“So, what do you remember?” Kyte asked Porter as they separated.

“Only things from this room. Like that one conversation we had about talking donkeys.” Porter laughed. That was one of his favourites. Kyte began to laugh along with him.

“Why’d you kiss me then? We never really did that sort of thing in here.” Kyte smiled shyly. He didn’t mind that Porter had kissed him; he just couldn’t see the reason behind it.

“Because I’ve wanted to do that since yesterday. I can feel that I loved you, I just can’t remember. I know this must suck for you.” Porter told him. “How long were we together for?” he questioned. He’d feel a lot worse if they had been together for a long time.

“About five years. We began dating in high school.” Kyte replied, his eyes drifting towards the ground. He plucked at the grass with his fingers, pulling blades out and chucking them back onto the ground. To Porter’s surprise, the grass slowly moved back into place. Light blue water vapour mended the blades of grass so that they were attached again.

“That’s my magic?” Porter asked, astonished at how he could do something like that.

“Yeah. Well, you can’t actually fix plants or anything like that. This room is an illusion. It’s all made of tiny water molecules. Don’t ask me how you don’t get wet, because I don’t know. But it’s pretty cool.” Kyte smiled. Seeing the look on Porter’s face created a warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach. He hadn’t felt it in ages, he welcomed the it despite hating it years ago when he had just met Porter.

“That’s even cooler!” Porter reached down and pulled a blade of grass out of the ground. He dropped it and watched it float back into place. “How is it still here? If I didn’t remember making it?” he asked. He wondered if the fish were fake too.

“I don’t know… You told me once that water has memory, which is why you were able to create this room in the first place. Everything in here has water flowing through it in real life. You took water from plants and trees, and fish, and turned it into this.” he smiled. “It took you a very long time. I had a lot of fun helping you with it.” Kyte said, looking at one of the trees nearest to the pond.

“This is a very special place for us, isn’t it?” Porter concluded, seeing Kyte’s facial expressions as he looked around the room.

“Yes, very.” Despite him smiling, his eyes were sad. Porter was getting used to this look, now he always knew when Kyte was thinking about how they used to be before he lost his memory.

Porter decided to change the subject. “Nia killed that werewolf that was attacking us.”

“Yeah she told me. I was still surprised that he was your boss.” Kyte looked thoughtful. “How’d you get a job there?” he asked.

“I got offered it by the boss when I walked in to buy something… Damn, I should have been more suspicious of him.” Porter stilled. “Are we safe now?”

“No, the werewolves weren’t the only ones after us. A lot of people hate us and will be more then glad to chop our heads of if they ever came across us.” Kyte stood and walked over to the tree he was looking at beforehand.

“I don’t get why people hate us. What did we do?” Porter asked as he turned to face Kyte.

Kyte was reluctant to answer his question, which only caused Porter to believe they had done something really bad.

“There are a lot of reasons. But most people hate us because we’re ‘rebels.” He used air quotes. “Because we fight for the freedom of people who are just trying to be themselves.” Kyte paced the length of the room as he talked. “There are two sides in the supernatural world. One side believes in old tradition. They believe that nobody is equal, that certain species are classed higher above others. They believe people like us, who like the same gender or are a different gender to what they’re born, etc, are to be feared and hated. We call them osores.” Porter could practically see the hate Kyte felt towards the osores. Porter found it strange to see Kyte so passionate about something like this.

“They call us the rebellium. They don’t like that we feel free enough to be ourselves, even with the hate they have towards us.” He stopped and sat in front of Porter, he took both his hands into his own. “People hate us the most because of our species. Merpeople are at the top of the hierarchy, werewolves are at the bottom. They don’t believe it’s right to be with someone below you, least of all a species that are useful only for there strength. They don’t even like mixing races, which is why hybrids are hated too.”

“Wow. This is a very complex world.” Porter thought of what to say. “People want to kill us because of that?”

“Yeah. They want to end the whole rebellion. We’re close to the person who started the it, so people think if they take us down, she’ll go down too.” Kyte stood up again.

“Who’s the leader of the rebellion?” Porter asked as Kyte picked him up again and started walking out the door.

Kyte took a deep breath in. “Nia.”