Kiros

Chapter 10: In The Darkness of the Night

I opened my eyes to a pitch black room. I could hear the faint pitter-patter of rain drops on the walls of Aramella's house. It was soft and comforting. Then I remembered what Leni had told me: that it was acid. It would melt my skin off.

I swung my legs off of the bed and stood up. The flimsy blue nightgown that Aramella lent me floated around my tan legs until my mid-calf. 

Quietly cracking the door open, I peeked outside of my room and checked to see that Aramella, for whatever reason, was not still up. I checked the clock and saw that it was three o'clock in the morning.

She must have been asleep.

Creeping out of the room and into the hallway, I tried to be as quiet as possible as I slowly made my way down the hallway and down the stairs. On my way down, I found myself looking at the pictures of Essen's and Aramella's family.

There was a woman who had pale blue hair and extremely pale skin who had a tall man standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders. He had dark blue hair, like Essen's, and light brown eyes like both siblings. 

They must have been their parents. I saw the woman holding a small bundle in her arms, at which she was smiling tenderly at. Seeing as there was no one else in the picture, I assumed that it was baby Essen.

I stepped down one stair and saw another picture of the family of four all sitting together in front of what appeared to be a bright green ocean. They were all smiling, and happy together. 

I lightly touched it. 

I wondered what could have happened.

Their parents must have passed away somehow. Otherwise, why would Aramella be living alone? She couldn't be more than sixteen or seventeen years old. And what was Essen's real reasoning for not staying with her? I knew how to read when people were lying and when people were telling the truth, and I knew that he was hiding something.

It must have been personal, but I was still very curious.

As I walked down the stairs I saw more pictures of the family. They were together. Happy. Content. 

When I came to the very last picture, I saw that there was someone I didn't recognize. A little girl with neon blue hair and sea green eyes. Looking to be older than the other two children in the photo, she also looked the most mischievious. She was grinning into the camera holding a little stuffed Miio, with her parents, who had itty-bitty Essen and Aramella on their shoulders.

Who was that little girl in the picture, I wondered. And why isn't she in the others if she's older?

She didn't have nearly as much resemblance as the siblings did. She had green eyes instead of brown eyes and her hair was a much brighter colour. She had a huge grin on her face, and her eyes sparkled with joy and excitement.

Before I could dwell on who that girl was, I heard a creak downstairs.

I froze and listened for anything else.

There were a few more creaks that were starting to remind me of footsteps. I quickly ran back upstairs, in case it was Aramella; I didn't want to get caught snooping around her house.

Throwing the door to my bedroom open, I dove for my bed and covered myself with the blanket. The footsteps had receded, but I was still cautious.

As I waited, I kept thinking to myself: Why?

Why did I go down stairs when I could have been caught by the Wicked Witch of the Planet?

Why did I let myself into this situation?

Why had I decided to trust Leni?

Why had Leni been kind enough to find me a place to stay?

Why was Aramella okay with me staying?

Why was I okay with staying?

Why did I trust anyone at all, after the last time?

Why, why, why.

I sighed and turned onto my side. There were so many questions rolling around in my head. How long would it take for me to get off of this planet? How long would it take for him to find me now that I was finally stationary? Would I be stuck on Luuo for the rest of my life? Would I ever see any of my friends again?

I wanted more than anything to just close my eyes and wake up from the terrible dream I was imprisoned in.

**************

When I awoke the next morning, the first thing I noticed was the smell in the air. It smelled salty, and greasy, and like the best thing in the entire world.

Bacon.

There was the smell of eggs and pancakes too, but I didn't care. All I cared about was that there was bacon somewhere in the house.

Leaping out of bed, I followed the scent of delicious meat downstairs, past all of the pictures I was looking at hours before, and into a kitchen. It was small, with a stove/oven, a sink, a nanowave, and a bunch of cabinets made of the same metal material as the rest of the house. I saw Essen by the stove with a metal spatula, flipping pancakes while Aramella brought some bacon out of the nanowave.

I leaned against the doorjamb and grinned. "Is that breakfast I smell?" All of my previous doubts ran away as Essen grinned back at me.

"Indeed, it is." He gestured over into a room that was attached to the kitchen. "We all thought that it would be a nice surprise for you if we made you breakfast on your first morning on Luuo."

I smiled. "Aw, thanks." I froze. "Who's we all? It's just you and Aramella..."

"And me," a voice said from behind me. 

I nearly jumped as Leni made his way behind me to stand beside Essen, cracking some eggs to scramble. 

"Jeez!" I exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

He snatched a piece of bacon away from Aramella, who glared at him. "Do what?" he asked, feigning innocence. 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You know what."

Leni shrugged. "Are those pancakes ready?" he asked Essen.

"Almost."

He nodded absently and shuffled the cooking eggs a little bit around in the pan. "Kiros, you can go wait in the dining room while we finish up. It won't take long, and Aramella's kitchen is too small for all four of us.

I just stared at him.

When I didn't say anything, he glanced at me. "Did you hear me?"

"You said my name right," I stated.

"Yes. And?"

I shook my head. "Never mind. I'll just be in the dining room."

I shuffled past all of them and walked into the adjoined room, sitting down in a dark chair in front of plates and cutlery that had already been set out. They were really prepared. 

It touched me knowing that they had put so much effort into making my first full day on Luuo enjoyable. At least, in the morning, that is. It was something so new I didn't know how I felt about it. 

What I did know was that I liked it.

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Dear readers,

A Miio is like a teddy bear but it has four eyes instead of two and four arms instead of two.
A nanowave is like a microwave.

Kiros is afraid of someone finding her. Who do you think it is?

-flygirl1