Lost & Found

Bump in the Night

I pressed my lips together in a line as I thought about where I should start. I glanced over them all, and as I did it felt like something lifted off of me, a fog over my brain that had been exposed to sunlight and was receding.

I remembered clearly how Kota had patched up my knees the first time I had been made to kneel on something other than just the floor. I remembered how Nathan had invited me to his classes that he took down at a neighborhood gym, and having to turn him down. I remembered how he offered to teach me when he could, and being so excited about the prospect of having friends.

Then a voice, a beautiful voice floated through my mind and things clouded once more. I'd been abandoned by them. I didn't have any sort of family save for Adelaide. Pain worked its way like a snake through my brain, running down my spine and chilling me to my core.

Adelaide.

The one person who had kept me safe, and I was about to lead these.. These Hunters right to her. I would need to warn her somehow. My stomach rolled slightly and I swallowed back my feelings. I needed to make them understand, to make them realize how vital she was towards my survival.

As I looked around the room full of faces that I'd known as a child, I was torn between my past and my present. I'd already messed up by allowing them to come here knowing Adelaide would be at risk, so really there was only one way to come back from this.

"It was raining," I started, raising my voice so that they could all hear me. "I don't remember what time exactly it was, but I remember I couldn't sleep. I was.. I was reading one of the books I'd borrowed from Kota."

At this there were several frowns for various reasons, but I ignored them all and focused on the story. I'd never said it out loud, only thought about it occasionally. Sometimes in dreams it would change, but I never remembered the alterations well enough to dwell on them.

"... a noise downstairs. I thought.. I thought it was Luke, for half a second. And then of course I felt silly because Luke would never be so careless as to make such obvious noises. I knew it was something else when I heard the screams.

"They were so scared.. I was so scared I just. I crawled into the attic space I used to go into to use the walkie talkie you guys got us for christmas, but I crawled all the way back. There was a hole in the wall and I could just see into Marie's room..."

A sharp pain entered my mind and I furrowed my eyebrows in an attempt to focus through the pain.

"Marie was sleeping, heavily. She never did have hearing like mine, but I didn't understand why she didn't wake up-" I swallowed back the lump in my throat, "I didn't try to wake her up I didn't..."

I focused on the boys for a second only to find Luke's eyes on my own. He was staring intently, eyebrows furrowed as if he was lost in a daydream that wasn't all that pleasant. He blinked a few times and I watched as his own eyes seemed to come out of the story and into the present, to focus on me. There was something about those chocolate eyes that haunted me.

I couldn't quiet put a name to what had changed over the years, but it was if he'd lost something that made him, well, him. The thought saddened me. The pain in my head seared more intensely as I continued.

"Anyways. Then... then she came. She pulled Marie from her bad and said that she had a bad soul, or something. That she was tainted and a bad person. She killed Marie. I thought I was next but.. She explained that I was being saved. That I wouldn't have survived much longer in the house.

"It made sense, especially looking back on it. She doesn't have a lot of options for her lifestyle but she chooses to make the best choices she possibly can. She rescued me and made it so that I wouldn't go into the foster care system or end up with anyone like my family by setting the house ablaze."