Capturing Ella

Chapter 2 - Ella

March, 2015

I was agitated all night – more than usual. I mean, I am getting fairly used to the amount of flying I was doing recently, but I was more panicked now for the flight to England than I was to any other destination. Why? It was a tricky one to solve and I could only guess it was because there was no leading figure going for myself, no rules to follow. And the last time I didn't have a set of rules to follow, well, it ended up with a very low point in my life. It had only just turned three in the morning, and everyone else in the house was asleep.  I didn't even have anyone I could talk too, so I had to keep my anxious thoughts to myself.

I pushed myself up off the bed and walked over to my completely packed suitcase, reading through the list I had attached to the front of the suitcase. I had listed precisely what I was bringing, and ticked it off when it was folded neatly and packed. I knew I had everything in my suitcase and this was the fifth check of the night so far – and considering I went upstairs at half eleven when everyone else was asleep and it's about half three now, that's quite a few checks. I was panicking for no reason. Well, I say no reason. I mean, there was a very big reason.

A few nights ago, I was asked to look after one of my baby cousins – Sophia. I willingly accepted, having got to that stage in my life where I was probably a bit too young to have a child myself (and not to mention single as Hell) but was very maternal. Not only that, Crystal was at my family house at that time. So it was me, her and little baby Sophia.

'You're a natural with kids,' Crystal jokes, petting my head. I hushed her as Sophia was still restless and wasn't properly asleep yet. Five minutes or so later, I replied.

'Nah, she was just tired.' I whispered.

'Please don't hate me, Ella –' Crystal started, and I immediately turned to her and pulled a face. I knew exactly where that was going, so I stood up and put Sophia back in her travel cot in the hallway, tucking her in with no loose blankets before walking back into the lounge where Crystal sat expectantly, closing the door.

'I told you not too.' I said to her, sitting down on the armchair.

'But why not? Why don't you want to know who you're Soulfinder is?' She asked me, and I shot evils at her. She wouldn't understand. I don't think anyone would understand apart from me. I didn't want to know who my Soulfinder was because, quite simply, I would ruin him.

'I just, don't want to know him.' I said, hoping to end the conversation.

'But that's the weird thing, Ella, you already know him.' Crystal said, and I looked over at her frowning. Most of the guys I knew my age were absolute insensitive tits. 'You already know him; you're good friends with his brothers and sister. I mean, he works with Michael –'

I screw up a piece of paper in my hands, throwing it in the trash can across the room. Michael was my brother. My actual biological brother, that is. You see when I was just a toddler I was in a horrific car crash in England in the travel period between Christmas and Boxing day and the New Year. The two cars that carried my family to the airport were hit by a cargo lorry that was driving the wrong way up the motorway. We were on the way to the airport to head over to Colorado to visit the Benedict's. They were my cousins at the time of the crash. My Mum was Saul's sister, so we were coming over to celebrate the New Year. Although, we never made it to the airport. The time the flight departed from airport, with nine empty seats where we had booked. The only place my family went was to the morgue. Both of my parents and five of my brothers and sisters had died in that car crash. Only myself and Michael had survived. I was a medical wreck, but Michael only had a few broken bones and a punctured lung so he was adopted by other Uncle and Aunt (Savant families are huge, bare that in mind) whilst I remained in hospital in a medical coma, the reports came out about the crash and they found out it was a murder attempt and they had plans to come and kill me and then Michael once he settled down, so we had to cut each other out of our lives. We had to make up lies to cover ourselves so no one could find us. Michael and I never spoke to each other for 6 years. I was adopted by the Benedict's and even took on their last name. We had to make up another lie as to how I was related to the family. Vick came up with the idea of saying me and Yves, the second youngest in the Benedict family were twins. At the time, it was plausible. Even though I was two years older than Yves, we were the same height. He was tall for his age; I was very small for my age. We had the same shade of blonde hair, and were both above average intellect for Kindergarten age So Vick used his gift to persuade everyone who had known the family that Yves and I were twins. Ironic, as my birth name was meant to be Yasmina-Eleanor. Thankfully, my parents decided it was a bit too wordy and went for Eleanor instead. However, the day before we were meant to start Kindergarten, I had a massive mental breakdown and started hallucinating about the crash again. I was forced to stay off school for another year and managed to enter school three years behind my own age group. So I went into Kindergarten with Zed. Ever since I was adopted nearly fifteen years ago, the Benedict's are my family and will always be my brothers or my parents. There's no questioning about it. I trust them all with my life and we get on well as well.