Leticia (25 page)

“You won’t have to, I promise, and please don’t say that, I don’t want you to die
.
”

“I don’t either
.
You
should get some sleep
.
”

“I’m not tired, at all. Are you?”

“I
was
, until someone decided to come and get me talking
,
” I smirked
.
“I’m wide awake now
.
”

“
Sorry
,
” he smiled
.
“I just... I just wanted to learn more about you
.
”

“
It’s
OK
.
I forgive you
. Why
don’t you tell me a bit more about you?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything
.
”

“Erm,
I was born in Devon on the 31
st
October 1865. I was the son of Richard and Emily Jackson...”

“Wow, hang on a minute
,
” I interrupted
.
“Your surname is the same as your first?”

“
No
,
” he laughed
.
“
My
name is actually Robert Jackson, but I’ve been known by my surname for about a hundred years
.
”

“Why
?
”

“I prefer it, I hate Robert
.
”

“You don’t look like a Robert actually
, a
nyway, carry on
.
”

“
We
lived in a little house in the
country.
In
18
72
my
mother
gave birth to Nancy and when Nancy was ten years old
,
our parents
abandoned us. We woke up one morning in a
field;
neither of us knew how we got there. We found our way back to the house only to find everything had been cleared out
.
”

“Why
?
”

“My
mother
wasn’t a
shape shifter
, it was my father. They both thought
Nancy and I
would be human, but obviously we weren’t. My
mother
didn’t like us very much
.
She
never
loved us, and my father,
well;
he was just a drunken idiot
.
”

“What happened to them?”

“My
mother
died in her fifties and
I
killed my father
.
”

“What!” I almost shouted
.

“He tracked me and Nancy
down;
we hadn’t seen or heard anything from him in over thirty years.
He attacked Nancy, tried to kill her...”

“Why?”

“We don’t know
,
” he sighed
.
“
But
there was no way I was going to let him do that. So I killed
him
.
”

“I would have done the same thing
.
”

“I’ve looked after Nancy
since I was
seventeen, I wasn’t about to let her down
.
”

“It takes a special person to do what you did. To raise you
r
sister when you w
ere
still so young yourself
.
”

“She’s my blood, my
little
sister and I love her, I’d never let any harm come to her
.
”

“She’s lucky to have you
,
” I smiled
.

“I don’t think so, even
she
doesn’t think that
.
”

“Oh she thinks the world of you
.
She
just wants the old you back, not this version
.
”

“I know
,
” he nodded
.
“Leticia, when this is all over will you stay with us
?
”

“Nancy asked me that too
.
”

“It would be nice if you did
.
”

“We’ll see, the way
you and I
are, we
may
have killed
each other
by then
.
”

He didn’t respond, he just laughed a little.

“We’ll see what happens
,
” I told him
.
“
See
how we feel then
.
”

“I want you to stay
.
”

“
If
I see the nicer side of you a little more then maybe I could be persuaded
.
”

“I told you, you will
.
”

“Yes
,
but what you
say
and what you
do
, are completely different things
.
”

“I’m trying
,
” he sighed
.

“You
know,
we both do that a lot?” I laughed
.

“What?”

“We just seem to be sighing all the time
.
”

“I’m sure, when this is over and done
with;
we’ll laugh and smile more
.
”

He didn't stay in the room much longer, but he did kiss my cheek before he left. Now
that
put a rather large smile on my face. Of course I waited for him to leave the room before I got excited about it.

The following morning I
woke up to
Nancy shouting her head off. I got dressed quickly and ran down the stairs. She was in the kitchen with Jackson
and Tristan.
I stood watching them for a few minutes before Nancy even
realize
d I was
th
ere. Poor Jackson couldn’t
get a word in.

“... you say you’re doing it because you care and I understand that, but this is crazy
;
all for a girl who doesn’t even know how you feel
.
W
hat do you hope to achieve?” Nancy was shouting at him
.

“She doesn’t need to know, not yet anyway
.”

“I’m going to say one thing before I go out
,
” Tristan said to him
.
“I know you’re scared of being close to someone, but think of
it
this way... think of a flower
early in the morning,
it’s
probably scared of
getting
frost bite
...
but it still opens
.
”

“What?” they both asked confused
.

“
In
simple terms, you’re scared of opening your heart to her, of showing her the real you, but you have too!”

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Nancy asked
.

“I dunno, I thought it sounded good,
but
obviously not, anyway see you later
.
”

I stayed silent and watched as Tristan walked out of the room. Nancy
was about
to start with Jackson again, but they both noticed me and she stopped.

“
How
long have you been there
?
what have you heard?” Jackson asked coldly
.

“Hey I just got here
,
” I lied
, putting my hands up as though in
defense
.

“I’m so glad you’re here
,
” she shouted
.
“You can tell this idiot brother of mine that
he’s.... well
...
an IDIOT!”

“Erm, Jackson it seems you
’
r
e an
idiot this morning
,
” I
smirked.

“It’s not funny
,
” Nancy shot at me
.

“Right, well I’ll leave you to it
.
”

“
Oh
no you don’t
!
You
need to tell him he can’t do it, it’s stupid, reckless....”

“Whoa hang on, do
what
? What the hell are you
going
on about?”

“
He
wants to go out hunting these guys down on his
own;
he wants all of us to stay here...”

“Why?” I asked him
.

“To keep you safe
.
”

“You
’re
not doing that
.
”

“You know what, I shouldn’t have said anything
.
I should have just done it and told you afterwards
.
”

“I’d have killed you myself
!
” Nancy almost screamed at him
.

“You can’t just take off Jackson
,
” I told him
.
“
Y
ou can
’
t do that to us, if anyone should do that it
’
s me and if I said that
’
s what
I
was going to do, YOU would go berserk!”

“Only because I don’t want you getting yourself killed
.
”

“
And
I don’t want
you
getting yourself killed either
.
”

Jackson stormed out of the kitchen and headed towards the study. Nancy look
ed at me, frightened and upset.

“He cares about you so much
Leticia;
he is so frightened of someone hurting you... or worse. If anything happened to you it would destroy him...”

“Yeah
,
” I laughed
.
“
OK
.
”

“I’m serious! I know how he is with you sometimes and I’m sorry
he’s
like that, I wish I could stop it
.
”

“So do I, but I can’t get him to show
h
is feelings, they’re locked up t
o
o tight and I don’t have the key
.
”

“Just because you don’t have the key to a locked box, doesn’t
mean it can’t be opened
.
”

I
walked away from her
and
wen
t after him. I barged into the study
and slammed the door shut behind me.
He nearly always came in here when he was in one of his moods.

“You cannot do this
,
” I told him, walking closer to him
.
“
You
can’t put yourself at risk
.
”

“You assume I would be killed, I doubt that though
.
”

“
Yeah
because you’re
so
tough. Look,
there are
a lot of them, it only takes one of them to get a lucky shot off and you’re dead
.
”

“You have more to live for than I do
.
”

“What a load of crap!” I almost screamed
.
“
Y
ou have a family, friends, they all love you, a nice home, cars, money, youth...”