Lurking

Chapter 2

Sia woke up, the dull sun hitting against her eyes. Sia could hear her father's voice, telling her to get up.

Sia leaned towards her brown-colored wooden nightstand and peered at the clock. Her eyes were adjusting to the bright sunlight. It was five in the morning, which meant that Sia still had three hours before Ms. Hezara would howl at them to get downstairs and clean their mess they purposely made.

"Hey, Brook," Sia whispered, and then leaned towards her. "Brook, wake up."

Her sister reluctantly woke up, rubbing her azure beautiful eyes, and then leaned towards her nightstand to put on her necklace, that was given by their father before he passed.

"You can't wear that," Sia stopped her, before she put it on. "Mother will kill you if she catches you wearing it."

Brook gave a frown. "Why? She won't even know it was from our father."

Sia didn't bother Brook about the necklace. She changed the topic about Ms. Hezara's chores they had to do.

"That's a long list," Brook said, taking a quick glance before sinking into her pillow again. "Now go to sleep. It's not time for us to wake up."

"No," Sia said. "Let's get up and do them now."

"Why? We don't have to do them until three hours later--maybe four," Brook muttered. She talked low because their mother would torture them with endless chores if they finished the first batch of it. That only gave them more work to do.

Sia gave a low scoff. "Let's go back to bed, then." 

 Her sister agreed, and Sia could see that Brook's eyes were so happy because Sia finally gave in.

After three hours of sleep-in, it was time for them to wake up and do more housework. They could hear the pounding footsteps of Liana scampering up the stairs, running to their room. The footsteps only got closer and closer. But it wasn't Liana, it was Looper Kindly, Sia's tutor.

Looper gave a glance at the girls and then quickly turned away.

"Wait, Looper," Sia stopped him. "What do you want?"

"Your tutoring lessons are canceled," Looper said. "Because I love you."

Sia stared at him, shocked. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped. She felt happiness quickly running around her body, and her heart pounding faster and faster. She gave a small smile at Looper, and he winked back.

"Sianna," Looper said again. "You are the love of my life. I never wanted to be strict on you. And I never wanted to beat you up. Men do not do that to women. That is mistreatment. And I am only a few years older than you."

"You called me Sianna, why?" Sia asked.

"Because it's your name. I called you Sia because that's what your mother demanded," Looper answered. "Join me. Your sister can come along, too."

Just then, footsteps approached them and drew closer to them. The footsteps were earsplitting, and it sounded like bigfoot.

The footsteps got closer...and closer...