this and in turn any vampire she made believed the same thing. I know that one of Drake’s clones came back burned, but that’s because the clone was a shell of himself. Not as strong as him, so of course it would burn. Ava on the other hand believed that the sun was burning her and so it did. The power of suggestion really is everything.”

  I stared at him for a moment. Cody as usual found the situation humorous and was laughing. Charlie seemed to be contemplating whether she should tell Kaeden her secret; that was obviously written all over her face. I on the other hand, stood there absorbing everything he had just said. I wondered if that would be something I could learn.

  “It only works with vampires,” he said looking at me.

  I rolled my eyes and looked out the doorframe. Regardless of how much he dodged the question, I knew he was a mind reader. I decided to leave that issue alone. Behind me I heard Charlie clear her throat.

  “Um. Kaeden? As long as we’re all sharing, I’ve got something I need you to see.”

  “And what’s that?” he asked her kindly.

  Her eyes darted over to me and she chewed her lower lip nervously. Cody raised an eyebrow obviously thinking that Charlie wasn’t going to do it.

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  Holding it for a moment, I thought maybe she was racking her brain to see who she would be turning into. As soon as she made her decision and let it out, she morphed into a carbon copy of Kaeden, himself.

  Kae gasped and jumped to his feet. He walked over to Charlie who still wore the same nervous expression and examined her closely. She even had managed to produce the same pair of glasses that he liked to wear.

  “Step outside with me for a moment,” he said finally.

  She cut her eyes to me again with a look of terror on her new face. I pulled myself free from Cody’s arm and walked over to the doorframe.

  “I doubt that he’s going to hurt you,” I whispered as I passed her.

  Kaeden was already standing outside the door patiently waiting for Charlie to emerge. I turned and glanced back into the mausoleum and saw Cody with a hand on her shoulder, giving her a pep talk. She smiled gratefully at him and finally exited the tomb.

  “I want to see if you only look like me or if you harvest my strengths as well,” he said with a smile.

  In a split second, both of their eyes turned completely onyx and they were snarling, heaving, beasts. I liked this side of Kaeden. Probably because I never got to see it very often.

  By the time my thought was over, the two of them were locked in a useless battle. Charlie obviously was able to copy a being’s power along with their appearance. She was able to mirror actions too.

  Yeah. I really do wish I had that skill.

  Suddenly Kaeden stopped the mock battle and clapped. Charlie was panting but she was obviously pleased at her display. She pushed her hair out of her face and I felt Cody standing next to me. I looked up at him and grinned.

  “That was awesome,” I said to her.

  “Thanks! That was tiring, I never knew you were that strong,” she said to Kaeden.

  He chuckled and smiled, “It’s another secret.”

  “I noticed!”

  We all laughed. I walked over to Charlie who was eyeing Cody suspiciously. I turned to glance at him and was able to figure out what he was thinking; I mean it was written all over his face.

  “Give her a chance to recoup, would ya,” I called over to him.

  Grinning sheepishly, he walked over to Kaeden and the two of them started talking. I looked back at Charlie who was smoothing her hair back. I laughed when I saw how quickly she had shifted back into herself.

  “Being a dude is kind of weird. You get all the parts,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

  I started to howl with laughter. I couldn’t help myself. That had to be the funniest thing I had ever heard, because it was the first time I ever heard it. She grinned while I wiped the tears from my eyes. Once I was calm enough, I asked her a question that had been nipping at me.

  “Hey Charlie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “When you were Kaeden, were you able to read anyone’s mind?”

  She slapped her hand to her forehead. “Ugh! I didn’t even try! I was so consumed with the fact that he wanted to fight that I forgot all about that.”

  “You know Cody wants to try it too now, right?” I said glancing off in his direction.

  “I know but to be honest, Finn. I don’t think I’d be able to mentally deal with being him. He’s got too much conflict naturally happening inside of himself for me to be able to deal with it. I don’t even know how he deals with it.”

  “I think he spends most of his time trying to be good. I mean I know we don’t see it much, but sometimes I just get that feeling, you know? Anyway I’ll make sure that I find something else for him to do so you don’t go through a mental breakdown when he asks you to morph.”

  She laughed and held out her hand. “Deal.”

  “Charlie, I need you to do me a favor. I have to find
Billie. I have a theory about something and I need to know if it’s true. Could you please shift into me? I promise my mind isn’t scary.”

  She looked at me for a moment, then morphed.

  “Thanks,” I said with a grateful smile.

  “I’ll expect an explanation when you get back,” she said adjusting her sunglasses. “And if your boyfriend makes a move on me, I’ll break his hand.”

  I chuckled to myself as I ducked between the gravestones and out of the cemetery. For someone who was in my certain state you’d think leaving the cemetery would be enough to give a human a heart attack of some sort. But since no one knew what I was, I knew I was fairly safe.

  Almost immediately I caught Billie’s trail. I followed it clear across the state line into Montana. She must’ve gone back to Alzada, I thought to myself.

  I stood there at the state lines wondering if Charlie would be able to buy me that much time. I knew she probably could, but I wanted to be able to talk to her first to be sure.

  As I turned to head back to the cemetery I walked into what seemed like a brick wall.

  “Hey, kid,” Shane said.

  I took a step back. The only vampire I trusted now was Kaeden and I wasn’t even sure I trusted him completely. He smiled kindly and took a step toward me.

  “Long time, eh? I missed you, you know. I mean I miss all of us hanging out in the shop like we used to Ken, Max, Drake, you, and me. Sitting in the shop at night talking and hanging out. Kind of brings a tear to my eye. Does it make you sad, too?”

  “Yeah, of course,” I replied wearily.

  “Then I’ve got to ask. Why did you bring Kaeden to the shop that night?”

  His voice had turned cold and his eyes were burning into mine. I wasn’t exactly sure what the big deal was now considering that he had become good friends with Kaeden and they got along great.

  “Why aren’t you at his house?” I asked suddenly.

  “Answer my question first,” he snapped.

  “I didn’t. He told you what happened. I tried to stop him.”

  “That’s a lie,” he shouted. “I thought you were our friend. We treated you like family and you didn’t even bother to think about us! We were torn apart because of you and now you act like everything’s fine. I can’t believe you Finn, I really can’t. But there’s something you should know about me,” he said, in a low menacing voice.

  I knew at that point that this was coming down to a fight. I pulled off my hooded jacket and tossed it to the side. I grabbed my hair bands and tied my hair in a tight ponytail. I tossed my sunglasses onto my jacket and prepped myself.

  “And what’s that?” I asked in a bored tone.

  “One. I’m immune to the sun.”

  Yeah, you and every other vampire in the world, idiot.

  “Two. I have a special little power of my own that even Ken didn’t know about.”

  I yawned. I really didn’t care to be honest. Nothing he could do would be able to kill me. For some reason I felt like the sun fueled me and made me stronger.

  “Three. You’re going to die now.”

  He lunged at me and I easily sidestepped him. Maybe there was something in the sun’s rays that was helping me because even though I knew I was fast, I was never that fast in a fight.

  I looked up and nodded in thanks. Then I turned my attention back to Shane. My mouth dropped. He had a secret power alright and I didn’t know if I’d be able to fight him off.

  Shane had the eyes of a devil now. The same snake like slits that Cody had when he was overtaken by his demonic fury. That’s when it hit me. Phoebe is trying to show someone how to possess themselves. Cody’s exact words the last time we were in the cemetery. But for some reason I couldn’t believe that she would show Shane of all people how to do something like that.

  His movements were the same slow deliberate movements that Cody made right before he attacked. I knew that I was in a world of trouble right now. When I had skirmished with Code he almost wound up hurting me severely. Shane wanted to hurt me severely or possibly kill me.

  I knew I didn’t have a chance. The strength and speed of a vampire with the strength and speed of a demon left me in a bad place. Resigning myself to the fact that I was going to die, I attacked him.

  He caught me by my arms and slammed me back into a tree so hard, that the tree split and we fell onto it. Quickly recovering, he got to his feet and lifted me off the ground with one arm. I pulled back and with everything I had punched his arm with a ferocity that would’ve broken the limb of a normal being. But he still didn’t drop me.

  Then out of nowhere he dropped me as he was ripped away from me. I was caught swiftly, which surprised me since the ground wasn’t more than a few foot drop for me.

  “I’ve got you,” Kaeden said to me. Grabbing Charlie by the arm, he ran us both back to the state line. “Stay here. He won’t be able to cross without a specific invitation from a resident of the state. Drawback of possessing himself,” he said with a grim smile.

  “How did you know?” I asked them. I was bent over with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath.

  “I heard your thought. The possession thought, I knew you were in trouble and Cody read it on my face. That’s pretty much when they figured out that I wasn’t you,” she said with a sheepish grin.

  “Thanks,” I said standing up slowly. I looked around. “Where’s Cody, anyway?”

  “Who do you think was strong enough to pull Shane away from you?” Kaeden asked.

  I followed his gaze. I spotted Cody and Shane just in time to see Code grab him by the shoulders, and whirl him violently. Shane’s body, smashed onto the ground leaving an impression, then through the air, and into the ground again. It looked like an interpretive dance that ballet dancers did with those ribbons that were attached to poles. Though I’m sure not as enjoyable.

  Cody’s rage looked unstable. I didn’t know if he was going to be able to keep his composure during this fight. I looked at Kaeden then at Charlie. The look on my face told them what needed to be done.

  Charlie grinned and adjusted her top hat. Kaeden smiled and slid his glasses into his pocket. I cracked my neck a couple of times. It was time to go in and take this fight off of Cody’s hands.

  I crossed from Montana back into North Dakota. Cody immediately became distracted by what I had just done and ran toward me. With a powerful blow, he knocked me back into Montana and turned his attention back to Shane.

  “I guess that means you stay here,” Charlie said with a chuckle.

  I stayed on the floor where I had landed. Typical boyfriend syndrome; always having to show that they are manly enough to handle any situation, no matter how many demons were involved. I sighed and put my cheek in my hand and watched.

  Shane at one point had managed to knock Code to the ground. Kae and Charlie were still on the Montana side of the border, but I could see that they were prepared to intervene at any moment.

  In a false sense of victory, Shane eased his grip on Cody’s shirt. Seizing the opportunity, Cody knocked him to the ground again and punched him so hard in the chest that he impaled him to the cement sidewalk with his arm.

  Shane let out a howl of pain that was so intense, that I had to cover my ears.

  Cody’s chest was heaving with exhaustion. Shane looked like he was on the brink of death. Cody’s eyes turned back to normal and he looked at us uncertainly.

  “Stay here guys, I’m going to go see what the problem is,” Charlie said as she jogged off toward them.

  Kaeden stood over me as we watched Charlie jog over to them. Cody looked up at her and said something we couldn’t hear. She got on her knees and leaned her ear close to Shane’s mouth. Then she looked at Cody and nodded. With one last gesture, Cody pulled with all his might tore out Shane’s heart. Charlie took it from him and crossed over to the state line. I turned to watch. Immediately it caught fire and turned to ash in her hands. A soft wind was picking up and she held up her hands then gently blew the
ashes away.

  “Good bye, Shane,” she said quietly.

  “He ... he wanted me to do it,” Cody said suddenly behind us.

  I looked up at him and saw that he looked completely shaken. I stood quickly and wrapped my arms around him in a tight, secure hug. His entire body was shaking so hard I was sure it would look like I was trembling too.

  “What do you mean?” Kaeden asked him.

  “When he loosened up on my shirt. He told me to kill him. He told me that I’d be helping him. He couldn’t control the demon. I ... I didn’t want to kill him,” Cody’s voice trailed off.

  I’d never seen him look so bothered over something. I squeezed him as tightly as I could. Finally he reacted and put one hand on my back and pulled me close. But then he pushed away just as quickly. He started to pace the state line almost frantically.

  “I’ve got to stop her. I don’t know how to do it without killing her. I can’t kill her. I can’t!”

  I looked at Kaeden. It was obvious we were thinking the same thing. Killing Shane had sent Cody to the edge of sanity. Charlie grabbed me by the arm and slowly backed me up into North Dakota. Kaeden stepped back as well, and Charlie soon after.

  I think we were all afraid that he might turn on us in his delirium. He turned and looked us looking absolutely disturbed.

  “Why are you guys over there?”

  His voice was high pitched and his eyes were wild. I chalked it up the shock of what he just did and crossed back into Montana. I went over to him and grabbed his face to make him look me in the eyes.

  “Cody calm down. We know you didn’t want to do it, but you didn’t have a choice. It’ll be okay. We all have made choices that we never wanted to make but couldn’t keep ourselves from doing. We’re still your friends. We still love you and we know this isn’t you.”

  He let his breath out in a shuddery way and looked at Charlie and Kaeden who had crossed back with me. I let go of his face.

  “She’s right you know,” Charlie said coming over and clapping him on his back.

  He looked at Kaeden who looked thoughtful for a moment. Clasping his hands behind his back, he finally spoke.