Series Wednesday: Family Game Night Page 51

    The door is locked and Grace is trying to break it down. “We are trapped!” She tells me. “Of course we are.” I tell her back as I look at Percy, he looks just as he did when he was a baby. I stick close to him and brush his hair with my fingers. “I need your help getting us out of here!” Grace says to me. “When he wakes up, the door will unlock. He is just locking us in here so we are forced to make a choice if we are going to allow him into our family.” I tell her back. “So let’s talk about it. Are we going to side with him?” Grace asks me.  I turn to look at her. “Side with him? I thought we already knew where we stood. Our parents will never welcome him with open arms. Well at least mother wouldn’t.” I turn back to Percy. “Don’t you think we should make our own decisions on how we feel about him?” Grace says as she sits against the wall across from me. “You want us to make our own decision? You really? You’re really willing to fight with our parents.” I ask her. “He is our brother, so how we feel about him should be our choice.” Grace has a point.

                We sit here just watching Percy sleep. “I think we should each make our own choices about him.” I tell Grace. “Why do you say that?” She asks me. “He still has my mom, so if I have to kill him to get her back I would. With that being said I feel like you should make your own choice when it comes to him.” I just want my mom back and as much as I am against killing, I will do what I have to for Hope. “I think we should make our choice about him together. Mom and dad have always had us competing with one another. For once I would like us to be on the same side. If you have to kill him I will stand beside you.” Grace says. This is the first time in a long time I have my sister standing by my side. “What do you really want Grace? Do you want us to just except him as our big brother? Setting my mom Hope aside and him keeping her captive.” I ask Grace, wanting to know what she wants. “I wouldn’t just write him off. It’s super hard to go through the world alone with the type of urges we have. I don’t think him learning how to control it from mom and dad isn’t the worst thing.” Grace says it like her urges are to dance not like she is out there killing people. “Grace no one is better off with dad and mother’s teachings.  No one should kill for fun; killing should only be for survival. I wish you didn’t down play being a murder by calling it an urge.” I am not trying to be mean to Grace, I just don’t agree with her. “Cahira don’t act like you weren’t just like us. Before your stupid accident you were a murder. You also didn’t do anything to stop us, so how are you any different?” I look at Grace and know she is right. I should have stopped them and yes before I was a murder but I don’t really remember that. “You’re my sister stopping them meant hurting you and Percy and that was something I couldn’t live with. It doesn’t mean that someday I won’t stop you. It just means not yet.”  I have never said this out loud. I guess I always did plan on stopping them. “I don’t think you will ever stop us, especially if Percy joins us. If you turn us in or kill us you will be all alone. Have you ever thought of that?” Grace asks me. “Of course I have.” I take a breath to think of what I am going to say next. Percy makes a noise like he is waking up. “Percy!” We both say as we turn to him.    

Series Wednesday: Family Game night page 50

Percy is just laying on a bed, he is not moving. “Is he dead?” I ask Grace. “No, look at the IV bag. He is on some kind of sleep drug.” Grace is moving her body around to find where the IV is connected. “The IV isn’t connected.” Grace says holding up the unconnected IV line. I hear my cellphone ring. I pull it out of my pocket and see on the caller ID that the call is coming from an unknown number.  “Answer it.” Grace tells me. “Hello?” I say as I answer. “Hello little sister.” It is him, my big brother. “What did you do to Percy?” I ask him. “He is fine. I had him on an IV that was keeping him in a medical induce coma. I took it out before you found him. He will be waking up in a bit. I didn’t hurt him, he is after all my little brother. Now that we got that out the way, I want you three to decide if we are all going home as siblings after this or am I going to meet our dad on my own.  Don’t answer right now I’ll let you talk it over and get back to me.” I look at Grace who is just staring at me. “Where is my mom?” I ask him. “Don’t worry about her right now. You should be taking care of Percy. I am sure he will have a lot to tell you once he wakes up.” He hangs up on me. I throw my phone across the room and start screaming.
                I calm down and look at Grace who is shaking her head. “Who was it on the phone?” She asks me. “Who do you think?” I tell her. “What did he say about Percy?” She looks back at Percy who is still asleep. “He is in a medical induce coma and he is the one who took him off the IV. Percy should be waking up in a while. Also our screw loose older brother wants to know if we are going to go home as siblings or not?” I explain to Grace. “Is he nuts?” Grace asks me. “No he is a genius. What would dad and your mother respect more than this? He wants them to except him as family and our parents love psychotic crap like this.” I sink to the floor. “You know mom will never take him in to our family. Although this was all pretty impressive, if you really think about it. He took our little brother and mom will never let that fly.” Grace says. “We have Percy back and that’s all what really matters. We need to start coming up with a plan to get you guys home.” I tell her as I look at the open door. “What do you mean get us home? We are all going home after this.” She says. “He has my mom, I can’t just go home. I need to find her and make sure she is okay.” Grace walks over to me. “Cahira we need you, forget about your dead beat mom.” I push Grace. “Don’t start with me right now Grace. I will make sure you guys get out okay and then I am going to find my mom. I know you want us to get Percy and go home like everything is great, but Grace everything is changing. We have an older brother who wants to be a part of our lives whether we want him to or not. Plus Grace I can’t go back to just acting like she is my mother. All my life I have known something was wrong and now I know what it is. I just want my mom to be a part of my life.” I know this is going to hurt Grace’s feelings but she has to start understanding that everything in our lives is about to change. I can see on Grace’s face that she is gearing up to say something to me but she stops. “Do you hear that?” She asks me. I get quiet and hear a loud ticking and it seems to be getting louder. “What is that?” I ask her. She looks around. The doors slams shut on us and locks. What is happening?

Series Wednesday: Family Game night page 49

         Grace and little Hope are covered in blood. Both walk around the bloody bodies on the floor making sure every one of them is dead. Little Hope kicking each body in the head to ensure they are not faking and Grace stabbing the bodies randomly. I still can’t believe what I just watched. The two of them were like killing machines, so fast and efficiently. These poor people didn’t stand a chance. I still don’t get it. Why have us talk to these people if he was just going to have Grace kill all of them. “Everyone is dead.” Grace says so proudly. “Don’t sound so happy about it.” I tell her. “Hey I am willing to do what it takes to get Percy back. Can you say the same?” Grace says to me. “Being a ruthless murder is not some kind of sacrifice for you.” I tell her back. “Whatever Cahira, tell someone who cares what you think. I just want my brother back.” She says to me. “So what now?” I ask little Hope. “Follow me with the three keys.” Little Hope starts to walk through the warehouse. I look at Grace as we start to follow her. “She is like us.” Grace whispers to me. “Like you.” I tell Grace back. “Wrong, you were the stone cold killer when you were here age, not me.” Grace says to me. Little Hope stops at a gate with a pad lock on it. “First Key” she says to us pointing at the lock.  We unlock the gate and little Hope walks through first.

                “This warehouse is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside.” I tell Grace. “Yeah I know I have always thought that to. I also always wondered why that church threw its fundraisers here.” That is a question I never really thought about. We follow little Hope up these stairs to an office. This must be where Percy is being held. Little Hope stops at the front door. “Second key” she says as she sticks her hand out. We walk in an office and little Hope stops. “I have done what you asked; please give me my father back.” Little Hope yells up. “Wait Daniel isn’t your father?” Grace asks. “Daniel?” I ask her. “That is the only name we have to really go by.” Grace says to me. “No, Daniel isn’t my father and my name isn’t even Hope. I did what I was told to pay off my father’s gambling debt.” Not little Hope says. I don’t get what was the point of her showing us the way. I hear a sound like something unlocked. Grace and I look around and see a closet door off to the side has opened. A man comes running out of the closet and little not Hope runs to him. “Good Lucky!” Little not Hope says as her, what I am assuming is her father grabs her and runs out of the door. “Would it be bad if I say I kind of hope she gets an arrow on her way out?” Grace asks me. “Yes, that’s bad.” I tell Grace. “Well she was kind of a brat. So if she dies I am sure she will not be missed.” Grace says with a smile. “Still wrong Grace she is a child. She just did what she had to for her family.” I tell her as she rolls her eyes at me. “So I guess that door leads to Percy.” Grace says pointing at the only other door in the office. We walk up to the door and Grace sticks the key in. We open the door to a dark room. I walk in and look for a light switch. I touch the walls until I finally find the switch. “Percy!” Grace screams. I can’t help but just stop moving. I am not sure what to think. What am I even looking at?

Life update: So much work on Timetopia

HI!
   Sorry I skipped last week edition of Family Game Night. I have been working around the clock on getting Timetopia ready for publishing. There is so much that goes into getting a book ready. I am working around the clock and cant wait to show you everything i have been doing.  Here is the cover of Timetopia. Coming to Amazon very soon. I love you guys and thank you so much for all your support.