by Keya Jay
All That Remains: A Whole New Beginning
By: Keya-Jay
Cover design by https://keya436.deviantart.com/
Cover Art by https://hiddenyume-stock.deviantart.com/art/Canyon-Stock-4-485963161
Copyright 2014 Keya-Jay
Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental. Thank you for your support.
This is for all of my vampire, and werewolf, lovers out there, and if there are any Elemental lovers, this is for you too!
I want to thank everyone who encouraged me to never give up and to those same people who were the first to read my books, your feedback was greatly appreciated! I also want to thank other authors for their inspiration which in its self-granted me the inspiration to pursue my dream! Last but not least I want to thank my RPW friends and WN friends who’ve read every chapter as I was writing them and gave me amazing feedback in order to make it better. So THANK YOU!
All That Remains
Part 1: A whole new me
Chapter 1
Summer was almost over; there were only about three remaining days before school started back up again. Azalea was excited that school was starting up again because she’d be a senior this school year.
When Azalea woke up she took her shower and ate breakfast before going around the back of the house to take care of her garden.
You could say that Azalea has a pretty normal life, minus her weird connection with plant life forms. When she walked into her garden a loose vine had wrapped its way around her ankles. She had made her way through her garden to enter her garage, which she had transformed into a Greenhouse. She didn’t have the typical things you’d use in a garden. She had no need for those kinds of things in her Greenhouse. Her garden was different; she had a shovel and a watering can so that it wouldn’t raise any suspicion.
Azalea had recently moved into this house over about a year and a half ago. She agreed to let her “brother” Trey live here with her so that she wasn’t looked at as a minor living on her own. Trey was the one who had told her about the house. Apparently her father had left it for her in his will but Rose and Dave had kept that from her. Trey didn’t wanna feel like a freeloader so he kind of stayed away the whole entire summer. She told him she didn’t mind him staying here, if it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t even have known about the place, but he still didn’t wanna stay so who was she to tell him that he couldn’t go?
Azalea hasn’t really gotten along with her “Parents” after they had told her the truth about her birth. She hasn’t spoken to them directly for over a year. She had no need to stay in touch with other “family” members seeing as though they weren’t even really family and she never liked them anyway.
This house was still pretty new to her, so the most she’s ever done was take care of her garden. She held her hands out above her head and thought about a sprinkler going off, Azalea made sure to shield herself from the rain so as not to get wet. Last time she hadn’t shielded herself she was soaked head to toe with water. Once everything was all said and done and the plants fully taken care of, she walked out of her greenhouse and walked into her garden. She normally watered her garden the old fashioned way ‘cause her neighbors were usually out and about at this time of day, but they had left a couple hours earlier to take their kids to a resort for the last couple of days left of summer. She watered the garden the same way she had watered the Greenhouse. She noticed a narcissus flower in the far back of her garden. Its leaves were closed up like a tulip, which gave her the impression that it was a new budding flower. She walked toward the back and lightly touched the flower with the tips of her fingers and it slowly opened welcoming the rain that had begun to slowly fall down upon it. Azalea thanked the rain before it parted and walked into her Patio.
Azalea didn’t have many friends or any friends for that matter, she usually just kept to herself, even when people tried to approach her and become her friend she would nicely decline their friendship. Azalea didn’t necessarily want it to be this way, but she knew it had to be. Without any friends or real family in her life her secret was easier to keep. She just spent the day watching movies, reading books and taking naps.
She decided to water the plants for the last time before going off to bed. When she had gone to the back of the garden where the narcissus had blossomed, she had noticed that the flowers around the narcissus had died. It was sad because she hated losing flowers but she hated even more not knowing how to bring them back. She tried awkwardly praying and asking that they’d come back but her time was wasted. She touched the flowers in order to remove them, but under her touch the dead flowers had become ash. She touched them all hoping that her luck would change but they too turned to piles of ash. She didn’t know what else to do but to just leave the plants alone for the night and go to bed. Azalea took her plants very seriously, she had felt as though her luck had run out and her gift had been withdrawn from her, she tried crying herself to sleep but didn’t get very far. She had heard a sound from outside her bedroom window and she was almost certain that it had come from her garden. She had gone downstairs to look out the screen door of her patio. She doesn’t know why exactly, she wouldn’t even know what to do in a situation such as this. She looked out the screen door and screamed the loudest scream she could muster. There was not much else she could do but try to scream and scare the intruder away. He turned around and looked at her; he wiped his hands on his dirty and tattered clothes and looked away from her before sprinting from her garden. When she was sure that he was far enough away she opened the door of her patio and stepped out into her garden. When she had walked toward where the guy had been standing, she was shocked to see what looked like a human sized grave in the back of her garden. When she had first saw the man she had thought he was digging up her garden, or digging out her flowers not buried underneath them. What was going on? She asked herself. Was he buried here or was he digging up someone who was? She wandered. Is that what killed my flowers? She thought sadly. The moment she had asked herself the question she had noticed the narcissus flower standing nice and tall at the bottom of the grave. She couldn’t possibly process this all at once, so she took the swarming questions in her head to bed with her.
She only nodded off twice before seeing his face as clear as day in her mind. He looked as if he was 20 or so years old. She couldn’t really distinguish the features of his face because he was in the dark and his face was covered in dirt and moss. His nails were black, and he was also wearing all black. His face expression was anger and surprise once he caught sight of her. She continued to see his face in her mind and thought of even more questions to ask herself, questions of course that she didn’t know the answers to. She stayed in that mind set for quite a while before she was finally able to drift off to sleep.
Two days later she was getting ready for school, very, very excited to be starting her first day as a senior. She never saw the mysterious flower killer after Monday but just to be safe she had cameras on her patio roof to look over the garden and greenhouse. Though she wasn’t really expecting him to come back that still didn’t keep her from being curious.
Azalea was a very pretty and petite girl. She is as beautiful as a flower but not as fragile as one. She doesn’t scare easily and she believes in so little. Azalea has a pretty face and a pretty curvy body; she has long lovely dark hair that lo
oks blue in the light and gorgeous moss green eyes. She was truly a sight to behold, too bad she didn’t put much effort into showing it all off. She threw her hair into a messy bun. She threw on a navy blue (not at all fitted) shirt with a bright yellow smiley face in the middle and some plain old jeans (also not at all fitted). She slipped on her running shoes and locked up her house before hiding the key inside her plant and walking to school. Most people hid their keys under the pot of their plants but she thought better of it and placed it inside her plant pot where it was covered by the leaves of her plants.
When she arrived at school she went straight to the main office to check out her schedule. She was extremely happy with her schedule and hopped straight to her first class. She handed her teacher her schedule and waited for him to sign his name next to the class he teaches; it was a way to determine who was in class and who wasn’t. She took her schedule and sat right in the front row middle column so she was positioned right in front of his desk. Azalea wouldn’t call herself a nerd or dork but seeing as though this was her last year she wanted her year to be amazing, grades in all so she could get into college.
Shortly after she had settled down into her seat, someone else had walked into the classroom. He walked over to Mr. Dean’s desk but not before looking into her direction… she would have known that face anywhere, it was constantly haunting her in her dreams, though the only thing that had ever stuck out was his piercing blue eyes and the dirt that covered him. If he hadn’t looked at her the same way he had that night with anger and shock she probably wouldn’t have noticed. His face was no longer dirty of course and he still has those pale blue eyes but they’re not as alarming as they had been the night before. He was still in all black with a buttoned down shirt and slacks. He looked away from her long enough to hand Mr. Dean his schedule, and then he took the seat directly behind her. She was nervous and shocked that he’d be so bold; she couldn’t bring herself to ask him what he was doing in her garden, she feared the answer more than anything.
A few minutes had passed before more kids had begun to come and fill up some of the empty seats. They had a much smaller class compared to most. She guessed that there were only about 10 people in their class.
“Llorel, Azalea, Ron, Lea, Dorian, Mialynn, Anthony, Trayvon, Maria, and Stacy-Ann…” He flashed them all a bright and heartwarming smile before continuing, “welcome to AP math! Before we start on any lesson I’d like to do a little exercise so that we can get to know each other a little better. So there are ten chairs set up in the back of the classroom, they have your names on them and they’re in alphabetical order.”
Everyone got up from their desks to go looking for their assigned seat along the ten chairs. Azalea’s name appeared in the fifth chair. Her chair sat in the middle and was surrounded by Stacie-Ann, whose chair appeared near her right, and Llorel whose chair appeared near the left of hers. As everyone started to claim their chairs, her heart started to pick up speed as her flower killer claimed the seat to her left… which obviously meant his name was Llorel, but Azalea didn’t care he’d always be her flower killer. Azalea tried to maintain her cool and paid him very little attention.
“Ok so this is how the game will go. I have a pack of flash cards here with random questions on them. Some of them are really silly and some may be too personal for others. If you do not want to answer the personal questions you do not have to that just means you will stay seated. These are yes and no questions. If you happen to answer yes to any of them you stand but if you answer no then you remain seated. So let us get started.”
Mr. Dean shuffled the flash cards before drawing the first one, and everyone was seated at their chairs to get the game started. The first couple of questions were age questions; only one person in the class had stood when Mr. Dean asked if any of them were 16 and the rest of them—with the exception of Llorel—stood up when he asked if they were 17. After every question Mr. Dean asked Llorel constantly stayed seated obviously not wanting to participate in the game. When Mr. Dean had asked if any of them had siblings, Azalea didn’t know whether to sit or stand. She had a brother but he wasn’t biological and she didn’t know her real family and she hated mostly all of her fake family. When she addressed the question to Mr. Dean he had told her that if she had felt like the brother she had referred to was her real brother then she was allowed to stand up. Trey, her “brother” was the only one she ever thought of as actual family.
The game pretty much went on like that as Llorel just sat in his chair and seemed to only want to observe. After Mr. Dean was satisfied the game slowly came to an end. Mr. Dean had the students remain in their seats while he re arranged a couple of desk. When he was finished the ten desks were split up into 2 circles, five desks per circle. Llorel, Mialynn, Azalea, Lea and Dorian were in group one and Ron, Anthony, Trayvon, Maria and Stacy-Ann were all apart of group two. Azalea had realized that Llorel was staring at her but she didn’t try to hide the anger that was clearly displayed on her face after hearing that they were in the same group. All of the kids went to their assigned groups. Azalea was not happy with the way her first day was going.
After Mr. Dean’s class had ended Azalea quickly headed to her next class but was stopped by a tight iron like hold on her wrist before she could make it far.
“Can I help you?” she asked addressing Llorel as he maintained a firm grip on her wrists.
“Can we talk?” She arched a brow a few choice words on the tip of her tongue but then Llorel started to pull her down the hallway and down a flight of stairs before she got the chance to say any of them.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, and then sighed after realizing that he was clearly not going to answer. “Hey!” she managed after a brief moment of silence. “Hey!!” she said even louder no longer allowing him to drag her to some secluded destination. He stopped directly after she stopped and just stared at her. “Look I don’t know you, and if I’m being honest I don’t even want the pleasure of getting to know you, and I will not allow you to drag me across the school. If you can’t say whatever it is you need to say right here then we have nothing to talk about.” The man known as Llorel sighed with obvious displeasure before narrowing his eyes at her.
“If that’s not your mothers’ attitude then I don’t know what is.” The comment caught Azalea off guard.
“You know my mother?” she asked shocked. He looked down at her as if for the first time.
“You don’t?” he asked in disbelief. “Look you don’t have to play stupid with me, everyone knows your mother not just me.”
“Well obviously everyone knows her but me,” she said a bit angry that he would even imply that she was lying about such a thing. There was a thick mask of awkward air after the subtle comment but Llorel never stayed around long to feel it, he immediately turned on his heel and walked away. He left her in the middle of the hall and went to class, after a moment of recollecting her thoughts Azalea trailed off to class as well.
In Spanish Azalea couldn’t help but wonder about her mother, Llorel didn’t talk about her like she was dead but he also didn’t talk about her as if she was alive either. When she left her Spanish classroom after the bell there was a little bundle of hope living in the pit of her stomach, she just wanted to see Llorel again so he could tell her more about her mother. She’d scanned everyone in the hall just hoping she’d catch a glimpse of her mysterious flower killer.
“You look like a lost Puppy.”
Azalea ignored the person that had decided to walk beside her and start conversation, she continued to search the halls for Llorel but at one point she just gave up hope.
“My name’s Lea,” the girl beside her had said stepping in front of Azalea, making Azalea lose focus having no other choice but to look at the person to blame for that.
“Yea I know you’re in my AP Math class,” Azalea said looking up at the girl who was taller than her.
“Yea, I’m also in your Spanish class, but you were thinking way too hard to
even notice, you also ignored all of Ms. Saba’s questions which made her very angry. Everyone thanks you for that by the way, Ms. Saba’s like the meanest Spanish teacher ever.” Azalea felt bad, she never meant to hurt any teachers. “Well I can tell that you’re looking for someone maybe I can help. The answer can’t be that hard… I meant person. Sorry I have tests on the brain.” Azalea wasn’t sure the girl noticed but she did help her.
“Well thanks to that comment I’m not looking for anyone anymore because I already know where he is.”
Lea looked confused but instead said, “Glad I could help… I guess. I took a peek at your schedule and we both have History so we better get going,” Lea said pulling back into her bubbly self as they walked in silence all the way to History. Azalea couldn’t help but feel like she was knew to the school all over again. She sat down towards the back of the classroom (History was never really her favorite) and was soon joined by Lea.
“You don’t mind if I sit here do you? I mean I rather not sit by Stacie-Ann and her friends.” Azalea didn’t want to make Lea sit by Stacie-Ann for whatever reason but she knew that if she let her sit here she would eventually be opening a door to a friendship, a friendship that she didn’t want… couldn’t want.
“Ummm… I’m sorry…” she started but by the look on Lea’s face she couldn’t pull through with it. “Uh… yea you can sit here.” Azalea didn’t mean to sound so disappointed, but that’s exactly how she sounded.
“It’s ok” Lea said having to take the only other open seat in the room by Stacie-Ann and her friends, but before Azalea could even rethink her decision she was clearing the seat off next to her.
“Hey Lea!” she called before Lea could take a seat beside Stacie-Ann. Lea grabbed her books and walked back over toward Azalea. “I really don’t mind if you sit here, I didn’t mean to sound so disappointed when you asked, you just interrupted my train of thought,” Azalea lied, something that has become easier and easier for her to do lately. It became so easy that she’s kind of a pro at it. Sometimes she tells lies so well not only does the person she’s lying to believe them but she begins to believe them herself.
“Oh I’m sorry, I forgot about your habit of thinking constantly. Thanks,” she said as she sat her books on top of her desk and took her seat. Azalea was fine with Lea sitting here as long as she didn’t start talking.
About 20 minutes into the class Azalea had noticed how focused Lea had become. She wanted to ask her a question but was afraid Lea might get mad if she missed a word the teacher was saying. Every time Mr. Harris had a question for the students Lea had an answer, Azalea never would have pictured Lea as the studious kind, and she came off as a bit of a carefree kind of person. Though Lea never really talked to Azalea during class—except when she was helping Azalea with something she didn’t understand—Azalea couldn’t get her to shut up after class.
“I love History, not really the kind of History this school teaches, but it’s always cool to learn new things, I guess.”
“You looked pretty interested in History to me, but if you don’t like the History the school teaches then what kind of History would you prefer?”
“I like myths.”
“Myths? Myths are just myths they’re not considered History,” Azalea explained. Azalea was a Bookaholic so she knew all about the myths authors wrote about in their books, but Azalea has always known that none of it could possibly be true.
“See but that’s just it, I don’t believe that myths are just myths, I mean the concept had to originate from somewhere right? Ok, Yes Authors may have kicked it up a notch, getting teens hooked on supernatural relationships with their fantasized stories, but I mean come on think about it there is most likely a real thing such as a Vampire or a were-animal and all of that other junk. I just think it was a once upon a time type thing… like dinosaurs.”
“But dinosaurs are a proven fact, everyone knows that those are real, besides the only reason why everyone wants to believe that Vampires and werewolves and all of that other nonsense is real is so that they can have some kind of bizarre love story. But what people don’t realize is that even if all of that stuff was real who’s to say that they’re even capable of love or any emotion for that matter? Think about it Vampires need our blood in order to survive; I mean what vampire in their right mind would want to have a relationship with their food?”
“But how do we even know that Vampires even “eat” people?”
“Because like you said if vampires were a once upon a time thing no matter what you read, what you watch, or what you hear the stories are always the same, vampires suck human blood.” Lea sighed indicating the end of their conversation.
“I’ll see you at lunch” she hollered to Azalea as Azalea entered Ms. Kim’s English class. The moment she had taken her seat she had seen him slide a piece of paper under his book as if he didn’t want her to see it. She wanted to avoid this, avoid him but there weren’t any more available seats in the room. She tried to ignore him and pretend that he wasn’t even sitting right beside her. Azalea tried her best to ignore his presence and focus on the teacher that she couldn’t see. Azalea was sitting toward the back of the room so Ms. Kimberly being so short didn’t play into Azalea’s favor and Llorel took that as a perfect opportunity to try and talk to her.
“How long have you been living in that house?”
Azalea didn’t even bother to look into his direction when she answered his question; she continued to look forward as if she could see the teacher. “Not long.” She decided to keep her answer short sweet and to the point; she really didn’t want to be having any kind of conversation with him. She refused to be some kind of open book that he could read whenever he wanted. He leaned forward obviously not happy with the short answer and needing more.
“Did you purchase the house yourself?” He wasn’t going to quit she had thought to herself. Azalea had some questions of her own needing answers but she wasn’t entirely sure who she wanted the answers from. But since she didn’t know when the next opportunity to ask these questions would present itself she decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Ignoring the question he had asked her she decided to ask one of her own.
“This morning you made a comment about my mother, I need you to clarify which one.” He leaned back in his seat obviously not happy about the turn of events.
“And how do you expect me to do that?”
“Give me a name” she demanded still not looking over in his direction so it wouldn’t be too obvious that they were even having a conversation.
“Marigold but most just call her Mary.” Azalea didn’t want to tear up but she realized how little she really did know about her mother. ‘How is it that all of these strangers came to know of her mother before her own daughter was able to?’ Azalea thought to herself. The fact that she was abandoned hurt Azalea more than she wanted to admit.
“No” she said reluctantly. Her sudden outburst caught Llorel’s attention.
“No, what?”
“You asked if I had purchased the house myself. The answer’s no. It was left for me, I had no clue it had even existed until someone had told me.”
“Do you know who left it for you?”
“I didn’t… Until now.” Azalea looked at him for the very first time since they’ve started talking. Llorel had stopped asking questions and had decided to pay attention to the last 20 minutes of class, but Azalea didn’t want to let it go. There was a question circling around in her head that should have been the first one she had asked, but she was too afraid of the answer. She looked over into Llorel’s direction and decided against asking him. She was just secretly wishing that there was a good reason he was in her backyard that night.
The bell had finally rung and Lea was waiting for Azalea after class. She put her books away and headed down to lunch with Lea close behind. Lea knew better than anyone that Azalea was deep in thought.
