Waking up to the sun warming his face had become something Ander looked forward to but waking up to screaming wasn’t something he thought he would ever do here, not in this peaceful place. Jumping out of bed and rushing from his room he let his instincts kick in as he rushed to the place he just somehow knew the screams were coming from, though Hayden stood waiting in the hallway, the young woman didn’t say anything but the calm look she wore told him that it was alright and under control, sure enough he couldn’t hear the screams anymore, just the soft crying and soothing voices of worried friends.

He saw the small smile Hayden wore, the woman clearly impressed by how much he cared. She motioned for him to go to the kitchen which he did when he finally let his guard down and let his tense body relax.

When the two were standing in the kitchen while Hayden prepared some tea, something she seemed to do a lot, Ander couldn’t wait any longer, “Does it happen that often that you aren’t even surprised about it?” the woman didn’t answer at first but when the whistling of her little tea pot began she said, “He has them from time to time, nightmares, visions or whatever you want to call it. I try to keep them at bay, but even my power cannot keep at bay what is locked inside of him” Ander didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know about these nightmares, these visions she spoke of and his mother never told him that something was locked away inside of Eric.

“You didn’t think you were here to get him just because you are related did you, sure having tu padre blood in him makes him powerful but so too does it make you powerful, the difference however is that his blood is waking up while yours slumbers never to wake, and the result of the blood awakening is forcing his power to do the same… I will not be able to bind him for much longer” Hayden finished as she put a cup of tea in front of them, she waited awhile and watched as a dog came trotting back in with Maddie to fetch the third cup she prepared for Eric, she smiled, whether it was at how well the dogs were trained or how well the dogs had trained the kids she didn’t know.

“Why don’t you tell him then, wouldn’t it be easier if he could control it himself?” Hayden almost looked like she wanted to whack him with something again, she took a sip of her tea and sighed, “If he knew about everything, and if we let the power loose then it would devour him, his soul and everything that makes Eric, Eric, will be cast aside and destroyed. This isn’t the kind of power you can control, it’s the kind that controls you” Ander hadn’t heard of anything this strong before, when he was growing up he had learned that every power could be controlled if you were strong enough.

“Is there anything I can do to help, you make tea and I just rush to his side ready for a fight but I can’t do anything” Ander almost looked crestfallen to Hayden, the young woman felt sorry for him, after all anyone would feel helpless when their help wasn’t needed or wanted. “Be there for him, later when you two play, don’t mention it but let him know that you’re here, tell him that you aren’t going anywhere… then spend the rest of your life trying your best not to break that promise” Ander could hear the wisdom in her words, he looked up and felt a tug deep inside of him when he saw her smiling face, he didn’t know what the feeling was but he did know that it was pleasant.

“Now go get ready for breakfast and another helping of whooping from Drew because that chico will be testing more than playing with you, and Ander don’t judge them or the next thing that gets tested is the strength of your skull” Hayden held the frying pan while she spoke, she acted like she was going to start making breakfast but Ander understood the hidden message, “hurt the kids and you’ll disappear in the dead of night”, this woman was scary but still he couldn’t help but smile to himself because it only showed how much she cared and then that same tugging feeling came back.

Heading back to his room Ander thought about his brother, about Hayden and then about his mother. Would he be able to give up not just his love and loyalty to his mother for his brother and this woman he had begun to have feelings for; would he be able to condemn his mother to the mercy of the other witches just because he had found someone that he could see a future with, he honestly couldn’t decide and it scared him because the choice should have been easy.

Breakfast was a quiet and uncomfortable silence that seemed to last forever, but when it was finally over and Drew exclaimed that they’ll meet him at the same spot they had played in yesterday in an hour Ander went back to his room to get ready to spend the day with his brother and his friends. He hoped that before the day was over he would have built some kind of bridge between him and Eric, some place where they could start from.

Walking out the door was his second surprise of the day when he saw all five Chihuahua’s sitting around Hayden on the porch, she was reading a book again and didn’t even look up when he stood there staring, he understood however what the display meant, “I’m trusting you, don’t blow it” he had gotten good at reading the hidden messages that she liked to show him and he was enjoying playing this game with her day in and day out.

Watching the young man before he jogged off into the woods Hayden couldn’t help but hope that she was doing the right thing; that the trust she was placing in him would not cost her dearly.

Ander came to the little clearing where his torture had started yesterday, Eric, Drew and Maddie were already waiting for him by the time he came out of the trees, “Took you long enough” Drew exclaimed with a wicked smile, the boy couldn’t wait to shoot him again he thought to himself. The two teams each started at an opposite end of the little clearing and would dash off from there to begin their little battle, Ander looked to Eric beside him, he looked calm… almost bored, “Think we have a chance?” he asked and thankfully he got an answer even if he didn’t like it, “Nope”.

The sound of the same whistle that started yesterday’s match carried through the air and before Ander could look back towards Drew and Maddie he felt the first hit against his left forearm, he quickly acted and ran for cover, his eyes searching for Eric and finding him already crouched behind a tree and waiting out the barrage from the other two.

Eric didn’t look bothered at all that he was pinned, then without warning and a second before the fire from the other team stopped he walked slowly out into the clearing and took aim, Ander heard as Maddie shouted and Drew returned fire, Ander couldn’t do a thing as he watched his little brother easily side step to dodge the incoming fire and still continue to advance while he pinned Maddie.

He had never seen someone this calm and collected in any battle, and he had never seen someone predict and dodge the way his little brother was doing right now. Ander was amazed as he watched Eric move as if he could clearly see where and when the little balls would come at him; he then remembered what Hayden had said earlier about him having visions and it made sense that he could dodge the way he was if he could in fact see events before they happened.

Ander snapped out of his awe moment before he snuck from tree to tree to sneak up behind the other two while Eric drew their attention, his plan however didn’t quite work out when a plastic grenade dropped by his feet and let loose the paint it had held, the laughter told him that Drew was the culprit and had been waiting for him, baiting him even… of course, they played this enough to know each other’s tactics.

Hiding behind a tree Ander listened, not hearing the laughter or even shots being fired he risked a look and saw nothing, there was no one there so he slowly came out from behind the tree and wandered to where the other team had started, “They’re finding a better place to ambush us from” Ander spun round at the voice and came face to face with Eric, the boy not even looking worried at almost being shot, even if it was just a paintball marker. “You know where they went?” he asked and the small smirk he got told him that yes Eric did know where they were and he already had a plan.

Hayden listened to the sounds of the other children going about their Sunday, she tried to not think about the others playing in the woods and it took everything she had not to send just one dog to check on them. It wasn’t long though before her little warriors came walking back, Drew leading the group while Eric and Maddie helped Ander limp along, when they reached her she couldn’t help but ask, “So how was the free for all match” Ander looked at her and suddenly he understood, “One sided” he muttered before she helped him sit down.

“Why don’t you chicos go get cleaned up, Maddie bring me the kit please” the kids did as told, after all they knew how scary Hayden could be, “I did warn you didn’t I” she said as she examined Ander, he didn’t look at her though, instead he thought back to the first sign he noticed that something was wrong, it was when that grenade had fallen at his feet when no one but Eric could have seen him sneaking up on the other team.

“They tricked me” he sighed when he got over the gang up, Hayden touched his leg a little, closed her eyes when he winced and then suddenly he felt better, “You should have known they would pull something like that, after all, the signs were all there” Ander didn’t know how she had healed his leg, or how she could have done it that fast either. He did see it coming and he knew that he was warned, but he had endured for only one reason, Eric… he had done it all to prove to his brother that he wouldn’t turn around and run away when things got tough.

“It was worth it though wasn’t it” Hayden said, he nodded when she said it, he knew that it was worth it now because of how the four of them had all enjoyed the day, “Well, you survived the day now let’s see if you can make it through la noche” Ander really did enjoy it when she played these little games.

Eric looked at his best friend, their faces only inches apart now. When he had finished getting cleaned up Drew had just suddenly grabbed him and pressed his lips to his, he didn’t know what to think or do but what he felt he knew too well, it felt nice and he never wanted the feeling to end, but it did and that is now where he stood stunned. “Say something” Drew said, the boys voice pleading with him to say anything, at first Eric didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know how to react but when he saw the boy in front of him come to the wrong conclusion he did the only thing that he could, that he wanted to do more than anything.

This time it was Drew who was taken by surprise when Eric took his face in his hands and leaned forward again to press their lips together, he had not been expecting that Eric would do anything like this, he had expected his friend to either reject him and let him down easy but never in his wildest dreams did he think that his friend, the person he loved more than anyone in this world would be kissing him back. Drew melted into the kiss, his own hands finding a place to rest on Eric’s hips while they both deepened the kiss, until a knock at the door and Ander’s voice calling, “Can I come in” broke the two apart and Drew headed for the bathroom to get cleaned up himself… among other things.

“Sure” Ander heard Eric say through the door so he turned the handle and opened the door before stepping inside; he looked at his brother and instantly knew that something was different. Eric was smiling broader then he had ever seen and the many other signs that he had interrupted something between him and Drew, but he wasn’t going to say anything to embarrass the kid or hurt the progress they had made today so instead he asked what he had come to ask, “So, I am taking Hayden out for dinner and wanted to ask… do you have any tips?” Eric’s eyes lit up with laughter when he heard the reason for his brother coming here to talk to him, for once in his life everything started to look up, everything just fell into place and felt normal.