Who We Are

Chapter 3

I gasp. I am leaning against my wall, and my room is dark. I slowly rub my eyes to take the blur out of them, and I peek at the window. It's night. I slowly stand up trying not to wake up anyone. Damn, I have been sleeping for this long. I thought while looking at the clock pointing at 9:31.

I walk to my parent's room and softly pushed the door to open it. I saw my Dad and my Mother sleeping on the bed. I let a sigh, and walk to the kitchen. The first thing that I see is a bowl with porridge. Well, what else am I supposed to eat? I sit on the chair and started to eat it.

After three minutes of eating the damn porridge, I put it in the sink slowly so I don't make any noise. A soft knock appeared on the window. "Ross," a female whisper came from outside. This late. I walk to the main door and peek through the peep hole. You got to be kidding me. I open the door and walk outside, closing the door behind me.

"What the hell Sydney?" I ask. "Well, I figured you were up so..." she pointed out."What are you doing this late outside? Your Mom is going to kill you." I try to shout and whisper at the same time. "Don't worry about that, I got to talk to you". I deeply sighed and replied, "Wait a second".

I go inside, grab my jacket, and quickly put it on. I walked back outside closing the door, and followed Sydney to wherever she was taking me. Probably to her usual secret place. And yes, she does have a secret place. We walk through the building's debris for about a mile, and we finally get to the forest.

I take a deep breath to smell the natural pine trees that grew from the earth. Never have I ever smelled something better than this. "We close yet?" I asked being sometimes the lazy me. Sydney chuckled, "Almost". I followed her footsteps as we jumped around the rocks and the fallen logs. After a while, Sydney crouched down and started to remove leaves until she saw a metal handle. She slowly opened it making the wooden trapdoor creak. "In we go," she said motioning me to go inside. "I'm going, I'm going," I said putting my hands in surrender.

I got into the dark hole and went down the wooden ladder that was built into the rock with screws. As I felt my eyes getting used to the dark, I saw the ground and jumped off the ladder. A few seconds later, Sydney joined my side. "Here we go," she said.

I stepped aside so she could pass through the narrow road in front me. I touched the walls beside me to navigate myself through the place. After about half-a-minute we stumbled upon a large place. Sydney went first and turned on a candle. She always had matches in her jacket just in case.

As the candle grew lighter, I stepped inside the room. Everything was made of rock, but the floor was covered with a big rug making it more 'home-like'. A small bed stood in the corner of the room with boxes around it. "What are inside those boxes?" "Clothes, stuff I either brought from home, or found somewhere," she replied. "Interesting," I said raising my eyebrows, or she stole them.

"Get comfortable," she said grabbing some pillows and throwing me one on the face. She laid a pillow below her and laid on it. "Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically and plopped the pillow below me, and also laid on it. "Now, what was so important you wanted to tell me to get me out of the house at 10p.m.?" I asked. "Do you want a drink?" she asked. I stared at her seriously and said, "Sydney, spill it".

She rolled her body onto her back, so she was now looking at the ceiling. "I met someone," she whispered. "As in a boyfriend or...?" I asked with a confused face. "No, um..." she paused, "I was walking from the industry back home, and I always went my short path, you know... the one that nobody else knows" "Mm-hmm," I replied interested. "I was walking and suddenly a girl grabbed my arm and stopped me. She was short, had brown-chocolate eyes, and had her long-brown hair in a ponytail. She definitely was an outsider, Ross" "And what did she say?" "Don't freak out, but..." she stopped and looked at me, "she said your full name".

"What? Is that all she said?" I asked a little panicked. Sydney sat on her pillow and continued, "Yes, she grabbed my arm, looked at me straight in the eye and said 'Ross Shor Lynch' and I ran away not looking back." "Why did you run?" "Why the fuck you think I ran Ross, she was a freaking outsider with her leather ass outfit and her little gun on the belt!" she screamed, "What the hell would you do? Talk about the nice weather!" "No, you're right. I am sorry," I said looking down fidgeting with my fingers.

"Look, I didn't invite you to teach you some kind of lesson. The point is, she knows who you are and she is looking for you," she said moving towards me. "I figured," I replied sighing. "I don't know if it is for good or bad Ross, but she has some intentions and you have to be careful" "Thanks for telling me Sydney"

"I know that for you it is another problem to carry out, but-"she started. "Its fine Sydney, I promise," I replied standing up and throwing the pillow on her bed. She stood up and walked closer towards me, "I know you're not fine," she said almost whispering, "I can see it in your eyes". I looked at her and hugged her tightly. "I'll learn to cope with it".