Masked (now an EBOOK on Amazon)

Chapter #29

                                                                CHAPTER #29

It was a week after my birthday and I was still in the mood. Noah was back which meant mom wasn't hallucinating seeing him. College was okay, although not having Alicia around was something I'd have to get used to. Ray was around a lot more, he got along pretty well with Noah. Family dinners were back, there was more laughter, less crying; I was happy.

There was always a small lingering thought at the back of my head that said 'this is all too good to last'. I hated myself for having thoughts like that; I distracted myself as much as I could, yet it was still there, persistently eating me up from the inside. I knew that I had a million unanswered questions, but I made up my mind to throw them in the trash for now. I'd deal with those later.

Just when I thought I was done with the nightmares, they sprang right back up. For the last two nights, I had the same dream. Like the last time, I had a face. I needed to know if it was real or not. 'What does a recurring dream signify?' I had looked that up uncountable times, to find that it was related to stress. I didn't know if that meant it actually happened or not, but I could safely say it was stressful as hell. The dream wasn't something I could just wake up and brush off. It stayed with me the entire day, almost like it decided how I progress throughout the day. Sometimes, I was disoriented; I would be oblivious to someone calling my name or talking to me or something falling. I would be in a state of my own, not knowing the line between my dream and what was real. I tried my best to drag through the day without thinking about it too much.

Noah, Sky and I spent a lot of time together, just talking and laughing. We'd all missed those days. We sat with mom once in every few hours, watching TV or joking around; anything to make her laugh and distract her from her medicines. She told us to get out of the house and go somewhere for some time. We'd been cooped up at home all day for the past week. We told her to come with us but she adamantly refused to do so and practically kicked us out.

We went to a place similar to where Ray and I went. It was just grass, rocks, a small lake and not many people. Perfect. We took some food, settled down; Sky and I sat down on the grass while Noah sat on a rock. We were just laughing around for a bit. Noah suddenly stopped talking and looked down.

"Noah, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I...uh, I need to tell you two something."

"What is it?"

"It's a long story. I'm not sure you want to hear it; you're never going to look me in the eye again."

I looked at Sky and she shrugged. How bad could it be? This was Noah talking; he can't have done something too dramatic. At least that's what we thought.

"Come on, Noah, it's us. We won't judge you, just tell us," Sky said.

"There's so much to say, I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I should start off by saying...I hate to be the one to break it to you...but dad is dead." I felt my throat constrict, making it clear that no words were going to come out. I heard a sharp intake of breath from Sky. We knew he was gone for good from our lives, but we never considered the fact that he was actually gone; dead. My face was wet with tears, freely flowing; it was the same with Sky.

"Mom has no idea, and I am so sorry that you had to find out like this."

"How long-"I croaked.

"Just before you were sent to Juvie."

"What? Why didn't we know about this back then?" Sky asked, wiping her face with her palms.

He hesitated for a long time before finally answering.