The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions by Nathaniel Stewart Page A

Sylvia. He hadn’t been
there for thirty minutes and they were already pissed off at
him. Wait … depend on each
other ? It only just registered to him what
Marcel had said and Zander grunted. He didn’t know what was going
on or why they were there, but he certainly couldn’t think of a
situation that would occur to where he would need to depend on a
faggot like Androse.
     

Chapter 6
    Natalye
    “ Do you think that they’ve
started without us,” he asked.
    “ They wouldn’t do that,”
she said knocking again, “but we are very late.”
    “ Late for what, Grandma,”
Natalye questioned as she stood her suitcase upright on the porch.
It was such a beautiful day that there was nothing more that she
wanted to do than be out climbing or hiking somewhere. “Is your
friend having a party?”
    “ Of sorts,” her
grandmother said knocking once more.
    Natalye’s father put an arm around her
shoulder and then pulled her close to him to which she smiled and
put her arms around his waist. She loved her father dearly and he
had been so affectionate and caring over the past few days that if
it were possible, she had grown to love him even more. The front
door finally opened and a woman with long brown hair who looked
like she was barely holding herself together smiled.
    “ Oh, Hallie,” her father
said concernedly, letting go of Natalye and stepping forward to hug
the woman. She jumped into his arms and buried her face into his
neck while Natalye’s grandmother patted the woman on the
back.
    “ It’s so hard, Patrick,”
Hallie whispered.
    “ I know, Hal. I know,” he
said setting her feet back on the ground.
    “ Are you alright, ma’am,”
Natalye asked bringing a hand up to her chest. I wonder if someone died , she
thought, but surely her father and grandmother would tell her if
they were going to travel the long way that they did for someone’s
funeral?
    “ Natalye,” Hallie said
after releasing her father, “you’ve grown up so much. They all
have, Emma,” she said to her grandmother.
    “ I’m sorry, but have we
met,” Natalye asked as she tried to remember ever having any
contact this woman.
    “ Let’s all go inside,
shall we?” Emma extended her hand and Hallie took it, then they
both walked into the house together.
    Patrick sighed, and once they were out of
earshot he said, “I knew she was going to be like that, and I knew
I might start once I saw her.”
    “ Dad,” Natalye said
stopping him from stepping over the threshold. “Did someone pass
away? Like, are we here for a funeral or something?” She kept her
voice low, not wanting to offend anyone that may have been in the
living room.
    “ No, sweetheart. Get your
bag and come on in.”
    Natalye obeyed and picked up her suitcase,
following her father inside and closing the front door behind her.
“This place is beautiful,” she whispered to him, but Patrick only
smiled at her and kept walking. She found herself being lead into a
kitchen full of people who all seemed to stare at her when she
entered. Suddenly very aware of herself, Natalye set her bag down
and smiled sheepishly.
    “ Patrick ,” a few voices sang in
unison.
    “ Hello, everyone,” he said
beaming. He walked up to a plainly dressed older man that had dark
brown hair and blue eyes. “Charles, it’s good to see you again. And
Kate…and Sylvia…and of course you, Oren,” her father said making
his rounds. Natalye noticed that there were three guys who all
looked to be about her age that were seated at a huge table eating.
Two of them sat a little farther down from the third, and the two
who sat closest together both looked up and smiled at
her.
    “ Is that Patrick Roberts ?”
    “ Marcel!”
    Natalye stepped to the side so that her
father could hug a squat man that had his short dark hair slicked
back. He wasn’t exactly good-looking, but he had the prettiest gray
eyes that Natalye had ever seen.
    “ How is my favorite black
man doing,” Marcel asked. “I