1- Vanessa

My first thought as the car I am in drives past each house in Aeria is me wondering how unfair it is that they live like this.

I mean all things considered, I am in horrible trouble as it is but when you see people wearing fur coat like it's a summer dress walking a dog that looks like it was custom made, you begin to feel like you are underdressed even though you wore your leather jacket that cost you about a hundred bucks and jeans that probably did not cost you much but it meant a lot to you.

"Don't do that"

My Aunt Penelope's voice is what stops me from tapping my nails on the windows of the car as I stop to look at her.

For one thing, she is over dressed.

Not that I have any right to judge but we came from Vino, the very ugly and opposite side of Aeria which is under the state Kumari.

You know how every side has the good and the bad?

Exactly, except Vino was not just bad, it was a terrible place where the air smelt like burnt tyres and rotten eggs.

I might be the car with rolled up windows but the strong urge to wind them down and link the mint scented air of Aeria is strongly tempting.

Penelope is an aunt that I never knew I had until, well recently, which is another story that I would get into, and I must say, when I heard that I was not alone in this big old ugly world, I had been excited.

Okay, maybe too excited, the woman infront of me did not meet my expectations at all.

No, I am not vain or whatever else you want to describe how I felt, it was just that my Parents, were exceedingly beautiful, and I kid you not.

Ma was an Opera singer but stopped after she had me with black Raven hair and blue eyes that looked like the sea and ocean had a baby and Pa Well Pa was a busy man that I barely ever saw but he had blond hair as well and beautiful green eyes eyes that I always liked to look at whenever he came to visit me and Ma.

Which feels so long ago when I think about it.

Nevertheless, Aunt Penelope had grey hair, a wrinkled face and an extremely plain look about her, but when one looked past the heavy scented perfume and whatever she was wearing that looked like she stole— I mean bought from the antique store, she was quite lovely.

I know that I am a bit of a mess myself and perhaps, she is a bit anxious about meeting whoever we were going to see and not that I was, except I felt curious, I decided I was going to behave and not increase her blood pressure.

However, I think she mistook my silence and smile as annoyance and sighed, saying "I am sorry Nessa. It is just that I never expected that when I would see you again after so long, it would mean me losing you"

I want to tell her that she was not losing me, that she would have definitely lost me if she had let me be taken to Vino's Penitentiary.

Hell, no one survived there, not even rats.

And I might be a lot of things, but I would never ever pass a day there.

But I say nothing, because for the first time in my life, it is nice to believe that there is one person who doesn't think I'm bad luck, a klutz or just practically possessed.

"But I know that this would be a good thing" Aunt Penelope flashes me a smile, a smile that tells me that whatever she is about to say would make the fake smile I am trying so hard to keep shatter "It would help cure that illness of yours"

And there it is folks.

Now the last person that had said those words to me ended up bleeding and throwing so many religious profanities but I digress.

But I could look at Aunt Penelope's eyes and tell the huge difference between the two.

While the other witch had just acted like someone shoved a stick up their ass, she had real and genuine concern in her eyes.

Like she really cared.

But I hated it.

I hated it because I knew that I was not sick, because I knew that maybe I was wrong to do what I did in the house of God but I never felt sick.

It was them, with their ideals on who to love and how to love that were really sick.

In Vino, everyone was deeply religious and though I had nothing against the Big Man in the sky, I tried to read my Bible right, tried to make sure I used my rosary well, even stopped cursing when I landed myself in an all girls convent boarding school.

Until I met Anna.

Anna was religious too, but religious in a way that made you actually want to not sleep while mass went on, probably because you just wanted to stay awake and hear her sing with the choir from her hymnbook but it was a good thing too.

And I know that whatever happened between us, might have made Anna make a decision I never thought she would, I had no regrets from loving that girl, zero.

I look away from her as my smile finally evaporates, looking back outside the streets of Aeria before I hear the Driver say "We are at the Manor, Ma'am"

Manor?

I turn away from my window, leaning forward so I could look at the drivers windshield, a word leaving my lips "Whoa"

The Manor, a name very befitting anyway, looked like one of those houses Ma used to wish she had when she picked up magazines years ago.

The whole build of it made it look like a bomb couldn't even shake the place.

"You seem excited" Aunt says as I try regaining my posture to look at her.

And then I say, in the very cutest tone I could muster "I am just in a hurry— To be freed from this demon in me"

Maybe I laid it on a bit too thick because Aunt Penelope was shaking her head "No, darling, you have no demon. It is a disease that Doctor Sweets will cure it, and I promise, when you are all better, I would come back and take you home then we would be a Family again"

A family.

How odd it sounds.

As much as those words should make me happy, I had heard it thousands of times from so many people that I realize it only made me feel dread but I say anyway "I can't wait"

I turn away to look at the Manor.

It was called The Flavoured Manor.

A very simple and subtle name that didn't make anyone who would hear it say 'Wow, who would have thought that is a Manor where deranged kids are sent to be cured? Definitely not me!'

At first I had thought that it would be like those drill schools one girl at the convent said her brother was sent to when he became too unbearable at home and that when he returned, he was like a soulless monster but extremely compliant.

But then my fear gave way to curiosity eventually.

Aunt Penelope said that they were four other kids here, all around my age, and that Doctor Sweet was said to be really nice and good at her job, that she rarely ever accepted children into her home unless she thought it was extremely necessary.

Or were cases that needed eyes watching over them.

Like mine.

So I tried to picture how she was.

An old middle aged woman with fifty cats that life fucked up and grew a saviour mentality to protect others from it.

An older lady that is completely psychotic and would perform thousands of surgeries on us.

Or a rich snob that would probably have had a thousand plastic surgeries for some reason.

And then maybe the kids were Vinians like me, lost, hateful, knowing that purgatory in Aeria is definetely better than the hell in Vino who looked like drugs had racked up their senses.

But nothing, nothing, I expected was what I saw.

When the car pulled into the Manor grounds, Aunt Penelope adjusted her dress, her now sweaty face and hands making me suddenly nervous as she says "Just be quiet and I would do the talking, okay?"

All of a sudden, I am realizing that me being here could not possibly have been free and I am wondering where she got the money from before she nods and walks out of the car, and I follow, because I know I have to.

But when I see the five figures at the entrance of the Manor, I cannot help myself "Shit"

Thankfully, Aunt Penelope does not hear me cuss and I doubt anyone else did, except of course the woman standing on the porch of that building because she seems to spare me a glance, but her eyes leave me so fast it might have just been light.

I walk over to where Aunt Penelope is, some feet away from them as I take in the beings infront of me.

First.

They do not look real, they can not be real, unless they all have done plastic surgery at one time in their lives but I really doubt that.

Doctor sweet smiles at us, her bright perfectly arranged teeth nearly making me cuss again "Welcome to the Flavoured Manor"

And that accent.

She is dark skinned, very dark skinned actually but her skin seems to have a glossy feel to it because it looks like she is radiating sun rays for some reason, with soft glossed up lips that make me notice the birthmark on them.

Her black hair is kept in a bun, perfectly gelled with her in a black slim fitted suited and pants that brought out curves I would have definetely gone vegetarian for.

If, of course, I had not already tried that and eventually given up.

At her side, resting one of the columns of the Manor is a ginger haired male with very brown eyes that make me think of brown leaves in Autumn, he has glasses on which give him a superior look and maybe, a bad boy nerd which looks incredibly hot.

Is that possible? Bad boy nerds?

I ignore that, my eyes moving to another male, or two actually, identical twins both wearing a collar that is attached to a chain being held by ginger haired boy.

Wait, what?

One of the twins has lighter brown skin than the other, while one looks like he had bathed in the Caribbeans and let the sun make love to him in the best way possible.

The lighter skin one has his hair blocking his face but you can tell he is horribly shy, because he would not even look at me while the other keeps staring at me with a face that makes me know he can not be shy.

Yet, they look irresistible, like two little puppies that made you steal them to your house because the cashier at the pet store was wasting your time to let them go home with you.

And lastly.

The pale skinned one.

He looks like he had just stepped out from a world that had never seen the sun, with white hair and silver eyes that looked like they stared deeply into my soul.

He looked otherworldly.

He looked beautiful.

Did I die and reincarnate, maybe?

"This is my niece, Vanessa" I bet my Aunt had been rambling something else but I had been too busy ogling the best things after ice creams as she pulled me closer to her.

Five pair of eyes fall on me, pairs of beautiful eyes I might say as I give a small wave "Hi"

No one responds.

Awkward.

"She is really grateful that you are letting stay till she is—" Then my aunt faces me— Oh God, she is about to cry. Wait, the waterfalls are out "She is okay"

Then she leans on me, sobbing heavily as I awkwardly pat her back, turning to my new housemates, making a face of 'Can you believe this woman? We are not related' but I strongly doubt they bought that because no one bats an eye at me.

Okay.

When Aunt Penelope calms down, she pulls away and begins to clean her tears "I'm so sorry. I just get emotional"

But Doctor Sweet smiles, and again, this woman looks like she came out from an anime "It is alright. I can assure you that she is safe and we would do all our best here to make her comfortable"

She said comfortable.

Not cured.

Why does that make me feel better?

"Vanilla"

I look at her, about to tell her my name is Vanessa, though I hate the name terribly but she smiles, at me, and all thoughts to correct her flies from my head.

"Welcome"

And every anxiety I had been feeling dies at those words.