Defiance: Perfect by Nature

Chapter Three: Calm Before the Storm

Chapter Three: Calm Before the Storm

Gabriella had spent a good four hours that night crying to herself on the couch while Anna tried her best to console both her and Janice, who was also quietly sobbing on the other side of the room. When the tears finally stopped she was stolen by sleep, hoping for peaceful dreams to wash away the worry that was digging into her hard. But sadly her dreams were nightmares, disjointed images of her parents fighting and dying over and over again like her mind was stuck on repeat. When the first rays of the sun started to peek through the window and fill the small room with light, Gabriella decided she had had enough with being tormented in her sleep and sat up, a brutal headache building at the base of her spine from the lack of rest.

When she had enough energy to look around the room she found everything had been changed while she had been sleeping, and for a moment she wondered if she had been taken somewhere else by Anna. The once sparse living room was now spruced up with new items, like a very large flat screen television set, surround sound, a couple of different gaming consoles, a Blu-ray player, pillows and blankets on a new larger couch, and the smell of brewing coffee wafting in from the kitchen. Janice had already been awake for a while it seemed, and was sitting on the opposite end of the new couch, wrapped up like a baby in a bundle of blankets and her eyes glued to the television.

“Where did all this come?” Gabriella asked through a sore throat.

“Anna said something about needing to make this place liveable and then she just took off, randomly popping back with this stuff and connecting it all. I really couldn’t keep up with it to be honest, she was moving way too fast.”

“Where is she?”

“She mentioned she had to talk to some girl named Samantha and that she wouldn’t be gone long.”

Feeling like she had to get up and move around a bit, she pushed herself off the couch and ventured into the kitchen to find that it had been completely remodelled as well. Besides a brand new top of the line coffee pot there was also a microwave, a blender, deep fryer, a stand up mixer, and the fridge and every cupboard had been packed to the gills with food. It was always beyond her why all the immortals would always try and over feed her; it’s not like they hadn’t been mortal themselves at one point in time. They had to know offering her eight meals a day, plus double that in snacks was just a little overkill.

Her stomach still in knots she just grabbed herself a large cup of black coffee and walked back into the living room to find her friend hadn’t moved an inch since she had left. She walked around a new glass coffee table and took a small sip from her cup before sitting down next to Janice, their shoulders touching. Gabriella would have to stop feeling sorry for herself soon and focus on her friend, who was so far out of her depth that it wasn’t even really funny. It was really Janice who needed to be consoled, ripped away from her life and parents because she had learned too much about Gabriella and her family.

The television was tuned to one of the large news networks and as a clock somewhere in the house chimed a new hour the ad that had been on vanished as an attractive young female anchor adjusted the papers on her desk and turned to face the camera in a dramatic yet fake way. The next thing to catch Gabriella’s eye was the scrolling words at the bottom of the screen as she caught the tail end of the text and saw her own name in bold red letters.