Sicaria's Home For The Wayward And Lost

Chapter 2

"NewbieNate, you give Chov back his phone this instant!"

Right as Sicaria walks into the room, she flattens herself to the wall, dodging the two teens and a child chasing after each other. The teenaged boy being chased yells back to the teen at the end, "Yes, Syphess. I mean mom."

This only seems to rile the girl up. "What did I say about calling me mom?"

Right before the first boy has a chance to retort, a voice sounds from the far side of the room, clear as a bell. "Syph, you know he never listens. Just leave it be."

The girl, Syph, turns towards the boy in the corner of the room. "But Val,"

"If you three weren't so busy fighting, you would have noticed the poor girl cowering in the stairwell."

At this, all eyes in the room become trained on me as I attempt to pass through the walls. Syph was the first to come to her senses, and walked toward me with a kind smile.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. My name is Syphess but you can call me Syph." She extends her hand toward me to invite me farther into the room, which I take cautiously. "Come and meet everyone."

As we walk around the room, Syph introduces everyone. "The man you were downstairs with, if you don't already know, is Sterben, but we call him Ben. The little girl he is now at the puzzle with is Nicilea or Nici for short. The boy next to them surrounded by paper is Ares. And the boys I was chasing are-"

"Hi I'm Chovenac but you can call me Chov. And that idiot that stole my phone over there is NewbieNate but we all call him Nate. And the guy in the corner is Val or Valor if you want to get formal about it."

Syph took back over, "The one on the computer is Cypher, and next to him is Rin. On the other couch playing cards are Redeemer and Dragow. Redeemer is most likely cheating though."

The boy, Redeemer, cried out indigently, "I am not!"

Dragow spoke up lazily, "He is."

Syph continues, pointing at the last couch, "The one petting the wolf is Amorana."

Amourna slides up to me. "Hey hot cheeks, which way do you swing?"

"You're not my type sweetie." I reply with a smile.

She smirked, "Just you wait, you'll come around. And you can call me Amy, or just call me."

The other resident on the couch speaks up, "And I'm Zylen."

"Okay so now that you know everyone, it should be about time for lunch, right Nici?"

"What time is it? 12:30? Yea sure." She takes a deep breath, "FEND FOR YOURSELF DAY!"

"Oh, Nici, how could you, on her first day too."

"Don't worry about me. This is the only thing I've understood all day." I tell them with a smile.

Nici's smile got dark. "Not the way we do this."

Before I could ask what she meant, she was gone, running in what I assumed was the way to the kitchen. I ran after her, not wanting to lose to a bunch of strangers.

I follow her for 3 steps before I am pulled up into a net. "What on Earth?"

Nici turns around to laugh, "That's what you get for assuming we were your normal group home."

Syph stops to let me down. I turn to her and ask "What did she mean by not being a normal group home?"

Syph turned away from me and started heading back towards the kitchen. "Follow in my steps directly. You don't want to learn the hard way how cruel the boys can get."

Heeding her word, I follow her. Little did I know that I was heading into a war zone.

****

When we got to the kitchen, everything was in chaos. There were people everywhere fighting over food, and I even thought I saw some flying food in all this mess. Over the roar of the war that was procceding, I heard a voice.

"Put down the burger or I swear to god I'll shoot you in the knee!" It was Dragow. She had a gun pointed at Nate. I was too stunned to move.

"What? Too sissy to shoot in the head?"

She removed the safety. "Don't tease me."

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm not teasing you... I'm daring you." Nate smirked at her.

The trigger goes off.

"GODDAMNIT!"

"I told you."

"Guys," announced Syphess calmly, as though this was an everyday thing, "there was another burger."

'This is my kind of home.'

I couldn't take it anymore. "What the hell just happened?! Why does she have a gun?! Why did she shoot him over a freaking BURGER?! What type of group home is this? And where is the front door so I can leave?"

Sicaria walks in. "Tess, you need to calm down."

I whirl towards her. "Calm down?! Calm down?! How am I supposed to calm down when some teen has a gun and just shot another teen in the knee?! And how is everyone so calm?!"

Val spoke up, "That's because this isn't your regular group home as we have said before. We are all talented in one way or another. I am a natural born leader and strategist. Ares is our main strategist though."

"I'm reconnaissance," piped Chov, "Amy is a seducer and Nate is the demolition expert. Then you have Rin and Syph as med team, and Nici and Ben are the clean-up team. They do most of the dirty work like stealing garbage trucks."

Before I can respond, Val continues as though uninterrupted, "Cypher is our hacker, Dragow is breaking and entering as well as an expert markswoman, Redeemer is a jack of all trades so he's good at everything, and Zylen, well he's good at torture."

"What are you all talking about? Strategist? Med team? Seductress? Torture?! What are all of you on? You're just freaking kids!" I turn towards Sicaria, hoping for an explanation. "Please tell me this is all some kind of elaborate prank to haze me."

Sicaria shakes her head sadly, "I am truly sorry mel, but what they say is true. We are an elite team secretly governed by the United States Government. And we want to add you to our team. We have read the reports from your other group homes and your criminal record. With the right training you can control your other half."

I become worried. "How do you know about Era? There is nothing in my records about my multiple personality disorder."

She smiles sadly, "I know because I am like you. But I have learned to control it, and not let it control me."

"So you want me to believe that you are all government agents working on undercover missions and that you want me to join your little group home thing?"

"Yes," answers Val, "that is exactly what we want you to do."

'Say yes for now. Maybe we can have some fun with this' Era whispers to me.

"Fine," I reply, "But under two conditions. First, I can leave whenever I want. I won't tell anyone about this though. And second, I want my own room."

Sicaria smiled, "That can be arranged."