Chapter 6

Hax woke to the sound of his alarm, but felt something wrapped around him. Eve was closely snuggled against his chest. He wondered if he should risk ruining this moment by kicking her arse out his bed.

‘Don’t you even dare…’ she said, still half asleep.

‘Says the woman who broke into my room.’ He replied, looking down at her. She met his gaze and gave him a kiss.

‘You know you love me.’ She said with a cheeky smile.

‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I said I had feelings for you, never once did I say “love”.’

‘I don’t need you to say it for me to know it. Plus you didn’t kick me out of your bed, so yeah.’

‘Good point.’ Hax pushed Eve out of his bed and on to the floor. She landed with a thud, on top of a leather backed book. She recognised it instantly; it was the same book she tried to steal when they first met.

‘Read it to me.’ She said, handing the book to Hax. He opened it to a dog-eared page about midway through and began reading.

‘I do not like you Sam I am; I do not like green eggs and ham. I will not eat them in a house; I will not eat them with a mouse.’

‘Are you serious? That’s a Dr. Seuss book.’

‘Yeah. It’s a classic from my childhood. It means a lot to me.’ Hax said, sincerity and emotion laced in his voice. In her mind, all her senses told her to jump his bones, but she was interrupted by a knock at the door.

‘Hax. I can’t seem to find Eve.’ Said Seth ‘I think she might have run away again. I suggest we take inventory of the house, in case she stole something.’

Seth waited at the door for a reply. He expected Hax to be in shock at this moment. He wanted to be there for his brother, just in case. The door unlocked and slowly crept open.

‘Hax, are you alr-’ Seth asked, only to have a pillow launch itself square at into his face. Eve walked past him with a cheeky grin.

‘That’s what you get for calling me a thief.’ Eve said.

‘Thank you for last night, Eve. You were… Buenos.’ Hax said, picking up his pillow. Eve returned to her room to get changed out of her pyjamas. Seth looked at Hax dumbfounded.

‘Please don’t get a bloody nose from that.’

‘But…but…you and her….last night…and you?’ Seth stammered.

Hax sighed and looked Seth in the eyes. ‘Last night’s dream was especially violent. I remember everything from that day. She heard me scream, and made sure I was ok. Nothing sexual, nothing kinky, just her being nice.’

‘Oh…’ Seth said, sighing in relief ‘So she is still available then? Guess Dylan was wrong.’

‘Oh no.’ Hax said with a massive grin ‘I believe it was you who said it best with “I’m going to hit that so hard, the one who pulls me out with be the next king of England.”’ And he walked downstairs to make some coffee.

Tormenting Seth is hard work, he thought.

After half an hour, he was joined by Dylan, Seth and Eve. They all sat down to enjoy the toast Hax had made for them.

‘So how is the happy couple this morning?’ Dylan asked.

‘I’m pissed off with him.’ Eve said. They all looked at Hax to see how he would react.

‘Well, it was bound to happen sometime.’ Hax said, reading the paper. ‘But what have I done to upset you after only 10 hours.’

‘I heard what you said to Seth about me.’ Eve said, giving both of them dirty looks. Hax was flabbergasted, and lost for words. Luckily he had Seth to step in for him.

‘Did you hear what he said when we went down the stairs?’ he asked.

‘No…’ Eve said, interested in what had been said.

‘I asked him if he really meant that, and his exact words were “No. What I really think is I would date the shit out of that woman, and then marry the fuck out of her.”’ Seth said, sipping at his apple juice.

Eve was overcome with emotions. She tackled Hax and smothered him with kisses, but he still had enough time to bro-fist Seth for his help.

‘Eve, would you mind not smothering my brother at the table?’ Dylan asked ‘Are you coming to school with us today?’

‘Oh crap!’ Eve said, sitting back down in her seat. ‘That’s today! Well I don’t know, I was hoping to spend the day with Hax again.’

‘Eve, sweetie?’ Hax said, finally recovering from the full frontal attack. ‘You barely worked yesterday. Today, I doubt you will work at all. Plus I have errands to run today. You have fun at school.’

‘Okay’ she said with a smile. ‘When do we leave?’

Dylan looked at the clock. ‘We leave at 8 so we have about half an hour.’ Then his face erupted in a massive evil grin. He leaned in close and whispered something to Eve. She looked at him and nodded.

‘What did whisper to her?’ Hax said, his face reverting back to his stoic expression.

‘Don’t worry Hax.’ Dylan said. ‘ It’s just a little fun.’

‘Yeah, fun with MY…’ Hax stopped talking. He looked over to Eve, and she slowly nodded with a smile. ‘… Girlfriend.’ He got up from the table and went up stairs.

‘Geez, is Hax always like that?’ Eve asked.

‘Eve, you must realise that you are his first.’ Said Seth, looking concerned.

‘But we never…’ Eve became embarrassed.

‘No.’ Dylan said, holding Eve’s hands. ‘You’re his first GIRLFRIEND.’

‘But how?’ Eve asked ‘I mean with a body and an arse like THAT--’

‘Eve, we don’t want to think about Hax’s arse at this moment.’ Seth said.

‘Well, I do.’ She said, and sat back in her chair.

‘EVE, WOULD YOU FUCKING LISTEN FOR A MINUTE?!?!’ Dylan screamed. This knocked Eve out of her day dream and back into reality. ‘Hax has been looking after us for most of our lives, and the day we lost Nicole and Nikita…’ Dylan went quiet for a moment ‘He swore to us that he would protect us until the end. This is the first time he has opened his heart to anyone other than family.’

‘He spoke about that last night. Is that why he has nightmares?’

Dylan and Seth both went quiet again. It wasn’t until a few minutes later, did Dylan break the silence.

‘Well, I’ve wasted a bit of time here. You should go get dressed and ready. Look professional if possible.’

‘Okay.’ Eve said with a smile. Hax walked back down stairs with his hat and glasses on.

‘Alright. I have to be off. I should be back later.’ On his way to the garage, he was tackled by Eve again.

‘Is this going to be a regular thing?’ he looked her in the eyes, and realized something was wrong.

‘Hax, I love you. And I don’t want you to forget that. There is nothing in this world that will make me stop loving you.’

‘But--’

‘And I don’t need you to say it now. You will say it when you feel it’s right.’

‘Eve?’

‘Yes Hax?’

‘Can you get off me? You’re kind of heavy.’

‘HEY!’ she slapped him across the face and kissed him. They both stood up, and said goodbye. As he drove out of the driveway, he thought to himself if she would think that after finding out about him.

The first bell rang out at the local high school, and the year 11 physics class sat in their classroom waiting for their teacher, Mr. Daemonia, to show up. He was always punctual, so today was quite a shock to them all. One student, Michael, sat in the front row with a worried look on his face.

Is he going to be okay?, he thought.

He replayed the memories from the previous night, how he woke up in a public bathroom with his physics teacher sitting against a wall with a stab wound to his kidney. The door to the class swung open, and Michael prayed it was Mr. Daemonia, but instead walked a beautiful redhead.

She stood about 5’8, and her long flowing hair playfully draped her shoulders and chest. She wore round reading glasses, and her white shirt was half unbuttoned to show off her cleavage. The minute she walked in the room, all the boys started drooling. That is, all but one.

Eve immediately recognised Michael from the description Dylan had given her, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

‘Hello class’ she said in a very sultry voice ‘I am Miss Hill, and I will be your substitute teacher for today.’

‘What happened to Mr. Daemonia?’ asked Michael. Eve walked up to him, and looked him in the eyes.

‘ Am I not good enough to be a teacher for you?’ she said, her eyes welling up with tears. ‘Cause…I…I…’ she started to break down in tears completely, hugging Michael as she broke down.

‘No…no miss. I didn’t mean it like that, I was just worried about him is all.’ Eve stopped and looked longingly into his eyes.

‘I have never met a student who has cared about a teacher so deeply. It’s so…erotic.’ She leaned in close, and was about to kiss a scared Michael on the lips, when the door burst open, and a voice rang out through the entire classroom.

‘GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY STUDENT!'

Dylan limped in, a walking cane in one hand and his satchel in the other. Everyone in the room was shocked to see him, and Eve feigned surprise. Dylan threw his bag against the white board, and grabbed Eve by the hair, dragging her out of the classroom. As the door slammed shut, there was horrible yelling and screaming which ended with the sound of a woman crying. Dylan entered the classroom, his shirt stained with blood above his wound, and proceeded to write the lesson plan on the board. As he turned around, every student in the class had their hand up.

‘Alright, Kelly. You first before you pop a shoulder joint.’

‘Umm, what just happened?’ a girl from the third row asked.

‘A substitute teacher just tried to seduce my student, and I have had enough of today.’ He replied.

‘Is she all right?’ asked a boy from the back row.

‘Yes. She will be reported to the school board. Now if there are no more questions--’ Michael shot up his hand.

‘Sir, your wound is bleeding…’

‘Oh thank you Michael. Again you save me.’

There was a soft knock at the door, and Dylan invited them in. Eve had returned, this time wearing a woollen jumper, and had her hair tied into a bun. She was completely unrecognisable.

‘Ahh perfect timing. Class, this is my new teaching assistant, and sister in law…’ Eve’s eyes widened. ‘… Miss Eve.’

‘Hello class.’ She said with a smile. She walked up to Dylan and whispered ‘Did you really need to call me that?’

‘Sooo, you’re not my teaching assistant?’ Dylan asked.

‘Not that’ she said, her face turning as red as her hair ‘The other thing.’

‘Oh…’ Dylan said. ‘Yes!’ and flashed a huge smile.

The rest of the class went along smoothly. Eve enjoyed sitting in the class and learning about physics.

During the lunch break Dylan, Seth and Eve all sat down in Dylan’s office to enjoy the sandwiches that Eve made for them.

‘So, do you think you broke his brain?’ Seth asked.

‘Yeah.’ Eve said with a smile.

‘You want to show me the outfit sometime?’

‘Not in your wildest dreams’ Seth’s phone buzzed. He looked at it, and then bro-fisted Dylan. Eve looked over at Seth’s phone to see a photo of her dressed as Miss Hill.

‘Oh fuck you both.’ She said with a scowl. There was a knock at the office door, and Seth left his seat to open it. When he returned, Michael had followed him in.

‘Michael here wanted to see you Dylan.’

‘Hey Mr. Daemonia, how’s the wound?’ Michael asked.

‘Oh, it’s good. Did a lot of kids ask you out what happened?’ Dylan said, motioning him to take a seat.

‘Yeah. I seem to be really popular after people found out I saved your life.’

‘Well, as I said, you are a good student. I’d hate to see you get hurt. But I assume you didn’t come to see me about my wound, did you?’ Michael looked down at his feet for a second, and then looked at Eve.

‘Hello Miss hill.’ He said with a smile.

‘Umm, pardon?’ she said with half a sandwich in her mouth.

‘I know it was you. It was your eyes that gave it away.’

‘Sorry.’ Eve said ‘I didn’t mean to go overboard with it.’

‘Please don’t apologise. I am more popular with the ladies now; I think they might be a bit jealous of you.’

‘Now Michael, I hope you remember what happened last time--’ Seth said, but Michael was quick to jump in.

‘It’s okay sir. I learnt my mistake. I will treat women with more respect; especially since you somehow landed a girl like Eve.’

At that exact moment, Dylan, Seth and Eve all burst into laughter.

‘Michael, I would be a lucky man if I had Eve, but she isn’t mine.’ Seth said.

‘But you said she was your sister in law. Did you get married without us knowing?’ Michael asked Dylan. He picked up his mobile, and showed him a picture of Hax.

‘So, you ARE gay?’

Seth and Eve giggled, but Dylan shook his head in disbelief.

‘Michael, that’s my oldest brother Hax. He is a mechanic’

‘Oh. Shit, sorry. You never talked about him.’ Michael said. He turned to Eve and asked ‘What’s he like?’

‘Oh, he is a barrel of laughs. He saved me from myself, and I fell for him.’ Eve said with a smile. The school bell rang out. ‘Sorry, looks like our time is up.’

‘Will you be in all our classes from now on?’ Michael asked, getting up from his seat.

‘Yeah, I’d like that.’ Eve replied.

After a long day at school, Dylan, Seth and Eve returned home in quite a good mood. They all enjoyed their day at school, especially messing with the students.

‘Well, that was fun’ Dylan said.

‘Next time, you need to let me borrow Eve. I want to have fun in my class too.’ Seth said

‘Seth, I KNOW the kind of fun you want to have in your class with me. No!’ Eve said, giving him a stern look.

‘So whose shout is it for dinner?’ Seth asked.

‘How about you two?’ Eve said ‘I worked hard looking sexy for your class, so you owe me one.’

‘Chinese it is’ Dylan said ‘We will be back in about an hour. If Hax comes home, tell him about your day.’

Dylan and Seth walked out the front door, and Eve headed upstairs. When she was certain they had left, she ran to the garage. No car…, Eve thought with a smile. This was her chance to see what Hax kept in his private study. She knew it was wrong, but what could one little peek hurt?

She carefully picked the study door lock. It was just as easy as Hax’s door last night, and when she heard the CLICK, she sighed in relief. As she walked in she was shocked at the sight that befell her. All the walls were covered in books, ranging from very new crisp books, to old books that looked like they were about to fall apart. She sat down in one of the massive chairs in the middle of the room, and read all the spines of the pile of books on the coffee table. Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Socrates, Shakespeare, Lovecraft; the reading selection that Hax had shown he like a certain style of books. One book intrigued Eve exponentially.

‘ “Breaking the bubble: Dealing with Aspergers Syndrome.”’ She said aloud. She turned to a bookmarked chapter titled “How to better show your emotions”. This made Eve smile.

He was making an effort

Her gaze shifted to a large silver chest that sat in the corner of the room next to the base of the stairs. Eve’s curiosity had the better of her, she had to know what was inside. She noticed the large combination lock, but it wasn’t a challenge for Eve. A few quick taps in strategic places and the locking mechanism gave in. She opened the lid and was overcome by what she saw inside.

Neatly packed into her chest were old documents and pictures. They looked to be dated from centuries ago. She opened a large book that was covered in weird markings unlike any language she had ever seen. Inside the book were depictions of horrendous creatures, with short descriptions of them below in the same unknown language. As she flipped through, she couldn’t believe the sights she saw, until she came to a page in the centre. She recognised the picture in the centre, but the book seemed to be old and faded, where as the reference material, as she knew, was only created early last century. The picture was of the H.P. Lovecraft paranormal classic, Cthulhu.

She dug deeper and found photographs from the 1800’s. One showed six people all smiling, and she recognised three of them, or she thought she did. The three young gentlemen in the photo shared remarkable resemblance to Seth, Dylan and Hax. The other people in the photo consisted of a young lady, around the age of 30, with dark hair. She looked very beautiful, and was standing next to the Seth look-a-like. The other girls looked about 10 years of age, and were twins. They were hugging on the Dylan and Hax look-a-likes legs. They all looked like one big family.

She flipped to the next photo, and shocked Eve to the core. In the photo stood 3 of the creatures she saw in the book. There was a large, humanoid crocodile, a twin headed hydra and a large mass of black smoke; but what made her fear it the most was that they all stood around the corpse of someone. These monsters were eating human flesh, and kept a photo of it for memories.

‘Why would Hax keep all this information on these monsters?’ Eve said to herself.

‘Because I wanted to remind myself how far I have come in my life.’ Said a voice behind her.

Eve spun to see Hax standing in the middle of the study, just looking at her with sheer disappointment. She slammed the case lid shut, hoping that he didn’t notice her looking through it.

‘Eve, how could you break my rules about coming in here?’ he asked.

‘I…I’m sorry Hax. I didn’t know what happened.’ She said, her face becoming red.

‘You lied, you broke into my room, you barely work, and now you go through my personal items.’

‘Oh and you are the best man in the world! You lied to me about who you are!’

‘IT’S NOT LYING IF I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT YOU--’ Hax screamed.

‘AND WHAT DO I NEED PROTECTING FROM?!? A MONSTER LIKE YOU?!?’ Eve screamed louder.

Hax growled, his lip curling into a snarl. ‘WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, EAT ME?!? You going to kill me like you killed everyone else.’

This snapped Hax out of his anger. He finally understood what it was like to see this from another perspective.

‘Eve, I--’

‘NO! You don’t get to say anything to me! What else did you do to me?’ Eve yelled ‘were you just planning to fatten me up and slaughter me at the end of the month?!? What else did you do to me?!? IS THIS WHY I AGREED TO DO ALL THIS? DID YOU USE SOME SORT OF MIND CONTROL ON ME?!’

Eve pushed past Hax, and stormed out of the study.

Dylan and Seth returned with bags full of Chinese food. Dylan took the bags and told Seth to grab Hax and Eve. Seth went upstairs as Dylan laid out plates.

‘Dylan! You might want to come up here.’ Seth called from upstairs. Dylan ran upstairs to find Seth standing outside Eve’s room. He walked slowly towards the door way to see Hax sitting on Eve’s bed, alone, covered in blood.

‘Hax?’ Dylan walked over to him ‘Hax, where’s Eve?’

‘She’s gone…’ he muttered.

‘Did you…’ Seth said ‘…kill her?’

‘What…’ Hax said, and looked at his shirt. ‘Oh no. She stabbed me and ran out of the house.’

‘What happened, Hax?’

Hax told them everything that had happened after he came home, about her finding out about them, about her freaking out and how she had left.

‘I’m so sorry Hax…’ Dylan said ‘I thought she was the one for you.’

‘Well, she wasn’t. And to think that I went to speak to Him about everything.’

‘What did he say about it?’ Seth said, finally stepping into the room.

‘It doesn’t fucking matter!’ Hax yelled ‘SHE IS GONE! She left me, and she won’t come back.’

‘Hax, mate…’ Dylan said, putting a hand on Hax’s shoulder ‘I know she--’

But before Dylan could finish his sentence, he was punched square in the face by a fist made out of smoke. Dylan flew through the air and smashed through the wall into the backyard, while Hax sat in the same position, his right arm still made of smoke.

Seth stood in Eve’s old room, just staring it Hax. He had just witnessed him punch Dylan so hard that he flew into the backyard. He has never seen Hax so upset that he would hit his own family. But he remembered how much Hax loved Eve, just for her to walk out on him.

‘Whoa....’ was all he could manage. He wondered if Dylan was going to be able to recover from a punch like that, but when he heard a screeching sound, he knew there was going to be trouble. A two headed hydra landed through the whole in the room, its sapphire scales shimmering in the light. It stood 7 foot high, and had fully developed forearms and hind legs to fight on two feet. Its heads looked like a dragons with short snouts and beared its sharp fangs that could rip apart anything.

‘You shouldn’t have done that Hax’ it said, sounding like a serpentine version Dylan.  In a quick flash, Hax’s body turned to smoke and dispersed around the room. ‘Always had to fight dirty, didn’t you brother.’

‘You know you can’t catch the wind.’ Hax’s voice surrounded them like an echo.

‘Yes, but I also know you have to come together to hit me.’ Dylan took a blow to the back of his right head.

‘You don’t have the instinct to fight me, so why don’t you give up?’

‘And let you get away with this crap? You think you can remain unaccountable for all this shit!’ Dylan screamed.

‘I HAD TO PUT UP WITH EVERYONE FOR THREE FUCKING CENTURIES!’ Hax bellowed ‘I DIDN’T HAVE THE CHANCE TO ENJOY MY LIFE LIKE YOU TWO DID! I COOKED AND CLEANED AND MADE SURE EVERYONE STAYED SAFE!!!’

‘AND LOOK AT HOW THAT TURNED OUT!!’ Dylan screamed, but immediately wished he hadn’t.  Hax reformed in front of Dylan and landed 6 quick blows to his soft underbelly. It hurt like a bitch, but Dylan knew this was his opportunity. He landed a punch in between Hax’s purple eyes that hung in the smoke haze. Hax fell backwards and out the hole in the house. When he landed, he was back in his human form. Dylan landed on top of him, one leg on each side of his chest, holding him against the ground.

Hax tried to fight back against his brother’s strength, but he wasn’t able to transform into his smoke form.

‘You have to give up!’ Dylan said.

‘NO!’ Hax screamed

‘LET GO!’ Dylan roared.

‘NO!!’ Hax yelled back.

‘LET IT GO HAXATHOR!!’

Immediately after hearing his name, Hax broke down into tears. It had taken them three centuries and more death than they wanted, but Hax finally gave into his emotions.

‘I couldn’t save them’ Hax said through tears. ‘I couldn’t save Nicole. I couldn’t save Nikita. I couldn’t save Claire for Seth.  And now she is gone.’ He clutched his chest like his heart was exploding ‘OH GOD, WHY DOES IT HURT?!?’

‘That feeling, Hax’ Dylan said, morphing back into human ‘that’s called heartbreak. And it’s normal.’