The Importance

Happy Birthday Surprise

I am not calm, my heart is beating a lot faster than it should. I think it is going to beat itself right out of my chest like blood leaking out of a wound. I accompany Alex to retrieve his sister.

"Emma," He clutches her shoulder, and she wakes with a start, but her mouth is quickly covered with one of Alex's strong hands. With his other hand, he puts a finger to his lips, and Emma nods.

Have they been through this kind of experience before?

We all walk as quietly as we can up the stairs to my heavily guarded room. When we enter the area, Jane and Peter are sitting on the bed. Various weapons are arranged on my bed.

Ammunition. Guns. Knives. Am I important to the FBI? Do they know something about me that I don't even know?

Emma's wide, sleep-full eyes widen and she rubs her eyes so much that when she brings her dainty hands down, her face is red. She also blinks about fifty times before she seems to comprehend our situation and her mouth forms an O.

Alex pulls his twin to a corner of my dark room, at the bottom of my freshly made bed. The window has already been covered with the protective sheet I discovered earlier, along with my door.

My head fills with woozy dizziness as dread overtakes every one of my thoughts.

What if someone is here to take me like they took my parents? What if they are here to kill me like that shooter...

I pass out with a thud. My head hits the ground and I feel like I have been picked up in someone's strong arms before I completely lose awareness.

I gasp for air as if I have been under the ocean's surface for a millennium. Someone helps me sit up and lean up against.....the wall next to the foot of my bed. I look at the person. Alex's concerned bright eyes meet mine for a second before he removes his hands from my arms.

Emma is staring straight forward at the white wall of my bedroom, endlessly, barely breathing, blinking rarely. I lean against Alex's strong left shoulder. I don't know how he feels about this whole situation, but I'm sure he isn't as impassive as he is acting. Emma is in complete shock and I'm not sure if she comprehends much right now. 

"So um....what's happening?" I ask, as quietly as I can without whispering.

"I received a tip from one of my fellow agents. She said that....someone was coming after you," Jane explains only the part that I can know. I do perceive that she is only telling part of the truth. "A bomb also just went off a little ways away so we are keeping you locked up."

Did someone hack into the record they have on me? Do they know where I live now? Am I safe anywhere?

Jane and Peter get ready to leave and Alex asks, "You're just going to leave us here?"

"We need to take the suspect into custody. Sorry but, Lexi has several knives and a few daggers hidden in her room so....in the unlikely occurrence that the assailant will make it up here."

Jane always seems to do most of the talking in her and her husband's relationship. Peter is more like me, he prefers peace and quiet. Thoughts instead of words. A bottle of fireflies instead of flying free.

Jane's short dyed white hair curls under her chin, holding bouncily in place behind her right ear. I guess I haven't examined her appearance very much. She is skinnier than normal and she's told me before that she had anorexia for most of her teenage years. She received care for the disorder but then went back to it in her twenties until she met Peter. Quiet, sweet, calm Peter.

Again, I think about how little I know about these two. Peter has dark brown hair and eyes and is heavily muscled like he works out every day. Heck, I don't even know if he does that or not.