She paced in front of it savagely like a tiger in a cage.

She didn’t know how to get out, she felt the world spinning inside her as the tension built. The more anxious she grew the more she felt her hands start with the burning again. She thought about it all. She turned and ran into the woods. The brush whipped past her as she stormed along trying to find a break in the invisible wall. She walked until she couldn’t see the house anymore and decided to go back. Her anger increased as she thought about the fact Lydia had her trapped.

She turned and ran back to the house. She burst through the door and ran back into the room to find the man gone. She stormed about looking for Lydia. Her combat boots made an angry sound on the wooden floors.

"LYDIA." She called.

"Out here sweetie."

She cringed at the sweetness in the old woman's voice. She burst through the kitchen and out the back door.

She was ready for the fight of a lifetime but the back yard stopped her. New Ari was shoved to the back as desert Ari looked at the nature and let it take her in.

The yard was acres of orchard and land. The trees were apple and cherry trees and maples. The leaves were changing making the entire yard like clouds of bright fall colors. The lake around the back of the property was huge with a large dock and some small boats tied at the dock. She could see the path that made its way through the trees and bushes along the grass to the lakefront. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. The desert had always made her happy but the stunning beauty of the trees took away all of her breath and thoughts. She forgot for a few seconds what she had been so angry about.

She looked at the calm grey water, her palms burned, she wanted to cool them off.

She kicked off her boots and ran, her socked feet squished against the damp grass as she sprinted landing toe first. She leapt onto the dock pushing with her burning thighs along the planks and diving as hard as she could into the water. It was exhilarating feeling the cool wind but the cold water was shocking. Her skin burned with the heat of her palms until she hit the water. The brutally frigid water sucked her down into it, she screamed into the cold water until she had no air left. She pulled herself up to the surface inhaling sharply. She shouted and hollered at nothing trying desperately to work off the build up of energy in her skin making her feeling like she could go in every direction at once. She was beyond antsy. She swam laps across the lake in her jeans and t-shirt. She felt a sock float off of her right foot.

She lie on her back feeling the hypothermia starting to set in. She looked up at the sky filled with grey and white clouds and wished for a split second she had the ability to just let the air out and allow herself to sink into the dark waters. She could be like the lady in the lake. Her lips trembled from the cold and she knew any second she would turn and swim to shore, she couldn’t kill herself. The old Ari had never had a thought like that in her life but the new Ari dreamt about it like it were the ribbon one broke at the end of a long journey. She had visions of the many times she'd tried. Pills, cutting herself, fights she couldn’t win and each time she stopped before the real injuries would be inflicted. She always managed to heal from the many things she put her body through.

She thought about the many friends she'd had who had been able to do it. She'd envied them, their deaths had been so amazingly dramatic.

Suddenly something grabbed her arm pulling her. Water splashed at her face and mouth preventing her from breathing. The waves of the force were so high she couldn’t see past the white froth of the water stirring.

She felt the grasp of something on her wrist, against everything that told her to let it take her down and drown her she fought. She pulled as hard as she could but the hands kept coming back. She pulled her arm from the grasp but as she moved it grabbed her ankles. She cried out kicking and screaming for her life.

"Stop fighting me." She heard a deep voice, one she didn’t recognize. She nearly froze feeling the hands on her, it was a mans' voice. She pulled her arms from his and kicked for her life. The warmth of the hands pulled her in, she fought with everything she had but the strength of the arm was too much. Hands swept her up pulling her into a warm crushing chest. She stopped fighting knowing it was futile but also that if she sat quiet she would get a better idea of when would be the right moment to strike out against him and exactly whom she was fighting against.

"Jesus Lydia wasn’t kidding, you're crazy."

The water calmed as she stopped fighting to see the blurry images clear. She was being carried by a huge man, well boy, well maybe man. She couldn’t guess his age, maybe her age or a little order but ageless at the same time.

His voice was strong like his body. His arms had to be the size of her thighs. His face was rugged, handsome in a way she couldn't describe. Not beautiful but attractive in the way cookie had been. He looked like an outdoorsy backpacking sort of guy who looked capable. His huge hands gripped her tightly. She didn’t know what she could do against him, she knew it was better to wait for the right opportunity. It would present itself, it always did. She scared herself thinking like such a survivalist. She felt sorry for herself imagining the horrors she didn’t let herself see.

His eyes were like green moss, pale almost. His skin was tanned but reddish from the cold water. He dripped water from his shaggy brown hair. He placed her down on the bench before she realized they were out of the water. The air was as cold as the lake had been.

He scrunched up his face at her examining her disgustedly, "You wanna die do it somewhere else, Lydia has enough ghosts around here as it is." He turned and stormed from the dock up the grass. She sat shivering on the bench confused. He had saved her, a guy had saved her. He didn’t want anything, in fact he seemed angry with her.

She looked up at the huge mansion trembling, teeth chattering and watched as Annabelle waved at her from one of the windows.

She didn’t know what to make of it all, she didn’t know where to go. She wanted to go inside and warm up but she didn’t know who the guy was.

"Lucas."

She turned frozen and shivering out of control to see Lydia walking toward her in her gardening gloves holding an empty flowerpot.

"His name is Lucas, he's different like you." She explained reading her thoughts again.

"How do you do that? How do you know what I'm thinking?" She stood walking clutching herself.

Lydia smiled, "I'm psychic, sort of thought that was obvious. Anyway dear you need to go up to the house, I'm sure Annabelle has a hot bath poured for you."

"M-m-y hands are burning again."

"Yes well there isn’t anyone you can send back here dear, I would imagine most of us are safe from your abilities. I'll see what I can do for you."

Ari nodded, she was frozen. She walked up the grass to the back door to the house.

Annabelle opened the door smiling with her ghostly white teeth compared to her mocha skin, "Why Miss Ari you looks about as froze as a girl could gets. Why you gotta swim on a cold day like this one. I knows by the look of the lake its cold. I gots your bath poured upstairs. Lucky Mr. Lucas saved you."

Ari walked into the open door and the floating towel Annabelle was holding up with her ghostly hands nattering on about the bath and Lucas.

Chapter Four- Feeding Time at the Freak Zoo

Her reflection frightened her. She looked at the two inches of hair sticking up like a hedgehog and frowned. She bent over looking at the silver bullring in her nose.

"That be the nastiest thing I ever did see Miss Ari. Just nasty."

She looked in the direction of the voice suddenly aware Annabelle didn’t have a reflection. She scowled and turned to face her, "Yeah I know. I didn’t want it. The other me wanted it."

"Well I be downstairs fixing you some cocoa now that’s ya clean." She was gone before Ari could tell her where else she could go.

She turned back to her reflection and scowled. She opened her towel and looked at her right nipple and pulled on the ring through it. Pleasure shot through her body. She gasped and looked at her flushing face. Memories of a man sucking the ring made her close the towel quickly.

She leaned in looking at the ring and barbells in her face. The bullring in her nose bothered her the most. She tried to pry the ring apart not realizing how hard she was pulling until the thin red line of blood started to trickle down her face. It caught the steady stream of tears that leaked from her face.

She gave up defeated and walked down the stairs holding the Kleenex to her nose cussing under her breath.

"I can hear that missy."

She sighed at Lydia's comment and walked in the other direction of the voice. She went to the large room with the chairs and sat holding the tissues to her face.

"What happened there?"

She felt her skin crawl as Lucas came and knelt in front of her. He seemed to not realize he was in her personal space or that it was bothering her.

He put a hand up making her wince. He stopped and frowned, "I wont hurt you."

She pulled the tissue away, "I can't get it out. I tried everything."

He laughed, "You have to pull the whole thing apart, it’s a pressure system."

He stood up and left her there. She sat still not sure why he had said it and left her there to ponder his odd words. Pressure system?

He walked back into the sitting room with pliers in his hand. She backed up the oversized sofa as he sat in front of her. He smiled at her but she was terrified of him, he was massive and unassuming they were the worst in her experience. He was double her size and armed which made her go into a full panic attack. She was frozen as he sat across from her. She felt the burning in her hands before she could control herself she reached for him. The heat filled her body making her scream as it shot out of her hands and into his arms.

She could see a large tattoo of a black wolf on his arm, it was the last thing she saw before everything went fuzzy and the light dimmed.

She felt warmth around her, like she was back in the desert again and lying out in the sun. The heat covered her softly. She moaned moving into the heat but unlike the sun the heat moved back covering her better.