The Middle

Chapter 3 - Winter Vacation

"So, do you see it?"

I try to look long and hard in the direction he's pointing. But all I see is the white of snow and the tall black trees. I don't even see the footprints of anything I should be seeing. 

I shake my head, "Sorry, dad. I don't see the it that I'm supposed to see."

He attempts not to show any sign of it, but I can see the disappointment on his face. I turn towards him, "What am I supposed to see?"

"I'd ruin it if I told you," my father tells me quietly, "It's something you just have to see for yourself."

I trudge through the snow behind my father. My sister is close behind me. I turn to her, "Did you see anything?"

"I saw a feather," she responds, "That's about it."

I shrug, "More than I was able to see."

My father led us throughout the forest. He would constantly stop, point at a direction, and ask if we saw anything. Each time we said, "No, nothing." And each stop kept getting farther and farther apart. It wasn't long before I couldn't feel my toes anymore and icicles were forming underneath my nose. My ears - even though they were covered - were bright red and my cheeks were rosy. He decided to turn back and head home.

Both my sister and I catch a cold from being out for so long. Luckily, there is no frost bite. The two of us were excited to go on this trip. It was a trip he had talked about for years. He always wanted us to go to the Black Forest. And yet, when we go, all we get is a cold. We just didn't see the appeal of seeing nothing. I'm sure it wasn't his fault. He went during winter vacation. There wouldn't be many animals out or things to do in winter vacation. Maybe he can try again another time.

I remember waking up the night we came back. I coughed my lungs out. I decided to creep downstairs to ask for some medicine. My coughing seemed to stop just as I began to go down the creaky steps and hear my parents talking to each other.

"They never saw them," I can hear his voice sound, "Not even once."

"Doesn't that mean-" I can hear my mother start to say, but she's cut off. I assume by my father nodding, "Oh, dear. Well, at least it's safer this way."

"I guess that's one way to look at it," my father replies, "That night that took my brother away won't get them too."

Wait a minute...

...night...?

For my entire life I thought he said 'night.' I never actually thought about the sentence he said. Being a 6th grader who knew nothing, I thought he was talking about the night his brother was kidnapped. That was the story he always told us. He said his brother was kidnapped and was still never found. Could it have been possible that he meant nite? Could he have been brought to the complex? Now that I think about it, 'night' makes no sense while 'nite' makes every bit of sense.

How long has master been at her schemes? I need to ask Luna. Because the master might have killed my uncle a long time ago.

*****

My eyes slowly open and I immediately get a rush of cold. I sit up to feel like I put my hand in a bucket of ice. I look around us to see that a soft blanket of snow covers the ground. Snowflakes stick to my eye lashes. I see Ella still asleep in a ball trying to stay warm, but a hole in the snow where Luna and Jules was. I look around to find Luna trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

I walk over to her, "You make it seem like you've never seen snow."

Luna stops and turns to look at me, "Probably because it's been a while since I have. I can't remember the last time I saw snow."