Serephina Ch. 02

New Beginning

Sera looks out the window of the taxi sadly and sighs, softly.

"What's up Sera? You seem sad about something. What is it?" asks Ignatius quietly, so Asia doesn't hear him from the front seat.

"I don't want to be here. Why couldn't I stay with Angela? I was happy in L.A," Sera replies, with a sad smile.

Just then Asia turns around with a worried look on her face and says, "We have to stick together Sera. Mum, Dad and the twins are gone. Uncle Michael and Kai are our only relatives now. Families stick together!"

The taxi pulls up out front of a strange house with Michael, Kai and a stranger that only Sera recognises, waiting for them.

"Thank you for the lift," says Sera, and goes to pay the taxi driver what they owe.

"No problem Miss. Don't worry about paying me, anything to help Michael's nieces and nephew," replies the taxi driver in kind.

"Thank you," stutters Sera, taken aback by the kindness of a man she met half an hour ago, "Thank you very much sir"

"No problem," smiles the taxi driver, "Have a nice day, see you Michael."

"Bye John, say hey to the missus," calls Michael.

"Will do," calls back John the cab driver as he drives away from the house.

Michael, Kai and the stranger walk over and pick up the trio's luggage, and Michael starts the introductions.

"Kids, this is Seth. He's lived with Kai and me for the past 6 years, since his parents passed away. Sera, you remember Seth from your holidays here don't you? Anyway, Seth, this is my other niece and my nephew, Asia and Ignatius. They are my brother's children."

Ignatius and Asia both say hi, but Sera doesn't seem to notice anything and continues to avoid Seth's gaze.

"Sorry about this but Ignatius, you and Asia are gonna have to share with Kai. Sera, sweetie, are you listening? You're going to have to share with Seth. Is that okay with you?" inquires Michael.

"What? Oh, yeah what ever is going" Sera replies in a monotone, looking at the ground, after meeting Seth's eyes, and blushing, slightly.

Seth picks up Sera's suitcases and proceeds to the house with Sera following him quietly. As they get to their room Seth says quietly, "Hey, sorry bout the limited space here, ummm... do you want the bed?"

Sera looks Seth in the face and smiles when she hears the insecurity in his voice.

"Do you want to share it with me?" she asks, coyly.

"If you want me to" he replies, unabashed.

Sera sits down and motions for Seth to join her. When he does she gives him a hug. Seth looks at her in surprise, but hugs her tighter to him.

"Are you ok Sera?" asks Seth quietly

"Define ok. If your definition of ok is, 'Am I handling moving from L.A to Dreightonsville because my parents died and it was against my will?', then no. If you mean am I glad I moved, then yes," Sera said so quietly that Seth had to lean closer to Sera to hear what she was saying.

Seth looks down at Sera and asks in a confused tone, "Why are you glad if you didn't want to move? I mean, that's kinda contradictory isn't it? So why the contradiction?"

"Because I got to see you again," Sera said, looking embarrassed.

"What do you mean you're glad you moved here so you got to see me again? I'm just another body," Seth asked, looking even more confused.

Sera answered his question by leaning up and softly kissing him on the cheek and then pulling back smiling at him, blushing slightly. Seth looks down at Sera, smiles and gently kisses her on the mouth. As Sera responds Seth pulls her onto his lap and they kiss until they start gasping for breath. Seth kisses her on the tip of the nose and pulls back, smiling.

"Seth, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." Sera started to say before Seth kisses her again, therefore causing her to shut up.

"Don't be sorry, we've known each other for nearly 6 years and every time you went home, I would miss you so much. It felt as if a piece of me was missing. I would spend hours on end just looking through the photos your parents sent to Michael, let alone the pictures we would take. Besides, I've wanted to kiss you for a long time now. I'm glad I finally had the guts to do it," Seth replied, with a hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth and he watches the blood rush to Sera's cheeks as she blushes again.

Just then there was a knock at the door and both Seth and Sera called out, 'Come in!' at the same time. At this, they started to laugh at each other. Kai, Ignatius, Asia and Michael come in and stop suddenly when they see Sera in Seth's lap

"What's going on here then? Sera, I've told you this before and I'm not going to tell you again, but if there's an orgy happening in this house I want to join," Asia laughed, smirking at Sera.

"Screw you Asia, there's no orgies in this house unless I'm watching, or perhaps even part of them," remarks Kai.

Ignatius looks at Seth before saying "Seth, come with me. We need to talk,"

Seth moves Sera off his lap and kisses her once more, gently on the lips, before following Ignatius downstairs and out the back door away from the house.

"Seth, you noticed that Sera's left forearm is bandaged?" asks Ignatius quietly.

"Yeah, what about it? She's likes to play doctor and she's 18? I've known her for nearly six years Ignatius, I think I might know her pretty well by now," replies Seth, in a joking tone.

Ignatius looks at Seth like he's in idiot and replies in a dry voice with an underline of anger, "No you jerk-off, she sliced her arm open with a carving knife the day our parents died. It's been 6 freaking weeks and the cut still hasn't healed. I'm worried she's doing something to stop it from healing, just as a reminder of what happened. She's also been having bad nightmares and wakes up screaming every other night. Do you think you'll be able to sleep with all that going on?"

"Ignatius Marcus Blaire, there is a few things about me you don't know, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't think you need to find out at all, but I will be able to take care of your sister ok? I'm not an idiot!" Seth replies angrily.

"I never implied you were an idiot Seth, I just don't want to have to worry about you as well as Sera, because Asia's started to have nightmares as well so it's stressing me out," Ignatius said carefully.

"Don't worry about me, worry about Asia, I can take care of Sera. See you at dinner," Seth calls, as he walks away

Seth turns and walks back inside, laughing quietly. He gets to his and Sera's bedroom and finds her crying. He sits down on the bed and pulls her into his lap, hums a lullaby he wrote. He hugs her until she stops crying.

"What's wrong Sera?" he asks quietly, after she's stopped crying.

"Michael just showed me my parents' will. They left the house to me but that's never going to happen, given the house is a pile of dust, nothing else. They also left almost all of the money to me because according to them I'm the more responsible one out of me, Ignatius and Asia. Explain to me how that works. How am I more responsible than my big brother?" Sera sobbed quietly.

Seth holds Sera while she starts to cry again. He starts humming a tune softly. Sera's sobs eventually turn to sniffles and she slowly traces one finger down the side of his face. Seth turns his head and kisses her fingertips. Then Sera turns to Seth and asks, "Seth, what's wrong with me? Why isn't my arm healing? It's been six weeks and I still have to have stitches in it. It's pissing me off. There's something wrong with me and I don't know what it is. Help me Seth. I need your help and I need you."

Seth holds Sera as she starts to cry again, and eventually she cries herself to sleep. Seth then proceeds to put her to bed and goes downstairs quietly to the kitchen, where he walks in on Michael and Ignatius having a heated argument.

"Sorry, didn't realise you guys were talking," Seth says embarrassedly, and turns to walk back out.

"Seth wait, please? I need you to help me explain something to Ignatius," calls Michael.

Seth walks back into the kitchen looking confused and asks, "What can I do for you?"

Michael just looked at him and Seth nodded once, and then said to Ignatius, "Can I trust you with something about Michael, Kai and myself? Something no-one can ever know about?"

Ignatius looks stunned, slightly worried and cautious, but nods in acceptance anyway.

"Ignatius, have you ever wondered if there was something more to Kai, Michael and I?" asked Seth quietly.

"No, why? Is there something I should know about?" replies Ignatius.

"OK, don't freak out or anything but Michael, Kai and I have some out of the ordinary abilities..." says Seth slowly.

Just then Kai walks into the kitchen, turns the kettle on and proceeds to the fridge.

"What sort of abilities?" asks Ignatius, looking slightly out of his depth.

Kai pulls his head out of the fridge with a huge smile across his face, "Oh, you're telling him, sweet. Alrighty then, here are the basics. Dad over there can manipulate people's minds. I have precognition and rapid cellular reproduction, which is basically I can see glimpses of the future or the present and heal faster than any mother-fucker should, and Sethy boy over there is telepathic as well as empathic. That's all you really need to know. What are your powers?" says Kai, sticking his head back in the fridge, still smiling.

"What?!" yells Ignatius, shocked.

"Shut up you fuck, Sera's asleep," Seth mutters coldly, slapping him on the back of the head sharply.

Just as Seth slaps Ignatius around the head they hear a scream from the stairwell. Seth races towards the sound only to find Sera trying to stand up, after falling down the flight of stairs.

"Sera, sweetie, what happened?" Michael asks softly, as Seth lifts her up to carry her back to bed.

"I don't know. One minute I was crying and Seth was humming a lullaby to me and the next thing I know I'm falling down these fucking stairs. Oww, I think I ripped some stitches out. Shit!" replies Sera softly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"What's with all the screaming? I was trying to..." Asia started to say, coming out from her room after hearing Sera scream, before she saw Sera, her blood covering the carpet.

"What's going on? Is Sera trying to dice herself again? If she is I'm really gonna slap her one," Asia snaps angrily.

"Fuck you Asia, I was sleep walking. Just leave me alone. It's not like you care about me anyway. Just fuck off," snaps Sera, glaring blue murder at her twin.

"Michael, I'm gonna take Sera to the hospital so we can fix the stitches. Is that okay?" asks Seth quietly, so only Michael can hear him.

"Do it, I'll sort Asia out," Michael replies grimly.

Seth takes Sera out to the car and puts her in, then proceeds to the hospital.

"Asia, can I talk to you for a second?" calls Michael

"Sure Uncle Mick, what's up?" replies Asia.

"Follow me to the study please," Michael says.

Asia looks surprised, but follows him into the study none the less. Michael turns to Asia furiously.

"What the hell was all that about in there, Asia? You really didn't have any right to jump to that assumption about your sister. So why did you?" states Michael angrily.

"Because that's how it looked to me alright? I'm over Sera being the one who gets all the attention. Ignatius has pretty much been joined to her hip for the last six weeks and ignoring me. As soon as something happens to her everyone goes running, whereas if something happened to me, diddly fucking squat is what would happen. At least I'm not some manic suicidal chick who cuts herself where people can't see just for the attention!" yells Asia, with tears in her eyes, then she turns and runs for the bedroom she shares with her brother and cousin, slamming the door shut when she gets there.

"What's up with her? Is she on her rags or something?" asks Kai from the sofa where he's watching Jackass the movie, with his coffee in his hand, a bag of Doritos between his thighs and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"She's lonely because Ignatius has been paying more attention to Sera than her lately, that's all," says Michael quietly.

Michael walks back into the kitchen, disgusted with himself for letting his temper get out of hand and starts to cook dinner for 6 people.

-30 minutes later-

"Sera, what are you going to do with the money Peter and Tamika left to you?" asks Michael curiously.

"I was thinking of getting my own place so it wasn't so crowded here for you Uncle Michael, why?" Sera answered back to him, after swallowing a mouth full of shepherd's pie.

"Just curious, but now that you mention houses and things, there's actually a place about 12 blocks from here. It's a 4 bedroom house and all of the rooms have an ensuite, double story, pool out back for sale for $2,000,000. Do you want to go take a look tomorrow?" asks Michael with interest.

Seth looks up in time to see Sera nod in agreement.

"You're gonna move out?" Seth asks sadly.

"You're welcome to join if you want," Sera replies with a smile.

"And how are you gonna pay for this Sera? Where are you going to get the money for it?" asks Asia curiously.

"Peter and Tamika left all three of you money, but Sera got most of it because she's more responsible than the two of you.

"How much did Mum and Dad leave you, Sera?" asks Ignatius quietly.

Sera looks down in embarrassment and mutters "$28,000,000. Do you and Asia want to move in too? It'll be our own house. No-one will have to share rooms or anything. What do you think?"

Asia and Ignatius look at each other before answering Sera with: "Hell yeah!"