I ran to her gravestone, tripping occasionally because I couldnt see over the tears and it was dark. But I finally stopped because there it was.
Here lies Charlotte Joy Atkins
Died November 12th 2005
Beloved wife and mother to: Stanley, Adam and Layla.
You will always be with us in our hearts and memories.
“Mum,” I whispered. “I'm done.” I collapsed at her gravestone and let the tears go, wishing there was someone who could help me, do what Adam would. “I just-I can't do this…”
I realised my teeth were chattering and I didnt have a jacket, just long slacks and a T-shirt. I started snapping again and it was ridiculous even to myself, so I crawled up against mums gravestone and tried to warm myself, chaffing my arms with friction.
Damn it! Why didn't I bring a jacket, it had to be at least 10-degrees right now and it would have been handy, but I had to get out of there.
I closed my eyes trying to forget that Adam wasnt here, mum was dead, and dad... well, acted like he was dead! Seeing how screwed up my life was right at this moment, I decided I didn't care what happened to me, this world held nothing for me now.
With that thought, I closed my eyes and let the tears go, hoping that I could escape this nightmare and get away from here. Instead I pretended I was somewhere warm where mum was alive, Adam never left, and dad didnt act like a zombie. We were happy and it was perfect.
I started to hear mumbling in the distance so I instantly opened my eyes and looked around. I couldn't see anybody but I could hear them which meant they weren't far.
“Do you really think she will be here,” a soft girl voice asked.
It sounded like a girl anyway.
“Well this is what I saw, so she is more than likely to be here okay!” the second soprano voice said, sounding a little exasperated and annoyed.
Both the voices were girls and they sounded familiar, I just couldnt pick who they were.
I wondered if they were talking about me? And if they were, who were they?
I gasped. What if dad had sent them to find me. I had to think about that for a second. Nah! He doesnt care that much I said to myself, and after all, it was true, ask anybody.
“Is that her over there?” I heard the first voice say, sounding awfully close.
I stopped breathing. What if these people were here to hurt me? Ah, aw well. At least I wont have to worry anymore, theyd be doing me a favour by putting me out of my misery.
“Layla!” I heard someone shout.
I looked to where the voice was coming from... it was Elane Archer, I couldnt believe it. I could clearly make out her beautiful features, slender frame and her illuminating long blonde and black hair.
“E-e-elane…w-w-what...”
That was all I could manage to get through my chattering teeth.
Next to her was her older sister Jane Archer, her elfin like face, slight small body and black short hair was easy to distinguish as well. She looked just as relieved as Elane. Which was weird, they barely knew me.
“Dont worry Layla, here, I brought you a jacket,” she bent down and wrapped a thick jacket around my shoulders.
“T-t-t-thanks,” I said, though I still felt like an ice cube.
Elane turned towards Jane. “We should get her to the car.”
Jane nodded and helped Elane lift me on my feet, then they both wrapped their arms around me and guided me out of the cemetery.
I did insist on walking by myself but I was shaking so violently I couldnt walk straight. I walked like a drunk after happy hour that had just seen a ghost.
We got to the car in the dark parking lot, and to my surprise it was the shiny new yellow Mercedes SUV I saw in the parking lot this afternoon at school.
Jane turned the heat on full blast when she got in the drivers side and when I was buckled in. As she pulled out it occurred to me that they were going to take me home, they probably knew where I lived by now because Im sure James spread the word. I mean it wasnt that hard to drive next door.
“P-please dont t-take me home,” I pleaded.
They both looked back to me and then they shared a look with each other. It was quiet for a moment and then it was Jane who finally spoke.
“Would you like to stay at our house?” Jane offered, looking at me in the rear view mirror.
I could only just make out her features in the dim light of the car.
It was better than going home and it was Saturday tomorrow, so I thought why not? I am after all just next door. I know I didnt know them, and if they were murders or psychos it didnt make a difference. I mean I had to get to know them sometime right.
“I would l-like that very much, thank you,” I told both of them. “Oh, what would your parents s-say though?”
“Not to worry, they trust our judgment on our friends,” Elane said to me, a smirk on her face.
“O-okay.”
I kept focusing on keeping warm and not thinking about my horrid life, or what was left of it. On the way I listened to the purring of the engine, trying to relax and pulling the jacket closer to myself. The tingling feeling in my stomach subsided and now it was just a light tingling feeling in my stomach, not so bad, I think I was getting use to it.
We slowly pulled into their driveway when the big gates opened, and I could see no lights were on in my house, but it was nearly midnight according to the dash board clock.
We drove up the driveway and I watched as the trees passed by as a long black blur. The car finally came to a crawl in a court yard but drove past a circular garden in the centre and towards two gigantically huge garage doors. I watched as one of the doors rolled open to reveal a brilliant bright light. Jane drove in and turned the ignition off, then both she and Elane came around to my door and helped me out of the SUV. As I was getting out I saw four other expensive looking cars. I was too nervous to pay close attention to what models they actually were, but from the corner of my eye I could tell they were expensive, because shiny always meant expensive my dad once said.
“Are you feeling okay?” Jane asked me as we were walking past the cars to get to the doors on the other side of the garage.
“Better,” I admitted.
“Okay, ready to go inside?” Elane asked me, enthusiasm sparked brightly in her blue eyes.
“Not really.”
They both laughed pearls of laughter.
“Don't worry, our parents are not as scary as people think.” Elane was grinning at me now.
“That's not who Im worried about,” I mumbled.
I saw them exchange a glance of worry but they chose not to pry and neither did I.
3. Extraordinarily perfect
We walked through a door and stepped into a huge bright and warm high ceiling tiled living room.
I was stunned for a moment by how new and voluptuous inside the house looked. They must have definitely had it renovated because it had that smell of a new house.
“Summer, Peter,” Elane called, no louder than if they were in the next room, but then again it was quiet and late at night.
As I looked around I saw no packing boxes, wrappers, nothing. It looked like they were well settled in. Didn't they just move in today? I asked myself.
The next thing I saw was a male and a female descending down the gigantic spiralling staircase. The man was quite handsome, he was lean and tall, he had light blue eyes like Jane, James and Elanes, tidy wavy sandy blonde hair, and a hint of olive to his complexion. He was at the most in his early thirties. The woman on the other hand was shorter than I was and she looked very fragile. She had green eyes; not as light as Sams, straight light brown hair to her shoulders and fair but paled coloured skin. She looked like she was at most in her early thirties as well. I noticed Jane was the only one with black hair but she, like James and Elane, looked mainly like the man, and Sam was a mixture of both of them.
“Peter, Summer, this is Layla,” Elane introduced us.
I smiled at them shyly.
“Lovely to meet you Layla,” the woman said, taking my hand in both of hers.
“Yes, nice to meet you,” the man said, nodding his head politely.
“Good to meet you too, Mr. and Mrs. Archer,” I mumbled without meeting their gaze.
They both smiled softly.
“You can call me Summer if you like,” Mrs. Archer said warmly.
“And you can call me Peter,” Mr. Archer said kindly.
They were both smiling at me welcoming, sort of the way Elane did, but it was strange, everything today seemed to be. I could see something in their eyes though, it was like I could see the world through them. I snapped myself out of it. The world I thought, how ridiculous.
“Thank you,” I said in reply. “You have a beautiful home,” I added courteously.
“Why thank you, we have only just moved in,” Peter replied.
“Peter, we were wondering if Layla could stay the night?” Elane asked impatiently.
“I don't want to intrude.”
“Oh, do not be so silly, you are not intruding. Its late so of course you can stay, and as I understand it you live just next door,” Summer said with a wave of her hand.
“Great!” Elane squealed. “Come on, I will show you around.”
Elane looped her arm through mine and we started walking out of the huge brilliant white room, heading towards a huge arched doorway.
The others had gone up the spiralling staircase as we walked off, so it was just Elane and I taking the tour of the house.
“The office.”
Elane gestured to her right of the huge living room, where there were two huge oak doors off to the living room.
“The kitchen,” Elane said as we passed through the arch.
I glanced around the huge kitchen, it was at least twice the size of ours and it had a sort of cold, clean feeling to it.
Elane threw her arm over my shoulders and started smiling.
“Well, what did I tell you, are we going be friends or what?”
I looked over and smiled at her.
“Bathroom,” she said, gesturing towards a door to the left of the kitchen.
“You must be physic or something,” I said jokingly.
“Hmm. You are close,” I heard her murmur.
I looked at her and narrowed my eyes.
I remembered that she found me in the cemetery, but how would she have done that.
“Elane,” I said lightly.
She looked at me cautious now, her eyes guarded. “How did you find me?” I finished.
I waited but no answer.
She had her lips pursed, her perfect brow furrowing like she was debating whether to tell me the answer or not.
“Come on, I will show you the ballroom,” she said quickly, changing the subject.
She rushed me through two small oak doors and my jaw dropped at how beautiful the L shaped room was.
There was a beautiful antique grand piano facing out the window at the turn of the hugely spread room, and a high tech stereo across from us. The floor was polished marble and the walls a white wash colour. The large window that covered the south wall, which had a view of a nearby forest by the looks of it, was so extraordinary it took my breath away.
“I knew you would like it,” Elane said, interrupting my marvelling.
“It's so pretty,” I managed to choke out.
“Yeah,” she said laughing. “Were gonna use it for dancing, parties, gatherings, anything really. It's lucky the previous owners of this house had some taste.”
I eyed the piano, I had never seen a grand piano in real life before, although I thought they were extraordinary and would love to learn to play one.
“Is it yours?” I asked, nodding towards the piano.
“No, actually its Sams.”
“Oh,” I said, shocked but yet unsurprised.
“Why? Do you play?” Elane asked, enthusiastically.
“Oh me, no. But I do, uh…” I trailed off, embarrassed by the thought.
Why did I think it?
“You what?” she asked encouragingly.
“Um, you know. Sing,” I looked at her shyly, then back to the floor, flushing.
“Really,” she said way too slowly, like she had just got an idea. “Are you any good?” she asked.
I narrowed my gaze. “I guess, I mean Ive been told that I was alright. Why, whats it to you?” I asked in a teasing tone.
In truth I hadn't sung since mum died. I use to perform at school recitals, plays, choir and singing groups when I was younger, but I gave it up once mum had gotten into the car accident. She was the one who always encouraged me to strive, but I just couldn't do it when she wasn't there.
“Nothing. Come on, let us go upstairs,” she suggested, way too fast for my liking.
On our way out Elane flicked the lights off behind us and she showed me the very impressive yard through a window. It had an enclosed pool and a forest far down the back and I think I could hear a river or a creek too.
I don't remember there being a forest here, or a river or creek, but maybe I just didnt know about it.
We were back in the tiled living room and heading up the staircase after she turned the lights off and a very flash looking alarm system on.
The rail for the staircase was so smooth you would have thought you were stroking satin, except it was hard and cold.
I couldn't really see much on the way up the stairs because most of the lights were turned off or dimmed, but I had a feeling that there may not be any photos hanging on the walls since they had just moved in.
We got to the top of the stairs and we were in a hallway that led off from two ways; one way to the left and one to the right. This time it was carpeted. I had noticed that all of downstairs was tiled and upstairs seemed to be carpeted so far, except for the bathrooms I guessed.
“That's the bathroom and laundry,” Elane said, nodding to the far doors on the right of the stairs, I couldnt clearly see them though because the lights were off but I still pretended to see. I saw ahead that the hallway stretched around and wondered curiously what else could there be, this house was huge compared to my house, it was like a hotel.
We started walking down the hall and it wasnt long before Elane started pointing out rooms again. “Summer and Peter's room.”
It was the first room.
We slowly followed the hallway and I seemed genuinely excited to see what was ahead.
“Jane's room.”
“James' room.”
She gestured on the way.
We ended up in a huge opened living room when we got to the end of the hallway. It was almost half the size of the living room downstairs. There were three doors surrounding the room. It looked so peaceful and undisturbed, like it was a warm calming place for relaxing.
“My room.”
She pointed out one of the three doors closest to us. Next to that the other two doors were spaced far apart from each other.
“That's Sams room.” She pointed to the furthest door. “And the guest room where you will be staying,” she added, leading me to the door in between her bedroom and Sam's bedroom.
I let her drag me. She opened the door to a just as peaceful room with a queen-sized bed, closet and draws. I have to say it was twice the size of my room but not too big, and it was very classy.
“I had Jane find you some PJ's, they are over there on the end of the bed.”
There was a short silence while I walked over to the bed then turned and faced Elane.
“Well, I suppose that is all I have to offer you tonight.” She started heading towards the door, but I couldnt let her leave without me tha
nking her, it would be rude and disrespectful.
“Wait, Elane,” I called, and she turned around fluidly, her long hair whirring around her easily.
“Yes?”
“Thank you, for everything,” I told her and smiled gratefully.
“Dont thank me just yet,” she mumbled.
Somehow it sounded like a warning, like there was something dangerous yet to come.
“Huh?”
“Oh, um. Your father knows you are here so you are set for the weekend if you like. I guess it would sort of be a sleepover, I have never had one of those.” She started grinning.
“Thanks,” I said again. “I'll think about it.”
I played with her emotions, watching the expressions displayed on her face.
Disappointment. Shock. Confusion. Hurt.
“Okay,” I said after half a minute. “Thought about it, it's a deal,” I said, trying to hold back a smile.
She grinned even wider, she seemed really glad that I was staying.
“Like I said; Friends.”
“Friends,” I agreed, not really understanding how she would know.
“Oh, I'd like to give you something before I leave,” she said, already halfway out the door.
I walked over to her and held my hand out, slightly weary. She dropped something small and nearly weightless in my palm. I moved it closer to my face to examine it better. It was a silver ring that looked like a bunch of small silver vines, elegantly woven together.
As I ran my fingers across it I felt there was writing engraved inside the ring, I tried to read it but I didn't make sense of it.
Mei animus is what the inscription said and I wondered what it meant as soon as I spotted it.
“I want you to do me a favour,” Elane said, interrupting my wondering.
I looked up at her confused and she was smirking.
“Wear it to sleep.”
Okay, that was weird.
“Why?” I asked, giving her my famous confused look.
“Just a little test, like a mood ring,” she reassured me.
The Hidden Revelations: First Light Page 5