My Possessive Triplets

Macey I pushed through the last set of double doors with my headphones still hanging around my neck, half-listening to a lecture replay and half-thinking about dinner. The late afternoon sun had dipped low enough to stretch long shadows across the pavement, and for a moment, everything felt… normal. That was the last normal moment I would ever have. Something was off the second I turned into our street. People were gathered in clusters, whispering. A few stood too still, eyes fixed in one direction. Others were already leaving, quick steps, heads down, as if they didn’t want to be involved. My heart stuttered. I slowed, confusion prickling at the back of my neck. “What happened?” I asked no one in particular, but no one answered. A woman glanced at me, her face pale, then looked away like she couldn’t bear to meet my eyes. That’s when I saw the police tape. Bright yellow, cutting across our yard. My stomach dropped so fast it felt like the ground had disappeared beneath me. No. No, no, no… My feet started moving before my brain caught up. I pushed past a man trying to block the path. “Hey… miss, you can’t…” “I live here!” My voice cracked, sharp and panicked. “That’s my house!” Everything blurred after that; faces, voices, the way hands reached out but didn’t quite grab me. I ducked under the tape and then I saw it. Blood. So much blood. It stained the grass a deep, ugly red, soaked into the earth like it had been poured there. My breath hitched violently in my chest, refusing to come out properly. For a second, I thought I might pass out. Then I saw them. My parents lay just behind the house, near the back steps. Too still. Too wrong. “Mom?” The word came out small and weak. Like it didn’t belong in a world like this. I took a step forward. Then another. “Dad?” No response. Their bodies were… broken. I couldn’t process it all at once. My eyes kept catching on pieces, the unnatural angle of my father’s back, my mother’s hand curled toward him like she’d been reaching for him at the end and the wounds… God. The wounds didn’t make sense. There were deep gashes, like something had torn into them. Their necks… I couldn’t look too long. I couldn’t breathe when I did. “It was an animal attack.” The voice came from behind me, calm but strained. I turned slowly. A police officer stood there, watching me like he didn’t know what to do. “An animal?” I echoed, my voice hollow. He nodded once. “That’s what it looks like. Possibly a large dog or… something from the zoo. We’re still investigating.” “A zoo animal?” I repeated, shaking my head. He didn’t answer because he didn’t believe it either. The days that followed passed in fragments. Voices murmuring condolences I couldn’t hear. Hands squeezing my shoulder. Paperwork shoved in front of me. Questions I couldn’t answer and then the funeral. I stood between two polished wooden coffins, dressed in black that felt too heavy for my skin. People came and left. I didn't notice anything. All I felt was empty. Like someone had scooped everything out of my chest and left nothing behind. “Macey.” A woman stood a few feet away, watching me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. She was elegant, composed, dressed in a way that didn’t quite match the quiet grief around us. Her eyes, though, they were sharp. Observant. Like she was seeing more than everyone else. “I’m Fiona Summers,” she said gently. “Your father’s sister.” I blinked. “My… aunt?” She nodded. “We haven’t met. Your father and I…” She hesitated, then sighed softly. “We weren’t close.” That was an understatement. I had never even heard of her. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she continued, stepping closer. “I know this must be overwhelming.” Overwhelming? That felt like a small word for something this big. “I came as soon as I heard,” she added. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.” I almost laughed. Alone was all I had left. “I’m fine,” I said automatically, though my voice sounded distant, even to me. Her gaze lingered on me for a moment longer, like she didn’t believe me. I didn’t believe it either. “You can’t stay here,” she said after a pause. My head snapped up. “What?” “This house,” she said quietly. “This city. It’s not safe for you anymore.” Something in the way she said it made my skin prickle. “Not safe?” I repeated. “What does that even mean? The police said it was an animal…” “The police are wrong.” Her words cut through the air like a blade and I stared at her. “How would you know that?” She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she glanced around, as if making sure no one else was listening. “Because I know things they don’t,” she said finally. “Things your parents never told you.” A chill ran down my spine. “What things?” Her expression softened slightly. “Not here. Not now.” That wasn’t good enough. “I’m not going anywhere with someone I just met,” I said, my voice firmer now. “You show up out of nowhere, tell me I’m not safe, and expect me to just… what? Pack my bags and follow you?” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “You don’t have another option, Macey.” The bluntness of it hit harder than I expected. “Your parents are gone,” she continued, her tone gentler but no less serious. “You’re nineteen. Alone. And whatever killed them…” She stopped herself but it was too late. “Whatever killed them what?” I demanded. Her eyes locked onto mine. “It’s not finished.” Silence fell between us. A part of me wanted to argue. To refuse. To stay in the only place I had ever known, even if it now felt like a grave. But another part, the same part that had looked at my parents’ bodies and known something wasn’t right, whispered something else. Go. I swallowed hard. “…Where would we even go?” A flicker of something unreadable passed through her eyes. “Amawi Kingdom.” The drive lasted hours. At least ten… maybe more. Time blurred into an endless stretch of road, the scenery shifting from city lights to open highways, then to winding roads that cut deeper and deeper into the mountains. At some point, my phone lost signal. At another, the radio turned to static. “You don’t get reception out here?” I asked, more to fill the silence than anything else. “We do, back at home,” Fiona replied simply, her eyes fixed on the road. The further we drove, the quieter it became. The forest closed in around us, trees growing taller, thicker, their branches intertwining overhead like they were trying to block out the sky. Mist began to creep along the ground. I shifted in my seat, unease settling into my bones. “Where exactly is this place?” I asked. “You’ll see.” I exhaled sharply. “You keep saying that.” “And you keep asking questions I can’t answer yet.” At some point, even the road seemed to change. It narrowed and twisted like it didn’t want us there. A shiver ran down my spine. “Fiona…” I started, my voice quieter now. “This place… it’s not on any map, is it?” Her grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly. “No,” she admitted. That should have scared me more than it did but by then, I think I was too numb to fully react. We drove on and then, the forest opened. Just like that. One moment, it was dense, suffocating the next, it parted like a curtain and beyond it… My breath caught: A city. Hidden in the heart of the mountains. Lights glowed softly against the dark, illuminating buildings that rose in sleek lines of glass and stone. It looked modern, beautiful, even, but there was something else woven into it. Something older: darker. I leaned forward slightly, my eyes scanning everything I could see. “How is this even possible?” I whispered. Fiona didn’t answer right away. When she did, her voice was quiet. “This,” she said, “is Amawi.” We drove closer and the closer we got, the more details emerged. A strange sensation crept over me like I was being watched. Not just by people but by the place itself. I swallowed, my fingers curling slightly in my lap. “What is this place?” I asked again, my voice barely above a whisper now. Fiona finally looked at me. Really looked at me and for the first time since I met her, I saw something like certainty in her eyes. “Amawi Kingdom,” she said, “is where you’ll learn the truth about who you are.”