Silver Lining

Chapter 13

Christmas passed slowly for me and the New Year even slower. I’d had no more letters and there was nothing from Ilish. I was almost expecting her to stroll through the doors into the exam hall during the 2 hour maths paper. There was still no sign of her in March when the exam results came in. It was mid-April when I’d decided I’d had enough of waiting. I filled out a two month holiday form for school, my reasoning being my Aunt was going to be home-schooling me. I neglected to mention that she’d been dead for nearly 140 years.

I planned on going alone but that plan went down the drain about a week after I’d made it.

“You won't believe me!” I was trying to move calmly around my house as I collected things I’d need: mostly money and clothes. Mel, Xavier and Elliot were tailing me and making me feel claustrophobic. Somehow they’d found out I wasn’t going to my Aunts. Now they wanted to know where I was going and why I wasn’t overly worried about the welfare of my sister.

“Try us.” Mel was being the most persistent on the subject. Elliot and Xavier maily stood in the background and nodded their agreement.

“No!”

“Why?”

“Because!”

“Because what?”

“Just because!”

“You’ve always said that’s not a proper answer.”

I rounded on Elliot with a glare. “Now you get involved? Xavier, get out of my way!”

“Grace, she’s your sister.”

“And you’re my boyfriend. Strange how I worry about you more than her, isn’t it? Ilish has been in worse situations than this before. I just want answers!”

“How can she have done worse? She’s a murder suspect and she’s been missing for seven months! I’m the oldest person here and I haven’t come close to doing any of that!” Mel argued.

I laughed and looked at her. “You are not the oldest.” Wrong thing to say? Probably.

“How? I was born in November, you were born in May. I was born in 1994, you were born in 1995.”

“Wrong.” I shot back. What the hell, right? They were going to find out sooner or later. “May.”

“Yes, May! 1995!”

“1820!” they all froze and stared at me as I pushed past them, heading down the stairs.

“Right, so you’re a vampire?” Xavier laughed sarcastically, following me to the top of the stairs.

“Immortal! Kind of.” I jumped down the stairs and headed into the living room to grab my coat. A few moments later and they’d pulled their act together and were following me.

“What the hell does that mean? Kind of?” Elliot glared at my back and I shrugged.

“What the bloody hell does immortal mean?”  Mel snapped.

“Well, I’m not about to die anytime soon, but I may very well. I dunno, it’s complicated!” The followed me into the living room, still firing off questions. “For God’s sake shut up!” I snapped, rounding on them as I yanked on my coat. “This does not concern you! I am older than all of you put together so show me a little respect!”

“Show you respect? How about you show us some respect!” Mel demanded. It was one of the rare occasions where she was truly terrifying. You were just going to ditch us in the summer, weren’t you? Leave us and never get back in contact again!”

“Leaving is far better than watching you all die like I watched my family die!” I snapped. I pushed past them and grabbed my car keys from the side, pulling the front door open and heading to the car. “You all need to turn around and leave. Just walk away from this house and forget about me and Ilish. Before we turn around and forget about you.” I popped the boot and threw my bags in. When I turned round I found that Elliot had pulled the passenger door open.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, sweetheart. I for one am coming with you. We’ve been dating for two years and I’ll make a decision on if I leave you in my own time.

“Don’t get in the car.” I warned him. “If you do I can’t guarantee I can keep you safe.”

“I’m a big boy, Gracie. I’m sure I can take care of myself.” With that he got in the passenger seat and slammed the door behind him.

“I don’t know how long this will take.” My words seemed to go unheard as Mel and Xavier climbed into the backseat and shut themselves in. I rolled my eyes skyward. “Wherever you are, Ilish, I hate you.”