Arcade | s.m (✔️)

Twenty-Five

I should have realized something was wrong when we pulled to the front of the house and the curtain drapes were shut.

Mom hates when the curtain drapes are shut and there's still light out.

"Mom! We're home!" Cole yells out, unlocking the door and stepping in.

We give each other a concerned look when our mother doesn't answer us.

I shut the door, then locking it, before going upstairs, thinking that she might just be in the shower now. As I walk towards the bathroom I pass my own room and hear a sound coming out, which causes me to walk over and see what was going on.

Out of a thousand things in this world, this would be the last thing I imagined the cause of the sound being.

It was my mother, on her knees, frantically shoving my un-folded clothes into one of the moving boxes she must have gotten from Cole's room.

"Mom?" My voice is no higher than a whisper, because even though I try my hardest, I can't help but imagine that the one thing haunting my dreams was coming to a reality.

She pays no attention to me, and I call out for Cole, then watching my mom rush out of my room with the full box in her hands.

"What's goi- oh shit." Cole's voice comes as a surprise behind me, and he sprints to catch up with my mom, who was shoving the box in our mini-van's trunk, alongside numerous other boxes that she must have filled while Cole and I were out.

"Mom?" I say again when we're in her room, trying to get her attention, but she's too busy searching for something to pay any attention. I try calling her name again, however I only get the same response.

"Mom!" I finally raise my voice and her whole body stops completely. She looks up to make eye contact with me, and I can see she's been crying as she speaks three words.

"They found us."

As she begins to throw her own possessions in a box, I grab them from her and begin to do the work myself, asking for an explanation.

"Marge said they came to her." My mother tells me, referring to my Aunt Margaret as her voice trembles.

"She said they found out, and wanted to make sure she wasn't hiding us before they came here."

"How long ago was this?"

"They locked her in her own room and set the house on fire." My mom's eyes become glassy as she pauses, staring at the ground.

"Thank God, she made it out safely and they got the fire out before it ruined the place completely. They've been on their way for three hours."

I knew the distance between this house and Aunt Marge's current one, and it was about 3 and 1/2 hours. Which meant that we had to get out of here now.

"We have to leave, come on." I say to my mom, grabbing the box I had finished filling as my mom grabs the "Vacation Box" she filled with money.

Cole has the keys to the mini-van, and already started the car by the time I put the last box in and shut the trunk, wishing we had more time to empty our belongings from the house.

"Did you call Contran?" Cole asks, and my mother shakes her head, saying that she forgot.

"Where are the other keys?" I ask, referring to the keys for Cole's car, and he curses before telling me he left them in his room.

I sprint back into the house and rush inside, then going into Cole's room and finding the keys laying on his bed. I'm back outside in less than ten seconds as I open the car door and turn the engine on.