Eyes Of the Lost

8- Father

I jolt up, my heart beating a million miles a second. People are all around me, and I'm lying on a blanket on top of cold, cold ground. I shiver uncontrollably, but not just because I'm freezing. That couldn't have been a dream... It felt so... real.
Jack and Ethan are to my right, their faces relieved. Nathan and an elderly man are to my left, the old stranger grasping my hand so tightly I can't feel my fingers.
I'm the first to speak. "Wha- what's going on?!" I studder, and begin to realize how bad my head hurts. It feels like my brain is pounding right out of my head.
Nathan shakes his head as my vision blurs. "We didn't know it would happen so soon..." He shakes his head and looks down. "Something is happening to Jane..."
I shake my head furiously. "I don't even know who that is!" I cry, "I just want it to stop!"
The unknown old man holds my hand even tighter and shuts his eyes. He's struggling to do something, yet I have no clue what it is.
Suddenly, he opens them and his dark purple eyes pierce my soul. I begin to feel lightheaded, but my pain decreases.
"Jane is weak. She is losing her grip on the girl," the man says as he stares at Nathan. "We just need to let it happen. There's nothing we can do."
"And how do you know that?!" Nathan suddenly screams out in anger. "Jane could be fine-"
"You know that's not true..." The old man whispers. He then let's go of my hand, and my head starts throbbing fiercely once more. My vision goes blurry as Nathan gets over top of me and grasps my hands.
"I'm so sorry..." He whispers, tears streaming from his face. "I was planning to tell you this later...." I close my eyes. "You are my daughter."
What? How? Here?
Daughter?
...Father?
I want to cry.
Laugh.
Scream.
All at once.
But nothing comes out. Its like my throat is swollen and my heart is longing for something I cannot reach. My eyes are closed now, and when I open them I find myself in a bedroom. I'm standing alone in a corner. It seems so modern, so familiar. I look to the large bed in the corner. On the bed sits a man and a brand new baby. Its obvious who the man is. Its Nathan. My father. He's rocking the child in his arms and a boy comes into the room. My father spots him and puts the baby down softly on the bed.
He stands and scowls at the boy.
"You know you're not supposed to be up here yet Ethan. You're supposed to wait until night." He scolds.
Ethan.
My...Brother.
I stare at the boy. It's Ethan... Yet his eyes aren't purple. They are green. He looks to be very young, no older than 4 years old.
"Sorry... I know you're tired. I just wanted to come see the baby."
My father shakes his head and smiles.
"It's okay. Just for a moment."
Ethan walks over to the bed and sits next to the baby.
My father comes over and picks it up slowly and gently, like it's a precious keepsake made of fragile glass. Just as he is about to hand the child to Ethan, pounding begins to sound at the door.
"Nathan Anderson! You are suspected of holding contraband! Open the door for questioning!"
A muffled female voice says from behind the front door.
"Listen, you're going to have to go downstairs and pretend to be asleep so I don't have to hold your eyes, okay? I have to hold my own, and I'm very tired from holding both of ours all day."
Ethan nods as his eyes change from a minty green to purple. He runs out of the room and can be heard rushing down a flight of stairs.
He begins to open up the wooden floor boards. Below the polished wood is a hidden cubby with a blanket and he slowly lowers the baby inside. After he closes it louder pounding erupts from the front door.
"I'm coming!" My father announces.
He runs to the door and opens it. I can't see anything, but I hear the talking. The door slowly creeks open.
"My apologies officer, my son and I were asleep and we-"
"Nathan I don't want your excuses."
"I'm not-"
"No. Stop. You and Ethan are joining the other purple-eyed at a camp. I can't take it anymore."
"Ashley... You can't just do that... Don't you remember what we had together? You're just going to push me away like that, after everything?"
There's a pause.
"This is your fault Nathan. Not mine. You can't pin this on me. After you hurt me so bad... You expect me to repay you with kindness? I'm calling the authorities to get you out of here."
Suddenly, crying erupts from beneath the floor boards.
"What's that Nathan?"
Suddenly a woman in a police outfit bursts into the room with the hidden baby. Her face is full of anger and distress, her eyes red and puffy. Her long blonde hair waves in the air as she walks, her cool blue eyes the color of the morning sky.
"Is that coming from the ground? Nathan, what have you done?"
The muffled crying continues, loud and piercing.
Nathan joins the officer.
He grabs her shoulder. "Listen, you can't do this to us. See, I have a baby, we can't go!"
The girl shakes her head and talks.
"But it's not my baby."
There's a pause, and she speaks again.
"Besides, the higher-ups should be here any minute to take you all away."
"What? Ash, why? I thought you..."
"Loved you? Not anymore."
Suddenly, the door in the other room breaks open. Men in dark uniforms, guns strapped around their back, rush into the room and pin my father to the ground.
"There's a child downstairs, code 3," The officer directs.
"There's another code 3 somewhere in the floorboards in here, shouldn't be hard to find it."
Then, once more, everything goes dark as my eyes close and thoughts stop.