My stomach churned and my head spinned. My breathing was at a rapid pace as I stared ahead at the big house. It wasn't a mansion but it sure was large. I blew out air through my mouth and drew in a shaky breath. My lips tilted up as a smile but my fists were clenched by my sides and I was sure I was shaking the whole car with the movement of my legs moving up and down with excitement.
Kimberly pressed down on a button, "Eva, open the gates, please."
A loud screech from the machine made me wince and cover my ears. "Just a second!," a voice sounded just as the enormous and elegant black gates opened - the gold paint on their sides catching the sunlight and glittering - and revealed the house fully.
The car moved forwards towards the house, through the pathway with stones lining the sides. A blue colored butterfly fluttered by near my window and flew to the freshly mown, green, lush grass near the fountain on the far left side.
I breathed in again, a full blown grin on my face. It felt as if we were moving at a very slow rate though I knew we weren't. The car stopped again but now in front of the driveway. Kimberly got down from the car and I quickly followed suit.
She turned back, looking at Callie who has already steped out of the car and smiled. She then moved her attention to me.
"Welcome home."
My grin grew bigger as I walked cautiously behind Kimberly to the brown colored double doors. She might look innocent but with the job we have, we can't trust anyone fully. We shouldn't if we want to keep our head connected to our body. She showed us a photo, but it could very well be edited. Maybe she was forced into luring us in and The Blacks were hiding inside but I didn't care. If there was a chance that I was regaining my memories, then I was going to grasp it like a man in desert clinging to a glass of water.
My head grew lighter as I looked at the tall pilars on the both sides of the doors and suddenly I felt isolated from the world. My vision blurred until it looked like there were white patches in my surroundings. It looked like there was grey smoke lining my eyes and everything was unclear. I knew this feeling. It was what I felt just before I was opened to a memory. I was getting a memory back and we haven't even been here for half-an-hour.
I leaned my back on one of the pillars for support.
The boy ran after the girl as she laughed, skipping to the doors and hiding behind one of the pillars. Throwing her hands to her mouth to muffle her laughs, the girl peeked back but to her surprise there was no one.
Where was, Max?
They were playing tag and Max had to catch them all. Her brows furrowed in confusion and the joyful smile she had on her face vanished.
'I swear if he somehow manages to fall into the fountain again, I wasn't helping,' she thought to herself.
The last time they were here, he fell into the fountain and almost drowned. She didn't even want to think about how he did that. Kimberly, Eva and James were enjoying a barbeque far away from the fountain when they heard his screams. Thank the heavens, Kimberly knew how to swim and was right on time.That fool has to learn to swim!
'Maybe, he gave up and decided to chase Eva or James instead.'
Sighing with disappointment, she turned around, only to smack right into a chest. And there he was, standing with a smile on his face and amusement twinkling in his dark eyes. He lifted up his pointer finger and touched her nose.
"You are it," with that he ran away, his laugh ringing through the air. Kimberly shook her head and stood there for a few seconds. Then with a loud playful cry, she lunged after him.
Then suddenly, everything went white, a dirty, grey-ish white. My heart thudded in my chest and everything moved around me. I shook out of the past and looked up, my ears still ringing. A pair of blur eyes was staring intensely at me, worry clear in their depths.
"Are you alright?", Kimberly questioned, concern etched on her face.
"Yeah, I am good," I lied, eventhough I had a light headache and just looked into my memory. I wasn't comfortable with sharing anything important or personal with her just yet. We might have known each other, but for now we were strangers. And it wasn't like I can say anything even if I wanted to. It was 'Classified Information', as Stella put it.
I was still clueless about why Stella seemed to dislike Kimberly so much; Kimberly looked to be a sweet girl; harmless. The sound of doors opening made me look up. Kimberly entered the house with Callie on tow and Ash beside her. I stepped into the house, and was instantly surrounded by a pleasent smell, which, if I am correct, was vanilla.
John stood by my side, looking warily at the yellow and white painted walls and the open area, occupied only with a big-screened television, a coffee table and bright-yellow colored couches; a contrast to the three white walls. It was like a dream living room, what with everything looking costly and homely.
"Eva, look who is here! Max!"
And as soon as Kimberly screamed this, I heard a reply.
"That's it. James, our dear Kim has finally gone mad! She is seeing things and I suspect it might be a ghost or like I said Kim has just gone crazy," I heard a yell from the top of the stairs which was near the colorful kitchen.
I swear, it was like a burst of colors in here. And not just colors, they were cheerful colors like the blood-red stools placed around the dining table in the middle of the fashionable kitchen which was separated only by a sheet of see-through glass from the area we were standing at.
"Oh! Heavens! Are you alright, Kim?," I heard a male voice shout, frantically.
'Probably her fiancee,' I thought bitterly. I mean, ofcourse, I was going to be sour. My bestfriend is getting married and I didn't even know!
"Kim, darling, you know you can talk to us about anything. I know it was hard for you when Max died and it still is, but you have got to move on. Are you having a temperature? Or how long have you been seeing things?," I heard the same girl's voice from when we entered the house ask.
I suddenly felt a wave of guilt crash over me. Here I was, being selfish and thinking she could be playing us and I didn't even spare her feelings a thought. It was surely going to be hard. To have someone she cared about come back.... from the dead according to her.
Kimberly rolled her eyes. She turned to look at me and I didn't know what she saw but she winced slightly before turning away.
"Eva, come look for yourself..... and please, I am not crazy! If anyone is crazy in this household, then it is you, dear."
Just then, a young girl, probably my age descended from the stairs. She had a disapproving face on and was shaking her head at Kimberly. But, that was until she glimpsed at me. As soon as she looked at me, she blinked, like Kimberly had the time we met.
Her face was a mask of shock and her pierced eyebrows were up, almost touching her hairline. She looked like she was contemplating whether I was real or not when understanding passed in her black eyes. She pushed away a dyed, red colored wisp of hair away from her face and sighed. When I finally thought she got that I was legit, she uttered the words that made me want to bang my head on the near-by wall.
"James, I think it is contagious. I am seeing things, too. Don't come down here and call the doctor immedietly!"
"James, there is no need for that. Our Eva is just in denial. Get down here," Kimberly demanded, a flicker of annoyance shining in her startling electric blue eyes. They were really blue. Like really, really blue. I need to ask her if they are contacts. If so, then I am seriously buying them. I imagined my face with blue eyes and almost gagged.
Alright, Max. You would look like an idiot with money and food shortage with blue eyes. But still, they were the most prettiest shade of blue I had ever seen.
And they looked like the real deal to me.
Since, I just had a big mouth and a curious mind, I asked her straight on if they were contacts. Kimberly looked at me weirdly, before answering, "No."
I pursed my lips. Well, whatever. I still look super handsome with my dark eyes, which were definitely not contacts.
A boy with white hair came from one of the rooms, wiping his hands on his pants. Looked like we had the same habits.
His footsteps faltered when he saw the crowd in the room, his eyes drifting from face to face until his black eyes fell on me. He froze, one hand in the process of drying the water on his hands in his jeans.
He stared at me for a long while and there was a tense silence in the air around us. His look was so intense that I almost thought that he was glaring at me. They were piercing, black pools, not showing any emotion at all. Finally, he turned his head to look at Kimberly.
Kimberly nodded her head slightly and his lips parted in a gasp.
"Max!," he shouted and speed-walked to where I was standing like a statue in the middle of the room. He held out his hands as if for a high-five. When I didn't reciprocate, he rose his eyebrows, still looking at me expectantly.
I bit my lip awkwardly, and lifted my palms up, slapping them on his outstretched ones then dropping them to my sides.
The boy, who was probably James from what I gathered, blinked at me.
"Max, dude, what the-" He was cut off by Kimberly who moved forward and grabbed his arms, stopping his advances. She whispered something in his ears that even my sensitive ears couldn't catch.
Surprise flooded his face and he looked at me, assessing me.
"Oh," he muttered back to whatever it was that she said to him. Nodding gently, he threw a smile my way.
My lips lifted up slightly but he turned away before he could see it. Kimberly then came to my side. "Well, c'mon, guys. I will show you your rooms."
We followed her eagerly but Eva and James didn't move from their spots. They were murmuring to eachother ferociously and Eva had a scowl on her face, identical to Stella's.
As soon as we were out of their sight, I let out a breath that I knew I was holding. It honestly felt like I was being suffacated when I was in their presence. I felt bad for thinking that way but I couldn't help it. They were new and this place scared me. It was not the type of fear that was 'What if they kill me?,' no, it was more of the 'What the heck is happening to me?,' kind of way. And I never felt that way. Not since the day I woke up to meet John in the 'Hall of Dead'.
I will get used to it. Afterall, this was my life.