Whats Under the Bed?

We trooped back upstairs through the kitchen and into the living room. It was pretty big but not too big, homey. There was a big fireplace and mantle where pictures of the family sat, and right now there was a fire going. Like my room there was a couch and a love seat, but there was also a chair that sat by the fireplace that looked nice and comfortable. In front of the couch there was a small wooden table that had different things carved into it, things like initials and ‘Lauren was here’.

Hunter sat on the couch with his feet up on the table typing on a laptop looking relaxed. While Reagan went to the stairs and yelled names at the top of her lungs I went over and punched him in the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” Hunter asked rubbing his arm as if it had actually hurt him.

“It did hurt!”

I rolled my eyes and sat down next to him. “It did not. Don’t be such a little girl.”

“Oh so now we’re verbally and physically abusive?” I ignored his question and asked one of my own.

“So how come you didn’t tell me that you were taking in a different dimension?”

at first he looked confused and then he got it. “Oh that. I forgot.”

“You forgot?” I asked at the same time I heard a British female ask, “What is that smell?” no one answered her.

Hunter closed his laptop and set it on the small in table next to him as the first of his siblings entered the room and took seats wherever they could find them. Besides Reagan and the two little girls, Katie and Lauren, who were now in jeans and t-shirts, there was a boy who looked like a younger version of Hunter and a girl who was the spitting image of Reagan. With everyone in here the room felt smaller almost claustrophobic.

Everyone had the same white blonde hair that Hunter’s only Reagan had dyed most of her hair black, which made the blonde look like streaks.

Reagan’s look alike, Ashley I’m guessing, stared at me. Of course everyone but Reagan and Hunter was staring at me, but Ashley’s stare had something behind it, something I didn’t like. I tried my best to not to show her how her stare unnerved me but I think she can tell.

As she stared at me I stared back at her determined to let her know that even if I was scared I wasn’t going to back down to easily. When she looked me up and down I did the same to her and couldn’t help but notice that even if she and Reagan shared the same face they did not however share the same body type. Where Reagan’s curves were pronounced Ashley’s were . . .not.

“Who’s she?” the boy, Alexz, asked.

“This is Bianca. She’s the one who will be staying downstairs.

Alexz looked at Hunter incredulously. “She’s human!”

Hunter just stared back at him calmly. “Yes.” He said simply.

“You never told us that the person who would be! We just assumed that it would be . . . not human!” Ashley this time

Reagan scoffed. “’Not human’, yeah that’s the technical term.” Ashley bared her teeth at her but Reagan just smiled sweetly, undisturbed.

“Do you really think that it’s safe for a human to be here right now?” Alexz asked.

“She’s safer here than in her world right now.” Hunter said

“What I don’t get is why we’re trying to protect her anyway.” Ashley said.

Hinter sighed and stood. “At the moment that doesn’t concern you.”

Ashley stood too. “The hell it isn’t! This is as much my house as it is yours!”

Hunter winced. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”

“It already is a big deal.” Ashley glanced around the room fro people to back her up but no one did. With one last parting glare at me she shrieked in frustration and tore up the stairs.

Hunter watched her go and then he turned to rest of us. “Anyone else?”

When no one said anything he nodded as if that was what he expected, which, truth be told, he probably had been, then got his laptop and opened a door that I hadn’t noticed beside the fireplace. Before he closed the door behind him I caught a glimpse of what looked like an office.

The smallest girl, Katie, called my attention to her by raising her hand and waiting patiently for me to call on her.

“Yes?” I asked after a beat of silence.

She dropped her hand into her lap. “Are you really human?”

“Yes.”

The girl beside her, Lauren, raised her hand. ”Do you do anything?”

“Like what?” I asked confused.

“Like Hunter’s mind reading, and my scream.”

I looked at her. “Your scream?”

She nodded. “I can scream at different pitches. Some only dogs can hear, but I don’t like doing it to them because it hurts them, but I can also scream really loudly so that it only hurts people, but I’m only allowed to do it to the bad guys. Like one time, this bad guy was trying to get me and I screamed and blood came out of his eyes, ears, and nose. Only I didn’t get hungry because I had already eaten, and plus we’re not supposed to eat anything other than the donated blood.” When she was through she nodded matter of factly. I just stared.

“You’ll get used to it,” Reagan said as she an Alexz passed me to get to the kitchen. “, Hopefully.” I heard her mutter.

I cleared my throat. “No I can’t do anything like that.” Thankfully.

“Oh,” she and Katie looked crestfallen and I felt bad about disappointing them, but then Lauren perked up “, Can you cook?”

I nodded relieved that we were getting off the subject of screaming and blood. “Yeah I can cook.”

Lauren and Katie looked relieved. ”Good, then can you cook something for tomorrow, because no one here can cook.” Katie said

“Hey!” everyone from all over the house except for Lauren yelled the same time.

“Well it’s true!”

I laughed but stopped in surprise. It had been a long time since I could laugh freely. It felt good.

“Do you like ‘Twilight’?” Katie asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you read it to me? I’m at the part where Bella goes to visit Edward’s family. Hunter usually reads it to me , but he sighs through the whole thing and makes unnecessary comments.” This time I wasn’t the only one who laughed and Hunter yelled, “I do not!”

“Do to!” Katie yelled back and stuck her tongue out at the door.

“Have you seen the movie?”

Katie and Lauren nodded. “It was okay but the book is better.”

I nodded. The book was better. Just then Hunter came out of the office.

“Right you two, go upstairs and get ready for bed then Bianca will come up to read to you.” At this point he sent a half apologetic half thank you glance my way. I nodded once in recognition then leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling as he herded the girls upstairs. I’ve only been here a couple of hours and already this place felt more like home than any other place had in my entire life.

I was startled when the front door opened. “Hello? Anybody home? Hunter?” called a very American voice.

I got up and looked around the corner to see a woman wearing black pants and a red turtleneck, her dark black hair was in a very neat bun. Her skin tone and her hair led me to think that she was from Italian decent.

“Hello?” she asked more than said confusion coming over her features.

“Hi.” I said shyly

At that moment Ashley came tearing down the stairs and into the arms of this stranger.

“I’m so glad to see you! You’ll never guess what he did this time!” she said.

With one last curious glance at me the woman shushed Ashley and led her past me toward the couch. I hurried to get out of their way and in doing so almost ran into Reagan.

“Uh oh.”

“What?” I asked

“Things are about to get interesting.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s Jade.”

I only got more confused. “Jade?

“Yeah.” She looked at me for a moment. “Hunter’s girlfriend? He didn’t tell you?”

I just stared as I tried to come up with something to say.

“Huh?”