The Way of the Sea

Chapter Three: Protective Lies and Shapeshifting Money

"Ach!" She groaned, stomping her foot childishly and clutching her head in her hands. When had life become so complicated?

Eden turned on the spot and strode out of her father's study and up the stairs to her bedroom, determined to find her answers, whatever the cost.

*****

When Aidan opened his eyes that morning, dim light was streaking through the curtains of his bedroom window, providing a hazy view of his water-leaked ceiling. His elbow was pointed toward the ceiling with his hand still in his hair. Aidan rubbed his eyes, wiping away the last wisps of his dream.

The movement of a small figure at his door caught his attention and he slowly sat up. Alanna leaned against the threshold, wearing a stained white nightgown and holding a cracked blue hairbrush at her side.

"Aidan!" She whispered, blue eyes open wide.

"Hey, Alanna," He replied groggily.

"The tangles are too hard to get out." Alanna held up the brush and looked at it with dislike. "I need your help."

"Sure, sis. Come here." He crossed his legs under the sheets and patted the bed in front of him.

Alanna started forward, and Aidan couldn't help but notice her limp. When she reached his bed, her feet were at last visible.

A bruise peeked out of the top of one of her threadbare socks, and Aidan spotted a thin stripe of red on her palm. "Alanna, what...what happened?" He asked gently, touching her cheek softly.

Large tears welled in Alanna's eyes. Aidan's thoughts immediately flew to his father. Clouds of fury began thickening up within him, threatening to rain down all his built up emotions.

"Was it Papa? I swear, if he did this to you, I'll—"

"Don't hit him, Aidan," Alanna pleaded. "Please. He'll just get even more angry. And then, when you're gone..." Tears had begun to fall silently down her flushed cheeks in her desperation.

"What? I..." Aidan stopped. Alanna's words smacked him with the force of a moving brick wall. "No, I...I won't hit him."

Carefully he lifted her onto the bed and began to brush her hair.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Aidan asked softly. "How did you get hurt?"

Alanna sighed. "Papa slept on the couch last night. I don't know when he went out there, but he woke up earlier with a big, red bump on his head." She shuddered. "He was angry. Really angry. More than he is all of the time."

Aidan nodded. He had expected that, though he was hoping that having knocked him unconscious and moved him to the couch last night would have kept him from remembering anything.

"When he got up, I ran to my room because he was yelling, but my foot hit the table and I fell and scratched my hand on something...I don't know what it was."

Aidan stopped brushing and put his hand on her shoulders. How had he heard the door slamming last night, but not the sound of his father shouting this morning?

"Did he hurt you?"

"No," she said, wincing as the brush caught a snag. "But I think he pushed Darin over. Now he's asleep again."

Aidan quickly put down the brush and slid off the bed, kneeling in front of Alanna and looking her in the eye. "Come on. Let's go find Darin, eat, and get out of here."

He yanked open the nightstand drawer by his bed and pulled out bandages and ointment from his hidden pile of first aid products.

"Where are we gonna go?" Alanna asked as Aidan bandaged the cut on her hand.