Akin
"Akin, we love you very much, but you aren't our child." My mother had said.
"We took you from your parents after you were born so we could raise you," My father continued as they both put an arm around me. I looked at Lindsay, who sat outside the door, as a tear slipped from my face.
She had kept my secret our whole life, but I needed to hear her say it now that Kinsley was gone.
I remember a feeling of shock, just like anyone would feel when they learned that the two people they thought they could trust more than anyone told them they had been lying your whole life. Now that I was older, I realized that I had been a business transaction between my birth parents and Lindsay's parents, a form of payment for something. That still stung. Lindsay finally learned the truth about her parents, whereas I knew nothing of mine.
"What?" I asked after I had finally processed that she had left without us.
"The," Bex said.
"Heck," Kai finished.
I turned to look at the two of them. The look on their faces was of complete shock, something I hadn't seen on them often.
"I knew there was no way you were just siblings!" Kai pointed his finger at me, accusingly. He sounded like he had just cracked the most secure code.
"Shut up man," was my only reply.
Beckett looked between the two of us, then spoke. "I don't know about you, but based off of this island, I'm not letting Lindsay walk around alone out here."
"You're right," Kai said as he shook the look of shock from his face.
"Yeah." I replied. "We better go." Kai and I started to take a step forward, but Bex put his arms out to stop us.
"Listen to me," he said. "Lindsay is obviously upset at the two of you. You two need to get along with her and quit fighting over her like she's a joke. Put your differences aside or you're both going to lose the girl."
I looked over at Kai, who stuck his hand out for me to shake. I was still mad at him, but Bex was right. Lindsay was difficult and I didn't want to lose her. Especially to this idiot.
"Deal." I stormed ahead of them, not even bothering to shake Kai's hand. There was no proof he was a good guy and I wasn't going to deal with it.
"Man, looks like the drama with your girl just got more intense," Beckett said to Kai, thinking I couldn't hear him.
"I heard that!" I called behind me. "Wait." My walking ceased.
"What is it?" Bex asked as he and Kai caught up to me.
"She still has the map."
"Do you think that she's going to follow it?"
"If I know my sis-, er, Lindsay, sorry, my sister." I spoke, unsure of myself. She had called me her brother, but I didn't know what she wanted me to refer to her as now. "If I know Lindsay, which I do, then yes." I said to him, this time I was desperate. I knew what Lindsay was capable of. Her reckless nature could end up being a problem.
"Where would she go?" Beckett asked. "Like where would she be on this island?"
"I don't know, if you weren't aware, someone stole me away from my sister," I said jokingly, but I seriously needed to find Lindsay before she did something stupid.
"Maybe Kai would know?" Bex asked. "Kai?"
The two of us looked around for him, but came to the same conclusion. Kai was gone.
"What?" I asked. "Maybe he's back at the temple?"
Beckett turned around, I followed closely at his heel. We trekked the short distance back to where we had just come from the temple. At the time we reached the clearing that harbored it, we realized that the temple was also gone.
"You can't be serious." I commented in awe. "There's no way it just disappeared."
Bex's expression was shocked, yet he laughed through it. "We just went into a temple that was said to be a myth because no one could locate it, and now you're asking questions?"
I guess he was right. Now Lindsay, Kai, and the temple were all missing. This was already shaping up to be a bad day, and the sun had just barely risen.
"What do we do?" I ask Bex. Bex himself looked around at where we stood, taking in the view. "Now is not the time to go sightseeing." I said angrily.
"Calm down, Akin. Appreciate life." Beckett said wisely. "Plus, I'm not sightseeing, I'm trying to think."
"Think about what? We need to move!"
"Move? Where?" He obviously knew the answer to that question. We had no idea where to go.
"I don't know, but we need to move somewhere."
"Again, where?"
"Stop saying that! Back up the mountain?" I proceeded toward the mountain. Beckett was still being really difficult.
Bex caught up to me and we started our ascent of the mountain. We wove our way through the trees and bushes while struggling to climb uphill. After a while I knew I needed to make amends with my only ally at the time.
"Hey Bex, I'm really sorry for the things I said back there," I started out by saying. "I was just a little upset."
"Akin, it's cool, but I don't think I'm the one you should be apologizing to."
Kai. Of course, but would he even forgive me for being a jerk?
"A little hint of advice, Kai's been a jerk for a while too." Bex said, apparently hearing me. What was it with all of us saying what we were thinking out loud? "He'll forgive you."
That was reassuring. I was glad that I didn't have to worry about more than one person for apologies. The person I had to worry the most about was Lindsay. We always have had our ups and downs, but she knew how to hold a grudge.
"If we ever find Kai," I mumble under my breath.
"We will, I know where he's going," Bex replied as we continued to climb the mountain. The mountain was large, but not large enough that we needed equipment to get to the top.
"Where? Wasn't he taken?"
"Nope, he went to find someone," was Beckett's reply. "Sorry about all this drama, none of us intended for this to happen. I personally didn't see that plot twist coming." Bex said as he motioned at me.
"Yeah, well neither did I when I was six." I wasn't entirely sure what to say after that.
"Do you really care about her?"
"Yes, I do." I stated a matter of factly.
"Then fight for her. Don't let her go this easily."
"I wasn't going to let her go, how could I? She's my sister, even if we weren't born of the same parents, but she's also mad at me."
Bex sighed, "Just give her some time to cool off, she'll be fine after a while."
I paused, letting this sink in. "How do you know so much about females?"
He appeared happy as he talked, "My wife and daughter." His smile was infectious.
"Wow, really? That's awesome. How old is your daughter?"
"Thirty-two."
I gasped, "You are not old enough to have a thirty-two year old daughter."
"You're right," he chuckled at his own joke. "My daughter is four. I'm twenty-four."
"What? How old is Kai?"
"Twenty." Around Lindsay's age. What a coincidence.
"You guys look so much alike though, it's almost as if you're twins" I panted from the uphill hike.
"Thanks," Bex laughed. "I just want to get home to my family."
"Why did you come here in the first place?" I asked, wanting to know the answer to this question, but knew he probably wouldn't answer.
"It's complicated," was all he said.
I wanted to reach out and put my hand on his shoulder or something like that, but decided against it. We weren't really friends right now, but we weren't necessarily enemies.
I could see the look of sadness in Bex's eyes. His face had changed, he wanted to get home badly.
"We'll get you back to your family." My attempts at comforting him didn't seem to work. "You'll see them again." But even I couldn't promise that.