"What's the first thing I do in the morning?" I asked after thinking for a few seconds.
“Have a cup of coffee. You never leave home without having one," he replied with a smile on his face. I started to laugh.
“See? The only thing I know about you is your name. I want to know you.”
"Okay, what do you want to know?"
"What's the first thing you do in the morning?"
He smiled.
“I run. I like to run around the backyard lawn of the hotel. I like the smell of grass and the sounds of birds.”
"And why did you decide to protect me?"
"Actually, it wasn’t my decision. After the Chosen Ones began to be killed, we held a meeting and it was decided that all the Pacenians who didn’t live with us would have protection until we caught the culprit. I was assigned to you.”
"And there are others who know nothing, like me?"
"No, they don’t have ‘stalkers’ like you," he said in a playful tone.
“John, from now on I want to be included. I've spent too much time without knowing anything. Please don’t leave anything out, I want to be useful.”
"I thought you'd say that. And even though your scared face is always funny,” I frowned at him. “that wasn’t the reason I came.”
“What do you mean?”
"I wanted to know if you didn’t want to go and meet the others and our home."
It didn’t take me a second to respond. I'm sure I almost screamed, actually. The idea made me incredibly excited.
“Of course, I do” When?”
“Maybe tomorrow. It's Sunday, I think everyone will be there.”
"Deal, then.”
"Can I come get you?" At 3 p.m.?”
"Perfect," I said, smiling.
“Right. So, I’ll see you tomorrow," he said, standing up.
“See you then.”
A second later he disappeared, leaving a small cloud of black smoke that soon dissipated. It was only then that I realized that besides being excited I was nervous too. My heart was beating faster. To know my people? Visiting the place where my parents died? It made me uneasy.
I got out of bed and went downstairs. I walked around the dark house for a few minutes before making some of Grandma’s green tea for me. I didn’t know what to do. My head was racing. What if they didn’t like me? What if I ruin everything? And what if they think I'm not one of them because I wasn’t raised as one? I can’t win a new family just to lose it again.
When I finished drinking my tea, I went upstairs again and did what I always do when I need to forget the world: read. I started reading Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Darcy never disappoints. I fell asleep with the book in my hands.
I woke up late, since I hadn’t been able to sleep properly. The night was like I was having a constant nightmare. I woke up often, always with the thoughts of my parents and the other Pacenians in my head. I went down the stairs and found Grandma leafing through a cookbook.
"Good morning," I said, pouring coffee into my cup.
"Almost good afternoon, isn’t it, young lady?"
She put the book on the counter so she could look at me.
"I couldn’t sleep properly," I said, and sat down on a stool.
“Why not?”
“John was here yesterday and…”
“Of course he was. That guy really likes it here, doesn‘t he?” She said with a wicked grin.
I frowned at her.
“Come on, Grandma. He's just helping me with all of this.”
“If you say so.”
"As I was saying, he came here and invited me to meet the others. I said yes, of course.”
"Liz, you are wonderful, they‘ll love you, my dear. No need to worry," Grandma said with a gentle smile on her face, noticing my nervousness.
"Thank you, Grandma," I said with an anxious smile.
The hours flew by and when I saw it was almost 3 p.m. I changed as fast as I could, pulling my hair aside with a fishbone braid, and wearing a simple, loose-fitting flowered dress.
At exactly 3 p.m. the bell rang. Grandma was about to open when I ran by and she got out of the way. I opened the door and what I saw made me smile. John, propped up in a silver car that looked old but well cared for, looked at me with that charming smile on his face. He walked to the door.
"Someone recently complained about my means of transportation, so today I thought about doing things the old-fashioned way.”
"John, I was kidding, it was just the scare talking.”
"Liz, I know, I'm just playing with you." I smiled and patted him lightly on the arm. "But anyway, I wanted us to travel the old-fashioned way.
"I think we'll have a lot of different when we get there, won’t we?"
“Exactly.”
“Shall we?”
"Yes," he said, holding out his hand.
I held his hand and Grandma pulled me back to give me a kiss on the cheek. She greeted John quickly and we left.
On the way we remain silent; I was more nervous than ever, constantly wiping the palm of my hand on my dress, and John thoughtfully. I watched him turn his face from time to time in my direction. I tried to distract myself a bit and soon our conversation from yesterday came to my head.
"Hey, I still haven’t finished asking my questions," I said suddenly, looking at him.
“What questions?”
"Yesterday I said I wanted to get to know you, and I still have questions. We sort of got off topic.”
“That’s true. You can ask freely, miss," he said, smiling.
“All right. If you could go back to Pacem, would you?”
“I don’t know. I know I'm from there, I've heard a lot of stories, but actually I have no memory of Pacem. When we came here I was very young, I have no memory of our realm. So, despite knowing more than you, I was raised here, too. By Pacenians, but here. I don’t know what it would be like to live in a completely different place.”
“I know what you mean. I don’t know what it would be either. And your parents, when did they came here?”
"My parents and I left when the war started to get worse, I was only two years old. My mother is human, so we had a place to stay. My father met her when he was here and she went to live in Pacem with him. When your parents got a place for everyone, they decided to stay with the others.”
He started to slow down. We stopped in front of a big old building with a worn sign that barely read "Safehouse Hotel". John got out of the car and opened my door, but I just sat there, suddenly realizing that the nervousness was paralyzing me. John grinned and looked at me.
"Liz, they will love you. No need to be nervous. Come on." He held out his hand.
It took me a few moments before I took his hand and stepped out of the car stumbling. We walked down the sidewalk and stopped at the door. There was no one in front of the hotel, so we continued. John opened the heavy wooden door, the hinges making a hissing noise, and waited for me to come in to close it.
Inside, there was a large hall with worn walls and a large staircase, which at the end was divided on both sides. On the wall on the left side was a marble counter a few meters away. Even though the place looked old, the balcony gleamed. Instead of climbing the stairs, we turned to the right and entered another large room. It was clear that once was a living room, and now had chairs and sofas spread out. On the right was a fireplace with a long sofa in the front where some people sat.
We walked straight into the group when a friendly-faced woman stopped us. She was many inches shorter than I and had to raise her head slightly to maintain eye contact with me. Her long hair was blond and she looked at me with kind eyes, as if we’d known each other for a long time. She smiled, her cheekbones turning pink.
“Liz, finally!”
"Hi," I said and I noticed my voice failing. I was still nervous.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Where are my manners? I'm Grace Hunter. John's mother," she said, and gave me an enthusiastic hug.
When sh
e let me go, I looked at John smiling. He looked embarrassed.
"Nice to meet you, Grace," I said, still laughing at his expression.
"We were thinking you'd given up on coming."
Grace took my hand and didn’t let go. John was even more embarrassed after his mother's show of affection.
“Never. I'm a little nervous, but nothing could stop me from coming here.”
“Come on, let’s meet the others. Some of them aren’t here, but I'm sure they'll be here soon.”
Grace pulled my hand and guided me to the others. We took only a few steps before a tall man interrupted us. I just had to look at his face to realize that he was John's father. He had the same well-defined face, square jaw, straight hair, and gray eyes. But it was his height that made it clear.
"You must be Liz. I'm Rogi, John's father,” he said, holding out his hand.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," I said, squeezing his hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet the famous Liz," he said, smiling and raising his eyebrows at John. "You’re finally visiting us. We couldn’t stand John anymore. Liz this, Liz that.”
“Really?” I asked, not being able to hold back a laugh and looking at John. He looked angry about where the conversation was going.
“You have no idea. The first day he went to watch you, he left quietly and contemplative. A few days later, he was already different. Months later we'd just hear Liz this and Liz that. ‘Liz helped an old woman across the street today.’ ‘Liz left work late, she should know it's very dangerous.’ Seriously, if you came to live here it would be much better for all of us.”
Rogi laughed loudly, holding Grace by the shoulder.
The people who had come closer to hear the conversation also laughed. They seemed to know what he was talking about. I looked at John, unable to hold back the laughter, and he didn’t look happy at all. He was beginning to blush. A second later, John approached his father, grabbed him by the arm and the two disappeared. Everyone laughed even louder.
A few seconds passed and John returned, but alone.
"There," he said, coming back to me. “Can we move on?”
"Where's your father?" I asked.
"Upstairs in his room.”
“Why did you do that? I was enjoying hearing that story.”
"I bet you were," he said with a scowl on his face.
Minutes later Grace went to get Rogi upstairs, who returned as smiling as before. He seemed not to care about his son's play. I was able to talk to almost everyone; they came straight to where we were. They introduced themselves and sat by the crowd, listening intently to the whole conversation. Some people kept asking me about my life, about Grandma, about living like a human. I did my best to respond to everyone. In the end, John was right. I didn’t have to worry. Everything was going great. The people were friendly, attentive and made me feel like family.
But no one can please everyone. We were sitting on the big couch in front of the fireplace when a girl moved toward us, and making room in the small crowd, sat next to me. She had a hair at the height of her jaw, so black that it was almost blue and eyes just as black. Her low eyebrows and small eyes made her expression appear to be one of constant annoyance. At first she didn’t say anything, but she seemed restless, always looking at me. Until she finally spoke.
"What do you think?" She asked, turning to me and looking me up and down.
"I'm loving it," I said, smiling. "I hope I can come more often, you know, meet everyone."
"So you're thinking of moving in here?"
"Oh, no. I have my grandmother, I’m not leaving her any time soon.”
The girl opened a crooked smile that barely looked like a smile. It looked more like a grimace.
"Yeah, it must be great to be able to come here and see the freaks whenever you feel like it, right?” She had an expression of disgust now. I looked at her quickly, frowning.
"That's not what I meant," I said quietly, her hostile tone taking me by surprise.
"Because that's what it looks like to me. Suddenly showing up here, out of nowhere, charming everyone. And while we were all suffering here, you were in your golden cradle with your precious grandmother.”
“You know that until a few days ago I didn’t know about any of this, right? I was just a human from Heaven Valley. And my grandmother has nothing to do with this! What is your problem, girl?”
No one was going to speak ill of me, let alone my grandmother in front of me. But I must have raised the tone a little too much, for I realized that the hall had fallen into complete silence. When I looked around, everyone was looking at both of us curiously. John, who had been talking to friends a few minutes ago, came back to my side. He came back quickly, as if the girl could fly around my neck and kill at any moment.
"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, touching my arm lightly.
“I am. I’m sorry. I exalted myself a little.”
The girl looked at us as if she could kill us with her eyes. I kept thinking about the possibility for a few seconds. Maybe she could; you never know. I was going to ask John later.
"Eimée, what are you doing?" John asked in a not very friendly tone.
"Nothing, John," she said, smiled broadly at John and stood up. Her expression now was calm, as if nothing had happened. "I was just greeting the guest of honor.”
Apprehensive, the others returned to their conversations and Eimée left the room.
"I'm sorry for that," John said, looking embarrassed by the scene.
"No problem. I came here prepared if people didn’t like me, so I can handle just one girl hating my guts.”
"Eimée isn’t usually so hostile like that. I don’t know what hit her."
“John, I told you, it's okay. And I can deal with an enraged girl, you didn’t have to come and protect me.”
"That's what I've been doing for the past few months, isn’t it?” He said smiling.
And we stood there, with John sitting next to me, talking to the others. The elders had lots of Pacem stories to tell. I listened to them all. Some about when they saw the Chosen Ones fight a Faunus, or some not so pleasant on the trip here, with our realm being destroyed. Eimée didn’t come back, so I was able to take part in the conversations in peace. I was completely involved, but from time to time I would stare at the door when another person came in, by reflex. When they saw that I was here, they would sit near the group, introducing themselves. But one of the times I was diverted from the conversation, looking at the door when someone came in, I saw a face more than familiar.
I stood up slowly, looking at the door. He soon saw me and walked slowly to me. John realized something was wrong and also stood up. From the door to where we were wasn’t that far, only a few steps, but it seemed an eternity. Liam stopped in front of me and I looked at his face. It was exactly as I remembered it. His gorgeous blue eyes, black hair always combed back and bulging eyebrows, matched with equally voluminous lips.
When I first saw him, I thought his face would be the most beautiful thing I would ever see in this world. And unfortunately, later, that didn’t stop him from breaking my heart. John was still in the same place, next to me, staring at us while we both stared at each other. I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t seen him for over a year.
“Can anyone tell me what's going on?” John said impatiently. "Do you know each other?"
"Apparently not.” I said, finally finding strength.
Liam looked distraught and startled. My words seemed to cut him deep and I was surprised to realize that I liked it. My breath was racing and I noticed his was as well. The space between us, only a few centimeters, seemed to be miles, and he dared not take another step, because I would take him down before he could come any closer. And I would take him down.
"Liam, are you going to tell me what's going on?" John said in a dry tone. He was getting annoyed.
"We used to date," Liam said after a long silence.
CHAPTER THREE
None of the three of us s
eemed to move. We continued in silence. I still didn’t understand exactly how this was happening. After a few minutes just exchanging glances with me and Liam, John said:
“What?!”
"He disappeared," I said, staring at the floor. “He disappeared and left only a note.”
“You did what?!” John was really angry now.
"Liz, I didn’t know you were one of us. I found out later, when I heard a conversation about Ethan.”
"Is that some kind of excuse?"
He shook his head. He didn’t look at me anymore. I was starting to feel nauseous. The last thing I wanted at that moment was to vomit in front of the people I spent all day trying to impress.
"I'm sorry," Liam said weakly, looking upset.
"You're a year late."
John was holding my arm, as if holding me in place in case I should I fall. He didn’t look very happy.
"Liz, please, I couldn’t go on with you without being honest, and I couldn’t tell you the truth either.”
"That didn’t stop John. He told me everything.”
"Yeah, I heard he broke the rules just because he wanted to. He must think than everyone else.”
Liam was now clearly angry. No, he looked jealous, which only made me even more uncomfortable. Before I could do anything to stop it, I felt tears forming in my eyes. I looked at the floor, disguising them until they disappeared. John looked at me and noticed immediately. I could feel his anger emanating near me and for some reason that only made the tears fall faster.
“Right. You've done enough. You can get out of here," John said, standing in front of me.
"I'm not leaving just because you're saying so.”
They were about to start a fight right there. They puffed their pectorals in a clear attempt to intimidate each other. I didn’t have the patience for this at that moment.
"John, can you take me home?" I said before they did anything stupid.
John calmed down and stepped out of his intimidating position, turning to me and nodding. I apologized to the others briefly, promising to return as soon as possible. People didn’t seem to notice the little spectacle; they’re were all involved in their conversations. John and I walked back to the hotel entrance with Liam following us.
The Chosen Ones: Red Smoke Page 4
