The Beautiful Monster

The bell on top of the glass door of Nick's Diner dinged shrilly as Elias and Alyssa strode inside.

Despite the heat flowing through the diner, it felt cold and still inside. Elias was pretty sure that was just his nerves.

He already felt uncomfortable being here, but there was no turning back now. The bell had announced their arrival.

He glanced to the left to see Scott, Tyler, and Melina seated in a booth toward the back corner. He glanced at Alyssa, who nodded to him, motioning for him to start walking their way.

It felt like his feet were weighed down by bricks, but he continued to move despite the feeling. He sat down with Alyssa across from the other three.

"Thanks for coming," Melina said, giving the two of them a polite smile. She looked relieved that they even showed up.

"What a surprise," Scott muttered, making Elias roll his eyes.

"Well, I have a lot of questions that need answers," Elias replied as he joined his hands together in front of him. He wanted to get right down to business. He wasn't interested in greetings or small talk.

"I'm willing to answer anything," Melina replied as she sat up more. Her hair had been braided back, only letting a few strands loose to frame her face.

The soft look of her face differed from the sharper look of his, but he was looking for any proof that they weren't related.

"If you're my twin, where were you all these years? Did my parents ship you off or something?" Elias asked, wondering where she had been in the world when he was living with his parents.

"I was raised by our uncle. I was sent to a boarding school for most of my childhood until I graduated at eighteen. Then, I traveled around and met Tyler," Melina said, running through the high points.

"You knew about me all this time?" Elias asked her, narrowing his eyes slightly. If he had known about her, he would've tried to find her immediately instead of way down the line at a random time. It was a bit suspicious to him.

"I only knew about you around the time when I met Tyler. Something happened… and I met my parents. Our parents. They explained everything to me and sent Tyler to me to protect me," Melina replied. "They said that I should only reach out to you when I absolutely needed to."

Elias pressed his fingertips against one of his temples, feeling tension in his head as he took in all of the new information. So, she was all over the place being raised by someone that he had never heard of.

He had never heard his parents even mention that he had an uncle but he was starting to get used to hearing information that he had never heard of before.

"I've never heard about having an uncle." he replied as he shook his head. "None of this sounds like anything that they would do."

"Look, you knew one version of your parents. I knew the other," Melina replied. "They did what they had to do to protect us."

"From what? You keep saying we needed protecting," Elias asked. Frustration seeped into his tone.

Alyssa placed her hand on his knee, squeezing gently to make him force himself to relax and stop leaning so far across the table. Plus, Tyler was starting to look aggravated.

"Our parents didn't want people to know about us and how powerful we could be. They were so scared of people finding out that they even kept that information from us," Melina said. "I think people somehow found out that we exist, that we have witch and vampire blood in us."

"So?" Elias asked.

"That's dangerous! People will want to kill us. They already almost killed me!" Melina said, raising her voice slightly.

She then lowered her eyes, leaning against Tyler, who murmured something in her ear. She took a deep breath and looked back over at Elias. "People are threatened by power, which we have a lot of."

"I'm just a normal hybrid. My powers are even sealed." Elias replied as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back against the booth.

He didn't feel like some sort of special hybrid with grand powers. She didn't seem more powerful than any other witch out there.

"You haven't tried to harness your powers or break the seal. You have to exercise them like a muscle," Melina explained to him. "Plus, we're stronger when we're closer together. I know you can feel the energy between us."

Elias looked away from her. He had felt a weird energy inside of him since she came around. He hadn't known what it was, but it was still prominent. He didn't know how he felt about it.

"If we're weaker apart, it made no sense for them to separate us. They couldn't trust us to keep a secret?" Elias replied.

"They kept us separate because our power together would've been impossible to hide from others," Melina said. Her patience seemed to be seeping away. "They were looking out for us."

"And you're not angry at them for keeping such a big secret from you for so long? For choosing to ship you off and keep me?" Elias asked. He knew that it was a harsh question, but he wanted to know her thoughts on that. Why was he the one that was kept?

"Low blow, man. They didn't keep you because you were any more special than her," Scott said, breaking into the conversation.

"Your uncle was closer to your grandmother and if anything she could help her sharpened her skills. You had your mother."

"Butt out," Elias snapped at Scott. He was tired of Scott acting like he had anything to do with this situation besides stirring the pot.

Melina put her hand up to stop the bickering between the two.

"I know you don't like each other, but Scott helped me find you," she said as she looked between them. "He found me when I needed help and brought me to you."

"Why? Is something happening?" Elias asked as a feeling of dread steadily started to fill him. There always had to be something going on, and of course, he would be dragged into it.

"I have a bad feeling. I keep seeing shadows, and they keep getting closer and closer," Melina replied. "They've been watching me for a while. I've already been attacked by one of them once.. I'm afraid they'll try again."

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