• Chapter 1: June 2nd, 2007 The Day of My Birthday.
    I opened the door. "Bonjour, Grandpa!" I called as I popped my head inside. "Come in, come in, Suzanne!" An old voice responded. I smiled as
    I entered.
    - Although I told him not to call me by my given name, he always did anyway. Stubborn, yes. My grandfather had always been proud for the French in his blood and he believed in the old traditions that the family would do. -
    The room wasn't large, but it was medium sized. My grandfather sat, sitting in a chair next to a window, by himself. At least that’s what I could see from the dark room. "Hello Suzanne, it’s good to see you," he said as we hugged. "You too, Grandpa."
    “Comment allez - vous? - How are you?” I asked in French. “Très bien. - I’m doing good, very good. Et toi? - And you?” He asked me back. I shrugged. “Hmm…good.” I sometimes spoke in French whenever I wanted to or whenever I had to. In this case, I just felt like it.
    - Truth is, I’m actually about 95% American but 5% French because I was born in America, I act like one, my accent isn't French, and my manners don't quite go well with French. -
    "So, how long will you be staying here again?" The old man asked. "For the whole summer, Grandpa. You haven't forgotten about why I came here right?" I asked, laughing slightly. "No, no. I remember. 'To seek out a friend.' I know, you come here a lot because of that."
    I smiled and shook my head. Sometimes I just couldn't believe what Grandpa says now and days. He was sometimes wrong when he spoke in English.
    "But guess what? I have a surprise for today," he said grinning. I frowned but closed my eyes, shaking my head.
    - Last time Grandpa had tried to surprise me, he ended up making me cry because he threw a surprise party for my 4th birthday, with a clown. At that time, I was scared of clowns, and now its even worse because I hated them. -
    "Okay, you can open them now!" He called, which seemed weird to me because Grandpa sounded as if he was in a different room. "Come in, Suzy! Over in here!" He called. I walked in the next room and it was dark. The lights turned on and there was a boy dressed in a suite. He had blonde hair, light plale skin, and bright sky blue eyes. He was probably about 18 years old, I guessed, which who was only 2 years older than me since I just turned 16.
    Although, the only thing I could do is blink numerous times. Then my right eye twitched, just as it would always do when I felt an awkward moment. “Eh…..Grandpa? May I see you for a moment?” “Sure. Sure, Suzanne.” With that, we walked out of the room.
    I coughed to clear my voice.“Just what is a guy doing here?” I asked, calmly, my eyes looking aside to Grandpa, paranoid. “Why, taking you out on a....what do you call it? 'A play date?'”
    “Eh?” I squeeked and turned my head facing his the side of his face. “Well, you said you wanted a friend. And I already knew Patrick’s father, and he agreed to be your friend, so you might as well go on the date.” Grandpa said calmly. That did it. Of all the crazy stuff Grandpa has done for me, this was a bit over board. I began to get upset.
    “Dang it, Grandpa! That doesn’t mean you should just hand me over like a item. I’m a girl, you know! A living, breathing, person.” I emphasized on the last part. “Besides, all I asked for was a friend! Heck, not a date, a friend. I’m not interested in any sort of dumb relationship, dammit!” I continued. “Even if I do go out there, va te faire voir! - see if i care!”
    * * * *
    C’est des conneries! - trust me, you don't want to know(if you do, look it up). I can’t believed he’s making me do this, for cryin' out loud!- I hope he knows he’s asking for his own grave, I thought.
    Since I was force to go, I had to change into a pale, yellow sundress to match my long brown hair that only reached to my shoulders and dark auburn eyes. It didn’t have any sleeves, instead it had straps and the skirt thing was a bit short but thankfully I put on some short jeans. My hair had been tied up in a half ponytail, while the rest was laying down to my back. I slipped on a pair of black sandals on my feet and looked at the mirror trying to fix my hair a bit more.
    My beige shorts, short green jacket, and white shirt obviously didn't cut out for going out on a date. But I didn’t care. Not one bit. It’s not like I wanted to go in the first place. I groaned, but headed out the door of the bathroom and entered the room where Patrick and Grandpa was in. Patrick smiled politely and of course, I forced a smile back.
    “Now, be back by noon, okay?” The old man ordered. We nodded and went out the front door of the mansion and went to the garage. The mansion was located near the Rio Loira - Loire River, so we took the 2010 Jaguar XF Sedan and drove to La Rochelle which was the closet town near the mansion.
    * * * *
    The harbor was filled with crowds of people. Markets were everywhere on the streets with people selling all sorts of things. Along the tall buildings were the street lights and signs that said each street.
    In the car, it was quiet. Patrick drove quietly and was happily whistling a song as we passed through streets, while I was just sitting in the seat with my arms crossed, looking off at the streets through the window as well as not saying a thing at all. Both of us were quiet for a long time, until Patrick was the first to say something. “So, shall we visit a restaurant for lunch or just visit a coffee shop?”
    “Coffee shop.” I replied. “Alright, so it is,” he agreed.
    * * * *
    Once we got in the La Rochelle cafe, we both said nothing. I had ordered a hot chocolate and Patrick ordered a Cappuccino Caramel, and we sat in silence. At times we would drink and have a little chat, but otherwise nothing else. “Alright, that’s it. Listen, both you and I know that we aren’t really comfortable doing this, so why don’t you just pay for the drinks and I’ll be on my why back home. Alright?” I said. I know this was Grandpa's idea on this, but I felt bad because I was making it seem like I was blaming him. Patrick had an embarrassed look on his face.
    “Yeah. Sure.” He finally agreed. “For a second there, I thought I was making a huge mistake. I mean, clearly you aren’t my type,” he said. My eyebrow raised up a little. "Not to offend you or anything," he added quickly. I just shook my head and sighed.
    After we parted our ways, I headed to a park, which was a little farther down the street from the café. There weren’t that many people there. Mostly two-three people I would occasionally see. there weren't many trees there though, but they were as green as ever because it was summer. The sky turned a little darker and eventually darkened with clouds. I sighed, bored. I just had to find out a way how to explain why I hadn’t come back to the mansion with Patrick. Than something strange happen.
    A young woman in her 20’s, who had blonde strands out from her hood and wearing a large beige coat had just ran by me. Followed by a young man dressed in the same coat and wore a hat and dark shaded sunglasses, who had just popped out from what looked like a portal covered in weird symbols that looked like they could be letters of some an unknown language. Then something shot out the portal, and hit the woman’s back. Blood streamed slowly from her as she shrieked in pain. It was a arrow that had struck her on the back, making her bleed.
    “Akaski!” The young woman screeched. The young man in the large coat quickly turn around, hearing his partner’s scream in pain. He cursed in a somewhat different language I didn’t understand. He ran to her, trying to carry her in his arms. Then he lay her on a metal park bench but she sat up insisting that she was okay. Although she did look as if she was in pain, a lot of pain. The people that were around in the park saw them, and scurried off, scared.
    Then he came, stepping out the portal. He had long dark brown hair, and dull purple eyes. He looked a little older than me, probably about Patrick’s age, wearing large black cloak that covered his body so long that it was practically a coat. His shoes didn’t really matter because they were just boots. Black boots, that is. He also wore a silver necklace sticking out, that formed in the shape of something like two separate wings, crossed over.
    And that was when I heard something. I thought I heard the sound of a chain rattling . The boy must have heard it too, because his face looked in shocked for some reason.
    He had a crossbow in his right hand, showing that he was the one who had shot the young woman. Akashi turned around and once he saw the boy, he shouted, “You’ll pay for what you did, Kamui!”
    Before my eyes, the man ran up in front of him and knocked the crossbow out of the Kamui’s hand. The crossbow had landed about ten feet away ahead of me to my right.
    Luckily, the boy was fast enough to recover and fought back. He swung with his right hand at Akaski, than he kick at him with his left foot, than he shot his left hand towards the man’s face, but missed. Each time he swung, he missed while the man dodged. But to me, every move was fast and quick. It looked a lot like martial arts but it was still messed up for me for me to understand if it was.
    The clouds grew together until they were like a gray blanket covering our heads. Crud, I thought, I hope it doesn’t rain.
    The two kept fighting, while I just stood there watching. I don’t know why I stayed instead in running like other people should, but there’s always something different from me compared to other people.
    - I don’t know what but I guess I’m just strange. I mean, I faint easily if I use to much energy too much and I’m pretty lazy. I look at myself as someone who tries to be optimistic but pretty much I’m dumb because of that. But sometimes people say that I have a special touch that can help others in any way, without intentionally noticing it. -
    I peered over to the crossbow about ten feet away from me, and without thinking I walked towards it slowly. As soon I was near enough to reach it, I picked it up and tried to aim it. The thing is, I had no idea what I was doing and dang, it was heavy. And even if it occurred to me what I was doing, I had no idea which person I had intended to aim at.
    Then she hit me. Before my eyes, was the young woman that had been shot, throwing herself on me. She must think I’m going to shoot her partner, I yelled in my head. We struggled and tussled with each other and kept kicking. For one thing for sure, she was better fight than I was. Then I finally did something I’ve anyways wanted to do. I punched her, knocking her out, unconscious.
    - At that time I always wanted to do that. You see, for girls, it’s easy for a girl to slap or punch others. Whether male or female. It doesn’t matter for the girl who she’s doing it to though. Well that’s what I think. Fun, huh? I bet you’d like to be in my shoes. -
    Then I finally made a choice. I aimed for the man in the beige coat. Somewhere in my gut, I had a feeling that I was right. I know it was a random pick, but hey, I’m stupid enough to decide such things. And hey, she made the first move, so how was I suppose to react to that when she was on me?
    I was trying to adjust my aim again then I shot it at the man. Right after I shot it, I shout out Hey! to the boy who was called Kamui, and yelled, “Duck!”
    He heard me then, and saw that the arrow was coming, so he ducked. At that time I saw an image in my mind. It had a white background with chains hanging everywhere. Few were hooked with another. Most of them were hanging by themselves. Then I saw mine, linked with another chain, even though it looked like every other silver chain. Because he saw me, for some reason he must have seen it too. It felt odd, for another person to see the same thing happened to someone else too. And the fact that he was glaring at me with his purple eyes. Because he did that, I stared at him back.
    When the arrow struck the man, he yelped, then turned to see where the arrow came from. Towards my direction though. I felt a shiver down my spine when he looked directly at me. He walked towards me, but Kamui reach me faster than him. He stood on front of me, like he was protecting me from the man.
    “You okay?” He asked turning his head just over his shoulder to see if I was ok. I gasped lightly, seeing that his eyes were golden and his pupils were slit, but he didn’t seem like he noticed or that he really cared that I did.
    Cursing again, he carried over to his partner, grumbling, “Elsie, wake up.” When she didn’t, he grunted again, lifting her up in his arms. He took out a hand, still holding her up, and began to speak in a language I didn’t know.
    A portal showed up and he walked right in it and disappeared. Kamui who looked the other way, walk slowly towards the portal. Without thinking, I ran after him till I was a few feet away. He stopped just a few inches away from the portal, watching me catch up with him, then glared at me when I stopped. His face was expressionless.
    “Thanks.” He said but to me, it seemed like he was in a hurry and that he could care less about what I did for him.
    There was nothing but silence between the both of us. Then it started sprinkling rain a little. He turned around and started walking, but only a step because I called out to him.
    “Wait.” I said. He only turned his head over his shoulder and said nothing. “What - where are you going?” I asked. “To a place far away from here,” he answered. “And…I have another question to ask. Did you… did you feel or hear something like chains by any chance?” I asked, pushing back a strain of my hair behind my ear. He looked the other way now. “Yes,” he answered.
    Then, without a word, he went through the portal. It was still kept opened though for a moment, then it slowly started closing. I didn’t bother to called out, so I turned around. When I did I felt some pain rushing through my entire body. I fell to my knees, trembling. I could feel my heart ache for some reason.
    “What the - ” I started to say but was cut off because pain started kicking in for a moment. “How could this happen?” I murmured to myself. It made no sense to me why I was suddenly in pain when I was only fighting for only a couple of minutes.
    I got up and started walking on my way back to the mansion. Boy, was I going to have a tough time getting to the mansion, and explaining what happened to me. Of course it rained a even harder, and sadly I was stupid enough to forget to bring a coat.