• The hotel room spouts dark, wonderful colors. The curtains blew a nice, cool purple over the windows, and the desks added to the color. The bed screamed “amazing” with it’s light lavender sheets and violet bed curtains. Juniper was curled up on the bed and Lucius was staring out the window. I, on the other hand, was figuring out the computer. Buttons beeping and clacking things popping up out of nowhere. Just in the last 10 minutes, I won 10 dollars, installed some apps, and got a smiley face curser. Lucius looked at the screen and made a face.

    “You know this stuff ruins the computer right?” He asked me. I did and I didn't know. I wasn't too familiar with computers, they were and always will be, unnessecary devices that confused me.

    “How, computers should be able to fight against this stuff.” He shook his head at me with a slight smile and scooted over the chair I was on. He uninstalled the apps, and got rid of my smiley curser. He couldn’t do anything about the money that I’m pretty sure was never coming. I would have to call my bank and cancel the credit card number I'd used. I turned off the computer and sat on the edge of the bed, facing Juniper’s curled up body. Her face was at ease and her body limp as her hair surrounded her gorgeous pale face. Lucius watched me look at her adoringly and his mind started to wonder.

    “You ever want a child?” Lucius asked suddenly. Quickly, the wave of parental feelings came over me and covered all my other feelings. I felt like a parent to her already. I thought he knew that.

    “I have one I don’t need another,” I said stupidly as I moved Juniper’s hair out of her face.

    “You know she already has a mother. And a father. She isn’t yours Nicholai,” he said gently as he put his hand on my shoulder. I knew she wasn't mine. It hurt me, but it was absolutely true. She came from her mother, the blonde woman, and her father, the dark haired man. None of her was from me, and it never would be.

    “She’s mine now. I don't want her to go back to her home with that evil woman and those unprotective parents.
    "She's better off with us then she'd be with anyone else," I said ignorantly.
    “Niki her parents will miss her. I’m not even sure she knows she’ll be with us forever," he pointed out patiently. I think he knew how I felt about her now, the same way I felt about Michelle.

    “I don’t care!” I snapped. “She’s with us and that’s final!” I scooped her limp body up in my arms and cradled her, blood tinted tears brimming in my eyes. I couldn't even face him to say sorry, I couldn't bear to see his face after I'd snapped at him. I knew how it was, and that absolutely made me sad and guilty. I hated it.











    I woke up and saw Juniper still in my arms, curling her fingers around my hair. She was looking up at me as I'd opened my eyes slowly. She must've been up for a while. I couldn't help but wonder what she had done in the hotel room all of the day time. Lucius was still asleep as well as I pushed open the bed curtains and peeked out the crack in the window curtains. The sun was barely going down. It was early for me to be up. Of course, it was no surprise to me. I had too much on my mind, horrible dreams as I drifted in and out of sleep. Juniper stared at me, her brown eyes big and dilated like a deer in the headlights.

    “Junie, I must ask you a question,” I said quietly. She looked up at me and smiled her great smile.
    “How long...do you think you’ll be staying with me and Lucius?”

    “Hmm...I don’t know. How long do you want me with you?” She asked, the proof that she'd been awake and playing all day sounding in her voice. Her voice was happy and energetic.

    “I want you with us forever, my dear Juniper. But how long do you want to be with us? Be it a few months, a few days, a couple weeks, I must know.” I said as I stroked her cheek. She put her hand on the back on the one stroking her cheek and held it tight, her fingers barely big enough to hold it alone. She kissed my hand and I kissed her cheek.

    “Forever, Nicki. I want to be with you forever," she grinned sweetly as she held my hand tightly. I smiled back at her and she wrapped her small arms around my chest as I sat up.





    1996

















    2010

    Juniper kissed my hand as we watched the ball start to go down on the pole. She was beautiful. Her once short brown hair was now long and auburn, her once big eyes were small and almond shaped. She came up to the middle of my rib cage now. Her legs were long and skinny and her figure was long and beautiful. Juniper had just turned 20 the other week, but I'd noticed a great change in her since then. Lucius pulled down another “missing girl” poster and crumpled it up. He knew Juniper’s parents were gonna wonder where she was, he was right. Six year old girl gone missing few days after stange visitors came to her home and hasn't returned since, it's the biggest headline since the Twin Tower incident, it seemed. She didn’t care though, she never would. All she wanted was me, she said over and over. She didn’t care about her mother anymore, or her quiet, strange father, or her crazy Gramma. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed the spot where her Gramma’s stick shot the bright red light at me. I smiled and held her head full with long, lucious hair to my chest as she wrapped her arms around my back.

    “7...6...5...4...3...” the crowd chanted as the ball neared the bottom. Lucius looked at Juniper, then at me, almost giving us a disapproving look.

    “What Lucius,” I mouthed.

    “This is wrong and you know it,” he whispered so Juniper couldn't hear.. “You knew it when you asked her if she wanted to come and you know it now! Nicholai, this is worse then stealing her life.
    "You've stolen her from her family, her family Nicholai!" I looked away from him and towards the ground. I knew he was right. He's been right all along and I was too selfish to see it. I was a kidnapper, the worst there was. No, I couldn't just be the life-stealer I once was and had finally made peace with. I have to be a kidnapper now, for my selfish needs! Lucius wasn't enough I had to have a girl at my side as well!
    “Junie,” I called. She cocked her head up at me. “We need to go back and see your parents.” Her heart sunk when I said that and so did mine.

    “But...but...but....” She stuttered.

    “No words cheri,” I said calmly as I put a finger on her lips. “I’m going to give you a choice. You can stay with us for one more night, then go back to your family and forget us, like it should be.
    "Or, you could visit them for one night, and tell them you're all right and that you'd keep in touch. You know they would be happy to hear from you after 14 years." Lucius looked at me, and nodded in a half-approving way. Then Juniper, who was practically pouting, agreed to seeing her parents for the last time. I smiled at her, and kissed her head, even though she found it a little unfair. The decisions were unfair, but I wanted her to go see her parents for the last time, and that was the only way to do it without force.