War of Peace

Chapter Two

I decided to write this one in Gianna's POV so hopefully you enjoy getting to know the other characters.

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Gianna

I look around the forest, no one wants to be here, but Maddie is right, there is no other option. To my left is Kyle, the dirty blonde boy. He is climbing a tree that is barely lit by the luminous moon. It has a beautiful shade of golden foliage. The branches are just barely being touched by the cold breeze, knocking off an occasional leaf. I shiver and hug my arms to my chest, how am I supposed to fall asleep in this weather?

Kyle begins climbing the tree and I follow him, not knowing where else to go. I see him find a spot on a well-supported branch as I continue climbing. He hears me and freezes.

"Who's there?"

"It's just Gianna. Sorry for startling you. You're Kyle right?" I ask as I try my best to make myself comfortable on another branch beside him.

"Yea, I'm Kyle. I was worried you might've been someone else, you can't blame me."

"Well goodnight Kyle," I smile at him, but it's probably useless because he can't even see me well in this lighting. My smile vanishes the second to my side.

I think about my sister Hayley, who's only thirteen. She has golden hair and blue eyes just like mine. A lot of people say we look alike, but we always deny the fact. Ever since she was born, I have loved that girl. She had a better connection towards me than our mother ever did. I would always hold her as a baby and feed her from bottles.

My mother passed away two years ago. She was murdered by a man she owed money to. There was a lot I still don't know about my mom, but I figure it's best I don't know. The man who killed her was caught for another crime and it was later found that he was the same man who killed my mother. When I saw him on TV, I wanted to murder him in the most brutal ways. I would have dreams about it. One time I killed him with a pizza cutter, slicing him into little bits. Another time I killed him by shoving an ice cream scooper down his throat until he choked to death. As awful as that makes me sound, I would then be hovering over his dead body, panicking, unknowing of what to do and where to go. Hayley would always show up and look at me with a frightening disappointment and I would wake up in a pool of sweat. Eventually those dreams went away, but I still think about my mother a lot.

My father was arrested for dealing drugs just last summer and although I have my sister Hayley, I've felt completely alone since. I feel like I knew nothing about my parents. I knew my dad wasn't perfect and that he was involved in some shady business, but I didn't know how bad it was. It makes sense now why he would come home with big wads of cash and treat us to something nice. I miss my father almost more than my mother, it seems. He was far from perfect as a person, but he was a perfect dad. He had a soft heart and he loved us.

After my father was jailed there were so many court trials we had to go through. Since I'm seventeen and mentally stable, had a job, and could provide for Hayley, I became her temporary guardian. I inherited the house and I've been living in it since. I love that house and even though it's a little rough around the edges, it reminds me of my parents and it holds childhood nostalgia of running around the house in socks and playing hide and seek.

I can't help but worry for Hayley now. What if they hit all the houses before they came to school? What if they are heading over there right now awaiting more people to add to their sick experiment? She's all I have left.

If I wouldn't have gone to homecoming, I could've been there with her. I look down at my baby blue dress that's blotched with spots of dirt. I want to cry, but I try my best to keep it in.