❝You hit me once, I hit you back
You gave a kick, I gave a slap
You smashed a plate over my head
Then I set fire to our bed❞

Have you ever been attacked by a raging cat?

I'm not talking about a domesticated house cat. I'm talking about a sugar-frenzied panther with its claws sharp and thirsty, digging into your back as you screamed and thrashed around like a wild buckaroo fighting for his life. I imagine it went something like this.

I'd just been blindly feeling up the walls of the apartment, trying to find the panel of switches when I saw something shiny being thrown at me from my peripheral vision. I caught it with one hand just in time before it marred the side of my face.

"What the—"

A dark coyote launched at me from the ground, wrapping its limbs around my back with sharp nails digging into my neck and arms suffocating me in a chokehold. Long hair whipped into my eyeballs, not my own, the strands slicing my corneas as I screamed for dear life and whipped around violently to get the rabid animal off my back.

"Begone demon!" a high-pitched squeak echoed off the walls and this...this...thing bonked me on the head with its fists, legs wrapping around my mid-section securely.

"Get it off me!" I shouted. To who exactly? I didn't know.

I turned my back to the wall, slamming violently against it.

I heard a loud grunt of pain but the hag on my back didn't let go still, only motivated to murder me further. I growled and pulled down on their wrists, digging my own nails into their skin. Their grip just about slightly loosened around my neck but not enough to let me breathe freely.

Desparate, I dropped my weight and bent my knees, getting ready to fall backwards and onto the floor in a bodyslam that would have this ghoul shattered from the impact when the lights turned on, blinding what was left of my corneas.

"What. The. Living. FUCK. Is going on here?!"

I raised a hand to shield my eyes, still bearing the weight of the demon on my back as I peered through the cracks in my fingers. As my vision came to, I sighed in relief.

"EJ," I muttered, almost buckling to my knees. One familiar face amidst this battlefield of madness. I wasn't in the wrong apartment, thank God.

"EJ?" A feminine voice repeated into my ears, breath hot and heavy. "Who the fuck is EJ?"

"I am."

EJ stood in front of me like a tired father. One hand on his hip, the other in his surfer-boy blond hair, fingers pinching the space between his forehead.

"Harp, do you mind getting off my cousin please?"

"Cousin?"

The grip on my neck slightly loosened and legs came untied as the thing on my back slithered off and to my front. I stood up straight, feeling the crick in my back fix itself with an audible, painful snap.

"Ah fuck," I groaned and stretched backward. The cuts on my face and neck thrummed and I knew they were going to bruise tomorrow. Pissed, I turned on the hag.

"What, did you crawl out of a TV set or some...thing..."

My voice trailed off, eyes widening in recognition.

It wasn't a real-life version of Sadako peering up at me through a muss of black, messy hair.

It was Montana 2.0.

"You!"

We both shouted at each other with raised hands and pointed fingers like a rendition of the Spiderman meme.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I shouted, horrified.

"Me? What the fuck are you doing here?" she repeated, her head whipping back to look at EJ. "Evan, no way this pizza-stealing no-good low-life is your cousin?"

"EJ, who the fuck is she?"

EJ groaned and sunk into the nearest barstool in the kitchen. He seemed to be nursing a headache as he glared with sleepridden eyes at the two of us.

"Harper, Aiden. Aiden, Harper."

"Yeah, it's a real treat to meet your demon cub," I threw at her with a glare, getting an even deeper scowl in return.

"Harper's my best friend. Aiden's my cousin."

"EJ—"

"Who the fuck is EJ?" she asked for the second time. A brain just as slow as her instincts at the check-out till, I see.

"I am," EJ said again, sounding exhausted. "Evan James Mitchell."

"James..." she repeated, staring at EJ like he was an alien. "Six years you've gone not telling me your middle name."

"It never came up," he muttered, resting his head on the table. Without looking at me, he asked, "Aiden, bro. What are you even doing here?'

"Didn't you get my message?"

At this, he perked up, the annoyance in his eyes changing to concern. I had a notorious track record for not reaching out unless things were really bad.

"What message?"

I pressed my lips together into a line of irritation as he patted his pockets, searching for his phone. He searched through the screen before comprehension clicked in, letting out a slow, much too late sigh.

"Ahhhhh... Yeah, no. Sorry. I was..." EJ's eyes went to the devil-woman. "Occupied."

"Cousin or not, you've got to kick his ass Ev."

"Excuse me?" I turned on her, a hand coming to the sides of my neck where I was sure she'd left visible scratch marks and bruises. "You're the lunatic that's attacked me TWICE in one day."

She still didn't face me, crossing her arms over her chest and continuing to talk to EJ as if I didn't exist.

"See how he speaks to me? That's just rude."

"I'll show you rude—"

"Aiden."

Evan stood up and walked over, doing a full circle around me as if he were assessing the damage before coming to my front and staring me in the eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Of the three of us firstborn sons in the Mitchell family, Evan (EJ) was the oldest and most protective, born to the eldest of the Mitchell siblings. Then came Owen, our second-oldest cousin, who had literally escaped the planet to get away from the family. And finally, the baby, me. We were all born only months apart within the same year, but still, EJ assumed the 'big brother' role for all three of us.

I hadn't said much in the text. Nothing more than a one paragraph explanation that Megan and I had broken up and that I was out on my ass again, needed a place to stay, and would be using my key to the flat to get a night's rest. I knew he'd be fine with it so I hadn't waited for a response.

As EJ squeezed my shoulder, I felt my lower lip trembling like a child. It had been a long day and judging by the pain throbbing through my back and shoulders, the grand finish wasn't a great one either.

"I'm okay."

He knew I was lying.

"Did she do anything?"

"I didn't do anyth—" the annoying chihuahua started to pipe up from behind us but a single look from EJ silenced her.

"Meg uh...destroyed my hard drive."

EJ closed his eyes dramatically, his hands dropping off my shoulders.

"Please, please tell me you backed your shit up."

My silence was answer enough.

"That settles it," EJ declared, stepping back and positioning himself in front of the two of us. "Aiden, please make yourself at home here. We both know this apartment is just as much as yours, or Owen's for that mater, as it is mine."

"But—"

"A."

There it was. That look again.

"Aye aye cap'n," I muttered and move back to the door where I'd left my stuff. Picking it up, I started to move past the two of them to the last room down the hall when I heard EJ's next words.

"Harper, let your landlord know in the morning that you're not signing that agreement. I'll help you move in this weekend."

My bags clattered to the floor and I spun around, almost spraining my already sorely-bruised back in the process.

"Excuse me?"

"With him?"

EJ nodded, fixing us both with a stern look.

"You both need a place to stay so unless you'd rather be homeless, I suggest you find a way to make this little situation work."

A chorus of complaints burst out from both of us but EJ simply raised a palm up in the air, silencing us both.

"It's 12:30 a.m. right now and unlike you two, I need my beauty sleep for work tomorrow."

Demon cub sucked in a breath at at that, and for a second, EJ's usually stern face around me was enveloped in uncharacteristic warmth. Towards her? Unworthy.

He gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry Harp, I didn't mean that as a dig at you but you know I've got that big divisional meeting tomorrow. I can't be late."

"Yeah no," she softened and I stared at her. Was such tender emotion possible from this criminal? "I'm sorry."

"You're fine. Stay here and rest up for the night. It's late."

"But what about—"

"Just Uber back in the morning. Or call me. I'll drop you home on the way to work."

There was a tone of finality in his words that she chose to respect, sulking nonetheless as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked down.

"Okay."

"And Aiden," EJ spoke up then gestured to the bags. "This is it? This is all your stuff?"

I nodded, feeling slightly bashful. I didn't have a lot of material things to my name and whenever I was around family, I felt the absence of it to a higher degree. EJ never judged though. After all, he'd been the first 'big cuz' to set us an example of breaking out of the Mitchell mould.

"Cool. Just settle in and make yourself comfortable. I'll check in this weekend."

"Sure."

I gave him a little wave goodbye, watching him leave. A part of me wanted to grab his arm and pull him back into the apartment so he wouldn't leave me alone with the menace. Maybe he could butter her up with his smiles again. It would be asking too much.

As if only just remembering the war feuding between us (something I assumed he was filled in on from this 'Harper'), he popped his head in through the door before it shut and added with his quirky little grin, "Try not to kill each other please? There's a lot of white furniture and carpets in this place. I can't have them replaced."

And with that, he shut the door on us.

The tick in my jaw was back as I turned to face her. She made no such movement, still staring at the door with the same desparate longingness I'd had a second ago.

"So," I cleared my throat. "I guess an official introduction is in order."

I reached my hand out to her and the movement startled her out of her trance as she finally turned just her head, staring down at my arm like it was an abomination.

"What?"

Tick. Tick.

I forced a smile to my lips, moving my facial muscles against their will.

"I'm Aiden. Aiden Mitchell."

Her eyes trailed up from the tips of my fingers, slowly up the length of my arm, to my shoulder before finally resting on my face. Like she was devouring me, inch by inch. It was a provocative look, almost, if not for the absolute lack of emotion in her eyes.

The devil woman stepped forward, brushing past my arm until she was all up in my face, close enough for me to smell the cheap wine I'd stolen earlier on her breath.

"And I'm about to become your worst nightmare, Aiden Mitchell."

Chilling.

With that, she turned on her heel and stalked off to the last room—my room—leaving me standing there bruised and battered for the second time today.

I was livid.

And oddly aroused.

I looked down to see a small tent in my pants and glared at him.

"You sure pick your moments, don't you Aiden Jr.?"

What was it about women off their rockers that did it for him? The last time I'd listened to him, I'd been imprisoned with a cross between a mermaid and dinosaur. I wasn't going to act on his kinks again, however questionable they were.

Muttering curses under my breath, I picked up my bags and headed to to the first room on the left. My eyes hovered on the closed door to the last room, the one she had so happily stolen for herself.

My time would come, I thought, smirking to myself. Montana 2.0 wasn't going to be happy to see me all moved in to my room this weekend. But as far as I was concerned, she could bite me.

Aiden Jr. stirred again at the thought.

This was going to be a nightmare indeed.

_____

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Song: Kiss With A Fist by Florence And The Machine

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Fun fact: Kiss With A Fist was the first song I found/heard for Inks and Pixels and the one that set off the writing of the story!