At End's Gate

DINNER TALES

Paige went to wake up Erin. They joined the others in the kitchen. They commenced with their supper. Erin was looking a bit anxious. Paige noticed." Erin are you okay?"

"Yes," he replied after swallowing." It's time I tell you guys what happened to me."

Paige's face exhibited a lot of concern. Conner looked at her and then at Erin." Dude there's no need for you to talk about that. We can only imagine what you went through. Take your full time to heal and you can talk about it when you're fully okay."

"Thanks Conner but I'm fine. I can talk about it."

Paige looked at Conner with a small smile that showed gratification for his attempts to help her in stopping Erin from talking about what he went through.

"Okay," he took a deep breath," when that guy on the TV appeared everyone in my house just stared in shock. A couple of minutes later we heard screams outside. My mom was so scared. She never left my side. Damien, my brother went with my dad to get supplies. It didn't take time for my mom to start hyperventilating. I tried to calm her down." He took a minute to control his now croaky voice. He was fighting a lot of tears. Paige placed her hand on his hand." I'm sorry. In my imagination I didn't think it would be this hard. So after a while my mom stabilized. My dad came in and instructed that we had to go. Damien took the car keys and opened the back door. I was so scared. Damien being older was trying so hard to hide his fear but I could see it behind his eyes. We got out of the house. We ran towards the car. I couldn't even think. I just ran. When we were about to reach the car I felt a thud and a body fell down. I turned to see my mother. She had been shot. I couldn't breathe. I felt like I had died. I couldn't move. I just felt Damien pushing me to move. We got into the car and started driving off. Damien was driving. I was sitting behind him silent trying to process what I'd just seen. My mom was dead." He stopped wiping the tears on his cheeks. The girls were crying feeling remorse. The guys stared at him with sad faces." I'm sorry I hate empathy. Okay so where was I? Oh we were in the car. I heard gun fire. The windscreen broke, the shards of glass coming into the car. The car started swaying. My dad told me to open the door and jump. I looked at him. He then told me harshly to follow his instruction. I did. I got out. Shortly after I saw my dad jump out. Damien," he breathed," Damien didn't come out. We went back for him. He was dead. I wasn't traumatized. The pain I felt was beyond that of mere trauma. You know that they say that when someone you love dies a piece of you dies. That's very true. I never felt like myself ever since. I was dead. My dad was worse but he tried to hold it together for me. We found Mr Chandler. We trusted him so we moved together. We then came to the place where you found me. My dad told me to hide in the bushes because we didn't know if the place was occupied. I was stubborn. I wanted to help not to just spend most of the time being protected. After a struggle I agreed. They got in and were killed by the owner who thought that they were dangerous. He killed them before he left. I ran to the back after a while when I realised they hadn't come for me for quite a while. I went to the back. I saw a pile of bodies. I ran around and saw my father and teacher's bodies. I was shocked. They had markings on their necks. The people in the house had strangled them. That's why I couldn't hear them struggle or scream. I tried to chase after them. I couldn't. I ended up in the house on the floor weeping. I punched the walls and broke my hand. You can't imagine the number of times I thought of killing myself but the hope of being reunited with Paige kept me going. It kept me sane." He held her hand tightly gazing into her eyes. She buried her face on his neck and wrapped her arms around him. After a while he released himself from the hug." Enough of me. What happened to you?"

Paige was about to explain but Conner started speaking before she could." All of our parents were murdered and we met each other along the way and started looking out for each other," he lied. Paige was confused. After a while when Erin bid good night he tried to explain to the others why he did that." I'm sorry but it's not the time to explain to him everything. He's been through too much and if we explain to him what our parents did and how they knew about Dukilian he might not take it well." Paige wanted to argue but the others were in full agreement with Conner." Paige trust me. It's not yet the ideal time to tell him." Paige finally agreed and they called it a night.