The Things That Define

          Chapter 1

     It began like any other day. It was nice out. The sun was up, the sky was blue. Birds were chirping, and as usual Katia was inside her apartment, on her computer as her way of joining the world outside. She was always holed up in there noticing everything that happened around her through the use of the internet. Yet nobody ever seemed to notice her and that’s the way she liked it.

     Katia didn’t know when she stopped going outside. She thought it was probably around the time she got her at home job when she was twenty. Ever since then it seemed like she had just never seen the need to leave. There was nothing for her in the outside world. At least that’s what she always told herself.

     Then one day there was a shuffle outside her door and some papers shot through the bottom. There was another shuffle and then it was quiet. As she walked to the door to see what the papers were about she got a sense of foreboding. She thought it was ridiculous until she saw what the papers were. As she was reading them, her phone went off startling her. Katia reached out for it with shaking fingers.

     “Hello?” she asked, her voice quivering slightly. On the other end she could hear crying. It was her mom. She was sobbing into her phone and saying unintelligible things. Then the hysterical crying stopped and she could hear her father’s voice on the other side.

     “Katia, are you there? Answer me,” his voice was deadly quiet.

     “Yes father, I am here. Is it true? Was she really taken?” She was almost to the point of hysterical crying herself.

     “Yes unfortunately it is true. But that’s not all. We have to pay the ransom by tonight or they said they would take you too. We have called the police and they are on their way over to you right now. You have to go with them do you understand?” At this Katia was past crying, now she was numb. She hadn’t left her house since she was twenty. She was now twenty-four. She was about to say that she couldn’t but there was a bang on her door and then people were shouting her name. Katia almost collapsed right there. There was too much going on for her to handle.

     “That would be the police. I expect you to go with them Katia. Katherine’s life may depend on it.” Then he hung up and she stiffly walked to the door and opened it. That’s when she first saw him. He was gorgeous, with his black hair and bright green eyes. He was classically good looking. He was also the last thing she saw before she passed out. Dimly she was aware that he caught her with strong hands and carried her out to his police car.

     Once there he set her down gently in the passenger seat and started driving. She completely blacked out after that.

     She woke up in her childhood bedroom. At the foot of her giant bed there was her mother and father and the police officer she had noticed earlier. They were talking quietly, too quietly for her to hear, and hadn’t noticed she had woken up yet.

     Her mother was the first to notice she was awake. “Oh sweaty! Your finally awake.” She rushed at Katia with her arms open and embraced her daughter.

     Katia was still looking at the handsome police officer. For some reason he was looking at her too, but with a strange look on his face as if he had just realized something. She could feel her face getting red and quickly looked away.

     “Oh right,” her mother said, finally letting go of her, “this is the officer that brought you home. He will also be the officer in charge of your welfare until this whole thing blows over.” Her mother smiled sadly.

     “Blows over? Aren’t we going to do anything about this? I mean my sister was taken!” She said indignantly. This was why she had left this house. Even though they were really rich, everybody was more worried about their reputation then about their loved ones.

     That’s when the officer spoke up. “Of course we are doing all we can Ms. Araunt. But until then I am afraid that you are going to have to go into hiding. We have a safe house that only I and a few other trusted members of the police force know about. We will be staying there.”

     “Wait a minute. What do you mean by we exactly,” she asked him, already dreading the answer.

     “You and myself of course,” he replied calmly. “All your stuff is already to go, so you need to say your good byes and come with me please.”

     “You heard the man Katia,” her father said. “Say your goodbyes and quickly.”

     She got up out of the bed and quietly said goodbye to her parents, silently hoping that she wouldn’t have to be alone with the officer for too long.

     As Katia was walking out of her parents’ mansion she asked him what his name was.

     “You can call me Xavier,” he said matter of factly.

     “OK, then you can call me Katia,” she said smiling up at him. He looked down at her and caught his breath. Then he quickly looked away as did she.

     The drive out to the safe house was long and windy. They took a lot of turns and once they got there he made her stay in the car while he checked to make sure it was safe. As soon as the coast was clear she got out and went inside. The house wasn’t anything special. It was very ordinary and plain.

     The first few days at the house were pretty uneventful, but as day after day passed the tension between them increased. She didn’t understand it at all and didn’t know where it was coming from. Then after about two weeks of living with each other the tension broke.

     She had just finished taking her shower and she was in her tank top and sweats and was ready to go to bed. Her hair was still dripping wet as she walked into the kitchen where she had heard Xavier making noise. She stood there in the entryway for a moment, admiring him before she made her presence known.

     When he looked up he just stared at her with his mouth slightly open. She felt a shudder run up her back as she moved more into the kitchen. Cautiously she said that she was going to go to bed now. Just before she turned to leave though, he reached out and grabbed her in both of his hands. He pulled her towards him and kissed her. Katia gasped slightly against his mouth giving him access to her mouth. He then picked her up and set her on the kitchen countertop all the while keeping his lips glued on hers. He stood in between her legs and she could feel his tongue in her mouth. She loved it. She tangled her hands in his hair and kissed him back with a passion.

     Slowly they pulled apart panting. They looked at each other kind of embarrassed, but in awe of each other as well. The only thing they could think of at that moment was, ‘what now?’