Joanne Durann
Joanne Durann
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2009 Joanne Durann
www.emoonpublishing.com
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“I don’t know how this has happened to me, but it has, and I don’t know what to do about it. My family is gone and that may not be my fault; but it was my fault that I didn’t stop it.” Miranda smiled as she finished writing the note she left for her parents to discover. “I’m sorry but it’s my only way out, I can’t take this anymore, and I need to stop them. I can’t risk anyone else getting hurt or killed because of me. Goodbye.”
Miranda knew her mother would find the note as she left it laying on the kitchen counter, her mother had always left notes there, when she was a child, so that would be the first place Wendy would look.
It was a dreary, cold, snowy spring day. The kind of day that makes you want to stay in bed with the covers pulled up over your face and snuggle in with the one you love. This was the type of day Miranda would have loved until about eight months ago, and now it was all just a distant, painful memory. The temperature started out in the low 20’s, but the radio said it would rise into 30’s. Today would be the day she planned how things would go.
Miranda looked back at her small house for only a moment, a moment in time to remember, and to understand. A she looked up at the mountain she thought about how many times the family had walked together on those trails next to the house, until that fateful day they were happy, for one long glance Miranda looked just so it could be the last memory she would have, because this was all she wanted to remember.
Miranda kept walking with all of the thoughts of that day in her head. So it was hours before she knew it, looked up, and she was miles away from the house. Miranda was thinking only about the loss of her family and never even began to worrying about the loss of her own life.
None of her surroundings had really sunk in yet, and Miranda was still walking when she hit the plateau at the top of the ridge. It was there that she first started to notice things. The sun shone through and sparkled in way that before would have been beyond anything she could have imagined. It was so incredibly beautiful and the world looked as if nothing had ever gone wrong. It was as if the world knew nothing about her life, past, and family, or even about her gift.
Miranda liked to call it her burden, something she was born with and could never get rid of. Her burden that was a real life-long sentence and one from the beginning she never really understood. No one ever believed her, and so she had learned she could either face repressing it, or risk ridicule and being ostracized for revealing it. Miranda just didn’t know what repressing it had really meant.
“I just wanted it to all finally be over with, that would be the best thing for me and the ones I saw,” she thought.
They were the people of different races that Miranda saw, and thought she could never understand. Psychical beings that no one believed existed.
The trail was clear ahead, and Miranda climbed for miles before she turned left to go north. There was a strange feeling of belonging here, like she was meant to go this way. Miranda walked on, becoming very sure that she would leave something all along the train behind her for people to find, and realize she was gone. Something to give her family the closure they would need so they wouldn’t go looking for her, and end their own life in the process. Miranda stopped and took a look around it was quiet and serene, the woods seemed calm and inviting, even the animals gave her the peace she needed.
Miranda stopped and set up camp where she sat down and waited, waited for the fate that was to come. She never thought that her life would ever come to this; but she also thought that her life wouldn’t be so complicated after she learned to repress her mind.
Miranda was very comfortable having decided her own fate, she knew she had nothing to worry about anymore; the bills, the house, and the weather outside, not even the cold loneliness inside. Everyone else seemed to move on, and they kept telling her she needed to find peace and get on with her life, that she couldn’t change what had happened.
Miranda’s family had just started to move on from the accident, and his family left completely. They didn’t like all the nonsense she was spouting, they just wanted her to leave it alone and move on herself. They didn’t understand what she was going through, what she saw or who caused the accident. Miranda couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to know who it really was. It was just like that when she was young and even with years of repressing her mind she still ended up here. Miranda was frustrated inside her own mind because of all of the knowledge she had that no one else could accept.
She was done with all of it, just as she had been done with it when she turned 14. Miranda was done with being told that she was either crazy or that she just didn’t understand what was real and what wasn’t. Miranda was done with people and the doctors making excusing up for her to others who might want to believe her. Miranda was also done seeing what only she could see and what made her look and feel so crazy.
Miranda knew that she was finally ready, when it felt like the world was gone, and she just started to see again. Things were even clearer now that she decided she needed to see again, because one came to close to her daughter, that was the first time Miranda let herself really see what was out there. Miranda hadn’t realized at the time, how much was out there, and although in the beginning she tried to ignore some of it she couldn’t and that’s when they found her.
“It was because I couldn’t ignore them and my eyes mistakenly follow one of them that they tried to kill me and killed my family instead. They knew I could see them and they were shocked. It was on their faces and in their minds as I read them, this was the first time in known history a human could be a real problem, and all Miranda could think about is, if I am “a human” then, what are they?” She thought to herself. “Ahh! This is so frustrating!”
In planning her own death, Miranda was hoping to find some peace with herself and her family could move on. Her family could finally stop making excusing and wondering what would come out of her mouth next. They could be happy at family gatherings and not worry about what she would see or learn about some family member or another.
“Would I find out which person was cheating on the other, or who was going to die next? No one in our family even wanted to be around me anymore and I know they always forced someone to talk to me. They could keep people on the outside from hearing what I said but on holidays all of our family members knew that I knew what was going to happen next and that it was somehow always true, and so some of them stopped coming around because of me. Now it won’t be a problem for them anymore. It’s not like anyone ever seemed to worry about my pain or feelings and what all of that knowledge does to a person on the inside.”
“No one even tried to think about what I was going through!” She yelled out at the mountain as if it could feel her pain.
Miranda was very deep in thought, when she felt him coming, she met up with her fate and his name was Jared. Miranda knew him right away though she had never talked to him.
She thought back, “it was when the others first saw that I could follow them with my eyes; Jared was one of the first ones who kept an eye on me. Even then ultimately I knew it was by his hands I would die. I am ready to be alone with him and accept what is about to come.”
Miranda saw him coming in her mind while he was still far off and she watched as closely as she could so she could time him, his moves, his thoughts and even how he would attack her. The weird thing was as Jared got close Miranda looked right at him, right in his eyes and couldn’t see her death.
Miranda was angry at first. “I should have seen it, it was what I do and yet it’s not there. This is the one thing that is so wrong with me, I always saw what someone was going to do, what they did, and what was on their minds, even their death, yet where is my death? Shouldn’t it be right there in his eyes? Wasn’t it in his plans? What is happening to me?” She thought. “I always see it, and I had planned to see it this time. Could it be that now something had gone wrong? Could I have finally been normal now that I’m so ready to die?” She continued to think aloud, “Could this be nature’s way of giving me a final last breathe of peace, not seeing what pain I would need to endure in my final minutes?”
Miranda approached the area that she knew he would find her in and she waited for him.
Jared came in quickly but then suddenly stopped because Miranda seemed to know his moves, and what he was going to do. Jared was very shaken by thought that a human woman could read him well enough to know where he was going before he knew, or just as the thought seemed to enter his head. Even as Jared changed his moves, Miranda seemed to react, and move with him. Jared watched Miranda the whole way into the clearing, even though he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. No one had ever made it this easy, no one had wanted to die this much; Jared could almost feel Miranda’s strange need to die.
As Jared got close he began to watch, he was waiting for a trap, a trap that would send problems through his entire world. Jared wouldn’t make it that easy for a human to trap him and to become any closer to his world then Miranda already was, he waited and wondered what would happen next. He knew he needed to be cautious and be very sure; first that she was alone, and second why had she made it this easy for him to kill her. Jared approached Miranda with an uneasiness that he had never known.
Jared was a pure trained predator and killer, designed to be lethal in so many ways, always to win, never to faultier, and he wasn’t used to worrying about anything or anyone.
Earlier that day Jared had been told what to do, he would go in leaving no evidence behind, and get out quick. This should have been a normal job to him, but today something was different, and he knew he would need to be more cautious. Jared had planned to go to her house and make it look like a robbery gone wrong, but here she was in their forest waiting for him, with no witnesses. It was way too easy and he couldn’t understand why the wolves hadn’t detected her. Vampires only killed in the human world, the wolves killed humans on our land, why didn’t they know she was here? What was going on?
Jared started toward her in his normal stealth-like movement, as Miranda waited, just at the right moment she spoke, asking for just the right amount of time to explain things so she could feel better about giving up her life.
Jared laughed as he thought; a human planning her own planned death had so much emotion, that’s what makes our races so different. I’ll give her some time so I can see if there is a trap, then I’ll know and I can get on with the kill.
That’s when Miranda spoke with her voice Jared realized that when Miranda first asked for time it wasn’t with her mouth, it was with her mind. It made him jump back off balance he was very uneasy, and now Jared was really confused, he wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
“Maybe we should go back, way back to the beginning so you can understand me, and what I’ve been through. After that it’s ok for you to finish your job, and end my life.” Miranda said this with a cool easiness to her voice; and it wasn’t just her voice but, also her face that surprised him. It was like Miranda knew what Jared would do to her, why he was sent and that she was truly ready die.
Jared was amazed at her coldness because humans just didn’t act like that. He started to wonder about this women and what Miranda really was. Humans had feelings like fear, hate, and love; they just didn’t sit there so nonchalantly and talk about their own demise as if they were ordering a food. This one truly was different but Jared couldn’t figure her out.
Jared just looked at Miranda with curiosity, and it was not because she was so willing to die at his cold, monstrous hands, because most people who had met with his kind were more than willing to die. You see dyeing would have been much better than the alternative, must people in this situation had begged to just die. It wasn’t that they really wanted to die, mostly they wanted to get away, they had just come to understand that they wouldn’t have the chance; no matter how hard they tried. So as Miranda spoke, Jared stared at her curiously because she somehow knew everything, she knew way too much.
Miranda seemed to know everything about all of them. Every one of the other kinds out there and Jared couldn’t understand; this was something no living human became aware of. If they were foolish enough to encounter one of our family lines, they didn’t live long enough, they certainly never meet more than one kind and lived to tell the story. They simply disappeared from the world and the humans eventually passed them off, they called them unsolved cases.
The fact is that with no traces ever left behind and there was nothing to even look for. It was that there were just too many questions that couldn’t be answer logically, unsolved became the easy way out. Sometimes people would make up legends for areas that had a lot of “unsolved cases”, but the cases could never really be answered, and the Concillium dealt with the race causing the problem from our end.
Jared thought about how hard this job would be if Miranda had been someone of great importance. If she had been political or famous and found out about the races she would need to disappear even more swiftly because she would have too much access to large crowds and people might have believed her. Fortunately she wasn‘t because it would have been harder for the humans to let her go, and Jared’s family would have needed to use the dense woods or a plane.
That didn’t answer the main questions Jared had right now, how did Miranda know about them? How could someone like this woman know about them? Where did all of Miranda’s knowledge come from? When the Mattis and Michael said she saw them, Jared wondered how they could be right. How could Miranda see them? Vampires were faster than any mere human eyes could see, let alone follow. They were stronger than anything that existed on earth, so what had happened? Had they just been careless? How could four vampires be that careless?
So many things were running through Jared’s head, and yet he just stared at Miranda, she seemed so ordinary. So unable to understand and process all of the different kinds of information that it would take to understand his life or his world. Jared couldn’t understand how she would know any of this, and how much of his world was really within her reach.
If you looked at her Jared though, you might even just look right past her. She is a plain woman; she doesn’t wear much makeup she obviously doesn’t worry about fashion. Miranda wore very plain, but nice clothes. Jared noticed for some reason she seemed to have had a hard time in her life, it wasn’t something he could quite put his finger on, but it was also something that he really had no care to learn about.
Jared couldn’t really see anything special about her, nothing at all that could bring on all of the knowledge and experience that Miranda had learned and that the Concillium had learned about her. Jared looked at her a little longer, studying her features; she was only about 27, she had an average build, and her eyes were blue, they were nothing out of the ordinary. Still, could that be how Miranda survived for so long, just going on unnoticed, without anyone realizing she even existed?
Her face was round and had a nice human glow; it was one of only two things that stood out about her. That’s when Miranda took off her hat and Jared saw it. It was the only real thing that even made you notice Miranda existed; it was her hair; long and a strange but beautiful red. It was a color Jared had only seen once before, it was a color of hair that had never existed in the human world. A leader from a very long time ago in a place nowhere near their current location and with a particular person would never come even close to being with a human. Suddenly Jared started too worried.
Jared thought about where he had seen that strange color before, which he had realized was more than similar, it was a perfect match to a very particular man. Gage was a member of the Concillium, and he had come from the oldest of families. A race Miranda could never have been a part of or person she could never have known. Gage was a being that would never mix his family’s blood line with one of their races, let alone be with a human. It seemed that right at this point that was the only thing Jared could be completely sure of, Miranda may have looked like Gage but she could not be one of that family line. Jared knew one thing about this particular member; in fact leader of the Concillium had vowed to never mix with another race. Jared wondered how she could be so much like him and yet be a human. That’s when Jared realized it didn’t matter, he had a job to do and he needed to get on with it.
This particular job Jared needed to do was a job that Mattis and Michael couldn’t do correctly themselves and it made Jared angry that he was stuck cleaning up their mess. Michael may be his brother, and Mattis, Jared’s best friend, but this was above and beyond.
As he tried to listen to Miranda’s story he realized he just didn’t care, she was human, and he couldn’t help thinking this was not his mess to clean up. Jared wasn’t paying attention to Miranda and he just wanted it to be over with. Jared couldn’t believe how easy it should have been for Mattis and Michael to do the job right, “take out the girl, she has seen us” that’s exactly what the Concillium told them to do.
It was icy, and a car accident should have been the perfect fix. Icy plus humans in cars equals accident; just the right angle and the right person would get killed. But No! They were having too much fun and they killed the husband and the kids instead. It wasn’t that the extra deaths mattered much to Jared or the Concillium, but a 5 year old and baby can make a mess in the human world, and the humans started asking a lot of questions. People wanted to know why something wasn’t being done. How could an accident like this happen? Why didn’t they investigate any further?
Jared’s father, Kilaws and the members of the Concillium were unpleased, so here was Jared fixing a problem that wasn’t his to fix, and now he had to listen to Miranda rambling on before he killed her. The Concillium told him that he had been chosen for a reason, one they didn’t know or understand. All Jared needed to do was the job that he was told, Kilaws would deal with Michael and Mattis.
Still Jared wondered how Miranda knew, how she saw, or learned it all, so Jared decided maybe he needed to listen. He hoped for some kind of answers for himself and the others. Jared would soon come to learn that the mistake Mattis and Michael made would be the best mistake all of them could have hoped for.
For the first time Miranda stopped to look at Jared and to really notice him because he didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her words. Miranda stopped to study him, the way Jared had been studying her and she wondered why they sent this one. Why not send the two who had made the mistake in the first place, shouldn’t they be the ones to fix the mess they had made. Miranda thought about something else, why had they sent him here all alone? Maybe their kind could see things too, unfortunately that thought was only for a fleeting moment. Miranda realized that Jared was looking at her because he was trying to understand why she came there in the first place, so Jared couldn’t have know what Miranda could do.
Jared was young in looks, and his face it was angelic, although he was more than likely four times her age or more. Jared’s face is what caught her eye it was so well chiseled, beautiful, glowing, and with deep sapphire eyes. They were an unusual deep sapphire, the kind of color that could only be found once in a lifetime. Jared's body however looked like a well oiled machine; lean and beautiful but ready to kill anything that got in his way. Miranda was amazed his body was that angelic and perfect, yet lethal all at the same time. Miranda knew Jared to want to be done with all of this mess, but he also was looking for something else, she could see it in his eyes.
This time Jared spoke, “So what is it that you need to tell me, so I can finish with my business?” Jared’s voice was cool and steady; it seemed barley interested in what Miranda had to say.
Jared’s eyes however, gave him away; it was his eyes that helped Miranda to see, that’s when she saw the Concillium in his eyes, and the one man that he was thinking of, and she needed to know who that man was.
“Who is he? Where did he come from?” Miranda asked as if Jared could read her mind. She suddenly realized that he couldn’t, and what she had done, so Miranda quickly tried to rephrased the question. “Who is the man with my hair? Where is he? Is that someone else you have killed before? How do you know him? Answer me!” Miranda found herself suddenly demanding things of Jared.
Jared’s body was tensed, focused and looked like it was ready to strike because he couldn’t fathom how she knew what he was thinking. Confused by the sudden fiery of question, Jared lunged at Miranda, ready for a fierce attack. Jared wasn’t used to fighting under these conditions and he never had such confusion in his brain. Jared’s head was spinning as he grab at Miranda and threw her to the ground. It was with such tremendous force Miranda couldn’t move.
How in the world did she know what he was thinking? Had she gotten inside his head? Was she forcing him to say things and not remember them? What kind of human was this? Was she even human at all? What had the Concillium done to him, sending him here to kill her, or was it that Jared the one who was going to die to pay for his brother‘s mistake? Jared was pacing fast and furiously as he thought. Jared stopped, still trying to understand what was happening and trying to think more clearly, how is it that you know my mind, he thought. Jared jumped at Miranda.
That’s when Miranda looked up from the ground, and using her voice this time to answer him, “I can see more than any of you have ever thought could be possible. It is very simple, if you think it then I know it, and it will be in my mind. That is the one of reasons why I wanted to talk to you first. I wanted to ask you if there are others like me, but from the look on your face, I guess not. I guess I’m the only genetic freak to have this affliction.”
Jared stared at Miranda, and he even backed up a little. He wasn’t sure if he did it so Miranda could get up, or because the position they were in, and word “genetic” were very compatible. All Jared knew was that he was more confused than he had thought he would ever be. Jared thought this would be a quick and easy job, and I would be able to get on with his life.
It was then that Jared realized that he had throw Miranda into a tree, jumped on her, and had hit her. At this point, he wasn’t quite sure what to do, the others didn’t know of Miranda’s powers or her likeness to Gage.
Could it be…..stop, stop, Jared had to quickly stop thinking around Miranda because she would quickly pick up on it. No more, no more information than was necessary, I need to concentrate on blocking this woman out.
Miranda looked up at him, she angry because he was blocking his thoughts, she wanted and needed answers. Miranda needed answers that had never been there for her, answers that could have changed her entire life.
No one had ever been able to explain Miranda’s strange colored hair, or the burden she carried, so she figured from a very young age, that they were just things that made her a freak. This was just something Miranda had come to learn, she would always be different, she never be normal unless she did something about herself and that’s when, Miranda learned to block her disability, and look where that got her.
Miranda didn’t care about any of that now because she was angry. She saw a glimpse of what might have been her past or at least someone like her. Now Jared wasn’t speaking or thinking and he wouldn’t tell her anything about him. Miranda couldn’t believe there was something out there that she didn’t know about after all of this, after everything she had seen that there could possibly be a link and that could be a direct link to her family.
“Go on kill me,” Miranda said, “finish the job and my life, but if not I want answers.”
Miranda stood up rather quickly and backed toward a tree, she needed to get her head together so much was happen and it was all way too fast for her body to keep up. Shock had kept the internal pain away but now it was suddenly coming back in waves. How was she going to comprehend all of this, and be done with life itself at the same time? Miranda now had a new set of priorities but she wasn’t sure that Jared was going to help her get all the answers.
Miranda though back to the time when she was a small child, she heard the fights and dad seemed to not want much to do with her. Even during some great moments in her life George seemed to always be at work or somewhere else, her parents always said they needed the money or the promotion. Miranda trusted that the reasons were real, although somewhere down deep inside her, she always knew something was wrong, but she kept that part locked away, locked away with her disability.
Miranda started yelling again “I was set, ready to die and now you show up with the answers I need and I want them, I earned at least that much.”
Jared looked at Miranda startled, unable to understand how she could be yelling at him. It was amazing Miranda asked for her death and she was mad at him. This was unbelievable. Jared needed help, he just wanted to have someone to tell him just kill her, without thought or consequence. Just now Jared wanted his brothers around so she would die, they made killing look so easy.
I’m cleaner at it but they are heartless at it. They loved to kill it was like a game to them. They never think about it, they just kill. Jared thought what should I do now, should my father and the others know what I have learned about Miranda, or should I just get rid of her? What if there are others like her out there? Worse what if Gage was….. Stop, stop she’s listening again. I need to take her somewhere else. I need to lock her up somewhere until I can get the answers I need, somewhere she can’t leave.
So without thinking Jared grabbed Miranda and took off, he looked for a place to leave her for the night without a thought in his head. First Jared looked for a ledge or cliff, and then he remembered a few places he knew.
Before Miranda could even breathe she saw it, than just as quick, Jared had her and they were gone. Jared took her so far there was no way Miranda could find her way back, and the weird thing was she really didn’t care.
Miranda realized she wanted to be away, that was what she had really wanted all along, only now she understood why. Miranda’s priorities had changed and all she wanted was to know who that man was and how if at all, was he connected to her. For once there was something in her life Miranda needed to know and that she was more than willing to die for.
Jared moved up and around the mountain side quickly. It was the only way that he felt Miranda wouldn’t have the chance to get away.
If I don’t think about it she won’t know where she is, he said to himself. This was the only way I can be sure to keep Miranda safe until I figure out what to do.
Suddenly it came to him and he knew were to take her. It was a small place but one only he knew about. Miranda sensed it immediately. Jared figured this was the one place that he could leave her until he knew what to do. Hopefully Miranda wouldn’t go and get herself killed because she couldn’t listen to the rules and would wander outside.
Miranda wasn’t sure about anything right now except that she knew Jared would keep her safe. Even though Jared wasn’t thinking clearly enough so she could see it, there was odd familiar sense to it, enough to send a calm feeling around her.
Funny I came here to die today, and now I realized that was not going to happen, and I think that whatever happens it will be good. Miranda thought as the breeze rush through her hair, and she closed her eyes.
Jared finally stop at a small clearing in the woods, it was a strange place, and the clearing barely noticeable. The clearing was surrounded a small cottage with not one trail in or out. The only way to find the place was from the air and even that was hard through the thickness of the dense forest. Miranda had the strongest urge to know how to get back to this place. Unfortunately there were so many trees around that she couldn’t make out any landmarks.
Jared threw her down right outside of the cottage, he was not very friendly this was all business to him, and he made no qualms about it. Jared was quiet at first, it seemed as if his was listening and watching every little thing in the woods. Jared raced toward the door, opened it, and before Miranda could even say anything, he pushed her inside. He seemed distracted but she couldn’t quite make out why.
“Don’t even think about trying anything or leaving,” he was blunt and forceful. Jared looked around outside and then back to her as he shut the front door.
“Everything you need is right in this place, going outside would be the biggest mistake of your life, it’s not safe.” Jared was extremely inpatient and stern.
He was pacing the floor like a wild cat in a cage, it was obvious he didn’t want to be in this situation, and yet there they both were.
Jared continued on, “I realize you have an appetite for danger and death, and you personally don’t seem to care, but this place won’t be as kind as I have been. Keep your head indoors and you’ll be safe, oh also don’t let anyone in; you’re only protected when you don’t invite anyone in.”
“I don’t understand this! What do you think that you are doing? Do you think you are leaving me here, now?” Miranda was getting nervous, upset and angry. “How in the hell do you think you can make this decision without me, this is my life in your hands.”
It was one thing to be alone with him, it was another thing altogether for Jared to leave her all alone here, with God only knows whatever right out there, right outside that door. Miranda started pacing right next to Jared, she wanted him to stay and she really didn’t care what he wanted. She wanted to see that she got her way this time; she had planned out this day, not him. Miranda thought Jared could call whoever it was that he needed, what made him think leaving her was ok. She didn’t care if Jared thought it was ok, but Miranda could tell he wasn’t going to stay. She knew Jared’s agenda was completely different from hers; he had no intentions on giving her anything she wanted. Right now she really just wanted him to listen to her, so Miranda grabbed Jared’s face with her hands, she took it so forcefully it took him off guard, and she needed to look into his eyes. That’s when Miranda saw it, and it was what was in Jared’s eyes that took her caught her off guard. Miranda let go with the same force and that it caught him off balance.
Miranda was so shocked at what she saw she yelled at him furiously “What will they do with me!”
Miranda continued screaming and walking at a much more furious pace. She was going insane, her eyes bulged and Miranda was clenching her hands so tight they were purple she was completely irate with him.
“I can’t believe after all of this, everything I’ve seen this is what you’re going to do. This is what you are going to let happen to me, why didn’t you just kill me today in the forest yourself! Why would you bring me here? Just to prolong the pain? I thought they sent you because you were quicker and cleaner at this!”
Jared stammered. Jared didn’t know if it was anger or resentment when he started to scream at her.
“What on earth are you talking about? God, I hate it when you do this, you really need to stop it. I can’t believe you have brought me into this mess, why didn’t you just die like you were meant to? Why couldn’t Mattis and Michael do the right thing and kill you? Hell, I don’t even know how or why were you even born!”
Jared was really not happy; Miranda seemed to always know everything and never seemed to give him the chance to catch up. Jared was growing more impatience by second, he really needed to get back to the council, and let them know what he had found out. His hands clenched and voice got real annoyed, Jared stared right into Miranda’s eyes, and grabbed her by the shoulders. It was then that Jared started to yell at her again.
“I can’t stand the way you do that, stop it! I need some peace in my own head you are driving me crazy, I DON’T CARE WHAT THEY DO TO YOU!!! I was sent to KILL you, I wasn’t sent to be nice, have fun with you and play games!”
Jared stepped back and threw Miranda to the ground like an old rag doll he had had enough. She went tumbling to the ground with a thud. Miranda didn’t move and she didn’t get up, she was out cold, and inside her head Miranda didn’t want to come back.
At that point it didn’t matter that Jared had come right at her, he had said those fateful words to Miranda, the last words she had heard Jared say, the ones she had heard too many time before. Why were you even born? It had been like some many times before, either her father was angry about something she had done or said, or an irate boyfriend was leaving her it didn’t seem to matter it always seemed to end the same way.
As Miranda worked through her mind in this unconscious state she began to think about it herself. Why was she born? So when Jared said those words she didn’t seem to care if he hit, smacked, or even killed her. Miranda was that same terrified little girl, but the blow didn’t have the same felling that it should have. Miranda just remembered that she wanted to end it again and she almost wanted to thank him for that. She went into a deep state of sleep just hoping not to wake up.
The next time Miranda opened her eyes she was alone. Jared had left her in the bedroom on the bed. It was dark outside and the temperature had dropped, she quickly knew that she needed to start a fire. She ran out of the bedroom and down the hall to the living room. Thankfully Jared had left a fire blazing in the fireplace and to the left; a stack of wood ready to go in the fireplace, so Miranda began tended it knowing it wouldn’t last long on its own. Then she went into the kitchen to wash up, get her head together and looked around for some food. Miranda really wasn’t sure what she would find she just hope she would find something.
Miranda remembered it was mid afternoon when she met Jared in the woods earlier today; so she guessed it was about 7pm when she woke up. She was cold, tired, and very hungry. Miranda hoped, just as he said, she would find anything that she needed to use in his house. She heard the strange noises in the woods outside, Miranda remembered Jared had said it was not in her best interests to leave the house, so she search around the kitchen for food. She noticed the closet had a lot of wood in it, so when Miranda turned to light the fire in the stove, she looked over at the table where Jared had left a small and very brief note.
Miranda,
Wood in the closet, food in the kitchen.
Don’t move! OR ELSE!
Jared
PS- remember what I said!
Miranda smiled short, not sweet, and to the point. Jared was proving that he definitely was trying not to care very much, one way or the other. Miranda noticed his writing, it was the first time she had seen it. It was brilliant, and the penmanship was like something out of an old movie.
After Miranda looked at it for a while she ran grabbed some more wood from the closet and got a fire in the woodstove going. While she waited for it to get hot, Miranda looked through the cabinets for some food, and anything else she could use to cook it with. Miranda wondered what someone of Jared’s kind would have as food in his place, but to her surprise there were all kinds of delicious, “normal” food. Miranda was also amazed at the pots, pans, dishes and utensils that he had. There were so many different things, more like a master chief, than a vampire. The cottage had been so well stock and ready to go she almost wondered if Jared had planned something like this all along, but then Miranda remember she planned this not him, so how could he have stocked it for her.
Miranda started some dinner; she found beans, beef stock, canned meat, and potatoes. She made what smelled like an amazing meal, this was especially good considering what food Miranda had found at her disposal. As the food was finishing up on the wood stove, she set the table for two and then started to look around for something to do or read while she waited; somewhere in the back of her mind Miranda hoped Jared would come back.
To her delight Miranda found a wall filled with wonderful classics, books she loved and were the ones she never had the time to read before. Miranda also found bottles upon bottles of red wine in a special wine closet.
“What the hell, I might as well get drunk before I die!” Miranda laughed at herself.
Miranda was laughing at herself again when she realized only she could be so carefree with the knowledge that at any time she could die. After looking around a little further she found the candles and candlesticks. Miranda pondered at how well “equipped” this cabin had been for a man, let alone a vampire, one who cared nothing for anyone or anything. Miranda decided to light candles all over the house as she came to realize the lack of electricity.
Miranda looked at the book she picked, it was an old classic Jane Austin novel; one that she had always wanted to read but had never really had the time. She lit the candles on the beautifully set table, if only I wasn’t here all alone then this would almost be perfect.
She suddenly laughed out loud to keep from crying “All this, a beautiful table, a fine meal, and a death sentence to match! Now where is my executioner? I shall be ready for the gallows soon.”
Miranda thought for a minute, “Girl you are really starting to lose it, it's no matter though, and if you’re going to die you might as well lose your mind first.”
Miranda knew somewhere down deep it would be a while before she saw Jared again, but she also decided she would set the table for two for each meal until he returned. Miranda already knew Jared didn’t know when he was coming back, that much was in his head. In Jared’s eyes where a weird range of emotions, starting with confusion, to something he couldn’t quite grasp. So as Miranda cleaned up from dinner, sat back to read and waited. What she was waiting for she really didn’t know, but Miranda was alone and waiting. Miranda was having a hard time staying awake, the day had been so long and hard, so soon she decided she would get ready for bed.
Miranda walk into the bedroom to see if she could find a t-shirt or something she could wear to sleep in. She was quite surprised to find a bunch of her clothes so with that Miranda got changed. She grabbed a blanket, went in to the living room and comfortably fell asleep. As she fell asleep Miranda felt as if she was being watched by someone close to her, like her grandmother, someone who wanted to keep her safe. It was a deep sleep and a very happy, restful sleep, one she hadn’t felt for a long time. Miranda dreamed about her day and everything that had happened to her and about the man she thought was sent to kill her. In her dreams however, it was all ok and Miranda knew it would somehow work out. She knew that life would change and be different but it would all somehow workout.
Miranda didn’t even know she was smiling in her sleep but Jared did because he was the one watching over her. Jared was the one between shadows; he was the one watching over Miranda, the one like her with so many questions.
As he watched he started to wonder why isn’t Miranda in the bedroom, was the couch that much more comfortable? What was wrong with my bed was she to good for it? She started out in the bedroom after dinner, she had changed in there, that’s when I came back, because I knew I needed more information then I had. Jared continued thinking, why had she set the table for two? Miranda couldn’t know I was coming because even I didn’t even know I was coming back. I knew after I left I didn’t know enough about her powers to go back with a full report, and answer the questions of why I haven’t kill her already, I needed to come back to stay around and watch.
Jared wanted to see how Miranda would react, when she woke up all alone in a place she didn’t, know with him gone. He wondered if she would need him, he couldn’t deny that, he needed her to need him for some reason to make everything ok. He didn’t understand why he felt that need because Miranda was just another mark. Jared also went inside because he needed to make sure Miranda was ok, he had started to feel bad right after he wrote that note. Jared felt he should have been better to Miranda but he couldn’t figure out why. More importantly, Jared couldn’t understand why or when he even started to care what happened to her because he hadn’t cared about anyone, other than his family, in almost a century.
It was early in the morning when Miranda woke up, she was still smiling from the dream she had, she hadn’t been this happy in a long time. Something had changed inside of her, Miranda had been happy before, but this time she felt free. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, but something, somewhere had woken her from her sleep. She wasn’t quite sure what it was but Miranda knew it wasn’t friendly, that’s when she heard the noise again, really this time for the very first time. It sounded as if something was dying, and that something was killing it, but even more like something was eating it.
Miranda did what she told and didn’t even try to look out the window. She knew in her heart it was more than the fact that Jared told her it was a bad idea; it was that Miranda knew whatever she saw was going to be awful. Terror once again had gone through her as Miranda suddenly remembered what he had said before the fight, before the fight when he had hurt her, not physically but mentally, before Jared had left her here all alone. Miranda started to wonder why she even trusted Jared at all, after all who was he to her, but an executioner. Then with the raising of the sun, all of the horrible, terrible night sounds and thought in her head of terror went away and Miranda started once again to think about food. Her hunger was not the first thing on her mind it was more about the way she could pass the time. Miranda really wasn’t sure how to do it; she wasn’t used to having time on her hands, and she wasn’t sure how much time Jared would leave her here all alone.
So Miranda decided that today she would stay in bed for a long time; there was really nowhere to go, not if she wanted to stay alive, and nothing pressing to do. There was only one thing left to do, she took the time to be alone with her mind to find peace; this was something she had been afraid to do before. Miranda felt like she should have done this awhile ago, take time to see her life for what it is, but her fear of finding herself alone with nothing at all blocked her from ever doing it before.
Strange, she thought to herself, it took a death wish and being kidnapped by a man who wanted me dead for me to finally be able think about the peace I need. Miranda thought back further, it had been since I was fourteen; it was then that I had made the decision to become “normal” and lock away everything that I knew. Up until then everyone thought I was a freak, or crazy, or something and that’s when it happened. One night after watching the eyes of the only person, who believed in me die, I had to just stop. I blocked all of the craziness out; I had to be done with it all. My grandmother wanted to say something but she stopped, because I saw her death, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore, and I’ll never know what she wanted so bad to tell me.
Miranda walked across the bedroom and grabbed her book off the nightstand and started to read again, she hadn’t done anything like this in a very long time. She never really thought much about what she wanted or needed, so reading a novel never became a priority. Miranda only ever worried about what other people wanted her to do or needed from her. Miranda thought this is part of being “normal” blocking out everything she saw and felt.
She had always read, but for a great while the only books Miranda read were either for classes in college, information for work, or bedtime stories for the kids. She did love reading to the kids, Miranda would make up strange voices for the characters, and jump about in their room. The kids loved this side of her, and so did Ben. Miranda knew it was because this was the more natural, not “normal” side of her; it was a time where even she felt more comfortable in her own skin. Miranda had tried to tell Ben about the things she could do but it only angered him, so she stopped trying, even though that upset her.
It was sometime later in the morning that she felt the urge to eat again so breakfast it was, especially since Miranda knew Jared wasn’t coming back anytime soon, into the kitchen she went. The fire in the stove was out and Miranda knew she needed to start it again to get breakfast going. Breakfast was easy, at least once she started the fire, and she made it quickly and set the table for two again. That’s when Miranda turned and saw Jared standing in the corner just staring at her, watching her; she didn’t know what to say.
Jared broke the silence, “Are you expecting someone?”
Miranda didn’t answer she was so shocked to see him she couldn’t even breathe.
So Jared continued, “You did set the table for two, didn’t you?”
He pointed to the table as he sat down and waited to see what she would do. Jared didn’t know how she would react but he was happy, finally he was one step ahead of her at something and he was proud of that.
“I didn’t know if you or anyone else would be joining me.”
Miranda tried to be nonchalant as she spoke but the shakiness in her voice gave her away. Miranda set down the breakfast on the table before Jared, and then she said a little prayer, and started to eat. She waited for his reaction, it was the first time since they met that Miranda didn’t know what Jared was going to do or say and she liked it, she was proud of herself. This was one time she was going to let the burden get in the way because she knew how painfully Jared reacted to it.
Miranda tried small talk but Jared started in at her with a million questions, and at one point it was so confusing that she couldn’t think straight, so she just stopped and didn’t answer him at all. Miranda wondered what Jared was trying to get at, she didn’t understand what he was after, and so she hit him on the head with a roll.
“What is it that you really want to know? Could you just stop playing games and just ask me the real questions you need answered?”
Jared wasn’t really sure of what to say, but for the first time in his very long life, he decided to be honest and talk with his victim. He calmed down and spoke a little slower and a bit nicer.
“I need to know what you know, I need to know what you can do, and I need to know all of it now.”
Miranda looked at him with concern, not because she didn’t want to understand the questions, but because she wasn’t what the real answers were.
“I’m not sure how to answer you. I can’t be sure I know the real answer, I’m just starting to understand what’s going on with me, myself.”
Miranda thought hard and then continued, “For a long time I thought I was crazy, that I didn’t see things but imagined them, that’s what I was told since I can remember. No one ever believed me and my family didn’t trust me. I felt like they hated me for it, but it’s more than that, I’m just not sure…”
Jared felt bad for her and he could see in Miranda eyes all of the pain, hurt and anguish that the years had forced her to endure.
Jared spoke slowly this time, “Start at the beginning and this time I promise, I will listen.”
Jared knew that answers were somewhere locked up inside of Miranda and the only to get to them was to begin where Miranda saw the problems start.
“I could remember from a very young age that I would see things and then they would happen. The more I told people, the more I would get yelled at, or punished. My dad seemed to hate it the most and although I tried to please him it never happened, and George just got more annoyed. My mother, Wendy, always made excuses for his behavior but I knew something was wrong.” She paused for a minute to think, “Please answer one question for me? If you answer my question I’ll tell you whatever you want I promise there’s just something I need to know.” Miranda seemed extremely upset.
“Ok, what is the question you need answered and I’ll do my best, like you I’m not sure I know the answer.”
Jared truly for some reason wanted to help Miranda because he could really feel the pain inside tearing her apart, he too had felt that pain in his past, Jared knew what Miranda wanted and he was ready to give it to her. He felt a strange connection in their lives and pain, he wasn’t sure why but it was growing as she spoke. It was a price worth paying, even if it was his death or if it made his family unhappy, Jared knew this was something he could give to her.
“That man I saw in your eyes, who is he? Do you think we are related?” she asked.
Miranda was very unsure she wanted the answer; she just knew she needed it; this was the answer that had plagued her all of her life.
She continued, “Is there any way you can help me find the answers if you don’t know them?’