She froze, she had memories that went along with the feeling of waking up next to someone she didn’t want near her.
"Ari, don’t panic, it's okay sweetie."
She opened her eyes to see Lydia's face.
She felt her lip tremble, "I did it again, I sent Lucas back." She started to cry sobbing, ignoring the warm body surrounding her.
Lydia took her hand, "No love you can't. Lucas can't go anywhere. Honey it's okay." She rubbed Ari's arms with her warm hands.
Ari turned around to see the source of the warmth was Lucas, he sat behind her holding her. She tensed again feeling everyone too close. She sat up feeling the antsy feeling again, she wanted to burst out of her skin running in every direction at once.
"I didn’t hurt you?"
He laughed, "It hurts but it doesn’t work on me. You made me pass out. We sort of fell on the ground together."
Lydia smiled proudly at Lucas, "Well actually he wrapped himself around you before you fell on the ground so you wouldn’t get hurt."
Ari felt her skin blushing and crawling at the same time. She looked at the faces in the room feeling too much attention on her. She wiped her eyes ashamed of the stranger watching her cry.
She looked down using every amount of self-control she had to stop herself from losing her mind and attacking everyone.
"Ari, this is Lucas Rainer, he is, well he lives here too. And behind me is Andy Cromwell, she stays sometimes. Well we all live here when we are in town. This is Brandon Green and this is Aleksander, they don’t exactly live here but they come by from time to time."
She looked up at the faces surrounding her. The rebellious teenager wanted to shout insults at them all but she nodded saying nothing. She looked at Aimee who walked into the large sitting room seeing everyone. Her eyes stopped on the huge Viking looking guy Ari assumed was Aleksander. She watched as Aimee made an odd face, blushed and walked away from the room.
Ari looked back at Aleksander whose eyes slanted as he looked off into space.
"Why don’t we all give Ari a few moments to catch her breath?" The dark haired middle-aged woman behind Lydia spoke softly standing from the chair, "It was nice meeting you sweetie." She walked from the room. Lucas slipped out from behind her moving her gently. He looked back at Ari and winked as he stood and followed the woman out of the room. Ari frowned at him making him smile.
They all left leaving her alone with Lydia who sat smiling expectantly.
Ari frowned, "What?"
"Are you alright?"
She nodded, "Yeah I think so, I mean I'm tired."
"Lucas thought you were trying to kill yourself, in the lake. He is quite sensitive about the subject." Her eyes grew very serious, "We all are, for every person who's different like us there are two who have ended it all in misery."
Ari sat still.
"He scared me with the pliers."
Lydia laughed, "He used them to remove the piercing from your lip, nose and eyebrow."
Ari raised her hands to her face to feel the metal gone, she sighed relieved.
"I've explained to him that your past is such that being a stranger and coming at you with any kind of tool or weapon or sneaking up on you is probably a bad idea even if the intentions are the best."
Ari felt her face crumple, "Its not my past Lydia, its someone else's. I had a great childhood. I was a weird kid yes, but my uncle raised me with love. He did. I felt loved every day, he was a friend and a father and a mother. The memories and the pain that the other me had, those are not mine. I don’t want them anymore." She sobbed holding her thin damaged arms out, "I don’t want her scars inside and out, I don’t want her tattoos, I don’t want her piercings, I don’t want her weaknesses."
She held herself tightly rocking back and forth on the sofa.
Lydia sat beside her and wrapped her arms around her, "I know love, I know you don't."
"I like boys, I don’t want my stomach to knot up and make me hate every man I meet because the other me did things she shouldn’t have and people hurt her. I've never been raped, I've never been molested, I've never done things for money that I'm ashamed of beyond selling greasy food to already fat people."
Lydia laughed, "Oh Ari I know that honey. Until we can separate you two and get rid of the other you we need to be careful with you though. The other you has had a hard life."
Ari laughed, "Its ridiculous. I want to run and eat and enjoy life like I did before, like a normal person. Not some freak that shoves food down her throat out of fear of running out of food."
Lydia stroked her head, "My love whatever happens no one is going to hurt you in this house. The guards don’t let bad people in. Your safe here until we can fix your split personality situation."
Ari snuggled in and enjoyed the moment no matter how fleeting where she could pretend Lydia was her mother. She enjoyed the safe feeling of being held and rocked by a motherly figure that understood what she fought with.
"And just for the record Lucas is single, you know in case you were curious or wanting to live like a normal girl."
Ari laughed, "Yeah just what I need, a strange boy to make me feel less awkward about living in a house full of strangers. I think I'll pass."
Lydia laughed, "Okay, I was just letting you know, just for the record. He isn’t that strange. Well in comparison you're much stranger."
Ari rolled her eyes letting the older woman patronize her.
Aimee walked into the room smiling, "I brought you something."
Ari frowned, "What?"
Aimee laughed bitterly, "It's a science experiment sort of. I want to see what happens when you use your talents on someone who can go back."
"No, are you insane. I ruined my life sending my uncle back."
Aimee nodded, "Yup you did. But the person I brought you has a ruined life already. I just want to see."
Ari looked at Lydia who shrugged, "Can't hurt, if her life is already horrid then how can it get worse?" She smiled softly, "Ari it will take away the craving."
Aimee walked back to the hall dragging a young girl dressed in tattered clothes with train tracks running up her arms. Her needle marks looked infected and her glassy eyes scared Ari. She'd seen that face before, she was pretty sure it was her own face at one point or another.
She shuddered horrified. Her hands started to sweat looking at the young girl, she wanted to touch her.
Aimee smiled, "I know the feeling. Just do it."
Ari nodded letting go of the control she had started to gain and stood from Lydia's' warm embrace. She walked to the girl letting the tingle overwhelm her. She saw the fear register in the last second in the girls' glassy blue eyes. She looked at Ari in horror as she put her hands on the girls' rail thin arms. The vibration hit instantly, sweet ecstasy hit her rolling her eyes into the back of her head.
"Stay conscious Ari, stay with it. Don't let the black take you."
Lydia's voice floated above her somewhere in the black space. She blinked her eyes back to the right spot. Ari and the girl shook as it they were riding a train. Suddenly a picture hit Ari, the girl was back in a small town. She packed her bags to run away from her step dad's greasy hands. She walked cringing remembering how he'd crept into her room. She cried as she paid with the very last of her money to board the bus. She looked out the back window as she rode out of town.
Suddenly she was walking down the road again with her bag in hand. She stood at the bus stop about to board but instead of getting on this time she walked with her heavy bags to her grandmothers' house. She saw the older woman open the door and hug the girl. She pulled her into the house shaking her head as the girl told her what had been happening. The older woman took her bags and put them in a flowery bedroom. Suddenly the girl was holding a baby and smiling at a man. Ari felt a tear slip from her eyes as she saw the gold wedding band on the girls' finger. The house was small but it was full of love. Ari watched as a silver necklace with an L pendant on it hung in the frozen air. Ari reached her hands out touching the silver necklace for just a second as it dropped to the floor. She bent down and picked it up. The metal was still warm from the girls skin. She clutched it feeling relief but awe in the life she had just saved.
"Angel of mercy, did you see that?" Annabelle whispered softly.
Ari looked at the crowd that had stood in the hall watching her, everyone had the same stunned expression.
She swallowed hard, "She went to a better place, I swear. I didn’t kill her. I don’t think I killed her."
Aimee smiled brightly, "Ari we saw the whole thing. It played like a movie in the air. It's almost like you open a portal. You saved her."
Ari felt the tears sliding down her cheeks, it wasn’t the old her crying it was the new her.
"I can save them all." She felt a new hope in her heart. She would sneak back into the orphanage.
"You don’t know that you can save them all Ari, some yes but others it could get worse."
She turned to Lydia's concerned face, "I have to try. I can't leave them there in the orphanages getting used and abused. They're children."
Lydia nodded, "I know sweetie. One day at a time though."
"Ari you're very lucky to have such an amazing talent in this life."
She looked up at the devastatingly handsome face of the huge dark blond man she assumed was Aleksander.
"I don't feel lucky."
He smiled making her feel funny inside, "You are, trust me."
He turned and walked away leaving her with a red face. He made her blush just by being near her. She couldn’t help be attracted to him, it seemed as if she had to be.
She glanced at Lucas who was leaning against the wall watching her. His presence made her uncomfortable. She turned and walked to the front door.
The cool air hit like a ton of bricks. She felt amazing from releasing the energy in her hands. It made her feel strong and healthy.
