California

“Bitch.” Kale grumbled as he pulled me out of the van roughly and let me drop on the ground. I climbed off the ground and wiped the dirt off my pants. We were standing in the middle of nowhere right now.

“I was not being a bitch, you deserved what you got.” He growled and turned towards me.

“If you ever kick me in the groin again-“ He started. I crossed my arms and waited for him to continue.

“You’ll probably get what you deserve.” Valen interrupted as he walked out of the woods that the van was parked beside. “What took you guys so long? We were only a couple hours away when I left, and it’s been over four.” He said to Amarida, ignoring Kale glaring at him. I moved away from Kale and Valen and went to stand by Leon. Those two kind of freaked me out; Leon hadn’t done anything to scare me yet, so he made me feel a little bit safe.

“She-“ Amarida nodded towards me. “kept trying to escape and I had to keep slowing down so if she somehow did jump out she wouldn’t kill herself.”

“Why didn’t Kale try stopping her?” He turned towards Kale and glared at him.

“Uh, because she kept elbowing me in the stomach and then she kneed me in the groin, so I fucking stopped.”

“I didn’t knee him in the groin because he stopped me.” I said annoyed. “He touched my boob so I punched him in the groin. He deserved it.” I mumbled. I heard Valen chuckled, and looked up. He really scared me, but his face looked really cute when he was laughing.

“Why’d you touch her boob dude?” He chuckled.

“I didn’t mean to, I accidently grabbed her there.” He grumbled. “I didn’t deserved to be kicked there; it fucking hurts.”

“Be more careful next time.” He laughed.

“Whatever.” Kale snapped as he started walking into the woods where Valen had walked out of a few minutes earlier.

“We should probably follow him; it’s starting to get dark and California looks like she’s about to fall down.” Valen said to the other two. Leon and Amarida started walking into the woods; I went to follow them but Valen grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back so I was beside him while we walked. “Sorry I freaked you out earlier. I shouldn’t have just done what I did; especially when you don’t really have any idea what’s going on.”

“You didn’t freak me out.” I lied; I started thinking about those black wings that had grown out of his back earlier. How did he do that? What was he?

“I’ll tell you later.” He said quietly as we continued walking through the woods.

“What?” I said as I looked at the side of his face. Had I said that out loud?

“Don’t worry about. You’ll find out tomorrow. First you should get some sleep when we reach the campsite.” It was really starting to get dark and I could barely see where I was walking. Maybe if I could get Valen to let go of my waist I could get away. I mean, I’m pretty sure they had left the keys in the van. We’ve only been walking for about ten minutes; I’m sure I could find the way out of the woods again and drive off.

“Hey, Valen?” I stopped walking and turned my body towards him. He turned towards me.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry.” I mumbled.

“For what?” He sounded confused, and then I kneed him in the groin. “Fuck.” He growled quietly as he dropped to his knees, holding his groin. I turned towards where we were walking from and started running that way. I felt his hands scrape my heel, but he didn’t grab it and I continued. I was running for about five minutes when I tripped over a branch. I felt something fall out of my pocket and it slid towards my hand. I grabbed it and stared at it confused as I stood back up. I think I had ripped my jeans and scraped my knee but I kept running anyway. What the hell is this? I stared at the device in my hand. My phone! I could call someone with this. I could call the police! I finally reached the outskirts of the woods. I looked around for the van, but it was like it had vanished. I turned my phone on and started dialing 911 when I heard something land on the ground beside me.

I turned quickly and almost screamed as I moved back slightly. I dropped my phone in the process I looked at the ground where it dropped then back up at the creature it front of me. I was pretty sure it was Valen, but he had turned into whatever he was. I could see the black wings and the marking all over him. His face wasn’t as soft as before though, and I swear his eyes were pitch black; I couldn’t tell well in the darkness though. He growled at me and grabbed my arm roughly then pulled me into his chest. I couldn’t see anything, but I felt air in hair and even though I really didn’t want to be near him I grabbed on to harder; I wasn’t a big fan of heights.

After about twenty minutes I felt Valen drop to the ground. I felt muscles and bones moving around in his body and I guessed that he had brought the wings back in – if that made since. “Valen, remember we’re trying not to scare her?” Amarida said to him. I kept hold of Valen, still shaking from be up in the air. He shrugged.

“She kicked me in the nuts and tried to escape; this was the quickest way to get her back.” He removed his arms of my waist and tried pulling away, but I whimpered and kept hold of him. He chuckled and grabbed me by the waist again and lifted me up a bit. He walked forward and I felt him sit down with me in his lap. He turned me around so I facing everyone, but him. Not that it mattered; it was pitch black out and I couldn’t see anything right now.

“Maybe we should punish her for trying to escape.” Kale suggested.

“I think flying was punishment enough for her; she’s still shaking.” He chuckled.

“I still think she needs to be punished for kicking me in the nuts.”

“You got what you deserved.” Valen rolled his eyes. “Get over it.”

“But it hurt!” It sounded like he was whining and I almost wanted to laugh.

“I know.” Valen laughed. “It took me over five minutes to get up; she defends herself well.”

“Got it!” Amarida exclaimed as she got a flame going on the stack of wood we were sitting around. I could finally see the campsite. We were all surrounded in woods and there three tents about ten yards away from us. All the tents looked like it could sleep about two people. I yawned slightly thinking about sleep; I tried covering my mouth, so no one would notice, but my hands were under Valen’s arms.

“Looks like she’s ready to sleep.” Leon commented as he caught me yawning.

“Alright, Amarida are you going to sleep yet?”

“Nah, I was going to stay out here for a while.”

“Well, what tent is California sleeping then?”

“Kale’s sleeping alone; she can sleep in his tent with him.” I stiffened; Kale stood up and smirked at me.

“Let’s go.” He said as he started walking over towards me.

“No.” Valen snapped. “Leon, sleep with Kale tonight. California will stay with me.”

“I’m not sleeping with the mutt!” Kale said, like a little kid not getting their way, and pointed back towards Leon.

“Hey!” Snapped Amarida. “Don’t call him that!”

“That’s what he is!” Kale snapped back. Amarida was about to say something back but Valen stopped them.

“Whatever.” He said annoyed. “I’ll sleep with Kale tonight and California can stay with Leon.” Leon stood up and walked over towards me.

“Come on, let’s go. I’m kind of tired too.” I nodded slowly and slid of Valen’s lap. He seemed reluctant to let me go, probably thought I was going to try to run again, but after a few seconds he let go of my waist. I walked slowly with Leon to the tent on the far right, yawning when we reached it. Leon held the flap open in the tent and let me walk in first. It was once again pitch black and I started wondering why none of them had thought to bring flashlights. After a few seconds a light came on. I blinked my eyes, trying to get use to the change in light. When my eyes adjusted I stared around in awe.

From the outside the tent was tiny; from the inside though it was bigger than two of my bedrooms combined, back home. I looked around the tent. It had a small bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet; there was even a door to it so you could close it. Across from the bathroom there was a small kitchen with a stove, sink and small refrigerator. Then as you walked farther in you could see a sliding door, opened, and there was a small round wooden table with chairs surrounding it and a couch of to the side. There was another sliding door, closed, and I assumed that’s where the beds were.

“Come on.” Leon said as he started towards the back section of the tent.

“How…” I mumbled to myself as I walked forward, still staring around. I mean, there was no way anything could look that small on the outside and be this big inside.

“We’ll explain how tomorrow.” He smiled slightly towards me as he turned his head to me.

“Why does everything have to wait till tomorrow?” I mumbled under my breath.

“Because, we have a lot to explain to you and we don’t want you freaking out to bad.” Leon answered me, I thought I had spoken quietly but I guess not.

“Why can’t you guys just tell me now? I mean you’ve already taken me against my will, I probably won’t freak that bad out.” I said a little annoyed as I crossed my arms and stomped my foot, like a little kid. Leon ignored me and opened the closed door. I was right about it being a bedroom. It had two beds, bigger than twins but smaller than doubles, stacked on each other; bunk beds. Those were off to the right and then off to the left side there was a bureau.

“What bed do you want?” Leon asked me as he went to the bureau and grabbed something out of it.

“I’ll take the top I guess.” I said quietly as I stared at the ground.

“Here.” He said as he threw a t-shirt and a pair of boxers towards me. “You’re not going to want to wear those clothes all the time, they’ll start to smell. I’ll leave and let you change.” He said as he walked out the room. I stared at the boxers and t-shirt and looked at them. I didn’t really want to wear someone’s clothes that I didn’t know, but I guess that they were being nice by letting me wear these. I sighed and slipped off my pants and put the boxers on then slipped my other clothes off and slipped the shirt. It fell down to almost my knees. It had to of either been Kale’s or Valen’s shirt because Leon was to scrawny and short to wear it. I rolled up my clothes into a ball then threw up on the top bunk. A minute or so later Leon walked in. He had changed his clothes and now only had some pajama pants on. I could see some scratches marks on his chest and almost asked him what happened but stopped myself.

“There’s no latter.” I mumbled.

“Right, I can help you up.” He walked behind and told me to turn around so I was facing the bed. He lifted me up without warning and I squeaked. He set me on the top bunk and then climbed in the bottom bunk.

“Thanks.” I pretty much whispered.

“Your welcome.” I leaned down from my bunk and had my hanging off so I could see him.

“How am I going to get down in the morning?”

“I’ll help you get down then.” I nodded, kind of hard to do so when you’re hanging like I was though.

“Are you going to shut off the lights?” He nodded and then clapped his hands and they shut off. I climbed back up all the way and climbed under the covers. “So, the lights are clap on.”

“No. Just regular lights.” I was going to question him about; instead I let out a yawn and just turned on my side. I went to sleep very confused that night.