Blank Stars

chapter 21

I shot upright and felt my face collide with something solid. I fell back down clutching at my forehead which was now pounding and throbbing. I looked up and saw Cera clutching at his nose, which was now bleeding. I shot up again and he jumped back slightly, I grabbed his hands away from his face and inspected his nose. It was pretty badly messed up but I took my sleeve and cleaned it up to the best of my ability.

“Bloody hell Kayla that is not how people are supposed to wake up!”

He let out a wry laugh and my mind shot back to the cheery happy Cera I had seen in my dream. I sunk to my knees in front of him, feeling slightly drained now.

“Kayla? Are you ok?”

My throat constricted and refused to allow my voice safe passage but I struggled before managing out one word.

“Brother..?”

I looked up at him and he had a strange look on his face, a mixture of surprise, fear and also sadness. I couldn’t tell whether I was right or he thought I was just crazy for thinking such a thing. All my theories on how he would react were thrown away as he grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. His body was shaking and I didn’t want to see his face. He slumped against me as he relaxed. I placed my hands on his back to try and comfort him as best as I could.

“You remembered me?”

At the sound of his shaking voice all my hidden memories came flooding back to me, I saw flashing images of me and Cera spending summer in the park. Images of mother playing with both of us as well as flashes of my previous dream. I hadn’t realised how much of my life I had been missing in my memories until now. Now that I thought about it I realised I only really remembered things from when my mum began obsessing over conspiracies, sure I had some vague memories of school with Alec but nothing concrete. I remember living with mum, dad and Cera, all my lingering emotions came flooding back and I felt myself begin to cry. 

I remembered the constant fights he had with my dad, he would never be sad around me though. He would always smile and I could never be anything but overjoyed around him. Then one day he left, it was the day mum died. After we had gone back home, Cera packed his stuff and left, there and then. I was too young to realise what was happening and maybe I had been so shocked that I had made myself forget about everything. I realised that I was clutching onto Cera now, crying so much that my throat hurt. He rubbed my back and soothed me, I felt like the young me again.

I whimpered what little words I could muster in my current condition,

“Why did you go?”

I felt Cera tense up and could hear him swallow, I looked up at him and he looked down at me with pained eyes.

“Please, tell me what happened, I don’t remember everything, only bits and pieces.”

He stayed silent and continued to look at me with an expression that killed me inside.

“Well at least explain why Sophia was so angry to see you.”

He took in a deep breath and then pulled me to my feet.

“You should take a seat first.”

I did without question. I now knew who he was and quite frankly I trusted him with my life (whether it was blind trust or not I had yet to find out).

“Well I don’t know if you remember this or not, probably not since your dad wanted to keep it secret from you.”

He paused and glanced at me as if thinking about whether he should continue or not.