I cover my head with the sheets as dreams over take my mind. I am back at our old house. I feel my dad put his arm around me and Kimberley as we sit on the couch and watch TV. I snuggle up next to him and grin. My dad, he was my protector, he wouldn’t allow anything to hurt our family. That is what I thought . . . until last night.
My dream shifts from us sitting on the couch to when my mother grabs my sister and me and runs us out of our rooms. She’s almost out the door, holding Kimberley’s hand and carrying me in her arms, when she cries out in horror and drops me on the front steps. I turn around and see her lying face down. A knife was speared in the middle of her back, dripping blood.
Kimberley removes the knife and I see her face become saddened. She turns around just to see our father secure a knife into her body. Kimberley doesn’t scream though. She looks up at our father with scared, frightened eyes. He picks her up by the front of her shirt collar, “You shouldn’t have tried to run, now you shall pay the price . . . for your lack of stupidity!” He throws her to the ground and she falls limp. Her mouth is still open as well as her eyes.
I look away not wanting to see the gruesome sight. My father grabs me by the shirt and puts a knife up to my throat. I wait for the sharp point to enter my body, I wait for the pain, the hateful words when he puts down his kitchen knife down. “Since you’re the youngest, I’ll give you a choice. You may come with me, or you may join your mother and sister, your choice.” He hissed.
I am paralyzed. My body tenses up and I can’t help but shake under my father’s grip. I am about to answer when I feel a sharp pain in my body and look down to see a knife pierced in my stomach. I look at my father again, terrified of his horrific gaze at me, “I’ll make it easy for you. I won’t like an American in my turf!” He drops me on the ground and steps over me as he walks out the door.
I lie there unable to move, unable to do anything. I see my mom and sister’s motionless bodies lie a few feet away from mine. My eyes squint a few times and my vision is soon gone. I now lie there waiting for death to take me away. My father, he won’t allow anyone to hurt us, he must hurt us himself.
I gasp as I awake from my dream sitting up in the bead. It takes me a moment to remember where I am. I feel my body. Chest, arms, legs, head, stomach, good, I think, I’m still alive. I look over at Saige and Ivan. Saige is still asleep but Ivan is gone. I pull the covers off me and run into the other room. Blake, Jason, and Kimberley are also gone. Where could they have gone? I freak for a moment when I hear a moaning sound come from the other room. “Morning cuz’.” Saige says yawning stretching her arms above her head.
“Saige,” I run over to her frantic. “Where is everyone!? Nobody is here except you and me.”
Saige rubs her eyes and looks over to her right seeing Ivan’s empty bed. “Probably getting something to eat.” She sighs. “What time is it?”
I loom over at the digital clock. “About eight.”
“Yep,” Saige yawns again. “They usually get breakfast at this time.” She swings her feet over the side of the bed rubbing her neck. She stops and her eyes pop open, “Wait, it’s Saturday, right?”
“Uh,” I think for a moment running my figure back and forth remembering the days that have passed. “Yah why?”
“Good,” she flops back on the bed spreading her arms out. “My day off.”
“You get Saturday off?” I ask.
“Hm, oh yah, all kids and teens are required Saturday and Sunday off. I mean they can still train but most don’t. School and training takes a lot out of a person.”
“Oh, so Jason and Blake, and Ivan have the days off too?”
“Yep, just like a regular kid week. But of course Outcasts have training.” she heaves. I lay back with her. We were silent. Then I speak, “Some week huh.”
“For you, yah, for me it’s been a crazy day. All I’ve did this week is meet my cousins.”
“What and that’s not a big thing?” I say sitting up.
“What, no that’s not what I mean!” She quickly sits up straight, facing me. “Of course, it’s a huge thing, I’m not saying it isn’t, it’s just . . . you became an outcast this week, and you’ve lost your parents, and you just found your cousins. Ronnie, I’ve only done one of those three things this week. I’m not saying you’ve had a better week then me, but I’m saying it hasn’t been as crazy for me then it has been for you.”
I open my mouth to protest but she was right. “Okay, so I’ve had a busier week then you, but you know what, I would trade it for your week in heartbeat.” She goes wide-eyed again. “When I went to bed on the night of the murder I thought everything was great for me,” I turn my head not looking at her. “Turns out life can change instantly.”
Saige looks at me for another moment and looks down herself, probably remembering the day her parents died. Except she didn’t see them die, they were shot by Union soldiers. I put my arm around her and she does the same to me.
Suddenly we hear the door open and both jerk our heads up. The boys and Kimberley walk through carrying plates of food. All of them are dressed in training attire, I guess. Jason is wearing a black T-shirt with a black jacket with brown pants and belt along with black combat boots. Blake wears a black T-shirt with black sweatpants and brown combat boots. Ivan wears a black tank top with brown sweats and black combat boots. He also wore a jacket but it had short sleeves instead of long like Jason’s.
Kimberley wears a new outfit. She is wearing black combat boots with brown sweats and a brown belt. She has a tan, greenish T-shirt on with a brown, long sleeved jacket on. I look down at her combat boots. And I’m almost surprised, because each side is filled with a knife. I look across them all and all of them were filled with knives.
“We got breakfast.” Kimberley says holding up two platters of Bacon and scrambled eggs.
“Man,” Saige says sliding off the bed, “You’re all bright eyed and eager to start the day this morning.”
“Hey, don’t want to miss my day off,” Jason says putting down his platters of sausage and pancakes. “Frank had me training late this week. I could barely keep up with my homework, and I had four tests this week. This week has been a living hell.” He holds his breath like he said something bad, “Sorry, I shouldn’t swear in front of you guys.”
Kimberley crosses her arms and looks at him, “It’s not like we haven’t heard it before.” She says. I can tell she is thinking about how our mom and dad used to swear in front of us when we left. “Our parents said that all the time.”
“Hey, that’s adults for you,” I say, “They say you shouldn’t swear, but then they go off and do it.”
“Yah, I call them hypocrites.” Blake smiles while setting his platter down of fruit.”
“What did you guys do raid the whole kitchen?!” Saige exclaims.
“Hey, Logan said we could take this stuff,” Blake says shrugging. “We also told him about we are all cousins and you spent the night.” Kimberly tosses me a bundle of something and I reach out my hands to grab it. “More clothes, put ‘em on and we’ll eat.”
I stand for a moment, rolling the ball of clothes from one hand to the other. “Thanks.” I say before leaving and going into the bathroom. I take off my shirt first and lay out the close in front of me. A black tank was given to me along with a brown leather coat. I put it on and zip up the jacket. I take off my pajama pants and put on the brown, greenish leggings given to me. Then I slip the red belt through the belt loops.
I pull on the black combat boots-which fit perfectly- but feel something hard on the sides. I slowly put my hand on them and feel the points of knives. I flinch, but remember we are at war. The longest war since World War 2.
I walk out rolling the cuffs up on my shirt. Kimberley turns her head and gasps. Then everyone turns their heads towards me. “Wow, who knew.” Ivan says sticking a sausage in his mouth.
“Who knew what?” I ask crossing my arms.
“That you could look like a fighter.” I jerk at that. I look better than this yesterday, maybe he didn’t see me. Right, he only saw me in my pajamas. “Yep,” I sigh taking a seat at the square table in the corner. “I can be a fighter.” I load my plate with pancakes, sausage and fruit.
As soon as I begin to eat Saige takes a seat next to me. I turn to look at her outfit. She wears a long sleeved shirt with a strap around her chest. She is the only one wearing leggings and long boots. She looks amazing. “Wow, you look good.” I say popping a strawberry into my mouth.
“Oh, thanks. I just pulled something out of the closet. I might change though.” She says getting some food. “It’s supposed to be really cold today.”
Her boots were also combat, black boots laced up the front. I personally love her outfit. It suits her in almost every way. I take a bite of my pancakes. They were delicious. Moist, fluffy, almost like the ones mom made back home. Everyone is eating, besides Kimberley. Her plate was full of food but she just pushes it around the plate.
“Is everything okay?” I ask putting down my fork. “Did something happen down at the restaurant?”
Jason, Blake and Ivan all stop eating and swallow what they have. They look at Kimberley and I can tell they know what’s bothering her. “We should tell her,” Jason says sitting up. The whole table sat up now. Does Blake and Ivan know about this? They look intrigue, so they must not know. Only Jason and Kimberley look at each other. Shame is in her eyes and I can see tears forming in her water line.
She wipes them away quickly and sniffles a sob. “Ronnie, Logan said we should go back to our . . . our . . . house.” She finally gets the last words out.
I hold my breath. Blake looks from Kimberley then to me with a confused look. “Why?” He asks Kimberley. “Didn’t you say your mom was killed there?”
“Logan says we should go back to collect things we might need, or we might want.” She looks around at us. “Logan will go with us and Jason already agreed to go when Logan approached us at the table.” She looks up at me. Her eyes are running with some tears, “I can grab some things for you, if you don’t want to come Ronnie but-“
“No, I’m coming. I would like to see the house one last time . . . and say goodbye.” I say.
“Well I’m not missing this,” Blake agrees, “I’m in.”
“Well you can’t leave Ivan and I alone,” Saige points out. “Guess we’re tagging along.”
We all smile and look at Jason and Kimberley. Kimberley looks thrilled for us to be coming along. Jason, on the other hand, looks paranoid. “Now this isn’t a field trip, we’re going to help them grab some stuff, say good bye to the house and get out.”
“We know, you don’t have to explain it to us.” Saige says crossing her arms. Jason rolls his eyes and eats more of his eggs. “We leave at ten thirty, so finish up. Logan and Sargent Carson are taking us.” Jason says with his mouth full.
“Carson too?” I exclaim.
“Yes Carson too.” She sighs narrowing her eyes at me. She sticks her fork in a strawberry and plops it in her mouth. “We have some time before we go, what do you want to do?”
No one says anything, but Blake raises a finger. “We could train for a little bit.”
“What about James?” Kimberley says holding her fork up in the eggs. “Thought you didn’t like him.”
“What makes you think I would train with James? I could train with Logan if he allows me,” he turns to Jason, “Or Frank.”
“I thought you had to train with your own mentor?” I ask, confused.
“Well, you’re supposed to, but if he’s not around you can train with someone else. James is out with a patrol right now scouring the area for Union soldiers who might have ‘gotten lost’,” he puts into quotes.
“Oh, so you can train with anyone practically right now.” Kimberley says eating more eggs.
“Yes,” He smiles nodding his head once.
“Well, I guess we could do that, it could improve our skills.” Kimberley says turning to me then looking at Jason. “What do you say?”
He sighs and drops his fork resting his head on his hand. He yawns then speaks, “Sure why not, its,” he looks at the clock, “almost eight thirty we’ll meet Logan and Carson at nine thirty. So hurry up and eat and we will go train for a bit.”
Kimberley smiles and chuckles once. Jason and Blake looks at her, “What?” Jason asks.
“Oh nothing it’s just I was just thinking about Blake and my ‘encounter’ yesterday.” Blake flares his nostrils and grins as well, “Alright if you think it’s so funny,” he puts a hand out, “round two?”
Kimberley immediately shakes it, sealing the deal. “Any day, anytime.”
“Alright can we please just finish eating and go.” Jason says.
We all take second helpings then wash our dishes. Jason says the maids will clean the plates up and we head out of the room. Then a thought strikes me. We are going back to the house. Will our mother’s corpse still be lying there or will someone have taken it away?