21. Restrictions

Chapter twenty-one

Restrictions

T he sunlight wakes me up. As I look over to my phone, I realized my alarm has not gone off. Turning over, I can see that Oliver is no longer in the other bed. I guess he decided it was smarter to leave earlier in the morning. As I double check my phone again, I can see two missed messages, but I can also see that it's nearly lunchtime. I jump up quickly and change into my regular pair of jeans and a singlet. Before I dash out the door, though, I realize that there are still a few easy to see bruises up and down my arms. Picking up a light cardigan, I throw it on and leave my room. Inside the cardigan pocket, I'm surprised to find a hair tie so instinctually I use it to put my hair in a high ponytail. I take the steps a little bit fast, but I find my way into the dining room where I see a few of the guys chatting. The best thing I can do right now is to suggest that I will leave the house and they'll never hear from me again. Perhaps then Oliver’s father won't punish him, but as I step into the room, I can see that Oliver is nowhere to be found. It's not that it's particularly unusual for him not to be here, but I was hoping that he would be. The guys go a little bit quiet as they look up towards me.

“You don't have to give me the stink eye. I know I've caused some problems. I was just wondering if leaving would perhaps rectify any of them.”

“We don't want you to leave.” Reyes comments, which is surprising given that we haven't spoken very much.

“Yeah, we're really happy to have you here. That's not the problem.” Adds Hunter.

“The problem is what we're going to do about Mr. Pierce.” Hugh states. “We're all a little bit sick of him. The fact is we have a lot of restrictions, even some that you don't know about, and they're starting to do our heads in.”

“But I thought the restrictions were in place for a reason.” I respond. “I thought because you guys are young, it means you're vulnerable to losing yourselves to your…habits.”

“Nicely put.”

“Thank you.”

“But also slightly wrong. Yes, there are quite a few things that we can't handle ourselves right now. But in truth, most of those things would happen no matter how old we were. At the moment the only reason we live in this house together is because we need to go to school and at least this way we can keep an eye on each other. Mr. Pierce owns this house that's for sure, but it doesn't mean we should have to live under his specific rules.”

“Isn't that what you're supposed to do? If you live under somebody else's house? Follow their rules?”

“Not when it starts to impact who we are.” I almost didn't see Valentine in the corner of the room. He seems really disconnected, almost sad. “If we had been given the chance to be who we are and to learn to be what we are, then perhaps bad things wouldn't happen so often.” I can only assume that means that if he had taken the chance to be himself, then maybe the girlfriend that he once had would still be alive.

“We have to come up with a plan, something that Mr. Pierce would agree to.” Niles adds, playing with a deck of cards that was left on the table.

Nolan runs both of his hands through his hair. “That man is very set in his ways. There's not a lot that we can do or say that will convince him otherwise. Fact is, I've known him a lot longer than any of you. He will only give us three choices. Either Amelia is turned or killed, or Oliver is killed in her place. He will not accept Amelia moving away, and he would definitely not accept Oliver running away, he would hunt them both down and would make sure it hurt too. Additionally, I'd like to say that we could erase Amelia's memory, but it just won't work. Unfortunately, Seth isn't here right now to explain why.” If there wasn't something wrong with me then my memory could be erased and everyone would be okay. There is a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach like something is going wrong. I don't really understand it, but I think I feel like I want to throw up. I also feel like I need to be somewhere, but I just don't know where. I don't know how long everyone has been sitting in this room trying to figure out a way around this situation, but I'm starting to feel really guilty that if there isn't one then that would mean that Oliver might have to suffer for me knowing about them. To be honest though, I think I'd be okay with dying in his place. It would mean that no one here would have to get hurt. I haven't really had friends before, but these boys are really putting themselves out there for me and I just can't let them keep doing that. “Also, where is Oliver?” For some reason I look around behind me, but he's not there. Of course, why would he be? Perhaps he still up in his room trying to sleep off the time he spent awake last night. “Amelia?”

“Yes, what?” He catches my attention quickly. Does he know that all of us spend the night in my room?

“Oliver went upstairs like half an hour ago to wake you up. Did he wake you up?”

“What, no? I just woke up 'cause it was sunny.”

“Maybe he's in his room. Can you go check?” He questions turning to Valentine. Without a word, Valentine leans from the wall and heads up towards the stairs. “I'm thinking perhaps that if we agree to go into lockdown for a little while, then he might be a bit more lenient.”

“As much as I love the idea of being locked in a house with you guys for about six months,” Byron starts, “, I don't think the blood hungry vampire is gonna be totally thrilled with the idea.”

“Maybe we can pretend that we've erased Amelia's memory.” Kane suggests. Actually, that wasn't quite a bad idea.

“His psychic will know immediately.” This sucks, this absolutely freaking fucking sucks. If you told me the only way out of this situation would be to eat lemons for the rest of my life, I would do it with a smile on my face. I absolutely cannot let these guys take the fall for me being here. I shouldn't have run away from that sorority!

“I know what you're thinking, you can stop.” I didn't even notice Hendrik had stood up and come to my side.

“What are you talking about?”

“None of this is your fault. Oliver was going to get into a lot of trouble if you hadn't stepped up and said that you were the reason that he had to include himself in the incident that happened last weekend.”

“And now he might die. How is that not my fault?”

“If you hadn't stepped in, he would have taken Oliver last night, and something tells me we wouldn't have seen him again. The truth is his father is looking for an excuse, and I'm going to say the one thing that nobody else is going to say out loud to you right now. No matter what the choice is between either your life or Oliver's, he will kill both of you.” Everyone around the room shifts uncomfortably.

“Hendrik, you don't know that.” Richard hisses under his breath.

“He already did, that's why we had a spare room you idiots! You really think he's gonna think twice about killing off one human and getting rid of the son that he's been trying to kill off for years?” It didn't occur to me that the person who was living in the house before me was someone that was killed. The guys originally told me that they moved away and that’s why there was a spare room. I can see why they would have lied at the time. Hendrik shakes his head at everybody, turns and leaves the room. His brothers begin to stand to go off to him, but I stop them promptly.

“I want to talk to him.” I say turning and leaving after Hendrik.