Love and Other Aspects

I scream. No one can hear me. I can’t even here myself.
I scream again. And again. And again.
I awake, stilling my thrashing and quieting the noise that had just seemed capable of saving them… the people who gave the only meaning to my life. I slowly wretch my eyes open, forcing them to adjust to the dim lighting of the room. My new room. Funny, to think of it as my new room, considering the room was probably as old as my mother's elven ancestors. What was odd was that for something so ancient, it seemed to lack any history. It seemed as though it had never been used. It was dustless. Empty of knickknacks, or anything personal to me or the mysterious figure that had sent for me to stay.
I slowly pull the blankets from my legs and T-shirt that represented a nightgown. My body was wet with perspiration. My long hair clung to the sides of my sweaty face. I sat up, slowly and carefully. My eyes opened and I saw everything in the room. A small, worn dresser, its dark brown wood fading of color. The matching bedside table, the white lace curtains, deep red carpets that looked like they were capable of disguising multiple blood wounds—of course till the smell began, gross old blood, yuck—large marvelous white wooden doors with blank white walls encircling the room, and, of course, a bare desk—save for my travel beaten pack—along with so much space. Empty space.
I glanced over at the window; the sun was rising in a clear blue sky. Wait. Clear blue? Yeah, I doubt I'd get used to seeing that outside my window every morning. Before I moved to live with an old “family friend”—Dad’s probably, Mom never had guy friends and I am an only child who has never even laid eyes on the man. Literally he invited me to stay and I’ve still never seen him—the sky was always rainy and black and gray and dull and lifeless. And wet.
I hate wet.
I mean it’s not like I expected that it would rain here every single day. It’s just, I don’t know, I got used to it, I guess. I mean you listen and watch it rain every day of your life, then tell me your not used to it… or that you like it.. Wait… never mind… I don’t care.
My parents used to tell me that I was a water spirit or something. Because everywhere we went—since the day I was born, might I add—it always rained. Every day. No storms or tornados or anything. Just rain. To be honest, I think it’s soothing, kind of. But, if you're still intereseted in honesty, I still hate getting wet, the rain’s nice, but if I get wet… then that’s entirely a different story.
The odd part is… without even being in the sun, my skin was tan. An even dark tan which is not what you would expect from a girl who’s never seen the sun for more than a few minutes at a time. A few of my old friends said that I probably got it from my parents, like a heritage thing or something. Then they met my parents. My mother was born in Ireland and has long blonde hair, with baby blue eyes, she’s a bit taller than average height, and she has fair, pale skin. My father, born in London, has short, rustled dark brown hair with a few streaks of gray, bright green eyes, is rather tall, and has a pale complexion; a very pale complexion.
Myself, well, I was born in Russia—grew up in The States—and my hair is a dark, deep red that I usually keep up in a Princess Lia sort of way; braided then wrapped in a bun. I’m short compared to other girls in my old school, I’m five feet tall, and have hazel eyes and very clear, extremely tan skin. You would think that I’d look rather odd with this description, but I don’t. I’ve been told to be pretty and even beautiful, plus I have a fan club. That part is odd, but true.
I picked myself up from the bed and stood. After a minute or two of just standing I went and looked out the window. It was green. The skies were blue and I could feel the unfamiliar warmth of the unfamiliar sun. I shuddered and walked to the doors. I hesitated. ‘What if I get caught? Would I be in trouble? What do I do? Nonsense, I live here now. I’m allowed to go to the bathroom.’ I took a deep breath and opened the doors.
I looked around and stepped out of the room into the long corridor like hallway, and after taking only a few steps was stopped by a woman who looked a lot like a scullery-maid.
“Now what you doing out ‘ere dressed like that, lassie? Why don’t you go and take a nice bath and come back out ‘ere, by then I’m sure Gilda will have breakfast ready.” She had an accent, but I couldn’t pick out which part of Europe it belonged to. Medium length brown hair stuffed into a tight bun, a kind but stern expression on her face, and a basket of fresh linens in her arms.
“I…” Stuttering and blinking I started backing towards my room while trying to explain myself, “I’m sorry ma’am, I just, I was looking for the bathroom, and I thought… well I thought it was out here… and I just, yeah.”
“Oh no, no, lassie, you have your own bathroom in your room, ‘ere let me show you, come on now.” She bustled into the room and opened a set of doors I hadn’t noticed. “’Ere is the bathroom and those doors are leadin’ to your closet, since you didn’t have much clothing materials and such, Master took it upon himself to pick you out some new pretty garments, of course he did have Gilda come with him, so don’t worry about the style, I’m sure you’ll love ‘em. Well, I best be going on my way, them beds don’t make themselves you know!” After a light laugh she said, “Oh by the way lassie, my name’s Rosalie, you can call me whatever you like. Be seeing you.” She placed some linens on the counter, winked at me, and left.
I watched as she left and closed and locked the doors to the bedroom, then ran to the bathtub, turned on the bath water, then rushed to the closet. I was just about to throw open the doors but I stopping myself I thinking ‘Well, don’t want to ruin the surprise’. With a grin I stripped out of the make-shift PJ’s and got everything ready for my morning bath.


I sighed in content a few minutes after gliding out of the most amazing bath I’d ever had. Drying off my legs with the scented towels that Rosalie had so thoughtfully set out on the counter, I reviewed the things I had decided in the bath, I would need to properly thank ‘Master’ for allowing me to stay here, for the bath, for the room, and—looking towards the closet doors—my new wardrobe, meet the people who worked and lived here with me, explore the castle house, tell Rosalie that I’ve decided to call her Rosy, and put the finishing touches on my latest drawing.
Finally deciding I was dry enough, I hung up the towel and stalked to the closet. With a wicked laugh I threw open the doors I had possessively been staring at throughout my bath. And my mouth dropped open to the plush carpet floor. The closet was perfect, the walls painted black, a mini chandelier hung above the ceiling, a mirror framed with gold and silver—by the looks of it—at the end of the hall, and brass poles that stretched at least a mile that were decorated with clothes I only used to dream of. It held clothes for every setting, from casual to semi-formal to formal-formal to evening gowns to clothes set to impress anyone from your friends, the apple of your eye, a boss; it was—in one word—perfect.
With wide eyes and vivid fantasies running through my mind I skipped through the closet and yelped with joy. I settled on a matching black-and-red lace underwear set, not even embarrassed a bit that a man picked these out for me, a soft black long-sleeved shirt that almost clung like my last ex-boyfriend, a pair of light gray jeans with a studded belt that gleamed in the chandelier light, and of course a black pair of high top converse.
Ready for the day I skipped out of the bathroom. And came to a dead stop.
I stared with wide eyes at a boy that looked only a year or so older than I who was dreamily staring out of the window. His dark black hair looked as soft as silk and just brushed the collar of his shirt; and oh, I was more than tempted to reach out and stroke it. He stood at what looked to be 5 and a half feet tall, with broad shoulders that hinted he was no where done growing, narrow hips and a backside that could make any middle or high school girl’s mouth water. He wore a gray t-shirt that was only a bit tight but still showed off that while he looked thin under that tissue paper thin shirt was the body even Jacob Black—who had a body sculpted by angels—would envy. He wore ragged old blue jeans and a pair of worn looking tennis shoes. As I dragged my gaze back towards his face I gave an outward shudder of pleasure, which stopped abruptly when my warm hazel eyes saw that his cool blue ones were watching me watch him. Even as my face and neck heated, my eyes went straight to the floor, but still managed to give him another once-over. I started to try to think of ways to apologize, but the only coherent things in my jumbled mind were “Oh, hell,” and “Damn, he’s hot.” So of course, that’s what popped out of my mouth, followed by a string of mumbled curses.
Finally I managed to say sorry correctly, then realized that he still hadn’t said a word, I brought my eyes back up to his—and was proud that I avoided lingering too long at his torso—and saw that he was desperately trying not to laugh.
When he looked like he was about to pass out from not laughing I sighed and said, “Go ahead and laugh, if you don’t I think you’re brain will melt.” When he laughed a rich and deep sound, my heart fluttered inside my chest, my brain turned to mush, and the inner girly-girl in me that I had successfully locked in a cage in the back of my mind, found the key, unlocked the cage, sprinted to the front of my mind, and proceeded to swoon and sigh as she sagged to her knees in defeat before him. It took him about two minutes to finally recover and by that time he was rubbing his sides and wiping his eyes from tears. After he took a couple deep breaths I said, “Okay, so now that you’re done laughing maniacally, who are you? Why are you here? And how in hell’s name did you get into my room?” I remembered that I had locked the door when Rosy left.
He stood up straight, and with a grin—which looked rather mocking to me—he said, “I’m Kaden Barron, I’m here to welcome you to your humble new home, and Rosalie let me in, even though I have a key.” He raised an eyebrow at me and said, “Are you through with your Q&A?”
With flashing eyes I stalked over to the desk and sat down picking up my bag and finding my makeup bag started to apply my eye liner and mascara. When I heard him shuffle his feet I said, “No, I’m not done Kaden. You didn’t answer my first question. Who are you? I don’t seem to care about your name, mind you, and I also want to know why you have a key to my room, why you need to welcome me, and” I stopped when my stomach made a very loud rumbling noise. I sighed and finished “—and if breakfast is ready.”
“Gilda just finished setting the table, come on, I’ll tell you about me on the way down.” With a sigh I finished up my eyes then grabbed my hair brush, took a hair band off of the brush handle and brushed my hair back into a pony tail, since I didn’t have time to braid it and put it up into a bun, I was forced to leave it that way. I stood up and followed Kaden out of the room and silently fought to keep up with his long legged stride.
“I was born here 17 years ago, my mother died when I was five, she was an amazing and loving mother, and she died peacefully in her sleep, there’s no need to feel sorry for me,” he added with a glance at my eyes that threatened to tear up. “She’d throw a tantrum if people felt sorry for her; she was always such a proud woman. Anyway, I grew up with a good education, I’m in my junior year, get good grades, I like heavy metal, country, classical music, everything really. Let’s see, I love animals, wish I could live in the country sometimes, away from all the noise. I like long walks on the beach and I love horror movies.” He paused as we rounded the corner and saw Rosy walking by, stopping her I said, “Hello Rosy, thank you for the towels, and you were right I absolutely love my new clothes, oh and I think I’ll call you Rosy, if that’s all right with you.” She looked at me astonished and then tears started gathering in her eyes. Confused, I was about to apologize but then she dropped the basket she’d been holding and grabbed me in a bear hug, with a final squeeze she eased back and said, “Oh, dear, excuse me, but Rosy is a fine name, nobody’s ever given me a nickname. I’d be delighted if you’d call me that. Such a sweet lass, she is. Ah, Kaden my boy isn’t she just as sweet as a chocolate button? Oh, I’m so glad that you came to live with us! Aren’t you, Kaden? Aren’t you delighted she’s here? Don’t you think she’s just so adorable? Oh, I could just eat you up lassie! Oh my, I seem to have forgotten my manners, what’s your name sweetheart?”
“Oh, um, my name… it’s Raven. Raven Moonflower, my grandparents were hippies and my dad thought it was hilarious and kept the name, it was a surprise that my mom agreed to keep it.” Awkward because I was caught off guard and I hated that I had to lie about my elven heritage, I looked down at my feet and felt my face heating up. Kaden, noticing my expression slung an arm around my shoulder and said, “I’m absolutely delighted that Ms. Moonflower is staying with us as well, Rosalie. I also think that she’s gorgeous and that she’s starving.” And right on cue, my stomach roared.
“Oh, well then, Kaden what’re you still doing here? Get this button some of Gilda’s delicious breakfast! And that’s an order boy, get on now. I’ll see you later lassie.” With a wink she grabbed up her basket and vanished.
My face still flushed with embarrassment and my mind still a confused jumbled mess, added to the fact that Kaden’s muscular arm was still resting on my shoulders, I was totally unprepared when Kaden took one look at my face, grinned a smug grin—the damn bastard—and lifted me off of my feet. He jogged down the hallway and down a flight of stairs to a bright room with a wall covered with windows and a long table that was set for two with the tastiest looking food I’d ever seen in my life. With blinking surprise I realized that Kaden had already crossed the room, and was putting me down a chair. I looked at Kaden as he sat right next to me and started digging into his food.
I shook my head and looked at my own plate, seeing how much food was piled onto the platter I wondered idly what I should eat first. I picked up my fork and took a bite of warm, buttery, fluffy pancakes drenched with blueberry syrup and my taste buds melted. “Oh my Goddess, this is so good. Gilda made this? I need to meet her and sob my thanks at her beautiful pancake making feet.” I licked my lips and greedily ate down the rest of the pancakes, sausage, hash browns, cheesy eggs, and the perfect coffee in a cup that I only vaguely recognized as my ‘Not a Morning Person’ mug. I sighed in content when I had practically licked the plate clean, and Kaden who still continued to shovel food down his throat looked at me, then my empty plate and back to me in surprise—apparently he wasn’t used to being out-eaten by a girl. I rewarded him a savage yet lazy cat grin, lifted my mug and took another sweetened sip of coffee. He swallowed and just gaped at me then grinned, shook his head in astonishment and finished shoveling the last couple of bites into his mouth then took his coffee cup and raised it to mine and took a ravishing gulp of his own coffee. We sat there grinning at each other till we heard a startled, “Oh my!” from a young woman in her early twenties it seemed, looking at us and our plates in surprise.
Kaden got up, smiled at her. “’Morning, don’t look so surprised. We’re two growing teenagers and you’re food is the best in the world. We’d be idiots if we hadn’t practically inhaled all of it in five minutes. Oh, and this little young lady is Raven Moonflower, our new tenant. Raven this is Gilda, our famous cook.” She smiled a small smile and curtsied then began stacking the plates, utensils, and cups on a tray. She slapped my hand away when I tried to help and said, “You’re living here, so you should know: I don’t let anyone help with the dishes, you’re not to pick up a plate unless it’s to lick the juices off of it.” She smiled again and disappeared to where I supposed the kitchen would be.
I blinked after her and rubbed my stinging hand. Kaden got to his feet and said “Don’t worry she’s always like that. Come on, let’s go on a tour of the grounds, I’m sure you’ll get lost if you don’t know the place. Oh, and I have a surprise I’m sure you’ll love.” He held out his hand and I let him help me up, he didn’t let go of my hand as we left the room.
We walked everywhere, from parlors and sitting rooms, we went past at least a dozen bedrooms, there was a music room, another room for just a piano, a coat room, then Kaden led me to another room. The door was black with a dark red frame, he opened the door and what I saw left me so surprised I almost keeled over. Luckily I was able to recover fast and I screamed, “OH MY GODDESS!!!!” then he pulled my into the room, shut the door, then pushed me up against the door and put his hand over my mouth. "Wow, he’s really fast and cute and oh my goddess he’s touching me!! Ohhh, he has really pretty eyes, there’s every shade of blue in his eyes." These were my thoughts as I stood pressed between the hunk of door and the hunk of Kaden. After we just stood there for a couple of anti-climatic moments he said, “You have to be quiet! You’re allowed in my room but if one of the maids sees and tells Rosalie, she’ll kill me and have Gilda roast me over a blaze and serve me for dinner! So, be quiet, now this isn’t exactly the surprise I had for you, but in order to see the surprise we have to go through my room. So, I’m going to take my hand off of your mouth—and by the way, you have really soft lips—can I trust you not to scream again or am I going to have to drag you with my hand over your mouth the entire way?”
I nodded to show that he could trust me, though I barely registered what I was doing, my mind kinda tangled itself up the second he said I had really soft lips. He took his hand away from my face, but stayed pressed up against me. I whispered, “Thank you, and um where are you taking me and why does it require to go through your room?”
He smiled and said, “You’re very welcome—” "I wonder what it would be like to feel your lips with my own" I thought,— “it’s a surprise and because the only entrance is through my room.” He removed his body from mine, which kinda made me sad, and grabbing my hand led me to a set of double doors on the east wall of his room. He opened the doors and dragged me inside. I took one glance around and I swear my heart exploded. The room was oval shaped and huge. When I say huge I mean H-U-G-E. And lining the wall was shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books. Think of the library from Beauty from the Beast, it’s like that, only bigger, and real. Still holding Kaden’s hand I ran to the wall, and just skimmed the titles, running around the entire library, dragging him with me, laughing, skipping, and tripping over my feet. I was in heaven, so many books! And I liked every genre! There were art books too!! It was so amazing I could barely breathe!! And it’s all thanks to Kaden, he showed me this place, he brought me here, he knew I would love it.
I stopped running suddenly and Kaden plowed into me. We started to fall and he maneuvered it so that he fell on the ground and I fell on him. When we recovered, he looked up at me and said, “What did you stop for?” I looked down at him and wondered how he knew that I would like it, and thought it was so nice of him to bring me here, and even though I knew it would bring me trouble, even though I barely knew anything about him, and even though there was a chance I would be leaving this place one day in the future I let myself fall a little bit in love with him. This boy I didn’t know, this boy with the blue eyes and the black hair and that butt, this boy who was underneath me so I wouldn’t get hurt falling, this boy who knew I would love this library, I let myself fall just a little bit in love with this boy.
I blinked and looked at him then smiled and said, “I was just testing your reflexes!” He looked so shocked I started laughing. Then he laughed with me, finally we both calmed down and he asked, “Why did you really stop?” I looked back at him and stated, “I was thinking about how amazing this was, then I realized you brought me here, and I wondered how you knew I would love this place.”
“Well, when you were in your bathroom I came in, I saw your art book—don’t worry I didn’t go through it—and the books in your bag, I thought you were a heavy reader, so I kinda hoped—err thought—you might like it here. There’s also a side room with fireplace in here, and there’s candles in there, so you can read by candle light if you want. Also, there’s a balcony connected to the side room. You can see the gardens; you want to go see them now? Of course, it looks even better at night. So, ‘how bout it?”
I laughed, “Sure why not, come on.” I got up and helped him up, this time neither of us willing to let go of each others’ hands.