BlackMoon Beginnings (14 page)

He reaches out and grabs a tendril of my hair
that is blowing in the wind, before looking me in the eyes and
saying, “I’m real, Ryanne. Not a figment of your imagination.’

For some reason, that makes me happy. I go on
to explain everything from the beginning. I don’t leave out any
details. I tell him about almost failing English, Adam, almost
getting hit by the car, meeting David, Colton, and Claire, finding
out I was a mage, my attempted kidnapping, learning about Dravin,
realizing that my dreams weren’t actually dreams, training, and
lastly the most recent vision.

“Is that all?” he jokes.

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Maybe,” he replies hesitantly.

“How come I can only see you when I’m
dreaming or whatever? Do you live in the ‘real world’ too?”

He looks up at the sky. I turn back towards
him and see him exhale a deep breath. “I do live in the real world.
I’m a mage like you. I’m what most call a dream-walker. I can go
into mage’s dreams. I’m supposed to help them battle their inner
demons, help them solve problems, resolve conflicts, etc. But you,”
he turns and points towards me, “you’re different. When we first
met, you weren’t dreaming. I can enter into the dream world, but no
one else is supposed to be able to, so I don’t know how you got
here.”

Nodding, I think about everything he just
told me. We are in a different world right now: dream world. I
shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. While I’m thinking, my body
starts to tingle.

“I have to go back soon. I feel its pull,” I
say sadly. I like talking to Liam. Like David, he’s easygoing and I
am comfortable talking to him. However, unlike David, he doesn’t
show many emotions—his expressions are usually stoic and
unreadable.

“I know. You’re starting to wake up.”

“Will I see you again?” I ask.

“Hopefully,” he cracks a smile, “Just please
don’t get shot again.”

I roll over, slowly open my eyes, and look
around my room. It is still dark outside. The clock on the
nightstand reads 5:30 a.m. It’s still early, but I figure I have
gotten enough sleep. Getting out of bed proves to be a difficult
task. My body is sore from sleeping for so long, but my stomach is
no longer throbbing and I feel more energized than before. I walk
over to the bathroom to take a shower and gasp when I see my
reflection. My hair, still partially braided, is sticking out in
every direction. I reach back and pull the hair tie out, gently
releasing the hair from the braid. Braiding curly hair never works
out well. My clothes are a wrinkled mess with blood stains still on
them.

I turn the water on and let it warm up. I
undress, throw the clothes into a pile in the corner, and look at
my stomach in the mirror. It’s amazing. Besides my old scar,
there’s nothing showing that I was shot yesterday. I step into the
shower and let the water cascade down me, washing away all the pain
from the last couple of days. I feel like a new person. I stay in
for so long that the hot water starts to cool. I turn the handle,
and wait until the last drop falls from the shower head before
getting out. I wrap a towel around me and walk back to the room, to
pick out an outfit from the closet.

I hear a knock on the door. Turning away from
the closet, I walk to the door and open it, using it as a shield to
hide my towel covered body.

David stops pacing when he hears the loud
squeak of the door opening. Seeing me, he rushes into the room and
pulls me to him for a tight hug.

“You’ve had us all worried. Colton and I have
checked on you periodically for the last 24 hours,” his chest
rumbles as he speaks. I feel him tense under me when he realizes
what I’m wearing. He pushes me back, running his eyes down the
length of my body. I grab the top of the towel, making sure it
stays securely in place. I feel very vulnerable and I know my face
turns crimson.

“Sorry…I’ll…uhhh...leave you to…get dressed.”
He is blushing too and won’t look at me. He swiftly brushes past
and leaves the room, shutting the door in the process. I’ve never
seen him blush before. It’s adorable.

I grab a pair of jean shorts and a black
shirt. It’s a little tight across my chest, but loose on the
stomach. It reveals a little more skin that I am comfortable with,
but I need to do laundry, so it’ll have to do. I walk downstairs
and find Claire, Tom, Colton, and David all sitting in the living
room. I am surprised to see them considering how it early it was,
but happy nonetheless.

Colton jumps up from his seat and runs
towards me, engulfing me in a hug. “Are you okay? Do you still
hurt?”

I laugh at his concern, “I feel great. How
long was I asleep?”

Claire comes up to me and gives me a small
hug. “It’s been about 36 hours. You’re body needed it.”

“Thirty-six? I was out for over a day?”

Colton puts his arm across my shoulder, “I
hope you didn’t want to go to graduation, because you kind of
missed it.”

“Oh! I missed graduation?” I say with mock
sadness. Graduation wasn’t on the top of my priorities right
now.

Tom walks up to me, “I’m glad to see you up
and about. You scared us there.”

“You must be hungry,” says Claire. At that
moment, my stomach decides to loudly growl. I look down at my
stomach, and back up at everyone.

“I must be.”

I follow Claire into the kitchen, where she
has pancakes already made, cooling on a plate. I grab three, and
slather them with peanut butter, and drench them in syrup. I am so
hungry, I feel like I hadn’t eaten in…well over a day. Claire pats
my shoulder, and kisses my temple, “I’m glad you’re feeling better.
I have to go into the shop today. Alex called in sick this
morning.” I nod, not able to speak with the food in my mouth.

Tom turns to me and thumps me on the back,
“I’m going to shower. I’ll be back down in a little while.”

Colton and David sit across from me. David
hasn’t spoken to me since I’d come downstairs and averts his gaze
every time I look at him. When I finish eating, I drop my fork
loudly onto my plate and look at him.

“Are you going to avoid me forever?”

Colton looks at David, “Why are you avoiding
her?”

“I’m not avoiding you.”

“You can’t even look at me.”

Colton is clearly confused. “What’s
happened?”

David clears his throat and turns towards his
brother, “I…uhh… well…” He stutters.

“He walked into my room this morning after I
had showered. I answered the door and he rushed in and gave me a
hug and then freaked out when he realized I was only wearing a
towel.” He starts blushing again.

“That’s all? It’s not like you saw her naked
or anything,” says Colton.

“I know. I know…It was just embarrassing. I
shouldn’t have barged in like that. Thank goodness you couldn’t
hear my thoughts. You didn’t read my mind, right?” I shake my
head.

Colton scoffs, “What guy wouldn’t think
inappropriate things if they saw a beautiful girl in just a towel?”
I feel my eyes widen and eyebrows rise at their conversation. My
face turns even redder. They seem to have forgotten that I am
standing across from them. I clear my throat and they both turn to
me. A look of surprise crosses both of their faces.

“So….on a different note, I met Liam
again.”

David looks happy for the topic change.
Colton’s expression is indecipherable. “What happened?” he
asks.

“I don’t know exactly. I woke up in the
middle of a field, similar to the one where I first met him. He
came and sat down beside me. We talked for a while and I found out
that he is actually a real person; not a figment of my imagination.
He’s a mage like us. He said he was…a dream-walker?”

David’s eyes widen, “He’s a dream-walker?
That’s incredibly rare.”

“Well, I don’t trust him. Something doesn’t
seem right,” says Colton.

“I trust him.”

Logan walks into the kitchen at that moment.
“Morning, Sleeping Beauty, how are you feeling?” I look behind me
to make sure that he’s talking to me. Logan laughs and nods. “Yes,
I’m talking to you.”

“I feel great. Thank you so much for
everything you did.” For the first time, I notice how young he
actually is. He looks to be in his early twenties, with short dark
brown, almost black, hair and bright blue eyes. He looks like the
perfect boy next door. He is equally as muscular as all the other
guys in the family.

“You’re very welcome, sweetheart.” I smile at
him. This whole family is very casual about using endearments on
others.

“Good morning everyone.” The girl who got
shot walks into the kitchen, joining the rest of us, looking
chipper.

Everyone turns around and says “Morning
Emma.”

She walks over to me and says, “Hi, I’m
Emma.”

“Ryanne.” I reply.

“Yeah, I know who you are.”

I look towards her, confused, and suddenly
remember my vision. She was tortured by Dravin, who is trying to
find out information about me. “I’m so sorry about what that
happened to you. I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible.”

She starts violently shaking her head. “No,
no! Don’t feel like that. You are in no way responsible for
anything that man is doing.”

“He’s torturing people to try and find
me.”

“You can’t think about what he is doing. You
know what he did to me; I can’t imagine what he would do to you if
he got his hands on you.” We all shiver thinking about it. “Oh, and
I’m sorry you got shot because of me.”

I smile at her, “That’s fine. It didn’t hurt
that
much.”

She laughs at my comment. I hope that she is
going to stay here for a while. It would be nice to have a girl
around. I get up and put my plate in the dishwasher. Tom walks back
into the room, rubbing a towel through his hair.

“So, Ryanne, you up for training today?”

Three heads whipped towards Tom. Logan,
Colton, and David all start complaining.

“She still needs to rest.”

“She just woke up, man.”

“Let her relax a little.”

I turn towards him, ignoring the chorus of
voices, “I would love to. I’ve slept for too long. I need to
exercise, get the blood flowing, you know?” All three turn towards
me. I can tell that they don’t want me to do anything, but I need
to do something. I’m tired of sitting around. Danger won’t wait.
It’s coming for me whether I want it to or not and I need to be
prepared. I brush past everyone, “I’ll meet you up there in five.”
Leaving them shocked at my departure, I walk back into my room and
change.

I get up to the training room before anyone
else, so I start stretching. I forgot a hair tie in my room and
don’t want to go back to find one, so I hope that I will be fine
without pulling my hair back today.

I feel someone walk up behind me. I turn
around and smack straight into Logan’s chest. Laughing, he grabs my
arms to steady me, “Watch where you’re going there, shorty.”

“Is there anyone in your family shorter than
six feet tall? My neck is starting to hurt from looking up so
often.”

He thinks about it for a minute, and replies,
“Nope.”

I hit him on the chest, playfully, “Are you
serious?” I honestly can’t tell.

He pokes me in the stomach, causing me to
jump back. I am extremely ticklish. His eyes widen and he looks at
me with the biggest grin I’ve ever seen. I know the look in his
eyes.

“Oh no, you don’t.” I start backing up. He
starts stalking towards me. I turn around and run. I make it a few
steps before he jumps behind me and starts tickling my stomach. I
double over laughing and try squirming away, but he has a strong
grip on me, following me everywhere I go.

“Say it.” He continues tickling. I fall to
the ground, laughing.

“Never.” I manage to get out through the
giggles. He follows me to the ground. After my stomach starts
hurting from laughing so much, I finally say, “Mercy. Mercy!”

He stops tickling me. With his body perched
over mine, he smiles down at me. We stare at each other for a
little bit, while I attempt to catch my breath.

“Thank you. I needed that.” I haven’t laughed
like that in so long.

“What’s going on here?” I arch my head back
on the mat and see David, Colton, Tom, and Emma strolling into the
room. I know what this looks like: me lying with my back to the
mat, smiling like an idiot, and breathing heavily with Logan
propped over me. I feel my face redden for what seems like the
millionth time today.

Logan gets up and reaches down to help me
up.

“I found out that Ryanne is very ticklish.” I
stand up and take a couple of steps away from him, covering my
stomach. I look around the room and see David and Tom with amused
expressions. Emma is staring at David and Colton is glowering at
Logan.

“Once Ryanne is finally able to breathe
again, we can start weapons training,” says Tom.

“We get to train with weapons today?” I ask,
suddenly excited.

“Yeah, but first we’ll just spar. Emma and
Ryanne, you can spar each other. It’ll be a little more fair that
way. Emma here knows martial arts and Ryanne knows gymnastics and
basic self-defense techniques. David, you work with me. Colton and
Logan, you two spar together. Go.”

Emma and I walk to the back of the training
room and get into defensive stances, each of us waiting for the
other to attack first. I hear grunts and hits throughout the room,
telling us that the others have already started. We both turn and
see everyone already sparring. Logan and Colton seem especially
into it. David and Tom aren’t as aggressive. Turning our attention
back to each other, Emma swings her arm out, aiming for my head. I
deflect her blow, hitting her in the stomach with my other arm. She
leans forward grabbing her stomach. She gives me a serious look
that says,
oh it’s on
, before she runs at me again.