Masked (now an EBOOK on Amazon)

Chapter #4

I turned around so quickly, I'm surprised my neck didn't snap.

I did a quick scan only to find that there was no one but me. Maybe I HAD been reading too many mysteries. Suddenly, in the distance I saw an envelope lying in the bushes. It resembled the ones in my room; same mahogany colour, same size, font indicating that a typewriter had been used.

I went to pick it up and then I heard the footsteps again,louder this time. I wanted to run, but I also wanted to find out who it was. Our garden was quite huge, it was like a mini forest in there.

I walked in between the trees,hidden from whoever was in there, I hope. I tried not to make any noise, but as luck would have it, a stupid twig came in my way. There was a crunch and I froze.

Suddenly, I heard a cough and then I heard him break into a run. I ran towards the sound of the footsteps. I didnt care if he heard me. I needed to see who it was. I kept running. We had almost reached the end of the garden where there was a huge gate, that gives entry into the house and another way where you can exit and go on to the roads.

I knew he would obviously take the route leading out of our property. I ran faster to try and catch up with him. The gate leading out to the roads was a short distance away. I had the feeling he was nearby. The trees thinned out and I saw a guy running towards the gate. You're probably wondering why I kept saying 'he' even when I didnt know who it was.

That's because I thought it was the man who used to care about us; the man who used to come home every night to a happy family dinner; the man who would do anything to make his family happy; the man who's been gone for 12 years now; the one man I had loved more than anything; my father.

***************************************************************************************

I was six years old at the time, so I didn't really know how to feel about the whole thing. But then, later I felt the absence of his presence in the house; in my life. I asked mom all the time about where dad was and why he wasn't around anymore.

She always used to say things like, "He's gone out for work, he'll be back in a couple of weeks."

Those weeks turned into months and months became years; he never showed up. On my 10th birthday, mom finally told me that he had left us and wouldn't be coming back. I asked her why she didn't tell me earlier; she replied by saying that she didn't want me to think about it too much and ruin my life.

That was one of the worst days ever. I couldn't sleep the entire night. I tried so hard not to cry but it was all too much. I heard mom telling Sky and Noah to give me some time, and I was grateful. For an entire week, all I did was sit in bed with my iPod. The only time that I got out of my room was to go down for food. Everyone tried to talk to me, but I only answered in monosyllables.

Dad leaving had affected all of us in different ways; Mom was strong and kept comforting us- strong outside, but on the inside, I'm not so sure; Sky had come to terms with him leaving. She had convinced me into believing it; never in front of mom though. I don't know if Noah believed her, but I sure didn't.

Everytime she brought that topic up, I just walked away from there. She was probably hurt, the way I acted around her for a few weeks, I didn't even bother talking to her. She was and still is an extremely strong person.

One night, I heard noises, so I came out of my room. I went to Noah's room, he was asleep and so was mom. The only other person in the house was Sky, so I went to her room to check. Her door was open just a crack.

I was shocked to see her holding a picture of dad and crying. I slowly walked in and shut the door behind me. I thought she would tell me leave but instead she came over and put her arms around me. The two of us just stood there for a long time. When we pulled away, I realised that my cheeks were wet too. I wiped them with the back of my hand and told Sky to sit down.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm... I'll be okay," Sky said.

I didn't know what to say to say at the time so I just sat there.

She looked at me and said, "You don't know what to say, do you?"

I just looked down and nodded. She pulled me close and said,

"It's okay, Z. Just stay here, it'll make me feel better. Okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

"Not just for now, the whole night."

"Oh? Um...yeah okay."

"What? Scared of me?" she said in an amused tone.

"No. I thought you would be mad at me for acting the way that I was for the past weeks and-"

"No, silly. I'm not mad. It's just..."

"What is it Sky?"

"I just realised how much I miss having dad around and with me saying all this shit about dad being dead, I also realised I've been giving Noah and you a really hard time. I'm sorry for saying all that and acting like I actually had proof of dad being dead. I really shouldn't have done that. I'm so sorry, Z-"

"It's okay. I'm sorry too. I have been ignoring you for so long and I don't even know why. It wasn't because of what you said, I just didn't feel-"

"Like talking to anyone, I know. Me neither. I don't know what came over me. All those things I said, I didn't even mean them. "

"Sky, It's okay. I get it. It's over, you know. We should let go of the past and-"

"Whoa! Big words for a ten year old."

"Almost eleven!"

"Okay, okay. How come an 'almost eleven' year old is quoting such serious things?"

"I read it somewhere in some book."

"Figures. My sister's not such a good writer-"

"SKY!"

"Sorry. No need to scream, I was kidding. So, what say we 'let go of the past and-?"

I smiled and completed her sentence.

"Live the present and um... I don't know what comes after that."

Sky laughed and said, "Let's have our own ending, shall we? Let's say 'make your future'. Genius. Yeah. That's it."

I laughed with her and that night we made a pact not to bring up the past few weeks' events again. And we hadn't. Until now.

AUTHORS NOTE: HELLOOO! SORRY I COULDNT UPLOAD THIS YESTERDAY, HAD GONE OUT :P I REACHED 200 READS. THIS IS FREAKISHLY AMAZING AND TOTALLY UNEXPECTED. THANKS TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO'S READ THIS. I LOVE YOU ALL! <3

NO PARTICULAR SONGS THAT IM ADDICTED TO AT THE MOMENT. TOO BUSY AT THE INTERNSHIP. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!

YOUTUBE VIDEOS-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDVPnlkwp40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJkksBjtvWo

I have something for you all to look at if you're interested!

https://www.coursera.org/

This website offers 650+ online courses for free, including forensics (which I just started), psychology, arts, languages, etc. It's pretty amazing. All you have to do is sign up and start the course! Just watch the videos each week and take a quiz at the end of it. Do it for the given time and you get a certificate!

okay then byee!

-A

vote.comment.share. :)

P.S. I saved my two main dedications for this chapter. Because its chapter #4. Four. FOUR. Divergent, anyone? Dedicated to two friends. One isn't on wattpad. So yeah. Nyaaaan! Thanks for the storyline and the names! :) Couldn't have done it without you! And kavyaaa! Thanks for the story name! <3 :) I swear, I could not have thought of something like this :P