One Of The 4400 Part 1 & 2

Chapter 8

"Vera, I have something to tell you..." Holly said cautiously. I looked at her, confused. Holly brought her hands to her forehead as if she had a headache. She looked at me and peeked at Damien eating. She sighed and finally broke it down to me. She confessed: "Damien...doesn't know that you're his sister...I told him that you were a assistant of mine and you're living with us for awhile..."

My eyes widened at the lie she just told me. "Holly!" I whispered. How was I going to go along with my lie now when I had already said I was a family friend?  I was upset. How could she do this to me?

"Hollywood, what were you thinking?!" I whispered. "I'm sorry, V!" She said, her face now worried and almost on the verge of tears. In that moment, I could see her as my age, not as a grown woman with children and a husband.

"I panicked...I wanted to give him an answer when he came up to me after seeing the news about the light asking why was there a girl that looked like me...and I gave him that answer instead of telling him the truth..." she said, her eyes downcast, her mouth in a frown.

I sighed. I couldn't expect her to have everyone know I was alive and well. It would be preposterous to consider that. Even now while I was frozen in my twentieth year and she, now only forty

"What type of assistant?" I asked her. Holly uncovered her face, letting the tears slip freely. She sighed. "Assistant--we met at work--you're new and very good at your job--take your pick, just let the news of him having another sister sink in when I finally get a chance to tell him." She said.

I nodded. I knew if I were to say something, I would only mess it up. I never was that great with speaking my words, only with writing it down in my diary or typing it into a computer but as a writer with my stories.

I peeked at Damien, who was now almost done with his dinner. It seemed impossible that he wouldn't know I was his older sister and in a way I was so close to having a perfect family yet it might not be possible.

"Hi," Damien said, smiling at me as he was taking his plate to the dishwasher, and stopping only because of me. "H-Hi..." I said, stuttering. I was nervous despite my easy demeanor with the rest of the family...

A strange thought entered my mind at that point: 'Was he really my little brother?'

He had the same hue of blue, the blond hair, maybe the face but looking at him at this angle his eye color was a slightly different shade of blue, his hair was curly (in our family we have straight hair) and his nose was arched, not straight like ours.

Looking at him where I moved from the hall to the couch in the living room I could see this and even then I noticed his posture was different as well, like, he wasn't one of us...