by Keya Jay
Chapter one: Skylar Royce
“My name is Skylar Royce and I think I have a problem.”
“You think?” Skylar’s petite baby faced multi-colored hair best friend said.
“Fine I have a huge problem, now help me!” Skylar said snatching the pair of her Christian Louboutin style Rhinestone high heels Brooke was trynna slip her size 6 feet in.
“Ok so the first step of getting over your addiction is admitting that you have one.”
“Ok check, now what’s the next step?”
“I have no clue,” she said reaching for Skylar’s Almond Toe Ralph Lauren snakeskin high heel pumps.
“Brooke focus,” Skylar said slapping Brookes’ hands away. “Your mother’s a therapist for goodness sake, she deals with this kind of stuff all of the time! How do you not know?” Skylar said out of frustration.
“She’s not allowed to confide that kind of stuff to people outside of her office and I am a part of the outside of her office crew as well as you, therefore I wouldn’t know.”
“What should I do Brooke? How am I gonna get rid of all of these shoes?”
“Why’d you get them in the first place?”
“Well because once upon a time I needed them.”
“Needed them!? Honey half of theses shoes haven’t even been broken into, I guarantee you haven’t worn 80% of the shoes in this pile,” she said fingering a pair of Calvin Klein turquoise sandals.
“You’re not helping,” Skylar said running her hands through her long messy hair. All this constant pulling and raking is gonna leave her bald. She huffed and tried to finish sorting through the shoes.
“Oh-oh I have the perfect-est idea!” Brooke squealed as she jumped up and down in her excitement.
“Perfect-est is not a word Brooke.”
“Are you gonna pick apart my speech or listen to my idea? Choose wisely Sky cause I might not be coming up with another as good as this.”
“Fine what is it?”
“We could sell the shoes!” she said overly excited.
“Sell the shoes?” Skylar questioned.
“Yes! Like when we were little and we sold lemonade and iced tea except we’ll sell overly expensive shoes!”
Skylar had to admit that was a pretty good idea “but who would we sell them to and where?”
“Easy your backyard is as big as a football field we can do it there and I can make fliers and we can pass them out to a couple of our friends and tell them to pass it along. Next thing you know costumers will be lining up right outside your door!”
“That’s brilliant Brooke!” she said smiling for the first time since she started this spring cleaning thing. Her mother wanted her to spring clean like 3 springs ago but she was too lazy to do it. Now she’ll do anything if it means her mother will be happy again. This would work, she knew it would. Living in Miami Florida she didn’t have to wait on a good day they’re usually all good days, maybe a little windy on some but that’s nothing. The winds are never strong enough to create damage. Beside this was Coconut Groove, lots and lots of beaches and beach houses who wouldn’t want to come?
“So when can you start?” Skylar asked.
“Well I have college classes to catch up on and then I’ll have a ton of work but I’ll try to start as soon as possible,” she said in an apologetic voice.
“Brooke are you kidding me? You’re always working; do you ever take a break? It’s really not healthy,” she said the conversation feeling all too familiar seeing as though they have it daily.
“I know Sky and I’m sorry but this is important to me but I’ll have the fliers by the end of this week you just worry about rallying up all of the shoes you want to sell.”
“Fine Brooke, but this weekend your time belongs to me.”
“I get it, clear as day, now I’m sorry to rush but I gotta go.”
“Of chorus you do,” she said walking Brooke down to the front door. “Don’t forget your mine this weekend,” Skylar said holding open the door for Brooke.
“You got it babe,” Brooke said disappearing into the foggy rainy air.
Skylar closed the door quietly behind her before turning toward the long corridor that awaited her.
Skylar hated being two different people! The angle other’s believed her to be and the monster she truly was. The monster at the moment wasn’t really happy at the thought of being tied up and quiet for so long but now—now she could breathe and let her monster free. Let her wreak havoc on whatever she so chooses, at the moment her soul belongs to her monster, her control is no more. She no longer drives she sit in the passenger seat awaiting what is to come, awaiting what is to be done.
Skylar loves Brooke like a sister but she could never let Brooke see what has become of her. They’ve known each other all of their lives and Skylar knew Brooke’s gracious heart wouldn’t be able to accept it. Her monster doesn’t like it when she chooses Brooke over her but it’s something her monster is gonna have to live with—for now.
Skylar walked down the long corridor and headed toward the door she rarely used when others are present. Once inside the dark and gloomy room she sat in complete solitude. Skylar crave darkness now, darkness is everywhere she is, and everywhere she looked. She’s surrounded by darkness, she is darkness.
There’s no light switch in this room but there is a switch that activates the UV lights. The room was soon bathed in neon lights revealing the writing on the walls—literally. While others like her run toward dim lights and dead ends she’s actually sat back planned and thought—so much thought went into this. Being a beginner when it comes to the D.E.A.N Incorporate, detectives and other people associated with the incorporate don’t deem her worthy; They don’t think she has anything to tribute when it comes to the cases they work on so she’s forced to take matters into her own very capable hands.
Skylar has never met another whisperer and she prays to God that she never does. Her kind is being targeted, kept in cages like useless canaries, voiceless parrots, and flightless doves, but she refuse to be useless, she refuse to be voiceless, and she may hold in so much darkness it keeps her grounded but she’ll never be without flight. Flight is the only reason she still owns her freedom. Her body, mind and actions may no longer be hers alone, they may have been overrided but she’ll always have flight; that’s something she owns completely.
This wall is littered with her thought, idea’s, options, feelings, most of the things she couldn’t seem to have at the moment. The part of her that’s not already lost hurts inside, guilt overrides her every thought, she can’t take back the things she’s done. People look at her as if she’s some kind of hero but they don’t know. The kinds of things she does are wrong but she can’t seem to stop, it’s the monster in her it’s drawn completely toward that dark side. She used what has been given to her for all of the wrong reasons and it’ll always haunt her, it made her the monster she is today.
Skylar’s past cannot and will not stay in the past it’s fast becoming her future and already somehow her present and it’s too late for her to do anything about it.
The moment Skylar learned the truth about what she was fast becoming was the same moment she learned the truth about what she no longer was and that’s free. She may not have been physically captured but mentally…mentally she no longer exists. Her thoughts are no longer her own, her words and action’s now stand on opposing sides. She’s been caged in her very own body and that’s the worst kind of punishment, the worst kind of encapture you can possibly imagine.
Brooke Fields-Laurence
Brooke’s mother wasn’t home which was really no surprise; her mother’s boss always has her undivided attention. Brooke accepted a long time ago that she came second to her mother’s job, who’s gonna pay the bills right? But she refused to come second to that man, any man, but especially that one. Her mother’s boss Mr. Henderson… he doesn’t even deserve Brooke’s respect she’ll refer to him as: the man shredder tearing her fam
ily apart.
Brooke’s not stupid she knows he’s interested in her mother, has been for quite some time now, but her father put a stop to that immediately. Her mother’s heart took up residence on her fathers’ sleeve. Her mother’s heart no longer belonged to her, just like her father’s no longer belonged to him; they now belong to each other. Brookes’ father’s no Indian giver, he took her mother’s heart with him, attached to him; forever in his possession and her mother lived with his and she’ll continue to live with his. Shall her mother never forget that it’s hers’ to protect, he would have wanted nothing more but for her to guard his heart with the remains of hers. He still owns a piece of her mothers’ heart and she can’t afford to give away yet another; her mother’s not ready…Brooke’s not ready and she doesn’t think she ever will be. As far as Brooke’s concerned Mr. Barrier-between-her-family probably has her mother in Europe, or Florida, or whatever exotic place he takes her in order to impress her.
Brooke hates what money does to people. Skylar had a walk in closet full of shoes she’s never looked twice at once they were safely out of the stores and in her home, and for what? To prove to people she could afford it? Her mansion of a house proves as much. She claims that the money was invested that it was handed down to her after her father died and her mother got sick. Brooke knew there was a great deal of money headed Skylar’s way once her mother dies and Skylar claims that she doesn’t care about it, and why would she? She has all of her father’s money what does she need her mother’s money for?
Skylar’s mom has cancer, she’s deadly sick and Skylar keeps her locked up in her room. Brooke asked to go and see Skylar’s mother countless times but Skylar always denies her access. She always says that her mother is sleeping or too sick for visitors, but how would she ever know if she never unlocks the door. Brooke checked on many occasions and that door stays locked never once opened, which is weird.
Brooke cried the last day she had seen Skylar’s mother. Skylar and Brooke were outside near the lake with Skylar’s mother. Her mother loved to be out there near all of the birds and other things that liked to wander into their backyard. Skylar’s mother was sitting on one of the logs closest to the water wadding her feet back and forth, smiling lovingly at the tree where a nest lay full of a dozen new born birds.
“I want you to promise me something Brooke-e Bear,” she said as she kicked her feet in the water, splash, splashing the water around.
“What is it Mrs. Royce?” Brooke asked as she stared in Mrs. Royce’s focused yet rather vacant eyes.
“I want you to make sure my Sky-Blue barriers me right next to her father when I die.”
“Don’t talk like that Mrs. Royce,” Brooke said shaking her head wildly denying the tears that wanted to travel down her face.
“Brooke-e Bear you know it’s gonna happen ok honey I know you’re not ready to accept it but it is gonna happen you can’t keep telling yourself and me that it’s not, I feel it honey I feel the end is near,” she said wrapping her pale cold fingers around Brooke’s. “You need not worry I’m not dying now I have time but I will just continue to get worse and worse and then eventually it will happen and when it does I want to be buried here in this back yard with Sky’s father right next to that beautiful oak tree. I want you to take this here necklace of mine and hang it on the tree branch next to my mother’s necklace and my husband’s watch,” she said her smile a bit sad. “And then I want you to take this wedding ring of mine and lay it on the same branch as my husband’s ok? Can you do that for me Brooke-e Bear?”
Brooke couldn’t speak, the pain squeezing her heart wouldn’t let her open her mouth, she couldn’t nod the tears that barely stayed behind her eye lashes would spill if she did so. All Brooke could do was just squeeze Mrs. Royce’s hand and that seemed to be enough of an answer for her. Mrs. Royce turned away from Brooke and continued to watch the tree.
When Brooke told Skylar, Skylar brushed it away as if it was no big deal. Brooke grew up with Skylar’s mother, times like the one she shared with Mrs. Royce in their backyard made Brooke feel like she had two mothers and she couldn’t possibly stomach losing Mrs. Royce. All Skylar could do or has done was treat her very own mother like the ants they used to pick and stick on spider webs, like it was no big deal.
If it weren’t for Skylar’s mother or her own they wouldn’t even be friends. But Brooke couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that she was missing something, that there’s more to Skylar than what she allows Brooke to see. She forces Brooke to get closer to her… yes that’s the word force. Skylar pressures her into hanging out with her more and Brooke knows it’s not because Skylar doesn’t have any because she has plenty. So what purpose does Brooke serve for her?