Bad Decisions

Under lock and key

Micah

I watched Kassie as she hung upside down, her black to red hair hanging loosely, dangerously close to brushing the ground. She giggled, completely carefree. I had never met someone so…intriguing. And reckless. She could fall and break her neck and I wouldn’t be fast enough to stop it.

“You should get down,” I suggested.

She stuck her tongue out. “Stop being a stick in the mud, Micah. It’s fun. Try it.” She swung her body gently from the tree branch. Was this girl a monkey or just crazy?

“You can get hurt.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I was contemplating pulling her down myself.

She was borderline giving me an anxiety attack. From the moment she stopped me on the sidewalk in front of her house, I knew I would do anything for this little girl. My soul called out to hers and there was a kinship I couldn’t explain. Call it destiny or fate or whatever, but I was certain I didn’t stumble upon her by accident—I was here for her and nothing else. She was my second chance.

She flipped and dropped down before me and my heart stopped for just a moment. I was nervous she wouldn’t have landed properly. But thankfully, no twisted ankles or scrapes to be seen.

She pursed her lips. “You need to learn to let go a bit, Mic!” She grabbed my hand and started pulling me. “Come on! Let me show you something really cool!”

Mic? She gave me a nickname?

She pulled me enthusiastically behind her, her grip on my hand tight. Her hands were kind of cold, but in a comforting way. I couldn’t help but encase her tiny digits with mine.

There were a few sparse trees behind her house and she dragged me through them until she stopped abruptly in front of one. She released my hand instantly and spun around excitedly, spreading her arms wide.

“Isn’t it beautiful?!” She grinned and I noticed the sign of her baby fang peeking out.

I looked up and saw a small structure seated up in the tree, a ladder leading up through the bottom, where a square cutout allowed access.

“It’s a tree house! Me and Daddy did it together. Come, see the inside.”

She started up the ladder and I had no choice but to follow. Who knew what potential danger was up there for her to get into.

She pulled herself into the tree house easily and I followed suit. Looking around, I didn’t get the reason for her excitement. It was just a plain, empty box, and I doubted she could fit anything of any importance in there. It was unlivable—the word “house” was misleading.

“We should see if my dad will let us camp out here. We could bring sleeping bags and snacks and tell spooky ghost stories all night!”

That didn’t sound like a good idea. How safe could that be? This little thing wasn’t secure or safe in any way. What if it fell out of the tree in the middle of the night after we fell asleep? And Why would her dad trust me alone with her? They took me in because I had nowhere to go. It didn’t mean he would trust me completely alone at night with his precious daughter.

And besides, she got cranky if she didn’t sleep. Staying up all night would be unbearable.

“You don’t want to?” She pouted.

“Sure,” I responded. If her dad said yes, I would have stayed out there by her side and made sure she didn’t find any trouble.

“Awesome! It’s going to be so much fun!”

“Kassie!” We heard her dad calling from down below.

“Uh-oh! We’re not supposed to be up here without my dad.”

If she wasn’t supposed to be up here, why did she lead me up here? And why wasn’t she worried about getting in trouble? And…oh no…was in trouble, too? Would they send me away for not following the rules, even though I didn’t know?

She popped her head through the hole in the ground and yelled back, “coming!”

She turned to me and grinned. “I’ll go down and soften him up,” she whispered, giving me a wink.

I should’ve stopped her, gone before her. Just in case she slipped or missed a step and went tumbling down so I could catch her, but the idea of facing her father made me falter. What were the repercussions? I knew the price for crossing my father…

I couldn’t compare the two. They were completely different, but the fear had been ingrained in me nonetheless.

I was lost in these thoughts until I heard the yelp that pulled me back to reality. She had slipped, just like I was nervous this little wild, reckless girl would do. I didn’t know how I moved so fast, but I reached down through the hole and latched onto her in an attempt to stop her free fall to the ground. But the movement was too sudden, I didn’t have the time or the ability to stabilize myself and I went tumbling down through the hole after her. I maneuvered Kassie so she was gripped tightly against me, my body angled towards the ground and not hers. I could handle the pain. I’d been through worse.

I closed my eyes and waited for the impact of the hard dirt on my back that never came. Instead, I felt arms wrapped around us both catching us before we hit the ground.

Kassie giggled in my ear. “Good catch, daddy.”

“Little monkey, you know you need to be careful,” Jaz sighed.

He bent at the waist, placing us both on our feet. Next to me, Kassie looked around anxiously. My brows pinched together. Something was wrong…off…

“What are you looking for, princess?”

“My necklace…it’s gone! It got snagged on a nail and…now I can’t find it.”

She ran over to the tree house, falling to her knees as she looked around in the dirt. Finally, she picked up the little crescent moon charm and the broken chain.

“Aw!” She whined, disappointed. “It broke!”

It was when she held the charm that it clicked with what I was feeling—Kassie wasn’t what I thought she was.

Jaz cleared his throat. “Why don’t you take that in to your mother? See if she can fix it up for you.”

“Okay,” she chirped, hopping up and running toward the house without a second thought.

His eyes peered into mine now, solemn and serious.

“You noticed it, didn’t you, Micah?”

“She’s a demon,” I stated.

“Yes.”

I thought the girl’s biggest danger was herself. It turned out I was wrong. She would always live in a constant state of danger if anyone caught wind of a hybrid, living in plain sight. It changed nothing for me. I’d still protect her with my life.

Jaz gave me a small smile, reading my mind. “You’re a good kid, Micah. You’re good for her, just as she’s good for you. But you do understand that knowing puts you in danger, too, right?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.” And it didn’t. I was sure, more than ever, that she needed me even more.

Jaz placed a hand on my shoulder. “It does, though. No one can know, and that’s why you have to forget.”

“What?” I scrunched my nose.

“Sorry, kid, it’s for your own good.”

I stared deeply into those crimson eyes that held so much behind them. It dawned on me too late what he was about to do and I was powerless to stop him.

“Forget, Micah. You never sensed anything different. Everything is normal. Forget everything.”

And I did.

~

I stared at my reflection, my hair and face soaked from splashing water from the still running faucet. Droplets fell off of me and onto the edge of the counter, slipping down the front, rolling until they got to the floor.

My eyes were dilated, blown wide from the realization, my shoulders moving heavily with my breathing. I felt like I had been hit by a freight train from the memory coming back to me all of a sudden. I had to brace myself on the edge of the sink from the pain throbbing in my skull. Unknowingly, a little too hard, causing the sink to make an audible crack under my tight grip.

I blinked repeatedly, daring my heart to calm down.

“That ba.stard…” I muttered aloud to myself, in disbelief.

Over twenty fuc.king years, and his command to forget just now broke. I always knew the man was powerful for a vampire, but never did I realize just how much.

And I got it. I really did. He would’ve gone to any lengths to protect his daughter—both of us. Jaz was no i***t, he knew there were possible repercussions to suppressing a part of his daughter's genetics, and decided it was worth the risk anyway. So the biggest question was…what were the real dangers? What else did he hide from us?

I’d be damned if I let anyone or anything touch a hair on her pretty little head. I didn’t care if I had to face the whole world alone to protect that girl, I’d do it happily with a sadistic grin on my face.