PROMISE ☾ ray

chapter 3

act 1
chapter 3 | numbered surprises

the lips that smile the brightest are the most deceitful.
just how many of us knew and are keeping up this act?

'[name]!' norman exclaimed, white in the face. 'how do you -?' emma clutched her head, jaw on the floor. 'YOU KNEW?!'

[name] slapped a hand over her mouth - it sounded painful.

emma whined.

'you're so loud,' [name] hissed, 'don and gilda will hear!'

'how long have you known?' demanded ray, his voice low.

give the boy an oscar, [name] thought.

'since i turned seven,' she released her hold on emma. 'i found out the same way you did. and it was traumatising, you have no idea how worried i was when you guys went to send little bunny!'

norman looked astonished. 'that's right, you were acting strangely when we left.'

'geez, why do people keep saying that?'

emma, now recovered, immediately began pounding her with questions. 'how much do you know?! what have you been doing, since you knew?'

'exactly what i just told you,' [name] declared, 'i know where the trackers are. they're in your ear, your left one, to be specific. right there, at the back.'

this time, ray finally looked shocked.

'how do you know that for sure?' norman questioned, as emma felt behind her ears. 'we only had a hunch a tracker even existed.'

[name] hummed. 'oh, the tracker? this old thing?'

she reached into her pocket and pulled something tiny out, throwing it straight at ray, who quickly came into focus and grabbed it.

the other three gaped, flabbergasted.

a small rectangular device sat in ray's palm, barely the size of their little finger, glowing a red light. the tracker...!

ray whipped his head up to stare at [name], unable to hide his surprise. 'how did you...'

[name] grinned. 'remember that time i hurt my ear when i was eight?'

of course he remembered - she was crying so much.

'mom! mom!' six-year-old nat hurtled his way toward the older woman, who had baby phil cradled in her arms, under the shade of the tree outside of the house. '[name] hurt herself! she's bleeding a lot!'

mom went pale. 'where is she?'

little nat led her deep into the forest, where a group of children huddled around a crying [name]. emma was crying too, and norman held her hand to calm her down. ray was inside the house, unaware of the situation.

the children opened way for mom to reach [name] when she ran to the hurt child, all scared. mom picked [name] into her arms gently, directing the children to follow her quickly.

they rushed into the house not long after to treat her wounds.

it seemed that during a game of hide and seek, [name] had slipped and fell, her head falling on a rock. at the angle she fell from, she hit her ear - the left one, and it was damaged pretty badly.

blood and pus oozed out, scaring the other children.

mom herded them out of the infirmary quickly. the older woman worked to quickly treat the ear, draining away the blood and pus, and picking out little rubble that had gotten stuck.