Shadow

Chapter 18

"Any reason as to why Fraser just texted me saying that we would have to stay here for a little longer?" Vivian said as I walked into the house, throwing my keys into the bowl that Vivian had assigned for the keys to live in.

"No," I snapped, throwing my blazer onto the couch in front of me.

"You know," Vivian said, as she caught a popcorn with her mouth, "If I went to the dictionary and searched up PMS, your name would literally be the first definition."

"I'm not PMS-ing," I growled, sitting next to where I threw my blazer.

"What'd you do?" Vivian laughed, catching more popcorn with her mouth.

I sighed, "I may have snapped."

"Again?" Vivian said, wide-eyed, but I could see the humour glinting behind her eyes.

I nodded, "He isn't taking the attacks seriously."

"I agree," Vivian said, loudly rustling her packet of popcorn, "I wish you were related to Benedict Shadow, so you would be the heiress."

"Same," I said, "Fraser couldn't care less about what happens to the organisation."

Vivian nodded and walked to the bin, throwing a finished family-pack sized popcorn packet into the trashcan, "Well, I need to nurse my food baby, I'll be sleeping."

I shook my head in disappointment at Vivian as she moonwalked to the staircase, smirking.

When Vivian disappeared into her room, I dropped my head backwards, and it sunk into the couch. Vivian had told me a few days ago that she was going to start her Rank 10 mission next week. I was happy for her, but I couldn't get my mind off the fact that I had lost my golden chance to grade up. This was something I spent the majority of my life working towards, something that I wanted to do for my parents. But I failed not only myself but them as well.

My parents. I missed them so much. I had not many memories of them that I could reminisce over. The only memorial that I had was a small trunk that I secretly retrieved from the house that we used to live in before recently. Before I realised what I was doing, my body was gravitating towards the trunk, which I kept under my bed inside my room.

I opened it up, placing the artefact onto my bed. My fingertips lightly pushed through the memories inside, and I couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia rush over me. I hadn't read through all the letters in this trunk, nor had I looked through all the pictures. My mother was always big on collecting memories and keeping them somewhere safe.

"You never know what can happen," She always said to my father, "But at least we'll have memories to smile over in times of distress."

My hands lay on my favourite picture of us, one where I was standing between my parents, who were looking down at me as though they couldn't believe they had me. My parents had to go through a lot after conceiving me, but every year, on my birthday, my mum told me that I was like a gift from God himself. 

Every time I looked at this picture I admired how beautiful my mother was. Her Japanese features were prominent. Her slender, dark eyes, her smooth, straight hair, her soft, glowing skin. It wasn't surprising that my father was head over heels for her since the first time he set his eyes on her. My eyes moved to my father, a typical Aussie bloke. His wild blonde hair and tanned skin were two distinct qualities that I always remembered. My father loved surfing, hence his unnatural tan skin colour.

My parents were made for one another, I could only wish for the love that they shared. I put the picture back into the trunk and picked up the stack of letters that were yet to be read. My parents wrote these to one another when they were forbidden to meet. I opened the first letter.