Just You and Me, Sister

Chapter 09: Schèm

'~'

Chapter 09: Schèm

'~'

"So what should I say?" Conrad nudged the being beside him. The weekend had flown by in a blink of an eye.

"Okay, I mean... how should I react?" he was dreading for what was about to go down today, evidently. "Should I even bring this up to her? What if she actually had forgotten about it?"

The small being beside him heaved a solace sigh as a tiny unassertive smile formed. She removed her right hand from her backpack strap and interlinked her hand with his. Being his sister for nearly all her life, she knew her brother was internally dying right now. His convoluted thoughts consumed the living daylights out of him. It's just his usual reaction when he was nervous. Stroking the top of his knuckles with her thumb, she stared at the sky above them.

Conrad and his sister were seated by their house gate. The enormous house behind them was quiet, in fact, it was so silent that a single penny could be heard even if thrown lightly. Between the negligible gaps of the trees that were towering over their head, the dark blue sky was evolving. The sun was just starting to wake up from its slumber as a hint of soft red and orange gradient coloured the heavens.

It was a rough night for the both of them. Conrad was not able to stop himself from being controlled by his fears. He didn't want to give Sapphire a rough first impression. Although, he might have already done that during their first encounter. And subsequently, the second encounter. But this was different. She witnessed with her own eyes that his family were holding carcasses of woodland creatures. That was not a usual scene for a human being. If rumours were to start circling around, that they were serial killers then...

He shook his head.

"Stop... We barely got any sleep last night because you were worried. Let's try to enjoy the peace and quiet before Dom comes," a tired Jade enounced her thoughts carefully, not wanting to create a wall between them.

It was a Monday morning, the beginning of a new week and most importantly it was the first school day ever since the accident. Conrad had requested for a meeting as a trio before they walked into the school grounds and discussed the matter with Sapphire.

Before Conrad was able to open his mouth, a ray of light blinded him. At the end of the street, a flashing light could be spotted as if it was communicating in morse code. The facade of the famous black truck slowly resurfaced as the distance between them was shortened.

Was he talking in morse code?

"Nah... Dominic isn't that knowledgeable," Jade read her brother's mind as she jumped into a standing position and flagged the incoming car.

"Don't trash talk. I saw you mouthed my name baby girl," his best friend rolled down his windows and smirked at his sister before making a U-turn. "Unless... You want to go to school by yourself today?"

"Says the one who kept my bike hostage. It's not even in your trunk now."

She scrunched her nose and rolled her eyes. Noticing that both of them woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, he held the backseat door open for Jade.

"Guys, it's just the beginning of the day. Are we really not going to have peace today?" Conrad earned a glare from both of them.

"You are really..." his sister shook her head, not completing her sentence.

'~'

It was the longest ride of a familiar route. The journey from her house to the school's car park had never felt so sluggish before. Conrad was the cause of this whole chaos, but she couldn't blame him. None of them could. With the position he was in, it was his duty to ensure the safety of his people. The fact that this game might have a horrible end result drove him into a never-ending spiral of fearful thoughts.