I woke to sunlight filtering in and yawned in the face of a tall, slim man in black suit.
"Ma'am" He shook me gently, his voice warm and inviting.
"Yes?" I groaned, yawning and stretching my arms in his face with all my strength.
"The train is now in London. All passengers are disembarking." He related in a bland tone, his face betraying no emotion at my uncouth behavior.
I sat up immediately and glanced around. Ours was a private car so there was no other person here besides mother, the conductor and myself, but I could here the sounds of people moving and talking.
"What time is it?"
"It's 6 o'clock in the morning ma'am."
"Thank you." I murmured to the still standing conductor. He nodded his assent before turning smartly on his heel and exiting the car, leaving mother and I alone.
"Where are we Kiera?" Mum gasped in a frightened voice, peering at everything as if they were made of poison.
I groaned once again, working out the kinks in my limbs. Where had the hours gone? When we'd arrived at the train station, it'd been past eleven p.m. The trip that was just a little under nine hours had lasted twelve hours instead. I remembered an announcement about a problem or other in the engine. Had I slept through all the time the train was stuck in place and fixed? Damn, I must have been more tired than I thought.
"Why would your father be here?" Mother's anxious words broke into my thoughts again.
"I don't know how his mind works. You're his wife, I should be asking you this." I replied flippantly and disembarked from the car before she could brave any more questions. I hefted the stolen bag over my shoulder and pondered my next move.
I was inappropriately dressed for....anywhere and so was mother with her blood stained blouise. The ticketer had given us both weird looks. We needed a change of clothes. Stat.
Then we needed to keep moving. I didn't know where we were going, but I knew we weren't there yet. I walked briskly in the direction of the conductor that just woke me up. He hadn't treated mum and I disdainfully despite our disturbing attire so I figured he'd be more receptive into helping me. Catching up to him next to a tall African American woman in the same black suit as him.
"Hi. I'm sorry to disturb you but I need a little favor." They stopped talking and stared at me appraisingly. The look quickly turned into one of confusion.
"Yes?" He questioned, drawing the 's' out.
Oh. I was supposed to elaborate on what I needed him to do for me. I flushed.
"Um yes. The thing is, my mother and I were robbed just before we got to the train station yesterday. We can't go home dressed like we are. We might get arrested for murder or something." I chuckled nervously as they both gasped in dismay on my behalf. "Do you know of a boutique or a Goodwill store or something?" I rushed out before they could ask me any questions.
"You need to report the theft to the police. Don't you need to go to the hospital or something? You know what? I'm going to call 999 right now." The lady shrieked in alarm. She was already reaching into her pocket to retrieve what I was sure was her mobile. Shit.
"No!" I thundered before I could stop myself. "No. You don't need to do that." I continued in a normal tone of voice.
The shocked lady was struck dumb for a few seconds before her coworker, the conductor I'd believed to be nice piped up. "Why not?" He queried, suspicion rife in his voice.
"Because it's my aunt's funeral today. We can't miss it and we will if we have to speak to the police now. Besides." I added as a bout of inspiration struck me. "The theft happened in Amtrak which is in the United States. This London. Calling the police now won't help our cause."
They both nodded and made agreeing noises. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, okay? Are you okay? How old are you? Where is your mum?" The inquisitive lady blabbered on, lobbing one question after the other at me.
Mehn, I really missed the days when people minded their business and did as they were told.
"She's fine but tired and upset. If you could point me in the direction of a boutique?" I called loudly, cutting right into the middle of her ramblings.
"But why is she upset?" She asked in confusion.
Are you kidding me right now? I glared at her and enunciated clearly. "She is upset because she just lost all her belongings just a few hours before she has to bury her only sister. If you could be so kind as to direct me I to where a boutique is, I will be out of your hair and we will be on our way to the funeral."
"Right after this block, turn left and you can't miss it." I nodded at the conductor gratefully and marched away from them before his companion can aggravate me further with stupid comments.
I found mother right next to our train. I clasped her hands and dragged her with me. Something on my face my face must have prompted her to stay quiet because she didn't protest as I shoved my way out of the station, pushing everyone in my part to the side. This uncontrollable anger was new. Intrusive though her question night have been, she was just trying to be nice. Her statements were not enough reason to feel like ripping someone's head off.
"Kiera!" Mum shrieked and I jumped, releasing her hands like they were on fire.
When the red haze cleared from my eyes, we were in the middle of the street. There was a lot of foot traffic here, people were jam-packed everywhere I looked, barely any breathing space amongst them, but even though there was barely any space, every single person passing by that street made sure to give me a wide berth.
I didn't know why until I glanced at mother and saw the fear in her eyes. Behind her was a square display glass. The red glow was back in my eyes, but more than that, my arms... They had been extremely hot, which was why I dropped mum's hands earlier.
Staring at my hands in the mirror, my hands weren't just hot, they crackled like there was a living, breathing volcano beneath my hands.
The fear choking me deprived me of the ability to scream. I staggered back from the display case, flailing about wildly until someone stopped from me from falling with their body.I whirled around to find my mother with tears in her eyes."I'm... I'm fine." I choked out, patting my arms to convince her and myself that I really didn't just catch on fire a second ago. I found several people holding their phones out and staring at us in morbid fascination."We need to leave here now." Mother whispered urgently, wiping the tears from her eyes. I nodded and we speed walked in one accord down the street.Glancing around after we cleared another block, I spied a small boutique, just like the man had discribed."C'mon mum. Time for a little shopping." I didn't wait for a reply as I entered the air-conditioned store. The clothes in here looked pricey but I had Frank's money to blow so why not do it on designer clothes.I shook myself, trying to get r
Evening was upon us once again. The journey to Llanwrtyd had taken the better part of two days. I was tired, cranky and weary. If I never took another bus or train again, it would be to soon. But somehow, I was inexplicably relieved. I'd been trying to gain entry into Llanwrtyd for centuries, each attempt a failure, but now, just when I was beginning to believe that the guardians had really been successful, I found my ticket in. I was brought up short by the thought that was mine, yet not. The voice had spoken in my head, but the thoughts were definitely not mine. I was nineteen years old and I never even knew Llanwrtyd existed before today. Why would I have spent centuries trying to come here? "Okay, I have had enough now." Mum yelled right in the middle of the street. Thankfully, there was no one to hear her. "That signs says we are in Llanwrtyd, Wales. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wales is in the United kingdom. We are in another continent!" She roa
"Okay. Here is Gracie's BnB." He announced a small eternity later. I exhaled gratefully and jumped away from the truck. I'd never met aan who spoke for long periods of time as Bill. He didn't even care that we weren't contributing to the conversation.We knew literally everything about Bill. From the size of his ranch, to the names of his children, to that of his parents and his favourite spots in Llanwrtyd but the man didn't even know our first names.'Must love the sound of his voice' the voice piped up once again.The building he brought us to was antique and also charming. The wooden steps led to a brown balcony and a woman in a rocking chair and a black cat in her lap. She closed the book she was reading and clabbered to her feet."Guests! Oh, what a beautiful sight." She exclaimed happily, even clapping her hands together.'Sheesh, desperate much?' The voice sniped again.
She gaped at me but now that I've had the idea, it seemed like the best thing in the entire world. After I was able to force some food down mother's throat, I made her wear some new clothes. We would need a car and I needed to find something for mother to do during the days. Activity and interaction with other people were going to snap her out of her downtrodden mood.We braved Catwoman again and after an hour of her lectures on about all things Llanwrtyd, mum was able to get a word in edgewise and ask her for directions to a realtor."Looking to buy a house here? Oh, that's such wonderful news! I knew you were here to stay just by the looks on you." She gushed happily. "Why, my nephew works in the real estate office. I'm going to get you his phone number right now! You and I going to make truly wonderful neighbours." She prattled on but I'd tuned her out, frozen as I was in terror. Neighbors? I'd have to see her on a daily basis for the rest of my life?
"He swindled you!" She screeched."Why do you say that?" Mum wondered."That house is haunted. No one has been able to live there since Nana Baker died there over a hundred years ago.""Really?" I drawled in a bored voice. That was the latest excuse ever."Yes, really! No one has been able to live in that house longer than three nights. They either run away, run mad or die." She related with petrified eyes."Oh no." mother gasped, her eyes wide with fear. I was glad that she was being cognizant of her surroundings and taking part in conversations again, but I didn't want Mrs Clark scraing the daylights out of her."I doubt that's true mum. Ghosts don't exist.""It's not just ghosts but demons haunting that house. You think I'm making up tales?" Mrs Clark challenged dangerously.
Okay, so apparently, a new continent meant new rules. As I stared disconsolately at the old Victorian house three days later, I begrudgingly had to admit that the first rule was, NEVER ever go against Elsie Ballad. The building was ancient, asymmetrical and had so many creepy windows. It looked like a place where dreams went to die, not where future leaders were being molded. It felt like the gothic building was stolen from a medieval time.“You know, I'm legally considered an adult in this country. That means I can make decisions myself and shouldn't be coerced into going to school if I don't want to. Do you know that a sixteen year old can seek emancipation?”“Yes. But we’re not in America at the moment. We’re in Wales so the emancipation clause does not count. Also, I’m not forcing y
Holy, freaking sh*t! Where the heck was this?Several lockers were at the other end of the hall and that was the end of its similarities to other schools.First off, the damn lockers were not in a straight line. They were in a concave pattern, almost a circle, but not. Three half circle walls also stood about ten meters apart from each other, leaving the lockers to be about twenty feet away. The walls were short though, about three inches separated it from the roof.As if that was not confusing enough, these walls were made of a yellowish granite. It was kind of garish in the sky blue hallway. What was the point of the walls if they guarded against nothing and led nowhere? It was a freaking confusing maze out here.
Sarah was quite tall for a girl. She was at least 5’6 which put her six feet over me. She was not only tall but had the shape of a model, all legs and a very curvaceous body. She was blonde and blue eyed, ticking off each box for a heroine in every stereotypical high school teen movie there was. I just hoped she wasn't as vain and mean as them.I clasped her hand gratefully. “Nice to meet you Sarah. I'm Kiera. Kiera Ba….Brooke.”My new surname was going to take some getting used to. I don't know how mother had done it, but she had convinced someone at the records office that not only had we been victims of a house fire, we had no families whatsoever seeing as she was a single woman raised in the orphanage and my dad was dead.We got new names, papers a