by Tara Brown
They all left leaving her alone with Lydia who sat smiling expectantly.
Ari frowned, "What?"
"Are you alright?"
She nodded, "Yeah I think so, I mean I'm tired."
"Lucas thought you were trying to kill yourself, in the lake. He is quite sensitive about the subject." Her eyes grew very serious, "We all are, for every person who's different like us there are two who have ended it all in misery."
Ari sat still.
"He scared me with the pliers."
Lydia laughed, "He used them to remove the piercing from your lip, nose and eyebrow."
Ari raised her hands to her face to feel the metal gone, she sighed relieved.
"I've explained to him that your past is such that being a stranger and coming at you with any kind of tool or weapon or sneaking up on you is probably a bad idea even if the intentions are the best."
Ari felt her face crumple, "Its not my past Lydia, its someone else's. I had a great childhood. I was a weird kid yes, but my uncle raised me with love. He did. I felt loved every day, he was a friend and a father and a mother. The memories and the pain that the other me had, those are not mine. I don’t want them anymore." She sobbed holding her thin damaged arms out, "I don’t want her scars inside and out, I don’t want her tattoos, I don’t want her piercings, I don’t want her weaknesses."
She held herself tightly rocking back and forth on the sofa.
Lydia sat beside her and wrapped her arms around her, "I know love, I know you don't."
"I like boys, I don’t want my stomach to knot up and make me hate every man I meet because the other me did things she shouldn’t have and people hurt her. I've never been raped, I've never been molested, I've never done things for money that I'm ashamed of beyond selling greasy food to already fat people."
Lydia laughed, "Oh Ari I know that honey. Until we can separate you two and get rid of the other you we need to be careful with you though. The other you has had a hard life."
Ari laughed, "Its ridiculous. I want to run and eat and enjoy life like I did before, like a normal person. Not some freak that shoves food down her throat out of fear of running out of food."
Lydia stroked her head, "My love whatever happens no one is going to hurt you in this house. The guards don’t let bad people in. Your safe here until we can fix your split personality situation."
Ari snuggled in and enjoyed the moment no matter how fleeting where she could pretend Lydia was her mother. She enjoyed the safe feeling of being held and rocked by a motherly figure that understood what she fought with.
"And just for the record Lucas is single, you know in case you were curious or wanting to live like a normal girl."
Ari laughed, "Yeah just what I need, a strange boy to make me feel less awkward about living in a house full of strangers. I think I'll pass."
Lydia laughed, "Okay, I was just letting you know, just for the record. He isn’t that strange. Well in comparison you're much stranger."
Ari rolled her eyes letting the older woman patronize her.
Aimee walked into the room smiling, "I brought you something."
Ari frowned, "What?"
Aimee laughed bitterly, "It's a science experiment sort of. I want to see what happens when you use your talents on someone who can go back."
"No, are you insane. I ruined my life sending my uncle back."
Aimee nodded, "Yup you did. But the person I brought you has a ruined life already. I just want to see."
Ari looked at Lydia who shrugged, "Can't hurt, if her life is already horrid then how can it get worse?" She smiled softly, "Ari it will take away the craving."
Aimee walked back to the hall dragging a young girl dressed in tattered clothes with train tracks running up her arms. Her needle marks looked infected and her glassy eyes scared Ari. She'd seen that face before, she was pretty sure it was her own face at one point or another.
She shuddered horrified. Her hands started to sweat looking at the young girl, she wanted to touch her.
Aimee smiled, "I know the feeling. Just do it."
Ari nodded letting go of the control she had started to gain and stood from Lydia's' warm embrace. She walked to the girl letting the tingle overwhelm her. She saw the fear register in the last second in the girls' glassy blue eyes. She looked at Ari in horror as she put her hands on the girls' rail thin arms. The vibration hit instantly, sweet ecstasy hit her rolling her eyes into the back of her head.
"Stay conscious Ari, stay with it. Don't let the black take you."
Lydia's voice floated above her somewhere in the black space. She blinked her eyes back to the right spot. Ari and the girl shook as it they were riding a train. Suddenly a picture hit Ari, the girl was back in a small town. She packed her bags to run away from her step dad's greasy hands. She walked cringing remembering how he'd crept into her room. She cried as she paid with the very last of her money to board the bus. She looked out the back window as she rode out of town.
Suddenly she was walking down the road again with her bag in hand. She stood at the bus stop about to board but instead of getting on this time she walked with her heavy bags to her grandmothers' house. She saw the older woman open the door and hug the girl. She pulled her into the house shaking her head as the girl told her what had been happening. The older woman took her bags and put them in a flowery bedroom. Suddenly the girl was holding a baby and smiling at a man. Ari felt a tear slip from her eyes as she saw the gold wedding band on the girls' finger. The house was small but it was full of love. Ari watched as a silver necklace with an L pendant on it hung in the frozen air. Ari reached her hands out touching the silver necklace for just a second as it dropped to the floor. She bent down and picked it up. The metal was still warm from the girls skin. She clutched it feeling relief but awe in the life she had just saved.
"Angel of mercy, did you see that?" Annabelle whispered softly.
Ari looked at the crowd that had stood in the hall watching her, everyone had the same stunned expression.
She swallowed hard, "She went to a better place, I swear. I didn’t kill her. I don’t think I killed her."
Aimee smiled brightly, "Ari we saw the whole thing. It played like a movie in the air. It's almost like you open a portal. You saved her."
Ari felt the tears sliding down her cheeks, it wasn’t the old her crying it was the new her.
"I can save them all." She felt a new hope in her heart. She would sneak back into the orphanage.
"You don’t know that you can save them all Ari, some yes but others it could get worse."
She turned to Lydia's concerned face, "I have to try. I can't leave them there in the orphanages getting used and abused. They're children."
Lydia nodded, "I know sweetie. One day at a time though."
"Ari you're very lucky to have such an amazing talent in this life."
She looked up at the devastatingly handsome face of the huge dark blond man she assumed was Aleksander.
"I don't feel lucky."
He smiled making her feel funny inside, "You are, trust me."
He turned and walked away leaving her with a red face. He made her blush just by being near her. She couldn’t help be attracted to him, it seemed as if she had to be.
She glanced at Lucas who was leaning against the wall watching her. His presence made her uncomfortable. She turned and walked to the front door.
The cool air hit like a ton of bricks. She felt amazing from releasing the energy in her hands. It made her feel strong and healthy.
She walked along the edges of the guards putting her hand up against the barrier. She wondered how long she would be forced to remain in behind its unyielding walls.
Suddenly as she passed by the street again she smelled something, it was like incense but not like a burning smell. It was yummy, she wanted to smell it more. It was subtle as if passing by her riding on the wind.
"Ari." A voice whispered.
She looked around the street but she was alo
ne except for the crisp fall leaves passing by her brushing against the cold cement. They scratched their way across the guards as if protesting being forced to leave.
"Ari, come to me Ari."
She looked around, "Hello, whose there?"
The cool wind turned warm for a second. She knew she wasn’t alone but she couldn’t see anyone. The scent became more potent scaring her as the wind picked up. She looked around seeing the trees on the sides of the road not moving but the wind was so strong it nearly blew her over.
"ARI." The voice screamed for her.
A hand grabbed her left shoulder pulling her away from the guards. She jumped away turning to see Lucas looking around the street, "Come on Ari." He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the street.
She let him pull her away from the wind. She ignored the fact she liked the feel of her hand enclosed in his.
She fought the urge to kick him in the shin and run away. Old Ari liked being near him and she wasn’t about to let paranoid Ari ruin a perfectly good moment with a hot guy.
The wind died down the closer they got to the house.
"You can't hover at the guards Ari, you're taunting them."
She stopped walking but was pulled forward by his strong grip. She jerked her hand from his, "Who are they?"
Lucas smiled melting her heart a little, "They don’t like us."
"That doesn’t answer my question."
"It's something you need Lydia to explain or Ron. Anyway it's a Roses problem and until you're a Rose it doesn’t concern you." He put his hand out again to take hers. She frowned at him and walked the other way. She stormed through the trees to the backside of the house, which took a really long time. The house was huge.
She walked down to the dock and sat on the cold wooden bench.
Confusion wasn’t quite the word but it was all her feeble mind would come up with. She was in a constant battle with herself, she liked Lucas, she liked the house, she liked having people who let her live with them considering it seemed her uncle didn’t even know her any more. At the same time she wanted to go home, to her uncles desert diner, she wanted to be back in her old town running in the desert loving the feel of the dry air, she wanted things to go back to be normal. She wasn't certain about anything about herself.
She knew she needed to find her uncle, she needed to see him again, she needed him to want to be her family again. She fingered the silver necklace she had put on with her uncles ring on it and plotted her escape.
Chapter Five- Is This Chemistry or Science?
Ari walked down the stairs wondering if Lucas was back from his trip. She'd discovered in her month at Lydia's they all traveled a lot. Aimee was the means to nearly every trip. She learned more about the Roses everyday. Still no one answered her questions out right. It frustrated her the way that things always seemed so cryptic and mysterious and no one was ever upfront. Between the snooping, eavesdropping and being told outright she had learned a fair amount.
Lydia was a couple hundred years old, she was a witch who did good magic. Annabelle was her maid but also a witch even if she was deceased.
Andy was a Vampire, she was six hundred years old and rarely spoke which would have been cool with Ari but she seemed to watch her like she was prey, which was creepy. Andy was a lesbian who hated relationships and was hardly ever at Lydia's.
Brandon was a shifter, this was something exotic and not normal to the rest of the people at Lydia's. At Lydia's being called exotic meant you were a super freak. Ari had thought he was good looking and ridiculously nice but one day he stopped talking to her and barely came to Lydia's anymore. Annabelle had told her it was Lucas's doing, Ari was like the last donut on the plate and Lucas had apparently spit on her.
Aleksander was a regular dude who had been made what he was by something similar to Lydia. He was cursed and completely hot. His kind, but not interested in anything, disposition had Ari intrigued. She knew something had happened between Aimee and Aleks but no one ever talked about it. Not even Annabelle, which was annoying.
Lucas was an unknown to Ari, he had managed to make her fall in love with him without ever sharing any details of himself. It was like loving a complete stranger in secret. She assumed he was a vampire like Andy but she knew he could very well be like Aleksander. He never spoke much and she wasn’t certain how he felt about her, which made New Ari peaceful inside and annoyed Old Ari mercilessly.
Ari smelled breakfast smiling. She knew Lucas was home by the smell of meat cooking wafting through the air. Annabelle only ever cooked sausage and bacon when Lucas or Brandon was there. Aleks never really ate much and Aimee was the same. Ari thought about Aimee and smiled. She had truly become the sister Ari never had. She shopped for her and helped her learn to do her makeup. The few times Ari had been allowed to leave the mansion had been pretty upsetting and if it hadn’t been for Aimee she would have probably been sent to prison.
Ari blushed thinking about the way people had looked at her, or rather her scars and tats. No one saw her all they saw was the damage done to her by a lifetime she'd never actually lived.
The kitchen was empty, the smell of food lingered in the air but who ever had cooked it was gone. She sighed wondering where everyone was.
"Annabelle?"
"Yes Miss Ari?"
Ari turned to see the light of the dark skinned girl.
"Who was here?"
"That be Mr. Brandon, he was here and I cooked him a breakfast."
"Where is he now?"
She shrugged her ghostly thin shoulders, "No clue miss. Not much of a talker that Mr. Brandon. You want I should make you something to eat?"
Ari shook her head and walked out of the room, "Thanks anyway Annabelle."
"Ari is that you, honey come in here." Lydia's voice filled the dark lonely hallway.
Ari walked into the sewing room around the far side of the huge house.
Lydia smiled up at her over her sewing glasses. She appeared to making something by hand regardless of the fact an old sewing machine sat no more than three feet from her.
"Ari I need you to do something for me."
Ari felt her spirits lift, "What, oh uhm sure whatever it is. I'm bored out of my mind."
"We've been doing some tests on your cells and I need you to go to the gym in the back run on the treadmill as fast as you can for as long as you can."
Ari sighed, "Okay."
Lydia's grin grew slightly, "I need to cut you somewhere during the workout to see what your skins response is when your body is exerting itself."
Ari laughed, old Ari cringed at the thought of a cut but it soothed New Ari. The idea of a slash along her skin while sweating and running was tantalizing like a chocolate sundae would be to most other girls.
She ran upstairs and changed into running gear and ran to the gym to where Lydia stood beside the Ron man whom Ari wasn’t fond of.
Ari climbed onto the treadmill as Ron approached her with a small blade in his hand. She felt her hackles rise as his shaking hand drew near her arm.
"It's okay Ari. We will cut you twice for this exercise. I'm sorry honey."
Ari shook her head never taking her eyes off Ron. His older face revealed his discomfort in being near her. Ari couldn’t help but wonder what he was exactly.
A gleam of light whispered through the air as the blade came better into sight. Ron's cold clammy hand bit down on her thin arm and she watched in horror. The other Ari trembled in delight and as the blade slid along her flesh she moaned inside as the pain and stream of fresh red blood. Ron watched the thick crimson blood flow from her arm. He licked his lips slowly as Ari watched his breath increase.
"Ron step back please." Lydia spoke softly breaking the plan New Ari had formulated involving grabbing the blade stabbing it into Ron's neck and watching in joy as his blood was spilled onto the dark grey carpet where hers was starting to drip.
"Start the treadmill Ari, fast as you can in a sprint for as long as you can." Lydia sounde
d so clinical.
Ari started the treadmill as Ron crossed room getting as much distance from her wound.
Her legs started to push as her feet began to pound the moving platform. She pushed herself to run as hard as she could. She forgot about the wound, she left the blood behind and didn’t even consider the hate she felt for Ron. All she saw in the world was the desert road where she ran as hard as she could. She was lost in thought when she heard Lydia start to shout at her.
"ARI LISTEN PLEASE!"
She looked at the frown on Lydia's face, "Turn the machine off Ari."
She nodded and pressed the emergency stop button.
She was gasping for air, which she hadn’t noticed.
Lydia walked to her taking her arm, "She's healed remarkably considering. Cut her again Ron."
She looked at Ari and smiled softly. Ari frowned, "I'm outta shape Lydia." She tried to take a deep breath but struggled.
"You were running at ten miles an hour for ten minutes. Anyone would have been out of breath."
Ari winked holding her other arm to Ron, "I'm not anyone Lydia."
Lydia laughed.
Ron shook with anticipation and delight as he slid the blade down Ari's other arm again filling the air with the scent of her blood.
"Run again Ari."
Ari again started the treadmill running as fast as she could. She held back for a moment trying to get her stride noticing how her body almost ached from the previous run.
She pushed her legs again increasing the speed.
She saw a movement of color around her as something black shot around the room in her peripheral. She pressed the stop button again panting and gasping for air. Her heart pounded in her ears.
Lydia's voice spoke softly in the background of her pounding ears, "Lucas it's okay. We were just testing her healing capabilities. Remember it's part of the process. Lucas please calm down."
Ari looked to see Lucas holding Ron against the wall. Both men shook as if fighting themselves instead of each other. Lydia stood behind them speaking soothingly.
Ari wheezed nearly tripping off the treadmill, "Lucas it's okay. I'm okay." She held out her arms, which were nearly completely healed.
