Growing Up – Part Two
High School – Senior Year
Chris

Class was silent. It was always silent, but this was insane. It was only this silent because everyone watched them, stunned, as she helped him limp into class. Everyone had heard about the car accident, and everyone was well aware of the fact he would be…less able than the rest of them. What they weren’t prepared for was how close the two looked now.

She had her right arm tightly around his waist, his left arm was wrapped around her shoulder and she was holding this left hand tightly in her own. His left leg was wrapped up from just below the knee up to his inner thigh, watching him now no one could hide the shock in their eyes. It had already been more than a year since the car accident, and they were all just now returning to school.

A car accident, Eric wished. Eric pleaded with God every night, begging that it had only been a car accident; then he wouldn’t see the creatures face in his mind every time he shut his eyes, then he wouldn’t be waking up in the middle of the night screaming…then he wouldn’t have to watch Flick beat herself up for what had happened.


His mind ran through the events he did remember over and over… every second of every day for the first year. He remembered firing the gun, catching the mutt’s attention. He also remembered being leapt at; the creature, Dave, landing in front of him. He tried to escape, unable to stand in his state of fear but pulling and pushing himself up the hill on his back as quickly as he good.

That’s when the creature got hold of his left leg, and when Eric first screamed out…mostly in pure horror as the creature pulled him back down the hill into his jaws. He clawed at his leg with both of his claws now and took hold of his knee cap; tearing. Eric could feel his bone being scrapped away, but it wasn’t so painful anymore…his mind had gone into shock but he could still see everything.

Dave gnawed into his knee cap now, tearing into his pants and his flesh; he felt the bone crush at the same moment he felt it, and that’s when his screams hit their blood twisting pitch; and when he finally blacked out, his body unable to handle the feeling of literally being eaten alive.

He awoke what felt like lifetimes later in a hospital bed. He awoke to the soft sound of the heart monitor beeping away at every heart beat. He awoke to see Flick asleep next to him in the bed. He later found out that Kuro and Cross had to hire a tutor because she refused to leave the room for anything more than the bathroom. Lucky her, while he was stuck in the hospital bed she was getting ahead of even him in school.

He also awoke to find that the tension between Cross and Kuro had grown to a point where he was astonished neither of them were mortally wounded or dead yet. He figured it was only a matter of time before one of them snapped.

While he remained in the hospital for another month; for physical therapy and constant watch; Kuro and Cross had gone out and bought a larger apartment for the five of them. It was a larger apartment by far; it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and living room, and a back deck. A nice back deck too; one that easily fit the new grill Cross had gotten for himself. In this new apartment Eric would have his own room until Chris moved out in April when he turned 18. Cross, Kuro, and Flick each had their own rooms; Flick was given the master simply because it had its own bathroom.

He also awoke to find that when he came into the hospital on Christmas Eve the story was told that he and Kuro had gotten into a car accident; he got his leg stuck in the car when the hood was crushed in, and his right arm had been dislocated while his right wrist was crushed when Kuro had pulled him free of the car to carry him to the closest home. In order to take care of the details Kuro had crashed a car accordingly; getting damaged badly enough to have bruises and cuts still by the time he arrived at the closest home, and he carried Eric’s limp body to their home.

Flick and Cross stayed back at Dave’s lake house to dispose of the evidence. Alice and Mary knew that no one would ever believe the truth if they told them; and everyone thanked God that night as they watched the home go up in flames for the isolation. The home wouldn’t be found until a week later when Mary and Alice returned from New York. The story was simple;

Lizzy had gone to spend Christmas with her father while Mary and Alice were up in New York visiting that side of the family, Lizzy would fly up to New York the day after Christmas and spend the rest of her holiday break with her older sister and brother-in-law. Of course Lizzy never called or showed up at the airport. They waited a week to hear anything, knowing Dave was known for not keeping appointments. After the week was up they flew themselves to the lake house, where they discovered the burned and unrecognizable home.

The cops had investigated and ruled it off as an accidental fire. The funeral for Dave and Lizzy were held in New York the next week. Eric had been stuck in the hospital, so Kuro was forced to drag Flick up there for the day while Cross stayed behind with Eric. At the funeral no one cried for Dave, and Flick was a mess…

Kuro had returned from New York with her in a somber almost morbidly depressed mood; saying the only thing she had said the entire time was an off comment to herself during Dave’s ceremony, ‘I did that.’ The moment they returned to the hospital she wasted no time in crawling back into the hospital bed with Eric, the nurses were even forced to get him a larger one just to accommodate her; Cross had slipped them a good couple hundred to make this happen.

There in the hospital room with Eric she spent the next year. It turned out Eric also had head trauma, and he had to have exactly three surgeries just to relief the pressure in his head alone. He had a total of six to fix his leg to working ability; he would never be able to run again, but he could walk fine after the muscles rebuilt themselves.

When he finally did wake he was aware of nothing but Flick for the next week; he would be allowed out the first of February, and Flick’s tutor would work with both of them in the hospital and once they were out until they finished high school, at least…that was the plan.

Two weeks after waking, he began to talk again; mostly to Chris who came to visit every day after school and to Flick. Chris had had a birthday while he was tied up in the hospital; and he would be turning 18 this April. In fact, everyone had had a birthday while Eric was in the hospital. No one celebrated their birthday, not even Chris. Kuro had turned 21; and while Cross took him out for his first legal drink in ‘this’ lifetime they never truly spoke, and everyone knew it was a wonder they went out at all. Cross had turned 23. Flick and Chris had turned 17; and even Eric missed a birthday. He woke up at 18.

Eric had woken up just in time for Kuro’s 22nd birthday; but they never even mentioned it until his second week awake, and then Eric just smiled weakly up at him, his head still bandaged from the brain surgery and muttered, “Aw man…happy old day.”

Everyone would have laughed if it wasn’t for the situation, and Flick just nuzzled gently into Eric’s shoulder, her right hand resting lightly on his chest. Kuro watched this without worry… if his best friend was in that kind of condition he’d be right there in her place right now.

The very next day they got him started on slow physical therapy, he took to it right away and everyone showed their relief as he fell back into the scheme of life. He even convinced Cross to allow him back for high school just in time for the finals, prom, and to walk with his class…well, with Chris and Flick.

He joined Flick to walk down those high school halls for the final week of school in April, and the week after school was finished Chris would be moving in with the group. It was an extremely exciting time for everyone and yet everyone was so nervous about something they couldn’t name. They all hid it well; and at school Eric was stopped by every student he passed.

While the first few days of the week were extremely hard for him he soon began to be able to walk on his own, until he didn’t need Flick’s help at all except to sit and stand; those two things required using the muscles in his leg that had been torn apart. Then it was prom night; and he decided to ask Flick to come with him, seeing no reason why she would decline.

He asked her early one morning before school; and she blushed and giggled like he had hoped and agreed. Cross and Kuro were actually looking forward to sending the three of them to prom, Kuro most of all… he had watched Flick grow up, and on that night she would truly look like the angel she was. He didn’t mind at all that she was going with Eric, it was better than her being in the same room even as Cross.


The night was a dark and clear night. The full moon shown beautifully in the sky, illuminating everything on the earth in a splash of dark blue light. However, it never stood a chance against Flick.

Eric stood at the bottom of the apartment complex by the limousine which Kuro was proudly driving. She descended slowly down the stairs, her long black hair tied up beautifully behind her; letting just enough of her bangs to fall into and frame her face. This was the first time anyone had seen her in makeup before, or even in a dress. Her red lips were full, and she wore a gorgeous blue dress that made her dark blue eyes pop. It fit her curves beautifully, pushing her breasts up just enough to expose the tops of her skin and resting down against the top of her chest was a beautiful blue sapphire heart; an early birthday present from Kuro, and even Cross felt his heart skip a beat as he watched her leave the apartment.

It was a floor length gown with trails of dark stitched flowers covering the skirt; this gave it a wonderful appearance, the bright blue silk making the flowers visible to the naked eye. Across the chest and stomach of the dress were stitched crisscrossing black and white vines and flowers; these weren’t as noticeable as the flowers on the skirt, and neither of the patterns could be seen from a distance.

Kuro and Eric couldn’t help themselves, and they stared at the young woman standing before them in silence. She truly did look like an angel… She caught their stares and smiles shyly to herself, the blush well hidden in the darkness.


At the prom she and Eric danced happily. They talked happily, they spoke of everything that had happened in the past year, and Eric dared to breach the subject of the newly formed tension between Kuro and Cross. While in the middle of a slow dance, his hands holding her on either side of her waist holding her closely, he dared to speak the topic no one dared speak of.

“So…what’s going on between Cross and Kuro?” He spoke softly, more of a whisper and only to her. She was the only thing that existed to him at this moment in his life, the only thing that mattered. He was still shocked by his voice; it had abandoned all hints of childhood and was now the strong masculine voice of a man who had almost seen death.

The topic shocked her; no one had spoken of it before, and she was the only one besides Cross and Kuro who had any idea about what was going on between them. She knew their tension was obvious, but she never would have guessed that Eric would have actually asked about it. The topic also brought up the memory of what had happened…

How back on that hellish day everything in her mind had gone blank, and all she felt was the thirst to cause suffering to the headless creature bowing to her. All she desired was to see his body twist and his flesh blister. Then she had heard a voice, a soft whisper almost…and her mind locked around her. It was such a perfect voice…but it wasn’t Kuro’s…it was too deep, too masculine…and it had that accent… She heard it again, louder now, and she let her body freeze…she wanted to lose herself in that voice… She wanted to touch that thick velvet voice and taste that accent against her lips. Then it said her name, and her entire being locked around him; he was the only thing that existed in that moment. The only thing out of everything; there was no world, there were no people, there was no wind or water…nothing… but him and that accented voice. She wanted it more than she had ever wanted anything before in her life… She wanted to feel that voice caress her lips and her neck; she wanted the lips, the perfect lips that were capable of holding such a perfect voice. Then she saw him, standing there…looking panic and desperately at her…and then the world went blank.

“It’s…nothing, I don’t think…I honestly don’t know Eric.” She sighed, the lie clear to her own ears, but she looked away from Eric and really hoped he couldn’t tell. He nodded slowly and let the topic drop, either she didn’t know or she didn’t want to talk about it.


“What’s going to happen when we’re older? Next year even…are we going to go off to college or live in the apartment for the rest of our lives?” His voice broke the silence between them; they sat together underneath the only light on that street. The dance had ended only moments ago, and yet she already had her hair undone and the makeup off… this made her oddly desirable.

She had also never thought of this before; she was perfectly happy in this life of hers. Especially ever since she learned that she could control her ‘powers’. She had been in perfect control that day up until the moment she became obsessed with torturing the half breed. So that’s all she had to do then, keep herself under control.

“You’re not happy with this life now?” She asked this in a quiet voice, and yet it still hinted at an unbelievable idea. She honestly couldn’t imagine anyone being happier doing something else in their life.

“Well…actually…I was hoping to go on to college and become a cop or something, you know? Eventually start a family, raise children…” His voice trailed off as he met her eyes…those perfect blue eyes… those amazing dazzling eyes…

She was about to speak when his cell phone went off. He took one look at the number and both their hearts dropped; it was Cross, and he only called when Kuro was too busy with something possibly deadly to call them himself.

“Hello…?” He answered slowly, desperate to slow time down or reverse whatever bad or evil may have been awoken this time on the world. He listened to Cross, Cross’s voice too muffled for Flick to hear….and his eyes fell…he felt tears welding up in them and felt his lips mouth the words ‘no…’ but he never felt himself stand and run to the car; leaving Flick to pick up the phone and chase after him with her high heels in her hands.


He had been driving home that night from the prom, he had left earlier than everyone else simply because he had become bored. Now he was driving quickly down the high way towards his home in the darkness. He saw no other car around him, and after thirty minutes became careless. That was when the head lights flashed in his back window; he watched the driver, a young male, with little curiosity and got off on his turn.

The car followed behind him, keeping a decent distance from him now on the smaller rural road. He took another turn and cursed to himself as the car behind him followed carefully.
Chris was being followed.

He carelessly pushed the neck length dirty blond hair behind his ear and took another random turn, just to make sure. He counted to ten, and the headlights flashed into the back of his car again… He ‘was’ being followed. He felt his heart drop and growled slightly to himself; he had to get off this dark road and to someplace more crowded. Before he even finished this thought process he had turned off on the road that would bring him straight to the largest shopping center in his town.


The man in the car grinned to himself as he saw the blond boy drive past his waiting spot, it was just as Anubis had said. He checked the clock and grinned; it was 11:45 at night, exactly as Anubis had said. He started the car, and drove off after the other one, following carefully.

He sighed to himself as he shifted nervously with the pistol in his lap; he had been given orders, but they were orders a human would be used to…not a creature such as himself. He was too powerful to use a gun, but the entire purpose of the gun was to frame someone else. After all, it would do no good for the cobs to chase after a creature that didn’t exist as far as the mortals knew.

He checked himself in the mirror, paying no attention to the road; he didn’t have to. He looked exactly like Eric, which wasn’t just in appearance either… his finger prints matched, his DNA matched…he was Eric. He sighed again and brushed the shoulder length curly brown hair behind his ears; he hated the mortal body…it was a pointless sack of organs.


Chris pulled into the parking lot of the small shopping mall…it wasn’t as crowded as he had hoped, and the lights were barely flickering overhead. He felt panic grip his soul as the engine died, and he head a car door slam somewhere behind him. His body began to shake, his heart pounding too loudly in his ears to hear himself think.

There was a soft tap at the window, and Chris turned slowly to it; he heard the glass shattering just milliseconds after the gunshot. Then he felt his face burn, an incredible intense burning. He caught Eric’s face through his shattered vision before everything went red. Eric was grinning at him, holding the gun against the glass towards his face. He stumbled for his cell phone, dialed Kuro’s number without having to look at the keypad, and Eric pulled the trigger again just as Kuro answered. The phone went dead, and Chris was gone.


Kuro pulled into the shopping mall parking lot and drove slowly up to Chris’s dead car; the driver’s window had been shattered and there was blood splattered against what was still there. Kuro felt his heart drop, he knew instantly he was too late, and he parked his car slowly.

Outside of Chris’s car lying on the ground was a pistol. Kuro pushed it lightly with his right foot; knowing damn well the finger prints on there would be one of theirs. That would be a horrid thing for a cop to use a clue, it’d get him nowhere. He sighed to himself and took one quick glance at the body in the driver’s seat before picking the gun up and stuffing it into his pants; hiding it under his large black jacket. He stood there a second, looking at nothing but the steam from his breath in the chilled air and counted to ten in his head before pulling his cell out and calling the cops.

He told them exactly what he knew, how he had received a call from one of his friends; how his friend never said anything over the phone but how he had heard a gunshot. He then drove to the only other place he could have been, he left out the part about how he knew exactly where he would be, and now here he had found his friend shot in the face while still in the driver’s seat of his car. They asked if he was still breathing, and he felt his heart twist as if being punched in the stomach…he said no; no he didn’t think he was.

He let the cell close on its own and stuffed it into his pants pocket. He took one more look at Chris’s destroyed face; only his blond hair proof that it had been him at all, and turned to lean his back against the car and wait for the others to arrive; he just hoped desperately that Eric wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring Flick with him. This wasn’t something anyone needed to see… least of all her…

It was only a minute before Cross’s black car pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Kuro’s blue car. He took one glance at Chris’s car and knew what had happened… He didn’t dare step into the cold night air; but he knew he had to. Everything he saw for the rest of the night from that moment he saw as if watching from a third person perspective, as if it was all a dream.

He saw with no emotion as Eric pulled hastily into the parking lot and literally leapt from the car; nearly collapsing it if hadn’t been for Flick who caught him swiftly around the waist and helped him keep balance. He cursed mentally to himself as he realized Eric had brought the girl; the young woman. He was angry at Eric right away from bringing Flick. He also knew Kuro was angry at Eric for bringing Flick; it shown clearly in his eyes as he drew his sharp glare on Eric’s body.

“Keep her back.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was a command, sharp and cold from Kuro’s throat. He wouldn’t allow Flick to see Chris’s face now, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Cross nodded at this, already standing at Flick’s side; he gentle took her right arm in his and pulled her slightly away from Eric, letting her lean against his body. He could see the dread swell into her face as she connected everything together in her head; and Eric let her go freely and limped towards his best friend’s car.

She knew these things for certain; Cross had called Eric, which was something he only did when Kuro was too busy with something to do it himself; Eric hadn’t even had time to close the phone and put it away he was in such a state of shock; Chris’s car was silent there before them in the parking lot and she could see no Chris;…they wouldn’t let her see into the car…

Sirens began to come closer; their rings tearing through the silent night air like knifes into soft flesh; Flick could feel every new wound and watched as Eric forced himself to look into the car. His face went pale, his eyes went blank, and in a moment that passed all too slowly for Flick but had happened in the blink of an eye Eric had pulled his hands to his face, screamed out an agonizing ‘No!’ and had fallen to his knees in front of the car. He was now weeping at the side of the car, unable to gain control of himself…

Cross glanced at Flick, she had to know what had happened now, and he was sure her imagination was capable of forming its own images without the actual thing helping. He also saw a tears built up in her eyes and she blinked them away quickly, unable at that point to stop the steady stream which spilled silently down her cheeks. Watching her stand there tore at something inside his chest, and he pulled her against his chest, wrapping both of his large, strong arms around her body to hold her there.

The moment she was in his embrace she lost control of herself and began to cry uncontrollable against him. He held here there, oddly not bothered by this…although his face would have said otherwise. He turned his attention from her to catch Kuro glaring at him; his fists balled up at his sides…he was nearly shaking in fury, and this forced a sly grin to slip across Cross’s face before he began to speak.

“Wait for the police with him.” He motioned towards Eric, he also noticed that as he spoke Flick calmed down momentarily, his accent still had that bizarre effect on her…he could also hear her mentally correct him…no…it was his voice that had that bizarre effect on her. “I’m going to take her back home and help her calm down. I’ll see you back there later tonight. Fill me in on the details later.”

Cross didn’t wait for a reply, knowing damn well Kuro would argue that he should take her home. He also knew that out of all of them when it came to dealing with the police only Kuro had the speaking abilities to handle it; he wasn’t going to let them risk anything simply because Kuro was insanely jealous.

He helped Flick into the passenger side of the car, closed the door lightly behind her, and moved to sit on the driver’s side without saying anything. He could feel Kuro’s burning gaze in the back of his head the entire time. He wished to see him dead; Cross knew this better than anyone; and all because of this girl… He sighed and looked over at Flick, who was huddling into her knees still crying silently to herself… this girl was causing all this, and she did nothing but exist.

Kuro watched him drive away, snarling to himself the entire time. Yet he also knew it did him no good and he fell to Eric’s side on his knees to comfort him until the police arrived.


He watched them from the shadows; letting his thin leathery wings stretch and unfold before folding them back into place against his naked body. His face resembled that of a greyhound, a grey furless greyhound. His eyes were a large bloody red; a single black dot in the center of both of them. He had long mid-back length thin black hair which was tied up in a knot on top of his head; and he had two thin pointed ears sticking up through his hair on the top of his head; where a dog’s ears were.

He grinned as he watched them; flexing his dark blue-gray long, thin fingers slowly. His nails were long and clawed; they could tear through human flesh like a hot knife through butter. The rest of his body was perfectly human, while thinner and a dark blue-gray ; until his feet, which were like the feet of raptors; he flexed the long toe with the deadly nail slowly, his sharp teeth showing through his grin.

This body felt much more satisfying than the human sack of blood and useless organs.

While he stood there watching the group; he noticed the power around Flick instantly; that was the girl Anubis had told him about, the girl with the strange abilities that shouldn’t belong to mortals. She was what Anubis had also called a mirror, but unlike past mirrors hers wasn’t located solely in her mind. No, she had the new strange ability to simply will people to her, and there they would be. That was, after all…how Cross had wandered in.

She desired him, and so it was…

It was as if every world’s purpose was solely to please her… The dark creature chuckled to himself, oh what his master would do to be able to produce that kind of power in millions; to control it himself. Then the portals between all the worlds would no longer exist and they would have free run of the world again.

Anubis was also right, their set-up wouldn’t work…but how great it would be to torture Eric with it. His best friend saw him last. His best friend had seen Eric holding the gun to his face; he giggled again, a shrill dead sound coming from his throat. How wonderful that would be for Eric to find out, how beautiful!

He watched the car with Cross and Flick drive away, waited until the air was silent again and spread his thin wings for a moment before taking off into the air. He left silently, not a trace of his being there left.