Star-Crossed

Part 27

"After you were captured," begins Pikar. "Everything changed. Mom and dad were devastated. In the beginning, they spent every waking minute searching for you."

Pikar and I now sit on the couch in our pajamas. We are still in the room reserved for her within the Arena, stuffing our faces as she tells me everything that happened.

"Are mom and dad here?!" I ask. "Can I see them?"

Pikar gets a sad look on her face and continues.

"They tried everything," she adds. "I think a lot of illegal stuff too at one point, but they just couldn't figure out who took you and why - especially since the war was practically over at that stage."

I take a bite of the noodles we ordered. Pikar takes a sip of tea.

"Things got really weird and shady at one point," Pikar continues. "Mom and dad started fighting a lot. I think dad thought she was seeing someone else. I don't really know the full extent of everything, but I have a lot of memories of them both being so stressed out."

"Do you think mom cheated on dad?" I ask. "Do you remember any other people ever coming to the house?"

"Not really," she answers. "But at one point, just before my tenth birthday, I remember a couple of really scary-looking men breaking into our house and threatening mom and dad."

She shudders at the memory. I take her hand.

"Pikar, what happened?" I ask.

"They broke into the house and threatened mom and dad unless they gave them something," she continues. "I can't remember what, exactly, but my guess is money."

She begins to cry.

"It was terrible," she sobs. "First, you were taken away from me, and then I saw mom and dad taken away from me - literally."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Literally?"

"I was upstairs, peeking through the tiny hole in the hallway that allowed us to see what was going on downstairs," she answers. "Do you remember that?"

"Of course I do," I answer, smiling a bit. "We used to pretend we were spies."

Pikar laughs a little.

"Anyway," she continues. "I saw them take mom and dad away, and then I hid. They didn't find me, so they left."

"I packed some of my things," she adds. "And then I ran as fast and as far away as I could from home."

"Where did you go?" I ask. "What did you do?"

"I eventually found this arts school for orphans," answers Pikar. "It was perfect, because I had always been drawn to music and writing and dance."

"But weren't people looking for you?" I ask.

"I'm sure for a while, in the beginning, they were," she answers. "I would like to think that mom and dad were worried about me, though sometimes I'm not so sure."

"I'm sure they were," I say.

"But I didn't really want anyone to find me," she admits. "So I asked to have my hair changed and also to get rid of my glasses. I got different colored contacts for a while, so my eyes were blue instead of brown."

"Honey," I chime in. "Not brown. Your eyes are honey. With gold and green speckles."

"Whatever," she answers. "But, after a couple of years of that, I decided to stick with my natural eye color. No one had found me, and no one seemed to care. I had started to build a new life for myself. I loved the orphanage."