Fledgling Page 5

  Chapter Five

  She sat on one of the boxes in the storage room and poked at the food Aiden had given her. It wasn’t that it was bad, but she wasn’t hungry, “Why did Dustin know me?”

  Aiden froze from where he was eating and stared at her, his emerald eyes conflicted, “Do you really want to know?”

  She nodded.

  “Or do you want to remember? Because I can make you remember,” he bit into his sandwich, as if it was no huge concern. She blinked rapidly, deciding rather quickly. She wanted to know everything, but did she have the guts for that?

  “Sure,” her heart pounded in her chest. She was irrationally afraid of what she couldn’t remember, and she chastised herself for that.

  Aiden stood up and put his hands around Austin’s head, resting at her temples. His touch was hot. Too hot. She tried to jerk away, but his grip was too strong, and his eyes too mesmerizing. The heat seared into his mind and then-

  “Aussy,” Dustin called from the kitchen. She could hear oil sizzling in the stove, but the sound didn’t register as anything in her mind, “Where’s my favorite sister?”

  “I’m your only sister,” she giggled, her short legs stomping towards him. Her lisp only slightly marred her speech, but he had promised that when she was a big kid, that problem would go away. She glanced at the windows, which were cracked in some places and in others, soaked in something red.

  The heat burned her again, and a new image filled her mind.

  “Get to the house,” Dustin ordered, taking out his knife. He slashed at the girl who had gotten too close, and she hissed. Austin took off at a sprint towards their little cottage while he kept them back. She hid herself in his closet, waiting for her brother to come home.

  She resurfaced, only for Aiden to force her back down again. While she was in these memories, she didn’t have the option to watch from a distance. She was in her five year old body, watching and experiencing everything all over again. The next memory was longer, much longer, and she couldn’t separate her old panic from her rational thoughts.

  Sand clung to her legs, which were still chubby with baby fat. She was busy building a sand castle. The water, green with the reflections of the surrounding trees, lapped at her feet, but she didn’t notice. The lake was normal in every way (except that it wouldn’t be found on any map that a human would own), and it was her favorite place in the entire world.

  "Austin?" her big brother called, and she looked up. His dark brown hair was plastered to the sides of his face, obvious evidence that he had just gotten out of the lake, "Aren’t you hot?”

  "Yes," she answered, not really paying attention. She was giving her sand castle all the attention that the seven year old could muster, and stuck a stick at the top to act as a flag. Tiny fissures ran through the wet sand as it expanded to make room for the piece of wood, but the structure held.

  She smiled, satisfied, and leaned back just in time to watch her brother dive back under the surface of the lake. He didn’t come back up for hair, but Austin wasn’t worried. He could hold his breath for a really long time, and he liked it down there in the water.

  "Oh," someone said from behind her, and Austin turned around, her eyes wide. A stranger was standing right behind her, a stranger with fiery hair that matched her own, "Little girl, are you alright?”

  The man took a step towards her and Austin leaned back, accidentally knocking over her sand castle. When he reached a hand towards her -a big, unfamiliar hand- she screamed, "Br-"

  "Brother!" she cried out, backing away from the red haired man. Before she could even finish her shout, she heard him burst out of the water.

  "Really, Aiden?" he sighed in irritation, and Austin heard him wade to the shore.  She scrambled back until she hit his legs, and hid behind them, gripping his right leg tightly, "Can you at least wait for me to put my clothes on before you go attacking my sister?"

  "She's not your family," Aiden's eyes were wide, but not with fear. Even Austin, as sheltered as she was, could tell that the man was a crazy kind of happy.

  "Yeah, well, try telling her that," big brother picked up his gray shirt and shook the sand off of it, quickly putting it on. He hopped into his jeans and slid on his black sneakers.

  "Your pants will get wet," Austin pointed out, already calming down now that he was beside her. He didn't seem worried, so why should she be?

  "That's not a problem right now," he assured her, and gave her hand a tight squeeze, "Why don't you go back to the house?"

  "But..." Austin's gaze dragged to the scary man, who was slowly reaching into his back pocket, "What about him?"

  "It'll all be taken care of," Big brother smiled at her, and gave her a gentle nudge in the direction of the cabin. She started walking, but looked back towards the two men every couple seconds.

  She took the trail back to the wooden house, but when she reached the door, she decided to turn back. She didn't want to be alone. Austin hid behind a thick tree a few yards away from the lake, hoping that big brother wouldn't notice her.

  "...she's too young to have been brought into this dimension," the scary man -big brother had called him Aiden- was saying, "You were careless this time."

  "Maybe, but I'd like to think that I saved her," big brother shrugged, and Austin furrowed her eyebrows. What was he talking about?

  Before big brother could even finish his sentence, a gun was being pointed in his face, "Don't you dare ever think that you've saved anyone. Your kind brings nothing good into this world."

  Austin started to hyperventilate. She was scared. Was the man going to hurt her big brother?

  Big brother tilted the gun away from him, "Really, now? Guns? I thought we were classier than this."

  "You're right," Aiden shrugged, tossing the gun to the ground. He smiled a tight smile, just as big brother fell. He hadn't been touched, but big brother didn't move at all...not even to breathe.  Something the color of red trickled out of his mouth, glinting in the sunlight.

  "No," Austin whimpered, staggering out from behind her hiding place, "No, no, no."

  "Unfortunate," Aiden said disdainfully, watching her stumble towards the fallen body, "You. Sleep now."

  Austin's vision went black, and she tripped, falling just short of her big brother's outstretched hand.

  The next time she rose to the surface, she could feel tears running down her face. Her voice cracked when she pleaded, “Please. I’ve seen enough.”

  She had seen a different Aiden, one who could hold and point a gun without hesitation. Dragons didn’t even use guns, so she didn’t understand. It was against their moral code. She didn’t want to see that version of her best friend.