The Cursed Isles

Chapter 1: The Morning Of

"Cameron, wake up! Mom said you're not gonna get any breakfast if you don't get downstairs," yelled Lyka in Cameron's ear, jumping back as he grabbed at her." Alright, I'm up brat." Cameron swung his legs over the side of his cot, rubbing his ear. " Man, now I can barely hear anything my ear's ringing so bad."" Well maybe next time you'll wake up when Mom calls," retorted Lyka cheekily, jumping back and tripping over a pile of books with a shriek as Cameron made another grab at her. " And clean up your room or I'll tell Mom," she said as she picked herself up, making a face as she left the room.

Cameron looked around, taking in the scattered books next to his bed, the gargantuan pile of laundry next to his door and the barren closet they belonged in, and the disarray of his desk. I'll clean it up after I eat, Cameron thought to himself, grabbing a shirt from the pile of clothes and putting it on as he walked down the stairwell. He entered the sunlit interior of the hallway, and followed the murmur of conversation down the hall to the kitchen, where Mom, Lyka, Martin, and two empty seats awaited him.

"Where's Reggie," he asked as he sat down to eat. "He's sick again," Mom replied, smiling and rolling her eyes. "It's a shame too. I just got breakfast ready. I made his favorite, biscuits and gravy." " You know, I don't think it's that bad," Reggie said, sticking his spiky head around the corner, "I'm pretty sure I'm well enough to eat." "Is that so," Mom asked, innocent as can be," Well, why don't you drink some willow bark tea, just in case." At the sudden crestfallen look on his face, we all laughed. "There's some sugar in the cupboard that should help with the bitterness," Mom told him smilingly. "Tough luck, kid," Martin said, laughingly. Reggie mumbled under his breath as he walked to the cupboard and spooned heaping spoonfuls of sugar into the steaming mug of tea, then sat down at the table and started piling food onto his plate.

 As everyone else started eating, Cameron studied their faces. Reggie was 11 years old, and had spiky brown hair that made him look like a hedgehog. He had mismatched eyes, one brown and one green, that mom said was the mark of a troublemaker. He just recently reached manhood, and acne besieged his face, and was winning the fight. His voice was deep, almost as deep as Cameron's , but it still got squeaky when he got excited. Lyka is about to turn 8 in a couple of weeks, and looks a lot like Mom. She has blue eyes that stand out in her otherwise mousy face. She had Mom cut her hair a couple of days ago because of the boys at school pulling on it, so it frames her face almost perfectly. She micromanages everything, and tries to be like Mom in every way. Cameron chuckled to himself as he thought this, because even now she was telling off Martin for taking too much food

 Cameron feels his mirth draining away as he watches Martin tell her to shove off with his mouth full of food, spraying it back onto the table. Martin just sort of... showed up one night a couple months ago, out of the blue and with no warning. We went downstairs and found him snoring on the couch, with a line of drool going from his mouth to the dirty tank top he wore. Mom took him in, and gave him some of Dad's stuff to wear to replace his. He's rough with Lyka and Reggie, and talks to them like they're grown and Mom overlooks it. She says we need a father figure, and Dad's been gone so long, she doesn't believe he'll ever come back.  Cameron turns his gaze towards Mom as she gives Martin a stern look through the veil of hair covering her face. Mom has her dark hair loose today, and it covered part of her face, with only few strands of gray throughout. Even though she was nearing 43 years of life, her face looked like it did in the pictures she has from when she was a young woman, and no wrinkles marred her beautiful face.

"Spacing off there, Cameron," Mom asked, staring back at him." You feeling okay."

"Yeah, no, I'm good," Cameron stammered back, feeling the blush creep up his cheeks as everyone's eyes seemingly went to him.

"Oh good, because Kira and Sierra need some help with the food preparations for the festival. I told them you'll be over there shortly, so hurry up and finish eating," Mom said with a smile on her lips.

Cameron smiled ruefully back, nodding his head, feeling himself blush even more.Cameron was infatuated with Kira, and had had a crush on her since he'd met her in his Chemistry class in school last year. "All right, I'll head on over." Cameron wolfed down the rest of his breakfast, then bolted out the door before Mom could load him with chores. As he left, he heard Mom call after him," Be careful out there on the beach."

(For my muse, Iris_Gray)