Chapter 9 Part 2 - Revised

  Skye listened to the rest of Dominic’s story with an expressionless face. Elbows on the table, hands clasped in front of her with her forehead resting on her knuckles as she fought the voice in her head. The mocking laughter that echoed inside of her skull made her feel like she was slowly going crazy. Even though she found it so hard to believe any of what she had been told, she couldn’t deny the feeling of not being alone inside. She didn’t even realize when Dominic had stopped talking because she was so caught up inside of herself. It wasn’t until Chase squatted down in front of her, placed both hands on either side of her chair and turned it so that she was facing towards him that she had even noticed that all conversation had stopped.

    His aqua blue eyes were solid on hers as he searched her face. “How long have you known me?” he asked her softly but his voice still held the rough edge she associated with him even although he barely spoke.

   She blinked… and looked down into those blue/green eyes, the colour of tropical sea that is waiting for someone to swim lazily through it.

    “Is this a trick question?” she replied and thought for a moment, “because… I think I’ve known you what almost 20yrs? Unfortunately I’m being told I’ve known you a lot longer than that and I’m sorry if my memory is shot on the subject.” The frustration in her voice was so hard to hide that she wasn’t actively trying to hide it at all. “Not that I would be able to remember anything from before then from what you are all saying.” She tried repeatedly to reach back to the memories of exactly when she met him and couldn’t recall that they had even been introduced.

   Chase tilted his head slightly and stole a glance at Maury who was standing behind Skye rummaging through the cupboards looking for glasses although he had no need to even open the cupboard doors as the cupboards were white with glass inlays. He could see right through them but Chase figured his nerves had him not thinking quite clearly at the moment. After a minute of sliding this and moving that, he finally came away with a bottle of red wine. Annoyed at the noise Skye snapped, “Is there something you need in there Maury?” and he stiffened. Immediately she felt bad, he had never been anything other than respectful to her despite what he had told her. Then she noticed the bottle that Maury was holding was one that Deacon had bought for them to celebrate their first year of being successful business owners. She felt the sting but recovered quickly.

    Maury stopped in his tracks and froze confused about his next move he looked from left to right trying to find his words. “Um…yes I was just looking for glasses… I think you need a drink.” Under his breath he mumbled “I know I do…” as soon as the words were out of his mouth he could feel Chases gaze hot on him making the fine hairs stand on end.

                         

   Skye stood up oblivious to the exchange, unapologetically she bumped Chase out of her way with her hip, strode over and took the wine bottle out of Maury’s hand and put it back in the wine rack. She whispered softly to herself. “I must have been transferred to a parallel universe when I woke up.” Dominic quickly replied, “No Sweetheart, you weren’t. This…is…real and so is what I’m saying.” She didn’t turn around she continued to shuffled sideways a few steps and pulled a bottle of Bourbon down off of the top shelf that held all the hard liquor and handed it to Maury instead. Seeing this as an even better choice he took 4 tumbler glasses from the cupboard he had finally found with the glasses and with an equal amount of excitement and placed one glass in front of each of the chairs on the table.

   Chase hadn’t yet moved from his position of squatting in front of Skye’s chair but as he saw that she was returning to the table he rose and stood aside for her to sit back down.

   “Maury…” he said in that soft, rough voice of his but with authority and the smaller man immediately slumped his shoulders at and looked at him while Chase continued. “Go outside and tell the guys they can go and we’ll fill them in later, before you drink that.” Maury felt lifted at the thought of being the one to issue an order. He thought at first that he was going to be banished from the rest of the conversation.  With his head held high he strode to back door, slipped out and relayed the message.

   Skye put the bottle down in the middle of the table. “We’ll let’s see…I passed out, woke up to find out that apparently I’m not who I think I am, was told I was never supposed to have children,” she paused as her heart filled with sadness from the latter and continued. “You say I’m supposed to be some ancient Goddess but that she is trapped in that box right there, I have to share my body and mind with…that...” She pointed to the white oak box still situated in front of Dominic. “Is that straight so far?” Dominic nodded so she kept going.

   “My husband…the love of my life you are also saying, was sent to find be and bring me back to you and that all of you” she waved to the men dispersing outside, “Are here to protect me…and/or kill me. Am I right?” This time Chase responded with a nod.

   She felt pretty calm despite the sense of overwhelming fear that flowed over her. “Ok…so what is it your protecting me from and why?” suddenly she thought of a better question. “Wait!” she exclaimed, “You said that you have been protecting me for centuries!” As the words came out of her mouth she felt foolish. What the fuck am I doing? She thought to herself and that odd voice replied. You’re hearing the truth… it echoed…

Chapter 9 Part 1 - Revised

   As Skye felt her heart sink at the thought of not having her children, Cyrus sat on the stairs listening. His hands were in tight fists as he listened to the murmurs coming from the kitchen and even though they spoke softly he heard every word. His gaze was fixed on the front door but his ears tuned to what was going on in the other room. He didn’t understand how any of it was possible but knew that it was impossible for him to believe that he had heard Maury right about his mother having no reproductive organs. It didn’t take a genius to put that together, yet his curiosity was getting the better of him and all he wanted was to know more.

   He fought every urge to storm back in and tell them all that he had a right to be there as the man of the house or to leave and never come back but there was a that part of him that wanted to know more…a lot more and that part wouldn’t let him do it. He took a silent breath, scared to be noticed somehow and loosened his fists trying to relax even though he couldn’t wrap his brain around everything turning in his head. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he wished his father was there. One of his big questions was that if those men were protecting his mom then what were they?

   As if reading his thoughts he felt a small hand on his shoulder and turned to see Kyra sitting behind him on the step, the look in her eyes seemed to be wishing for the very same answers that he wanted. The pain in her eyes confirmed that she wished their father was there too.

   Cyrus gently patted her hand and gave her an awkward smile to which she smiled back at him. To see her that way warmed him. “What do we do?” he said softly to her. All she did was shrug and then from behind him wrapped her arms around her big brothers neck.

   Cyrus stood up then; made sure he had a good grip on Kyra and piggybacked his sister back up the stairs to her room. While taking 2 steps at a time he made a mental note that the hallway seemed darker than usual as he walked towards Kyra’s door. Like the lights had dimmed or a bulb had blown out in the hallway fixture. When he passed Savannah’s door he saw her playing with her dolls humming softly as she did when she was creating her make-believe worlds in pinks and blues with unicorns an dragons.

   With his hands holding Kyra close he leaned forward, pretended to charge like a bull using his head to push open her bedroom door. Running to the bed he spun around and tossed her down onto the soft mattress. At the same time he saw that her sketchbook was open on the desk.  “What are you drawing now Shortstop?” He asked as he moved towards it to look Kyra bolted off of the bed in a heartbeat and raced her brother to the desk. She picked up the sketchbook and in one smooth motion, threw it in the open drawer and slammed it shut with a speed Cyrus admired and yet found odd. The pictures on her walls fluttered with the force of the breeze she created.

   Cyrus told himself that everything Kyra did these days was odd though and thus normal for her.

   He stopped abruptly raised his hands in the air and said, “OK, OK I’ll leave it alone!” Kyra stood firm holding the drawer shut behind her with a look on her face that said only ‘I’m Sorry’ but Cyrus didn’t even notice as he turned and retreated from the room to return to his post for some more eavesdropping on the conversation in the kitchen.

  

   Once he closed the door and his footsteps faded away. Kyra stepped away from the desk and went over to curl up on her bed. No sooner than she did, the drawer she had put her sketchbook in slid open slowly on its own. From inside of it the book appeared and tumbled end over end out onto the floor where it sat vibrating slightly and then stopped moving altogether.

   Inside Kyra was terrified enough to scream but couldn’t find the voice for it. She ran the rest of the way across the room and jumped on her bed, pulled her knees up to her chin and remained there as she watched the book turn over and over until it reached the bottom of the bed and continue the movements until it sat on the end of the bed.

The book then opened itself, shuffled pages rapidly until it came to a fresh blank page and she felt the shadows circling around her; she felt the anxiousness in the wake of their movements urging her to pick up her pencil. Telling her a story but a story she didn’t want to know… without even realizing it the book was in her lap and a pencil in her hand.

She knew what it wanted…

She knew she had to do it…

Draw…