Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (28 page)

“Hey are you hungry?” she asked me, with the cell still to her ear.
I wasn't overly hungry, I felt tired more than anything. I shook my head and smiled. I was pleasantly
surprised she was being so nice to me and not shouting at me for dragging Kenzie into my secret
escape which was what I would have expected from her.
“Kenzie says if you want you can wait in his room or sleep in his bed if you're tired.”
“Actually I think I'm going to take that offer up. I'm kind of tired.” I said standing up.
“Okay let me know if you need anything.” she said walking back into the kitchen.
“Tal you still there?” she carried on her phone conversation and I went up to Kenzie's bedroom. I
switched on the green and blue lava lamp next to his bed and climbed in. I laid my head down on
his fluffy pillow which smelled of bubblegum just like Kenzie with a hint of smoke but it didn't
bother me, I felt much more contented up here. I watched the reflections from the lava lamp
dancing on the walls and I soon drifted off.

The theme tune to
Star Wars
woke me up. I opened my eyes to see Kenzie's green wall staring back
at me. I went to move but bumped into something hard. I scooted over and managed to roll onto my
back and saw Kenzie lying next to me with his bare back to me. The sound continued and I saw his
cell vibrating loudly around on his desk. I sat up and shook his arm.
“Kenzie your cell is ringing.”
“Ugh!” he moaned stretching his arm out to get it.
Then he fumbled around with it with his eyes half closed trying to press the buttons. After not much
success I picked it out of his hand, it was the alarm for 7am going off. I tapped the right button and
the noise stopped.
He rolled over onto his back and laid his arm over his face groaning.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No and it's all your fault.”
“What's my fault?” I asked trying to pull his arm away from his face.
“You. You forced me to hang out with Em.”
“Yes but it was only going along with the story you made up. Why what happened?”
“I can't remember anything after the tequila. It's all blurry.”
“You have a hang over?” I laughed.
“I think I'm dying.” he said dramatically.
“Well I didn't force you to down every drink in sight.”
“I had to it was the only way to block him out. All he does is talk. I can still hear him talking.” he
whinged. There was a knock at the door and Shasta let herself in.
“Kenzie you need to get up we're leaving in a minute. Do you want me to make you some breakfast
or do you want to get something on the go?”
She smiled at me and didn't even bat an eyelid that Kenzie and I were sharing the same bed. Not
that I thought there was anything strange about it but someone else might. I never thought of Kenzie
like that. To me he was just crazy Kenzie, I loved him to bits but not romantically. I moved over and
leaned against the wall pulling my dressing gown off the bottom of the bed and pulled it on.
“No I'm staying here today.” Kenzie said groaning again as though he was in pain.
“Kenzie you're just hung over, it will pass in a few hours.” Shasta said.
“I said I'm staying here today.”
Shasta looked between Kenzie and I.
“Cam's home today, he'll wonder why you're not with Ryu. You're on the roster for today.”
“Cross me off then, cause I'm taking a sick day.”
“We don't have sick days.” she looked over at me again. “We don't get sick. Being hung over is not
an illness.”
“Then tell Cam I'm taking some of that holiday time I have stored up.”
“Staying here is only going to make Cam suspicious that there's something going on.”
“I'm not going out today.”
Shasta huffed loudly and slammed the door. He sat up and leaned against the headboard.
“She really hates me now. You're taking time off work to stay with me.” I said poking him in the
side.
“She doesn't hate you. She's jealous.”
“Jealous, Jealous of what? Why would she be jealous?”
“Why do you think?” he asked throwing the covers back.
He walked over to the window only wearing a pair of black
Looney Tunes
boxer shorts with a
picture of
Taz
on the front. He lifted the window and rolled the desk chair over. I stayed on the bed
still trying to figure out what Shasta could possibly be jealous of? He lit up a cigarette and inhaled
and blew the smoke out the window. Shasta didn't like him smoking indoors.
“I don't know.” I finally answered him.
“Because of Cam.”
“What does Shasta being jealous have to do with Cam?”
“Because of the way Cam is with you.”
“What are you talking about I still don't get it?”
“The way he treats you, the way he lets you speak to him. The way he is in general with
you
.”
“I hardly see him and he treats me the same as everyone else.”
“No he doesn't. It's obvious the way he feels about you. You're not just some marriage arrangement
to suit his father, to Cam you mean a lot more otherwise he'd have you scrubbing the floors to earn
your keep. But instead he treats you like a princess because to him you are his princess. And it
makes Shaz crazy jealous.”
“So she's jealous because I don't have to work and she does?”
“No. She's jealous because she's always had a thing for Cam. They had this fling about fifty years
ago but that's all it was to Cam. Shaz gets jealous of the way he looks at you and the fact you don't
even notice cause you're too busy dreaming about other boys,” he laughed. “Get it cause you
actually have been dreaming about another boy.”
“Well she can have him if she wants him that badly.”
“She would if it was up to her but Cam won't have anything to do with her like that anymore. We
were on holiday in Thailand all together four years ago and she'd had a lot to drink and got a bit
frisky hands on with him....anyway he told her if she ever tried to do anything like that again he
would cut off a few of her fingers as a reminder. He's holding out for you. Ever since the idea of
you came along he hasn't wanted anyone else.”
“It gives me the creeps thinking he used to come and visit me when I was little. It's weird.”
“He was only making sure you were safe. I suppose it does seem sort of weird-ish but he only
wanted to keep you safe and make sure you were happy. He loves you, I've never seen him like this
before. I know I haven't known him as long as the others, but he's definitely different with you.”
“Different how? He hardly talks to me or spends any time with me. Not that I want him to.”
“It's the way he looks at you, I can't explain it. I just go on what I see. And as for the not spending
time with you, it's not that he doesn't want to, I think it's the fact he already knows you're going to
reject him. That and you're into Senka.”
“Cam doesn't want to hurt Senka because of how I feel about him does he? I mean he wouldn't
would he?”
“No. That's the proof right there that he loves you. He doesn't want to hurt you or cause you any
unnecessary harm, he only wants to make you happy even if that means letting you play house with
Senka.”
“So kidnapping me and trying to get my memories erased is all because he loves me?”
“He was only doing what he thought was best. Not the best idea I know.”
I slid off the bed attempting to stretch but ended up getting tangled in my dress and falling flat on
the floor.
“Ouch!” Kenzie said stubbing his cigarette out.
“You can say that again,” I said rubbing my knee. “Right that's it, I'm not going to spend another
minute in a dress or anything that hangs below the knee. For my own safety.”
I pulled off my dressing gown and lifted off my nightdress and stood in my bra and panties.
“Give me something of yours.” I said placing my hand on my hip.
He looked me up and down smirking as the door opened abruptly. Roman's eyes flickered between
us.
“I'm not even going to ask. Um just to let you know we're going, give us a bell if you need us.”
Roman said before quickly pulling the door shut.
Kenzie scratched the top of his head looking at me. He stood up and went to his closet.
“Here,” He handed me a yellow vest with a panda on the front. I pulled it on and looked down at
my legs. “Nothing I have is going to fit you right. You have girl parts.”
“Girl parts?” I said laughing.
“I mean your hips. Hang on I have a better idea. Do you know your sizes?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Clothes sizes.”
“Um,” I had to think about it for a few seconds but I somehow knew what they were.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Write them down.” he said handing me a pen and his hand to write on.
“And why exactly am I writing these on your hand?”
“You'll see in a minute.”
“Done.” I said.
“Yep that's great.” he said looking at his hand.
“Okay I'll be back in a minute.....Oh clothes first.” he said realising he wasn't dressed.
He went back to the closet and pulled out a fresh T-shirt then he searched the floor for his jeans.
“Help yourself to anything in the fridge while I'm gone.” he said pulling on his hi-tops.
“Where are you going?”
“You'll see.” he said grinning at me as he adjusted his cap. He stuck his tongue out at me and faded
away.
I went downstairs and searched around in the fridge. I poured myself a glass of chocolate milk and
found a chocolate bar to eat. So it wasn't the best breakfast or the healthiest but seeing as my health
wasn't really an issue anymore I didn't think it would matter if I wanted to eat a chocolate bar for
breakfast. I sat on the floor in the front room looking through the DVD collection, most of it I
recognised and remembered. I found it frustrating I could remember some of these movies off by
heart but I couldn't even remember what my own brother looked like.
I heard rustling in the kitchen and Kenzie stuck his head round the door.
“You're back.” I said smiling, curious about where he'd been.
“Yep. What you doing?” he asked.
“Seeing how many of these titles I remember. Last night I recognised the programme Shasta was
watching.”
“That's good. Right?”
“Yes but it's not helpful.”
“It's going to take some time, one step at a time. It's not going to come back all in one go. And the
longer we can keep you away from Em and his witchy woo the better chance you have of getting
your memory back in full.”
“Yes but how long before Cam finds another way to have my memory obliterated? What about this
Maite I've heard him talking about? What if he finds her?”
“Will you stop worrying. If he can't find her now it's because she doesn't want to be found. She's not
just going to pop up next week, Maite is like this dark forest myth, not many people have seen her
and not many people believe she even exists. She lives in some rickety old tree house that can
magically move where ever she wants it to.”
“So how do you know about her?”
“Ryu and her go way back. That's all I know. Now would you get your butt in here.”
I walked into the kitchen to see the middle isle counter was covered in bags.
“What's all this?” I asked peeking inside a bag.
“Your clothes.”
“What? Where did you get them?”
“Copeland Harbour, which is the next town along. There's this store called
Dark Threads
you'd
probably love it. I think Senka gets a lot of his stuff from there.”
“What do you want me to do with them?”
He laughed. “I want you to try them on. They're yours I just bought them for you. You said it
yourself no more dresses.”
“Yes. But I wasn't being serious. Obviously before I went back to the manor I was going to change
back into my dress.”
“No you're not. You hate those dresses along with that bed sheet you call a nightdress. Oh I got you
some jammies as well.” he said pulling out some cute little shorts and vest tops.
“Toothbrush,” he said handing it to me. “You're always over here so you might as well have your
own toothbrush in the bathroom.”
“Kenzie one problem...” I was about to say Cam but Kenzie jumped in.
“It's cool, you're just going to tell him these are Shasta's.”
“Yeah right. Since when does Shasta wear anything like this?” I asked pulling out a pair of red
All
Star Converse
hi-tops.
“Then you tell Cam that I pulled these out of our attic. They are from when Shasta went through
that phase of clothing a few years back. He's not likely to remember, he didn't even notice when she
chopped all her hair off a while back.”
“I thought we were meant to be pretending and carrying on like normal? This screams I know
something's wrong. Screw you and your dresses. That's what he's going to think.”
“Then let him fret it for a bit.”
“What if it backfires and he locks me up?”
“Then I'll have to break you out and I'm sure Senka would help.” Kenzie smiled pulling out a denim
jacket with Aztec print on the shoulders.
“Senka would help with what?” said a deep voice.
I looked over and saw Senka standing in the doorway.
“Err hi Senka,” Kenzie said as surprised as I was to see him.
He hadn't even knocked. My heart fluttered just from the sight of him and my body suddenly turned
into a trembling mess. I side stepped towards Kenzie, half panicking half trying to hide me bare
legs. Standing in a vest top and panties in the middle of Kenzie's kitchen was probably the reason
behind the angry eyes Senka had focused on Kenzie. I side stepped again but my foot caught on the
edge of the stool and I managed to fall sideways into Kenzie.
“You are the clumsiest person I have ever met.” Kenzie said casually pushing the jacket back into
the bag.
“What is she wearing?” Senka asked.
“Clothes.” Kenzie said casually laughing it off.
“What's this?” Senka asked grabbing the bag from him.
“Did you buy her clothes?” Senka asked, his tone was angry and not in the mood for games.
“No.” Kenzie replied.
“Mackenzie.” Senka said in a warning tone stepping around the counter towards him.
“Hey....” I said quickly putting my arm out protectively in front of Kenzie.
“Did you get your memory back?” Senka asked finally looking at me after tearing his angry eyes
away from Kenzie.
“No.” I looked sideways at Kenzie.
“This is your call,” he said raising his hands up. “I'm gonna step outside for a smoke and I think I'm
gonna hop over to the manor, see if Shelley will knock me up a
Pâté
sandwich. Give you two some
space.” he said hedging passed Senka.
I picked up the toothbrush and dug around in the bags.
“Ruby what's going on? I've been looking for you everywhere and don't say you've been here or on
my floor cause you haven't.” Senka said.
“I will explain everything just give me one minute.” I said.
He grabbed my arm, looking down at Kenzie's vest I was wearing.
“It's just a vest Senka, I borrowed it. One minute. Please.”
I walked into the small toilet room but didn't shut the door. I changed into a sleeveless floaty black
shirt and a pair of distressed jeans that fit perfectly. Then I slipped on the hi-tops and threw the tags
in the trash can. I brushed my teeth and left the brush in the pot. I casually kept looking in the
mirror at Senka, he hadn't taken his eyes off of me the whole time. I walked back into the kitchen
feeling so self concious as Senka gaze continued to make my insides feel fluttery. He sat on the
stool with his elbows propped up on the counter. His hair was styled up today and he had on his
trademark black jeans and boots with a black T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. All I had to do was
look at him and it instantly sent heat to my cheeks. I walked over to him and he turned slightly on
the stool towards me, even sitting on a stool he was taller than me. He brushed my hair over my
shoulder and ran the back of his fingers down my arm.