1 Chapter 1

It's 7pm in the evening, when I find myself coming out of a store onto a seemingly empty road. The rain starts to fall, ice cold droplets fall from the sky and a slight breeze makes me shiver but luckily I walked with a umbrella, so neither me nor my groceries are getting wet tonight. With a bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other, I hurry to get home out of the rain. I didn't buy much, just enough for tomorrow, so the bag isn't heavy. I see a stranger coming towards me, I pull down the umbrella just enough that they can't see my face. The person passes without even noticing me and I give out a slight sigh of relief.

The wind howls ever so slightly, freezing cold, making me pick up my pace in effort to get out this rain. It's September, so this weather is common, constant rain, freezing temperatures and even snow, if we're lucky. I didn't dress warm enough knowing this before leaving home.

My breath fogs up my glasses through my mask, blocking my vision. Knowing my eyesight is already terrible, I stop behind a light poll in efforts to clean them.

Placing the bag on the wet ground, I pull my scarf out of the tight back pocket of skinny denim jeans. Using the hand holding the umbrella, I hold the frame with two fingers and clean the lens with the other hand. Putting back on the glasses, I adjust the mask so that my breath goes down and not up. I look around to make sure that no one has seen my face, taking back up the now soaked bag and continue my way home.

"What, are you afraid they'll see who, are better yet 'what' you are?"

"Go away."

"They'll never accept you, you're not one of them."

"Shut up."

"They're only sheep to a shepherd, waiting to be slaughtered and eaten."

"I said, shut up!"

"They're all die tonight...."

I drop to my knees, limp, the umbrella blows away in the wind and the groceries fall, scattered on the ground.

"Just go away." I say, tears forming at the corners of my eyes.

"Excuse me, miss? Are you alright?"

I look to my left, I see a older woman, stooping down with one hand holding her umbrella over both of us and the other outreach waiting for me to take it. Her grey hair was wrapped in a floral scarf, her blue eyes were dull with age as well as her wrinkly pale skin.

Realizing where I am, I wipe my eyes with the sleeves of my jacket and nod, picking up the groceries and ran away. I don't look back but I can feel her eyes on my back as I speedily make my way down the wet street.

Turning right onto my street, home looks like an empty house no one has lived in for years, no lights, all windows closed and an unkempt lawn, weeds overgrown and vines crawl they way up the sides of the house.

After the tragic death of my parents, grandfather took me in. No one wanted me, I'm the 'demon' that killed her parents. The 'monster' that no one wants or loves. Evil goes where ever I go. My relatives said those things. And now she says them.

Grandfather died, leaving this six room, double story house to a ten year old with enough money to last ten even fifteen years. Now I'm 16, money isn't a necessity but something I only use when I need it.

Lightning flashes and thunder rolls as I walk down the roughly tiled path to my front door. There's no need to knock, no need to wait on anyone to open the door, no need to say anything as I make my way inside. I just turn the key and walk in, shutting the door behind me locking it. I flip the switch, illuminating the whole down stairs of the house.

"Welcome home." She says sarcastically.

I take off my soaked socks and sneakers at the door, ignoring her and pushing her voice to the back of my head.

"You can't ignore me." Stating the obvious.

I'm soaked, with beads of rain attached to my clothing causing them to cling to my body even more, making me even more uncomfortable.

Making my way to the kitchen, I place the groceries on the counter and head to the bathroom. Turning the corner she's standing there, arms folded, leaning on the wall with a broad smile on her face.

"Get out my way, I don't have time for this." Standing in front of her, dripping water on the floor.

She laughs. "As if I was really here."

I shake my head and walk through her causing her to disappear. I make my way into the bathroom meeting her in the mirror just over the sink.

"Are you ashamed of me?" She asks sarcastically.

"Why won't you go away?" Looking her dead in the eyes.

"Because. I'm you, you are me. I'm apart of you, you're apart of me. We are one."

"I'm nothing like you, you're a monster."

"So what are you, a saint? Ha ha ha ha ha ha." She breaks out laughing.

I take off the mask, revealing our identical features. Our short, wet, curly, purple hair just to our pointed ears, emerald, diamond shaped eyes behind broad framed glasses and dark, tan like skin stopping just below my nose. A permanent smile forms from ear to ear exposing 32 canines from the lack of skin that is supposed to be there.

Tears run down my cheeks onto my teeth. I hold down my head into my hands.

She reaches out the mirror and holds my face, looking me directly in the eyes.

"We may be monsters but we have each other."

I slap her hands away and scream out. "SHUT UP!!"

She frowns between her brows and disappears once again.

"I don't need this from you, I know what I am and nothing's going to change that, I don't need you repeating it every chance you get."

Silence fills the room.

"So you're not going to say anything?" I shout into the mirror at my own reflection.

"What even is your purpose?" Whispering unto deaf ears.

Rearranging my focus from the mirror, I peel off the wet clothes clinging to my body and turn on the shower.

Getting in the shower and adjusting the temperature from lukewarm too hot, I let the water rain on me, I will the water to wash away my hatred for myself, my sins of the past and the evil that follows where ever I go, but all in vain. These things are apart of me and I cannot run from them.

After a few moments, I turn off the water and step out the bath with streams running down my petite, feminine, slender body. The room is steamy and it's hard to see. Taking my glasses from the pile of clothes on the floor, I head to the bedroom just adjacent to the bathroom. Drying my skin and putting on pajamas.

Heading back to the kitchen, the groceries are already put up and she's just there sitting in the living room in silence.

"I'm going to bed, are you coming?" I ask quietly.

Her head turns and our eyes meet, she disappears.

I head back to the room.

"This isn't going to work out, you know that right?" She asks, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I have a plan." Crawling in the bed through her.

"A plan, huh." Looking back at me.

"Trust me." I say, getting into the fetal position, facing the wall with a blanket over my head.

"I do." She says gently after merging with me.