My Stepbrother's Keeper

Chapter 7: "Visitor?"

All through the night, Melanie could not stop tossing and turning. Sleep escaped her. Her mind was running a mile a minute thinking about how she was going to start the conversation and what answers she would get.

It was now 3am and Melanie was staring at her ceiling trying to clear her mind to get at least some sleep.

She was scared. Things were sure to change when she told them that she knew this huge secret.

Finally, she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

.....

Melanie jumped awake with a startled gasp. Lightening struck outside making it look like daytime for just a split second. The crack of thunder was deafening and the rain was pouring from the sky like all the heavens were dumping buckets of water out their windows.

The sound of the cracking thunder wasnt what woke her though. She looked over to her window, where the high pitched beating sound was coming from. Someone was throwing pebbles at her window.

"What the hell?" Melanie said to herself.

She threw the covers back and stumbled over to the window seat. It was hard to determine who the guy standing two stories down and soaking wet was in the harsh onslaught of the storm, but he looked familiar.

Deciding not to open the window, she creeped out of her bedroom door to the hall closet just between her and Gabriel's rooms. Mel opened the door as quietly as possible as to not disturb the others. Her hand searched through the dark to find the wooden baseball bat her mom had kept for situations such as these.

Finding the handle, she pulled the bat forward. Suddenly a loud crashing noise spilt from the closet. Startled and forgetting to stay quiet, she let out a short screech. Melanie promptly slapped her palm over her mouth, but it was too late. The light in Gabriel's room had come on.

"Oh shit.. ugh." She whispered to herself.

The door opened and light flooded the hall.

"Melanie what the hell are you doing?!" Gabriel said loudly.

"Shh! Shut up you ass!" Mel replied quietly.

"Why the fuck are you crashing shit and creeping around then?! Some people are asleep at 3am."

"Oh my god. I wasn't trying to wake you up. I just needed to see about something."

"What is there to see about during a thunderstorm at 3am that doesn't have to do with the lights? And we don't even need those right now since we're supposed to be asleep! And then we have a generator so-"

"Shut up you idiot! He might hear us!" Melanie said, angrily cutting Gabriel off.

"Who's he?"

"The random guy standing beneath my bedroom window throwing pebbles." She said in a matter of fact tone.

Gabriel stared at her for a moment as if to figure out if she was sane or not.

"Uh.. what?" He said.

"Yeah.. There's a guy...downstairs... in the storm. He looks familiar. I just wanted to take precautions though." Melanie said holding up the bat.

"Christ Melanie. You were gonna go down there alone? What's wrong with you?" Gabriel said.

"Oh is someone actually worried about the step sister they hate so much hm?" She asked mockingly.

Gabriel looked away as if he was ashamed of caring. He looked up at her with a sneer on his face.

"No. I'm not worried. Go downstairs and possibly get killed by your little friend who you don't know. I don't care."