Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 10⌉

If you ever hurt her, I'll find you. And you'll be damn sorry you ever did.

Looking out the window was strange this morning. Unlike usual, it was sunny with only some white clouds floating through the sky. Maybe it should have been more frequent, considering that it was summer, but the rain practically went on all year, only offering a couple nice days bimonthly. About four years ago, the rain had been so bad that it flooded the eastern side of Adelmir, and it took weeks to get everything up and running again. The eastern side was the biggest victim to flooding, as it was on a lower level than the rest of the city.

For a moment, Adelmir seemed okay. Birds made their nests on signs, light posts, and bump-outs of buildings. Kids would ride their bikes down the sidewalk and back, racing each other with some cool looking rock on the line for the winner. The market on the northern side of the city finally had a day where they didn't need to cover their tables or move inside to keep their things from getting wet. People commuted to work more comfortably, and there were even less cars driving around than usual.

Something about sunny days cleared the minds of people like they cleared the skies. The worries from the day before weren't so bad, even for the most pessimistic who considered most everything bad, no matter what it was.

Jane had woken up with Anthony. Not intentionally, but she had, and she didn't go back to sleep after he was gone. She worked as a freelance writer, allowing her to take care of Faye and Luca during the day instead of handing them off to someone else. That morning, Anthony had seemed more disheveled than usual, and Jane had no trouble in telling that something was wrong. She had asked him, but all he said was that he was going to do something today he should have done a long time ago. Jane didn't get all the information, but she could only assume it had something to do with Richard Alann. He talked about that man. A lot. And Jane had learned how to differentiate anger with Rich versus regular anger.

During the morning time, Jane just went about her regular routine of showering and responding to some emails she got about her work. Faye always woke up before Luca, and she would come slowly down the stairs and sprawl out on her stomach on the floor waiting for Jane to notice her. Jane knew when she was coming down the stairs, but she liked to entertain Faye by making her think Jane had no idea she was there. Faye was also more energetic than Luca was. She had fiery red hair to match her blazing personality, running around in the house and playing pretend with herself, her imagination bubbling with creativity.

On the other end of the spectrum was Luca. He had darker blonde hair and was rather calm as far as two-year-olds went. He didn't play with Faye the way Faye wanted him to, because he wasn't all that much of a hyperactive type. He would often just be by himself, looking at pictures in books and stacking things on top of one another.

Jane had grown to be very good at multitasking, and she could focus on a lot of things at once. That being said, she hardly missed any cues that something was happening or something was wrong. Because of this, she heard a knock on the door from across the house, and as she walked over, Luca behind her, as he tended to follow her around. Jane opened the door to see Jayla on the other side, and she offered a kind smile, stepping aside so the girl could enter. Like Jayla, Jane grew up in Jundan, and the two had known each other for a long time through a mutual friend who was friends with Jane since they were babies and with Jayla since elementary. It seemed that all the puzzles just fit into place with both Jane and Jayla moving to Adelmir because of their male counterparts - Jane's being Anthony and Jayla's being Edmund.

"Is Anthony gone?" Jayla asked, glancing around the house, and giving a small wave and smile to Luca, who waved back. He, too, had a smile on his face, because he really liked Jayla.

"Yeah, he left a while ago," Jane answered, shutting the front door once Jayla was inside. Footsteps could be heard coming from the other room, and Faye ran into the foyer before bee-lining toward Jayla and hugging her around the leg. "I think he had something important going on so he left a little early. Why?"