Secrets

Chapter 2: Worrywart

Secrets

Chapter Two: Worry Wart

“Mom!”

Our house was being slowly lifted up by the angry tornado, tearing all its connections from the ground one by one and ravenously eating it whole.

“Dad!”

I was running faster towards our house, trying to reach out all four of them flying inside the tornado in circles while I held a big pipe tightly established on the ground. My right arm stretched itself as far as it could to grab hold of them, and, at the same time, try to grab hold of the pipe to avoid getting blown away by the tornado just a few feet away from me.

“Johnny!”

Tears were seeping out my eyes as I saw them reaching the big mouth of the tornado and afterwards—I gulped—thrown away to somewhere I didn’t know. I screamed out their names once more as I cried at the scene right in front of me, where in thousands of my townsmen were mourning for the loss of their loved ones and homes. It was a grievous day for all of us—such a terrifying memory forever etched in the hearts of both young and old, and I, for one, never thought that this blessed day would turn out to be a horrid nightmare.

“Ethan…” I whimpered before everything went black.

I woke up panting from that traumatizing dream, crying as soon as my memories from last night came back in. I almost died, but I was saved by a stranger, who took me in, so now I was alive, yet my family was somewhere I didn’t know, but were far to reach at the same time. Another tear shed through mine eye as I winced at the sudden soreness and stinging pain from my feet’s wounds. I reached out to them and touched them gently with my fingers, tracing along the edges of the stained blood smudges on the thin gauze.

“Oh, you’re awake?” a sudden voice rhetorically asked me, making me turn my head to the sound of the voice before he gave me two long wooden sticks while he continued, “Use these to get up. Everyone’s outside to meet you.” He told me as he placed those wooden sticks onto my hands before he left for the room door and went outside, leaving me, still in fresh tears, to figure out how to get up on my own.

Clutching on the two sticks, I tried to lift up my own weight with the support of my arms, but sadly, my first attempt wasn’t a happy one; instead my butt met the floor within split seconds, with the sticks no longer in my hands’ possession, but rather, were lying a few inches away from me on the black tiled floor. Giving up on my first try, I resorted to crawling out of this room, which took me quite a while considering my lower limbs were a bit sore and numb as well.

After I managed to reach the door knob, opened the door, and continuously crawled outside, I was met with quite a few pairs of curious eyes staring at me like I was an intruder or something. I got a bit scared after I noticed this one teen, glaring at me with his own, causing me to move back and look down to avoid their faces.

“She’s going to stay with us from now on, so you guys better introduce yourselves and make her feel at home, alright?” the stranger  told—err, more like commanded—all of them, looking at them in the eye before he disappeared into another room, leaving me, back stuck onto the door, and them in an awkward staring ovation.

“Hi, Deary! I’m Katherine Pavilion, but you could call me Gran-Gran, like the rest of them.” Gran-Gran greeted me with a warm and welcoming smile, breaking the awkwardness between all of us.

“Arianne.” Arianne introduced herself as she handed out her hand to me, waiting for a handshake.

I took her hand and shook it weakly before a kid suddenly attacked me with a massive hugging session, causing me to fall down to the floor as I hugged the goofy kid back.