Don't Go Out in the Woods Tonight...

"Kate? Are you awake?"

"No."

My eyes open a little. Troy is lying beside me, the corner of his mouth tugged into a smirk. I smile back at him. Wait a second...

I sit up and look around. I'm in Troy's room. I'm in my PJ's and nothing looks out of place in the room. I get out of bed and walk towards the curtains.

"What are you up too?" Troy asks softly, stopping me in my tracks.

"I...I think I had a weird dream." I say, My eyes glued to the closed curtains.

The curtains are closed. Not torn, but the glass... Was last night a dream? It might have been. Maybe... Maybe Troy really isn't...

My body flings itself forwards and rips away the curtain. Any hope at normality vanished as the fabric pulls back and show the cardboard. The cardboard is the patch job for the broken window that was broken when....

"Oh My..." I draw in breath and back away from the window. Then I see the other damage tot he room, the cracks in the plaster. There's clean patches on the carpet, where the blood was cleaned up. My brain fires out more signals and everything floods back.

I twist to see Troy. He is sitting on the bed, looking down at his hands, flexing the long fingers. He knows I know that it was real and he knows I now hold fear within me. He knows I'm scared...of him

That knowing crushes him. I see it burning in his eyes. His eyes will not find mine; he won't look at me. Then I see why. His eyes are clouded gray. They look dead.

As my eyes draw him in, I instantly lose my fear. I am filled with shame. Then I am filled with purpose. All of me, every fiber tugs and tenses. I go to him, crawling over the covers and sitting close to him.

Slowly I reach out and touch the tips of his fingers. They shrink away, and in turn, my own fingers leap back. Then, without any regard to time or earth or anything, my fingers reach out again.

This time he holds still.

I say without regard to time and earth and anything because no matter what is takes or how long it took I was going to mend the trust I had broken.

Because I have spent all this time with him, building a friendship, a relationship, trusting him and him trusting me. Now i'm the holder of a deep secret and it had frightened me. How could i throw all of that away so simply?

After our fingers had intertwined, my eyes lift to Troy's face. He is staring at our hands, my fingers. Then his eyes find mine.

They are alive.

His free hand reaches out to me slowly. Troy lets his fingers glide along the planes of my cheek and jaw before pulling me close to him.

He stops, and rests his forehead against mine with his eyes. His breath is heavy and rushes past me, running along the curves of my lips and neck. My eyes close as well.

"Thank you." Troy says, in the low rumble of thunder that is his voice.

I smile, although I know he can not see. Instead of talking, I lean forward over the last centimeters that separate us.

Troy welcomes me, pulling me in deeper to the kiss. He is gentle, moving his lips with mine.

We part and I look at him. His eye smile, dancing with silver and specks of gold. A warm silence covers the room. It is broken by my stomach growling to be fed.

Troy laughs so hard he rolls off the bed. I grab a pillow and launch it at his head. I miss completely and he picks it up off the ground. His back is to me and his body still shakes with laughter.

"What did I say about throwing pillows?" He asks, twisting his head around to look at me, a smug little smirk on his face.

"They don't like it. . . “I answer, getting up out of bed. Suddenly, some sort of understanding washes over me as Troy turns to me, “Shoot."

And just like that we're back to a fighting couple.

He launches the pillow at me, smacking me in the torso. Then he leans over and ruffles my hair. I sequel like a little girl and try to run off, but his arm wraps around my waist like a vise grip. I give up on getting away so I try to use my arms to cover my hair.

"Okay! OKAY! I give. You win." I yelp.

He steps back and I instantly run my fingers through my hair.

"What? You surrender already?" Troy looks down at me, his smirk almost becoming a smile.

"Yeah... But only if I get some food." I look up at him, failing to keep a straight face, "I'm starving."

"Well, if it's food you want, I think we can get that for you." He says, taking my hand and leading me from the room, "You seem like a good surnender-er."

I smile, and follow. Then a thought crosses my mind as my bare feet pad over the carpet.

"Troy... Why am I in my pajamas?" I ask.

Troy stops dead, pausing for a moment, then continues. I look at him and his face is red, but his eye dance. I don't get an answer but instead I'm lead in silence to the kitchen. Where I get a very good breakfast.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mom." I say into the phone, I thought I would call me parents. I want to know if they are alright. "How's it going?"

To this could be only be answered two ways. And it was this: "All's well." or "Things are going, Hon."

My mom and I came up with a code. If there was reason to worry, I would ask her 'How's it going.'

If Lyris was ever in the house, if she was ever in trouble and he was the cause, she would tell me that things were 'going' and the end of the code would be 'Hon.'

I breathed out my end of the code. In lingered in the phone and hung heavy in the air. There is reason to worry. Lyris found me. I wait for the words that my mother is forming into the silence over the phone

"All's well."

The world starts to turn again. I let out a breath of air and look at Troy, who is standing next to me and has his armed wrapping around my waist. He probably knows what's going on. turn my attention back to the phone.

"Good. So, Mom," I say, my voice breathy, "Be careful, please."
"Okay. Kate. You should be more careful. Are you sure that Troy can handle-"

Troy plucks the phone from me.

"Hello? Mrs. Barlow, this is Troy. No worries, Kate is safe. I can handle anything heaven or earth can dish out." --- "Okay. I'll tell her. Good-bye, Mrs. Barlow"

He puts the phone down and holds me tightly. Somehow, I sense that he is holding me against him to protect me from some danger. I turn to face him.

Troy looks up at me. His eyes are a stormy gold, fire and rage twisting in the depths of them. I sometimes wonder if my own eyes portray as much emotion.

I hold still in his arms, letting him breath. After a while, Ghost, who no more badly for ware than before, walks into the kitchen and stares at us.

Troy looks down at him and releases me. He takes my hand and leads me into the living room. We sit on the couch and Troy turns on the T.V.

"Troy?" I ask after a while.
"Hm?"
"What... what are you going to do?" I whisper the next bit, "About... him?"
"If you aren't there, I'll-"

He pauses and sifts me around in his arms, to face him. His eyes blaze gold, with only a little silver in them, so very little silver that I almost forgot that they were ever silver.

"Kate. I'll kill him." His voice held back venom, "If that would disturb you, then I won't. But if I don't, he will come after you. I will not always be here beside you. I will not have you in danger. By him, and differently not from me. Do you understand?"

I nod, and then choke out a 'yes' from behind the lump in my throat. I knew what he was saying was true. Each bit was valid.

Lyris would come after, and he would keep coming after me.
Troy really couldn't be with me all the time. He wanted to, but what he was would hurt me if he was close to me all time. At least I understood that.
Troy didn't want me hurt.

It all hit me gently at first and then the realization hit me like a crashing wave. Troy could kill Lyris. For the first time, feel like I didn't have to worry about him coming after me. I'm going to be okay.

But wait...

Another wave, one of humanity washes over me. how could I so openly accept the death of another being? Even one like this, one that isn't human. One that is out to get me.

My brain started to over think, and when thought started to pound for attention I became silent and still, a somber statue with breath. my eyes drift away from Troy's and out a window.

I settle back in to Troy's arms, each of us deep in thought.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~

That evening, after things had calmed down a lot, Troy and I are in the kitchen, washing the dishes after diner.

Knock Knock KNOCK

Before the second knock, Troy had me in his arms. Ghost, silent as ever, left the kitchen and went to the living room. After a moment and little bark come from him.

I look up at Troy and he smiles down at me. He let's go of me and takes one of my hands gently. We walk into the living room and he opens the door.

"KATE!!"
"Mom? DAD?!?" I say as my mother wraps her arms around me. "Ow..."
"Oh sorry, Kate." Mom releases her death grip and Dad simply stands behind her.

Dad's expression frightens me. His gaze shifts over the house, seemingly looking for any crime of ... the unthinkable. This of course, was all my father could think of with his little girl staying with a boy.

I watched as he looks at Troy up and down. It freaks me out a little. I don't need to worry; Troy barely notices.

Troy steps forward to shakes Dad's hand. He lets it hang there for a moment before taking it out of respect for manners.

I gently untangle myself from my mother, and move to Dad. I wrap him in a secure hug, reassuring him that I'm okay. He looks down at me and smiles, patting my head lightly.

"So..." I look at Mom, "Why are y'all here?"

"Well, ..." Mom looks down at the ground embarrassed.

"Your mother missed you." Dad finishes with a smirk.

"Ahhh... It all makes sense now." Troy whispers from where he's standing.

"I hope we are not... intruding?" The way my father says it means that intrusion was the only reason he had agreed to this.

Troy knows it too, and replies with the most buttery soft voice, inviting them in to the house, and even excusing a nonresident mess.

Dad lets go of me and Troy comes behind me to close the front door. As he turns back to the living room, he snakes an arm around me.

Oh... Dad is gonna see! and he ain't gonna be haaapppyyy! Sure enough, as we all move to sit down, Troy tugs me down and I land almost on top of his lap. I feel my eyes dart to see Dad's reaction.

He pretends to ignore it, but I see his jaw become tense.

"Oh my, Troy... What loving photographs!" Mom gushes over them, much like I had. Dad just seems to stare with a fixation at the points of contact between Troy and I.

All in all the evening goes well. Light talk, no creepy notices from outside.... No non-human begins crashing through window. And no boyfriends sifting into large furry werewolves. That isn't such a great thing.

It would have been better if Dad hadn’t gotten me alone on the porch. As my parents were leaving, Mom spoke with Troy, and Dad cornered me.

"Katherine... You had better be careful. There are things you don't know about the world and things that you need to not get tangled in. Do you understand?"

"Yes Dad."

As he turns to get in the car, he stops and hands me something that makes me start questioning every memory of my father.

The cool metal of a necklace... The pendent is a silver bullet.