The Fallen

Blake

In the morning, the first ones to wake up were everyone except Dr. A and Christina. I heard Christina and Dr. A yell at each other almost all night, and I feel guilty for it. We all do.

After helping the boys make breakfast, we all sit around the table quietly. Letting the same tension of yesterday rise in the atmosphere. No one seems to take a bite from their plates. Instead we wait for the inevitable punishment of Dr. A.

I wasn't able to sleep at all last night. With the loud argument echoing through the hallway, I decided to just use my magnetic earphones and attempt to design the boring whiteness of the room. Drawing galaxies and worlds that would only be seen as fantasies. I quickly erased them all and instead asked the helper to put some sort of star-like figures around my room. I was satisfied to see small neon dots all around my room. Every other hour changing their colors into a form of auroras in the sky. 

We all look up when the sound of footsteps slap against the white tile floor. For the first time, Dom seems almost nervous to see his father enter the dining room. The voice of Christina sends chills down my spine. I take a quick drink of water and watch as Dr. A silently takes a seat at the table. No one dares to say anything. And he doesn't dare to see any of us either.

His stern expression is mixed with the tired look in his sad eyes. The bright blue that was once there has turned dark and angry. Christina walks in without a word. She mumbles a quick "good morning" and starts reading the newspaper. The bags under her eyes reflect the difficult night she had.

Danny is the first to speak up. He clears his throat and says, "Da-" He is interrupted when Dr. A raises his finger for him to stop talking. Danny immediately becomes smaller and slouches in his chair. His dark expression matched with the dark color of his uniform. This time, he wears a gray long sleeve underneath his vest.

Finally, Dr. A looks at us. His eyes soften this time when but they are still sad. Dom crosses his arms across his chest and rolls his eyes. This catches Dr. A's attention and he leans in closer towards us. The air becomes thinner under his watch, but the sound of his loud laughter breaks that tension almost immediately.

With laughter, Dr. A gets up from his chair to walk up to me and my sisters. That anger became gone out of nowhere.

Dom and the boys all look at him with surprise and almost fear. I don't blame them. I'm shocked. After all that fuss for just a moment of laughter?

Christina looks up from her newspaper or I should've said from her tablet and smiles. That warmth comes back as if nothing had ever happened.

"What's so funny Alexander?" Sam doesn't like any of this. And his yellow eyes look up to the laughing scientist with confusion.

Dr. A finally looks at us with almost a proud smile. His look onto Emms is something between determination and wonder.  And with an unfamiliar softness to his low voice, he says, "I guess we'll finally have a better society with these three beauties." With that, he grabs a muffin that Emms's had made from the middle of the table and leaves the room.

The walk from school was a time filled with a confused silence. It is almost as if we don't even know each other anymore. Each boy goes to their own group of friends and we decide to walk to yesterday's tree. The mark of the bullet is still stuck on the bark. The look of it brings goosebumps all over my body. We take a moment of silence as each one of us remembers the unfortunate events of yesterday. Until Emms shakes her head and says, "I don't get it."

"Emms, right now is not a good time." This is the first time Kat has spoken since yesterday. It is hard to see if she had a difficult night at all. Her face is still as refreshed, but her hair doesn't seem to have bothered to be fixed today. The bruises and scratches on her face have started to heal, but the new bruises on her neck still stain her light skin.