Hollows In Time (✔️) | 'Hollows' Book Ⅱ

Chapter Four

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H o l l o w s I n
T I M E
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23/08/16
Twelve months and two weeks ago

After our reunion, we then had to face the crowd of reporters out by the entrance of the police station. They all held cameras, wanting to get a shot of the sixteen year old missing girl that reappeared after five months away. Yeah, it was a big story. So I had to do it.

"Are you sure you can do this?" My mother asked me nervously for the tenth time.

"I'm sure." I reassured her for the tenth time. Alexi grabbed my hand, it was a firm hold, and I suddenly felt as if she wanted to drag me through a storm of nosy humans. She grinned at me and I chuckled.

My mother threaded her fingers through my other hand and I felt a weird feeling erupt inside of me; before I left for the academy, I wasn't as close to my parents as it may seem now, and it's kind of disgusting how they only care about me once they've lost me. Oh well, you'll find people like that in the world sometimes.

Then, just like that, we submerged into the sea of people. My dad and Alexi appeared to be doing most of the leading, and it was an odd turn of events that my mother seemed more shaken than I was in the crowd. I did what I had to, I moved on forward, and I hoped that somewhere in the world, these recordings of me on the news, would reach Jameson. Somewhere in my heart, I felt like I had to somehow tell him I was okay. Just in that moment, a camera was shoved in my face, and I looked right into it, hoping that on the other end sat my warrior Guardian.

We got home eventually, no thanks to the herd of reporters, and we immediately locked ourselves in. I breathed out as the door was shut, but then I had to face the horrors of being inside the house. I looked around. Nothing had changed.

My parents were eyeing me curiously, that same overwhelmed expression in their eyes, whereas Alexi just stood to the side, angling herself towards me, but not appearing to care in the slightest about what I thought of my home.

"Do you want anything?" My mother asked me, uncharacteristically nervous as she played with her fingers.

"Just some dinner," I told her after regarding the time, it was nine in the evening. Even though the day sure had flown by, I found that I believed—or wanted to be believe—that it was much later in the day. It didn't feel as if it was still my birthday.

My mother went into the kitchen, finding something to do with her fumbling fingers as she pulled out plates. "Anything in particular?" She asked me as I stared at her—she was going to cook? Don't get me wrong; she's probably cooked lasagnas and microwave pizzas in a past life, but with her busy work schedule, I can't remember a time when she's ever used our way too expensive oven. To be honest, even as a child, I couldn't remember her cooking anything. I was beginning to think that our fancy kitchen was just for show.

"Whatever you're having." I shrugged, watching her once more with bewildered eyes as she rummaged through the freezer.

"Oh!" She suddenly gasped and practically floated over to me. "Happy sixteenth birthday, Sky," she grinned, taking my face into her hands. "We would have got you something but–" I cut her off with a wave of my hand as she gestured to my dad, who wore an equally joyous expression.

"It's fine, Mum; I don't need anything," I placed my palms over hers and took them away from my face, holding them in my hands, my thumbs running over her knuckles. "I feel happy just being here." I said, a smile on my face.