Ghost Town

Chapter 11

"First of all, I want to see the logo on your wrist", Justin requested.

Maddie rolled up her long sleeve revealing the tattoo-like logo and stretched out her hand for her parents to see.

After looking at it, Justin opened two of his top buttons revealing the same logo on his chest.

"Woah!", Maddie exclaimed immediately she saw it, "what does this mean?"

"Well for you to understand any of this, I have to tell the story from the beginning", he paused and continued,

"A long time ago, there was this Samoan town of people known as the 'Aitus' meaning 'Ghosts'. These people lived happily together but were discriminated and separated from the rest of society. They lived together in an isolated area they called the Taulaga Aitu, taulaga meaning 'town'",

"So technically, they were a town of ghosts", Maddie said confidently with her arms folded.

"A ghost town, yes but that's not the point and I would really appreciate no more interruptions till I'm done"

"Sorry", Maddie murmured under her breath.

"As I was saying, the aitus could do things that the common man couldn't, some sort of powers and that made people treat them the way they did.

The normal people grew more envious and rather impatient as time went on. They finally got the chance to act after they had caught some teenage aitus bullying a normal kid.

So one night, when the aitus were already asleep, they decided to raid their home, the taulaga aitu. They snuck in and burnt most of the buildings and shops they came across, injuring and killing a lot of aitus.

The survivors had to flee Samoa on foot with their children and their injured. They carried as much food and water as they could. They weren't all together though.

The adults led different batches to different places close to Samoa but with time, due to different factors like marriage, they were scattered all over the world.

In few countries, the aitus kept on living together but were scattered in most other countries and they did a great job hiding their powers from the rest of the world to avoid another chaos from happening.

America was one of the few countries where the aitus still lived together. Other people had no clue of the real reason, they just assumed that they wanted to stay together as Samoans.

Maddie couldn't help it, she giggled a little, covering her mouth,"I'm sorry dad, you said no interruptions but I have been holding myself from laughing",

"What exactly is amusing you right now?" Justin asked, annoyed.

"Your story, that's what. Aitus, Samoa, powers, this sounds like a folklore, a folktale  or a myth or something like that, I don't know but it definitely doesn't sound like a real life event",

"Will you just keep quiet and let me finish, you can ask any question you want afterwards to clear your doubts"

"How do you expect me to believe what you're saying right now? You're hilarious, cos this is obviously a joke", Maddie said right before she stood up to walk out but realized that she couldn't move.

"Now, are you going to sit down and listen to me or do you enjoy that position more".

"W-what is goi-ng on? Why c-can't I mo-ve?", Maddie struggled to get the words out.

"You are not leaving until I say so. You wanted clarity on what has been going on with you, I'm explaining and you want to walk away. Whether you like it or not, I'm going finish what I have to say, lay out my suggestions and it is up to you to either use it or ignore and bet me, embracing who you are would be the best thing for you right now cos you have no standing chance against the guy after you unless you're still planning on killing laura", Justin pointed out, agitated.