The sound of tape screeching across cardboard was grating at my ears. Marker ink burnt my nostrils when I stained the box with it.
Lavender sat beside me, sorting through her room of what she wanted to place inside the box I put down for her.
I could hear Mum and Dad scrubbing at walls and slathering years of memories over with chalky wall filler.
The sound of cheerful music did nothing to lift our spirits. Mum and Dad, however, were having the time of their lives dancing around each other as they did their tasks.
"Can't believe we are moving" Lavender grumbled with a glance to the open door "I don't see what's wrong with this house."
"Its good to get a scene change" i quoted Mum "and they did say that downsizing would be nice and cosy."
"Cosy is just a fancy way of saying it's small" she scoffed "it could even be an easier way of saying it's cramped."
I chuckled at her toss another stuffed toy into the donations box bitterly.
"I think they want to do it before you start high-school. Moving after you have settled would be harder."
"I like my friends here though" Lavender's eyes grew tearful "and no matter what I tell them, we aren't going to stay here!"
I left the tape to sit down beside Lavender. She tucked her head against my chest so she could have comfort as she fought back tears.
A small case of flowers sat on the windowsill with a note her friends had written for her farewell. Lavender stated at it longingly.
"Aren't you going to miss your home?" she looked up at me now.
I leant away so I could stare at her searching eyes.
"A patch of grass with some colourful weeds in it?" I snorted and swiped her snaking tear with the tip of my nail "my home is with the spirits; not out there."
"I just feel like we are leaving everything behind" she murmured as she looked down at the teddy bear she had named me after "it doesn't feel right."
"All of this doesn't change anything" I reminded her "you still enjoyed all those birthdays and went on all those trips. We still had lots of fun here; changing the place we make those memories doesn't mean they don't matter anymore."
"I guess you are right" she pushed up a small smile and handed me the bear "thanks for that, Teddy."
"And thank you, Sprig" I spoke back behind the bear that I made wave its hand back at her laughing face.
"Think about it. We'll be off on another adventure!" I got to my feet and shot the bear into the keeping box with style "me and you! It'll be fun!"
I pulled her to her feet and twined my fingers in hers.
"We will have rooms right beside each other too! We can paint them whatever colour we want!"
"Yellow!" Lavender smiled.
"Black!" I declared at the same time.
We laughed and swung our hands side to side. My tail flicked about with the movement that Lavender leaned over to look at.
"Do you think high school will be good? You won't be able to come with me."
I tried to keep her happiness high but felt her worry flow through me. The new high-school she had been enrolled in was one that didn't accept Unbonded demons to prevent stealing souls.
Lavender's own soul was still vulnerable and now bright red, as it had been for the last month.
I wanted her to be absolutely certain of the choice before I did it. A child wasn't mature enough to know the weight of what I would be doing.
Being responsible of someone else's life was a massive decision. Not being able to share it with anyone else once they were exchanged was life changing.
"You'll make tonnes of new friends" I reassured her "and you can still see your old ones on weekends or have them over for sleepovers."
"Sleepovers" she giggled at me "where we talk about boys and braid each other's hair?"
I felt myself burn when Lavender's fingers played with my hair that fell through them.
It was already starting to fall just past my shoulders. Restraining it into a bun now was usually how I kept it from her curiousness.
Lavender was always trying to pull it into some sort of new style she found in the internet. I had thankfully been saved from the wacky dyes so far.
But that was only a matter of time.
"You can braid my hair any day" I teased back as my ears pulled upwards.
They always had a mind of their own. They always perked at things that peeked my interest. And because they did, it used to get confused for an arousal indicator as a child until I figured out that they simply weren't.
Lavender was making my heart hammer and my blood rush though...
She smirked at my ears but I used the opportunity to close the distance between us and lean in close to her to make her go bright red when she focused back on me.
My heart strained to tear out of my chest.
"Look at you two! Am I disturbing something?" Mum called out from the doorway.
Lavender's head immediately whipped around to her voice and her fingers tightened on my hair to tug it sharply. It sent pain shooting through my temple and instantly made me recoil any fond thoughts.
"There is nothing to look at, Mum!" she huffed back and let me retreat from her in pain "you're only disturbing our packing!"
"Obviously" she smirked back "but the boxes are on the ground, not lost in each other's eyes."
"Mum!" Lavender groaned in embarrassment and covered her face.
"Boxes" she clicked her fingers with a smirk and pointed to them before retreating back to Dad.
I dragged the nearest towards me to start loading in more donations Lavender passed to me, savouring the electricity that crackled through my skin whenever our fingertips touched.
We all said goodbye to the house in the flower field the next morning and took one last photograph outside its doors that were locked for the final time. Lavender's withering parting gift was memorialised in the photograph with her, and filled the picture with pops of colour.
It was an emotional exchange when the keys were handed over and we all headed towards the unknown waiting for us away from civilisation.
Moving trucks and the people in white cotton coveralls were already unloading the furniture when we pulled up to the front gate.
The house was on a slope rather than a large rolling hill. It had a white picket fence surrounding it to barricade off some of the massive field spanning the property.
I left the car with Lavender, who still clutched her blooms, while both parents met with the movers.
Lavender hesitated when two movers with the lounge shuffled past. I ducked underneath them to sprint towards the door that was already wide open.
A wrap-around verandah skirted around the entire house. It was bordered with a wooden barrier that came to my chest.
Lavender tagged my side and we raced along the verandah. I was about to reach the front door again before she pulled me back by my tail and took the win for herself.
"You cheated!" I scowled, only to be forced around her soul when more movers shoved their way forwards.
Lavender darted out of their way to head to the left of the house where it was quieter. Two rooms were nestled side by side that movers were wandering out of.
I flitted from her soul to join her in her new room.
It was just a skeleton of her bed and a set of drawers, but it was already starting to take shape into her own private sanctuary. There was even a glass sliding door opposite us that led onto the verandah there.
As for my room, the bed hadn't made it inside yet. I had no furniture to claim as my own since I had taken Mum's sewing room as my bedroom when I had outgrown Lavender's own bed. There was nowhere else to put the supplies, so I shared the already cramped space.
My room also had the same glass sliding door. I could hear Lavender placing her flowers down and yanking hers open before rushing over to mine to bang on the glass with a wave.
This was the best decision Mum and Dad could have made.
I would finally have my own proper room. And one beside Lavender with my own view of nature to admire.
Although, the view right now was quite nice to take in.
"There's even a river here!" Lavender babbled when she opened my door and pointed ahead "you can hear it too if you listen!"
Over the sound of the thudding furniture and chattering workers, I couldn't hear the calming water. Lavender was trying to fool herself, and me, into thinking she suddenly had some extraordinarily supernatural hearing.
Such a mischievous personality.
"Let's go check it out!" she announced then rushed over to tug on my hand "please!"
Movers were already starting to try and manoeuvre themselves into my room with my bed frame.
I rushed out with Lavender and saw her hoist herself onto the barrier with her stomach. She toppled over and I peered down at her laughing in the grass on her stomach. The novelty watermelon printed dress she had chosen to wear for the long car trip here had splayed over her back in her fall. Luckily she had chosen to wear shorts underneath.
"Beat you there, Teddy!" she scurried to her feet and took off.
I took a running jump for my vault over the barrier, using only one hand to stabilise myself on the way. I landed on my feet and was able to easily catch up to Lavender's laughing frame.
"You're wearing shorts!" she cried out when I overtook her.
I couldn't see how my outfit would give me an upper hand in our competition of speed. My dark green shorts and white shirt printed with bright red spiked wings on the back held no mysterious power within them. I was even running barefoot while Lavender had her red flats to protect her feet from the bindis and rocks spearing into mine.
"I'd still beat you in a dress, and you know it!" I called out to her with a laugh and powered ahead while she squealed out.
The rocks sizzled my feet that patterned over them. They were grouped together to form a massive platform beside the babbling water that ran deep.
The platform spread out over a few meters and gradually dwindled down into the smaller stones further down. The wire of a boundary fence cut across the river just before it continued under a bridge. It was decorated with bright orange tape and had plastic targets hanging from it that were peppered with holes.
Another rock platform was copied on the other side that a young boy sat on. He looked to us both in surprise and yanked his bare feet from the water he dangled them into.
His light blue shirt had holes peppered around the hem and had slashes across the chest in some sort of bizarre fashion statement. His black board shorts were drying, as well as his cheap thongs, that laid beside him on the rocks.
He had a plastic gun in his hands and a bunch of pellets in a clear case beside him. It looked like he was enjoying his target practise before we had disturbed him.
Instantly, a dark mist spilled from his shirt to form a demon beside him. The boy's blue eyes widened at us and I placed myself between Lavender and it before I saw who it formed.
"You two must be the new neighbours!" River called out "good to see it's someone we know!"
I cracked a smile as he did, out of nervousness.
River had changed since our last time seeing each other at the glow worm caves. He had gotten ridiculously tall and skinny in his absence. His arms almost seemed too long for his body, and his long curving claws didn't help his inhumane appearance.
River even had his hair spiked forward to come to a peek between his glinting eyes. His long canines were visible when he grinned, which unnerved me at their length.
His dark red shirt and black torn longs only added to his intimidating demeanour.
His human, Darcy, looked a little embarrassed of his towering protector whose tail flickered over to twine around his ankle.
Darcy still had the same trait as trying to copy River; this time choosing the same haircut to intimidate, minus the sharp peak.
"Still not taken?" River smiled and leapt across the water easily. He stood there before me with the same smile on his face as he looked at Lavender with intense focus.
Lavender averted her gaze. I could have sworn I saw her blush.
River's gaze almost seemed... hungry.
He was sizing Lavender up and I was just standing by to let it happen. River had obviously changed over the last year; I didn't want to be fighting back against something that could be more dangerous than I anticipated.
"I'm just waiting for the right time" I muttered.
"What are you waiting for? It's already red!" he clapped me on the back "get to it, or you'll be joining the spirits up there!"
I chuckled while he laughed. Even Lavender forced a smile.
"We are going to be neighbours now, so let's be friends too!" River declared and held out his hand towards me that softened when i hesitated "the way i acted back then was only out of jealousy. It was nothing more than me being a stupid kid; honest."
Jealousy. That's what had fuelled me too back at the glow worm cave. I had mistaken it for hate, and had confused River's fascination with Lavender as something he selfishly desired. But it was only because he wanted something that he had been missing. The silent spirits had given me nothing when i cried up to them; Dad had been the one to explain it all to me.
I used to want to be just like River. But now that he was here, that had changed.
Nothing about him was the same. Even his voice had changed. It was rough and sounded like it was dripping with darkness.
Perhaps it needed to be that way to offer Darcy the best protection?
But did a demon's appearance change because of something like that?
What was Darcy going through that Lavender wasn't?
I offered my apologies and grabbed his hand to shake it firmly. He then extended it out to Lavender who grabbed it hesitantly.
His nails easily wrapped around the back of her hand. It made me as nervous as her.
"Why don't we all play in the river?" Darcy spoke up from the other side "I was going to anyway before it got dark."
"We have rings you guys can use too!" River lit up immediately "I'll go grab them!"
"That does sound like fun" Lavender finally smiled.
"Don't go anywhere" River said, jumping back over the water to take off up grass in the other side.
A red house sat in the distance. It was surrounded by trees that formed a barrier along the side of it. Behind that, the landscape pulled up into a glorious mountain that touched the floating clouds high in the clear sky.
Beside the house was a huge barn that was painted in the same red. I could see the tiny speck that was River cautiously entering it.
It was only a few moments later that he was bolting from it with his arms loaded with blown rings.
As he powered into view, I saw that two off them were the inner tubing from some sort of wheel, as they were marked. Both had thick patches and white scratches over them from use. The other two were much thinner pool rings. One was shaped like a rubber duck while the other was a sprinkled doughnut.
River handed Darcy the doughnut and shouldered the duck for himself. He tossed over each inner tubing to us that I narrowly caught.
Lavender looked overjoyed when she looped her arm through her tube.
River stripped off his shirt to dump it on the rocks. Darcy kept his on as he followed further up.
I stripped my shirt off too when we all gathered at a wider part of the river. Lavender remained clothes with Darcy.
"There's a spot further down that will stop you if you go too far" Darcy called to us "that's the only part before the barbed wire."
"And it's super deep!" River whooped as he jumped in to send water showering everywhere "you can't even touch here!"
"Just be caref..." I warned Lavender who leapt past me with the tube.
She screamed out from the cold and clutched for the tube wildly. River laughed at her then splashed Darcy who also shrieked when he tried to carefully slide in.
I jumped in and immediately felt the burn of the icy water wrap around my body that spasmed from the shock. I could feel everything being eaten by the cold water that forced it into numbness.
"The sun does nothing to warm the water here!" River splashed as he floated on his duck "it's super fresh too so you can drink it!"
"It's like a freezer!" Lavender forced through her chattering teeth.
Darcy squirted water from his mouth at Lavender who gasped. She returned the water and got Darcy right in the eye to make him swipe for it, falling off his tube to our laughter.
It was all fun and games as the sun boiled our skins that the water tried to keep frozen with its icy depths.
We floated on the water on our tubes and raced each other to the rocky lip before the barbed wire barricade. River and I even had our own races underwater that our own humans cheered for, since we didn't need to fear drowning like they did.
It was great not to worry. River and Darcy were actually very nice people to be around, despite my unsure opinion at first.
River looked frightening, but he was very kind and considerate. He didn't care what others thought either, and rode his bright rubber duck ring without fear of judgement.
Darcy was excitable once he came out of his shell. He was quick to retract though before realising he had nothing to worry about here and lit up again.
It was like trying to tempt a frightened animal into the light.
Darcy and Lavender were quickly bonding. They were flipping each other from their rings when Lavender went under. I was with River, laughing, as she came up again.
Everyone stopped however when we saw the water around her turn red.
Was that blood?
I immediately left River's side to join hers when she saw it and started panicking. Lavender lifted herself from the water to check herself on the rocks for wounds, turning around frantically.
It looked like her watermelon dress was leaking away as the water flowed from her to spread the blood down her legs and make it look worse than what it was.
I lifted myself out too to grab her face and make her look at me. She started bawling as she continued to bleed down her legs.
"I didn't flip her near any rocks!" Darcy blabbered when River hit him over the head "honest! Is she dying?"
"I think she's having her Flowers!" River gawked.
"Her what?"
"Flowers, Teddy" he replied simply "when a girl becomes a woman, her body grows a red flower inside itself. And if that flower doesn't turn into a baby, the flower is crushed and comes out as blood."
"Oh, no! " Lavender whimpered and tried to cover herself, sobbing harder when she realised she couldn't.
"Look, I'll drop by tonight and help you out" River spoke as he still floated on his tube "it's nothing to be scared about."
"Thanks" I forced a smile and turned Lavender from them both.
She cried as I walked behind her to give her some sort of decency. As soon as she reached the verandah, she wailed for Mum who came running and quickly ushered her away with soothing words.
I leapt back up onto the barrier and sat down on the edge outside Lavender's room.
I peered into it to see the vase of withering flowers sitting on the drawer beside her bed.
Flowers.
What a wonderfully terrifying gift they were.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
