Sahana pov: So Now What?

Consciousness. I woke up with light shining into the room straight on to my face. I groaned since I forgot to close the curtains before going to bed. Then I remembered. My eyes shot open and looked around the room. It was empty other than myself. I sighed in relief as I remembered last night's kiss.

Nothing else happened. Just a sweet and innocent kiss on the lips. I groaned again.

"Now what? Do I act like nothing happened or do I ask him what happens? I don't know what to do now!" I start to mumble to myself. I keep mumbling as I go through the motions of getting ready when there's a knock at my bedroom door.

"Hey. You awake? Was thinking we could follow that lead we had the other night seeing as you, ya'know, passed your right-of-passage test." He sounded nervous. Why did HE sound nervous?

"Uh, yeah! I'm up. I'll be out in a bit." I called out. "Okay!" Was all he replied.

I finished getting ready in my usual all black hunting attire, brushed my teeth, and french breaded my hair back. I only know how to do that because my 'mom' taught me. Do I keep calling her mom? Do I call her by her first name? This is weird knowing sue isn't my biological mother.

Once I put on deodorant, I walked out of the room and downstairs. On the way down I could smell waffles, bacon, eggs, and sausage. My stomach rumbled at the delicious smells. When I entered the kitchen I literally barked a laugh. Tei was in a Strawberry Shortcake apron cooking the bacon.

Knowing it was me, he posed. "So how do you like my apron? I meant for you to use it, but seeing as I'm cooking right now, I may as well use it. Pretty sweet right?" I tried to suppress my laughs but I couldn't. We both started laughing. Finally, about a minute later, he finished the bacon and I brought the food to the table. We sat down and ate breakfast.

"So how did you sleep? I hope nothing kept you up during the night." He probed. He gave me a glance that had a little concern on his face.

"Surprisingly, I slept great. I thought I'd be awake tossing and turning half the night after, uh, yeah. But I slept really sound. And the dream I had was actually really nice." I started to blush at the remembrance of my dream.

It was explicit. Like if it were a video, it'd be rated XXX, that's how bad it was. Although, he wasn't the guy the explicit dream happened with. He noticed my blush and raised an eyebrow at me. "Go on? I want to know what you dreamed."

I blushed even harder. "U-uhm. Actually, no. No thanks. I-I'm good. I think its better we don't go into those details." He nodded with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"So that's the type of dreams you have when your kissed, hm? I think I may kiss and sneak a glance at your dreams soon." He winked and turned to his food and started eating again. I followed suit.

When we were done, we cleaned the table, put the leftovers in containers and stuck them in the fridge. Before heading out, we grabbed two water bottles each and climbed into his vehicle. We were on the road listening to one of my favorite stations that played the 90's, 2k, and today alternative and hip-hop hits.

We drove for a couple hours into rural lands. We didn't know what we would find, but I knew that whatever happened, we were gonna tackle it together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three hours and two stops later, we arrived at a set of ruins. it looked like the husk of a stone mansion, almost reminding me of a mini-castle. There were what seemed to be four towers and the middle portion of the castle-mansion. We walked through the front door where there was an opening and found ourselves facing a burned, painting portrait of a family.

An older man standing on the left, next to him, a young boy. In front of the boy was a woman about the man's age, and standing next to her was a young woman. They looked like they should have been familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"You almost resemble them." Tei pointed out. "See there? You have their eye colors, eyebrow slant, the cheekbone structure, the heart shaped faces. I think they could be your Mother and grandparents."

When he pointed it out, I started seeing the similarities. "That's why they seemed to familiar. It's no wonder why I couldn't put my finger on it." I starred at it for a bit longer and then pulled out my combat folding knife and started taking the portrait down. Tei must have figured out what I was doing and helped me out. we got the picture down and out of the frame and rolled it up.

We moved on to the left where the kitchen and storage room seemed to be. We retraced our steps and went to the right and following the hallway around a corner, found ourselves in the dining room. There was a large table that looked like it seated 8 people. "I wonder how many people lived here, or if it was always just the four." I quarried aloud.

"Hey! I found two sets of stairs over here. One goes up and the other down. Which way first?"

"Down. More likely to find something." Following the stairs down, we got out our phones for flashlights.

At the bottom, there was a wine cellar. When we took a look around better, we found another door that led to an adjacent room. It had an old style lock on it. I knocked on the door just to see if there was anything on the other side. There was a snarl.

Tei and I jumped back. This was a ruins. What on earth could be down here that's lived this long? Unless, these ruins were not abandoned. We heard yelling coming from above. We found a crevice and stuffed ourselves there, just a little close for comfort, and turned our lights off. We breathed as quietly as possible as we heard feet coming down the stairs.

"Did you hear it?" One man said.

"Yeah. Someone knocked on it's door." Another man replied.

"Think they went inside?" The first man asked.

"Nah, they'd be stupid to walk into the den of that thing. Dead in a heartbeat." the second man scoffed.

"Then they are here somewhere. We gotta find them before they wake up the real beast." A third voice sounded.

Then they left, back up the stairs. We waited for another minute to make sure the coast was clear and we tip-toed out of there.

When we got upstairs, we looked one way, then the other. We decided to make a run for it. We ran to the front door of the castle-mansion into some brush and stayed there.

"Hmm, I think they are gone." We heard a voice behind us. I almost jumped out of my skin. Thankfully, Tei noticed them and held me down and covered my mouth. I hated suspense movies and games, so being in this situation did not help me at all. Every job I took, either I went in a-blazing or played sniper from a distance.

"Well the beast isn't awake, so no harm done. But who would be out here in the first place? Those Hidden haven't been here in generations and those damned hunters left when the Hidden did." The second guy stated. Were these guys humans? Or are they other creatures that I have only heard about from stories?

The third guy from the basement spoke up. "Only one Hidden would come out here. She must have found out about her history. Keep an ear open. We need her as much as she needs us. If she's here, shes likely to be curious about the history of everything. She already took the portrait of her family."

Teiran and I stared at each other in astonishment. Is this guy talking about me? Why would they need me? I know I would need them to fill in the many blanks of my history but, what could I possibly do for them?

Tei shook his head as if he didn't understand either. As the men walked off, I motioned to Tei as if to say, We should talk to them. They may be able to help. Tei didn't look fond of the idea but before he could stop me, I stood up.

"Wait! My name is Guenavheer Kajite Sohkara and I need your help."