Awakening The Storm

KASSIDY

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"What the hell happened to you?” Dad asked with grimace as he took in our appearances with.

“Haha, that’s a funny story, Dad,” Kash began scratching his neck bashfully. “We may, or may not have been horsin’ around.” He bashfully explains.

“Yeah right.” Ben says rolling his eyes. “We kicked your asses, just admit it already.” He argued. Kash glared back at the bigger boy before returning his gaze back to our father.

“Okay, I know this looks bad, but it could be a whole lot worse.” Kash tried to reason.

We were all covered in mud, scapes, and grime. The yard was covered in ice, fire, overgrown plants, and patches of lightning from our playing.

"Whoo, that was fun. You should do it again.” Anais egged on with popcorn in her cheeks, and Stylo gave a nod of approval along with her.

“’Twas a jolly good show.” He chuckled. Noah gave him and Anais looks of disgust before turning his attention to us.

“You three trashed the place and yourselves.” Noah stared with a shake of his head.

“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t enjoy yourself. You were the one who kept yelling at us the entire time,” Kash rebutted. Noah rolled his eyes and jutted his tongue into his cheek.

“I’m over this,” he sighs and walks back out to the front porch. Stylo chuckles to himself and follows the vampire out of the door.

“How about you kids get cleaned up. You’re all sweaty and muddy, and you should know how your mother feels about dirt on her carpets,” Dad reminds us with a smile.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kash waves him off before disappearing down the hallway to the bathroom. I laughed and walked upstairs to use the bathroom up there with Wren following behind me.

“Darlin’?” He called out. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him.

“Hm?” I responded curiously. He silently opened my room door and walked in, stripping his clothes off and tossing them into my dirty laundry hamper. I followed suit and peeled my muddy clothes from my body. Except for the underwear.

“Can you feel it?” He asked from his seat at the edge of my bed. I took the silence as an opportunity to ‘feel’ what he was talking about.

The air shifted around us. Feeling heavier and darker than the light and fun air we were just immersed in.

“Yeah, now that you mention it.” I agreed. He sighed heavily and tried to run his hand through his tangled muddy locks. “Come on,” I gestured him to follow me. His feet stepped heavily behind me as we made it into the bathroom.

I turned the knob to the water and adjusted the temperature. Wren huffed angrily at the stubborn knots in his hair as he tugged on them with a comb.

“Damnit.” He growled. I giggled at his attempts and grabbed the comb from his hands.

“Let’s wash it before tearing into it, okay?” I suggested. He sighed again with s roll of his eyes.

“Fine.” He grumbled tugging his boxers off and stepping into the shower’s warmed stream. I shook my head chuckling and followed after him.

“Why are you being so grumpy?” I teased. He growled lowly and let his head be drench in the stream. The caked mud loosened and slid from his body.

“I just know something crazy is about to happen. And I can’t understand why you’re so happy,” he grumbled.

“I thought you had fun today?” I worried. My hands placed themselves into the taut muscles of his back and massages the knotted muscles.

His body slackened under my touch and the heat of the water. He hummed throatily as my fingers worked the kinks from his skin.

“I did, darlin’, but now that it’s over, I can feel that something like that isn’t going to happen again.” He expresses tiredly. He turns to face me.

His large hands clasped my shoulders, his thumbs rubbing in circular motions against my skin.

“We are gonna be happy again,” I peered up at him, “I promise.” I swear to him. He sighs and presses his forehead to mine.

“Don’t be hasty in making promises you might not be able to keep, darlin’.” He sighs softly. I ignore his last comment and relax as his thumbs continued massaging my skin.

Once we finished bathing, dressing, and talking, we headed back downstairs to join the others. Dad was standing in front of the tv, seemingly giving out instructions.

Anais, Noah, Stylo, Kassandra, Jordan, Ben and Kash were all seated on the couches. Meanwhile, all of the parents were standing around the dining room table.

“What’s goin’ on guys?” Wren asked curiously. Dad turned his head over his shoulder to face us.

“Thinking of what to do next.” He replied scratching his beard. “We need to be prepared for anything that happens next,” he explains. Wren nodded and decided to take the open seat next to Ben, leaving the only other opened seat for me. Anais patted the cushion next to her with a smile.

Once we were all seated, Dad spoke again. “Now that everyone is here, let’s head out back. I’m pretty sure the yard isn’t too ruined to have a bonfire, is it?” Dad asked Kash.

Kash chuckled bashfully and scratched the back of his neck.

“Wait,” I called out, “I thought we were going come up with a plan?” I wondered. Dad sighed a bit and ran a hand through his chin length hair.

“We are going to do that, but over s’mores,” he answered with a wink.

I am so confused.

Kash leaned forward in his spot on the couch and shook his head at me with roll of his eye. “I tried to tell him,” he said with another shake of his head.

I scoff and look at Dad with an exasperated look. “Where are we gonna get supplies to make s’mores with? It’s not like we can just waltzed into town and buy stuff.” I huff.

“She’s right, Xan,” Noah adds. “How un the hell do you suppose we accomplish this ′happy fun time’ with Alex sending everything he has after us?” He drolls with ginger quotes.

“And you want to do this right now? Especially after last night?” Wren questioned with skepticism in his eyes. Dad nodded and I scoffed.

“Look, guys,” Dad began. “Everything is going to be alright. I know you’re worried, and so am I, but I want tonight to be one of happy memories because tomorrow won’t be.” Dad explained with a grimace.

“You’re overthrowing him? You’re really going to do it?” I asked not quiet letting it process.

I was practically sitting on the edge of my seat. I don’t know how powerful Dad is compared to Alex, but I don’t want to see that fight.

What if he actually gets killed this time?

“I’m not going to get myself killed, Kassidy?” Dad sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. “I know what I’m doin’,” he reassures.

I try to give him a smile, but it doesn’t work. I’m far too worried about the outcome of all of this.

I look down at my hands, playing with my fingers. A hand grasped mine, pulling me out of my zone and looking up.

Anais’ deep cinnamon brown eyes smiled warmly at me. I looked around the room to see everyone giving reassuring glances to one another.

“We are going to get our town back, girly,” Anais promises. “I can guarantee you that,” she smirks. I nod, relaxing into my seat.

“Where do we begin?” I ask looking up at my father.

Before he could say anything, mom walks out of the kitchen. She has a tray with warm cocoa mugs and cookies.

I felt my mouth water at the sweet aroma drifting off of the chocolatey chipped cookies.

“I made us a little something to calm the nerves. I know everyone is exhausted and tired from everything that’s been going on these past two years, but we’ll pull through,” she assures with a determined smile. “We always do.” She says with a nod.

“I mean she’s right,” Diane begins from the dining table. “We always find a way.” She gives a smile similar to Anais’. Her darker brown eyes gave me hope.

They gave us all hope.

“Ahem,” Dad cleared his throat. “What I’m trying to get at is, I know where you’re all coming from. I can already feel the dread in the air, but I want us to think of something useful with calm heads, alright?” He proposed. He raised his brow at us and waved his arms around.

“When you do that, you look like a car lot balloon,” Anais laughs with a small smirk on her lips as she took a big bite out of one of her cookies.

Stylo choked on the sip of cocoa he drank and spit it out. Ben’s eyes bugged out of his head as he attempted to swallow down a cookie. Noah turned his head and gave Anais a sly smirk and put his arm around her shoulders and relaxed further into the couch. Diane shook her head and palmed her face at her daughter’s antics.

I snickered quietly to myself and gauged Dad’s reaction.

He sighed deeply clearly trying to stifle a laugh, but failed and let out a chuckle and pointed at Anais. “I’ll make sure to never let you drive my Caddi again, girl.” He said with a contradicting voice to his wife smile. Anais smiles back and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Are they seriously challenging each other,” Kash whispered loudly to me. Wren chuckled and shook his head taking a live out of his cookie.

“Yeah,” Wren answered Kash. “Seems like it.” He said with a full mouth.

“Anyway!” Mom interjected with a clap of her hands. “Xander you’re going to get the fire started and boys you’re going to help him.” She said with a twitch of her eye.

Oh no.

"What?” Noah groaned slouching in his seat until he fell to the ground. Anais rolled her eyes and stared at Dad again.

“Noah, don’t push it,” Mom warned through her smile. Her eyes flashed silver and Noah sat up in his seat almost robotically.

“Yes, ma’am.” He agreed with an abnormally large smile. He stood up and walked to the door, opening it and waltzing to the backyard.

“Anyone else wanna join him?” Mom asked with another twitch of her eye. Kash, Ben, Wren and Stylo all stood and ran out of the door after Noah. Mom sighed happily and clapped her hands together. “Now I want all of the adults to help me and Xander in the kitchen, maybe get the grill started?” She suggested. The adults standing around nodded. “Okay then.” She clapped again.

Anais, Kassandra, Jordan, and I all kept sitting in our places on the couch waiting for our instructions.

“Umm...what are we gonna do, Mary-Anne?” Anais asked after taking a sip of cocoa.

Mom hummed in thought before pointing to the door. “Make sure the boys don’t kill themselves getting firewood. Goddess knows how clumsy your brother gets.” She sighed shaking her head before walking off into the kitchen with the other parents.

“Welp,” Anais said standing up, “let’s get a move on.” She says walking over to the door, pulling it open, and walking out.

Jordan and Kassandra exchanged looks before glancing at me. “Well, you heard the woman. Let’s go!” I instruct leading them out of the house and to the backyard.

Upon nearing the yard, I could see that the mess that was here earlier was mostly cleaned up. The small fires that lingered were out, the ice was melted, and new trees were planted.

“Looks like they picked up,” Anais commented on front of us. I walked up next to her and glanced around.

“Can you feel the ′dread’?” I ask her. She sighs and crosses her arms across her chest.

“I felt it as soon as we had escaped.” She admits. I turn my head to look at her.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I wonder. She shrugs and smiled a bit.

“Why didn’t you sense it? You’re supposed to be a Revolutionary and yet you don’t utilize your powers enough. Hell, you forget you even have them,” she scoffed.

“I just need more training time.” I try to tell her, but my words fly over her head.

“You should meditate. You’ll have a better grasp of yourself and your abilities if you connect with yourself.” She says turning her body completely towards me. “I don’t want you to die because you can’t understand yourself, Kassi. You were destined for greatness, don’t sleep on yourself.” She advises before walking into the woods.

I stood in my spot.

Jordan and Kassandra has already joined the others in the woods collecting firewood.

My mind was racing.

Was she right?

Did I really not use my abilities the way I really should?

Could I really get myself killed for not using my power?

An arm draped around my shoulders, pulling me from my thoughts. I looked up to see familiar green eyes and a stoic face.

“What’s on your mind, shortstack?” Ben wondered. I sighed and sunk into his halfway hug.

“How long did it take for you to master your powers?” I ask. Ben tilted his head a bit and shrugged.

“Since my change happened about a year before Wrenji’s,I had used all of that time to keep it down. I had to keep the darkness under control so I wouldn’t freak out on him.” He reveals. “It wasn’t easy. I wanted to rip everything apart as soon as it happened, like Wren.” He explains.

“Could you maybe help me out with my training? I know it’s kinda a lot to ask—” I began but got cut off.

“Of course, its not that big of a deal.” He shrugs a bit and taps my shoulder in comfort before walking away, and bring me along with.

I tripped over my feet, causing Ben to look back with a small smirk on his lips. I chuckled and followed him.

Wren was bent down behind a tree, I couldn’t see his arms, but I could hear the tree branches he was grabbing. He stood up straight with a couple branches in his hands and looked in my direction.

“Hey, darlin’,” he greeted in a grunt. I waved to him and trotted over. “Why are you out here?” He asked walking towards me. He stopped right in front of me and leaned toward me.

“Mom sent us out here to make sure Kash didn’t hurt himself.” I tell him truthfully. He chuckled and shook his head.

“Seems about right,” he said nodding to himself. “Come on.” He instructed with a nod of his head pointing in the direction of the fire pit.

I walked alongside him, watching the way his jaw ticked with each step he took. Watching the small tilt of his lips as he felt my stare. Hell, I could watch him all night.

“You’re staring, darlin’.” He stated with a smile. I scoffed and turned my head to the other direction. My cheeks lit up in a flush and my hands started to sweat.

“Like I would wanna stare at you.” I scoffed. He smushed his lips against the side of my head suddenly. My nose crinkled in mock disgust as my hands shot up to shoo him away. “Ew!” I whined. He barked out a hearty laugh and walked further away.

“You love me.” He called out from over his shoulder. I smiled and shook my head.

“Yeah right,” I scoffed. “I do love you. More than you could ever know...” I confess. He looks back at me with a a genuine smile that had me smile so hard my gums hurt.

The sound of Kash yelping pulled us out of our love filled stare, followed by a chorus of obnoxious laughter.

I love every single one of them.

And I’d do anything to protect them.

“Hey, Kassi!” Anais calles out, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Here I come!” I call back, running over to where Wren and Anais were.

Hopefully, we all make it out in one piece.

I know the enemy won’t. . .

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