~Chapter 2~

~Chapter 2~

I chuckled softly to myself in the dark room.

Zombies are the best.

The zombie ate off the head of another screaming person and I began to chuckle louder.

This was great.

The TV made a dinging noise as a severe thunderstorm alert ran across the screen.

I rolled my eyes, there was a thunderstorm warning every night, we lived in Wisconsin for crying out loud.

Lightning flashed outside and illuminated a silhouette, causing me to jump.

"Hey, whatcha watchin?" Kirie asked me, coming into view.

"Something with zombies." I told her as she sat next to me.

"You and your zombies." she laughed, snuggling into my side.

"I thought you'd be asleep." I told her, annoyed at the TV's flickering and the loud thunder.

"It's 7 o'clock." she told me pointedly.

"Oh." I muttered, remembering back to my dream, everyone staring, taking a shower...

Was it really only 7?

"You can change it if you want." I offered, knowing that she wouldn't want to watch some bad zombie movie.

"Or, we could do something else." she suggested with a smile.

I smiled back at her, "Something else huh?"

She leaned in closer and I could feel her breath on my face.

"Yeah." she whispered.

She leaned in and touched her lips to mine, tentatively at first, but then quickening the pace.

My pulse raced in my chest as I reached for her, pulling her onto my lap and flush against me.

I heard her moan softly against my lips and I wove my hands into her strawberry blond hair.

Her lips were so soft, her body so warm against mine.

Her tongue found it's way into my mouth and it twisted with mine.

Her small fingers ran down the fabric of my shirt to the bottom, playing with the fabric there.
I moved her hands back and took my shirt off in one quick motion so we could continue our activities.
She smiled against my lips, tracing my abs lightly with her nails.
I smiled as I felt her nimble fingers drifting across my lower abdomen.
Her small cold fingers.
Cold, like the forest in my nightmares.
I blinked, and coughed, I wasn't going to think about that right now.

She pulled back, biting her lip as her eyes scanned my face.
"Are you alright?" she asked me tentatively.
 I contemplated telling her about thinking about my nightmare.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I told her, not sure if I sounded convincing.
Her eyes narrowed at me, but in a playful way.

"Austin McCoy, you think to much." she told me, her playful smile reappearing.
"I agree." I told her playfully.
"I think we should do something about that." she said with a suggestive smile.
"Really? What kind of something?" I asked with a smirk.
Her hands that were still on my abs started drifting downward.

The door flew open and Jacob pressed some random blond to the back of it, both of them moaning loudly.
He was wearing just his boxers and she was in her underwear which he was in the process of removing...
"Jacob!" Kirie shouted, turning bright red.
He seemed to not hear her or not care as he continued to kiss the blond.
"Jacob!" I yelled, significantly louder than Kirie had.
He jerked his head in our direction, not bothering to untangle himself from his current activities.
"Oh, hey man. Sup?" He asked.

"I hear enough about what you do in your free time without having to watch man." I told him.
He looked at me confused and I gestured at the girl.
"Oh right, uh, catch you in a few hours Taylor?" he said to the girl, who rolled her eyes and stormed out.
"She wants me." Jacob said confidently.
"Of course she does." I muttered.

"Uh...Jacob?" Kirie stammered, refusing to look at him.
He looked over at her lazily, not bothering to even respond.
"Could you um, put some clothes on?" She asked, looking mortified.
"You know you want this-" Jacob saw my glare and immediately changed his tone.
"Sorry automatic response,uh, yeah I'll go find them..." He said, passing Jack on his way out.
Jack looked at him in his boxers and then at me and my lack of shirt.

"I'm watching the hockey game, if you're not going to watch, go somewhere else." He said, rubbing his temples, muttering something about damn teenagers and their damn hormones under his breath.
"Oh, who are we playing?" I asked, noticing my fiance huff and roll her eyes at my question.
"Oh, um I mean-" I turned my attention to her.
"No, watch the game. It's fine, I'm going to take a bath." she said, leaving.
"Are you gonna go after her?" Jack asked me, exasperated.

Images of Kirie and I on the couch mixed with images from my dreams flashed across my mind.
I needed to get my head together.
"No, I'm gonna watch the game." I told him.
He seemed satisfied with this answer, as he nodded and proceeded to turn up the volume.

__________________________________


 The academy had two libraries, the bigger and the smaller.
The research and the fiction.
The formal and the casual.
Yeah, they had plenty of names.

In one of the corners of the smaller library was my drafting space.
Almost completely encased by bookshelves, the area was hard to find, especially in the day.
When I worked into the night the light I used could guide you to the small area.
Tacked to the wall I had numerous blueprints, along with a few various pictures and postcards.

It wasn't that I wanted to be an architect, I just found sketching relaxing, and well...it was hard to screw up on a drawing of a building.
That and Kirie wanted me to plan out her dream house for when we got married.
Her dream house was a modest, two story brick home with a big deck for hosting parties.
It had a sprawling garden and a pond filled with Koi.
A picket fence and rosebushes.
My worst nightmare.

Generally speaking, guys lived at the academy. They married, and their wives lived with them at the academy.
If one of my sisters was to marry someone who didn't work or train at the academy, then they would move.
It was custom, simply how things were done.
This way the academy always had trainers, doctors, and whatever other members were needed.
At the same time, it never became over populated.
Although, it was hard to imagine the academy as over populated, it was the biggest and most complex building I had ever seen or been inside. For all anyone knew there were entire unoccupied wings.
Why Kirie wanted to leave the dark wooden building, the cool draft, the place that was home to me, was beyond me.

We had both grown up here, and she was determined to leave.

I glanced down at my sketch, which was supposed to be the top floor with a guest room she had asked me to add.
It wasn't the top floor.
Or a blueprint at all.
Across the special blue inked paper I'd drawn the girl from my dreams.
Dropping the pencil in shock, I stared at my drawing.
The features were spot on, it was without a doubt her.

I mindlessly ran my pinky over the waves of her hair, tracing each wave that fell down her shoulder.
My pinky carefully traced her perfectly round ears and ran down her jawline.
In my picture she was sleeping, only the tormented look on her face was gone.
She was smiling.
I gently traced her smile with the tip of my finger.

"What are you doing?" A voice behind me demanded.