Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Twenty-Six

Don't forget to vote, comment and give me feedback. Just in case I hadn't drilled that into your head during the previous twenty-five chapters. 

R E C K L E S S . . .

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:

I didn’t want to leave home at all, but a week later I found myself climbing back into the car with my bags packed and a frown on my face.

Evan stood at the door, his face equally downcast as he watched me take the seat at the front of our mum’s battered red car. I’d spent nearly every day that week with him; we’d gone to the park, visited his friends, played together, gone to town and done every single possible thing that we could think of – but it still wasn’t enough. I didn’t want to leave my little brother.

I offered a small smile and a wave. “I’ll see you soon,” I called before I closed the car door behind me.

My dad stood behind Evan, firmly clutching his shoulders so he wouldn’t run off to join me in the car. You could tell that he was considering it by the way that he watched my every move.

Kate walked out of the house to join them on the front steps, leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed. I waved and she smiled in return. Her arms were still covered in the smudges of paint that seemed to be permanent nowadays, and she still wore her pyjamas even though it had to be about five in the afternoon. She’d decided to stay at home for another few days.

My mum climbed into the car and turned the ignition, making the car start to shake and rumble. With one last wave to the rest of my family we were driving away from the house. I watched it as it slid away through the window, wanting to return already.

“You’ll be back soon,” my mum said, seeming to know what I was thinking even before I said it out loud.

“A month’s a long time,” I said. “And I’m going to be revising for the exams then, anyway – I won’t have much time to talk to any of you.”

“I don’t want you to go back. Too many bad things have happened at that school.”

“I don’t want me to go back, either.”

We fell into silence. I guessed what I said had been true, but part of me wanted to return back to the school. The one thing that had unsettled me on my visit home was the twins – Dabria and Darius. They’d been unnerving almost to the point of downright terrifying me with their eerie predictions and strange appearances. I hadn’t been able to track them down again, even after sitting in town for most of the day waiting for a reappearance.

But I’d miss home; I’d miss getting up late in the morning and making pancakes with my family; I’d miss doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted; I’d miss the hyperactive energy that my little brother exuded, the annoyance of my sister whenever I did something the least bit wrong, the awkward jokes that my dad made, the calmness of my mum even in the worst of situations – most of all, I’d miss the way they made me feel: happy. 

God knew that I needed to be happy for once.

“I’ll call you,” my mum said, breaking the silence once again. “I’ll call you every week… three times a week if you’ll pick up the phone.”

I smiled. “That would be nice – but I don’t think I’ll have much time anymore.”

“Revision?”

“Something like that.” More like avoiding bloodthirsty vampires and trying to convince the school I wasn’t an insane murderer.

We turned onto the motorway and joined the streams of cars zooming in the direction we were heading. I wondered who was in the cars and what problems they were experiencing. I wondered if any of them were supernatural; hey, maybe the couple in the car next to us were actually werewolves. How many people in the world were not as they seemed? If I could find six in a boarding school then how many were out there in the real world?