The Rogue

Chapter Two

December  24th -25th,  2015.

"Mom, im home." Andrea says as she steps into the warm comfort of her home. "In the kitchen" she yells from across the house. She keeps her bags behind a chair, and makes her way into the kitchen to join her adoptive mother.

"Yeah mom" "I need you to help me and set the table. Your father went to go and see one of his friends, and the twins are upstairs." She told her while moving round the kitchen to finish up the dinner. "Okay" she said as she get some plates out of their cabinets and set them on the table, as well as cups, cutleries and the food.

"Kids, dinner's ready!" she yelled up the stars, and stomping feet are heard coming down the stairs. "Yay, food!" screams one of the twins, a boy with curly hair and freckles, named Harry, with his identical brother with spiked hair and freckle-free cheeks Henry beside him.

"Im home guys" comes their dad's voice from the door. "I bought chocolate doughnuts" he says stepping into the dining room. "Ryan but there's dinner" mom wines gesturing to the food she slaved over in the kitchen. "I know hunny, they can have it for dessert." He said giving her a warm smile, which she returned.

Supper was finished, and everyone retired to living room to watch a Christmas movie before going to bed. This was tradition for the family every Christmas Eve night. Everyone was paying attention to the movie, then everything seemed to blur to Andrea, she spaced out.

'Im coming for you' she heard a low and deep voice in her head say, then her vision cleared. She wanted to scream from shock, but bit her lip. She didn't want to raise suspicion for her family members, especially her parents.

She remembered how when she was young, she used to wake up from sleep screaming with tears in her eyes, after a horrible nightmare, where she was being chased by a hooded figure with blood on its hands. One could only imagine the kind of horror this brought to a six years old girl.

She shook her head to clear it of the dreaded memory that brought sleepless nights to both her and her adoptive parents. It was a shame she never found out what had been the cause of the night mares, nor the circumstances that triggered them. But for some reason she feels that something very bad is coming. She just hopes it wouldn't involve her losing a family again.

"Andrea hunny, I think it's time we all went to bed." Her mother's voice called her out, causing her to return fully to reality.

"Ok mum, good night"

Everyone separated to their bedrooms. The next day was full of planned activities.

~.~.~.~.~

It was quite nice waking up to a cloud-free sky, with the sun's gentle rays shining down on you on a Christmas morning. It brought hope for a happy day. Andrea was just waking up from sleep, to hear her phone blasting out 'Caked by the Ocean' by DNCE. She wasn't a huge fan of bands, but her best friend Chloe had set it as her personal ring tone, due to her obsession over them, so this tipped her of on her early morning caller.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" came a deafening screech from the other end of the call. Just as she had guessed.

"Merry Christmas Chloe" she replied. "I'll be at your hours in an hour with the family. My mum said I should give you guys a head start before we get there." She said with a small laugh.

"I'll let her know. I can't wait to see your reaction when you open what I got you this year." Andrea said with a sly smile. She knew she was an awful gift giver, but this year she put some thought into it. They had been best friends for ten years now, so she thought she'd put in a little more effort.

"It better not be as good as mine, because if you don't like it, I can't even dream to get a refund." Said her best friend, letting out a sigh.

"Ok Chloe, catch you later. I need to get ready too." She laughed and cut the call, hearing her friend laughing on the other end.

Getting out of bed, she grabbed her clothes and headed to the bathroom to get cleaned and dressed. By the time she was done, she went down the stairs to meet everyone already dressed and having breakfast.

"Wow, you guys were up early, Merry Christmas" she chirped, taking a seat at the table, everyone throwing back 'Merry Christmas' back as they continued to eat as soft Christmas music played in the background.

"Uh... mum, Chloe said that her and her family are coming over in a bit"

"That's great, all the food I made yesterday wouldn't go to waste then. And don't forgot that Aunt Hillary and Uncle Joe are bringing their families, so it gonna be a full house, and remember that you and Chloe cannot sneak out of the house with the excuse of wanting to take a walk." She said giving her daughter a stern look. Andrea hid her face; she got in so much trouble because the two of them forgot the time and came back home by 1:00am returning to pissed fathers and fuming mums.

By the time all the guests arrived in the house, it was filled with the cheerful Christmas buzz. Games were played, songs were sang, everyone had eaten the well prepared cuisines and now everyone was in the living room chatting about their plans for the New Years.

"Everyone, it's time to open our gifts!" announced Mrs. Williams, gaining everyone's attention, as they went to get their gifts from under the tree.

Andrea opened her gift from her parents first. Her jaw basically dropped at the sight of the black moonwalkers, identical to the ones she saw on Nicki Minaj. Her head snapped to her parents, who had anxious smiles on their faces. She jumped at them, tackling them with a breath seizing hug, singing 'thank you's and 'I love you's in their ears. Later carrying on to open with the wins had got her, she discovered a box filled with all her favourate chocolates. She couldn't help the smile that crept on her face as she looked at the seven years old twins, who probably had no idea what to give their seventeen years old sister. But this was good, because now she had enough to cool her cravings till New Year. She pecked both their cheeks as she moved onto what her best friend gave her.

"Don't open it yet A, I have to open yours first" her best friend said nudging her as she unwrapped the gift. Unwrapping it, she discovered a custom-made phone case, with the two of them from summer, in watching bikinis at the beach. It was a beautiful picture, and was probably from the last summer that thy would ever share, cause they were now in senior year, about to graduate and separate.

This thought brought happy and sad tears to Chloe's eyes.

"You don't need to open mine, trust me, it's not as good." Andrea laughed and went ahead to unwrap her gift. She didn't expect it, but she saw two front row seat tickets to DNCE's New Year's Eve concert.

"I told you they couldn't be refunded" she joked and was talked into a bear-hug by her. "I love it Chloe, honestly. You're the one that even got me listening to them, and their officially my best. They both laughed at themselves, with everyone else going through their gifts and remarking on how much they love them.

The day drew out and was well spent, everyone high on Christmas merriment. Then time came for everyone to get back home, and the crowd grew thinner, till only the residents of the home remained. After cleaning up, everyone gathered in the parlor to video chat with the grandparents, telling them how the day went, wishing they were there to celebrate.

It was finally too late for the twins to be awake, as they yawned simultaneously and their mother took them to their room.

"Good night Dad" she said, giving him a hug. "Sweet dreams darling" he replied. Both tired of a day well spent, Mr. Williams went to join his wife in bed, as Andrea went to her room.

As she stepped into her room, she thought she felt a presence of something in the room, that was watching her, so she turned on the lights, and gave the room a quick inspection, but came out with nothing.

Deciding that it was just her imagination, she proceeded to change into her PJs and curl into bed. Falling into a dreamless slumber.