A Sapphire's Tale

Chapter Two

Knock knock

There it was again, slightly louder than before. Evelynn still stood there staring at the door, wondering who could be knocking at such a late hour.

"W-who's there?", her voice trembled in fear, followed by a spine-chilling shiver. The unknown subject didn't answer but only continued knocking, more vigorously than before. Maybe it was the adrenaline but something about that knock seemed urgent, as though this unknown person was somewhat harmless

With a deep breath, she calmed herself and stepped slowly towards the door, curiosity at its highest. She still stood there feeling hesitant until she heard a voice from outside

"Is anyone t-there", a voice said with chattering teeth.

The moment she heard that, she recognised the voice straight away and immediately opened the door, a young boy stood outside before her freezing in the damp cold.

"Joshua Sapphire! Why in the world are you outside? It's raining for goodness sake!", Evelynn queried her younger brother Josh as she glared at him."Can't you just let me inside first?" replied Josh with gritting teeth. She quickly let him in and offered a towel.

"Well young man, you've got a lot of explaining to do", Evelynn impatiently tapped her feet without breaking eye contact from her brother.

Joshua seemingly averts his gaze from his sister, as if he was trying to mask something in his moment of hesitation.

"Lynn?Josh? What're you two doing awake?", It was Jacob, another Sapphire brother and Joshua's twin who stood by the stairs with little Emilia Sapphire peeking from behind him.

"Why's everyone downstairs?", she spoke up softly looking directly at Lynn. "We only came cause' we both heard knocking on the door from upstairs", Jake explained, adjusting his spectacles as he walked towards Lynn and Josh

"It's all right guys, just Josh returning from whatever he was doing outside", Evelynn replied, still glaring at Joshua. Jake takes one look at his brother and subtly rolls his eyes.

"Relax Eve, don't be such a buzzkill", replied once freezing brother who seemed better now, still averting from the topic. Eve shook her head and exhaled deeply as Josh turned to his twin brother, something negative flickering in his eyes. "Shouldn't be awake y'know? Little kids need their bedtime", he said , shifting his gaze to Emily

"Emilia was asleep until you-"

"Emilia? I was talking to you four-eyes", he said innocently before cracking a smirk. Jake stared at him dumbfounded furrowing his brows, his fists balled to at his sides as though his brother's remark had made something within him flare up.

"Why you little piece of-"

"Jake!", Evelynn piped up.

"What? I was gonna say candy", he shrugged with his eyes still fixated on Josh.

"Liar liar, glasses on fire", he cackled, flicking his brother's glasses which almost fell. Josh immediately caught them, but his eyes were filled with rage, "What is your problem Josh?!", Jake fumed, his voice range higher than before. Evelynn knew her brother, and his voice raising up like that meant he was about to snap.

Their little sister peeped from a corner of the room looking scared, Lynn patted her on the head and thought of putting an end to the bickering. So to prevent a situation aggravation, she stepped in between the two brothers before things could get physical.

"Stop it! Both of you!", she heaved, partly in anger and exasperation.

"He started it!", Jake retorted, pointing at his twin. Before Evelynn could even utter another word, Josh had tackled Jake to the ground. "You're such a goodie two shoes!", Josh growled as he tried to land a fist on Jake. "And you're a rotten egg!", the latter countered, trying to do the same.

Emilia watched as her two siblings wrestled to the ground , trying to hurt each other. She couldn't bear it any longer and burst into tears.

Between the crying and the fighting, Eve had had enough, "Okay that's it!" With that she yoinked up Josh from Jake and dragged Jake up as well.

"Look at the two of you, fighting like a bunch of animals!", she snapped, fuming even more than before as she still had the hands of Josh and Jake in her grasp. The three siblings looked at her with stunned expressions, as though they'd seen a ghost. They had actually never seen their sister so angry, even at them.

Once she noticed this, she let go of the twins' wrists and exhaled deeply. She repeated this process while inhaling as well about three times. Letting out a sigh, she looked up at her siblings,"Look boys, I know siblings fight and all but you didn't have to got that far you know?", she cocked an eyebrow while the twins hungs their heads shamefully and mumbled the word "Sorry"

Eve frowned, "It's not me you're supposed to apologize to", Josh and Jake looked and each other but anger flickered in their eyes, Eve acknowledged this.

"I guess no apology then", pursing her lips, she looked over at the couches and suddenly got an idea. "Hmm, anyone up for a story?", she asked, moving over to the one-sitter, the book she had brought remained in her grasp. The three of them shared puzzled looks

Well that was random

"A story? I love stories" Emilia cheered as she ran to her big sister's side taking a seat on her lap. "What about you two?", Evelynn asked, glancing at the twins

"Since we're awake, why not?", Jake shrugged, Josh did the same. The former took a seat on the two-sitter while the latter plopped down on the other one-sitter.

"As long as it isn't lame or sappy or anything", Josh huffed, his twin brother rolled his eyes at this comment but Evelynn simply chuckled, "I don't know about lame, but there might be a little sap, you brave enough for the challenge?", she smirked

"Always, duhh"

"Great! Now listen closely everyone, these are events that actually happened in real life, many years ago...or so I was told", Evelynn revealed, Emily looked at her excitedly, "Ooo, what's it called?"

Eve looked down at her little sister and smiled, "Well, I've always been told that it's actually a Sapphire's Tale"

"Why? What gave it that name?", she asked with curious eyes. Her big sis opened the pages of her book as she looked towards the door then back at Emilia.

"Patience Emily, patience."