Shadows {Book one in the Coriana Johnson series}

Revealed

   I quietly opened the kitchen door. Mom and Dad were fighting again. It seemed like they had been doing that a lot.

    I knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but I wanted to know. It seemed important. And I had never really cared a lot what my parents said was wrong. It was their fault they had neglected me.

  "Cal. I'm leaving. She's gone. We have to accept that," Mom said. I knew they were talking about Daisy. They were always talking about Daisy.

      "NO!" Dad yelled. He was always yelling, his temper was out of control. "We can still find her. I WILL FIND HER! I MADE A PROMISE!"

     "Cal! It's been years. There is no hope. We lost her. Forever."

"I WON'T GIVE UP!"

      "I'm sorry Cal. This is goodbye." I gasped. I hadn't been expecting that. I resented my parents, but at least she could keep Dad under control somewhat. I turned and ran to my room. A little bit later, I heard Mom come in.

"Coriana?" I turned. "I was just going to let you know, I'm leaving. To be wit my people If you want to come with me-"

"No," I said firmly. I didn't want to be anywhere near "her people".

   And here I would have a better chance of running away, if it ever came to that.

And I was pretty sure it would.

      I woke up suddenly and groaned.

   I had been having more and more dreams involving events in my past. Things I wanted to forget.

    I had hated my parents. And when I ran away, I pushed every thought of them away in the back of my mind. I had been five when she left, but I still remembered. I endured five more long years before I ran away.

  I lost my train of thought when the door opened. It was Daisy again.

"Hi," I said and sat up. Daisy grabbed a chair and sat down.

"I talked to Coulson," she said. "He says that you are going to the training facility. And that it's final. I disagreed with him, but there isn't much I can do."

   I nodded. I had hoped this wouldn't happen. I didn't want to be away from my sister. But it looked like I was going to be, whether I liked it or not, if I didn't tell her now.

     "Listen," she said. "Part of me thinks I should trust you. But I can also tell that you're keeping something from us. If you really, really want to stay, your best chance is to tell us more about you. I will admit, I can see where Coulson is coming from. So if you wanna tell me anything..." She looked at me hopefully.

    I was looking down. I didn't want her to see that I was crying. After I didn't respond, she got up.

    "Ok then. We brought some of your stuff. You need to be ready to go in a few hours." She turned to leave.

     I looked up. Part of me felt it was now or never, but the other part of me was holding me back. But as she opened the door to leave, something inside of me snapped. I couldn't hold it in any longer.

    "Johnson," I said, barely audible. But she knew I said something, and turned. 

"What?" She asked. I took a deep breath.

     "Johnson." I looked her right in the eye. "That's my last name."

   Her eyes grew wide as everything clicked into place. She closed the door and her jaw dropped.

  "You- you're," she stammered. I nodded and smiled weakly.

"Yeah. It's nice to finally meet. Daisy."

She rushed to my side as tears streamed down both of our faces. Her arms wrapped around me and I melted into her embrace.