Warped

Chapter 1

My hands and eyes and feet fumbled around my sister's room; my hands opening drawers, my eyes scanning the room, and my feet taking me where I needed to be.

I rushed over to the towering dresser where Melanie, the Wicked Witch of my Sister, kept her clothes. I wrenched open the top drawer: nothing. Next drawer: nada.

That's how it'd gone so far: zero, empty, nada, zip. Everywhere I looked, there was nothing to be found.

"Where does she keep her stuff?" By stuff, I meant things that she stole from me. And everyone else. Of course, there were things in the drawers and desks I'd already searched, but unfortunately for me, they all belonged to Melanie, which made them worthless. Because what I needed was not something that belonged to her.

I looked around the room again. That was when I saw it. It was on a dresser, just hanging carelessly. I breathed a sigh of relief. I guess I always knew I would find it (I was very good at finding things), but there was always the slightest chance that it wouldn't be there. That it would be gone forever.

"Eva!" A call came from outside the door, down the stairs, where I imagined my sister, who had just called for me, was standing. The very sister whose room I had infiltrated. I froze. "Eva, I need to talk to you about something." I glanced at the clock, wondering if I was off schedule. I wasn't; it was only noon. Melanie wasn't supposed to be back until three!

"Yeah, okay, I'll be right there," I called back. I glanced around Melanie's room secretively, and then craned my neck, straining every muscle in me to try to hear any movement.

"Why does it sound like you're in my room?" shouted Melanie, sounding suspicious.

"Uh, no reason?" Idiot. That's what I was. I bit my lip, unsure of what to do. I needed more time to finish, but if I stayed any longer, I'd be caught for certain. Finally deciding to leave my work the way it was, I quickly flipped the sheets over everything and quietly tiptoed out of Melanie's room.

"You are in there, aren't you?"

"Uhm...." I said. Then, I immediately (and a bit frantically) sprinted out of Melanie's room.

"Hey, I can hear you running! You little--"

Too late. I barreled down the winding staircase of the manor and ran straight through my sister, knocking her right to the ground.

"Sorry," I yelped, jumping out of the way before she could take me down with her, "not sorry!"

"Eva...." I heard Melanie growl from behind me, way at the back of the hallway.

My face went white as a sheet; Melanie looked capable of murder.

After that horror-raising glance, I decided I wouldn't be looking at her again. So I turned on my heel and picked up the pace. I could hear my footsteps echoing around the roomy house. I couldn't hear Melanie following me or anything, but there was no telling what that girl could do. I honestly wouldn't have been that surprised if I looked up to see her clinging to the ceiling like some wacked-out spider-man thing.

But when my reluctant glances to my left, right, behind my back, and even up to the ceiling (I'm not joking. Knowing Melanie, she would probably go to any measure to freak me out, or in this case, kill me) proved I was on my own, I flung myself into a nearby hall closet and waited.

I couldn't hear anything, which either meant that Melanie had gone off the wrong way while chasing me (very likely; our house was very large, and Melanie was awful with directions), or she wasn't chasing me at all (highly unlikely; Melanie simply adored ratting me out).

But as the seconds kept adding up, turning into minutes, and eventually a quarter-hour, I was beginning to think that option number two might actually have been a possibility. I mean, Melanie was very slow, but never, in my memory, could I recall her being this slow. It was absolutely preposterous, but as another quarter-hour ticked on by, I realized that Melanie would not be coming.

Taking one last whiff of clean linen, I opened the door silently and easily and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Melanie's room was way upstairs, and she was certainly brooding about that little incident.

I walked over to our double fridge and scanned the rows of food for something edible. I noticed a large package of string cheese, and promptly seized one.

I made my way down the hall, but was intercepted by the demon herself.

My mouth full of cheese, there wasn't much I could do.

Then I realized that she was smiling. A lot.

"Melanie, is something wrong?" She never smiles at me.

"Oh, Eva! Nothing's wrong at all!" She gave me a big hug. I stiffened. My face smushed against her shoulder uncomfortably.

"Um, I'm glad you're all happy and everything, but..."

"Oh. Yeah, whatever." She let me go. But her face had this gross elated expression she never wore. It didn't look good on her. "Eva, it's absolutely wonderful!"

"What's wonderful?" I said cautiously, peeling more cheese from my string. What if I was being sent to a boarding school? For all girls?

But it was worse. So, so much worse. "Mom had another baby!"

Melanie pulled me into another crushing hug. I dropped my cheese. It fell to the floor dramatically, bouncing a few floppy times before it settled, and the last thing I saw before closing my eyes was the thing sitting on our white-tiled floor.