“You see what you caused Tristan. How could you be so careless? I am glad you called for me before this gets any worse” a deep voice said with a hint of carelessness.
“You cant tell anyone I found her. If they knew she was still alive they would kill her.” Tristans voice reverberating off the walls sounding panicked.
“How can I not tell the order that she is alive? She is our down fall, remember?”
“Damnit, I do not need to be told that again. I came to destroy her but she is harmless. She lives alone with her cat.”
“Sounds like you have spent a lot of time getting to know her.” the smirk in his voice was more than evident. “Tristan you cannot expect this to go unnoticed. She may seem to be harmless now but what if she find out who she really is?”
Tristan sighed. “I don’t know but I have this feeling. This isn’t right Luther and you know that.” his voice edged in anger.
Autumn’s consciousness slowly hit her as she listened to what was being said. They were talking about her and she didn’t understand anything they were saying about. She lay still wondering who Luther was. She felt as if she had been struck by lightening and her head pounded with every word they said, but she knew something was wrong and she had to find out what.
“You know that the reason Seers are not supposed to procreate with their familiars. That bond goes against reincarnation. It breaks the cycle. Their destiny is not here in this world.” Luther rubbed his palms together his foot steps moving closer to her bed.
“Yes, I know but how can that be? She has a soul. How can a person be born into this world without a destiny? I do not understand how familiars and seers were the chosen by the Gods and not to procreate.” Tristan sat in her computer chair.
“Do you need another history lesson? I knew you never paid attention to your father. Seers are the only ones blessed by the Gods. They are the ones who give the familiars their power to foresee the future. If a seer and a familiar has a child that child is brought into this world pure. Tristan, that means they have no past life and has never had a destiny. The souls of these children are believed to be Gods angels being reincarnated to this earth. This breaks our cycle and we are condemning ourselves for condemning the gods angels to mortality.” Luther exhaled as he finished his long speech.
“How do we know that for sure? Is it that familiars and seers are not supposed to procreate because once upon a time our powers became so powerful that we almost destroyed the world with our predictions and power?” Tristan slammed his fist on the computer desk.
‘You do not blaspheme the word of our doctrine. You know that it was told by the gods to not procreate with our familiars because we are damning his angels to mortality on this earth forever and as long as the Gods want us in their service we will continue on moving from life to life doing work for them. And be quiet or you will wake the girl.” Luther walked heavily to her dresser.
Silence filled the room for so long that Autumn’s muscles were screaming at her to move out of the position she was laying in. She jumped as Luther spoke.
“I will not say a word about this to anyone. Tristan you have saved my life many times and kept many of my secret, but I must warn you if anything gets out of control I will kill her myself.” He walked over to Tristan and they embraced. “Now I must go before she wakes up and starts to ask questions, and remember what I said” Luther barely finished his sentence as his foot steps disappeared from the room.

She stepped into Mr. Patton’s class for the first time with a smile on her face. She scanned the crowded room her eyes meeting his. She smiled as she took the seat next to him. She felt odd at how much powerful she felt in his presence. He took a little bit of the black hole away from her soul and somehow filled it with light. He made her feel as if there were a promise for tomorrow. She didn’t care if they only spent the day together he gave her a new purpose.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Carly a Heidi Klum look a like who was sitting behind Tristan. Her jean skirt hiked up so high that if you turned and looked you could more than likely see everything. Girls like that made Autumn mad because it was girls like her that made it seem okay to be a whore.
“What did you do like get laid?” she laughed cinnamon blasting her in the face. “Honey there is no way in hell he would have any interest in you. He wouldn’t go for a total loser,” Carly brushed her hair out of her eyes with her fake bubble gum pink nail.
“What makes you..” Autumn stopped mid sentence as Carly leaned up and whispered something in his hear. Tristan laughed and whispered something that she couldn’t hear back.. Autumn’s temper flared as she stared into Carlys blank blue eyes with rage. Something came over Autumn as she stared. She felt in power. A feeling she could dominate the world. She could make her do anything she wanted. It was the most amazing feeling. Black spots blurred her eyes as if she had come out of the sun. Her hair stood up on the back of her neck sending chill bumps down her arm.
“You don’t know who your messing with you fucking blonde bimbo.” Autumn stood over her. She put her hands on the side of Carly’s desk bending down into her face.
The black spots turned into a pit of darkness as she felt Carly’s soul pour into her body intertwining with her own . A materialistic and naïve soul. Every word of gossip, every tear she had made her family shed, and most of all the dirty thoughts of Tristan poured in like an electrical current. Images of her running her hand down the front of his pants, images of kissing, images so explicit Autumn had never known anyone to ever do, and most of all images of them sharing a life together, a dark haired baby with midnight blue eyes. The last image drove her over the edge. Not one good thought in that beautiful head.
Autumn’s thoughts felt fuzzy as she came across a glimpse of herself. She was wearing a white empire waist dress. She wore a gold crown incrusted with pearls and she was crying. Autumn broke eye contact with Carly. The darkness of Carly left her like water draining out of a bathtub. Autumn heard screaming but all she could see was the last image that burned in her retina. The pain she felt in that image seeping into body. She was breaking into pieces. Bloody tears ran down her face. This pain was nothing like she had ever felt before.. She was cold, alone, blood poured down the front of the white dress like a waterfall. Blackness filled her eyes and the image was gone. The sound of her name being screamed was the last thing she heard as she hit the floor.

She woke up an hour later, showered, and dressed. Her coffee was waiting on the coffee table steam billowing out the top. “Thanks,” she said still a little frazzled that he was sitting on her couch and sipping coffee out of her mothers coffee mug, but for some reason it didn’t really bother her.
“Do you always go to damsels in distressed?” she laughed
“Only when they scream loud enough to hear over kids screaming and bad country music,” he brushed his hair out of his eyes. “What were you dreaming about anyways to scream like that.”
She wondered if she should tell him the truth. Would it make her sound like a freak if she told him she dreamed of a million snakes dragging her into her mothers grave. She knew if she even mentioned her mothers name that the topic would go to her mother and she really did not want to explain the whole situation. “I dreamed that a man had shoved me onto a grave, and a lot of snakes came out of it and were biting me.” she sighed. It was the truth. The whole truth though? It was better than nothing. His right brow was twitching and his hands were clenched she notice. “what’s wrong?” she prompted. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing,” his demeanor relaxed. “My grandmother always told me that snakes biting you in a dream meant that a woman was pregnant or would become pregnant.” He rested his hand on her leg. “ Don’t put to much faith in your dreams. As I have come to realize they don’t mean anything. She looks down at his hand on her leg. His hand was hot but smooth. She knew when he took it away his handprint would be left on her pale skin.,red hot. She looked into his eyes,
“I don’t always put my faith in what I should but I don’t see how a dream could tell of anyone’s future. Besides I don’t trust anyone. Therefore I don’t know that many people so don’t know anyone that could get or be pregnant” She scooted to the other side of the couch barely glancing his way. It was foolish she knew but she couldn’t come to love anyone again. Love brings heartache to the dinner table and she feels her heart pulse when he looks at her. He is not seeing who she really is. He is seeing a person he has fabricated within the past two hours. The real her is broken and being alone has become her nature
“I hope I didn’t do anything wrong. He crossed those dangerous legs. What she would do to just close her head in the door to get the thoughts of him out of her head. “How about we watch a movie or the TV today?” he bent down in front of her entertainment center. “Zombieland?”
“That’s cool with me,”
The rest of the day she learned he grew up in New Orleans and had moved to Tennessee with his parents this year to be closer to his grandmother who has Alzheimer’s his favorite thing to do is hike, and he loves plantains. The odd thing was that he asked her the basic questions but not at any point did he ask where her parents or mother was and she was grateful. She fell asleep in the last half of Zombieland the second time through and awoke to an empty house except for a note on the coffee table. “Did not want to wake you but I hope to see your beautiful green eyes in school tomorrow. She burrowed back into the couch and continued her slumber. She slept peacefully except for the faint hissing sound that interrupted her dreams.

When she pulled up to her one bedroom apartment courtesy of being emancipated at an early age. She watched the children run around the complex for a minute and realized just how alone she is. These kind of moments her mother always pops into her head. She walked down the sidewalk of the fourplex. The two bedroom condo they had shared still held her heart by its strings. She drove by there sometimes when she needed to feel like she still had a normal life.
Going into the front door, her mother watching her soap operas, and painting her nails. She was the most beautiful woman in the world. A woman that she knew she would never get to know. It was hard to believe that day. She had just got off the school bus and ran into the house to tell her mother about the kitten she had found walking around the school. A cute little tabby she snuck into her gym bag. What she walked into was something she would never be able to comprehend in its full detail. The condo turned upside down and her mother sprawled out on the hardwood floor in front of the couch. Her long blonde hair was plastered to her face with blood. Her thoughts were out of place she didn’t scream or call 911. Somehow she knew she could do nothing for her mother, but spend all the time she had left with her. She went and laid down next to her long lost mother for hours until her neighbor found both of them on the floor. Autumn’s arm around her mother shoulders and her mother no longer in the world. Soon after she was thrown into living the life of an adult a little to soon.
Autumn shook her head tears welling up in her eyes for the millionth time. She walked up the steps and opened the door. Kora the tabby blinked his eyes at her and meowed.
“Oh, Kora are you hungry.” she said in her little girl voice only reserved for him.
. “ You know Kora I need to stop thinking about mom. I think im beginning to become the cat lady.” she laughed. “I met this boy today.” Kora looked up and blinked.
Autumn stood there a moment and wondered if talking to her cat was the equivalent to talking to herself. She looked around at the room. 965 square feet of home. Her mothers life insurance left her without any want. She just didn’t see spending her mothers money on the luxuries as some people would,. She lost her mother and no luxury could make up for that.
She looked around at the red rug that was embroidered in black that her mother loved so much. She could only salvage the black suede couch and loveseat that was hers because of the small space. She had bought black sconces to adorn each side of the red curtains and a beautiful black swirl that glowed with the 24 white candles over the fireplace. She liked her small apartment but could she ever bring him here into her personal space where she had built a foundation of trust issues, and pain?
Hell she hadn’t even asked his name. I am such an idiot she thought. A complete and utter idiot. She went to the coffee pot to start a fresh batch of the new starbuck coffee grounds she bought. He was so beautiful but he would never want her. I have no life, no friends, and damn sure no guy experience. She poured her coffee after standing at the sink for a while wondering if his eyes were a genetic impossibility because they were so dark of a blue they were almost black. She sat on the couch and drank her coffee and once again fell asleep on the couch to Jay Leno.

She was at the gate of the Cemetery where her mother laid. She was all dressed in black her hair curled to her waist. Her body was woozy as if she had taken a pain pill. Something was grasping her wrists in a bone cracking grasp. Her wrist popped with every accidental twist of her hand.
“You, love. I have been looking for you,” A deep raspy whispered into her ear. Tears streamed down her face as the man pushed himself into her back and the rancid smell of tar and sweat hit her nose.
“I diddddnt doooo it.” she slurred her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth.
He threw her onto the ground her face landing sharp on a rock blood pouring from her nose. She let out a groan as pain seared through her body.
. “Listen”, he kicked her in the stomach. “You little whote you killed your own mother. Dooont you see.” He picked her up. She looked into the eyes of hell. He was covered in black his eyes nothing but white. Skin folded over skin on his face. His hair black with grease. He threw her onto her mothers grave. He hissed as he climbed on top of her and held her down. Snakes began to pour out of the grave as she screamed. They bite her wrists, her neck, her feet. Blood curdling scream after scream left her lips. Bright colored snakes began to drag her down into the ground further and further into the blackness. His eyes the only thing she could see.

“WAKE UP!!!” she sat up sweat pouring down her face. Dark Blue Black eyes met hers as she flung herself across the bed covering herself up.
“It’s me Autumn,” he crawled to her. “your okay it was just a nightmare.” She was stunned. She looked at the clock 7:30am. Seven thirty in the morning?! The bus was outside. She couldn’t move.
“How did you get in here.” she whispered still shaking.
“I heard you screaming from the bus window as the bus driver pulled up. I kind of broke your door.” he bit his lower lip.
“YOU BROKE MY DOOR?”
“I did not know if someone was hurting you or something else was to blame. I did not know what else to do.” he whispered
“You don’t even know me to care.” She got up pulling her robe on over her red silky pajama pants. A little freaked out that he would just burst into anyone’s house.
“I do care because I would want someone to do the same for me, and No I do not know you but I would not mind it if we did get to know each other.”
Autumn blinked hard. This guy that she thinks is incredibly hot just burst into her house and into her bed because she was screaming. She felt like her personal space had been invaded all of a sudden.” Im not going today you go on without me.” Then it occurred to her that he rode the bus that ran by her house and she had fallen asleep on the couch.
“How did I get in here.” she rubbed her now throbbing head. “I didn’t fall asleep in here.”
“That I cannot answer.” he laughed.
“Stop laughing.” the sound of the bus fading in the distance.
“I guess your ride just left..” she smiled. “I guess your going to have to walk.” She stopped smiling realizing that the realization that he was in her house and in her personal space kept smacking her in the face. “Ugh, my head is pounding.”
“If you do not mind I would love to skip class with you since you did make me miss the bus.” he looked at Autumn quizzically as if he didn’t know if it was right or wrong.
“Only if you tell me your name, and make some coffee.” she smiled. She was glad he was here even under the circumstance.
“Tristan, and I will be glad to make you some coffee. You take an aspirin and lay down while I get it started.”
Having a guy in her home might not be a bad thing she thought as she curled back up in her blankets pondering the dream.

“She was sitting there quiet as she could possibly be, a fly on the wall. She kept wondering if she could go on with this pain that seemed to consume her. How could one situation happen over and over again? She raised her hand to her face wiping the cold sweat from her brow. October winds were howling behind the dark and hot day. The leaves curled up at her feet reminding her that not all things last forever. How could he leave her like this? The bench where all things used to fall into place. The place that used to bring her solace. He promised her forever and she believed him, but did forever entail an empty person void of any feelings. Respect?
She slowly rose from the bench leaves falling around her she took the mossy path, alone. Here she was once again going down the road that took her forever to build. She wondered where her lover had gone as she walked into the October wind and disappeared behind the leaves. One day he will come she whispered. One day my story will be told“





She sat listening to her fourth period math teacher Mr. Patton talk about the Great Depression. It never occurred to Autumn that Lang High School was a bad metaphor for her life. The dinginess and the oppression. The room was bare of anything except the old wooden desks they sat on and Patton’s desk at the front. Sure there were posters with the normal "reach for the sky," motto plastered everywhere, but somehow she wondered how she came to love this place. Perhaps it was how she was, plain. Her blonde straight hair had no volume, she was always in the bare essentials as far as clothes went, but she new what made her stand out were her emerald green eyes. No one had seen eyes as beautiful as hers but that wasn’t enough to put her into the popular crowd. She had long since given up on trying to fit in. The new guy in school was worth a try as she looked at his long lean legs propped up against the legs of the desk . His hair was so dark it had a blue tint to it that matched his dark blue eyes perfectly.
He was dangerous she thought as the bell rang. All she knew was she wanted him like a wave that needed the world to revolve. Dangerous was right she would definitely spin off her axis if he even talked to her. Autumn gathered her books and rushed past him, but not before their eyes met. His eyes were a sea of black that she couldn’t comprehend. It made her nauseous to look any longer so she turned and walked dizzily to the school parking lot. Dumbfounded she new it wasn’t a possibility that he even noticed her. Some things are better left alone she told herself as threw her books into the back of her blue ford focus begrudgingly. She knew she was destined to be alone but it still did not make her visibly upset stomach feel any better.