Contraptions

Chapter 2- A Turn of Events

Lilah

"I'm home!!" I shout as I roll my bike into the garage. My mother comes outside with a smile on her face. I like to think they are genuine, but they seem plastered and artificial at times. My mom had short curled blonde hair and wore a bright green dress with an apron. She has always been considered perfect. Perfect posture, perfect grades, perfect and well.. pretty. My father says I should aspire to be like her, but sometimes I wish I could be my own person. She leans against the garage door and asks kindly, "How was your day sweetie?" I sigh and shrug, "Same as the rest." I go up to her and hug her, she pauses for a second and squeezes me back. After a while, she lets go of me and led me into the house exclaiming, "I have dinner ready. Now go take out the trash while me and daddy set the table." 

I turn towards the curb and look back at my mother, who has already travelled back into the house. "Fine" I grumble and trudge my way to the trash bag. It's heavy, I peek inside and see tons of wires and batteries, stacked up on top of one another. I don't see how that makes sense, we haven't gotten any new electric systems in our house installed recently. I brush it off, assuming it's some of my dad's crazy experimentation materials. As I walk, the sky seems to get darker near the edge of the driveway. I set down the trash and wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead. I hear a sound in the bushes across the street. 

My eyes peer into the darkness, searching for the cause of the suspicious sound. I think I see a foot, then shake my head for it to be gone. My curiosity rises, as I step further into the- "Dinner's ready!" my mom yells from the house. My instincts start to run back to the house, but my mind lays within that bush and what might be inside. 

Connor

"He's rounding up, he's dodging number 25, he shoots, and he scores!!!" I scream as I lift my little brother in the air. He is getting older, but he still is as light as a feather. He smiles up at me with big bug eyes, cheering and giggling. "I did it! I scored!" He jumps up and down with enthusiasm. I pretend to pant and be upset, "Aw dang. How did you block me, you little basketball superstar." 

I tickle him hard in the stomach, and he bursts out into laughter. ""I hope this cheered you up after your bad day." I say as I help him out of the driveway, dirt showing on his pants while his ripped shoe is nearly falling off. "Yes it did. Thanks bro. You are the best! I wanna be just like you when I grow up." When he says that, my body tenses. 

Sure, I'm pretty cool. All the girls like me, I have friends, I'm athletic, strong, but I'm not good. I am a bad person. I do things to put people and myself at risk, and I can't let my brother, the one thing in life that keeps me going, end up like me. "Don't get ahead of yourself there buddy. Maybe idolize someone more... not like me." I say with a chuckle. ""Now let's go inside and grab some food." 

He starts to skip forward into the house. I look back toward the basketball hoop and smile at the wonderful memory we had just created. Then I look back toward my happy brother, smiling and...

He is down on the driveway floor.

Blaire

It's 3.00am, and I'm still awake. Laying here, staring at the ceiling. "I think I'm depressed" I mumble to myself as I turn over on my side. What even is the point of life anyway? If all we do is go to school, grow up, get a job, then die in the end? And do not even try to say love, because my parents proved to me that wasn't possible. My dad works long hours, and he has never been so miserable. And my parents fight constantly, I think they are planning out a divorce. But my mom pretends everything is ok, when it's not. We have dad's money, his house, his food, but we don't have a functioning family. The thing I want most is a healthy and happy family.

 "Psst" I hear from outside. I am startled as I huddle under my blanket and am purely frightened. "I knew I should not have been up at this hour" I said quietly to myself as I peeked from under the covers. After what seemed like an hour, I built up the courage to walk to the window. I peer over the ledge waiting to pounce. I look and see bright colors, and start to scream. The person starts to scream as well. Eventually, I hear a "Shhh Blaire! Its Lilah calm down." I look at Lilah, with her auburn hair and bright pink bike, god that bike was ugly. "Lilah, what the heck! It's 3 a.m!" I say as a climb out of the window onto my window sill, leaping about 3 feet onto the soggy grass. "I know, I know, but you have to see this." 

She takes out her phone and scrolls through about 2 pages of apps until she pulls up the news station. An article in big black bold letters appears as soon as she opens it, reading "KID GONE MISSING AFTER SCHOOL FRIDAY NIGHT." I look through the list of suspects, and see the name of the victim that I recognize all too well. "Connor?" I question as I grab her phone with wide eyes. She clicks on his name and an image of him pops up. "You mean this kid?" Lilah says with a confused look falling upon her face. "I saw him and his little brother taking off their tracker earlier, I knew something bad was going to happen. I also think he's in my detective class. How do you know him anyway?" I sigh and hand the phone back to her. 

"He's a family friend. We have to find him!" I say starting toward the street. Connor has always been a great friend to me, I wasn't about to let him down like I had before. We haven't talked in years, not since our families got into that huge fight. But that doesn't matter anymore, it was a mistake. Now, it's my turn to make it up to him and hopefully he will open up to me again. "Are you insane? Look for them? We are risking so much as it is just being here. I say we go tomorrow night when we have a plan." she says, throwing her hands up to her head in desperation. 

"Fine don't come tonight. But if I get captured, I blame you for refusing to come with me to save our friend." I say crossing my arms as a turn back to her. She rolls her eyes, and runs to catch up with my fast pace with her bike next to her. "Just to be clear, he is not my friend." She says half heartedly. I smirk and continue into the night.

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