Across Worlds - Chapter 32 Part 1

Falyn

Falyn instantly regretted staying behind. While she was sitting here on the couch, Mina was off with their parents getting to live the life that they could’ve once had. Isn’t that what Falyn had been waiting for? To find the place that she was supposed to be? But Aidan was dangling information in front of her face. How was she supposed to resist? He was going to tell her things he refused to even tell his own sister. It had to be something really important. And she didn’t want to miss it.

She wondered what Mina was doing right now. It was obvious that she was less than ecstatic to have finally met her real parents. Falyn didn’t get it. Their lives had change significantly for the better. Why was Mina so uninterested?

“Falyn,” Aidan said, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

He took a breath, then let it out, shaking his head. “I just can’t talk about this right now. Why can’t I talk about this?” He ran his hands through his hair, leaving a mess where a neatly combed hairdo had been. “Just give me a minute, will you? I haven’t been in this house for years.”

“Yeah, sure,” Falyn responded. That definitely didn’t help her nerves. First Aidan says he’s going to tell her secrets he wouldn’t even tell Akia and now he said he couldn’t even tell her. Something was up. Why else would he be this nervous?

She sat for a while and watched him wander around, re-acclimating himself to the house. He hadn’t been back for years. Of course he’d be more hesitant. It had to be strange for him.

But how long could she wait to let him look around, really? What if he never got around to telling her anything? She’d have to get him to talk somehow. So she decided to follow him around. He’d talk when he was ready.

The first place he went was the kitchen. It seemed odd to her, but when she followed him into the room, she saw why he chose to start there.

It was like any other normal kitchen; countertops, stove, refrigerator, sink. But what made this one different were the pictures hanging from the walls. There didn’t seem to be much space that wasn’t covered with frames. Falyn recognized them immediately. They were pictures of Akia and Aidan all at different ages. Ones with smiles on their faces, others where they looked like they were ready to kill each other. Falyn couldn’t help but laugh at those ones. The two siblings both had intense personalities. Of course they would clash as children.

Aidan had made his way through the pictures quickly. He’d probably stared at them enough times over his life that it didn’t take more than a glance to remember. Falyn however, wanted to look at them all. Never before had she gotten a chance to look into Akia’s past.

She looked the same as a child as she did now. The only difference was that her blond hair was lighter and had more curls. In pictures, she was always smiling. Falyn couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Akia smile – genuinely smile. These pictures were most definitely taken before the mess with Rhys even started. Falyn went down the line, taking in every image of the siblings until she came to one near the edge of the wall.

“This your parents?” she asked. The man in the picture was considerably taller than the woman and barely seemed to fit in the picture frame. Falyn found it strange because both Aidan and Akia were average height.

Aidan doubled back to look over her shoulder. “Yup, that’s them. Kit and Frida Noyes. They were great parents.”

“Were?” Falyn inquired. She knew that she was probably overstepping a boundary, but she wanted to know. Akia surely wouldn’t tell her.

“Yeah,” Aidan responded sadly. “Dad was killed by Rhys and Mom is… well, not around.”

“What do you mean ‘not around’?”

“Rhys has her.”

“How do you know?”

Aidan hesitated. “Can we do this somewhere else? I don’t want my parents staring at me while I admit to all my mistakes.” Without waiting for an answer, he walked past her through the kitchen and started down the stairs. Falyn stared. How long had the stairs been there? She hadn’t noticed them when she was looking around. Maybe she had just overlooked them. She quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind and followed him down the stairs.

The second she reached the bottom of the stairs, a shiver ran down her spine. The basement was dark and damp and obviously unfinished. A single light bulb hung just a few paces in front of her. The walls were bare and most had tears in the wallpaper running down.

Those better be from rats. Falyn thought. She didn’t want to even exercise the thought that something, or someone, else had made those marks. The room was creepy enough to begin with. She didn’t want the stories that went along with it.

Light filled the room from the opposite wall. Aidan appeared beneath the other light bulb, obviously being the one who turned it on. Falyn was speechless as she looked around.

While the first part of the room was dingy and just disgusting, the other side was very well kept. There were blue walls, just like the upstairs, and a red, complicated patterned carpet. There were swirls and lines and geometric figures everywhere. Falyn couldn’t make sense of it no matter how much she stared at it.

Standing on the rug were two couches, one large and one considerably shorter, both made of a black material that looked like leather. The large one looked like it could hold five people while the smaller one looked to only hold two. A wooden table stretched out the length of the large couch in front of it, papers littered across its surface. Falyn couldn’t tell what they were, but she could see that someone had written all over them.

“What is this place?” she asked, still looking around. She couldn’t get enough. It was strange to see such a livable abode just a few paces away from such a damaged place. The biggest question was why someone put it there.

Aidan smiled as he sat in the middle of the large couch. “This is where Akia and I used to hang out. Once she was old enough to know what was going on, that is. Mom and Dad never came down here. And even if they did, it was for something from under the stairs. Their vision was one directional.”

Falyn turned to peek beneath the stairs. Sure enough, there were three stacks of sleek, gray boxes. There didn’t seem to be much that could fit in the boxes which made Aidan’s story more believable. Not that Falyn didn’t believe him, but she was a bit skeptical. She still didn’t fully understand what his motives were.

“Come sit,” Aidan said, waving her over. She obliged, but chose to sit on the smaller couch rather than next to Aidan like he had motioned. He simply shrugged. “Suit yourself. I don’t bite you know.”

“What exactly are you going to tell me?” Falyn asked.

“Everything,” he responded. “Okay, maybe not everything, but some things. I have to tell someone.”

“About what?”

“Where I’ve been for the past four years.”

“Akia said you were in Sedula.”

“Yeah, well I lied to her, didn’t I?” He sighed and leaned back. Staring at the ceiling, he continued. “My sister and I were always close, but I did some dumb stuff in my life. One of them being leaving her to fend for herself. She’s doing just fine without me, but it still doesn’t sit well. I should’ve been there for her when she was working as a guard. I should’ve been there when she had that fight with Rhys. I should’ve been there when—”

“Wait,” Falyn interrupted. “She and Rhys had a fight? When was this? Was that when he first started being… evil?”

Aidan chuckled. “He’s always been evil. Somehow my sister brought out the normal side of him. I’m not going to say the good side because he doesn’t have one. He cares for my sister very much, but he also cares very much about Niro too believe it or not.”

Falyn stared. “And that means… what?”

“That means that Rhys cares about anyone that he knows is on his side. So when my sister was his friend, he cared about her. He still sees her as his friend even though they’re now fighting against each other.”

“Hang on. Why would he torture and kidnap her if he saw her as a friend? That’s not really something you do to your friend.”

“I know,” Aidan replied. “He’s one crazed guy. Look, I don’t pretend to know what he’s thinking. I’m just stating the facts.”

“And how do you know these facts?” Falyn asked, her eyes narrowing. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but Aidan seemed to know a lot more than he should’ve.

“Because I’ve been working with him for years.”

He said it so nonchalantly that Falyn was sure she had heard him wrong. Someone who was admitting to working with the enemy wouldn’t announce it so easily like that. But he had said it, just like that. It’s the truth.

How could he do this? To Akia of all people. She had spent years trying to be rid of Rhys and all the memories that came with him. And all that time, Aidan had been working with him. Maybe he didn’t care for his sister as much as Falyn had thought.

Then she realized something, something that made her blood turn to ice. Desperation took over. Her heart raced as she thought of how to get out. Aidan was working with Rhys and she was trapped in this room with him.

That’s why he brought me down here! She realized. Why else would he look to her to confide in? They barely knew each other. Here he was planning the entire time to talk her into trusting him and then he’d take her to Rhys.

She stood quickly and made her way to the stairs. She didn’t dare look back. If she did, she might fall into another trap. That could not happen.

“Whoa, hey,” Aidan called from behind her. “Wait up!” Before she could even make it to the first step, he was in front of her, blocking her path. “Where are you going? We have to talk.”

“No, Aidan, we’re not talking. You’re talking, trying to buy time for Rhys to get here.” She saw confusion in Aidan’s eyes, but she wasn’t about to believe it. “Don’t lie to me. I understand why you came back now. And I’m not about to let you get away with this.” She pushed past him, but he grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her back.

“You have the wrong impression,” he said softly, calmly. How dare he insist on being so manipulative? “I’m not working for him anymore. I said I was. Why do you think I’m here?”

“To bring me back to him!”

“No, Falyn, think,” he snapped. “I’m here in Lightport for good. I’ve been around you countless times in the past twelve, fourteen hours. Why would I pass up my opportunity to get the job done?”

She wanted to believe him, but she just couldn’t bring herself to. “Because you wanted it to be easy. Face it, getting me alone is easier than trying to convince the others why you’re taking me somewhere.”

Aidan looked flustered. Maybe she had found his weak spot. He must’ve realized that he couldn’t hide the truth from her anymore and that she was going to thwart his plans. She wasn’t going anywhere with him even if she had to hurt him to stop him.

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For the LMS contest. Word count: 1,994