The house was beautiful. The Victorian grace was still in every piece of wood. Jen had gotten the house at auction for much less than it was worth. No one wanted it. It was in the woods behind the University. Being a student at that University and a lover of historic architecture Jen loved this house. She was going to restore it. She couldn’t do it alone though. Her savings were dwindling. She was going to need roommates. She didn’t want to share her house with anyone but Danny, her betrothed, but she knew that they couldn’t restore this house by themselves on their tight budget. She knew some of her old friends were going to be students at the University this year but it would be hard for her to live with them again.

She had changed since she last saw them. She had come into her abilities more than they could know. They all knew that she had been born a natural witch, but none of them knew that she had progressed from only being able to call on the powers of water and the spirits, to being able to call forth a complete circle by herself, or holding open channels to other realms, or at other times allowing the two other spirits that lived within her surface and see the world through her eyes. Her whole world had changed one day, a day she would never forget, and not because that was when Tourniquet and Kymi came to reside within her.

Rev of course knew more about her abilities than Ali and Ali knew more than Drake but Rhea hardly knew about them at all. She could really use their friendship again though. Danny had his abilities to think about too. He was her dark knight, her hunter, her protector. He had unnatural strength, speed, and grace. She knew that Ali had been becoming a medium for the spirits when they graduated from High School but that had been three years ago. They had gone separate paths after that. Drake had some sort of telekinesis. Certain things just seemed to be drawn to him at times. Jen had been one of those things. Jen also hadn’t seen him since High School. Rev was a different story though. Jen met him during midterms her senior year of High School. They dated for about a year. He was fascinated with the dark arts, death, vampirism, all things nocturnal. He became a vampiric apprentice just after Jen left him. Rhea was a friend to both Jen and Rev. She never seemed to look the same, but Jen could never figure out why. These were the only four people Jen could imagine herself sharing her new house with. They had each contacted her saying that they were coming to her University and so they had hoped that they could rekindle the friendships they had each had with her. But could she handle them in her house?

Chapter One

Jen had sent the letters with directions out a month ago, the day she bought the house. Since then she had forgotten about roommates. She simply had to restore rooms in the house. The master bedroom was finished in two weeks as Jen didn’t have to go to the office to work, she did everything over the internet. And since she was so close to the University she didn’t have to pay for internet. She simply used her laptop. Danny worked on the other side of town so Jen spent most of her days repairing the house. After she had finished the master bedroom, its adjoining bath, her office, and was nearly finished with both bedrooms on the second floor, Jen decided that the living room just needed some touch ups and was for the most part perfect when she bought the house. She was putting on the first coat of pale blue paint when she heard a car coming down the lane.

No one really ever came by before Danny got home and wasn’t due back for another couple of hours. Setting down the paint roller she looked outside to see a black car she didn’t recognize. Stepping out onto the porch she was amazed to see Drake emerge from the simple Chevy Cavalier. She was awestruck at how much he had changed. His hair was still the same and the face was familiar but that was where the same old Drake ended. He was no longer the big oaf that she used to tease while they were an item. He was now a tall and well built man. Jen was proud of her five foot six inch height but next to Drake she felt small again.

“The house is larger than you said.” Drake called mirthfully from next to his car.

“I make it sound smaller because I think of it as home. You know that I always lived in small houses growing up.” Jen smiled because Drake’s voice may have matured but his sense of teasing her had not.

Drake made his way to the porch to give Jen a hug, her preferred greeting from a friend, and was surprised when she backed away a step and simply wrapped her arms around herself. When he started to follow she looked him straight in the eye and he stopped midstep.

“What’s wrong do I scare you now? I haven’t seen you for three years and now you offer me a place to live and I don’t even get a hug?” Drake asked, confused.

“Sorry Drake. I just don’t like most people touching me anymore. I went through some bad times after High School. It is good to see you though.” Jen remembered the date that things had changed for her. She still had nightmares about that day.

“How is your family? I haven’t seen them since graduation.” Drake was curious about what happened to Jen but he had seen this side of her before, it was what had split them up in high school, but somehow he knew that this went deeper, was part of her soul now. Something bad would happen to her family and she would retreat into herself. When they split up she had been grieving for her grandmother and he had tried to comfort her but she wouldn’t be touched and wouldn’t tell him why.

“Mom is fine, she moved down to Texas to be closer to her little brother. My sister is a major engineer for NASA now and lives in Florida. My brother opened a restaurant chain he designed himself and now lives in Nevada.” Jen loved her family more than anything in the world. Nothing had changed that. The thing that had changed was her definition of family. Drake didn’t know that though so she braced herself for the question she knew was coming.

“What about your dad? Where is he? I remember that you were always close to him.” Drake was still confused about Jen’s reactions because her face had lit up like it always did when she talked about her family. While they were talking he sat down on the front steps of the porch because she had yet to invite him into the house that they would be sharing. Jen had taught him one thing while they were together, never enter her domain without permission, spoken or not. The first time he hadn’t believed her and tried had left a scar at his left temple, the small, jagged line was the result of a large psyonic blast that Jen had fired in self defense because she could not sense his approach mid-summon.

“I don’t know where my father is.” Jen’s face had darkened and Drake could sense the malice and anger inside her. “I haven’t seen him since a month after graduation. I don’t really care how he is or what he is doing. I don’t even care if he is dead.” Jen had braced for that question but it always caught her off guard to have people remember the time before, before her innocence of spirit was stolen from her.

Drake didn’t know what to make of this as he had spoken the truth. Jen had always been close to her dad. The Jen he remembered had always be very loving and happy. During her times of depression she usually could still smile if you asked about her and her parents. The Jen that sat next to him now was different. She had darkness in her. She was trying hard to fight this darkness as well, to keep it hidden. She was slowly winning her fight.

“Would you like to come in and see how much work we have ahead of us before school starts up again in two months?” Jen was trying hard not to let the darkness that lived inside of her to show too much. Drake wasn’t ready to see how much she had progressed since high school.

“As long as I can help out I will but I have to find a job soon. I don’t have much saved up. Ali doesn’t either.” Ali had told Drake that she had kept in contact with Jen for a little while after graduation and that Jen knew that they were living together but at the look on Jen’s face when he mentioned Ali, Drake knew he had not been told the whole truth.

“I didn’t know that you and Ali were still together. She stopped mentioning you after about two months I thought that you two had split up.” Jen had kept in contact with Ali because they had always been friends but she hadn’t really paid that much attention to the letters. She hadn’t realized that Ali had eventually just sent a letter that said she wasn’t sending anymore letters because she rarely got a response from Jen and when she did it was very vague and they had drifted apart. That was about six months ago. Then Jen got another letter from Ali saying that she was transferring to the University and that she would like to get together to house hunt. That is when Jen responded with an invitation to share her home with Ali. Drake simply still had her email and sent notice that way. Jen had returned the favor.

“We have our ups and downs but yeah in essence we are still together. She won’t arrive until tomorrow or the next day because she went to visit family. My family moved up there near Kansas City so I have already visited them.” Drake was beginning to see that Jen was a very different woman than the girl that he had known. He knew that he was the oldest of the roommates she invited. He knew that there were four people from her past that she had invited to share her new home with. He didn’t know much about her live in boyfriend, Danny.

Moving into the living room that she was about to start painting when Drake arrived, Jen gave him a tour of the house. The master bedroom and her office were on the third floor and she had finished them first. She explained all this to Drake as they went up the stairs.
“If you need me for anything in the daytime and I am not working on the house I will be working in my office. Above that is the attic which is rather sturdy and we will use it for storage.” Jen loved this house even more each day.

Next was the second floor, it had two bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom was almost restored, that was Danny’s area, and Jen had finished painting one of the bedrooms a smoky grey that morning.

“Since I figured that you and Ali would need separate rooms I restored both of them on this floor. There aren’t any bedrooms on the first floor but I am converting the basement into a bedroom, a bathroom, and an office for Rev. He likes dark places especially if they are underground. Rhea and Rev were together last time I checked but if you and Ali are sharing a room that gives us a spare room. My office is a bedroom that I converted. It is large so if you need to, you can set up things in there I also figured that we could study up there.” Jen was good at planning things usually. Drake remembered that about her most of all.

If you [Log In] as a member you can discuss this work with others