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Description
Affinity: Chapter Two
Minus One, Divided by Two:
Chapter Play list:
Paramore - Feeling Sorry
Plus 44 - Little Death
Eminem ft. Rhianna - Love the Way You Lie
*****************************************

I looked into Jacob's eyes, and I remembered.

In the next short, fleeting seconds that followed image after image poured from my head.

Green Eyes, smoothe voice. "I'm coming, Grace. I promise."

The weight of realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I froze and stood stock-still. I slowly forced my head to turn in Jacob's direction. My face was stuck in a gaze of amazement. Eyes, wide, mouth hanging open in a "o."  I heard the fuzzy sounds of voices in Sydney's direction and a growl coming from Damien. My head snapped up and my eyes narrowed.

"You knew..." I snarled. "All along you knew and you never tried to fix it?!" I took a step towards him and felt a cool hand grasp my wrist and begin to rub light circles on the veins there. I relaxed almost instantly, and fell to Jacob's side. Still angry and glowering in Damien's direction.

"I knew, and I can only tell you that I didn't mention it out of sheer greed. I knew we weren't right together. Meryenne told me, but I ignored her. I wanted you, regardless of what anyone said." He begged me with his eyes to understand, and to maybe try not to be so upset. But, I couldn't. He was willing to screw up three other lives, so he could have who he wanted.

"Well, what are you going to do now, D? The only person on this planet that matches you completely is dead!" I spat at him.  Opening my arms wide and then crossing them infront of me. I saw him flinch. I'd hit a nerve. Well, he needs to get used to it. I think I might hit a few more. I was officially miffed.

"Grace, I do  love you. It started out as a misunderstanding. I figured that if we kept it like that, there wouldn't be a problem." His eyes turned haunted. He was seeing the error in his ways.

"Well, look here, Sparky, there is a problem. I trusted you immediately. Never doubted it, because -- as you so falsely put it -- I 'belong' with you. Well, I figure that that's a load of B.S. and you owe all of us," I motioned to Jacob, Sydney, and myself, "an apology. And I think you're lucky that Sydney's dead. She'd kill you if she knew what you did." With that I turned and left him standing there. Mouth gaping like a fish. I had bigger things to worry about. My sister was dead.

"They came out of nowhere, we didn't know we were on their territory. Sydney said the scent was old." Jacob whispered to himself as he stood behind me, nervously fiddling with a strand of my hair. "You didn't have to be so rutheless, you should be mad at me too," he turned me away from Sydney and drew my chin up to meet his gaze.

"Why should I be mad at you? You didn't lie to me for a year and a half. The only thing you did to me was haunt my dreams like mad. And I didn't even know it was you. I couldn't rememeber!" I plopped onto the ground and touched Sydney's hand. Jacob followed me and placed his hand ontop of mine.

"Because I let it happen, I didn't protect you when it should have been my first priority."

"You know, you should be your first priority. And what about Sydney, couldn't you tell that it just wasn't working out?" I heard faint murmurings and rustlings next me and my sister's lifeless body was heaved from the ground. Her hand slipped limply out from under mine. That left Jacob and me, sitting there, together in our lonliness.

"I did know, and I'm just as guilty as Damien is. I can't understand why you're not angry with me." His brow furrowed, a notch forming between his eyes.

"Because I know that he bullied you into it. You would have never have done that without proper incentive. You're too good." I sighed and rubbed my face nervously.

"I'm too good, eh? So, killing hundreds  is good? Not being able to protect one of my  is good? And breaking your heart -- is that  good?" He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled us to our feet.

"So, we should bury her here?" Marcus and Hunter had scooped out a Sydney-sized hole in the ground. The rest of my family was gathered around the opening.

"I think she'd like that. This was the last place we were with her." I walked closer to the edge of the pit and dropped a flower petal in ontop of my sister's form. I walked to the shade of a tree outlining the clearing. I heard Jacob's shadowing footsteps.

"Grace, I think we should talk about this. About us." He took my hand in his and looked into the canopy. As if the answers were written there for him to find.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can just go on, pretend... pretend nothing happened, if you want it that way," I told him sliding my hand out of his grasp. I leaped quietly to the lowest branch of the tree and sat there. I swung my legs, staring at the ground.

"That's not what I meant, but if you don't want to, that's fine as well. I want to, if it matters at all." He climbed onto my branch and we sat in silence, listening to dirt hit dirt and grieving whispers. Our family was covering up the body of my sister, entombing her within the Earth.

"So do I, if it matters," I murmured as I slipped lithely from the oak branch. Why did I keep running from this? I was scared out of my mind. That's why. All along I must've known, though. I must have. To be able to remember means I knew, at one point in time, that it was Jacob and not Damien. A small thud told me that Jacob had also dismounted the knotty oak.

"So, you're okay with this? You're not scared?" He looked at me with curiosity. His brow scrunched together again.

"Yes! I'm scared silly, I don't know why. But yeah, I'm okay with this." I took his hand and guided him back to the group hovering over Sydney's grave. "You guys, She's been given a proper burial. I'm sure Sydney would agree that we should all go home and get some rest.

"Gracey's right, we should go home. That's where we need to be right now, at home, with the people we love." As Jacob finished his sentence, I looked up at him. Our eyes met and he gave me a half-smile and nodded.

"Thank you," I mouthed to him. We all left the clearing, running as fast as we could. Whether it was spoken or not we were all ready to leave the burial site of our beloved. It seemed that on that night the willow's branches hung lower over the dew misted earth as grass hoppers and locusts played a funeral derge for my Sydney.

"No problem," he smiled broader and released my hand as we raced back to the house. I got to the front door and froze. I wouldn't be able to sleep in my old room with Damien, where the walls were black, along with the floor, contrasting from the white words painted in all shapes and sizes across the wood. But I needed to get my stuff. This was going to be sticky. I launched myself ahead of Jacob and Damien, rushing to beat him to the room so he wouldn't deny me entrance. I grabbed most of my clothes and my acoustic. A second trip rescued my keyboard and electric guitar. Five minutes later I was doing my best to build something that halfway resembled a bed out of the white, light and dark blue floor cushions in the sun-room. I sat back admiring my handiwork. It would do, I am definately not a princess and the pea type of girl. I slid the paint splattered canvas to the far corner of the room, taking the wolf off of it. I held up the large canvas and looked the beast in the eyes.

"Now what do I do?" I stared at the image. Nothing.

"What the heck are you doing in here? Building a castle?" Jacob looked around the room, an amused smirk spread across his features. He took in the stacked cushions and chuckled lightly. "So you're staying in here?" He raised on eyebrow and came further into the room. He sat on my pitiful excuse for a bed and patted the next wobbly section next to him.

"I think it would be best, just for the time being." I tucked one leg underneath me and turned to face him. "That's okay, right? I just don't want things going south." My gaze drifted toward the direction of Damien's bedroom.

"I see. Well, I guess I'll just have to camp out here too." Jacob stripped one layer of cushions off of my stack and assembled them on the floor a few feet away from mine.

"Do you have some sort of death wish?!" I walked over to where he was reclined on his cot in the center of the room. Hands behind his head and his legs crossed. He looked up at me, smilled, and closed his eyes again."Seriously, you can't stay here. Damien will be pissed!" I ranted and raved for a few more minutes and never got a reply. He just layed there with a serene look on his face. Eventually, I gave up. I had to shower and change. I did both and drug some blankets into the sun-room I threw one over Jacob, arranging it so that it covered his feet. I swear to God I thought I saw him smirk. I climbed onto my tower of terror, and slowly but surely, I fell asleep.

My dreams that night were peaceful. There were flashes of green but this time they were perfect orbs framed by an albaster face that shined like the gods. Jacob. All along, it was him. I awoke the next morning on my own. No words resounded in my head like echoes. I was safe and I was free. That fluttery feeling in my stomach was gone. I stared at the room around me. The white walls with dark blue stripes of different thicknesses wrapped around me like a coccoon. My sister was dead. The popcorned ceiling shrunk to come level with my face. Damien had lied. I was having a full blown panic attack. Jacob's steady breathing hitched. He grumbled and turned over. Jacob is here. The pressure lifted and I was okay again. The ceiling rose. The walls expanded. Jacob was here.

"Grace?" Jacob mumbled in his sleep. He was dreaming of me. I froze and focused on what he was saying. "I'm here. I promise." He turned over and fell silent.

"Jay?" I tried to wake him. I peered over my pile of pillows at him. "Jake, psst, Jacob!" Nothing. I got up and tip-toed over to him. "Jake, Jacob! Wake up!" I poked at him with my foot. No response. I squatted down and leaned over him. "Jake," I shoved his shoulder. His arms shot up and grabbed me knocking me to the ground. I screamed which meant everybody came running. They found me, in my jammies and him in his boxers and instantly assumed the worst.

"What's wr-," Jake stopped short noticing everybody in the door way. He pulled the covers back over himself and went back to sleep. I had no better idea so I followed suit. I ran to my makeshift bed, jumped on it, flung the covers over myself and slammed my eyes shut. I could feel the confused, shocked looks on everyone's face. Eventually everybody left awkwardly. Hearing the retreating footsteps, Jacob's and my eyes instantly cracked open. We glanced at each other and began laughing hysterically. He rolled off of his platform and onto the floor. I did the same. We laughed until we cried. I cried for Sydney, for Damien, and I cried with joy for Jacob. Then I got to thinking. My euphoria-induced epiphany gave me the idea that if Syd was dead, she could be a ghost. I am a Spirit Seer. I wanted to give this a shot.

"Jacob, what if Sydney's a lost soul? A spirit?" His eyes widened with the dawning realization. He slapped a hand to his forhead like he should have thought of it way before then.

"You could talk to her." he smiled. "Let's give it a shot!" My heart soared. I rushed to sit next to Jacob on the sunroom floor. I focused on thoughts of my sister and seeing her.

Au Revoir, Sister. I turned my head to her voice. There she was. My sister, Sydney.

She didn't look entirely solid. She was dressed in the same clothes as when she died. A gash of flesh missing from her throat.

"What happened to you? Who did this?" I approached my sibling.

I thought the scent was old. It wasn't... We were on their territory. They came out of nowhere. Jacob tried to help but couldn't get there fast enough. It was too late by then..

"Who, Syd?"

Jacob grabbed me from behind, spun me around, and kissed me. It broke my concentration and the connection, and Sydney flickered away.

Description
Affinity: Chapter Two
Minus One, Divided by Two:
Chapter Play list:
Paramore - Feeling Sorry
Plus 44 - Little Death
Eminem ft. Rhianna - Love the Way You Lie
*****************************************

I looked into Jacob's eyes, and I remembered.

In the next short, fleeting seconds that followed image after image poured from my head.

Green Eyes, smoothe voice. "I'm coming, Grace. I promise."

The weight of realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I froze and stood stock-still. I slowly forced my head to turn in Jacob's direction. My face was stuck in a gaze of amazement. Eyes, wide, mouth hanging open in a "o."  I heard the fuzzy sounds of voices in Sydney's direction and a growl coming from Damien. My head snapped up and my eyes narrowed.

"You knew..." I snarled. "All along you knew and you never tried to fix it?!" I took a step towards him and felt a cool hand grasp my wrist and begin to rub light circles on the veins there. I relaxed almost instantly, and fell to Jacob's side. Still angry and glowering in Damien's direction.

"I knew, and I can only tell you that I didn't mention it out of sheer greed. I knew we weren't right together. Meryenne told me, but I ignored her. I wanted you, regardless of what anyone said." He begged me with his eyes to understand, and to maybe try not to be so upset. But, I couldn't. He was willing to screw up three other lives, so he could have who he wanted.

"Well, what are you going to do now, D? The only person on this planet that matches you completely is dead!" I spat at him.  Opening my arms wide and then crossing them infront of me. I saw him flinch. I'd hit a nerve. Well, he needs to get used to it. I think I might hit a few more. I was officially miffed.

"Grace, I do  love you. It started out as a misunderstanding. I figured that if we kept it like that, there wouldn't be a problem." His eyes turned haunted. He was seeing the error in his ways.

"Well, look here, Sparky, there is a problem. I trusted you immediately. Never doubted it, because -- as you so falsely put it -- I 'belong' with you. Well, I figure that that's a load of B.S. and you owe all of us," I motioned to Jacob, Sydney, and myself, "an apology. And I think you're lucky that Sydney's dead. She'd kill you if she knew what you did." With that I turned and left him standing there. Mouth gaping like a fish. I had bigger things to worry about. My sister was dead.

"They came out of nowhere, we didn't know we were on their territory. Sydney said the scent was old." Jacob whispered to himself as he stood behind me, nervously fiddling with a strand of my hair. "You didn't have to be so rutheless, you should be mad at me too," he turned me away from Sydney and drew my chin up to meet his gaze.

"Why should I be mad at you? You didn't lie to me for a year and a half. The only thing you did to me was haunt my dreams like mad. And I didn't even know it was you. I couldn't rememeber!" I plopped onto the ground and touched Sydney's hand. Jacob followed me and placed his hand ontop of mine.

"Because I let it happen, I didn't protect you when it should have been my first priority."

"You know, you should be your first priority. And what about Sydney, couldn't you tell that it just wasn't working out?" I heard faint murmurings and rustlings next me and my sister's lifeless body was heaved from the ground. Her hand slipped limply out from under mine. That left Jacob and me, sitting there, together in our lonliness.

"I did know, and I'm just as guilty as Damien is. I can't understand why you're not angry with me." His brow furrowed, a notch forming between his eyes.

"Because I know that he bullied you into it. You would have never have done that without proper incentive. You're too good." I sighed and rubbed my face nervously.

"I'm too good, eh? So, killing hundreds  is good? Not being able to protect one of my  is good? And breaking your heart -- is that  good?" He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled us to our feet.

"So, we should bury her here?" Marcus and Hunter had scooped out a Sydney-sized hole in the ground. The rest of my family was gathered around the opening.

"I think she'd like that. This was the last place we were with her." I walked closer to the edge of the pit and dropped a flower petal in ontop of my sister's form. I walked to the shade of a tree outlining the clearing. I heard Jacob's shadowing footsteps.

"Grace, I think we should talk about this. About us." He took my hand in his and looked into the canopy. As if the answers were written there for him to find.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can just go on, pretend... pretend nothing happened, if you want it that way," I told him sliding my hand out of his grasp. I leaped quietly to the lowest branch of the tree and sat there. I swung my legs, staring at the ground.

"That's not what I meant, but if you don't want to, that's fine as well. I want to, if it matters at all." He climbed onto my branch and we sat in silence, listening to dirt hit dirt and grieving whispers. Our family was covering up the body of my sister, entombing her within the Earth.

"So do I, if it matters," I murmured as I slipped lithely from the oak branch. Why did I keep running from this? I was scared out of my mind. That's why. All along I must've known, though. I must have. To be able to remember means I knew, at one point in time, that it was Jacob and not Damien. A small thud told me that Jacob had also dismounted the knotty oak.

"So, you're okay with this? You're not scared?" He looked at me with curiosity. His brow scrunched together again.

"Yes! I'm scared silly, I don't know why. But yeah, I'm okay with this." I took his hand and guided him back to the group hovering over Sydney's grave. "You guys, She's been given a proper burial. I'm sure Sydney would agree that we should all go home and get some rest.

"Gracey's right, we should go home. That's where we need to be right now, at home, with the people we love." As Jacob finished his sentence, I looked up at him. Our eyes met and he gave me a half-smile and nodded.

"Thank you," I mouthed to him. We all left the clearing, running as fast as we could. Whether it was spoken or not we were all ready to leave the burial site of our beloved. It seemed that on that night the willow's branches hung lower over the dew misted earth as grass hoppers and locusts played a funeral derge for my Sydney.

"No problem," he smiled broader and released my hand as we raced back to the house. I got to the front door and froze. I wouldn't be able to sleep in my old room with Damien, where the walls were black, along with the floor, contrasting from the white words painted in all shapes and sizes across the wood. But I needed to get my stuff. This was going to be sticky. I launched myself ahead of Jacob and Damien, rushing to beat him to the room so he wouldn't deny me entrance. I grabbed most of my clothes and my acoustic. A second trip rescued my keyboard and electric guitar. Five minutes later I was doing my best to build something that halfway resembled a bed out of the white, light and dark blue floor cushions in the sun-room. I sat back admiring my handiwork. It would do, I am definately not a princess and the pea type of girl. I slid the paint splattered canvas to the far corner of the room, taking the wolf off of it. I held up the large canvas and looked the beast in the eyes.

"Now what do I do?" I stared at the image. Nothing.

"What the heck are you doing in here? Building a castle?" Jacob looked around the room, an amused smirk spread across his features. He took in the stacked cushions and chuckled lightly. "So you're staying in here?" He raised on eyebrow and came further into the room. He sat on my pitiful excuse for a bed and patted the next wobbly section next to him.

"I think it would be best, just for the time being." I tucked one leg underneath me and turned to face him. "That's okay, right? I just don't want things going south." My gaze drifted toward the direction of Damien's bedroom.

"I see. Well, I guess I'll just have to camp out here too." Jacob stripped one layer of cushions off of my stack and assembled them on the floor a few feet away from mine.

"Do you have some sort of death wish?!" I walked over to where he was reclined on his cot in the center of the room. Hands behind his head and his legs crossed. He looked up at me, smilled, and closed his eyes again."Seriously, you can't stay here. Damien will be pissed!" I ranted and raved for a few more minutes and never got a reply. He just layed there with a serene look on his face. Eventually, I gave up. I had to shower and change. I did both and drug some blankets into the sun-room I threw one over Jacob, arranging it so that it covered his feet. I swear to God I thought I saw him smirk. I climbed onto my tower of terror, and slowly but surely, I fell asleep.

My dreams that night were peaceful. There were flashes of green but this time they were perfect orbs framed by an albaster face that shined like the gods. Jacob. All along, it was him. I awoke the next morning on my own. No words resounded in my head like echoes. I was safe and I was free. That fluttery feeling in my stomach was gone. I stared at the room around me. The white walls with dark blue stripes of different thicknesses wrapped around me like a coccoon. My sister was dead. The popcorned ceiling shrunk to come level with my face. Damien had lied. I was having a full blown panic attack. Jacob's steady breathing hitched. He grumbled and turned over. Jacob is here. The pressure lifted and I was okay again. The ceiling rose. The walls expanded. Jacob was here.

"Grace?" Jacob mumbled in his sleep. He was dreaming of me. I froze and focused on what he was saying. "I'm here. I promise." He turned over and fell silent.

"Jay?" I tried to wake him. I peered over my pile of pillows at him. "Jake, psst, Jacob!" Nothing. I got up and tip-toed over to him. "Jake, Jacob! Wake up!" I poked at him with my foot. No response. I squatted down and leaned over him. "Jake," I shoved his shoulder. His arms shot up and grabbed me knocking me to the ground. I screamed which meant everybody came running. They found me, in my jammies and him in his boxers and instantly assumed the worst.

"What's wr-," Jake stopped short noticing everybody in the door way. He pulled the covers back over himself and went back to sleep. I had no better idea so I followed suit. I ran to my makeshift bed, jumped on it, flung the covers over myself and slammed my eyes shut. I could feel the confused, shocked looks on everyone's face. Eventually everybody left awkwardly. Hearing the retreating footsteps, Jacob's and my eyes instantly cracked open. We glanced at each other and began laughing hysterically. He rolled off of his platform and onto the floor. I did the same. We laughed until we cried. I cried for Sydney, for Damien, and I cried with joy for Jacob. Then I got to thinking. My euphoria-induced epiphany gave me the idea that if Syd was dead, she could be a ghost. I am a Spirit Seer. I wanted to give this a shot.

"Jacob, what if Sydney's a lost soul? A spirit?" His eyes widened with the dawning realization. He slapped a hand to his forhead like he should have thought of it way before then.

"You could talk to her." he smiled. "Let's give it a shot!" My heart soared. I rushed to sit next to Jacob on the sunroom floor. I focused on thoughts of my sister and seeing her.

Au Revoir, Sister. I turned my head to her voice. There she was. My sister, Sydney.

She didn't look entirely solid. She was dressed in the same clothes as when she died. A gash of flesh missing from her throat.

"What happened to you? Who did this?" I approached my sibling.

I thought the scent was old. It wasn't... We were on their territory. They came out of nowhere. Jacob tried to help but couldn't get there fast enough. It was too late by then..

"Who, Syd?"

Jacob grabbed me from behind, spun me around, and kissed me. It broke my concentration and the connection, and Sydney flickered away.