• “Hey, you still awake back there?”

    “No,” I yawn and subconsciously stretch my arms over his shoulders as I look around and blink when a snowflake hits my eye. I blink a couple of times to relieve the unaccustomed shock of cold that stung my eye. “When did it start snowing?”

    “About half an hour ago,” he shivers and adjusts his grip on my knees. Taking another look at my arms, I notice that I was wearing his jacket. Its sleeves extended just past my fingertips and had a faint scent of crisp autumn leaves, dirt, and tobacco that seemed to match its auburn color. It was wide enough to cover his sides and my legs but fit enough to hug my waist in a loose embrace.

    “Why’d you give me your jacket? You’re gonna freeze.”

    “Are you really concerned about me?” He voice was somewhat amused and annoyed at the same time.

    “No.”

    “I didn’t think so,” he chuckles and continues to move us to wherever his destination was.

    “Where are we going?”

    “We’re going home.”

    “Home?”

    “Where we’ll be living together. I’ve already made sure that the Warlocks have no idea where we are.”

    “What would happen if they found us?” I felt my leg twitch at the possibility.

    “Well, you’d be executed and I’d be re-programmed, re-located, and given a second chance.”

    “Why would they give you a second chance, unless you are one of them.”

    “Not quite, I’m one of their creations.”

    “Creations? Oh, my god you’re re-animated!” The revelation shocks me, there was no real way I could kill him if he was already dead. He was the living dead and now I had to live with and work for him. Gross.

    “Yep. Re-built, re-animated, re-named.”

    “Which animation form are you? Zombie, re-incarnated…?”

    “Frankenstein,” He says evenly and laughs suddenly, making jump involuntarily. “You’re pretty slow aren’t you?”

    “I’m not slow.” My face heats up in a blush as I resettle into his back, he
    barely knew me and he was already insulting me.

    “Uh-huh, sure you’re not. I asked you to get Frankenstein thread and patching needles. I was pretty sure that’d give me away.”

    “Well excuse me. It’s really my first time encountering a Frankenstein, so naturally I wouldn’t catch on.”

    He nods and shivers again as a house becomes visible about three hundred feet out across a half frozen lake. The surrounding trees were bare of any leaves and proudly bordered the clouded sky with their tall up reaching branches. Their limbs were covered in a thin layer of snow and frost just like the lower bushes and grass which were turned white delicate with frost. Everything looked like it was made of crystal.

    “Pretty, isn’t it? A little cold, but we’ll manage.”

    “Why do you care so much about me? I mean, why me? There were a lot of prettier girls on that bus.”

    “Good-looking doesn’t make up for the lack of brains that they’d need to survive as a Seamstress.”

    “You still have yet to tell me what a Seamstress is.”

    “I’ll tell you later.” I let a few seconds pass as he sides steps a shrub and tucks under a low tree branch, finding his way onto a step-stone path made of flat grey shale chunks.

    “Okay, it’s later. Tell me what a Seamstress does.”

    He laughs and keeps looking forward, tightening his grip on my legs with his icy hands as he just barely escapes the reach of a mist hidden thorn bush that would have cut into our left side if he hadn’t been careful. “Your friend told me a few things about you, including that you had a short temper.”

    My eyebrow twinges at the thought of Devi and I lay my forehead on the nape of his neck just in time to feel a twig scrape down my scalp and neck, snagging my hair and pulling it until it snapped off the tree. “Ouch. How long did you know him?”

    “A few days. He said that talking about his friend to someone would make him feel better. I didn’t get a chance to learn more about him, though.”

    “I knew him for about five years. He lived down the street from me and always came over to visit when my parents were at work. They said it was okay, but my brother, Kein, was always sitting in the room with us. He never fully learned to trust Devi, but he was pretty sure I could handle myself if things went bad; they never did, though. Devi wasn’t the kind of person who’d take advantage of others.”

    “When did he tell you about his powers?”

    He eludes another branch as the path becomes wider and the house was only about a hundred fifty feet away. The house was two stories and a light tan in color so it blended into the surrounded wood. Deep chocolate pillars held up an arched doorway that shielded seven small steps and a mahogany door with a semi circle window on the top part of the door that looked inside the dark abode.

    “He told me about half a year ago. He said it was to protect me and my family, he wasn’t worried about himself, he was worried about everyone else. His family was a clan of Secret Warlocks, they liked their power, but were unwilling to let go of their normal human lives.”

    “You have a very vivid memory of him, don’t you?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Did you kiss him?”

    “I never got the chance, but I really wish I did.” I could feel my cheeks redden deeper in their blush when I realize I actually spoke those words out loud. “You didn’t hear that.”

    “He told me, a day before he was, uh…”

    “Killed, murdered, slain, butchered, executed? Take your pick.”

    “Executed, that he snuck into your room often and just watched you sleep.”

    “Really? I remember waking up one time and seeing him sitting on my window ledge. I thought it was a dream and fell back asleep.” My heart warms up at the thought of him staying in my room without me knowing; it was disturbing but, in a way it was a comfort.

    “He told me about that night. He said that on that night, he had an overwhelming sense that he had to protect you. He said fell in love that night and was more than willing to give himself up to keep you out of the Warlock Council’s reach.”

    “They need a shorter name, saying Warlock over and over again is annoying.”

    “It’s not everyday people say it every two minutes.”

    “I guess that’s true.” Looking around, the shrubs had withdrawn from the path and gave way to the much denser path end that led up the well-built stairs. “Why didn’t we take the motorcycle?”

    “I’ll probably go back and get it later, but to answer your question, I wasn’t sure if it would have woken you up.”

    “It would have been faster.” I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep, but he must have; that was probably when he slipped his jacket on me. “What made you surrender your jacket to me?”

    “I can’t afford looking after you if you get sick.”

    “Thanks for the consideration,” I snip and return my head to his warm neck.

    “You’re welcome.”