Coming to Terms

“Not too bad for a rookie. First time I did something like that! I lost four teeth and a

lot of pride.” Seth said as he reached his hand out to help Natasha up. She looked up and

took Seth’s hand. 

“You can fall from a ceiling now.” The women said as she handed Natasha a can of cold

drink.

 “I’m Jess and if you want to get stronger, you need to at least drink something.”

Jess said thinking it was about time to introduce herself, maybe the kid would calm

down. It wasn’t the easiest job on earth having to baby-sit the newly-dead-and-about

to become-a-hazard people.

“If you wanted to kill me you would have done it already. I can’t help it I had to try it

again” Natasha began in a quiet, even tone that warned of the tears to come. “What’s

going on here?” Natasha had always had very pale skin but she felt as though any blood

there had been in her face, had now relocated to her toes. The afterlife is either a very

weird place or her life was about to get really weird. 

“Its time you meet others that have just gone through what you have. You see some of

us have DNA that dates back to when fantastic creatures roamed around freely. The

stories about vampires, werewolves, fairies, you name it, they exist. The thing is most

of what people think they know of us, they got it completely wrong.” Seth said and

waited to see how this would go down. 

Their last case was a real gem. It had been the sweetest little girl, around six or

seven-years-old. She had fallen very ill the night and had awoken the next morning a

giant Troll. 

She hadn’t been ugly like most trolls were rumoured to be. No she had

turned into a very tough and pretty teenager who carried a teddy bear around. She had

accidentally broken every bone in Seth’s foot when she had thrown a tantrum over a

cartoon she had missed. The problem had been solved with ice-cream, a new outfit

and a few new DVDs.

Natasha looked at Seth and then Jess with a look that went from horror to confusion and

then finy landed on sheer panic.

“So I have this thing in my blood and there are a lot of people who have it too. It lets

you walk around after you die as a creature. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

She asked hoping there were cameras somewhere. Jess turned and walked to the desk

in the corner and came back with a laptop under her arm. 

“We got the footage from the store where you worked and it shows you what

happened that night. It would have been easier to have shown you this from the start

but we are not actually allowed to show you this. Jess sat on the couch and waited for

the laptop to start up.

“Wow you guys are very committed to this. Look I’d like to belong to your very

unique club and I’m sure you’re right about everything? Thing is I already signed up

to for witch class so maybe next year. Natasha said as she looked around to locate the

nearest exit. What seemed like the front door was just across the room and she was

going for it. Natasha made the first few steps, heard the gunshot and dropped to her knees

with her hands covering her ears. Jess went to her and gently removed her hands

from her ears. 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t know it was going to play right when the gun was fired, are you ok?” Seth walked over to them with the laptop and put it down facing Natasha. A small

window on the screen showed her taking a sip of her drink and then the man that

came in. It seemed to happen so much faster watching it on screen; it had felt like

hours when it had happened. He had shot her and with no hesitation at all. She had

been shot in a way that was impossible to have survived. All for a couple of bucks.

“He did kill me.” Natasha whispered and then the anger hit “He killed me just like that

and left me to die. He didn’t even see if I was alive he just ran, I wasn’t even worth as

much as the money in the till!” Natasha screamed through clenched teeth. Her head

started to throb and she felt anger so deep that it seemed to take over. She stood up

and clenched her fists as she thought of finding this man and returning the favour. He

had given no thought to her family, to the fact that he could have gotten the money

without resulting to violence. He would do it again and this time the victim would

more than likely stay dead. Maybe this was why she had been given a second chance.

Natasha took a deep breath to calm her. She couldn’t go about this in a rush or in anger.

She looked to Seth and Jess who didn’t seem at affected by her sudden outburst.

“When you came to the store, you both had a uniform on it looked like police

uniform. You’ve told me about me, who are you two and how did you find me? If you

knew I was going to die then why didn’t you do something to stop it? Seth looked at

Natasha and then down at his hands in his lap.

 “We were too late.” Was all he could get out feeling deep regret all over again.

Henry paced up and down as the others packed the vehicle for the trip to the other

world. They called it that even though it was the same world as the humans. They

went around undetected most of the time. Gavin had let him know they had found

another Trigger and that they didn’t know what she was yet as she hadn’t changed yet.

The Prince would no doubt want to see her and that was something that just couldn’t

happen, at least not until they established if she was The Princess or not. 

Unfortunately he now had to lie to his friend and pretend to search for the others when

he now knew they were safe. Most of them could outrun a jet but it was more fun to

take a road trip. It was also forbidden to show any signs of having any abilities that

weren’t considered a talent. So unless they planed to dance to and across the border, it

wasn’t going to happen. Lilly ran up to Henry, when she got to him she had to take a

moment to catch her breath.

“Henry we have a little problem. The Prince has left alone and has been reported to

have gone over the boarder already. He knows nothing of other earth we had better

find him.” Henry felt as though he had been punched in the gut. As angry as it made

him that his best friend had left him behind, if he didn’t hurry he wouldn’t have

anyone to be angry at. Besides hadn’t he planned to do exactly the same to Jake?

* * * *

First Grade

They all stood waiting on the large back yard from the house where Natasha had woken up and though she had been kidnapped. Some of the other people didn’t look too good

this morning. Some looked almost asleep; some had gotten sick and had run full-

speed to the bathroom. Natasha wondered what had happened to them. 

A few rows back a very pale guy with golden eyes, tried to figure out the exact same

thing. He had come here almost a week ago and had made a new friend or two. They

had wanted to go out last night to have a last party before the training began. He

usually never missed a chance to party but not knowing what would happen today he

had opted for rest. His twin sister had shown the same wisdom and looked back at

him from a few rows ahead. It seemed a lot of them were starting to buckle under the

pressure.

Rick stood at the back of the square formation. He was a lot older then these kids but

it felt like just the other day this same lesson had been taught to him. He had also

barely passed and had gone icy cold when he had been graded. Well he would have

time for memories later. It was time to introduce himself to the students. 

Natasha's mom always told her she’d be late for her own funeral but she was on time for

a change. One of the perks of being dead was that even if you kept your body no one

could see you in normal time. Humans just didn’t have the eyes to see them. If you

lived in between dead and alive, it was just as good as another world. It was probably

the real reason behind some of the haunting and ghost sightings although spirits also

did really exist. Natasha was still battling to decide whether she should scare some of her

family members at the funeral, or if she should just play it cool. She had expected to

get a few kicks out of this but it made her very sad. There were more people then she

had thought would turn up. As family member after family member made very

emotional speeches and Natasha started to cry with them. Was it weird that she was crying

with everyone? She walked over to her parents and wanted nothing more then to hold

them. To tell them she was just fine and would be back some day but she couldn’t.

Seth had asked her to meet him outside. They had walked through the huge garden at

the house where he had explained just how much her new life was going to be

different.

“Natasha this life isn’t easy and I know you didn’t sign up for this but it’s done now.

There are rules and ways of doing things just as there are rules in the normal world.

We are police you were right about that but we belong to a whole other justice

system. Thing is we have to stick to the human’s rules as well when we are here. One

of our key responsibilities is to train you to live in both worlds. The next is to help

you stay alive.” They had reached the dam that started in the middle of the grounds

and seemed to go on forever. Seth stopped at a patio that had been built near the

waters edge.

 Natasha sat down on a nearby log that had grown over with moss and now

formed part of the area. She didn’t know what to say so she decided to listen instead.

“You see Natasha for intents and purposes you don’t exist anymore in the human world.

But don’t worry too much, there are perks and tomorrow night we going to go to

one.” Seth smiled, satisfied he had kept it simple and she seemed to understand. He

had also warned how dangerous it was out there and that she had to become stronger

before she could go out. Thing was it sounded a bit corny so she had left early the next morning and just stumbled across her family and the ceremony. The line between

the two worlds proved thinner then she could ever know. She had walked for almost

an hour after her funeral and ended up near home. She felt happy for the first time in

ages but knew she couldn’t go home could she?

Natasha walked over to the tall guy with the ponytail and gave him the piece of paper she

had been given. The women had insisted she go to her funeral and had given Natasha a

letter to say she may leave and may be late for the first day. Luckily for her she hadn’t

missed out on anything yet as everyone was still getting the same, old speech. As She

took her place she looked to her left and was met with a very friendly smile. The other

girl seemed shy and quiet but she knew those were the most dangerous. She was

rather interesting though. She had an umbrella on her back in what looked like a

home-made sheath. It was a perfectly sunny day and far from the rainy season but she

was not going to be judgemental. She had gotten to know Rain a little bit and she was

OK.

Jake knew it was a stupid and dangerous idea to run off without protection. He had

been protected since birth, had known little more then the castle and its grounds. He

was soon to take over the throne and then he would never get out of the castle, would

never know what existed out there. Henry would take him on a tour of popular venues

in the human world and then they would return home. It couldn’t be that difficult after

all. Humans didn’t have to deal with sorts of creatures like they did. Why was it such

a big deal when he wanted to go somewhere? He could order anyone in the kingdom

to do whatever he wanted them to do but a few drinks in a plain, old pub was too

much.

All he had to do was to watch what the people did and then copy them. It couldn’t be

as hard as his job. As Jake started to walk around the human world he looked for a

place to start. A sign in front of a bar caught his attention and he decided to have a

look inside. He didn’t go anywhere unprepared so he had enough money and most of

the things he needed in a backpack. He had dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt to try to

blend in. According to the TV shows he had been watching he had to order a drink at

the bar and then play pool and hit on girls. He wasn’t going to even think of going

home before he had done at least half of the things on TV and film. Jake found a chair

near the bar and ordered a beer, he decided to buy the one that was most advertised.

Jake laughed as he thought that ads actually did work. The first sip was horrid. 

“Excuse me barman. Hey barmen excuse me could I have a word please.” Jake almost

had to scream over the song that started on the jukebox.

“Yeah how can I help you?” The words were right but the tone told Jake how little he

wanted to help.

“Is there anything here that tastes better than this?” Jake asked refusing to be put off.

He might be nothing in this world but he had unshakable confidence.

“Hey you ordered it so drink it.” Was the only thing the barman said before he left to

help someone on the other end of the bar. Jake tried one more sip and after a while

found the taste bearable. The taste seemed to grow on the prince very well indeed. So

much so that after a while he had finished six of them and now decided to sample one more drink.