Chapter 24
Her face contorted into shock and fear. She quickly masked her features but I already saw it.
“Are you sure?” she asked to confirm the truth. Her face was serious and solemn.
“Yes. The first sign happened to me while I was walking home,” I said masking my feelings with an emotionless voice.
There were signs for when they are coming close. The first sign was a strong headache and my eyes flash back to their original dark orange color for a few seconds. This sign happened when they are within 75 mile radius of me or my family. It sounded pretty farfetched to get worried but these people—no they couldn’t possibly be human, these monsters worked fast. These signs were a blessing and rarely a curse. Sometimes my eyes would bleed and stay orange the whole day.
Her face turned into a pained one. I looked away. I hated when she has that expression because I knew all the pain and anguish was because of me.
“Are you okay?” she asked softly.
“Yeah, this happens all the time. I used to it now,” I replied and gave her a forced smile.
Her eyes brows furrowed and wrinkles creases on her forehead.
“Why did they choose to come now? Why so early? They didn’t even wait a year to approach this time.” she asked. She grimaced at the ceiling as if the ceiling would give her all the answers.
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself too,” I thought dryly.
“Maybe I should—“ I began to suggest.
“Nope, don’t even think about trying to leave us,” she interrupted. She knew what I was going to propose. I was going to leave them behind so I wouldn’t put them in danger.
Dammit. I clenched my teeth together. I wished I could protect them. Now that I thought about it, it was a really dumb idea on my part. They’d simply use Mom and Dan as bait to lure me in. God knew what they’d do if they found me again.
**Flashback**
I woke up and found myself strapped to a cold metal table in a darkly lit room. An ache was nagging my head and I was blindfolded.
Where the hell was I?
Was I going to be murdered?
Was I going to get raped?
Was I going to be sold in human trafficking?
I began struggle against restraints. The more I struggled the more my wrists burned. It seemed like the restraints got tighter the more I moved. I stilled myself and tried to calm down.
I heard a door creak open and some light steps heading in my direction. My body tensed as the footsteps came closer. The footsteps came to an abrupt stop and so did my breathing. Suddenly, laughter rang through the room. It wasn’t a happy cheerful laughter it was sinister laughter.
It stopped abruptly and I began to feel the hem of my shirt being lifted up and the cool air made goose bumps instantly rise. I wiggled around, my arms grinding against the metal chains. My body was shoved down by callous hands to the cold, steel table. I turned my head around and tried to speak but I couldn’t open my mouth. Why couldn’t I open my mouth? I didn’t feel any gag in it. Why wasn’t my voice working?
I felt a sharp blade run along my upper half. Then, a sharp pain cut through me and I tried to call out but my voice wasn’t working. He laughed as my body lurched again in pain and agony. His swift swipes slowed so he could make it more agonizing. It came to the point where I was almost unconscious. I didn’t remember how many hours he spent gutting me like a fish.
I was about to drift into the comfortable arms of unconsciousness when a hot liquid splashed onto my body. My open cuts were on fire.
“AURGH!” I was finally able to cry out at last.
“Didn’t that feel good? Just wait until the next checkup,” he cooed.
I wanted to cry so badly but I wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction. Only one tear was allowed to escape to down my blood-stained cheek.
“Damn it, why won’t you shed all your tears for me!” he screamed. He rammed his fist into the side of the table and I flinched.
There was a moment of silence until he started to chuckle to himself.
“I’ll make you shed all your tears only for me even if you are almost ‘invincible’,” he sneered.
Invincible? What in the world is he talking about?
I heard a metal clang against the table and braced myself. What had I done to deserve this? Before he could harm me, I felt like a hundred needles hit my skin and then I blacked out.
**End of Flashback**
I shivered at the thought of them capturing me again.
“Danni?”
“Yeah.” I snapped back from the clutches of the horrible memories.
“Everything will be alright,” she said and rubbed my back. I feigned a smile. That was the biggest lie an adult has told me. They can’t see into the future so they have no right to make false promises. I got up and walked over to her bedroom door.
“Goodnight, Mom.”
“Night, Danni.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Mom,” I added bitterly in my head as I walked down the hall to my room. Then I heard the quiet scream of the washing machine and headed downstairs instead.
How long did I have before they came and mess up our lives again? I ached with the urge to finally fight back but so many people I love will be at stake if I acted brashly.
A beep came from the machine and I opened the lid. I didn’t even bother checking if the clothes needed a double washing. I just threw them into the dryer and yawned.
An hour later sleep overtook me and I gladly welcomed it with open arms.
A man walked toward me even though he was engulfed in a fire that should be melting away his very flesh. Red flames were all around us. There was no apparent way out.
“If I’m going down, you’re coming with me,” he said while grabbing for me.
“NO!” I cried out and kicked him in the face.
Flames spread off his body onto my legs.
He stood in front of me and laughed maniacally.
“I said we’d go down together, didn’t I?” he asked.
The flames started to eat at my arms and I let out a pained cry.
“I lied,” he said and cackled as he kicked me viciously into the endless pit of fire behind me.
“NO!” I shouted as I woke up. Sweat drenched my body and my breathing was unsteady. I took deep breaths and tried to calm down. I looked at the clock and it was 5:30am. I only got four hours of sleep.
I got up and I walked out the door, down the hallway towards the screen door that was in the side of the house. My feet led me outside and I leant over the porch.
“You’re up early,” I heard a voice call behind me.
“Yup.”
“Nightmare?” Dan asked.
“Yes. How’d you know?” I asked.
“Besides the fact that you shouted like the mafia were after you, you always come here when you have a nightmare,” he said.
Strangely enough, I briefly dismissed the fact that we were supposed to enemies. I laughed and said, “This is the first time I actually came to the porch in this house.”
“This the first time you had a nightmare,” he commented.
I just smiled but it became a lesser smile as I remembered what I dreamed of. My brother had a strange look like he wanted to find out what I was dreaming of that disturbed me so. He didn’t pry and I was thankful. Maybe I’d tell him later when I wasn’t all fuzzy-minded.
“Why are you up early?”
“Well, first I heard someone screaming like a banshee trying to sing and I wanted to make breakfast with you,” he said. He was grinning like a fool when he talked about screaming like a banshee trying to sing. It was weird with how happy he was acting but I wasn’t complaining. The last thing I needed after that nightmare was a feisty brother.
I hit him him upside the head and walked to the kitchen.
“Ow,” he cried.
I just stuck my tongue out at him. He grinned widely and I knew everything would be okay.
“Even your tongue is wagging for me. What can I say? I’m a ladies’ man,” he said. He puffed his chest out. I guess he was trying to go for the manly look because he tried to flex his muscles and look tough.
“Oh my.”
“That’s what they yell when I do them.” He winked.
“Shush child. We all know they say that when they take a look at your small doodle,” I said.
His eyes widened and then he narrowed his at me.
“Cause you would know.”
“Maybe…”
He just looked at me in utter disbelief.
“I can’t help it that the ladies come to be after you did an unsatisfactory job. The ladies always scream for me in pleasure,” I said with a smirk.
“Are you sure you’re straight? You always having me question your orientation.”
With the things I’ve said, who wouldn’t?
“As a bullet,” I responded.
“What are we going to do with you?”
I smacked him behind the head in the same place as last time. It’s only because he had that perverted look on his face.
“Well, we’re all rowdy today,” my mom stated as she joined us in the kitchen. A flash of concern flickered across her face as she looked at me but I ignored it.
“Maybe,” we both said at the same time. Mom gave us a funny look. “You guys always do that. Every since you were toddlers.”
“Mom makes everything scream in pleasure,” I whispered to my brother.
My brother looked at my mom and we both broke out into a bundle of laughs. My mother just looked at us like we’re crazy.
“Why are you guys laughing?” she asked then curved a mouth like a duck’s. It was her look for when she was with us and confused. She only revealed it every so often since she had work.
“It’s y-your—“ my brother tried to explain. Too bad he didn’t say it because he kept laughing at my mom’s duck face. Maybe this was his way with coping with a temporarily dysfunctional family.
“Whatever.” She shrugged.
“Let’s just make breakfast before Dan dies.”
“How about we skip school today?” She suddenly proposed.
“Mom, today is Saturday,” my brother pointed out.
Mom just rolled her eyes and said, “Well I use to skip school all the time on Saturdays when I was a youngling.”
“Oh, gosh.”
“Just kidding... or am I?”
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” I asked and narrowed my chocolate brown eyes at her.
“I’m taking a little vacation today. I’m sure Ken wouldn’t mind seeing as he’s been making me work overtime since October,” she said.
I just stared at her face to see any hints of lying. “Are you sure it’s okay? It would be really bad if you were to get laid off.”
“Why don’t you guys ever believe me?” she asked and pouted.
“It’s because you do things on impulse!”
“Like the time you made the firework cake,” Dan said with a solemn face. Let’s just say mom kind of set the house on fire.
“It was only a little fire,” she said trying to defend herself.
“You set me on fire!” Dan cried. It was no wonder of why Dan avoided fireworks at all costs. His friends would have to drag him out of the house on Independence Day.
Yup, Mom was a great parent.
“Well, are we going to?” she asked.
“Sure,” we both replied.
Author's Note: Not edited. Feel free to point out any errors.