Series Wednesday: Family Game night Page 39

I stand here waiting for this lady to say something; anything but she just stands there. “So can you take me to my mom’s apartment?” I ask her. “Yes I can. Cahira your mom said if you ever showed up here without her it meant she was in trouble” she says. I am not sure if she is asking me a question or telling me a statement. “Cahira!” I hear Grace in the distance. “Who is that?” The lady asks. “That’s my sister.” I tell her as I wave to Grace. “Your sister?” She asks. “Yes, that’s my sister. Did my mom not mention I had a half-sister?” I ask her. I am not sure how much this lady knows or even what this lady knows. Grace walks up. “Who is this?” She asks. “I never got her name” I tell Grace. We both look at the lady. “Hope said I wasn’t to give anyone my name if they came looking for her. I am just supposed to take you to her apartment. Is Hope in trouble?” She asks me. “I really can’t say. I just need you to take me to her apartment please,” I tell her. The old lady nods and points to the apartment across the way from us. She starts to walk towards it very quietly. She doesn’t say a word to us as we walk over there. The apartment is on the top floor. We follow her up the stairs. “Key?” Grace asks the lady. “I am afraid I don’t have a key. She said her little warrior would know where to find it.” I look around at all the figurines she has on her little porch. All of them are animals expect one. One is a figurine of a child warrior. I am sure this is where the key is. “Thank you for all your help.” I tell the nameless old lady. “No problem. So I just have one question.” She says to me. “What is it?” I ask. “Is Hope alive?” I look at Grace. “Yes why would you think she isn’t?” Grace asks her. “No reason. I should let you be. I have to be on my way.” She rushes off down the stairs. “What a strange lady.” Grace says. I pick up the child warrior to see a key taped to the bottom. “Got it” I tell Grace as I show her the key. Grace looks at the key and then looks back. “Something isn’t sitting right with me. I am going to check something out. You go inside I’ll be back in just a second.” Grace says as she takes off.
                I unlock the door and walk into the apartment. It smells like Hope. I look at how normal her place looks. She has art on the walls but no personal pictures which is to be expected. I walk looking around her living room and I don’t see a letter from our brother. We found the apartment but where is the next clue or letter of how to find Percy. I hear a thud outside. I run back out the door and Grace is dragging the old lady up the stairs. “What are you doing?” I ask her. “She called someone to warn them.” Grace says as she continues to pull the lady. “PLEASE STOP!” The lady screams. “Grace STOP!” I tell her as I pull her off the lady. I push Grace back and look at the lady and I help her sit up. “Who did you call?” I ask her. “Hope left me with very specific instruction for if she got herself into trouble.” The lady says. “What were they? Please I have to know. If you called the wrong person I could lose my mom” I tell her. “She gave me a number to call. She said if you ever came looking for her to call the number and tell the man who answers that Hope is missing. She said the man would know what to do from there.” The lady looks a little beat up but not too bad. “Can I have the number?” I ask her. “No, Hope was very clear that I was not to tell you about the man or the man about you.” I step back to think. I look at Grace not sure what to do now. Who is this man? Where is the next letter to find Percy? I need some answers. Grace kicks the lady in the face. I am in shock, I was not expecting that. “My sister said to give her the number.” Grace demands as she lifts the ladies head up. The poor old lady, her nose is dripping with blood. “It’s in my phone!” The little old lady said as she pulls her phone out and hands it to Grace. “That was a much better of an answer. See I knew you were a very smart lady and I would hate for what happened to your cat to happen to you.” Grace says as she hands me the phone. I look at Grace. “What happened to her cat?” I ask Grace. “I am sorry to say the cat is no longer with us.” I hit Grace. “You have got to be kidding me! Please tell me you didn’t kill this poor ladies cat.” I tell Grace. “Of course I did. We don’t know who she called. It could be him! She could be a spy of some sort. So I killed her cat so she would talk. She didn’t though she just started crying uncontrollably.” Grace says. I am so mad at Grace. “She was helping us! Like we don’t have enough going on! You need to focus because I didn’t see a letter in there! We need to find Percy!” I yell at her. “I get that but first we need to figure out who she called Cahira we have to know what we are up against.” Grace says. “We know what we are up against! Our own blood, someone who’s much like you with no value for life!” I take a deep breath trying to calm down. I look down at the phone in my hand. Grace is right we do need to know who she called.

Series Wednesday: Family Game Night Page 38

We start at our first school and are standing at the entrance of our elementary school a place I have little to no memories of. “Where would we even start looking?” Grace asks me. This doesn’t feel right there should be some kind of a sign. So far it seems like he is very straight forward. “This can’t be it. It can’t be here. She only knew me as the way I am now so for him to have met Hope it had to be after the accident.” I tell Grace. “So, we should go to our middle school.”  Grace says as we turn around. We get in the car and head toward our middle school not sure what we will find. I hope this is now the right place. As we drive up there is a big welcome sign. I think this is the right place. “Are you ready?” Grace says.  “Nope but we have to get Percy back so let’s do this.” I get out and walk up to the welcome sign.  There is an envelope taped to a Tetherball hanging down from the sign. “Your turn” Grace says as she rips it off and hands it to me. I open the envelope to see pictures with a letter inside. The pictures are of Hope watching me.  It looks like my first day of middle school. She lied and had been watching me the whole time. I’m not mad that she was watching over me just confused on why she wouldn’t tell me. I open the letter. “Cahira this one is for you again. I used to follow you guys to school to make sure you got there safe. After almost killing you I worried, plus I wanted another chance to get introduced to the family. This is where I met your real mother Hope. She was so beautiful and very young. I followed her back to her place in town. Yes, she has a place here in town. She rented an apartment to be close to you just in case you ever needed her. Once I figure out what she did for work things got complicated. I thought she could help me control my urge to kill. She really did her best. I didn’t mean to scare her by asking about you. I just wanted to be closer to her. She really did over react you see I am just misunderstood much like Grace and dad. I know you guys thought the worst of me when you started on this journey. So, I thank you for sticking to it. Just one more stop, and you will get Percy back. All you must find is Hope’s apartment and there will be the address and the rest of the answers. See you soon sisters.”

                Grace throws her arms in the air. “Oh, let’s just find where Hope lives. That is going to be easy!” Grace says. “No it won’t but it can’t be as hard as we are making it.”  I start to look around the school at all the houses. I know she didn’t live in a house, it would have to be an apartment and I have a feeling it has to be close to here for her to watch over me. I see an apartment building a little ways down the road. “Come on” I tell Grace as I start to walk over there. “You think she lived in those apartments?” Grace asks me as she follows me. “I can almost guarantee it.” I walk up to the apartment building. What would be the fastest way to find her apartment? I stand and look at the rows of buildings. “Mail boxes?”  Grace says to me as she walks off to the giant row of iron boxes. “What about them?” I ask her. “They should have names on them. That’s how we will know if she lives here.” Grace says as she starts to look at the names on each box. “That’s brilliant but we don’t know her last name. We only know her by Hope and I am sure that more than one Hope has to live here.” I tell Grace. “Okay that might be. But I just have a feeling like we will know which one is hers.” Grace says. “Okay I’ll go to the next row of apartment and look at those mailboxes.” I tell Grace as I head down the next row. This is going to be time consuming. I start to look at the boxes. “You know stealing mail is a federal offence.” I hear from behind me. I turn around to see a lady holding a cat in her arms. How cliché is that. “I am not stealing mail so I think I’ll be fine.” I tell her as I turn back around to finish looking at the names. “Then what are you doing?” She asks me. You know what I never understood about movies is why no one ever uses the noise neighbor to their advantage. “Are you the manager of these apartments?” I ask her. “No I am not but I know everything that happens here. More than that lazy grafter they call an apartment manager.” She says. Yup she is going to be the one to help me. “Maybe you can help me then. My mother lives here and I wrote down the apartment number on a napkin and I lost it. I have been trying to call her to see what number she lives in but she left her phone at work. So I was looking at the mail boxes to see if I could find her name.” I try to sound as sweet as possible but this would be something Grace would be much better at. “Who is your mother?” she asks me. “She goes by Hope. She is very young with long dark hair and olive skin.” I am not sure if that is a good enough description of Hope. “Cahira?” She asks me. “Yes! That’s me, you know my mom?” The lady nods yes. “I know Hope. She told me one day you might come to look for her and since I am the welcome wagon around here, she had no doubt I would be the one to find you.”  

Poem: Fighting breath

As we take each breath we do not think.. this breath could be my last. 

This one singular thought would drive any one mad.

Until the day your fighting for each and every breath.

When that day comes do you look back?

Do you think of each breath you have taken?

The breath before each major decision.

What about the moments that took your breath away, are those the breathes you fight for?

We take for granted all that we can do in a breath.

Do not wait until your death bed to fight for each and every breath.

Series Wednesday: Family Game Night Page 37

          “Why does it seem like when everyone meets you it changes their lives?” Grace asks me. “Are you trying to blame me for this?” I ask her back. “No I am not blaming you. Just saying that you are so special to everyone. Why?” I hear my sister’s questions and have no idea how to answer it. “Because everyone we met are complete whack jobs.” I smile at her. She rolls her eyes at me. We pull up to the house, well more like the ashes. “Where do you think the next piece of the story is?” I ask Grace. “I know exactly where it is.” Grace gets out of the car and I follow her. She climbs up to the tree house and starts to get on the roof. “Got it!” She says. She takes a box of candy down from the roof.  “Candy?” I ask her. She opens the candy box and there is the next letter or clue.  However these don’t feel much like clues. This just feels like his way of forcing us to learn about him. “This is how we use to trade notes when he was my imaginary friend.” Grace says. “Yeah that’s not creepy at all.” I say as she starts to open the letter. “This part of my story is for you Grace. You see after that night at the carnival I followed you guys home. After that I made time every day to follow Cahira and you. I wanted to see how the family dynamic worked. That is why after years of following you I decided to ask Cahira to be the one to introduce me to the family. I knew that dad would listen more to her then you Grace. From watching you for years no one saw how special you are. I saw it however, you do not have the killer instinct like Cahira once did. But much like me it was in you, just waiting to come out. I never meant to hurt Cahira but as we know she got injured. I knew she was my only way in, so with her in a coma there was no way for me to explain myself. You were nothing like Cahira who was untrusting and suborn. You were sweet just unnoticed. Once I got to know you I realized you were innocent and my way in. You told me all of your secrets and the family secrets that you knew at the time. I got to know more about my dad in the times we spent together and more about you my little sister. I never meant for you to burn down the house. When I came to see you and I saw what you had done I ran to save my dad. I wanted to at least meet him before he was dead. See as he killed my mother and I will never get the chance to meet her thanks to him. I know more than you think. Well on to the next phase, we’ll call this the Hope phase. Go next to where I met Hope, I found her while I was watching the both of you. So where did we meet? You tell me my sisters.”


                “Where the hell are we supposed to go to now?” Grace says. “What did you say to him about our family?” I ask Grace. “Well everything a small child know. I talked about how dad was successful and how mom hated me. I talked about how Percy was the only one that could get everyone to smile. You loved me more than anyone but even you had no emotion. Still I wanted you to wake up more than anything.” I look at Grace. “I feel like that’s not all you told him.” I feel honesty is the only way. “I was a little kid! What else could I have told him!? I would love to know.”  Grace yells at me. “Who knows? But he seems to think you taught him something about us.” I yell back at Grace. “Well I didn’t and if I did, I don’t know what it was!” Grace yells some more. I just shake my head. “How did he know you were going to light the house on fire?” I ask Grace. “What do you mean? He said he was coming to see me and just happen to see the house a blaze.” Grace says. “Didn’t you light the house on fire in the middle of the night?” I am trying to understand what he learned about the family from her. “Yeah, I did so what?” I start to look at the ashes. “So did he ever come to visit you in the middle of the night before?” I am trying to understand what his train of thought was. He has been watching us for years and knows all about us. “No, he normally didn’t. Why was he on his way here?” Grace is starting to get my train of thought. “There had to of been a reason. You need to think Grace why would he come out of nowhere? Did you see him earlier that day?” I ask Grace hoping that she will remember something that will help us. “It was years ago I don’t remember if I saw him that day!” Grace yells at me. “GRACE! Come on think harder!” I yell at her. “Cahira I don’t know, and this pressure isn’t helping me!! All this is doing is making me angry. I need time to think about it!” Grace yells at me. “The school.” I say. “What does that have to do with all of this?” Grace says to my random comment. “Hope said she tracked me down once at a school. She went to make sure I was okay but that makes no sense because that was after he made a comment about me.” I say.  “She had to of checked on you before. There is no way she could have known where to find you if she hadn’t found you before. So, let’s start at our elementary school.” Grace says as she heads to the car. We may not know where we are going but at least this is a start. 

Life update: TImetopia coming soon

Good Morning Loves!

A lot has been going on in life and it has really been slowing my writing down. I am sorry for that. I haven't done a update in a long time. I hope your loving the new Wednesday series. Family Game Night is very different from Timetopia and I know some of you loyal Timetopians just want timetopia back. I got some good news on that front. I have been working really hard on turning Timetopia into a book! YAY! It is finally done being edited and just have some finishing touches left. I will be doing a poll on my Instagram and twitter so you can help me choose the cover! I am hoping to have it out by the beginning of next year! I might even do a behind the scenes of making timetopia video but ill keep you post on that. I love all of you for all your support. Thank you!

Series Wednesday: Family game night page 36

        I open the card. “Happy early birthday Cahira, but then again you were actually born months before your birthday. So I thought this was fitting. Grab Grace and the pictures sent with her gift. Go back to where it all begin. This scavenger hunt isn’t just for you. It’s also for me to. It is a chance for you to get to know my story of how I found you. Also send Chance home with no explanation. See you soon little sister.” I look at Chance “sorry I can’t tell you what this is about. All I can say is that this is for me to get Percy back.” I tell Chance and he smiles. “Okay, just be careful. Also once you get Percy back we are going to talk about what Enrique is doing in your bed. I mean I am your boyfriend.” Chance laughs. “I promise we’ll talk about it after.” I hug Chance and sent him out on his way. Now time to get dressed and get Grace out of the house. I walk back into my room to see Enrique is awake. “I need you to wake up Grace and get her to come to my room without my parents noticing.” Enrique nods yes. He gets up out of my bed. “One thing first.” I look at him and he kisses me on the check. He goes out my window. I start to get dress and think of the first box. The pictures and the box. It all began at that stupid carnival when I was a kid. Grace comes into my room. “Are you ready??” I nod yes.

                We head out of the window, Enrique agreed to keep my parent entertained until we get back. Grace points at her car. “Let’s go on my motorcycle.” I whisper. “No, it makes too much noise plus mom and dad will look for your motorcycle before they look for my car.” She makes a good point. So I follow her to the car and get in the passenger seat. I hand her the picture. “This is where we need to start. But I don’t even remember where this is.” I tell Grace. “It’s okay, I remember exactly where this is. They have this carnival every year. I have gone a few times since we were kids.” I had no idea that she has been back there since we were kids. “Well let’s go.” I tell her.  Grace starts to drive us away from home. I sit and wonder what it was about this place that our brother wants us to get to. Who even knows what this whack job is all about? We pull up to the empty field where they normally hold the carnival. We get out of the car and walk around the empty field. “What are we looking for?” Grace asks me. I shrug as we look around. I hold the picture of us up hoping it would help me. There is a tree in the background of our picture. I look around at the trees in the field. “Look!” I tell Grace as I point at the tree. “It’s an old tree” she says to me. “Yes, old enough not to change much since this picture was taken. I think this tree is where we start.” I walk over to the tree and circle around it. “Look up” Grace says. There is a balloon stuck in the tree. It is the kind of balloon you get at a carnival. I look at Grace as I put my hands out to boost her up into the tree. Grace climbs up and grabs the balloon. “Doesn’t this remind you of that one creepy clown movie?” I tell Grace as she holds the balloon. “Great that’s the thought I need in my head, a crazy clown that does weird stuff. You know now that we are talking about it I never really got that movie.” Grace says with a puzzled look on her face. “Yea you know what me either.” We both just stand there for a second. “Well at least this balloon is green.”  Grace says as she looks at the balloon. “Why would you stick a green balloon in a green tree? I mean it isn’t hard enough to see with all those leaves.” Grace looks at the balloon. “There are papers inside.” I pull my knife out of my pocket and pop the balloon. “Bye bye balloon.” Grace says as I pick up the paper off the floor. I look at Grace as I open the paper to start reading it. “Hello there my darling sisters. This journey to get Percy back alive is about so much more than just Percy. It is about me. So when you get closer to finding Percy you will learn about me. This is the place I first suspected I was adopted. This was the first place and first time I ever killed anyone. Cahira I am sure you have no memory of this, but you were there. You see I was always very smart and was always the top of my class. This made me a target for other children. As smart as I was I also had bad anxiety. It was super hard for me to function like other kids. I was teased because of my anxiety and my speech impediment that went with it. This is where I figured out my anxiety wasn’t anxiety. I was being teased this night at the carnival, that’s when Cahira walked up to me. You were the most confident child I had ever seen. You told me people can’t talk when they are dead. The way you smiled at me changed my life forever. I knew right then that somehow you were a part of me. I killed the boy teasing me that night and my anxiety went away. You caught me dragging away his lifeless body. You asked me how I did it. I told you with my shoe lace, you told me I should make it look like he hung himself. You smile and walked away. That was the day I became the person I am today. I started killing after that. So, this is where my story began. The next place you will find another piece of the story is where it all went a blaze. Happy hunting my dear sisters.” I look at Grace. “To the old house?” Grace says. “Looks like it.” I say as I head to the car.