Nine Lives

Chapter 1

Hi my name is Zayn Martinez and I have never talked to another human being. OK, maybe I should explain that better. I have met my parents and I have a twin sister named Silver, but aside from that we are pretty isolated from society. That may be partly my fault, but with that logic it is also partly my sister's fault. You see my sister and aren't exactly what you would call "normal". We look different compared to the normal human. For one she has bright red eyes and silver hair, hence the name, and I am kind of normal with black hair except that I have one golden eye and one blue eye. We also have tails. Yes, I know there are people born with tails, but we have furry cat tails complete with a matching set of cat ears. And of course mine are gold and Silver's are, well, silver. So yeah my completely normal parents were stuck with two freaks for kids. And guess what makes it even freakier, my sister and I actually get along. Why? Because we are always in each others head. Literally, we are psychically linked so we always know what the other is doing, thinking, and seeing which is awesome most of the time, except I have to talk my sister out of doing stupid things that she deems fun. But basically we are closer to each other than anyone else could ever be. Since we are so far away from society every month Dad made a trip to the nearest town to get supplies. Every year he made one of these trips two days before our birthday which is January 4. He said he did that because if he went any earlier we would have already figured out what we got. Except that one year he did not come back.

"Mommy, when is Daddy going to be home?" My sister asked for what must have seemed the millionth time.

"He will be back soon sweetheart." Mom tried to reassure her, but even at the age of six I could see the worried look on her face. 'You don't think he forgot about us, do you?' Silver asked me nervously, not wanting to say it out loud in case Mom overheard.

'Of course not silly,' I replied. 'You know he would never do that.' She did know but it was the only excuse her six-year-old mind could think of. It was already the evening of our birthday and he was still gone.

Suddenly there were footsteps on the porch. "Daddy!" Silver yelled, pulling open the door and running out to the porch. She had hardly gone two steps when she tripped over something soft, cold, and smelling weird. All my mind registered was a flash of skin, strange red water, a black shadow disappearing into the forest, and my dad's blank face and dead eyes before Mom pulled us away and slammed the door.

"W-What's wrong with Daddy?" Silver asked in a whisper, scared by what she had just seen and the way water was running down Mom's face. She did not answer, instead told us to go upstairs and then grabbed her phone from the counter. 'What should we do?' Silver asked me.

'We should listen to what she is saying on the phone.' I replied with a determined look on his face. She blinked, shocked at what she was hearing. The brother who cautioned her against doing anything wrong was suggesting that we eavesdropped on our Mom?

'Shouldn't we do something to help dad first?'

I silently shook his head. 'I don't think there is anything anyone can do for him now.'

I remembered the strange smell and how it had seemed familiar. I remember that the same smell had been on a dead bird we had found a few days earlier in the garden. Silver nodded, 'Agreed. Let's find out what is going on.'

We crept to the top of the stairs and listened closely to the voice coming from downstairs. "...know what happened Mark. Sam went out to get supplies from town and then two days later he shows up dead on the porch. And it can't be a coincidence that it happened today of all days." I looked at Silver and saw she was as confused a I was. Sam was Dad's first name, but who was Mark? "...knows about them. Please help me. I need to protect them no matter what." There was a long pause. Then, "Thank you". Footsteps started to head up the stairs so we quickly scurried to our room.