second skin

The last thing he wanted to do was to drive all the way back to Detroit with his brother to celebrate their joint birthday, but he had no option. If they didn’t go their parents would be asking a thousand questions and their mom would probably guilt them by crying on Facetime telling the two she misses them so much. There would be a promise of gifts too. Raik was tempted to tell Remzi to take Ayla with him and she could pretend to be him, but that wasn’t fair on her to be dragged into the shit with him and Remzi. Plus their mom would see through Ayla’s act pretty quickly, especially in person. What was even worse he would need to put on his own act for his parents in pretending everything was okay and he hadn’t just come back to life after spending five months dead. He had to act as if everything was fine between him and Remzi.

He had never been one to hold a grudge, but he was struggling to forgive Remzi. He needed more time and space away from his brother, but that would be impossible over the next few days. Their mom would force them to stand together so she could take pictures of her precious boys, which could easily turn into a ten minute task, all whilst Raik was wearing a forced smile. Smiling through the pain. Their mom would then upload a dozen pictures on Facebook, all of which look identical, with a caption about how much she loves having her son's home. Maybe Raik would have to take a backseat whilst their mom took pictures of Ayla and Remzi, beaming about the fact that Remzi had finally had a marriage in the pipeline. No doubt she would be grilling Raik about his love life, asking where his future wife was.

It was going to be hell. Pure hell.

Raik thought coming back to life was going to be a relief, but it was weird. Suddenly everyone could see him, people were talking to him and he felt things sure as hunger and tiredness. It was overwhelming. He could have been basking in peace in heaven, but instead he was walking the streets of Mystic Falls, making his way to Hannya’s apartment to pack for Detroit. He couldn’t put into words how he felt, but whatever he was feeling he hated it. Remzi got his way, yet again, and Raik was left going along with whatever Remzi wanted. He wanted his older brother alive and here he was.

At least Remzi moved out of the hotel after Raik was killed. Raik couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to enter that building again. He refused to even walk past the hotel and just thinking about the place filled him with fear, but what scared him even more was that Grey and Destiny were still in Mystic Falls. Leah tried to reassure him, telling him it was a one off sacrifice and it wouldn’t happen again, as if that made it any better, but he didn’t believe him. The couple would do it all again if they were given the chance.

There was a sigh of relief when he opened the apartment door and he was greeted with silence. Well, almost silence. He could faintly hear a noise coming from Remzi’s bedroom (that wasn’t even his bedroom). He stood near the front door for a moment, mentally preparing himself to see either Leah or Remzi standing in the bedroom or maybe even that demon woman, but he didn’t expect to see himself standing in the bedroom

He took a step back, letting out a gasp that matched his own, “What the...” He looked even more concerned when his own body started to shrink and change into someone else. Ayla. “Um… hi…” He let out a nervous laugh, tugging at his beard lightly. She looked so cute buried in his clothes, it brought a smile to his face. “Did Remzi ask you to call our parents again? Because you don’t have to do that anymore because… well you know I’m here now… alive and well.” His voice trailed off. Yes, he was alive, but he wasn’t sure about the well part. “You’re coming to Detroit with us?” It pained him that Remzi was unfaithful to Ayla, jumping into bed with both Leah and Hannya. The woman deserved so much better than his brother, but maybe deep down even she knew that. Remzi didn’t exactly treat Ayla with the respect she deserved, but Raik was determined to keep an eye on Ayla, making sure his little brother wouldn’t break her heart or ruin her life.


AYLA KIRAZ

His brother was one lucky son of a bitch who was always managing to get through things by the skin of his teeth. Remzi had even managed to dodge death when he became a vampire, unlike Raik who spent months isolated, cold and alone on the other side. Then to add a cherry on top the woman he was set to marry was a shapeshifter and could change into Raik to avoid questions from their parents. Pure luck. To rub salt in the wound their mom had set Remzi up with a beautiful woman. Where was his future wife from Turkey?

Guilt had been consuming him since being brought back to life. He should have been thankful and grateful that Cassie had succeeded with the spell. He was alive again, given a second chance that people could only dream of, but he didn’t feel any of those things. There was something great that lay beyond the other side. Heaven. Every fiber in his body wanted to go there because he could feel that he didn’t belong in limbo. It was a place that wasn’t designed to hold souls for months on end. He had been deprived of heaven because people in the land of the living weren’t ready to let go. Alongside that everything was just so damn overwhelming. The only interactions he’d had was with Freyja and Leah now suddenly he was interacting with triple the number of people. He thought he’d feel different, but somehow he felt worse. It wasn’t easy to shake the feeling of death.

Hopefully Ayla was the last person to be hauled into the drama between Leah and Grey. The list was getting far too long and he didn’t feel comfortable with the fact Ayla’s name was now on it. She’d come to America for a better life, like his parents did when they were younger. Remzi wasn’t going to show her the beauty of America either. Perhaps Raik could. “Thank you for doing it though. I really appreciate it… I think our mom was close to driving down to Mystic Falls to speak with me.” Then Remzi would need to come up with more lies as to where Raik was. Lies on top of lies. It was never ending. “Yeah… it’s a weird living situation here. Hopefully, you and Remzi can find somewhere else soon.” Meanwhile Raik could find his own place giving him some space from his brother. They had been living in each other’s back pockets since he returned from the military.

“Oh…” Remzi hadn’t told Ayla the full story. Shit. He leaped forward in an attempt to try and catch Ayla before she hit the floor, but his fingertips missed hers by a second. He kneeled down in front of her. “Are you okay?” He reached over, taking hold of her left arm gently to check her elbow for any sign of an injury before doing the same with the right. “Sorry. I was stupid enough to think Remzi had told you everything.” He sighed softly, letting go of Ayla’s arm, remaining kneeling on the floor. “Yeah. I was dead for a few months which was why Remzi was asking you to pretend to be me because our parents have no idea. A witch brought me back to life recently and… here I am.” It wasn’t the full story but he wasn’t ready to talk about how he was murdered by someone.


AYLA KIRAZ

Sometimes he missed the structure provided to him by the military. He was told when to wake up, when to have breakfast and when to shower. Now everything was so chaotic and not even in a fun sense. All his stuff was stored in bags scattered across a demon’s apartment, where Remzi, Leah and Ayla also seemed to live. It was impossible for Raik to live there as well. “Probably not.” He admitted with a sad smile, “But I’ll find somewhere closeby.” He quickly added. Raik would have loved to believe his brother wouldn’t harm Ayla, but every single assumption he had about his brother in the past twelve months had been wrong. “Plus you guys will want your own space once you’re married.” The safest thing was for her to sprint to the nearest airport and board the first flight back to Turkey, but he knew how these things worked out. Soon she would be walking down the aisle to say I do to please both sets of parents.

The news he’d been dead this whole time sent her crashing into the ground, causing Raik to kneel down in front of her and check she was okay. Once he was happy she wasn’t hurt, his eyes flickered back toward her gaze. A small smile spread across his face, mirroring hers. “All good.” With slight gestation he let go of her arm.

He didn’t get to his feet straight away, even though the jean fabric was stretching tightly across his thighs. He was certain he’d accidentally climbed into Remzi’s jeans that morning. Everything felt so restricted. “There’s so much out there. More than I can wrap my head around.” Vampires were just the surface of this whole fucked up world he had been thrown into. He wasn’t expecting Ayla to fling her arms around him and bring him in for a deep hug. His chest tightened for a moment before his body relaxed. Raik had been completely deprived of any human contact on the other side to the point he’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be hugged. A warm body wrapped around him, holding him close and securely. His mom would give him the same hugs whenever he was feeling down and it would make all his problems disappear. He brought his hands up, placing them on Ayla’s back, feeling the heat of her body seep through her clothes. As he closed his eyes to take in Ayla’s scent, from the shampoo she used down to the perfume on her neck, he was worried tears were going to come flowing out of him. Ayla was the first person who seemed to have genuine empathy for what Raik had been through.

She broke away after a while, but sooner than Raik wished. He could have sat there all day hugging her, forgetting about the rest of the world. He wanted to thank Ayla and tell her everything was fine and dying was no big deal, but the words got caught in his throat as he stared back into her dark eyes. His hands rested on Ayla’s back lightly as he couldn’t bring himself to pull away from her completely.

Raik was a man of morals and followed rules, such as not kissing your brother’s fiancé no matter how breathtakingly beautiful she was.

After what felt like hours he finally pulled his hands back, breaking away from Ayla’s gaze as he got to his feet. “There’s a place in town that does Turkish coffee. Should we go?” He extended his hand out for Ayla to take. The sensible voice inside his head was screaming at him to leave the apartment, but he wanted to spend just a little bit longer with Ayla.

AYLA KIRAZ - wanna wrap up with yours?