FrAcTuReD (Part One) (Completed continued in Part Two)

Chapter. 12

"Sure," she said as Joshua closed the door to his room to go and get some sleep. It wasn't the first time her brother had gone out late to meet someone, though Alex never pushed to find out who it was or why, after all people did deserve their privacy on some level.

Besides, at the moment she didn't even really know where to start looking for where that detective lived. Though maybe some of the people who came to eat might know.

Charla stared up at the ceiling while laying on her bed her arms outstretched above her before she turned her hands and balled them into fists where images in red flashed in her mind once again. But she couldn't be sure if it was actually something from here and not something from when she lived in the city.

She covered her face with her hands and let out a breath. "What the hell am I doing...?" she muttered to herself as she let out a sigh before sitting up and went to grab her cellphone only to stop when she saw the picture of her and her brother. Her hand then fell back into her lap as she stared at the photo before her gaze looked to the mirror that was close by then back to the photo once again. "Other than the hair I really haven't changed all that much... Carlin. If you were here Carlin I wonder how much or how little you would have changed. They say girls mature faster than boys do but I don't really think it's right. Besides my chest and a little bit of my height I'm still pretty much the same... the same." She frowned. "No, I guess that's not right I'm not the same, I'm different now, because of the accident." She laughed. "And here I am talking as if you were still here with me. What is wrong with me?"

Getting up off the bed she grabbed her cellphone and opened the door only to stop and looked back at the photo. "See you later Carlin." Then left the room and headed down the stairs to see that her uncle was here sitting at the dinner table reading the paper and drinking coffee.

"Oh you're awake," he said then glanced at the time to see that it was nearly seven in the morning. "It's a weekend; you could have slept in if you wanted."

"I don't normally do that, we used to have people come over to my parents' home, and I was told I should at least be a good example and be up to impress them. At least that's what my Mom always told me, and since I've been taking self-defence I've been exercising a lot more and go for a jog in the morning at least on the weekends or if there's no school."

"I see, well that explains the way you're dressed." Charla was currently dressed in a light blue zip-up hoodie, a white shirt and track pants and white running shoes while her hair was tied back in a low ponytail. "I'm off today so that's why I'm here."

"Oh... is Nina still sleeping?"

"She is, but she normally wakes up at eight o'clock, though if I'm not here she tends to wake up earlier than that."

"Why?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't mean to pry," Charla told him. "It's just... odd to me. Why is Nina doing all of this by herself, the housework and such? Shouldn't there be a caretaker or someone to help around the house when you're not here so Nina's not alone?"

Isaac's expression changed to that of a remorseful yet self-loathing look. "We did do that two years ago, but the woman I hired stole from us, she tried to skip town when I caught her. After that Nina didn't want anyone to come here."

"Nina didn't?"

He nodded. "Only six years old and saying she'd do the work around the house. At first I didn't take her seriously, she's only a kid but... she kept to her word and began doing the work her mother used to do, and looking things up online if she didn't understand something. She became completely independent; if I ever tried to help she'd get mad and said I was doing it wrong. But in truth I think she was doing it as a coping mechanism."