Secrret chapter one

CHAPTER ONE

Of all the things that could have happened to me. I knew I was accident prone, but this was no accident. And this time, it was emotional pain instead of physical pain. So I as I crawled out my window with my backpack clinging to me, I knew I had no one but myself and my friends. They were waiting for me at the bottom. Bones, Jax, Shadow, Mikal, and Storm, all waiting for me. Don’t ask me why I hang out with boys and not girls. I’ll just tell you that I have no other friends. They all watched me as I crept down the railing that went from the roof to the ground. When I dropped down next to them, they moved closer to me so we could whisper.

“What do we do now?” Mikal asked.

“We run.” I said.

“You shouldn’t be doing this, Kira.” Jax said.

“Sure she should. Her parents have treated her like crap ever since that Osma came along. That’s a stupid name anyway. Who name’s their kid Osma? It sounds like a name that Disney would give one of their bad guys.” Bones said scornfully.

Jax looked at me, waiting for my opinion. I turned back to the house. The lights were all off. Suddenly, I heard a wailing cry from Osma’s room. All the lights were switched on as my parents ran up the stairs to find what was wrong. I knew it was just a nightmare. And yet, when I had a nightmare the other night, I had gone into my parents’ room to find comfort. My dad had just slapped me across the face and told me I was stupid for being scared of such visions. But these nightmares felt real. I actually felt pain in my nightmares. Everything felt real, my senses were normal. I could smell, hear, taste, see and feel everything that happened.

“Let’s go.” I said, narrowing my eyes.

“Kira!” Jax whined, looking back at the house that had used to be comforting to me. Until my adoptive parents had Osma. Then they had hated me and treated me like crap, just like Bones had said. I looked at Shadow. He looked at me through those dark brown eyes, looking through the tangles off ragged dark brown hair that was always over his face. He just wanted me to be safe, and I knew that. And I wasn’t safe here. Mikal agreed with Jax and thought I should stay. He had suggested I avoid my parents until Osma doesn’t need them as much anymore. I had ignored him. It was an awful idea. I bet my parents wouldn’t even care if I was gone. They’d probably clear out my room and turn it into a playroom for Osma.

Storm was on Shadow and Bones’ side. He wanted me happy and safe and not tortured by my parents every moment of the day. Storm watched me all the time, just like Shadow. He had amber eyes that were golden. They turned red in just the right light. He had pale skin, just like me, and black hair. He was a thin thing, although his chest was broad. His arms were skinny, just like his legs. Shadow nodded his head.

“I have to get out of here, Jax.” I said quietly. Jax gave a heavy sigh, realizing he had lost. I tucked my black hair behind my ear and stepped further away from my house. I was surprised the neighbors hadn’t noticed me sneaking off. I turned back to see if my parents had noticed I was gone yet. Nope. They were still comforting Osma. I felt the ache in my heart turn to a sting and I turned my back on them for good. The boys led me off. The suburbs eventually disappeared as the sun peeked cautiously over the edge of the world. My legs were moving robotically, never going any faster or any slower. If I went any faster I would fall down. If I stopped I wouldn’t be able to start again. My legs didn’t even feel like they belonged to me anymore. I couldn’t even feel them! The cobblestones tripped me up every once and a while, and Shadow, who was walking next to me, caught me and steadied me. I eventually leaned against him heavily, letting him help me along. It was amazing how these boys never got tired at all. They could keep walking forever. But that was probably because of the fact that they were always running from authorities.

Each boy had run away before me. I had met them when I had invaded their hideaway, an old abandoned mill on the other side of the valley. I had been searching for a possible place where I could get away from my parents and Osma when I had stumbled across the ivy coated mill. I had walked inside slowly, opening the heavy door. Dust had poured down on top of me, signaling that the door hadn’t been used in a long time. The wooden stairs creaked and groaned as I had carefully stepped up them, one step at a time. The walls were crumbling and the ceiling had a couple holes in it. When I had gotten to the top of the stairs, I had been surprised. There was a little set up in there. There was a pot hanging in a hole in the floor that would be later heated by the fire pit that was below on the first floor. There were make-shift beds that consisted of torn, thin blankets and crumbled, soft leaves under them. There was a dirty old cooler in there that had food and drinks in there, but they had been left unattended for a while. There were bags that had been used many times before strewn onto the floor next to each bed, with things like old paperback books that had been loved so much they were falling apart, pictures of younger siblings and older siblings, small trinkets and other things. There was an old boiler room in which the boiler didn’t work, but the room was still heated and herbs were hanging from the ceiling, apparently to be made into food later. There were things wrapped up in tin foil and Tupperware that were snuggled close to each other as if to share the heat of the non-working boiler room.

And then I had seen Shadow when I was walking out. He had been dragging a dead deer up to the boiler room when he saw me walking out. He had dropped the deer and whisked out an arrow from his quiver and pointed the bow and arrow at me. “How’d you find this place?” Shadow had asked.

“I was looking around the woods and I saw this place. I wanted to look inside.” I had stammered, a little shocked. I had been shaking hard, and when Jax showed up and saw the situation, he had pushed Shadow’s bow and arrow down and asked me where I had come from. I had told him I was from the subdivision a couple miles away. I had ridden my bike over to the woods to take a walk and had seen the place and gone in to investigate. I remember Shadow limping over to the deer and picking it up and dragging it into the boiler room. He had come back out and had stumbled. Jax didn’t notice, but I did.

“What’s wrong with your leg?” I had asked.

“It’s not my leg, it’s my side.” Shadow had grumbled. I had let my eyes stray down to his side, where his black shirt was stained dark with blood. The other boys had showed up not soon after that, and they learned what had happened to Shadow. I had taken care of him for as long as I could, but the boys didn’t have much of anything to help him. I had ridden home on my bike that night worried about Shadow. I had slept well, and then gone back to the forest the next day, loaded with medicine, cleansers, food, water, blankets, clothes, and other things the boys might need. I had taken them back to the boys and handed out clothes, put food and water up, helped make up the beds, and bandaged Shadow better.

Slowly, the boys got healthier and healthier, getting less and less skinnier and finally gaining some weight to match their muscle, I showed them herbs, berries, and vegetables they could find in the forest, old wounds healed, small sicknesses went away. The boys got better and better with my help. I had managed to save a small fridge from my parents. I had lugged it to the mill on a dolly, pulling it on my bike with a backpack full of water and other cold things clinging to my shoulders. I had taken care of the boys like that for months. And then I had my nightmare, my father had slapped me across the face and I had realized now that they had their own kid, they didn’t need me, their adopted child anymore. They didn’t care about me at all.

I was shaken out of the memory when we arrived at the mill. Shadow had my arm around his shoulders and I was barely able to drag my feet. Getting here on bike had been hard enough. Walking took forever. Jax and Shadow made me a quick bed out of the old blankets I had brought and I was quick to fall asleep.

* * *

I woke up because the birds were singing a little too loudly. I groaned and sat up. The boys were already gone, probably out hunting for food. I stretched to relieve myself of the aches and sores I still had from yesterday. My legs were still shaking a bit, and they were sore, but I could still walk. I did a quick clean up of the cabin, straightening beds and shoving things against the wall to make more room. I then grabbed the tin bucket we used to gather water and went outside. I climbed down the old stone stairs and over to the river, which was actually crystal clear and very good for drinking. Besides, once I boiled it, most of the bad stuff would be gone.

As I washed my arms, face and neck in the river, I thought about how easy this running away from home business was going to be. I mean, I was down here most of the time anyway. I used to come here very early, before my parents even woke up, and got back very late, right before my parents went to bed. They hadn’t even acknowledged I was gone for such a long time. They didn’t even know where I was going!

I gathered the water in the tin bucket and then carried the water back to the mill. I poured it into the pot and then went back downstairs to get the fire going. We had firewood, kindle, and sticks already stacked next to it, and we had a pretty good supply, so we didn’t really need to go hunt for more for another couple weeks. I started a fire with the lighter that I had found in the kitchen cabinet that my father had used to light his cigars. Of course, he quit because Osma was born and he didn’t want her growing up thinking smoking cigars was a good thing. He didn’t care what I did. After the fire was blazing, I watched as the thick grey smoke floated up to the pot and started to boil the water inside. It would take a while. Might as well clean up.

I went through the boiler room, organizing everything so we could find things easier. I cleaned out the microwave, which someone had given my mother for her baby shower. My mother had thrown it out because she didn’t like that person very much, so I took it and gave it to the boys. I cleaned out the fridge and put the extra food in there. I took the drinks out and put them in the cooler, which needed more ice. So I took all the ice out of the freezer box in the fridge, which worked extremely slowly, emptied out the water into the pot to boil, put the drinks in, and then put as much ice in as the drinks needed. I kept the rest in the ice box for later use. I cleaned up around the mill better, this time remaking the beds and rearranging so I could fit in there too. The mats that held our stuff like a bedside table were dirty, so I shook them out hard and then put them back in their place. I was pretty much tidying up all day. When the water was boiling hard, though, I took out some of the frozen deer that was in the fridge and I chopped it up as Shadow had showed me how. Then I put the pieces into the pot with some herbs to cook.

I was cleaning silverware in the water trough that had already been in the mill with fresh water from the river when the door burst open and Mikal came romping through the door, singing, “Honey, I’m home!” I grinned at him. Mikal was the goofy one. He loved to act silly and make stupid jokes. He had strawberry-blond hair that curled slightly at the end of his jaw-length hair and that gleamed in the sunlight. He had tan skin and these bright blue eyes that sparkled whenever they were open. Mikal set his make-shift spear against the wall and collapsed onto the floor, leaning against the wall.

“I’m beat.” He groaned. Shadow came in dragging another deer.

“Leave it right there, Shadow. I’ll cut it up after we eat.” I said gently, trotting back up the stairs with the clean dishes. The boys followed me, used to the drill. I picked the pieces of cooked meat out of the water with tongs and placed them on plates. The boys sniffed the air. Mikal sighed hungrily. I put some extra stuff on it and handed the boys their meals. We ate hungrily. The boys were exhausted from the morning of hunting, and I was tired from the long walk from last night and the cleaning that morning. When we finished eating, Mikal started to clean up the mess while Shadow, Storm, Jax and I dragged the deer down to the river to clean and cut. We took the tin basket for the meat with us. As Shadow and Jax worked at cutting the deer up, I waited patiently with Storm, looking around at the junipers, hollies, oaks, and pines that were in a wild mix that made the forest around us. The trees had been planted here and thrived well. I heard a rustling in the bushes and looked to see if it was another deer coming to see what was happening.

But it wasn’t.

A smooth, snow white face was poked through the bushes, supported by a thin neck and framed with silky black hair. Jade eyes looked at me hard, staying locked on me and only me. She stayed so still, I thought it was just a statue. And then Shadow turned to me and she was gone, just like that. She had left when I was about ¼ the way through my blink. I stared at the bush where her perfect, pretty face had appeared.

“Kira?” Shadow asked, touching my shoulder. I looked at him, a little shocked. His usually pale skin looked so tan now that I had seen that perfect white face. I slowly forgot the face and tried to focus on the work of getting the meat cleaned up and all the bones picked out. When we had finished, we took the meat back to the mill, wrapped it, and set it in the fridge. I crushed some of the dried herbs to make spices that would go on dinner later. The boys worked in silence for a while, cutting meat and broiling the barley we had found in the field beyond the trees that surrounded the mill. I sorted through dirty clothes that needed to be washed and clean ones that needed to be folded and placed in the closet. We had few clothes, but I had planned running away, so I had managed to get extra supplies from my parents.

I shuddered at the thought of them. My father’s sharp Roman nose and narrow, laser eyes. His thin lips always in a straight, small line. His bald head always shiny. My mother’s sharp, angular features were still somewhat a nightmare to me. It wasn’t until I felt a broad hand on my shoulder that I realized I had been shaking and tears had rolled down my cheeks. I looked up at Shadow. His gentle dark brown eyes welcomed me to tell him about it, but I refused by looking away. His hand didn’t move from my shoulder though. And then another, cold hand pushed my chin up and forced me to look at them. It was Storm. His deep golden amber eyes locked onto my grey-green ones. We stared at each other for a long time. Storm was looking strained, as if he was trying to tell me something but couldn’t get it out of him.

“Hey, Storm, I need help!” Jax called from outside. Storm blinked at me slowly, willing me to understand what he was trying to say. And as I looked deep into his eyes, they flashed red as the sun set, and his pale face was glowing in the orange rays of setting sun. Then he left. Shadow sat down next to me and watched me with a worried expression, but my mind was racing a million miles an hour.

Storm’s pale face… The pretty white face of that girl… Her liquid, jade green eyes that had locked on to my grey-green ones. The way she had looked at me… Strained, as if trying to tell me something. Just like Storm. Who was this girl?