Secrets of the Cellar (Inside Secret #1) || COMPLETED

Chapter Eleven: The Talk

I slowly open my eyes, and realize that I slept on the cellar floor last night. My friends snuck out before my parents could wake me up, but I must've fallen asleep again. 

As I blink my eyes to adjust to the light coming in through the windows, I start to hear footsteps coming down the cellar stairs.

"Ugh," I groan, but I force myself to get up and hide behind a couple of boxes so that whoever's in here won't see me. I quickly tuck my necklace into my shirt and when my mother comes inside, my heart wants to call out to her, but my mind tells me not to, so I stay quiet. My mother looks around the room, and I pause, certain that she's seen me. When she turns back around, I let out a breath of air that I didn't realize I've been holding.

But then she starts to crouch in front of the chest, and I jump up, making enough noise so that she'll see me.

My mom stops what's she's doing, stands up, and turns around. As she sees me, she gets a look of confusion on her face.

"FiFi?" She asks, "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in bed?" I fumble over some words in my mind, but I settle with:

"Um, I just like how it feels in here, you know? The mysteriousness of it all." I mumble. I feel like that wasn't good enough, but I'm already suspicious enough as it is. 

My mom, luckily, just smiles, puts her hands on her hips, and shakes her head like, kids these days...

"So what are you doing in here, mom? It's like," I take a glance at the clock, "4:15."

"Oh, I was going to take a look inside the trunk. I think it's time for you to take little peak." I try to make sure not to look freaked out, but I think my mom sees something, because she starts to look worried.

"FiFi, what's wrong?" She asks. I quickly look away, and then I mentally slap myself in the face. Ugh, how obvious am I? I look back at her, determined to get her away.

"Oh nothing, mom. It's just that--" I stop, catching myself before I told the real truth, "I actually wanted to talk to you about something. About school." My mom smiles wide. She's a teacher, and school has always been what she looked forward to everyday.

"It's not homework or anything," I quickly tell her, not wanting to give her the wrong idea. Her face falls, and I add, "You know when I went to the principal's office?" 

She nods and I continue.

"She's still been bothering me." I tell her. I feel so horrible. I'm lying. To my mother. I feel so guilty, but my mom doesn't seem to be able to see through my charade of lies. She just looks sad and angry for me.

"Do you want some hot chocolate and cookies before school?" She asks me. I nod, like I always used to do when I was sad, and my mother and I go up to the kitchen to eat. As we walk up the stairs, I take a look at the trunk and I sigh. Phew.

I feel a little itchy, just under my ribs, and I turn around, sure to find something that's watching me, but I don't see anything. I keep on walking, unable to ignore the weird feeling.

When I get to the top of the stairs, I see my mother looking at me. The itch doesn't go away, so I know it wasn't my mother giving me the chills.

"What?" I ask her, but she just shakes her head, refusing to tell me anything. Then suddenly, she looks down at the floor, and then at the wall, and then, finally, on me.

"Fi, there's something I need to tell you." She looks like she's about to burst into tears, but she does her best to keep them in.

She pulls out a chair, and then looks at me, gesturing with her eyes to sit down. I take a seat at the kitchen table, which was the first time I was ever suspicious of her, and wait.

"I-I haven't been completely honest with you." She tells me. She looks so nervous, it's like she's actually giving me "The Talk." I look at her and nod for her to continue.

"There's something about us, Fi. We're, how do I say this, we're different from everyone else." She looks at me for a reacting, but I keep my face blank.

"What do you mean, mom?" I ask her, already knowing the answer. She takes a deep breath and blurts it out.

"We have powers!" She says, this time, she looks more carefully at my face, wanting to know if I hated her for keeping this from me, or if I think she's gone to crazy town.

"And before you--"

"I know." I tell her simply. Her eyes widen, like she can't believe it.

"What? How do you know?" She asks. I just shrug and casually take out the necklace. I thought my mother's eyes couldn't get bigger, but they did.

"How did you get that?" She says, sounding suspicious. Then I start to tell her how we got them, what we've been through, what happened. It feels good to get that off my chest.

After I finish, she just stares blankly at me, and I get scared, thinking Liliana possessed her again. But my mom's eyes stay the same color, and I calm down.

"Wow. That's," She stumbles over her words, "That's a lot." That's the understatement of the century. I nod and go and get a cookie from the cookie jar we have on the counter. 

My mom opens her mouth to say something else, but my dad walks into the room in his pajamas, putting his hand through his hair, making it messier than it already is.

When he sees my mother and I, he stops.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asks. My mom answers with "no," at the same time I say "yes."

"Okay?" He says, uncertainly. I look at my mom with a curious look on my face. My mom gives a subtle shake of her head. So my father doesn't know about this.

"We'll finish this later." She tells me, as my father opens the fridge to get the milk carton. I nod, and go upstairs to change.