The Descendants Series Vol. 2

Part Two - Chapter 11

Part Two

Away From the Sun

I'm over this
I'm tired of living in the dark
Can anyone see me down here
The feeling's gone
There's nothing left to lift me up
Back into the world I've known

- 3 Doors Down

 

Chapter 11

We were still sitting at the table, exactly the way we’d been for the last few hours.  Maxi had finally joined us after being outside for most of the day.  He was sitting beside me, his head in my lap, and occasionally licking my hand as I petted him. 

The boys were out where they kept all of the equipment, getting everything together.  We were going to leave in the helicopter just when it was about to get dark.  That way we could get far tonight without the Directrix following us.  Then we’d stop right before morning and start on foot toward the Directrix. 

Lyric was upstairs sleeping, so it was just me, Grandma and Peyton.  We were talking about Rowan and everything else.  Grandma had gotten out the pictures again and was showing some of me and Rowan before she was taken.

“This is you two a couple of weeks after you were born,” she said, handing me a picture.  In it were two little babies in a crib.  They were facing each other, sleeping.  “You’re mother was so happy.  She would just sit there for hours and just look at the two of you.”

“And she knew that one of us was going to be taken?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.  “I think that’s why she didn’t want to go anywhere and just stay in the house.  You see, we didn’t know when someone would take one of you, just that they would.  Your mother thought that if she and your father would keep you two safe in the house, nothing would happen.  I kept telling her that it would happen either way, but she persisted that nothing would.”

She handed me a few more pictures.  They were all of the two of us, me and Rowan:  playing with toys on the living room floor, eating in highchairs, and then our first birthday.

“When did it happen?” I asked.  “You said it was a few weeks after our first birthday.”  I handed the pictures to Peyton to look at.

“I was there when it happened.  It was before I moved up to Chicago,” she said.  “It was at night, so everyone was sleeping.  I didn’t hear anything before, but then you started crying, but it wasn’t like your normal cry.  I could hear your mother and father running up the stairs, and then I heard your mother scream.  When I got up to your room, your mother was on the floor crying and your father was trying to tell her that they’d find Rowan, but we knew that wasn’t going to happen, even your mother knew. 

“You were still screaming in your crib, so I went over and picked you up.  Once I started to calm you down, you said something.  Your first word,” she said.

“What?” Peyton asked.

Grandma looked at me.  “You said her name, Rowan’s.  You really didn’t pronounce it right, but I could still tell what you said.”

“How long did they search for her?” I asked.  “I mean, they probably could have found her if they continued.”

“They did for a couple of months, but everyone knew that they probably wouldn’t find her, alive that is,” she said.

“Well, it looks like they’re wrong now,” I said.  “She is alive.”

“I know,” Grandma said.