6 - Making Connections

Damien and Sabbath spent most of their time tackling one another on the living room floor.  Sabbath had “RETERD” written in red permanent marker on his forehead and Damien’s left sleeve had been ripped off his shirt one hour after he arrived.  Daniel and Emma stayed in Daniel’s room playing board games even though they were supposed to be watching them.  

“People don’t die in Candy Land!” Daniel said while laughing.  

“Of course they can, they get lost in the candy cane forest and get eaten by gummy bears!” Emma replied jokingly.  She had been claiming that landing on the candy cane forest would kill you.  

“Wait, why are we playing Candy Land in the first place?!” Daniel realized.  They were both too old to be playing it.  

“Whoa, I don’t know.”

Then the phone rang and someone picked it up downstairs.  A few seconds later, Sabbath yelled up the stairs:

“DANIEL, PHONE!”

“Who is it?” Daniel asked.  He had no idea who would be calling him right now.  

Sabbath questioned the cat on the phone and then yelled back in a teasing tone:

“It’s your girlfriend.”

Daniel ran down the stairs and took the phone from Sabbath.  

“Hello?”

“Hey!  Where were you?!  I almost DIED!” Jamie answered.  

“I was with my dad, I fell and hurt my head in the forest and he found me.”

“You mean Sandor?!”

“Yeah.  You’re real nice; don’t even ask if I’m ok.” Daniel laughed.  

“Ha-ha, are you ok?  Does your head hurt?” She teased.  

“Yes it does!  It makes it worse that there are those 2 little kids at my house and all they do is beat each other up and tell me stupid stuff.  Oh, I have yet another sibling!”

“My god, who is it this time?  You have the most dysfunctional family ever!” Jamie only has a 2 year old brother, and Daniel has lots of siblings.  

“I know!  Her name is Emma.  She died before she was even born and she’s the same age as me now, so I didn’t know about her.  You interrupted our game of Candy Land.”

“Awww, I’m so sorry.” She teased him again. “I actually went out to find you and talked to one of the wolves.  I can’t believe Wil did that!” Jamie was very surprised when she heard Wil did something bad to Daniel.  It just didn’t seem like him at all.  

“I know!  I was actually being held at his house when you called there.  I think his dad made him do it.” Daniel informed her.  

“Probably, I’ve heard bad things about him.  Remember when Wil was going to run away because he got yelled at so much?”

“Oh yeah, I think Kacey had something to do with him wanting to leave also.”

“Kacey is a weirdo.  He played football and he couldn’t get through doors with his shoulder pads on!” Jamie laughed.  

“That was hilarious!”

Daniel had slowly walked back up to his room while he was talking.  Emma was looking very impatient.  

“Can you go for a walk?” Jamie asked.  

“No, I can’t leave until my head heals up more.  My mom said so.”

“What are you, the perfect kid or something?  You can never disobey anything.  My mom told me I can’t be on the phone or leave the house.”

“You obey rules so well, don’t you?” Daniel joked.  

“Yep, please go for a walk with me.  I’m bored!” She begged.  

“My head hurts; do you want me to die or something?”

“Fine, I guess I’ll go bug Roxxi then.” Jamie’s mother was yelling at her in the background.  

“What’s your mom’s problem today?” Daniel questioned.  

“She hates you or something.  I don’t really care so I’m trying to ignore her!  I wish she’d just die!  I want to get of here, so I think I’m just going to go see if Roxxi is home.  I might stop by.”

“Alright, bye.”

Emma was rolling around on Daniel’s bed laughing hysterically.  Daniel was confused about what was so funny.  

“What?” He asked.  

It took Emma a while to answer because she couldn’t stop laughing.  “You have a girlfriend!”

“Why is that so funny?”

“You don’t seem like the type.”

“Why not?  I’m beautiful! DON’T MAKE FUN OF ME!” Daniel joked.  

“I think I will make fun of you…I have to meet this girl!”

About a half hour later, Jamie and Roxxi showed up.  They all hung out in Daniel’s room even though he wasn’t allowed to have girls in his room.  Roxxi talked him into it, saying no one was around to find out.  

Jamie told them more about when she went out to find Daniel.  Emma interrupted her and told her the wolf she talked to was the same one she had lived with for the past few years: Nova.  She must have rejoined the wolf pack after Sandor found them.  

Roxxi explained the thrilling tale of how the hair on top of her head ended up with splotches of blue in it.  Apparently, she washed her hair too soon after putting the dye in it.  Jamie wanted to fix it, but Roxxi kept refusing.  She wanted to see what the jerks at school would say about it and had already planned comebacks.  


When Daniel realized how late it was getting, he told Jamie and Roxxi to go home.  Luckily, his parents came home 10 minutes later.  


The next morning, Zephyr came to get Sabbath and Damien.  Daniel had actually never seen him before.  Zephyr stands almost 6 feet tall and is very skinny.  He is black with red paws, ears, and nose.  His big brown eyes reminded Daniel of Wil.  That made sense though since they have the same father.  

Daniel and Emma sat at the top of the stairs and listened to the conversation between their parents and Zephyr.

“Has Floke determined who is going against whom in the battle?” Zephyr questioned.  

“Yes, I believe you have to go against Spencer.  He shouldn’t be too hard!” Austin laughed.  
Spencer was small and a bit geeky; the exact opposite of his brother Kacey.  

“It will be easy if my leg works on that day.  It picks the worst times to act up.” Zephyr’s right leg has had messed up nerves in it since birth; sometimes he can move it ok and other times not at all.  “When is the first battle?”

“I believe it’s on Friday.  It’s James against Wil.” John answered.  

“James actually has to fight?!  What if he sees those demons or whatever ‘they’ are?” Zephyr laughed.  James could sometimes be delusional; he claimed to see these demons that were trying to hurt him.  

“Hey!  I’m pretty sure he’s over that……Well, as long as he’s not outside at night.”

“Chris told me that last time he went to James’s apartment, he always kept all the lights on and was afraid of his closet.  I just don’t see how he got matched up against Wil.”

“The prince of the underworld.” Daniel giggled.  “He’s more like prince of the stuck-up idiots!”

Zephyr looked up the stairway at Daniel and laughed.  “Last I knew he was your friend.”

“He kidnapped me because his dad told him to.”

“That’s typical of dad.  That’s why I’m on Salvador’s side; to avoid him.” Zephyr had never really gotten along with his father and neither had his brother, Chris.  

Daniel started thinking about Chris. “Wait, doesn’t Chris see those demon things sometimes also?”

“I’ve never heard that.” Zephyr was confused.

“I have.” Austin said. “But he has never gotten injured by them like James claims he has.  How’d you know that?”

“He was warning me last week those demons are here and all this weird stuff.”

“You know, both of them might not be ‘crazy’” John hinted.