Crestfallen Lane

Chapter 2

I had a good few provinces to drive through so I figured I'd take as many back roads as I could. The old roads with history, some that hadn't even been paved yet. I loved that.
The views were amazing, so different from Newfoundland's rocky landscape of the ocean. Each province was different in it's own right. Ontario had it's lakes and cottage country; different small towns urbanized in their own way. The history in Québec was visible through it's clear preservation of the architecture. And each of these places had archives of their history. Clear, clean cut. No real mystery. How I wished Renews was like that.
After a good forty hour drive I was back home, turning down Crestfallen Lane. Parked in my old drive, I walked up the creaky steps turning the doorknob. Unlocked just as I remembered, I heard my sister's voice carrying from the kitchen. "Ally," I called, "I'm home."

"Clearly. Get your stuff upstairs Lia, before mom walks in and sees all your papers. She'll burn them you know." Ally looked pointedly at the fireplace and then my research; I knew she was right. Mom took being a Descendant of the Crestfallen very seriously and I suspected that hadn't changed. So I lugged my bags and research upstairs, hiding my papers under the loose floorboard just as I always had.

I sat on the bed deep in thought after that. I wasn't expecting a hug from mom nor a warm greeting. Dad I at least expected a smile from. But Ally, she was the one I had been positive I'd get a proper family greeting from. 'A hug, and an I missed you, so glad you're back' kind of thing. I had been gone for six or seven years with limited communication. And all I got out of Ally was a warning.
She had changed so much, fallen in line, 'keeping the town' as it were I suppose. Ally, my ally was gone. And I was officially the black sheep, even to my own twin.

     Late that night, after hours of deep thought and deeper sleep, I thought it best to go down and finish the greetings. No matter how hellish they may be. I walked downstairs, once again hearing everyone gathered in the kitchen. What was up with that? The rest of the house was deserted, only the kitchen was lit and by my mother's many candles solely. 

As I entered the kitchen, I immediately went for the light switch. "And what do you think you're doing Allianna!" A stern sinister voice questioned me.

 "Adding some actual light to the house. And it's Lianna mother." Nice to see you after seven long years by the way. I turned ignoring the dirty looks I was receiving from Ally and my mother.

"Hey dad, Alistair," I smiled and nodded my head towards my father and brother. Dad smiled back weakly and Alistair ignored me as expected. Alistair had always been mother's pet, the prodigal son.

"So what's this grand family gathering for anyways mother?" I asked with cheery sarcasm.

"It's a nightly thing Lia, you wouldn't understand, you're not a.." 

"Descendant? Is that what you want to say Ally?"

 "Lia you are, just you've never kept." I stared at her, 'kept', there was that word again. 'Kept', keep the town, what did it all mean?  

    "Yes, keep the town, I know. That centuries old mantra that you never cared to explain." I glared at them all. My mother who had never seemed to care, my dad who had always held a soft spot for me and me alone, Alistair who use to swing Ally and I round and round until one day he didn't, and finally Ally, the one person I thought I had left, my twin who now spoke to me softly with heart crushing words. 

My father looked down at the table with something resembling sorrow while everyone else stared back at me in defiance. I wasn't one of them, they knew it and I knew it. But I had returned for answers, and if it was to lead me down a path of betrayal and loss. So be it.

"Keep the town," I continued, "Alistair knew by age five when he deserted Ally and I whilst we were two. For what, keeping the town? A town full of residents that look down on this street and the families that live here as if they're superior. How does a five year old play into that?!"

I looked my mother straight in the eye and she barely blinked, careless to all but herself yet again. I turned to gaze at Ally then, hoping for some reaction. "Lia, don't start."

 "I already have Ally, and I've spent too much time not knowing what this family is truly about. The grand secret in the ancient verse that everyone but me was made to understand."

"You left," my mother finally spoke as if the matter at hand was so simply justifiable. 

"And you pushed me away. So where does that leave us," I questioned as I walked away. Leaving them to stew with that final thought.