Status: About once or twice a week. More if I ever get a break from school. :)
The Damned
Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Easter's POV
I woke up early and despite the fact that every single muscle in my body was sore, I sighed in relief. Our three days of hell are over. After that, our regular chores will feel like nothing. At least, I hope so. I thought I was tough. Being here, makes me feel lazy and weak, which is not a fun feeling at all in case you hadn't noticed. That's not important right now though because THE TORTURE IS OVER! I glanced out of the tiny window that at the very top of the far wall. That window is our only sense of time. When just the tiniest sliver of dawn sunlight shines into our room, it's time for that to get up. It always wakes me up and I, in turn, wake my friends up.
I gently shook Haven and Seven awake. For some reason, which is a mystery to me, they have both decided that they're going to sleep in my bed. I guess I don't mind. Since I sleep in the middle, I'm not freezing. They need to put some heaters in here. Otherwise, I swear I'll wake up one morning and Haven and Seven will be frozen.
Seven groaned at me and rolled over groaning, and almost fell off the bed. "Come on, Seven. You've got to get up," I told him, hitting him with his pillow. "Stop being lazy." Seven whined again. Of course he couldn't miss putting up his usual fight, before dragging himself out of bed finally. He didn't want to be late. I know he is as happy as I am about not having any extra chores.
Haven was up in no time. He disappeared, running down to the cafeteria to get us all breakfast while Seven and I walked to the laundry room. We only have two pairs of clothes so every morning Seven and I go to the laundry room to wash our other clothes. We walked back, a pile of clean (Well, as clean as our stained, smelly clothes can get.) clothes in our arms. We changed clothes and Haven came in a minute later with three plates of pancakes and bacon. My stomach growled, ravenously. That happens when you've had two meals in three days. Seven and I wolfed down our food while Haven changed quickly and started eating. "You guys ready to go?" Haven asked, the second he finished eating.
"Yeah, sure-" I started to say, before remembering something. "What's today?"
"The twenty-second of January. Why?" Haven asked. "I'm sixteen today," I said, surprised.
"It's your birthday?" Seven asked, surprised. "If we would have known, I'd get you a party. Will you be sad if I don't give you a party hat?"
"I think I'll manage without one," I told him, shuddering at the thought.
"If you're sure," Seven said, doubtfully.
"I heard a muffled sound, like someone coughing behind me. Haven was doubled up laughing, tears running down his face. "Great mental image," he exclaimed. "I see you both in party hats like we're at a six year olds birthday party."
I glared. "That's not funny."
Seven looked between us, confused. "I'm not trying to be funny. I'm being nice. Shouldn't we celebrate your birthday?" he asked, sweetly.
"Yeah. We can celebrate by not having extra work and getting a good night's sleep," I said.
"Sounds good to me. Happy birthday, Easter," Haven said. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yep! Let's go!" Seven chirped. He shot out the door, leaving us to chase him down the hall. Haven and I ran down the halls after him to the room we'd been to on the first day to get our chores. No one's in there today, which was a huge relief considering how much everyone seems to like us around here.
Seven picked up the three lists that had been left on the table. Seven was sent to the kitchens. He gets the easiest chores since he's under sixteen. There is still somewhat of a child labor law for slaves. He can't work for more than sixteen hours a day and they have to make allowances for the fact that Seven isn't as strong or big as Haven and I are. Plus, it really doesn't look good when a young slave passes out from exhaustion. Seven waved good-bye to us, promising to sneak us some food back.
Haven now has to take care of the animals that live in the newly built stables. He stomped off, muttering about how he was going to step in cow shit and completely flip out. I snorted at the image, but Haven luckily didn't notice. Now is not the time to be annoying him.
Lastly, was my chores. I get permanent yard work. I'm sure you know how overjoyed I was about that. I'm going to have creepy body builder muscles in no time. I sighed, going off to do my chores.
I wasn't in one of the front gardens for very long before I was a huge carriage pull up in the driveway. Judging from the twelve obviously purebred and expensive horses and from how the carriage was ten million times better than the one I'd come here in, I'm guessing that this is the royal family. I glared at the carriage. It was bigger than Seven's, Haven's, and my cabin. It was black with silver trim, intricately designed and closed off with two windows you could see out of, but no one could see in. I doubt they were tied up, starved, and beat up.
I saw a few of the other slaves running out the door to catch a glimpse of the family. There had been people like that in my school too. Mostly, they were girls and they usually obsessed over the prince and how they want to marry him. I always thought it was strange since we knew virtually nothing about them. How can you be "in love" with someone you've never met? They're idiots.
I didn't think anything else about it and went back to weeding one of the flower beds. I went from flower bed to flower bed for the next few hours. A word to all the rich people out there: You only need so many flowers!
I didn't realize I was muttering out loud until I heard a quiet voice, chuckling."You're in a pleasant mood, aren't you?" the voice asked, sarcastically. The voice belonged to a boy who looked about my age. He was maybe two inches shorter than me, about 5'8". What a nice change, since Haven and Seven are taller than me. He had a thin, wiry build like I do. His golden hair, bright blue eyes, and sun kissed tan were as far from looking like me as possible. I suddenly felt a little self conscious about how pale I was and how ugly I must look to him. Not to mention that he had normal teenage clothes, as opposed to my rags. He was almost definitely free and filthy rich. He probably even lives here. I shook that off quickly though. I've never let someone make me feel self conscious before and I'm not going to start now. "Hey? Are you going to answer me?" the other boy asked. He plopped down on the grass next to me. "Are you knew? I don't think I've seen you before," he said. "What's your name?"
"I'm Easter," I replied, while continuing to pull weeds. "This is my fifth day here, so yeah, I'm new. Who are you?"
"Um, my name's Micah and…uh, this is kind of my house. Well, it's my parents' really, but I've lived here my whole life."
I looked at him in shock to see if he was joking. "That means…you're…you're last name is Angel…and you are one," I finished lamely. I blushed bright red when I realized my words could be taken two ways. I looked back at my unattended chores. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll get back to work."
"No, don't act like that," Micah murmured. "I want to talk to you, if that's okay?"
"Sure, I'll talk to you, but I can't stop working," I told him. "Otherwise, I won't be finished in time for dinner." What I didn't tell him was that his family spends almost no money on dinner for the slaves. It's simply because almost none of us have finished working in time for it. Micah probably already knows that though. It's stupid for me to point out what should be obvious, since it's going on in his own house.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, seeming concerned. I don't know why he would be though. It's not like it matters whether I'm hungry, as long as I keep working.
"I'm fine," I lied, even though my stomach had been growling all afternoon.
"I've got chips," he coaxed, taking a bag of Doritos out of the front pocket of his sweatshirt and held it out to me.
I sheepishly took the bag of chips from him and started eating."When you finish eating, I'll help you with this so you can get done faster," he told me. "I don't talk to that many people around here, except my best friends, and they're out of town right now." It's nice to have someone to talk to. Have you made any friends since you got here?"
"My two best friends and I were forced to come here, so yes I do have friends," I said bitterly. I know I shouldn't have talk to a prince like that, but he didn't seem threatening at all and I wanted somebody with power to know how my friends and I were being treated.
Micah looked guilty. "I'm sorry you were brought here. They must have had some reason though. Were you poor? I can't see you having been a criminal."
"My friends and I were brought here because of what we are," I replied, still angry. "When they got us here they realized that I had killed my parents. I guess they had a warrant out on me. I never got the chance to explain why," I sighed, finishing up my chips quickly. I expected Micah to run away screaming, but he didn't move at all. Maybe I shocked him so much, he'll have a heart attack or pass out. I'm sure everyone will blame me for that.
"Explain what?" What reason could you possibly have for killing someone? And what do you mean by "what you are?" he demanded, not looking in the least like he was going to run away. If anything, I expected him to start yelling at me for hurting my parents. I couldn't help but feel bad. I mean, I REALLY couldn't help it. That's the way angels, like the royal family, are. You can't help wanting to please them. It's not their fault; it's just the way things are.
"They tried to kill me. They'd never help me when people at school hurt me and got angry when I protected myself. I got so scared about them getting angry, I let some people do things to me they shouldn't have. They were ashamed of me. I remember them hiding the fact that I existed from their families. My father tried to stab me--I guess it got to be too much for him--and I don't know…I just snapped." I suddenly felt like crying. Just because my parents hated me and wouldn't have cared if I died, doesn't mean that I felt the same. I loved them. They were the only people who had taken care of me for most of my life. I've always known that I'd owe them forever for saving my life when I was born. They could have let the doctor kill me. I wish I would have thought of that when I got angry, but I couldn't help it. It still hurt so much to believe that I'd murdered them, no matter what the reason.
"Hey. Hey, don't cry," Micah murmured, brushing away tears I didn't know had fallen. "I'm sorry. I believe you. It's okay."
I blushed. I pulled away and trying to stop my tears from falling, but failed miserably. This isn't something I like to think about. Seven and Haven have never pushed me for more information since the first night we met. Micah's not pushing me either, but I want to unload for once. It kind of hurts to talk about this and there could not be a worse person than the person who owns me to confide in, but I still wanted to.
"It's okay to cry. You can talk about it if you want," Micah offered. It's sweet of him to say so, but I know it's not a good idea. I shouldn't be making it my policy to burst into tears in front of near strangers.
"I'm sorry. I'm fine now," I murmured. "Let's talk about something else, okay?"
"Sure." Micah smiled at me and I saw a distinct expression of relief on his face. He wiped the sweat off his forehead onto his shirt sleeve. He got up and started trying to tug a hugely overgrown, bush-like weed out of the ground. "What." Tug. "Do." He pulled on the weed again. "You want to talk about?" he asked, finally getting the weed out of the ground and fell flat on his ass, laughing.
I snorted at his clumsiness, pulling all the smaller weeds out of the ground and shoving them into the trash bag I carried with me. "What do you do here? Do you go to school? Are your friends gone a lot? What's your family like?"
"I do a bunch of different things. I'm homeschooled whenever I'm home, otherwise I don't go to school. I read a lot, draw, write, walk around out here, talk to my friends, and play with my little sister whenever she's home. Lucy goes with our parents a lot more than I do, so I don't see her so much," Micah said with a grin.
"How old is she?" I asked. Like I said, Micah's family really doesn't share personal information. They’re really private for someone so famous.
"She just turned four. Lucy's really sweet, but she needs more friends her age. Sure she talks to a few kids from influential families, but there are only so many of us. We kind of have to settle for having friends who's ages are way different. One of my best friends before I met Jay and Indigo was five years older than me. I must have seemed like such a tagalong," he laughed. "Indigo and Jay are around almost all the time. We're hardly ever apart. It's weird when even one of us is gone, much less two of us…What was your last question again?" he asked.
"What's your family like?" I repeated, quietly.
"Well, I've already told you about my sister. I don't have any other siblings and the only other family I have is my parents. They normal parents I guess. They're not home much, but when they are they're really busy. They still yell at me if I don't do my homework, or get drunk, you know," Micah smirked. "Let's talk about you now."
"What do you want to know?" I asked. I guess I'm private, too. I don't really like talking about myself, but it's only fair.
"I want to know about the same things you asked me about. I want to know about your friends, family, life in general, and what school was like, if you ever went?" When he said "family" he looked worried that I'd freak out again.
"My friends are great. Haven's a vampire and he's a year older than me. He's a lot more mature than Seven and I are. He kind of gets annoyed with us sometimes because he has to take care of us, but I know he loves us. Seven's hugely loud and we fight a lot, but we're really close. He goes to school since he's the most normal of us. Actually, Seven's a shape-shifter, so he's not that different at all. We all met a couple of months ago when Seven and I somehow broke into the same cabin, that Haven happened to be living in. It's like fate," I said, jokingly.
"Um, next my family. I didn't have any family except my parents. They had me really young and their parents stopped talking to them for it. I think my parents could have fixed it, but they didn't really want anyone to know about me, like they didn't have any pictures or anything. My parents were the only people who knew about me until I was in kindergarten. They were okay I guess. They kept control of me…as much as they could. I'd get angry or scared a lot and when that happened I'd lose my temper and flip out. The made sure I was in the basement so I couldn't get out and hurt anyone and tried to make sure everything was padded so I couldn't hurt myself. They couldn't get me a lot of things, since I might break them," I said, knowing how insane I sounded. Micah probably wants to put me in a padded room.
"I'm sure you weren't that bad," Micah said, doubtfully. "You seem normal now…except when you mentioned that you are a demon, I already knew because of how you look. If I were just talking to you and not looking at you, you'd be perfectly normal."
"Yeah, I know I look a bit weird," I muttered self-consciously. "But it's really not just on the outside. You've known me for less than an hour. I don't freak out every day. I haven't once since I moved in with…Never mind. That's a lie. I did when the two guys who brought us here came into the caravan. I was pissed off and chained up. It's actually gotten a lot better recently though."
"Next, is school?" I asked, sighing. "I used to go until I ran away. I was too different looking to pass as a normal person. Seven looks fine, so he went to school for all of us. Haven put false teeth in and went to work. School before I ran away sucked. People beat me up every day and no one wanted to risk talking to me. Some of the guys made fun of anyone who even talked to me, so no one did. One of the guys found out I was gay and thought it would be funny to tell everyone."
"You're gay?!" Micah asked.
I wanted to kick him. Of all the things I've told him, he's going to freak out because of my sexuality. "Yeah. So?"
"I am, too," he smiled. "How did they find out though? The people at your school don't seem like someone I'd tell."
"I told my parents when I was twelve," I answered simply. "They were the people I was closest to and I wasn't used to keeping secrets from them. They sent me to talk to my school counselor about it. I don't think they minded, but they didn't know how to help me. I don't think my parents realized until then that I might want to have a life and date and all that. They just figured that because of what I am, that I wouldn't want to do any of that. The counselor, like everyone else, was afraid of me and wouldn't sit in a room alone with me with the door closed. She left the door open and he heard me say it."
"That sucks," Micah sympathized.
"Yeah," I agreed. "That's pretty much everything I said." I looked down in surprise. "We're finished with everything. Thank you for helping me…and talking to me."
"No problem," Micah said. "You'll probably want to be going inside now."
I nodded. "Bye. I'll see you around, I guess."
"Bye," Micah muttered, looking a little disappointed. "Hey, wait! Do you…Would you want to, uh, talk to me again…sometime?" Micah whispered, looking at his feet.
"Yeah!" I said. I don't think you understand how much of a party I was having in my head. "Do you want to come by when I'm working tomorrow. You don't have to help me with my work if you don't want to. I'd be happy just to talk to you." Please say yes! Please say yes!
"Great! I'll meet you here tomorrow morning," he said happily. "When do you start work?"
"I start at seven," I said, looking at him like he was insane. If I was free and didn't have anything to do, I'd sleep in all the time. He won't want to get up that early.
"I'll see you then."
We walked up the hill to Micah's palace again before separating, me to my slave quarters and Micah to his bedroom. I felt fantastic. Not only have I made a new friend, but I've also made it back in time for dinner. Maybe being here won't be as bad as I thought.
Easter's POV
I woke up early and despite the fact that every single muscle in my body was sore, I sighed in relief. Our three days of hell are over. After that, our regular chores will feel like nothing. At least, I hope so. I thought I was tough. Being here, makes me feel lazy and weak, which is not a fun feeling at all in case you hadn't noticed. That's not important right now though because THE TORTURE IS OVER! I glanced out of the tiny window that at the very top of the far wall. That window is our only sense of time. When just the tiniest sliver of dawn sunlight shines into our room, it's time for that to get up. It always wakes me up and I, in turn, wake my friends up.
I gently shook Haven and Seven awake. For some reason, which is a mystery to me, they have both decided that they're going to sleep in my bed. I guess I don't mind. Since I sleep in the middle, I'm not freezing. They need to put some heaters in here. Otherwise, I swear I'll wake up one morning and Haven and Seven will be frozen.
Seven groaned at me and rolled over groaning, and almost fell off the bed. "Come on, Seven. You've got to get up," I told him, hitting him with his pillow. "Stop being lazy." Seven whined again. Of course he couldn't miss putting up his usual fight, before dragging himself out of bed finally. He didn't want to be late. I know he is as happy as I am about not having any extra chores.
Haven was up in no time. He disappeared, running down to the cafeteria to get us all breakfast while Seven and I walked to the laundry room. We only have two pairs of clothes so every morning Seven and I go to the laundry room to wash our other clothes. We walked back, a pile of clean (Well, as clean as our stained, smelly clothes can get.) clothes in our arms. We changed clothes and Haven came in a minute later with three plates of pancakes and bacon. My stomach growled, ravenously. That happens when you've had two meals in three days. Seven and I wolfed down our food while Haven changed quickly and started eating. "You guys ready to go?" Haven asked, the second he finished eating.
"Yeah, sure-" I started to say, before remembering something. "What's today?"
"The twenty-second of January. Why?" Haven asked. "I'm sixteen today," I said, surprised.
"It's your birthday?" Seven asked, surprised. "If we would have known, I'd get you a party. Will you be sad if I don't give you a party hat?"
"I think I'll manage without one," I told him, shuddering at the thought.
"If you're sure," Seven said, doubtfully.
"I heard a muffled sound, like someone coughing behind me. Haven was doubled up laughing, tears running down his face. "Great mental image," he exclaimed. "I see you both in party hats like we're at a six year olds birthday party."
I glared. "That's not funny."
Seven looked between us, confused. "I'm not trying to be funny. I'm being nice. Shouldn't we celebrate your birthday?" he asked, sweetly.
"Yeah. We can celebrate by not having extra work and getting a good night's sleep," I said.
"Sounds good to me. Happy birthday, Easter," Haven said. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yep! Let's go!" Seven chirped. He shot out the door, leaving us to chase him down the hall. Haven and I ran down the halls after him to the room we'd been to on the first day to get our chores. No one's in there today, which was a huge relief considering how much everyone seems to like us around here.
Seven picked up the three lists that had been left on the table. Seven was sent to the kitchens. He gets the easiest chores since he's under sixteen. There is still somewhat of a child labor law for slaves. He can't work for more than sixteen hours a day and they have to make allowances for the fact that Seven isn't as strong or big as Haven and I are. Plus, it really doesn't look good when a young slave passes out from exhaustion. Seven waved good-bye to us, promising to sneak us some food back.
Haven now has to take care of the animals that live in the newly built stables. He stomped off, muttering about how he was going to step in cow shit and completely flip out. I snorted at the image, but Haven luckily didn't notice. Now is not the time to be annoying him.
Lastly, was my chores. I get permanent yard work. I'm sure you know how overjoyed I was about that. I'm going to have creepy body builder muscles in no time. I sighed, going off to do my chores.
I wasn't in one of the front gardens for very long before I was a huge carriage pull up in the driveway. Judging from the twelve obviously purebred and expensive horses and from how the carriage was ten million times better than the one I'd come here in, I'm guessing that this is the royal family. I glared at the carriage. It was bigger than Seven's, Haven's, and my cabin. It was black with silver trim, intricately designed and closed off with two windows you could see out of, but no one could see in. I doubt they were tied up, starved, and beat up.
I saw a few of the other slaves running out the door to catch a glimpse of the family. There had been people like that in my school too. Mostly, they were girls and they usually obsessed over the prince and how they want to marry him. I always thought it was strange since we knew virtually nothing about them. How can you be "in love" with someone you've never met? They're idiots.
I didn't think anything else about it and went back to weeding one of the flower beds. I went from flower bed to flower bed for the next few hours. A word to all the rich people out there: You only need so many flowers!
I didn't realize I was muttering out loud until I heard a quiet voice, chuckling."You're in a pleasant mood, aren't you?" the voice asked, sarcastically. The voice belonged to a boy who looked about my age. He was maybe two inches shorter than me, about 5'8". What a nice change, since Haven and Seven are taller than me. He had a thin, wiry build like I do. His golden hair, bright blue eyes, and sun kissed tan were as far from looking like me as possible. I suddenly felt a little self conscious about how pale I was and how ugly I must look to him. Not to mention that he had normal teenage clothes, as opposed to my rags. He was almost definitely free and filthy rich. He probably even lives here. I shook that off quickly though. I've never let someone make me feel self conscious before and I'm not going to start now. "Hey? Are you going to answer me?" the other boy asked. He plopped down on the grass next to me. "Are you knew? I don't think I've seen you before," he said. "What's your name?"
"I'm Easter," I replied, while continuing to pull weeds. "This is my fifth day here, so yeah, I'm new. Who are you?"
"Um, my name's Micah and…uh, this is kind of my house. Well, it's my parents' really, but I've lived here my whole life."
I looked at him in shock to see if he was joking. "That means…you're…you're last name is Angel…and you are one," I finished lamely. I blushed bright red when I realized my words could be taken two ways. I looked back at my unattended chores. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll get back to work."
"No, don't act like that," Micah murmured. "I want to talk to you, if that's okay?"
"Sure, I'll talk to you, but I can't stop working," I told him. "Otherwise, I won't be finished in time for dinner." What I didn't tell him was that his family spends almost no money on dinner for the slaves. It's simply because almost none of us have finished working in time for it. Micah probably already knows that though. It's stupid for me to point out what should be obvious, since it's going on in his own house.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, seeming concerned. I don't know why he would be though. It's not like it matters whether I'm hungry, as long as I keep working.
"I'm fine," I lied, even though my stomach had been growling all afternoon.
"I've got chips," he coaxed, taking a bag of Doritos out of the front pocket of his sweatshirt and held it out to me.
I sheepishly took the bag of chips from him and started eating."When you finish eating, I'll help you with this so you can get done faster," he told me. "I don't talk to that many people around here, except my best friends, and they're out of town right now." It's nice to have someone to talk to. Have you made any friends since you got here?"
"My two best friends and I were forced to come here, so yes I do have friends," I said bitterly. I know I shouldn't have talk to a prince like that, but he didn't seem threatening at all and I wanted somebody with power to know how my friends and I were being treated.
Micah looked guilty. "I'm sorry you were brought here. They must have had some reason though. Were you poor? I can't see you having been a criminal."
"My friends and I were brought here because of what we are," I replied, still angry. "When they got us here they realized that I had killed my parents. I guess they had a warrant out on me. I never got the chance to explain why," I sighed, finishing up my chips quickly. I expected Micah to run away screaming, but he didn't move at all. Maybe I shocked him so much, he'll have a heart attack or pass out. I'm sure everyone will blame me for that.
"Explain what?" What reason could you possibly have for killing someone? And what do you mean by "what you are?" he demanded, not looking in the least like he was going to run away. If anything, I expected him to start yelling at me for hurting my parents. I couldn't help but feel bad. I mean, I REALLY couldn't help it. That's the way angels, like the royal family, are. You can't help wanting to please them. It's not their fault; it's just the way things are.
"They tried to kill me. They'd never help me when people at school hurt me and got angry when I protected myself. I got so scared about them getting angry, I let some people do things to me they shouldn't have. They were ashamed of me. I remember them hiding the fact that I existed from their families. My father tried to stab me--I guess it got to be too much for him--and I don't know…I just snapped." I suddenly felt like crying. Just because my parents hated me and wouldn't have cared if I died, doesn't mean that I felt the same. I loved them. They were the only people who had taken care of me for most of my life. I've always known that I'd owe them forever for saving my life when I was born. They could have let the doctor kill me. I wish I would have thought of that when I got angry, but I couldn't help it. It still hurt so much to believe that I'd murdered them, no matter what the reason.
"Hey. Hey, don't cry," Micah murmured, brushing away tears I didn't know had fallen. "I'm sorry. I believe you. It's okay."
I blushed. I pulled away and trying to stop my tears from falling, but failed miserably. This isn't something I like to think about. Seven and Haven have never pushed me for more information since the first night we met. Micah's not pushing me either, but I want to unload for once. It kind of hurts to talk about this and there could not be a worse person than the person who owns me to confide in, but I still wanted to.
"It's okay to cry. You can talk about it if you want," Micah offered. It's sweet of him to say so, but I know it's not a good idea. I shouldn't be making it my policy to burst into tears in front of near strangers.
"I'm sorry. I'm fine now," I murmured. "Let's talk about something else, okay?"
"Sure." Micah smiled at me and I saw a distinct expression of relief on his face. He wiped the sweat off his forehead onto his shirt sleeve. He got up and started trying to tug a hugely overgrown, bush-like weed out of the ground. "What." Tug. "Do." He pulled on the weed again. "You want to talk about?" he asked, finally getting the weed out of the ground and fell flat on his ass, laughing.
I snorted at his clumsiness, pulling all the smaller weeds out of the ground and shoving them into the trash bag I carried with me. "What do you do here? Do you go to school? Are your friends gone a lot? What's your family like?"
"I do a bunch of different things. I'm homeschooled whenever I'm home, otherwise I don't go to school. I read a lot, draw, write, walk around out here, talk to my friends, and play with my little sister whenever she's home. Lucy goes with our parents a lot more than I do, so I don't see her so much," Micah said with a grin.
"How old is she?" I asked. Like I said, Micah's family really doesn't share personal information. They’re really private for someone so famous.
"She just turned four. Lucy's really sweet, but she needs more friends her age. Sure she talks to a few kids from influential families, but there are only so many of us. We kind of have to settle for having friends who's ages are way different. One of my best friends before I met Jay and Indigo was five years older than me. I must have seemed like such a tagalong," he laughed. "Indigo and Jay are around almost all the time. We're hardly ever apart. It's weird when even one of us is gone, much less two of us…What was your last question again?" he asked.
"What's your family like?" I repeated, quietly.
"Well, I've already told you about my sister. I don't have any other siblings and the only other family I have is my parents. They normal parents I guess. They're not home much, but when they are they're really busy. They still yell at me if I don't do my homework, or get drunk, you know," Micah smirked. "Let's talk about you now."
"What do you want to know?" I asked. I guess I'm private, too. I don't really like talking about myself, but it's only fair.
"I want to know about the same things you asked me about. I want to know about your friends, family, life in general, and what school was like, if you ever went?" When he said "family" he looked worried that I'd freak out again.
"My friends are great. Haven's a vampire and he's a year older than me. He's a lot more mature than Seven and I are. He kind of gets annoyed with us sometimes because he has to take care of us, but I know he loves us. Seven's hugely loud and we fight a lot, but we're really close. He goes to school since he's the most normal of us. Actually, Seven's a shape-shifter, so he's not that different at all. We all met a couple of months ago when Seven and I somehow broke into the same cabin, that Haven happened to be living in. It's like fate," I said, jokingly.
"Um, next my family. I didn't have any family except my parents. They had me really young and their parents stopped talking to them for it. I think my parents could have fixed it, but they didn't really want anyone to know about me, like they didn't have any pictures or anything. My parents were the only people who knew about me until I was in kindergarten. They were okay I guess. They kept control of me…as much as they could. I'd get angry or scared a lot and when that happened I'd lose my temper and flip out. The made sure I was in the basement so I couldn't get out and hurt anyone and tried to make sure everything was padded so I couldn't hurt myself. They couldn't get me a lot of things, since I might break them," I said, knowing how insane I sounded. Micah probably wants to put me in a padded room.
"I'm sure you weren't that bad," Micah said, doubtfully. "You seem normal now…except when you mentioned that you are a demon, I already knew because of how you look. If I were just talking to you and not looking at you, you'd be perfectly normal."
"Yeah, I know I look a bit weird," I muttered self-consciously. "But it's really not just on the outside. You've known me for less than an hour. I don't freak out every day. I haven't once since I moved in with…Never mind. That's a lie. I did when the two guys who brought us here came into the caravan. I was pissed off and chained up. It's actually gotten a lot better recently though."
"Next, is school?" I asked, sighing. "I used to go until I ran away. I was too different looking to pass as a normal person. Seven looks fine, so he went to school for all of us. Haven put false teeth in and went to work. School before I ran away sucked. People beat me up every day and no one wanted to risk talking to me. Some of the guys made fun of anyone who even talked to me, so no one did. One of the guys found out I was gay and thought it would be funny to tell everyone."
"You're gay?!" Micah asked.
I wanted to kick him. Of all the things I've told him, he's going to freak out because of my sexuality. "Yeah. So?"
"I am, too," he smiled. "How did they find out though? The people at your school don't seem like someone I'd tell."
"I told my parents when I was twelve," I answered simply. "They were the people I was closest to and I wasn't used to keeping secrets from them. They sent me to talk to my school counselor about it. I don't think they minded, but they didn't know how to help me. I don't think my parents realized until then that I might want to have a life and date and all that. They just figured that because of what I am, that I wouldn't want to do any of that. The counselor, like everyone else, was afraid of me and wouldn't sit in a room alone with me with the door closed. She left the door open and he heard me say it."
"That sucks," Micah sympathized.
"Yeah," I agreed. "That's pretty much everything I said." I looked down in surprise. "We're finished with everything. Thank you for helping me…and talking to me."
"No problem," Micah said. "You'll probably want to be going inside now."
I nodded. "Bye. I'll see you around, I guess."
"Bye," Micah muttered, looking a little disappointed. "Hey, wait! Do you…Would you want to, uh, talk to me again…sometime?" Micah whispered, looking at his feet.
"Yeah!" I said. I don't think you understand how much of a party I was having in my head. "Do you want to come by when I'm working tomorrow. You don't have to help me with my work if you don't want to. I'd be happy just to talk to you." Please say yes! Please say yes!
"Great! I'll meet you here tomorrow morning," he said happily. "When do you start work?"
"I start at seven," I said, looking at him like he was insane. If I was free and didn't have anything to do, I'd sleep in all the time. He won't want to get up that early.
"I'll see you then."
We walked up the hill to Micah's palace again before separating, me to my slave quarters and Micah to his bedroom. I felt fantastic. Not only have I made a new friend, but I've also made it back in time for dinner. Maybe being here won't be as bad as I thought.
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I know I haven't updated in forever, but comment&suscribe?