Arduous

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

[Anne, 09:32, Catherine's House]

Whatever people may say, waking to a scream does put me into a better mood. It scares the crap out of me, but in the end, it always ends up making me smile.

That was what happened to me that beautiful Saturday morning. I shot up in bed when a very high pitched scream breaks the silence of the house. I smiled to think that someone is hurting. Then I realized the scream was not one I was used to. It wasn't Catherines scream, and Mr Zonde wasn't in the house this late in the morning.

I jumped from the bed and rushed out the door. I heard the scream again, and someone cry, "please don't eat me! Please don't eat me!"

I followed the voice to the living room to find Adam cowering as far into the cushion of an armchair. A month old llama was nibbling on his toes.

"Frederick! How did you get out?" I exclaimed. I just shook my head.

"Anne!" Adam sighed in relief. "Thank goodness you're here! Now, please help me!" When I just stood there, doing absolutely nothing, Adam whined out, "why aren't you helping me?"

"Only Catherine can control Frederick. If I even tried to touch him, he'd eat my fingers. They may not be his favourite, but he would take what he got. That was what happened to Catherine's cousin, Alden. He now has to learn to do everything without his thumbs."

Footsteps fell down the stairs, and Catherine stumbled into the living room, half asleep.

"No, Frederick, not Lucas! Lucas is family! Lucas is family!" Catherine cried when she saw the situation Adam was in.

She gripped the month old llama and yanked him away from Adams toes. Once he was a good five feet away, Adam scrambled off the bed and from the room. "I am not coming out of the coat closet until that nibbling monster is gone!"

Catherine fought with Frederick to get him back up the stairs to her room. Finally, Catherine was able to get Frederick into her room with barely any bites on the llama.

"Frederick is gone, Adam!" Catherine yelled. I was glad that she didn't call him Lucas again.

She came and plopped herself on the couch, exhausted already. "Are you making pancakes, Anne?"

"Depends." I replied. Adam cautiously came into the living room. When he saw no animals were in here, he relaxed his tensed shoulders and came to sit down beside Catherine.

"Why does it depend? When has it ever depended?" Catherine whined.

"You're going to tell me who Lucas is and why I have never heard about him before." I said, leaning forward on the armchair I had taken a seat in.

"Then do I get pancakes?" Catherine asked hopefully. I sighed and nodded. Catherine took a deep breath and began. "Okay then. Lucas was my twin brother."

"You had a twin?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah. He had blue eyes, with green speckles if you looked closely, and the most lovely blonde hair that made him look like a Labrador, and skin that made him look like he had never seen the sun, which wasn't true. His most favourite thing to do was to play outside. He would get into everything!" Catherine chuckled and I could tell by her distant expression that he was important to her.

"He was an amazing brother." Catherine continued, Adam and I silent. "This one time, when we were five, I had climbed up a tree and was too scared to jump down. Lucas told me to trust that he would catch me, and I did. I trusted him enough to jump. He caught me, but we fell and he broke his leg. That didn't matter to him though. He only thought about me.

"When we were seven, a year before you came, our house caught on fire. I was downstairs with my dad, having some warm milk like I would do when I wasn't able to fall asleep, when the fire started by the furnace beside Lucas and mine room. Dad rushed me outside, and took a couple minutes to call the fire department while we waited for my mom and Lucas to come outside. Dad wanted so badly to rush in, but he wasn't able because he didn't want to leave me alone. Later in the years, he told me it was because he didn't know what had caused the fire, and was worried it might have been someone who was targeting the mafia to come and take me.

"The firemen told us, after they put out the fire, that no person was found. No bones were found in the fire, but the police told us the bones had been burned to ashes by the fire." Catherine looked to Adam in sorrow. It's the most emotion I have seen on her face other than happy. "Im sorry for calling you Lucas, but you look just like I imagined he would if he was grown."

Adam nodded, but still stayed silent. I guess he didn't want to disturb the silence, just like I didn't want to.

"Anyways," Catherine grinned at me, "where are my pancakes?"

I knew this was her way of hiding her true feelings, so I just smiled back and headed to the kitchen. Adam and Catherine followed like puppies.

I started on the pancakes. They weren't anything special, but Catherine liked them because they were something different for breakfast, since we usually had cereal.

"And Lucas had the most adorable birthmark, right on his bellybutton, of a heart." Catherine rambled on.

I flipped the first pancake. "Adam, can you get some plates for me?" I asked, not giving any room in my voice for defiance.

I pointed to a cupboard, and Adam got up from his seat to get the plates. I saw Sally come into the kitchen and could tell Adam noticed her as well. She hissed at him and pounced.

Adam screamed and slipped backwards on the tile flooring. Sally landed on his chest and Adam closed his eyes in fear. "Please don't eat my fingers! I thought you got Vladimirs fingers, so why do you need mine?"

I chuckled and took Sally from his chest. She climbed up my arms, up to my shoulders and ended up on my head. I smiled at the cat. I leaned down to help Adam to his feet but stopped when I noticed his shirt had been pulled up.

His bellybutton was surrounded by a heart shaped birthmark.