Be Sure to Wear a Disguise

"Hey... Oh, you're awake already."

I look up from my computer. My new roommate, Emilee, has her head poked in from the adjoining bathroom.

"Caan is wondering when you wanted to ... feed him this morning?" She looks uncertain of her message.

"I'll come in a second. I need to post this chapter." I smile at her. As she leaves, I turn back to the computer screen and quickly add my author note. It takes a lot of effort to get people to comment on my story.

I pop out of my room and Caan looks up from the dining room table. And mean I say dining room table, I mean a shabby thing with legs that's got four mix-match chairs. Yeah, college. Welcome! . . . Sarcasm.

"Food." His big sad eyes sparkle with a mischievous gleam.

From the kitchen, I see Emilee cover her mouth with her hand. But I catch it, she's laughing at Caan, well, more like laughing with Caan. Same difference



"So... You're inviting us to a college party?" Caan says, taking this in very small steps.

"Yeah. A second year friend of mine is tossin' it tonight." Emilee smiles, "You two comin'?"

Silence.

Caan slips me a look...I send him a sly smile. He sneaks one back to me. That decides it.

"We're in." We simultaneously break the silence.



I tuck my skinny jeans into my boots. My hazel eyes seek out my reflection, finding it in the full length mirror. Which is a good place to find a reflection, if I do say so myself.

Emilee comes in through the bathroom door and smiles at me."Nice."

I laugh, "Not so bad yourself."

Her purple corset top and matching skirt look amazing on her. It off sets with her blond curly hair and makes her brown eyes seem green. The black flared sleeves remind me of the Renaissance, but with a little more vampire twist to it.

A tinny tiny shiver creep over my spine. Thinking of vampires...it somehow relates to other 'mythical' creatures. Warm creatures, with silver storm eyes.

"Hey, are you okay? You're starting to cry."

Emilee's words bring me out of my quake. I quickly wipe my eyes and say something along the lines of something in my eye.

Emilee and I bound into the great room and Caan stands from the sofa. "Finally."

He lets out a impatient huff of air and his eyes us over.A small smile pulls at the corner of his lips.

"Like what ya looking at, Pal?" Emilee smirks.

I watch a red tint form on Caan's cheeks, and I laugh as he tries to hide it. However, some where inside, my heart sags a little. He's checking out Emilee. Not me. I'm getting left behind, all over again.

"C-Come on, Caan Em. I wanna get there." My voice wobbles at the start but levels out, willed into being strong.

"'Kay." Caan walks over to us and holds out his arms, "May I have the honor of accompanying you both?"

Emilee laughs and takes his arm. Caan turns to me and smile. His arm finds it's place around my shoulders, where as mine slides into place around his waist.

We three sweep from the room with smiles and laughs and bright unspoken promise of a good time.



The party is in full swing now. The vodka is cheap and harsh but the soda helps me not gag it back out. I return to the living room and look the chair I'd been sitting on before I'd gone into the kitchen.

A drunken couple has collapse against it, so I am reluctant to interrupt. Instead, I move around the pulsating mass of dancers, and find Caan, unmoved from his place on the couch. He smiles slyly up at me, beckoning me to him and his group.

I slide into his lap, my place, and offer him my drink, signaling in the defining music that it's spiked. His smile widens as his finger wrap around it. I look around at the group, noting the glares that radiate off of some of the girls there.

The music carries me and time is lost. All that remains is an endless flow of music, lights and drinks. The dancers become looser and the air becomes heavier, weighted down by drunken breath.

I lean into Caan, feeling his heat radiate into me. The motion blurs before me as I let my eyes drift aimlessly among the people. Suddenly, I feel the prickle of air against my neck as someone whispers into my ear. I turn my head and Caan looks back at me. He points between the two of us and the dance floor.

Moments later, our bodies become tangled together as we join the pulsing, twitching, ever-moving thing that is the dance floor. I let my mind unfocus, not bothering to care about the music and the motion. I stop caring where my heat ends and the heat of another begins. On this dance floor, there is no me, or Caan. There is only the mass of human motion.

Suddenly, I feel Caan's presence replaced and I refocus on the face. My heart skips a beat as I meet the eyes. Deep Forest Green. I'd only seen those eyes once, and I knew exactly who it was....

Because those eyes use to be black.



"Hey Rin, Babe, Wake up."

Caan's soft voice hammers against my skull in the aftermath of last night. I sit up and groan. My fingers find their way to my temples and circle them, trying to stop the jackhammers from corroding my spinal cord.

"Here, Rin."

A glass of watter and two painkillers are held out to me. I take them and murmur my thanks to Caan. In response, he brushes hair out of my eyes and behind my ear.

I down the water and slowly rise from the couch. Blood rushes from my head and I feel the ground heave beneath me.

"Whoa there, Babe." Caan reaches and catches me around the waist.

"Wh-What happened?" I ask leaning into him as we walk to the kitchen. Emilee is around here somewhere" I was dancing with you and then I saw...something, Then...what?"

"We moved apart after a while, then I remember you grabbing me and we fell on the couch. Then you got flat-out plastered, which I think you realize this morning,right?" Caan smirks a little, and I give him a pained groan in response, "That's all I got for ya, Rina. Sorry"

I just nod and wake Emilee. I shake her awake and together the three of us walk, stumble, lurch our way over, around between the remaining pasted out party goers.

The walk home seems too long and the sun fells like it's burning out my eyes. Caan holds onto me and I'm grateful for the arm he has around me. Emilee, I lose track of, but she's beside us as we open the bright blue door of our apartment.

It was a specter or something. Hecouldn't really behere.Not after everything. This is rediculouus. I think while in my room, peeling away the layers of cloth constricting my body. With only my bra and matching black and white stripe undies, I stop infront of the full-length mirror. My thoughts wander as I space out.

Movement makes me refocus. The curtains flutter and I spin to look at them. NO... no no no! please don't do this to me! My thoughts plunge into fear, remembering my last encounter with the fluttering curtains. I step forward, still in only my underclothes. I fling back the curtain.

A laugh almost skips out of me as I view the empty window, which is only opened an inch or so to catch the breeze. I push the window closed and draw the curta--

A strong arm clasps around my waist and a warm hand clamps down on my mouth , cutting off my scream. The arm drags me backwards, away from the window. I kick and struggle, fingers digging at the flesh, but the grip doesn't loosen.

I feel a jar as they hit the wall. The strong arms pulls me down till I'm sitting curled in the lap of my attacker. My eyes well up and burn with tears. A calm voice coos to me, and the grip around my waist loosens.

"Kathrine. I'm goin' let go now. Please don't scream." The voice whispers. I nod and the hand is removed." There, there."

The voice starts to sound familiar as my breath starts to come in great lungfuls. Slowly, I turn to meet my Memory.

"Lyris?"

He nods.

"You're really here?

Again, he nods.

"W-W-Why?"

He sighs and looks away. I notice the forest green color of his eyes, but the emotion in them is undecipherable. Softly, I touch his cheek. He's eyes flash back to meet mine as I flinch away from his warm skin.

Suddenly, my bare limbs and torso burn from being exposed. I cross my arms and front of me, trying to cover my chest.

Loris flicks his eyes over me, but they stay unreadable. His arms wrap around me and he lifts me up from his lap and gently sets me down on the bed.

"Why are you here?" I whisper as I pull my sleeping shirt over me, barely breaking eye contact.

Again, a heavy sigh flows over his lips. I grab at his arm, my fingers wrapping around it, but they feel fragile and breakable.

"What as happened? Tell me." I say, assuming the worst.

Loris looks up at me. Gently, he touches my cheek and sweeps my hair behind my ear.

"He's dead. Troy has been mur--."

He stops talking. Or perhaps I just stop hearing him. A moment passes where the world itself stops. My eyes black out and my ear mute themselves.

"No. No. No! N-"

The warm hand clamps again over my lips, but I still scream, into it. The strong arm wraps around my trembling shoulders. I feel the fabric of his shirt presses against my cheek as I sob endlessly.

I didn't get to say good-bye

"I know." Again a calm voice coos nonsense words into my ear. "I know"

Slowly, we curl together together and I mourn.

"Go to sleep, Katherine. I'll explain when you wake."

I hear the words but . . .

Sleep tugs on me and I release to it, my body sinking into the black.