Paranormal Twins: The New Beginning
Chapter 9: Jay

I put my head in my hands and sighed. Sage ignored it and kept trying to explain, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I put my hand up and covered her mouth, stopping her rambling. “Okay, stop talking. I’m lost.”

Sage took my hand off her mouth. “Where did you get lost?” She asked. We were leaning against her car after school. Sage was trying to explain why she now had ears and a tail that, no matter how many times I shook my head and blinked, wouldn’t go away.

“I got lost from pretty much when you first started talking. Start from the beginning, slower. What’s a Lycan?”

Sage sighed, her tail flicking around. “A Lycan is a type of Supernatural. They are… Kind of like the cousins of Werewolves. Werewolves are canines, while Lycans are felines. We have ears and a tail corresponding to the type of animal we are, and we have claws that come out when we’re angry, as well as sharp teeth. We can grow our ears and tail out at will, but I usually keep them in since I’m in the human world most of the time. There are three different animal types- tiger, lion, and cheetah. I’m a tiger. Or tigress, if you’d like.” She smiled at me.

“How are you cousins of Werewolves? And aren’t Werewolves humans that change into a wolf?” I asked.

“Werewolves don’t actually change completely. That was a long time ago. They eventually evolved, so now they only have strange colored eyes, claws, and sharp teeth when angered. They have terrible anger issues; you don’t want to get on their bad side. You do need to keep them away from full moonlight, though, or they will change shape partially, kind of like Wolfman, and their animal instincts turn on. They have no memory of what they did the next day.”

I leaned my head back against her car and closed my eyes, trying to wrap my head around all this. I opened my eyes and sighed. Make Sage happy, I told myself. “I’m not going to understand everything you tell me, but… I’ll try.” I really didn’t want to try. I didn’t want any part of this. But this is Sage telling me this. I’ve known her for years. She was like my sister. I’d do anything for her.

Sage smiled and hugged me. “That’s all I ask.” I hugged her back and smiled slightly at her. She pulled away and unlocked her car. I put my stuff in the back before getting in next to her. “We need to get going. We have an algebra test to study for.”

I nodded and she drove off. As she drove I watched her tail resting beside her. “Sage… I have another question.” She glanced at me for a few seconds before she looked back out at the rode.

“What is it?” She asked.

I sighed. “How come Kora, Jessica, the other girl, and I could see your tail and claws and whatever, but nobody else in the hallway took a second glance?”

Sage smiled. “There’s this thing called the Haze. It hides the Supernatural from humans and non-believers. The reason you were able to see it was because you started believing in the Supernatural. My ears, tail, and claws came out at that specific moment because I was angry. It’s harder for the Haze to cover the Supernatural when it doesn’t want to be covered.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean to scare you, though. That was only meant for them. I didn’t really think about how you would react.”

I shook my head and smiled slightly. “Don’t worry about it. I was barely scared.” That was a complete lie, and she knew it, but she didn’t point it out. I was grateful- I wanted to keep some of my disappearing dignity.

We drove into my driveway and she stopped the car. Sage started to unbuckle her belt and get out, but I gripped onto her arm and stared at the front door. Sage looked at me, confused. “Jay, come on. We need to study, remember?”

I shook my head. Flashes of images flew through my mind. Sounds. Fighting. Yelling. “I have a bad feeling…” I muttered. Sage glanced at my house and she pulled out of my grip. She climbed out of the car and I followed, slowly, like the house would come alive if we moved too fast. Without grabbing our bags from the car, we slowly made it through the front door. I went to grab my key ring off my belt loop, but Sage opened the door with ease. She glanced at me and I looked back at her, worry etched on our faces. My mother never left the door unlocked, whether she was home or not.

We slowly walked into the house. Framed pictures and broken glass littered the floor. Splintered wood and torn up paper. I held my left wrist to my chest with my right hand, taking comfort in knowing that my bracelet was still there. The farther into the house we went the more trashed it was. Before we made it to the kitchen I put my arm out and stopped Sage. I recognized that smell. It was usually tangy. Delicious. I was usually craving it, though I only learned that recently. But right now… Right now it smelled sickening. Disgusting. Deadly.

“Blood.” I managed to choke out. The sickening smell. It overpowered everything else. I hesitantly glanced over the edge of the door. I quickly turned back around and hugged Sage. I couldn’t go in there. I couldn’t stand to see it. I cried into her shoulder, wanting the image to go away. Images flashed through my mind. Sickening, gross images.

Sage glanced into the kitchen and gasped. I knew exactly what she saw. That two-second image will forever be seared into my brain. My mother, lying broken on the kitchen counter. My mother, dead. Blood dripping down to the floor, a huge gash in her stomach. It was like a horror movie. But it was real.

Sage quickly pulled me away and we made our way through what used to be my house, taking me back to her car. Image after image of my mother kept running through my head. Sage opened my door and helped me inside before getting in her side and driving off.

She drove for a while. I stared out of the window, playing with the bracelet, but I wasn’t seeing what we were passing, just image after image after image of my mother. Lifeless. Sage pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot and I could see her hands shaking out of the corner of my eye. She took my hands in hers and they felt like fire. I looked at our intertwined hands and I saw solid ice covering the seat and frost covering my hands, growing up my arms. But I felt nothing. I wasn’t cold. I wasn’t anything.

“I didn’t expect this.” Sage mumbled. “I knew you were a Vampire, but I really didn’t expect… This. You aren’t supposed to...” She trailed off and turned on the heat to full blast. Only then did I realize the difference in temperature inside the car. “You’re an Ice Elemental.”

“Elemental?” I asked. I was not ready for another new thing to learn about.

Sage shook her head. “Forget about it. I can explain later.” Sage put her car back in drive and we went back out onto the road.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“My house.” She replied quickly. “Someone needs to know what happened. My mom will know how to handle this.” She started to turn into our neighborhood, but I grabbed the wheel. She stepped on the breaks so we wouldn’t run into the grass. “What are you doing?” She exclaimed.

“Stop. Let’s go to my dad’s work. He needs to know what happened. And he’d be able to help. He’d help just as much as your parent would.”

Sage glared at me, wanting to argue with me, but her face softened and she sighed. She nodded reluctantly and changed her turn signal. She did a U-turn and we started off to my dad’s work.

We managed to replace my dad before he left work. We told him everything; from me replaceing out I was a Vampire, to mom being killed, to my apparent ice powers. He stayed silent for a few minutes, his head in his hands, before turning to Sage.

“Call your host mother. Tell her something urgent came up and you need to leave early this year. Tell her you’re safe and you’ll explain later.” Sage nodded and took her phone out of her pocket before walking to a quiet place in the room. Dad turned to me next. “So. You know you’re a Vampire.” I nodded silently. “And you figured out you’re an Ice Elemental.” Again, I nodded. I told him about the flashes of images I was having, but he told me not to worry. He said we’d talk about it when we had more time.

Sage came back and he quickly rushed us to his car. We got in and he started driving away, the opposite direction of our house. It was almost 45 minutes later before I finally decided to ask him questions.

“Dad… Do you know what happened to mom? Where are we going?”

He didn’t answer for a few minutes, and I thought he wasn’t going to answer at all. But finally he sighed.

“If everything is going to come out now, I guess I should start with this. First, I’m not your real father. She wasn’t your real mother. We were chosen to take care of you when you were very young. Second, the people that attacked were Rogues looking for you. They think you are important. Third, we’re taking you to the facility in Washington. You’ll be safe there.” He decided to stop there, not explaining any further. I bit my lip and chanced a glance at him. He stared at the road, his grip on the wheel tight, turning his knuckles white. I looked back at the road and wrapped my arms around myself. I closed my eyes tight, not wanting to think about what happened in the last two hours.