4 Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ash

Los Angeles, California

The next morning, sunlight glared into my face, the alarm on my dresser blaring. I groaned, why did school start so early. I was not a morning person, not in the slightest. I shoved the covers off and leaped out of bed slamming the alarm off. It was six forty so I had about twenty minutes to get out the door. The school wasn't that far but I didn't want to be late on the first day.

I quickly showered and got dressed in beige khakis, sneakers, and a t-shirt. I glimpsed the silver bracelet on my wrist, the single blood-red gem reflecting the light. Memories surfaced and I shuddered, pushing them back down.

Once I was done I rushed downstairs and into the kitchen. Sam was eating eggs on one of the barstools, he glared at me as I entered. I scowled back, even though I shouldn't have. I grabbed a set of car keys, not caring about which car it belonged to, and dashed out the front door. I pressed the unlock button and it unlocked the black Lamborghini Aventador. I smiled, now that was a nice ride. I hopped in and sped out of the driveway and out the gates. I rolled the windows down, enjoying the scenery of the woods and the ocean.

A few minutes later I got to school, parked down, and rushed to the main office. Before we arrived here, Sam had explained how things went at the school and what I needed to do. The old lady smiled at me as I approached the desk.

"Hello there young man, how may I help you?" She asked kindly.

"Um, I'm Ash Echevarria. I'm new." I said, using Sam's last name since he had insisted. I was not thrilled about that. Alek was taking everything that made me who I was, one thing after another. Soon, there would be nothing left.

The lady handed me a pink slip that she explained was my schedule for the year. I thanked her and looked at where I was to go first. Which was AP Lit in room 234. As the last of the students went inside I rushed in as well. I looked around for an empty seat and my eyes landed on a pair of beautiful lavender ones. She had wavy light brown hair down to her waist and golden brown skin, her mouth was slightly ajar. I held back a laugh at her silly expression and went and sat in the empty seat behind her. Sorrow pinged in my heart. I never thought I'd see her again, she just happened to go to the same school. But I was surprised to see, she had kept the necklace. The blood-red stone hanging around her neck, the same one I had given her all those years ago. I looked at the matching stone on my wrist.

Sofyalisia whispered to the girl beside her about something I couldn't make out. I wanted to talk to her, but now I was just some stranger. She didn't know me, but I didn't even know if I knew who I was anymore.

Soon the teacher, Mrs. Gretchen, started to go over what the class was about. Once she was done she gave us the rest of the class to do whatever we wanted. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my text messages. There were ten from Sam. I rolled my eyes, he wanted to know if I had found the girl yet. It hadn't even been an hour. I texted back a simple no.

"Hey, new kid what's your name? You should come to my party too. Don't you think so too Sofya?" Sofyalisia's friend asked me. I looked up to see Sofya glare at her friend, who I learned was named Sorina.

"Sure." She said, leaning back in her chair.

"I'm Ash," I said, introducing myself.

"So, are you coming to my party?" Sorina pestered. I merely shrugged, before going back on my phone. I wasn't in the mood for parties, but Sam might make me go to see if the girl was there. I did my best to ignore Sofya. I couldn't become her friend again not even if she confronted me because inevitably when I left it would hurt too much. I had barely managed the last time. It was better for everyone if I just stayed away, and not only her, everybody. No attachments, no weakness. No love, no loss.

Once class was over Sofya and Sorina rushed out of the classroom. I waited a moment so I wouldn't run into them again. Then I got my backpack I had almost forgotten this morning and headed to my next class. It was as boring as the first and there was still no sign of the girl. After the next class, it was lunch. I had talked with a few guys in the class, Kyle and Adrien, and they invited me to their table. I figured it was okay to make a few acquaintances, to not be a total loner. To "blend in" as Sam said.

A few minutes later I spotted Sofya and a girl with vibrant red hair come into the room. They sat at the same table on the opposite end from me. I noticed Sofya purposely avoiding eye contact with me. What was that about?

"Hey, Sofya," Sorina said, a wide smile plastered on her face

"Hey." She said back. Adrien shot a brilliant smile at her, and Sofya smiled back. I frowned, my fingers digging into my palms. Jealousy flaring through my mind. I shouldn't be though, jealous that is, but part of me wished that I was a normal human living a normal life. Adrien didn't realize how lucky he was.

"So you have practice after school, right Sofya?" Adrian asked.

"Yes." She replied, a glum look on her face. I didn't suppose she enjoyed this practice very much.

"You seem thrilled. I'm sure Sean will go easy on you girls." She rolled her eyes.

"That's hilarious, I bet he'll make us go running in the 97-degree weather again." She said groaning. Sara unexpectedly yelled across the table at me.

"Ash!" I looked over, my eyebrows raised. I saw Sofya grimace. My eyes narrowed in confusion. Why did she keep doing that? Making strange expressions whenever one of her friends asked me things. "Are you going to try out for any sports?" She asked.

"I don't know," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. I probably wasn't, but who knows with Sam, he might make me. Adrien turned towards me.

"Well, you should join the swim team, we're always looking for more people." He said.

"Maybe," I said nonchalantly, but I would never do that. Not because I didn't want to, because I loved to swim, but because of the scars. I couldn't let anyone see them. Someone might call protective services and that would not be good for me. I'd probably earn a few more scars but other than that I was embarrassed. They were quite disgusting, I wouldn't want anyone to see the gruesome sight.

Once lunch was over the day went by pretty quickly. Sofya was in my last class but she didn't say a word to me, she mostly just spoke to her red-haired friend Sara. A few times I caught her glancing back at me and I wondered if she remembered. But who was I kidding, she couldn't. I was the one who took the memories away. I wished I hadn't but it wasn't as if I had a choice in the matter and she deserved to live a normal life. Something was off about her though, it was strange. I couldn't see her aura and I could see everyone's auras. I wasn't sure why I couldn't see it but I would figure it out. To add to the other unusual things I noticed, she had a slight magic signature coming off of her. I needed to do some digging before anyone found out. That anyone, being more specifically Sam.

Sam was out when I got home, so I went up to his office to do some snooping. I found papers spread out all over the desk. My brow furrowed, as I picked one of them up. They were profiles and they were all teens of the age of seventeen. They were also all aemons. Fear sparked in my veins, they were hunting down aemons. We were rare because angels and demons didn't usually get along. We were also extremely powerful because we were a mix of the two most powerful species in the universe, and Alek wanted us. Wanted to use us more specifically.

They were probably searching for the girl, narrowing it down. I dug through the papers and found my profile. The picture was taken from afar and listed all who I had killed and my abilities. Lovely, just like I needed a reminder that I was a killer. Though there was something not even Alek knew about me though, a thing no one knew, well no one alive. Alek didn't know I could read people's thoughts when touching them or that I could take away memories. If he found out he'd kill me and believe me I tried to use it on him but for some unlucky reason, he was resistant to it. Otherwise, I would have been out of this mess already.

I sighed and put the papers down and went to my room. Everything was a mess. I needed a plan. How was I going to get my brother and me away from this life? I couldn't spend the rest of my life this way, I just couldn't. I refused to let myself become a mindless, heartless murderer. But if I didn't figure out something fast it might be too late. The last time I had seen my brother it wasn't looking so swell. It wouldn't be long before he was gone.