CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Twenty-Five: Memoirs of an Eternal Prisoner

*Elle's PoV*

In hindsight, I really should have expected this.

My parents grounded me 'indefinitely' which was their way of saying that I would be their eternal prisoner. The only valid reason to leave the house, they said, was to go to school. And they took away my Xbox, which I think constitutes as cruel and unusual punishment. I would have asked Marcus, because he's a cop and should know those things, but no matter how many times I tried in the two weeks since I'd been home from California, I couldn't get a hold of him.

I was actually in a pretty good mood when Marcus and I exited the plane that had brought us home from California. Sure Jared had pretty much been a dead end, but he did promise to email me if he learned anything else about Maggie's situation.

"If you'd excuse me for a second," Marcus said.

"Sure," I replied and sat down on a bench to wait for him as he walked off in the direction of the restrooms. I hummed the Shadows of Light theme song and tapped my foot. At this point, I really just wanted to get home and end this whole thing. I made a vow that after this, I was never lying to my parents again. It was way too stressful.

I had been sitting there for about five minutes when my parents— my very angry parents— came storming towards me. I don't know what tipped me off, but I was pretty sure they'd figured out my trip wasn't school related. I jumped to my feet quickly, a shaky smile on my lips. "Hi Mommy," I chirped, "Hi Daddy, I thought you were going to wait outside for me?"

"Why did you lie to us?" My dad snapped, not beating around the bush. I don't think I've ever seen him that upset, and the fact that he's that angry over something I did made me feel absolutely horrible.

"I-I... I um... well..." I didn't have an answer. Well, I did, but not one that I could possibly explain to my parents.

"We called the school you know," My mother said, her arms crossed and voice tight. "We wanted to get the email address of your teacher."

Oh llamas, I hadn't even thought of that.

"Well, imagine our surprise when the secretary informed us that there was no teacher at your school even named 'Mr. Shoesenheimer' but that she could give us the email address of your actual Biology teacher, Mrs. Morrison." My mother raised her eyebrows as she finished the sentence, waiting for me to respond with something; a defense, an excuse, anything.

I stood there, silently opening and closing my mouth like a brain-dead fish. Suddenly I felt like a child again, being scolded for breaking my mother's crystal angel statue. I had thought that was the pinnacle of I-feel-like-a-piece-of-crap moments, but this current moment topped it ten times over.

"So we gave you the benefit of the doubt," My father chimed in, his eyes full of hurt, "We foolishly believed that you couldn't be lying to us, and that maybe this Mr. Shoesenheimer was just the chaperone for the trip. We emailed Mrs. Morrison. She informed us that there was no field trip, nor had she ever even heard of a Mr. Shoesenheimer."

"What's the real story then, Estelle?" My mother used my full name for the first time in as long as I could remember. "Why was it so important for you to go to California that you had to make up this story to get us to let you leave? Is it something to do with Maggie's disappearance? Was that detective right, do you know something? Who was the man you had posing as your teacher?"

My head was spinning with the rate and quantity of questions she threw at me as guilty tears sprung to my eyes.

"Well?" My mom cried, "Answer me!"