Hedgesville, West Virginia
Caspian Residence
Monday, August 12, 1996
2:34 PM

Heading down the stairs with her eyes to her feet, Jennie hit the first floor and found everyone was sitting in the living room. She stood in the doorway of the room, watching them all for a moment. The various colorations of their hair caught her attention as all she could see was the back of their heads while they watched television.
She turned off abruptly and headed to the kitchen. Running her fingers across the countertops, she walked to the door of the garage then escaped into the cool dankness of it. Her eyes moved across the various tools that were hanging on the walls then to the workbench that sat in front of Nichola’s car.
“What are you up to?”
Turning around abruptly, she found Rem staring at her with cold eyes. “Nothing,” she whispered. “I’m familiarizing myself.”
“Don’t run too far,” he muttered.
“I’m not,” she replied. “I’m done running.”
Rem stood quietly, eyeing her, as Jennie scanned the workbench. “Does your dad build things?”
“Hardly,” he stated. “The old man doesn’t have a creative bone in his body. We have that there for when something needs to be fixed.”
“Oh,” Jennie whispered. “My dad loved escaping to the garage to make things. When I was little, he made me a dollhouse.” She cracked a smile and laughed playfully. “But I destroyed it. I wasn’t like your average little girl. I played Godzilla and stomped on the house. Dad was mad for a while, but he understood that I wasn’t very girlish.”
Looking back to Rem, she found he had a smile on his face. The two stared at each other as she looked away swiftly. “Do you think it would be okay if I used the garage to make things? Dad taught me how to use most of the tools.”
“Go ahead,” Rem said. “The stuff in here is pretty old.”
“Maybe I could bring some of my Dad’s things here,” she said, looking around the garage. “I could place the drill press there and the grinder would sit on the bench. The saw would work great in the corner!”
Excitement rushed through Jennie as she began pointing out various things and talking gibberish. She turned abruptly and face Rem while pointing a finger at him. “You can help me!” she announced.
“What?” Rem questioned as his face twisted into disbelief.
“Dad told me never to work alone!” she shouted. “And if you’re a demon, then you can cut your finger off and nothing should happen.”
“If I cut my fucking finger off, then it’s cut off!” he shouted. “That fucking hurts!”
“But you can heal from it, right?”
“Yeah, but it still hurts,” he muttered.
“Don’t be such a wimp,” she proclaimed. “I would probably need to buy some wood. I could build you a toolbox.”
“I don’t need a toolbox,” he said.
“How about a spice rack?” she questioned.
“Does it look like I need a spice rack?!” he yelled as he turned away from her, heading back into the house.
“But I want to make something,” she whispered, looking to the ground. “It’s the only thing Dad taught me.” Peering around the garage, she sighed then dropped to the ground. She leaned her head back and stared at Nichola’s car.
Pushing herself off the ground, she walked to the side door that lead outside and headed out to the yard. She stood in the yard quietly and looked around with clouded eyes. Her feet began moving toward the forest, but stopped abruptly when something in the air caught her attention.
“It’s that bird from before,” she aloud as she remembered the strange bird from the other day. She gazed at the brown wings that were spread out as the bird glided on the thermals. The yellow breast of the bird caught her attention as she realized the animal was heading toward her at a high speed.
“Stop!” she screamed, turning on her heels in order to escape the creature.
Hands grabbed a hold of her shoulders, sending her to the ground. She rolled chaotically then ended on her back as someone straddled her waist. A chain was pressed against her throat as her eyes focused on the person, a young man with yellow hair with the end tips fading to brown. He was gripping a strange wooden sword that contained shark teeth around the blade while choking her with a chain that was attached to the hilt.
Giving a muffled cry, she grabbed at the man’s arm as she tried to free herself. The man’s brown eyes were filled with placid emotion. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered. “But I have a job to do.”
“Please,” she choked out as her breath was slowing.
“Four minutes and you’ll remember nothing,” he said. “You’ll be nothing. Just die an innocent.”
“No,” she cried out as her mind blanked out.
Her feet moved across the black asphalt while the harsh smell of the fresh tar was all she could sense. Jennie strode slowly between her two adults in a familiar amusement park while ahead of them a young girl danced. She recognized the child to be a cousin, someone she hadn’t seen for a very long time.
Time appeared to be flowing in reverse for Jennie as she quickly came to realize that she was reliving an incident that happened years ago. A memory that she had nearly forgotten.
Glancing upward, she recognized the adults to be her mother and father. The mere sensation of seeing them alive, even if only in a dream, made tears form in her eyes and her heart yearn for their attention. Her concentration was broken from her parents to her cousin.
“Clair…”
Jennie’s eyes watched the girl prance around playfully while her mind racked itself in questions. Why hadn’t she seen this cousin for so long? Why was she seeing her now? The cousin was only thirteen years old as Jennie should have been on that day.
Clair yelled something at Jennie, but it came out in a mumbled gibberish. Then the girl rushed off into the distance while everything seemed to slow down. Jennie’s eyes skimmed past the girl to the surrounding crowd that seemed to part for her child.
A young man stood in the middle of the mass while the people moved away from him. His clothing seemed out of place for the enviroment. It was much like an uniform made out of black leather that hugged the body. Something that Jennie had never seen before other than maybe in a fantasy movie or a comic book.
Olive green hair fell around the man’s shoulders and scattered in front of his face wildly, giving him an air of obscurity. Cold, blue eyes were staring directly into her mind as he reached out his hand.
Overwhelming fear burned at Jennie’s heart as she watched her cousin head toward the man. She tried to yell, but there was no voice in her throat. Instead she tried to rush to Clair, but found her parents holding her back.
Catching a hold of Clair as the girl passed him, the man reached up his other hand. Jennie quickly witnessed an odd device retract from the sleeve of the man’s attire. It appeared to resemble a blade of a sword. With a quick flick of his arm, he sliced the weapon across Clair’s throat as the girl spun around when the man released her.
Blood sprayed into the air as the girl’s body hit the ground. The man was staring at Jennie for a moment as time sped up. People passed him as he disappeared from sight.
Looking to her parents, she found them staring at her with emotionless eyes. Their skin withered away as all was left were barren skeletons that abruptly shattered, sending fragments of dust into the air. A heaviness settled on Jennie as she found their grips on her body to be replaced by weighty chains.
She struggled to free herself, but the binding chains were only tightening as she felt her breath slowly leave her body. Dropping to her knees, she sat in the middle of the amusement park and watched people pass her. None helped her. None seemed to care.
“You can’t refuse me,” came a stern voice from behind her as a hand grabbed her shoulder and a cold metal touched her throat.
Finding her voice, she screamed, “Yes, I can!”
“Let go of me!” she shouted as she kicked up her knee abruptly. The man who had been sitting on her rolled off her, hitting the ground and cringing in pain as he held his crotch. She rubbed at her throat as she eyed him. “Stop trying to kill me!”
“It’s my job!” the man growled as he staggered to his feet.
“Well, find a new one!” Jennie shouted in return as she got to her own feet. The two stared at each other as she could still feel the gagging sensation of where his weapon had been choking the life out of her.
“You don‘t get it,” the man said, clutching the strange sword. “I kill you and it ends.”
“What the hell does that suppose to mean!?” she yelled as she clutched her fists tightly. She had never been in a fight before, but she was ready to take on whoever and whatever would attack her.
“It means that once you are dead and buried, I can go about being a normal guy,” the man said as he lashed out with his weapon as the chain smacked Jennie across the cheek.
Crashing into the ground, Jennie breathed in heavily as her face bruised abruptly from the sudden hit. She reached her hand up, touching the stinging wound, as she swiftly looked up to the man with cruel, hateful eyes.
“What the hell!” she shouted as she tried to get to her feet.
“No!” the man shouted, lunging forward. His hand pressed against her chest, pressing her forcefully to the ground. “You’re not leaving. You’re going to die!”
“Don‘t touch me!” Jennie screamed as loud as she could.
“I’m the only thing that’s going to be able to protect you.” Rem’s words suddenly rushed through her mind as Jennie reached up a hand and pressed it against the attacker’s face. She pushed her thumb into his left eye, hearing him growl at her attempt to free herself.
“Rem!” she screamed as she shoved her thumb further into the man’s eye as she felt something burst and a warm liquid poured down her hand. “Shit!”
“You bitch!” the man screamed, grabbing her face and slamming her head vigorously into the earth.
“Get off her,” came a stern voice as Jennie felt a coldness rush over her body.
Peering over backward, she saw Rem upside-down in her vision. She reached out a bloody hand to him as he grabbed it, pulling her up carelessly. “Help,” she whispered as her body leaned against him.
“What are you doing here?” Rem questioned the man who was holding a hand in front of his right eye. “You better get the hell out of here before everyone else in the house comes out, too.”
“Just give her to me,” the man said, whipping out his other hand. “Hand her over and I’ll leave. Your family doesn’t have to be involved in this.”
“My family has been involved in this since the beginning,” Rem replied. “She’s my responsibility.” He wrapped an arm around Jennie’s body and pressed her tightly against him. “And you can’t have her, let alone touch her.”
“She will die,” the man said as he turned off abruptly.
Jennie peered up at Rem as she heard the sound of wings fluttering. She turned her attention back to where the man was, but only saw a bird escaping into the air. “Who was that?” she asked.
“Nahele Torii,” Rem whispered, peering down at her. “He’s not really bad, but stay away from that shit. Never trust anything that works under Sanction.”
“Sanction?” she questioned.
“Those who work for Yaozu Shuai-Xi, the ruler of Mid Caven,” Rem said, sighing. “They’re more or less the military force of that world. And the ones who kill anyone who oppose the king. And the guy you just met is part of the special forces. They have no real life other than to make our lives a living hell.”
“Then what he said about killing me,” Jennie said, looking to the ground. “He could be normal if he got rid of me.”
“I seriously doubt that. Once you‘re with Sanction, you‘re royally fucked,” Rem replied. Reaching up the arm he had been holding her with, he placed his hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered as she tensed up as his touch They stood silently as she looked to his chest while her lip trembled.
Sighing to himself, Rem turned his body to her and wrapped both his arms around her. “I really don‘t know what to do,” he said. “It‘s not like I really had protect someone before.”
“Two days,” she said, glancing up at him. “In two days my life went to hell. I miss my parents.”
“I know,” he said. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the darkened spot on her cheek. “That fucker hurt your face.” He ran a finger across the bump as she cringed. “I’ll kill him.”
“That‘s going a bit far,” Jennie said abruptly. “It‘s just a bruise.” She shook her head and looked to the ground. “He was only doing his job. Even if it meant hurting me.”
“He’s probably the one who killed your parents!” Rem shouted, shaking his head back and forth while pressing his fingers to his forehead. “Do you want to call that his job?! Do you want him to walk away from this and not be punished?”
“No,” she whispered. “But I can’t hurt someone.” Her eyes widened suddenly as her face went white.
“What?“ Rem questioned.
She showed him her bloodied hand. “I gouged out his eye.”
Rem stared at her for a moment then cracked a smile. “Good for you,” he whispered with a snort. “That’s a start.”