Fated

Chapter 2

"AH!!" Lia screamed, jumping out of her bed and running to hide in the corner of her bedroom. John and Lisa approached their daughter, still in their vampire and wolf forms. "Stay away from me. You guys are freaks. I, I am a freak." Lia said, sobbing uncontrollably. John withdrew his fangs and turned his eyes back to their human color. He then picked up Lia's dressing gown and handed it to Lisa so that she would have something to cover her body after shifting back into human form. In human form, the two parents approached their daughter, "Babygirl, you are not a freak. We are not freaks. We are just different species from humans." Lisa said to her daughter. "You are freaks. You are freaks and you are liars. You lied to me my whole life. You lied about everything. And on top of that, you ruined my birthday. Today was supposed to be a day for me to celebrate and you ruined it," Lia said, unable to stop the tears that were flowing down her face.

"We are so sorry babygirl," Lisa started, "We wanted to protect you. We needed to protect you from the life we fled. You need to believe me when I tell you that your life would have been in real danger had we stayed behind." "So why are you telling me now? Why didn't you just keep all of this away from me?" Lisa asked. "Princess, we can run away from our homes but cannot run away from who we are." John said. Lia looked at her dad and asked, "What do you mean?" "Keeping you away from the truth about our species and raising you as a human was easier when you were young. However, now that you have come of age, you will start experiencing the things that are unique to our species. Not only that, but your scent will now be detectable to other supernaturals. We had to tell you for your safety and so that you are prepared for all of the changes to come." John explained. "I can't deal with this right now. Please just leave my room and leave. I need to be alone right now", Lia said to her parents. John and Lisa stepped out of Lia's room without any argument.

You really need to stop being so hard on our parents.

Ah! Who is that?

It's me silly. I told you I'd be back.

Who are you? What are you?

I'm Ruby. I am your wolf. Remember mom explained all of this to you.

If you and I are one, why can I speak to you like you're a totally different person?

Think of me as an alternate personality, Lia.

Well, I hate that you are even here. I did not ask for any of this, so please stop talking to me.

No one asks to be who they are.

Just shut up and leave me alone, OK.

"I can't be here, I need to get away from this place and everyone here," Lia said out loud to no one in particular. After packing some clothes into a bag, she got dressed and went downstairs. Her parents were in the kitchen. "Babygirl, I have set out some of your favorites so we can have a wonderful breakfast together to celebrate your birthday," Lisa told her daughter. Lia looked at the bacon, sausages, pancakes and all of her other favorite dishes laid out in front of her and her stomach started grumbling. She couldn't remember having ever been this hungry before. She chose to ignore the feeling. "Mom, Dad, I am going away for a little while. I really cannot be here right now. I don't want to be here," she said. "Going away?" both Lisa and John said at the same time. "Yes I am going away and please don't try to come after me," Lia told her parents. "Take this", John said, handing her a credit card. "John! You can't possibly agree with this," Lisa said to her husband. "I don't want it. You just want to be able to trace where I am using this," Lia said, turning her head away from the card. "No, I want to make sure that you are safe wherever you are. So I do not want you being out there with no money," John said, and put the card in his daughter's hand. Lia did not argue this time. She placed the card in her purse and walked out of the car where her taxi was already waiting for her.

"Where to miss?" the taxi driver asked her. Lia was silent, she had not thought about where she would go, just that she wanted to be away from her parents. "Miss?" the taxi driver asked again, a little more agitated this time. "Oh, I'm sorry. Take me to the airport please," Lia said, and the taxi started to move. On the drive to the airport, Lia started checking airlines on her cellphone. She had decided that she was going to spend some time at the beach. She also booked her accommodation. "So where are you off to miss? What's the special occasion?" The taxi driver asked. "Huh?" Lia said, trying to remember the man's question, "Uhm, it's my birthday", she eventually responded. "You seem to be very distracted, and not in a good way," the driver said. "Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind at the moment," Lia said, looking out of the window. "Ok, let me leave you to your thoughts then," the driver said. The rest of the drive to the airport was completed in silence.

You need to feed me now.

I told you to leave me alone, Ruby.

Could you stop arguing for 2 seconds and go get us some food?

Lia really couldn't argue, she was starving, almost as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. She had some time to kill before her flight was scheduled to depart, so she decided to go to one of the restaurants in the airport terminal. "Are you expecting someone to join you, miss? So that I can direct them to your table when they arrive." The waiter said as he placed Lia's order on the table. "No, I'm alone. Thank you," Lia replied and started tucking into her food. "This seems like an awful lot of food for a petite girl like you," the waiter said. "I guess I'm just hungry," Lia shrugged and took a bite from her chicken wing. The waiter took that as a sign to leave. Before long, Lia had finished the burger, fries, wings, ribs, and milkshake that she had ordered, paid her bill, and made her way to board her plane.

The view of Table Mountain and the ocean from the plane window was amazing and Lia had a feeling that she was going to have a very memorable trip from the moment the plane landed. Cape Town International Airport was very busy. As Lia was making her way to the baggage collection area, something caught her attention. It was the smell of wood and grapefruit. Her whole body seemed to come alive at that scent. She looked around to see where this tantalizing scent was coming from, but nothing and no one stood out to her.