Chapter 2: No time To take Chances
Author's Note: Nothing much to say about this chapter. If you wanted to ask about this, yes, Kellah and Brian will keep being like that to each other for a long time. More ghostly atmosphere and stressing out in this chapter!
Enjoy and leave some love!
Nessie
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We weren’t followed on our way to the train station. We dumped Kellah’s car in some bushes close to, but not right next to, the station and with Sylvia clutched on my back, we hurried to the station. I hated the fact that I was limping and hoped that nobody we knew would be here this early in the morning to recognize us and start asking questions we did not want to answer right now. The news the police would have done over our mother’s death and our sudden disappearance would be enough already. Small towns were good to hide in, but once you were found, you had to run until your feet could no longer keep you upright.
“Who’s gonna take care of the kennel now?” I asked Kellah as we took our tickets from the clerk. The train would be here in ten minutes. We found a bench and sat in the meantime; my aunt insisted that I should rest my leg as much as I could. Like spending twenty six hours in a bunk bed wouldn’t be enough.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve taken care of everything,” she said in an assuring tone.
“I don’t care about those mongrels. It’s none of my business anyway. Nobody told you to get involved with dogs in the first place.”
“I’m a dog trainer. Does that ring any bells? Since I had no dogs to train here, I had to do something with dogs. It is my calling, like you being a necromancer… sorta.”
“Apparently, the fact that I said I don’t care didn’t make it clear enough, did it?”
“Still a jerk.”
“Say it enough times and you may actually believe it. I know you love me deep inside.”
“Very, very deep inside. Someone, bring a shovel so I can dig out my love for my nephew!” she said melodramatically and rolled her eyes as she mocked ‘shoveling in the dirt’.
“You should try acting now that you can’t walk dogs. You are very good.” I chuckled.
“Just a tiny little secret I’m going to share with you. Come close.” She motioned for me to lean closer and whispered in my ear, “You may think sarcasm makes you look all strong and mature, but it just makes you look like a j-e-r-k. And I don’t walk dogs, I train them. If we have any dogs around where we’re going to stay, I would gladly train one to sleep in your bed. You may use the floor though.”
“Talk about mature, Aunt Kellah. Really mature. So please remind me again,you’re the grown up here, right?”
“If you’we going to keep bickewing, can you do it less loudly…?” Silvia murmured in her sleep and rubbed her eyes. “I can’t sleep...” I frowned and brushed some hair from her forehead.
“Sorry, baby girl. We’ll be quiet.”
“If I ask like that too, will you shut up more often, Brian?” Kellah asked and before I could answer, she pulled a book out of her bag and started reading, looking so calm, as if she was taking a typical trip to see relatives for the holidays. She really did remind me of mom.
Eventually, the train arrived and I stood up, Silvia snoring lightly with her cheek pressed against my shoulder. I tried to find my balance between the good and the crappy leg and limping along, I followed Kellah.
“Come on, grams, we’re almost there!” she mocked. If I wasn’t holding Silvia, I would have pulled her stupid blond braid by now and knocked her to the ground.
She handed over our tickets and while the guy at the door was checking them, I felt a chill running down my spine. My breath hitched in my throat and suddenly it felt as if the sky was darker somehow. They had found us.
“Can’t that thing speed up a bit?” I murmured in Kellah’s ear through my teeth.
“Oh great, just tell me we’re in trouble,” she muttered.
“Big.”
“Yay. Nice way to start our day. How big?”
“We’re getting in that train or we’re getting killed big. Big enough for you?”
The color vanished from her face as did the smile that was naturally there. “Excuse me… Could you please make this a bit quicker? We have the child sleeping and my nephew has hit his leg so…”
The guy who was checking the tickets nodded carelessly without even bothering to answer Aunt Kellah. Sucking at his cigarette again and blowing some smoke out, he glanced at me and Silvia in my arms, then at Kellah. He probably thought she was kidding when she said I was her nephew. He had every right, we were just six years apart; she could have been my older sister. “Sure, girl, just wait like everyone else,” he muttered. His voice was raspy from years of smoking probably and his tone was slightly mocking.
And time was pressing us.
I looked at Kellah in my typical ‘Do something!’ look and shifted my weight, positioning myself so that I could flee if I had to. But where could I go? With that stupid leg, I couldn’t get far enough from the station and if I hid somewhere here, there was no way they wouldn’t find us.
“Alright, you know what, sir, you have absolutely no manners and if my request isn’t filled at this instant, I am going to contact your superiors and be sure they’re going to be informed about everything! The fact that you’re smoking during working hours and refuse to help a cripple and a child included!” Whoa! That was intense! When Kellah got all I will kick your ass kind of strict, she was really scary. And nobody; and I mean nobody could tell her no. Sometimes like that, I was glad I had my aunt with me. The rest of the time, she was a pain in the ass though. My pain in the ass. I had to admit to myself, I was kinda impressed.
The chill seemed to magnify and I shivered. They were almost here.
The guy seemed to be finally touched by some part of the lecture my aunt gave to him. I grinned as he looked at her like a child caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar hidden on the top of the fridge. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Right away.” It took him just seconds to really check the tickets and tell us we could get on. Kellah had a proud look on her face as she pulled me inside.
“That didn’t go so bad, huh?”
“You may actually be sort of useful,” I said coldly trying to hide my smirk.
She rolled her eyes and turned serious as she looked out the windows. “Are you sure they won’t follow us in here?”
“Hundred percent. Let’s get in our cabin now, your injured nephew needs to lie his sister down.”
“Okey dokey,” she said perkily, as if all worries in the world had gone away again, just like that.
“Wow, look at a mourning sister. Who’d believe you just lost your older sister! I insist, you must try acting.”
She squared her shoulders and I saw her stomping her feet as she sped up slightly, almost as if she did it so that I couldn’t catch up with the extra weight I was carrying and the limping leg, and the moment I was in the cabin, she snapped the door closed behind me. She threw the bag on the bunk while I lay Silvia on the bottom bunk opposite hers. I’d take the one on top. Only when I sat on the edge of Silvia’s bed to pull off my boots where the blood had dried out and looked like simple innocent mud by now, did I notice that Kellah was crying.
“You know nothing about how I am when I’m mourning! You don’t know what grief means! You need to get a grip…you insolent… rude… uncaring… child! You may think you have a thick skin because you’ve been running around since you were little and you never really grieved your father because the wounds of him abandoning you were still fresh! You may not be able to feel your mother’s loss because you’re focused on getting your sister away, but I… I can feel it! It affects me greatly and I’m just putting on a brave face because of her!” She pointed at Silvia, clueless little Silvia, who in her sleep curled into a ball and turned to the other side. “It touches me! It may not touch you, but it touches me! So back off! Shut your mouth for once and stop being a smartass! Just try to act less like a teenager and more like the responsible adult you so insistently claim to be! You don’t even know what to feed the child! If they didn’t find you, she would still probably die, out of starvation! And it was oh so clever of you to hide that about her mother’s death! Like it will be easier to deal with it if a few days pass, or even weeks. She’ll figure it out. I promise you, Brian, she’s going to figure it out. Even five-year-olds do realize things and then she is gonna be very angry with you for not telling her the truth right away.”
“Will. You. Stop?” I growled. “You don’t know anything about what will happen if she finds out! She may go crazy! She may even destroy herself! Have you ever wondered why we’ve been chased in the first place? Why they want her so badly? Why mom died? No, that never crossed your human mind. Because there are complications you can’t even imagine. Because they’re none. Of. Your. Business! I took you with me, because you asked me to. So now you will either play by my rules, or you may get off this train while you still have time.”
Feeling the exhaustion taking over me, I leaned against the bunk’s ladder and realized that in the tension of the fight, I had stood up and my fists were clenched at my sides. She had no idea how I felt, or dealt with any of this!
And suddenly, the door snapped open.
“Oopsie,” a female voice giggled. I barely glanced at her to see a big duffle bag swung over her right shoulder. “Yay, got the cabin with the family fight,” she mumbled and I wondered if she was talking to us or herself. Whatever it was, I felt my cheeks getting a bit warmer. “I… could go out and come back later if you want?”
“No, sorry. We didn’t know we’d have another person in the cabin,” Kellah told her kindly.
“Yeah, I wished I had my personal cabin too, but those things cost a fortune. Plus, there was none left at the last moment even if I had the money to afford it.”
“Do you maybe want the bottom bunk?” she offered, taking hold of her duffle.
“No, I don’t mind the top. The view’s always better.” Something about the way she said this made me take a closer look at her. Her ebony black hair fell in waves over her shoulders and thick dark lashes framed her big almond brown eyes. She had full lips that were a natural deep shade of red. A faint blush covered her pale cheeks. The curves of her body were outlined by the dark red and purple dress she was wearing. She totally looked like the kind of girl I’d hook up with under normal circumstances. “So, I’m Lillian. Just thought I should introduce myself to the people I’m going to spend the next twenty six hours of my life with.”
“I’m Kellah,” my aunt said, smiling. If I didn’t know her, I’d have the impression she had brushed off our fight in a matter of seconds, but I knew such things didn’t go away that quickly for her.
“Brian,” I said. “And that’s Silvia.”
“What a cute girl. Your daughter?” she asked Kellah.
She laughed. “No. I don’t have children. Silvia’s my niece and Brian’s her brother.”
“Nice. So, I think I’m gonna hit the hay if you don’t mind; don’t worry, I’m not the snoring kind.” And with that, she climbed gracefully up the ladder and slipped under the rough train blanket. Without exchanging another word with my aunt, I tried in the least painful way to climb onto my bunk myself and crossed my legs over the blanket. I saw Lillian looking at me through her long lashes and blinking several times before closing her eyes once and for all. I shifted uncomfortably on the bed and turned my back to her and Kellah while I looked out the window as the train moved away from the station. If only that were the end and not the beginning… or the beginning of the end…
* * * * *
“I’ll take the kid and go for a walk around. Maybe get something to eat.” Ouch Kellah, that really hurt.
“Careful,” I warned, both for the way she was talking to me but mostly because she couldn’t be reckless with Silvia. Trusting my sister to her was already too much. It didn’t matter she was my aunt; she was still just a human. And humans proved pretty useless when the time to run or defend themselves came.
“There’s nothing to worry about on here, remember? You said it yourself.” Ha ha. Funny, auntie. Go on, make me laugh more.
“Still. You know what I mean.”
“Sure. Worry not.”
“Bye, Bwyan!” Silvia said and at the sound of her voice, my look softened and I gave her a small smile.
They left and the door behind them slipped back in place with a faint clink.
Since Lillian had fallen asleep, she hadn’t moved, or at least not from what I’d noticed. She stirred and her curious eyes looked straight at me. “You’re sweet. Really not taking chances with your sister now, are you? You’re this big protective brother but deep down inside you’re soft and kind.”
“You had it right until you said soft and kind,” I mumbled. “I hadn’t realized you were awake. Were you up for a long time?”
She yawned and covered her mouth with her small hand. “Naw… Just a few minutes before. I heard the whole conversation about your aunt taking your sister for a walk though.”
“Take her for a walk…” I murmured. “Don’t say it like that. It sounds like my sister’s a dog.” My mind ran back to the short conversation we had about Kellahwalking dogs.
“You’re funny.”
“I’m tired, as a matter of fact. And that’s not funny, that’s cynical.”
“I think I like cynical then.”
“Reaaally?” I lifted my eyebrows slightly. She seemed like a smart girl, she’d probably realize the irony behind my words.
“So what’s the deal with your aunt? Taking you away for vacation while you wanted to hang out with friends? Keeping you out of the house while your parents are preparing to get a divorce?”
I let a dark chuckle escape my chest. I really wish it was one of those scenarios. It may have been better. “Let’s just say my relationship with Kellah is built on a bizarre ground of uncertain trust.”
“How can you trust in someone be uncertain?” She sat up, letting her uncovered legs hang freely under the bunk. “Isn’t trust all about certainty?”
“Normally. That’s what the use of the word bizarre in my sentence stood for. I don’t do well with people on the whole. Kellah’s one of the people I’m closest to.”
“Really? Wonder what you’re like with people you dislike.”
“You really don’t. You don’t want to see that; it’s a really ugly sight.”
She let out a light chuckle and interwove her fingers over her knee. “So you’re the kind of person someone wouldn’t want to see the bad side of… Right?”
“Maybe. Yeah, I guess. That’s what most people say about me at least.”
“And what do you suggest?” She leaned forward, still far away from me but somehow looking as if she was closing the distance between us. I wanted to lean forward too and reach out to her.
“It’s okay to see me angry. As long as I’m not unleashing my anger at you.” A grin spread across my face, my typical challenging look, which I didn’t let many people see though. I wasn’t myself with many people; my limited family members were more or less the only ones.
I lowered the sock to loosen the bandages on my leg a little; they were too tight and were bothering me. I hoped the movement would go without notice but her eyes fell on my leg, spotting the injured part quicker than I’d expected.
“Sore muscles? Want a rub?” Something in the way she said it made it sound almost… seductive.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Do I?”
“Trust me, I’m good. Really. I promise, I won’t give you any cramps.”
I crooked my head to the left, giving her permission to come. “Then sure.”
She leapt gracefully from the bunk and onto the ground and reached over to mine. She sat on the edge of the bed and curled her bare legs on the blanket. There was a lot of skin exposed and I was afraid she was all too aware of it. I moved my gaze to her face, but she had already noticed me. Damn! That leg’s going to be the death of me! My defenses are all down! This is a really off day for me. I don’t usually let my guard down like this. What the heck is this girl doing to me?
“Like something you see?” she asked and reached for my leg gently, placing it on her lap and softly massaging my ankle with her fingers, tracing circles over it.
“There’s a lot to like,” I told her. Our eyes locked for a few seconds and then she focused on my leg. It didn’t take her long to spot the bandages.
“Got an injury recently?”
“Running around a lot means falling down a lot. Broken glass. It’s okay.”
“Hmmm… Overprotective brother needs to protect himself a little more, huh?”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I murmured softly, losing my focus momentarily, caught up in the feeling of her fingers on my leg. She was actually making the pain withdraw momentarily and I enjoyed every second of it. “You’re good,” I said.
“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have offered to do it in the first place.” She lolled her neck to the left, causing her dark locks to slip away and expose a perfectly beautiful pale neck.
I remained silent, taking in every detail of her for the next few moments, letting myself be aware only of her gentle massaging on my leg and the beautiful sight before me. Her fingers froze on my ankle and she let one hand slip across the blanket and find mine. I had sat up straighter, leaning closer to her, our eyes locked.
“Is your mom okay with you kissing strangers?” she asked breathlessly.
“Do you think I could care less right now?” I asked and pulled her face to mine. My hands found the curve of her neck, bringing her face closer to mine while I explored her lips. With my leg totally forgotten now, she lay on top of me, her fists clutching my hair. Her breath was hot against me and I slipped my tongue in her mouth, deepening the kiss. Her body responded eagerly to any move I made, our lips leaving each other’s just to catch our breaths, but when I tried to roll so that I was on top of her, she held me there, as if she didn’t want to shift position for some reason.
And that was when I realized something was really wrong.
Trying to pretend I was clueless about what happened, I let her have the upper hand, virtually, and reached with my hands to her shoulders, running them across the length of her arms until her little wrists were cuffed in my grip. When she realized what I was doing, it was too late. She was trapped in her own game.
She opened her eyes and pulled away, but not too much; I didn’t give her much space to move. And just then, I flipped her on her back and held her there, wrists held together behind her. She struggled a little under my grip, but soon realized she couldn’t escape. Staying as motionless as she could, she turned her head as much as possible to face me. I wasn’t sure I wanted direct eye contact at the moment though, wondering if it would distract me.
“Who are you, Lillian? Who sent you?”
“And why would I tell you?” Her voice was still velvet and seductive and I wanted to roll my eyes. Did she honestly still believe her charm worked on me now?!
“Apparently something more than cheap tickets made you end up in our cabin. So spill. Unless, of course, you’re not interested in seeing the daylight again.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
No comments:
Post a Comment