Status: Finished; working on the sequel
In The Dark
Chapter Two
Chapter Two
I run upstairs and grab my brother’s baseball bat, my dad’s pepper spray, and the phone, ready to call 911 if those guys come here.
I go back into the living room with all the stuff and sit, back erect, on a stool, watching the door and windows for the fist sight of an ambush.
I hear a couple on noises on the porch and listen hard. The faint jingle of keys reaches my ears and I relax a little bit. It must be my parents.
A key is inserted into the lock and I hold my breath. The doorknob turns and I raise the bat.
Then, my mom steps in, followed by my dad, looking very tired, but calm nonetheless. She smiles and takes off her coat, hanging it on the coat rack in the closet.
“Hi honey,” she says while hanging up my dad’s coat. My dad says nothing, just stares around the room with a sad expression. “Anything interesting happen to you on your last day of school?”
I promptly burst into tears and slump down the wall I’m leaning on.
My face is soaked before I reach the ground, and my parents looked extremely alarmed.
My mom kneels down and hugs my shoulders. “Honey what happened? Did someone hurt you?”
I shake my head and try to speak through my tears. “I was walking home from… school, a-and this car was following me, and s-so I ran. A-and then they sped ahead of me and wanted me to come with them, b-but I kicked one of them and t-they fell, so I ran home and…”
I look up to see my dad looking like he wants to punch a wall, and my mom looking really scared. The doorknob rattles and I nearly jump out of my skin.
It’s only Michael though. Michael is my older brother. He works at Best Buy until 3:00 everyday, but he usually stays longer to ogle at girls. Ugh… boys.
“Hey Kyra. Guess what…” He trails off when he sees my face. “What’d I miss?”
Mom quickly explains. Michaels face darkens. “Were they wearing lab coats?” I nod. He shrugs. “I had to deal with them too, last week.” He sits on the sofa with a smirk. “Gave one of them a black eye. The other almost got a dislocated shoulder. They should have known better than to try and touch me."
Our parents sit on the love seat together, and talk quietly to each other. I look at Michael, confused. He shrugs, obviously as lost as I am.
He turns the TV on and starts flipping through channels, bored. Mom looks at him. “Please turn that off, Michael.” She doesn’t look happy, and she doesn’t look mad. Just kind of sad and tired.
“We have some things to tell you guys, okay? Even though most of it is for Kyra.” She stops, looking at dad. He nods slowly, his face pale.
Mom takes a deep breath, looking uncomfortable. “Kyra, Michael… your father and I have given this a lot of thought. Not just now, but for the last few weeks… and we’ve decided to finally tell you…” she trails off, unsure on how to finish.
Dad jumps in. “Kids, we feel that its time that you knew the truth about yourselves. Please don’t think that we’ve been trying to hide this from you, but we just never saw a good opportunity to do so until now. So,” he reaches down and picks up his briefcase, popping open the lid, and takes out one folder, and one birth certificate.
“Michael, we’ll start with you, since your news isn’t really that big-no... is is big, but Kyra's will be bigger... so we'll get yours over with first."
He hands Michael the birth certificate. Michael holds it over so I can see too.
The name is his, and the birth date is his, but the parents’ names aren’t ours. Michael’s brow furrows. He looks up sharply, his face a mixture of confusion and hurt.
“You’re not my parents.” He says it matter-of-factly, as if clarifying. They shake their heads no.
Michael stands up, angrier than I have ever seen him. “You don’t think this news is big? What in the world…” He exhales loudly, running his hands through his hair, frustrated, then leaves. We hear his door slam.
I stare up at the top of the stairs willing him to come back, not wanting to face our parents alone, but he doesn’t come back. So I turn back to face them, dreading what I know is coming next.
Dad hands me a paper. Another birth certificate. The date is mine, and so is the footprint, but not the parents’ names… or my name. I look up, confused.
“Whose is this? My name isn’t Loli Silkstream. Is that even a real name?” Dad closes his eyes and shakes his head. Mom pats his hand gently, and then looks at me.
“Kyra, there is a whole story behind that birth certificate. We were going to tell it to you now, but you probably want to prepare yourself. We’ll talk about it as a family later on. However, I will tell you this now. Loli was your name before we adopted you. Your parents had always wanted to name you something unique, something no one else was named, so they made that up together.” She says no more, looking close to tears.
I look over at dad but his expression is blank. Feeling officially dismissed, I walk upstairs and knock on Michael’s door.
“Go away! I’m busy.”
I open the door and step in, closing the door quickly behind me. Michael is lying, stretched out. He looks over at me and slides over, making room for me. I lay down next to him, smiling softly.
This is what we always used to do when I was younger. I’d be unable to sleep, or mad about being grounded or something, and I’d come here and lay down and he’d talk to me about video games or some TV show he‘d watched the night before. Comforting me, without getting all mushy about it. Then, he’d promptly kick me out when one of his friends called. It’s kind of funny now that I think back on it.
However, right now, I’m worried about him. I pull my hair up over my shoulders; getting the stray strands off his face, [He hates it. Always has]. “Are you okay?”
He doesn’t look at me, but continues to study his ceiling. “Yeah. I just… I’m trying to think about this reasonably, you know. I mean, mom and dad said they never had a chance to, but there’s always time for stuff like that. They shouldn’t have kept it from me for so long. I’m 18 for goodness sake. I could've moved out by now and never come back; and then i'd would have never known. They’re long overdue."
I bite my bottom lip, trying not to cry. Michael seems to sense this, because he looks over at me, concerned. I take a breath.
“I was adopted too, you know. Turns out my real name is Lolo, Lulu, or something like that. Oh right, it was Loli.” I laugh bitterly. “I think I’ve always known that something was, you know, not right. Deep inside.”
I shake my head slowly; still a little dazed from everything that’s happened. “I’m not mad though. I know that they love us. You do too, even if you don’t want to admit it. I wonder why they changed my name though. Above all that, I just want to know why my real parents put me up for adoption. Whether they didn’t want me, or simply couldn’t keep me.”
I stand up and walk to the door. Then I turn around. “You wanna go for a walk? I don’t want to talk to mom and dad right now. I need to think.”
Michael nods. “What if we run into those guys again? They might have gotten more guys and come back out again.” He eyes my hair. “They could use your hair against you, pull it like a rope.”
My hands go instinctively to my hair. I start braiding it until I have a long rope, then I coil it until its in one ring, and then I stuff it into a hat. “There,” I say smugly. “All better. Let’s go.”
We run out into the hallway, careful to tiptoe past the kitchen doorway, and into the darkness that has covered everything outside since we got home.
………………………………
The streets are so abandoned that it feels like Michael and I are the only people for miles. No cars pass by, and no late-night joggers run by. It’s just Michael and I.
“So,” he starts, “What are you planning on doing this summer?”
I take a moment to think. What am I going to do this summer? “I don’t know. I guess I’ll do what I always do. Stay at home were I can’t be stared at, or run away from, or talked about behind my back.”
Michael looks at me like I’m crazy. “ Are you kidding? You’re fourteen years old. You should have fun while you still can.”
I shove my hands into my pockets, desperate for a change of subject.
“What about you? Shouldn’t you have a girlfriend or something? Most guys your age have one by now.”
He runs a hand through his hair [his signature body language that tells me he’s hiding something]. I narrow my eyes at him, thoroughly suspicious. “What are you not telling me?”
He speeds up a little, and I struggle to keep up with him. Finally exasperated, I grab his arm and pull him to a stop. “Michael! Come on, talk.”
With an extremely dramatic sigh, he starts walking again, dragging me with him. I give up. There’s no way I’m going to get it out of him. When Michael makes up his mind to keep something secret, there’s no budging him.
“Where are we going, Michael? Slow down.”
But he doesn’t slow down. In fact, he speeds up. I have no choice but to sprint alongside him. Eventually, he stops, and I crash into his back. “What the…” I start, but then I realize that were at Best Buy, and Michael is staring through the window.
I follow his gaze to a small looking Asian girl, whose hair is up in little anime rings, and dyed purple, which matches her purple skinny-leg jeans, and her eggplant-colored tank and sneaks. Not to mention the load of purple jewelry she’s wearing. However, what really impresses me is… she actually pulled it off.
Looking at Michael’s face, it’s obvious that he is obsessed with her. I mean, were standing outside watching the her… ten feet away from the window. We're officially stalkers. I look from her and back to him multiple times before I say, “Michael.”
“What,” he says back, not taking his eyes off her.
“Go talk to her already. She’s right there.”
Michael turns to me, looking like I had suggested he jump off a cliff. “Are you crazy?! You can’t just go up to a girl like Luna. Not without a good reason anyway.”
I stare at him, so completely bewildered that I can’t talk. Therefore, instead, I take the time to smack him upside the head.
“Kyra! What in the world is-?”
“What is wrong with you,” I practically scream at him. “ What happened to the brother I had that used to go up to girls and just start talking, whether they liked you or not? How in the world could you have gone so soft?”
He opens his mouth to talk, but I cut him off again.
“Either you go in there and talk to her, or I’ll do it for you.”
Michael gives me the most threatening look, but my mind is made up. I turn and go inside.
Luna is leaning on the counter of the customer service counter. I walk right up to her, putting on my sweetest smile. Surprisingly, she smiles back, as if she means it. What did I expect? I honestly don’t know. The way Michael was talking, he made her sound like a monster.
“Hi. How may I help you?” Her voice has a Japanese accent to it that I can’t help but like.
I decide to cut to the chase. “Do you know Michael Jamison?”
She looks a little surprised at first, but then she nods. “Yes. He works here.”
“Have you ever paid any attention to him? At all?”
“Yes. He’s very nice. The other day, he bought me a new CD player. Mine broke the day before.”
YES! This should be easy then. “Would you like to go to the movies with us? Maybe on Saturday? Michael’s paying of course.” I lean in closer. “He really likes you, but he’s too afraid to tell you himself.”
She says nothing, just stares at me. Then, a blush creeps up over her cheeks. “Um… Okay. Tell him that I’d love to.” She eyes me a little bit. “Are you coming too?”
“Not if you don’t want me to,” I say back easily. She grins. “Okay. What time will he pick me up?”
“About 7: 30?”
“Cool. Tell him I’m looking forward to it.”
“Will do. Bye.”
I walk away, knowing that I’m the best, and knowing that Michael will too.
When I emerge from the store, Michael grabs me and jerks me to the side of the building. “What did you do, Kyra? If she never talks to me again, I’ll kill you.”
Removing his fingers from my jacket, I smile triumphantly. “I got you a date.”
Michael’s jaw drops, and he looks so incredulous that I can’t help but laugh. “Y-you… what?”
“I got you a date, Michael. Feel free to thank me any time now.”
His mouth closes and he shakes his head at me, grinning. “You are amazing. What did you say?”
I shrug of the complement, gloating. “I just told her the truth.”
Michael laughs aloud, and then breaks into a sprint, jumping on top the dumpster. “ YES!”
Shaking my head, I start to walk, pretending not to know him. Eventually, he joins me, patting my head like I hate.
………………………………..........................................
Michael notices it first. A car, following us.
A black Corvette.
Sound familiar?
“Michael, we need to run,” I whisper.
He grabs my hand, and we’re about to run, but then the car’s doors open, and…. ten people get out of the car. “Oh no…” Michael and I exclaim in unison.
I run upstairs and grab my brother’s baseball bat, my dad’s pepper spray, and the phone, ready to call 911 if those guys come here.
I go back into the living room with all the stuff and sit, back erect, on a stool, watching the door and windows for the fist sight of an ambush.
I hear a couple on noises on the porch and listen hard. The faint jingle of keys reaches my ears and I relax a little bit. It must be my parents.
A key is inserted into the lock and I hold my breath. The doorknob turns and I raise the bat.
Then, my mom steps in, followed by my dad, looking very tired, but calm nonetheless. She smiles and takes off her coat, hanging it on the coat rack in the closet.
“Hi honey,” she says while hanging up my dad’s coat. My dad says nothing, just stares around the room with a sad expression. “Anything interesting happen to you on your last day of school?”
I promptly burst into tears and slump down the wall I’m leaning on.
My face is soaked before I reach the ground, and my parents looked extremely alarmed.
My mom kneels down and hugs my shoulders. “Honey what happened? Did someone hurt you?”
I shake my head and try to speak through my tears. “I was walking home from… school, a-and this car was following me, and s-so I ran. A-and then they sped ahead of me and wanted me to come with them, b-but I kicked one of them and t-they fell, so I ran home and…”
I look up to see my dad looking like he wants to punch a wall, and my mom looking really scared. The doorknob rattles and I nearly jump out of my skin.
It’s only Michael though. Michael is my older brother. He works at Best Buy until 3:00 everyday, but he usually stays longer to ogle at girls. Ugh… boys.
“Hey Kyra. Guess what…” He trails off when he sees my face. “What’d I miss?”
Mom quickly explains. Michaels face darkens. “Were they wearing lab coats?” I nod. He shrugs. “I had to deal with them too, last week.” He sits on the sofa with a smirk. “Gave one of them a black eye. The other almost got a dislocated shoulder. They should have known better than to try and touch me."
Our parents sit on the love seat together, and talk quietly to each other. I look at Michael, confused. He shrugs, obviously as lost as I am.
He turns the TV on and starts flipping through channels, bored. Mom looks at him. “Please turn that off, Michael.” She doesn’t look happy, and she doesn’t look mad. Just kind of sad and tired.
“We have some things to tell you guys, okay? Even though most of it is for Kyra.” She stops, looking at dad. He nods slowly, his face pale.
Mom takes a deep breath, looking uncomfortable. “Kyra, Michael… your father and I have given this a lot of thought. Not just now, but for the last few weeks… and we’ve decided to finally tell you…” she trails off, unsure on how to finish.
Dad jumps in. “Kids, we feel that its time that you knew the truth about yourselves. Please don’t think that we’ve been trying to hide this from you, but we just never saw a good opportunity to do so until now. So,” he reaches down and picks up his briefcase, popping open the lid, and takes out one folder, and one birth certificate.
“Michael, we’ll start with you, since your news isn’t really that big-no... is is big, but Kyra's will be bigger... so we'll get yours over with first."
He hands Michael the birth certificate. Michael holds it over so I can see too.
The name is his, and the birth date is his, but the parents’ names aren’t ours. Michael’s brow furrows. He looks up sharply, his face a mixture of confusion and hurt.
“You’re not my parents.” He says it matter-of-factly, as if clarifying. They shake their heads no.
Michael stands up, angrier than I have ever seen him. “You don’t think this news is big? What in the world…” He exhales loudly, running his hands through his hair, frustrated, then leaves. We hear his door slam.
I stare up at the top of the stairs willing him to come back, not wanting to face our parents alone, but he doesn’t come back. So I turn back to face them, dreading what I know is coming next.
Dad hands me a paper. Another birth certificate. The date is mine, and so is the footprint, but not the parents’ names… or my name. I look up, confused.
“Whose is this? My name isn’t Loli Silkstream. Is that even a real name?” Dad closes his eyes and shakes his head. Mom pats his hand gently, and then looks at me.
“Kyra, there is a whole story behind that birth certificate. We were going to tell it to you now, but you probably want to prepare yourself. We’ll talk about it as a family later on. However, I will tell you this now. Loli was your name before we adopted you. Your parents had always wanted to name you something unique, something no one else was named, so they made that up together.” She says no more, looking close to tears.
I look over at dad but his expression is blank. Feeling officially dismissed, I walk upstairs and knock on Michael’s door.
“Go away! I’m busy.”
I open the door and step in, closing the door quickly behind me. Michael is lying, stretched out. He looks over at me and slides over, making room for me. I lay down next to him, smiling softly.
This is what we always used to do when I was younger. I’d be unable to sleep, or mad about being grounded or something, and I’d come here and lay down and he’d talk to me about video games or some TV show he‘d watched the night before. Comforting me, without getting all mushy about it. Then, he’d promptly kick me out when one of his friends called. It’s kind of funny now that I think back on it.
However, right now, I’m worried about him. I pull my hair up over my shoulders; getting the stray strands off his face, [He hates it. Always has]. “Are you okay?”
He doesn’t look at me, but continues to study his ceiling. “Yeah. I just… I’m trying to think about this reasonably, you know. I mean, mom and dad said they never had a chance to, but there’s always time for stuff like that. They shouldn’t have kept it from me for so long. I’m 18 for goodness sake. I could've moved out by now and never come back; and then i'd would have never known. They’re long overdue."
I bite my bottom lip, trying not to cry. Michael seems to sense this, because he looks over at me, concerned. I take a breath.
“I was adopted too, you know. Turns out my real name is Lolo, Lulu, or something like that. Oh right, it was Loli.” I laugh bitterly. “I think I’ve always known that something was, you know, not right. Deep inside.”
I shake my head slowly; still a little dazed from everything that’s happened. “I’m not mad though. I know that they love us. You do too, even if you don’t want to admit it. I wonder why they changed my name though. Above all that, I just want to know why my real parents put me up for adoption. Whether they didn’t want me, or simply couldn’t keep me.”
I stand up and walk to the door. Then I turn around. “You wanna go for a walk? I don’t want to talk to mom and dad right now. I need to think.”
Michael nods. “What if we run into those guys again? They might have gotten more guys and come back out again.” He eyes my hair. “They could use your hair against you, pull it like a rope.”
My hands go instinctively to my hair. I start braiding it until I have a long rope, then I coil it until its in one ring, and then I stuff it into a hat. “There,” I say smugly. “All better. Let’s go.”
We run out into the hallway, careful to tiptoe past the kitchen doorway, and into the darkness that has covered everything outside since we got home.
………………………………
The streets are so abandoned that it feels like Michael and I are the only people for miles. No cars pass by, and no late-night joggers run by. It’s just Michael and I.
“So,” he starts, “What are you planning on doing this summer?”
I take a moment to think. What am I going to do this summer? “I don’t know. I guess I’ll do what I always do. Stay at home were I can’t be stared at, or run away from, or talked about behind my back.”
Michael looks at me like I’m crazy. “ Are you kidding? You’re fourteen years old. You should have fun while you still can.”
I shove my hands into my pockets, desperate for a change of subject.
“What about you? Shouldn’t you have a girlfriend or something? Most guys your age have one by now.”
He runs a hand through his hair [his signature body language that tells me he’s hiding something]. I narrow my eyes at him, thoroughly suspicious. “What are you not telling me?”
He speeds up a little, and I struggle to keep up with him. Finally exasperated, I grab his arm and pull him to a stop. “Michael! Come on, talk.”
With an extremely dramatic sigh, he starts walking again, dragging me with him. I give up. There’s no way I’m going to get it out of him. When Michael makes up his mind to keep something secret, there’s no budging him.
“Where are we going, Michael? Slow down.”
But he doesn’t slow down. In fact, he speeds up. I have no choice but to sprint alongside him. Eventually, he stops, and I crash into his back. “What the…” I start, but then I realize that were at Best Buy, and Michael is staring through the window.
I follow his gaze to a small looking Asian girl, whose hair is up in little anime rings, and dyed purple, which matches her purple skinny-leg jeans, and her eggplant-colored tank and sneaks. Not to mention the load of purple jewelry she’s wearing. However, what really impresses me is… she actually pulled it off.
Looking at Michael’s face, it’s obvious that he is obsessed with her. I mean, were standing outside watching the her… ten feet away from the window. We're officially stalkers. I look from her and back to him multiple times before I say, “Michael.”
“What,” he says back, not taking his eyes off her.
“Go talk to her already. She’s right there.”
Michael turns to me, looking like I had suggested he jump off a cliff. “Are you crazy?! You can’t just go up to a girl like Luna. Not without a good reason anyway.”
I stare at him, so completely bewildered that I can’t talk. Therefore, instead, I take the time to smack him upside the head.
“Kyra! What in the world is-?”
“What is wrong with you,” I practically scream at him. “ What happened to the brother I had that used to go up to girls and just start talking, whether they liked you or not? How in the world could you have gone so soft?”
He opens his mouth to talk, but I cut him off again.
“Either you go in there and talk to her, or I’ll do it for you.”
Michael gives me the most threatening look, but my mind is made up. I turn and go inside.
Luna is leaning on the counter of the customer service counter. I walk right up to her, putting on my sweetest smile. Surprisingly, she smiles back, as if she means it. What did I expect? I honestly don’t know. The way Michael was talking, he made her sound like a monster.
“Hi. How may I help you?” Her voice has a Japanese accent to it that I can’t help but like.
I decide to cut to the chase. “Do you know Michael Jamison?”
She looks a little surprised at first, but then she nods. “Yes. He works here.”
“Have you ever paid any attention to him? At all?”
“Yes. He’s very nice. The other day, he bought me a new CD player. Mine broke the day before.”
YES! This should be easy then. “Would you like to go to the movies with us? Maybe on Saturday? Michael’s paying of course.” I lean in closer. “He really likes you, but he’s too afraid to tell you himself.”
She says nothing, just stares at me. Then, a blush creeps up over her cheeks. “Um… Okay. Tell him that I’d love to.” She eyes me a little bit. “Are you coming too?”
“Not if you don’t want me to,” I say back easily. She grins. “Okay. What time will he pick me up?”
“About 7: 30?”
“Cool. Tell him I’m looking forward to it.”
“Will do. Bye.”
I walk away, knowing that I’m the best, and knowing that Michael will too.
When I emerge from the store, Michael grabs me and jerks me to the side of the building. “What did you do, Kyra? If she never talks to me again, I’ll kill you.”
Removing his fingers from my jacket, I smile triumphantly. “I got you a date.”
Michael’s jaw drops, and he looks so incredulous that I can’t help but laugh. “Y-you… what?”
“I got you a date, Michael. Feel free to thank me any time now.”
His mouth closes and he shakes his head at me, grinning. “You are amazing. What did you say?”
I shrug of the complement, gloating. “I just told her the truth.”
Michael laughs aloud, and then breaks into a sprint, jumping on top the dumpster. “ YES!”
Shaking my head, I start to walk, pretending not to know him. Eventually, he joins me, patting my head like I hate.
………………………………..........................................
Michael notices it first. A car, following us.
A black Corvette.
Sound familiar?
“Michael, we need to run,” I whisper.
He grabs my hand, and we’re about to run, but then the car’s doors open, and…. ten people get out of the car. “Oh no…” Michael and I exclaim in unison.
♠ ♠ ♠
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