The sun shining and the birds chirping were the heralds of a new day for a young teen, who grumbled incoherently and shoved his head deeper under a pillow. Soon the soft rhythmic breathing of a person in slumber was heard.
The door creaked open as a tousled head peaked in. A wicked grin soon appeared on the elf-like face of a young woman. Slowly she crept towards the bed making little sound, though she had to stuff a hand in her mouth to stifle the giggle threatening to get out. Settling on her haunches right in front of the bed she kept her eyes firmly on the lump in the bed. As the minutes clicked by the grin on her face got larger and ever more mischievous. Slowly she leaned forward and opened her mouth.
As the alarm clock began to blare, the high note she had been hoping to hit was effectively silenced as a used gym sock was stuffed into her maw by a hand protruding from the covers while a second hand was fumbling with the alarm clock. An eye blearily glared up at the young woman who was busy spitting out the sock and scrubbing her tongue with her hand.
“Why did you do that Ren?” the young woman whined.
“Maybe because, oh I don’t know, I don’t feel like waking up with a banshee in my ear.” spoke the now identified Ren.
A smirk appeared on the girl’s face, “So you believe in banshees?”
A derisive snort answered her question.
“Oh, come on, with all you’ve been a part of you’re dismissing the idea of banshees being real?”
A look of skepticism appeared on Ren’s face, “What have I been a part of? Midnight watches on places that are supposedly haunted by the creepy crawlies? Please,” another snort. “Nothing happened in any of those places that couldn’t be explained by the rational mind, Kylee.”
A look of consternation and pity crossed her features before it promptly disappeared, the facial expression missed by Ren as he rubbed his eyes and gave a great big yawn.
“So,” Kylee began as she watched Ren root through his clothes drawer. “How do you feel about going to a public school after being home schooled for the past eight years?”
Ren stopped routing through his clothes drawer to look at her. “I’m the one who wanted to go back to school.”
“What? Why?”
A sigh started his answer. “Kylee for the past eight years, as you’ve said, I’ve been home schooled even though we had no true home for those eight years. I’m constantly doing homework or helping you research, while being forced into doing those nighttime investigations. I never played sports, hung out with friends or even made friends.”
“What?” Kylee shrieked. “I thought you made lots of friends!”
“No, Kylee. All the kids I met moved on or never responded to my emails. Well, everyone except Myria.”
“Myria?” Kylee questioned.
“She was someone I met at one of those haunted hotels. Her family was vacationing there but that night she was too scared to fall asleep. She was telling me a story about some horned entity that tried to pull her off her bed the previous night. I sat with her the whole night, talking with her, playing games… keeping her mind off what was scaring her. When the sun rose, she gave me a hug and her email.”
“Ahh, I see. Young love,” Kylee said with a wicked smile.
“Ha, ha,” Ren laughed sarcastically. “No. She said in her last email that she’d be going to high school here, so I wanted to go as well. Now can you please get out of my room so I can get dressed?”
“Sure,” Kylee said grumpily. “Though I still have to ask, why leather?”
“I think it’s comfortable and it drives dad nuts,” said a grinning Ren.
“Comfortable? Really?” She asked skeptically. “Yep, comfortable.”
Shrugging her shoulders Kylee got up and left the room. Grumbling to himself, Ren pulled on the leather pants that Kylee had scoffed at. Pulling on a green t-shirt and tucking it into his pants, Ren finished his ensemble with a belt. As he wandered into the bathroom to begin his daily ablutions, he stopped to admire himself in the mirror for a second before shaking his head at his own vanity and finishing up in the bathroom. Ren ran his hands along his jaw searching for any stubble that might have started growing.
“I don’t know why I do that; I don’t even shave yet.” he mumbled to himself.
“Hey Ren, talking to ghosts again?” a voice nearly shouted in his ear.
Letting out an undignified squeak, Ren spun around putting his back to a wall. A female of about twenty-five was standing there; her red hair was pulled back into a top knot that hung down to the middle of her back. Her blue eyes twinkled with mischief and a mocking grin dominated her face. A camera dangled from her right hand it was of high-quality make.
“Allie what the he…” Ren began before a stern voice shouted from down in the kitchen. “Language!”
Looking aggrieved Ren looked down the hallway before sticking his tongue out.
“And put your tongue back into your mouth!”
“Bloody people know me too well,” Ren muttered to himself. Allie continued to stand there looking highly amused at both Ren’s outburst as well as the conversation that had just taken place.
“So back to what I was saying: what are you doing here?”
“Attempting to use the bathroom?” Allie questioned innocently, her eyes still dancing with mischief. Ren just stared at her, lips settling into a frown, green eyes narrowing. After a minute had passed without either moving, Allie began twitching though the mischief never left her eyes.
“Gods above, don’t do that!” Allie exploded, “Your mother’s stare is creepy enough, but combined with your father’s eyes makes it feel worse.”
Ren grinned at her. “I win again, though you lasted longer this time.”
“Yeah whatever. Back to your question, Kylee did some research on this town and found a number of haunted locations as well as sightings of strange creatures that generally aren’t sighted around this part of the world.”
With a snort Ren walked off with a muttered “whatever.” Allie frowned at his back as he wandered off, the mischief dying from her eyes before shrugging her shoulders and wandering into the bathroom. A moment passed before she ducked back out to take a picture of Ren as he walked away. Snickering to herself she moved back into the bathroom.
As Ren wandered down the stairs, he continued to mumble to himself about crazy camera ladies, demented history buffs and obsessed paranormal parents. The green walls of the stairwell along with the hardwood floors reminded Ren of a forest walk; he shook his head at his mother’s decor tastes. His mother was a practicing Wiccan with Druidic tendencies; she was one of the most secretive persons Ren had ever met. Yet she pursued the paranormal with almost religious fervour and spoke to Ren of even the most horrific encounters she had endured.
As he continued his descent his hands encountered the end of the banister in which his father’s interest became apparent. A grinning gargoyle was staring at the door, its mate on the other side doing the same. His father was a demonologist and had been schooled in the Roman Catholic art of Exorcism. Strangely enough his father had never studied to be a priest, but the church had been willing to show him their techniques. His father then supplemented that training by learning other exorcisms from other disciplines.
Ren shook his head once more as he reached the landing. ‘With all the head shaking this morning’ Ren thought ‘I could forgive anyone watching thinking that I was insane.’ Looking between the door to the exterior and to the kitchen Ren thought about just heading out before he realized the earful he would get from his parents if he did that. First would be his mother’s disappointed look that he didn’t eat breakfast with whatever family was awake, and then it would be his father’s lecture about being a part of the family.
‘Family,’ Ren thought to himself. ‘Hmph, half the time this doesn’t feel like a family and the other times it feels if there is too much family.’
Hearing a squeak on the floorboard Ren turned to stare at the newcomer, coming face to chest with his self-stylized big brother.
Craning his neck up to look the man in the eye, Ren said. “Hello Blake.”
“Hey kid,” Blake responded. “So, what are you up to today?”
Ren stared at him incredulously for a moment before shaking head and darting around Blake to get into the kitchen.
“It’s Monday Blake. I’m going to school.”
“You, go to school? Why do you want to go to school? Home schooling is what you have always done, plus you’re too smart. You’ll be bored going at the other kids paces,” Blake gaped at him, jaw moving without sound after he finished speaking.
“You and Kylee think too much of me. I just work hard and have lots of time to study, what with the having few friends to talk to thing,” Ren waved his hand mockingly at the friends’ comment.
“Why do you put yourself down like that? And I thought you had friends?” Blake questioned him.
“I’m not putting myself down, I’m just not as smart as you think I am. As for friends I have one that I can reliably call such.” Ren responded as he quickly darted into the kitchen. ‘I might not even make it to school with how much they want to talk this morning.’ Ren thought to himself irritably.
Walking into the kitchen Ren had to shake his head at his father who already had his head buried in a book with his laptop open beside him, glancing between both and writing something down. Offering a half-hearted good morning to his father, who grunted without looking up, Ren proceeded to make himself some toast. Munching thoughtfully while standing behind his father, Ren made note of places to avoid; not because he believed they were paranormal, but so he knew where to not go so as not to be sucked into something by his possibly deranged family.
Ren finished his breakfast and wandered back out to the front door saying bye to his father on his way out; a muffled “later” was his answer. Ren smiled at his father’s parting words; while his father was a hard ass he still loved his son and wanted the best for him. Ren knew this but still found himself at odds with his old man on many different occasions.
Rooting through the front closet Ren grabbed his green and black leather motorcycle jacket and his full-face helmet. As Ren left, he snagged a pair of keys and his wallet which he then stuffed into his back pocket. Pulling his jacket on and stepping into a pair of motorcycle boots Ren opened the front door to head off to school.
Moving to his green and black Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS Ren straddled it before starting it up, looking down at his gas tank his eyes caught a flash of colour, and Ren had to laugh. A Celtic knot of protection wound its way along the bike in silver along with runes of protection in different languages.
Laughing at his mother and her beliefs but also very touched that she would go to such lengths to protect him Ren yelled out, “Thanks Mom!” Before putting his helmet on and pulling his gloves on that he took from his pocket. Slapping the visor down Ren sped off to school and to his friend.