Some Mistakes Can Be Fixed (Book Four, Era 2 of 'The True Reality' Series

~ The Visitors ~ Jolie ~

Jolie bolted awake, and jumped to her feet, expecting to the spider on her wall, but saw nothing but the usual layer of posters.

He sister lay asleep across the room from her, breathing quiet. Emma often claimed Jolie was the one that snored, but she said she would deny it until her sister had proof she was awake to even hear it.

With a sigh of relief, she sat down on the edge of her bed. "Stupid Dreamland." She muttered.

Dreamland was where everyone went when they dreamed now. Some people, like herself, her sister, and her parents, could always wake up and remember what happened there. Others woke up without a single memory of it.

It was morning, so it wasn't like she hadn't woken up too early, so Jolie quietly opened the bedroom door and walked quietly towards the stairs.

She passed her parent's room, and stopped for a second to make sure she could still hear her father's snores through the door, before walking down the stairs.

Jolie liked to make sure that her parents were still asleep when she woke up. It was the after shock of something that had happened in Dreamland.

She'd been five at the time. She had come back from school and found her parents asleep. After hearing a story from her mother's youth about what happened to her parents, Jolie had panicked and ran screaming to Emma that their parents for dead.

Once she woke up, Jolie decided that she would always make sure they were okay before doing anything in the mornings.

That was what the mature part of her told her to do anyway.

As she headed into the kitchen, the doorbell rang and echoed through the house. When no one came downstairs to answer it, Jolie shrugged, and walked around the corner to do it.

She unlocked the door and found herself looking at two adults who had to be around her parent's age. They both had matching brown hair, and unbelievably pretty teal eyes. The only difference she could spot, were that one was a girl, the other a boy. They were even dressed like one of the people from her parent's stories.

The girl smiled at Emma. "Hello dear, do you know where we could find Alexandra Freeman?"

Emma backed away slightly, hand still on the doorknob. "Who's asking?"

Right then, she heard steps on the stairs, and her mother's voice filled the room. "I'll handle it Jolie. Go upstairs and wake your sister." She rounded the corner and froze, staring at the two people in shock.

"Mom, Who are these people?" She she asked.

The boy raised his eyebrow. "Mom?"

"Jolie, go upstairs." She repeated, and stepped closer to the door.

"But-"

"Now!" She said louder, and Jolie ran upstairs into her room again.

She slammed the door so hard when she did, that almost immediately Emma shot to her feet.

"Who? What? Where?" She looked around frantically before sighing. "Oh, it's just you. What's with all the noise? It's like six thirty"

"Some weird people came to the door, mom told me to come upstairs. I'm sorry for waking you up." Emma just shrugged.

"Not important. Just one question. Why would you listen? You could have stayed down there and listened to what they were talking about." Jolie was about to answer, but she didn't really have a reason.

"Thought so. Let's go. We've probably already missed a lot." Emma opened the door quietly, before rushing out the door, Jolie following close behind.

She couldn't help but notice the absence of her father's snores as they passed, going halfway down the stairs before stopping.

"You can't just stay here now. You're lucky they didn't send the whole Council down here to drag you home." The girl's voice said, a tinge of worry in her tone.

"I'm not going back. No matter what you say or do. I can't drag my family into my mistakes." Their mother's voice said.

Emma gasped slightly. "She lied." Her sister whispered.

"What do you mean?" Jolie asked.

Emma rolled her eyes. "I mean, I think she lied when I asked her if the girl in her stories was her."

It did make sense... but why would mom lie?

Suddenly, someone put a hand on her shoulder, and Jolie whipped around to see her dad stand over her, with one hand on her shoulder, and the other with one finger raised to his lips.

"We will explain later. Let us handle this." He whispered, and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, before walking the rest of the way down the stairs.

"Long time, and this is the greeting we get?" He said, the usual teasing tone in his whisper returning. Their father never talked much, but Jolie couldn't figure out why.

Then it hit her. If Emma was right, then the reason her dad didn't talk the much was because...

Jolie's eyes widened as she continued to listen.

"So, he speaks? I guess twenty years wasn't enough to fix that completely." The boy remarked.

"Fitz!" The girl exclaimed with irritation.

"No, it's fine Biana, he's right." He raised his voice to a smith tone, something that he usually used when he wasn't whispering. "But just so you know, I can raise my voice at any time, so if you try anything-"

"Keefe, no." Their mother said, and Emma gave Jolie a look of confirmation. So their parents were rally had lied to them.

There was a long sigh, before the conversation continued. "Why do you want us to come back now?" Their mom- Sophie- said.

"We've wanted you to come back for twenty years, Sophie. We just only found you yesterday."

"Twenty years?!" Jolie blurted without thinking. Emma turned to look towards her and slapped her palm against her forehead. There was silence from the room below, until finally their mom's voice called up towards the stairs.

"Come down girls." Jolie gave a guilty look in her sister's direction, And the descended the rest of the way down the stairs, turning into the living room. They all sat on the couches, both sitting on opposing sides of each other.

The two stopped and stood between the view of the tv, and the coffee table. Their mom sighed, brushing a piece of her brown hair from her face. 

"What did you hear?" She asked

"Everything from we came instead of the council." Emma muttered. Their parents exchanged a look, before looking back at them. 

"Then take a seat. This could take a lot of explaining."