It has been three days since he left, since Ander left and Eric was feeling like something was very wrong, something bad was about to happen and he didn’t know how to deal with it. Drew tried of course to get him over this feeling, telling him that it was just him missing Ander and that it was normal but whatever this feeling was, it was not normal and the dream that he had had about the orphanage kept popping into his thoughts whenever he felt like this, whenever he let it consume him in the dark of night.

“Please come back” he would whisper every night when everyone was asleep but he never got a reply, no words of comfort or sign that anyone had heard him and that was when the feeling of loss really ate away at him. Five days after he left though something happened, something that only made the feeling feel all the more real; a kid wondered into the yard while Hayden went into the woods to check on something.

The boy before him, eyes dark blue with blonde hair standing in every direction gave him the feeling like he somehow knew him, he had never seen him before though and yet there was something that told him that he had a lot in common with him. “Who’re you?” Drew asked, he had become even more protective of Eric since they had told Hayden they were dating; the boy cocked his head to one side for just a second before he walked closer to Eric, one of his hands reaching out to touch him but Drew got between them.

The blonde boy got a look in his eyes that made them both back up, “Hayden, please come back” Eric couldn’t help but think as the boy now with a smile that was clearly fake walked closer to them again. “I’m Michael; I just wanted to find out why you feel familiar. You feel it too don’t you, it’s like we know each other” Eric knew he wasn’t asking, he knew that the boy somehow knew how he felt and what he was thinking. Drew didn’t move from his place so Eric placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to give his best “It’s okay” look to his boyfriend, the boy did move but Eric could still see the way that he acted, like he was ready to get between them at a moment’s notice.

“I’m Eric” he said from where he stood, Drew at his side.

“You are like me aren’t you” again it wasn’t a question but it wasn’t something that Eric understood.

“An orphan?” Michael smiled now, he almost laughed but he didn’t.

This was becoming weirder by the second, if he didn’t mean that they were both orphans then what did he mean, even Drew was confused. “You don’t know do you? You don’t understand why your eyes burn, or why you see things that haven’t happened before, you have no idea how you can tell people are near or sometimes even tell what they are thinking; it remains a mystery to you why it is you don’t fit in, why you don’t want to fit in… want me to show you?” it was like he had been reading Eric’s mind but the thought that this boy was like him, and that that was why they felt drawn to each other was crazy, wasn’t it? Michael waited for his answer, he looked at him like he was bored and would leave and yet Eric knew he wouldn’t because if he felt like he explained Eric felt then he would stay just so that he too would know that he wasn’t alone, “Yes” Eric heard himself say and the way Drew looked at him told him that even though he too was curious, he was more afraid.

Michael looked at them both now, he pointed at Drew, “He should leave” but Eric just shook his head and stared the boy down until he shrugged with that same fake smile on his face. The air around Michael started to shimmer, at first both Eric and Drew thought that they were seeing things but then they looked at each other and saw that they could both see it. The shimmering didn’t stop as they watched; instead the only change that happened was that Michael blinked. Before he blinked his eyes were dark blue but after he opened them back up again they were dark red.

Both Eric and Drew were astonished by the sight, if this is what Michael meant when he had said they were the same then Eric hoped that he was wrong, because these eyes he knew weren’t something good. Michael with his eyes started to look around the place, his eyes darting to the trees and before he knew what he was doing he was taking a step back, “You are like me, your eyes and mine are the same and that means that we share the same power, the same source. You have been lied to…” was all the boy said before he stepped back even more. Drew noticed Shade stepping in between them and him, he noticed the other four Chihuahua’s also slowly walking towards the boy and it almost looked like they were stalking the boy and that he was afraid of them, but that would be insane.

“Run home” Hayden said as she walked up behind Eric and Drew, the look on her face wasn’t one Drew ever remembered seeing her wear before, it was new and it was scary. “Run home before you’re chased” again she spoke and again Drew couldn’t believe that this was the same loving and caring woman that had taken care of them all their lives.

Michael didn’t think he could win anymore; his eyes told him that he could but he knew that what he knew to be true and what his eyes told him as he looked into the red eyes of the pack of black dogs stalking him were different. Michael did the only thing he could think of to do, he turned around and ran, he ran as fast as he could because he could hear the dogs give chase, he heard their foot falls grow heavier and faster as they changed into their true shape and when the woods protected them he could hear their howls as they started their hunt.

“Lied to” Eric thought to himself in his shared room with Drew, he didn’t want to believe that but somewhere deep inside he did believe it, he did think that he has been lied to and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should have known. Drew hasn’t come back yet, he had gone to confront Hayden when they got back inside and he hasn’t come back, she wouldn’t hurt him Eric knew but what if he came back and didn’t remember anything; that was what he was afraid of.

It didn’t take long for Eric’s thoughts to go back to Ander, he wondered if his brother was part of this, after all that kid Michael did say that they shared the same source, whatever that meant though. Eric looked to the door hoping to see Drew there on his way back wearing his carefree smile, but he didn’t and it was really worrying him now so deciding to also confront Hayden he got up and walked to the place he knew they would be, Hayden’s study.

Hayden looked across at the boy opposite her, “What do you think happened out there today?” she asked and hoped that he would come to the wrong conclusion, “I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like it, never even thought something like that could be done… was it a trick” Hayden looked passed the boy and saw Eric standing there. “It wasn’t a trick, that boy used something old and rare… if you’ll come in Eric then I will tell you two everything I know” she saw the boy hesitate for a while but when he looked up and saw the smiling face that had cared for him all of his life he moved towards her and didn’t stop until he was sitting down next to Drew, the two jumped though when the door shut by itself.

“There are things in this world that can’t be explained, that just is and that will always be. This story goes back thousands of años and has a much more bloody history then what you’ve read in your classes, it’s a story about magic, witches and monsters but if this doesn’t scare you off then by all means crack open a book here and start reading, start learning about what goes bump in the dark” Hayden watched as the two boy’s eyes widened as she spoke. “I am a witch, one of four that has walked the earth for thousands of years; you could say that we are the oldest and strongest of all witches. You Eric, you are the son of a witch and so is Ander, but the thing about you two is that though you are brothers you do not share a madre” it was all or nothing now she thought, he would accept it or reject it but now was the time the historians would record as the day that Eric learned the truth.

Hayden gave the boys time to process what she had said, “So who were they?” Drew asked, he pointed to the paintings hanging throughout the study, each one of a woman in her early thirties. Hayden smiled, “They are me, or the me I was at that point in history” the boy looked astonished as he looked from the paintings to her and each time searching for the face he saw in the painting but never finding it. “Tell us everything” Eric finally spoke and Hayden was glad that he didn’t sound mad.

Hayden got comfortable and cleared her throat, “Nothing I tell you leaves this room, and I am just telling you because you two are targets now too” she saw them both nod and she knew that they understood what she meant by targets. “Along with witches and everything else there is a group called Hunters, though these Hunters are different from normal hunters that hunt our kind… this group has something normal hunters don’t” she waited a while to see their reactions but didn’t see them so much as flinch as they processed what she had said. “These Hunters share something with you Eric, they share your DNA, your blood; and you share with them your father, the man who had created them to kill anything supernatural that is a threat to humanity or himself” now Hayden saw a reaction from the boys, Eric stiffened and Drew looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“The Hunters are coming here in a few days to kill Ander, but he might not be back until afterwards. Now though after seeing that boy, Michael I know that Ander was not who they were after, they are coming for me” Drew gave her his attention again when he heard her say that, “Why?” he found himself asking. “They are afraid of what I could do, they know that Ander is from the other world and that his mother is one of the five high witches, they also know that their creator is his father. They think because Ander was here that I am plotting a rebellion, and truth be told, if Ander never came here I would never have thought about fighting them but now he helped me see that this is nothing but a prison where they keep me locked away. They don’t however entirely know who you are Eric, and most of them don’t know that you are even here but as soon as they come here they will find out because Michael saw you and knows you share a power like his” Eric knew what she meant, that if Ander wasn’t here to kill and Hayden was their goal then he would be extra, they would kill him.