"What?" I ask irritably. My sister, Nani, has taken it upon herself to remove my headphones.
"We need to go Aydian." She say. I immediately get up with the car keys in my hand. Nani and my other two siblings, Tyler and Tiana, got in. We drive away in a matte black 2015 Roush Ford Mustang that Tiana made.
"What did you get?" I ask.
"Clothes, water, food, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, bags, and a...." Tyler trails off. He mumbles too low for me to hear, but as if on cue there is a faint bark.
I slam the brakes making everyone jerk forward. I glare into the rearview mirror at all three of them.
"You stole a dog?! Why in the world would you steal a dog? We already have to steal food and clothes."
"Actually, we don't NEED to steal clothes, just food. Plus I'm not the one that took the dog." Nani corrects me. My glare drifts to Tiana's golden and purple eyes.
"It wasn't me." She says defensively. Well, that's surprising. I sigh and my gaze shifts to Tyler's.
"Tyler, why did you take the dog?" This is getting irritating. Between this and not getting enough rest for the past three weeks, it's too much. "We're getting rid of it." I state without giving him time to justify his actions.
"It is a girl and no." He is one of the most stubborn kids I've ever had to deal with, and he's whining.
I ease my foot back onto the gas and slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
"We're going to the pet shelter to drop the dog off, then we're going home. Understand?" I can tell by the silence, all of them are pouting. I'm going to regret this. I sigh again. "Fine. How about this? After we finish packing up and everything we can go get a dog." I hear a collection of cheers from the three. I continue, "But, you have to train it. Deal?" I look in the rearview to see all of them nodding ecstatically.
"Thanks Aydian!" Tiana exclaimes.
"Yeah, yeah."
It took about twenty minutes to reach the closest pet shelter, Companion Love. It'll be a quick drop off, then off to Florida from here. I thought.
"Okay, hand me the dog." I have to pry the dog from their grasps as they crush the dog in a hug. I step out of the car, placing her on the ground. "Come on, girl." We walk through the glass double doors and up to the front desk. "Hi, I would like to put this dog up for adoption." I look into the receptionist's eyes letting my power take over. The glare off of her glasses signaled that it was working.
"Yes, why of course, sir." She replies mechanically. Her eyes glass over as she began to type on her laptop.
"Thank you." The lady then came from behind the desk, taking the dog to the back. I turn to leave just as a tall man looking to be in his twenties in a black suit, walks toward the door. I hold it open for him. Isn't it a little hot to be wearing a suit? Let alone black. We are in South Carolina. He smiles in thanks. He is heterochromatic like Tiana and Tyler. His right eye is a deep sea green while the left is an amber with purple flecks. Wow, that's different. I like it. Too wrapped in my thoughts, I didn't hear his question. "I'm sorry?" He seemed amused by me spacing out.
"I asked if you knew any good breeding dogs?" He repeats in a deep bass voice that vibrated through the air. Our gaze met again, but this time an electric shock shot through my spine.
He made me feel uncomfortable and frustrated and other emotions I can't comprehend.
"Oh, um... I don't know." Well that sounded intelligent. He chuckles.
"Okay, thank you anyway. I apologize for wasting your time."
"Oh no, I'm sorry I couldn't help you." He holds his smile, nods, and walks into the pet shelter.
I walk back to the car and get in. I drive us home that is right up the street, but on the way I got bombarded with questions.
"So, are you gonna tell us who that was?" Tyler questions.
"Just a stranger asking a question." I reply bluntly.
"Did you get his number?" Tiana asks.
"No, Tiana I didn't." I tell her.
"Why not? He was cute." I sigh and roll my eyes at the squealing girls in the back.
"Yeah and about twice your age and probably married." I mock.
"Hey, we don't know that for sure." Nani interjects.
"Okay, whatever you say."
We pulled up in the driveway of our secluded two-story house that Tyler and Tiana made.
Before we lived here we lived with our mother before she died not too long ago. It was a small apartment that didn't quite fit seven people. But, after our father left to protect us, things became slightly easier. Sadly, the Spectral Sanctum, or the S.S. for short, never quit on us or our father.
"Aydian, we're ready to go." Informs Tiana.
"Alright, let's go." I call back.
"They're here! Nani it's time!" Tyler yells.
"On it!" Nani runs down stairs and stands in front of the collection of windows in the front of the house. She begins her diversion as the twins move our belongings to the car. Her eyes glow much like mine did back at the pet shelter. Thick fog begins to roll over the ground under the agents creeping onto the lawn. No matter what they did the fog only got higher and thicker. As they stand in disarray the four of us run to the car and pull off. We escape the house but the S.S. persistently follow with a helicopter of course.
"Well this doesn't look good." Tiana says bluntly. Tyler who was in the passengers seat rolls the window, sticks his head and looks around the car for something. He spots a hug log on the side of the road. The luminous light of Tyler's activation reflects off the window as the log transformed into a large wooden cannon. It shot at the helicopter, the pilot trying to evade it at the last second ended up clipping the propeller. The helicopter spirals out of control and right toward us. I propel the car forward just to barely miss the falling contraption. The helicopter crashes behind us and bursts into flames, which unfortunately made it hard to see the up coming agents. But, thankfully it blocked the rest of the road.
