I bolted upright in bed; my eyes blurry. What the hell?

Raised voices pounded my eardrums.

Waking me from my favourite dream was the voice of my cousin, Pearl and her latest boyfriend, Simon—the creep!

Pearl and I had only been living together for three months, and he was her eighth boyfriend. Not that any of the others before him were any better. Pearl was a magnet for losers and assholes.

Looking at the digital clock; it was one in the morning. Jésus Christ Pearl, some of us have work in the morning!

I stretched out before lifting myself from my bed to make my way to the raised voices.

As the voices got louder. I heard Pearl screaming at the creep, and he was yelling over her—it appeared they were having quite the humdinger!

Walking through to the living area, I could see he had her pushed up against the wall with his back to me and his hand was around her throat.

Oh, no you don't mister. You do not have your hands around my cousin's throat! You piece of...

"Hey, don't you dare..." I yelled, tempted to let my wolf out and play with this walking sack of monkey dung.

"Simon!"

His head flipped around and I could see he'd been drinking.

It was always the same. Pearl picked the crazy ass jealous ones. They would go out, party hard and drink too much. Which would often lead to Pearl flirting with anything on two or four legs... and the end result was always the same...a screaming match.

He's silent as his glazed eyes take a minute to look me up and down. Licking his lips, his eyes fixed on my bare legs. I instinctively pulled my short night-shirt down. Ewe, gross pig!

And still—he had his hand around Pearl's throat.

Swallowing down the bile rising up my gullet, my legs squeezed tightly together. I disliked the lecherous look plastered on his face and the curl to his top lip as he smirked. I didn't need to read his mind to know the disgusting thoughts that were running through his head.

Mon Dieu, double ewe... creepy mother...

My wolf was now wide awake and in my mind's eye she was pacing and snarling. She wanted out.

Enough of this. I internally shook off my blocker and reached out to Simon.

My feelers were all over him, and like an insect caught in a spider's web, he was mine. Feeling no resistance, I softened his resolve in an instant. The stupid ones were always the easiest to manipulate.

'Let her go, Simon. You don't want to do this. Move away from Pearl. You're feeling tired and want to go home.'

Simon promptly set Pearl free and moved away from her. He shook his head, same time he looked at his hand—like he was trying to understand what's just happened to him.

But he won't—they never do.

I heard him repeat the words I put inside his pea-brain, and a look of bewilderment fell across his face as he stared at me again. "Go home Simon," I told him, with actual words.

"Yeah, yeah, home." Again, he looked confused; shaking his head as he rubbed his temple. Still lost in thought he turned and started making his way to the front entrance, one heavy step after another. He reminded me of a zombie, and I was tempted to put the image of a zombie in his head for the next time he looked in the mirror, but I didn't—this time.

"Call you tomorrow Pearl," he said, as he opened the front door and left me and Pearl alone in the heavy silence of our apartment.

Pearl slumped against the wall, instinctively my feelers reached out, offering calming thoughts. I watched her face visibly relax as she rubbed her throat.

Ensuring the rest of her was okay, I visually checked her over for any injuries and apart from her hair and clothes being a little dishevelled, all seemed fine.

'Time for bed Pearl, we can talk tomorrow.'

"Get the hell out of my head Sage!" she screamed.

It startled me and I jumped back, her anger slammed into me as if I'd just run into a wall. "Sorry, Pearl you just seemed a little out of it, you okay, oui?"

She nodded and shakily started walking towards her bedroom. She won't remember much in the morning, of that I'm sure, she never did.

I made my way back to my bed, fluffed my pillow and lay my head down, hoping that he was still waiting for me... Sylar.