Dirty Little Secret

Chapter Two

chapter two-

I heard voices. They stood out from the settle silence of the night. I looked at the time, it was a quarter past ten. I slowly got up, practically dragged myself to the window, and stuck my head outside. There, standing and waving his floppy arms around like an idiot, was my brother.

"Nia, Nia!" he started, "I forgot my backpack, throw it down!"

"You came back for a darn backpack? What is wrong with you?!" I replied agitatedly.

"Just throw it down, will ya!"

"Just hold on for a minute, give me a second to find it!" I called trying not to sound so tired.

I was totally confused. He left at nine and just decided to come pick up his dumb backpack now? Town is only around twenty minutes away, wouldn't he have noticed he needed it right when he got there? Whatever, I thought. 

 I knew he always kept his backpack near the stairs so that's the first place I checked, but it wasn't there. Anyways, I figured since I was already near the stairs, it would be convenient to check the main floor, and it didn't take long for me to realize it wasn't there either. I finally went back up when I heard Troy shouting something.

"In the closet, Nia, in the closet!"

I was starting to get a bit suspicious but i was too tired to actually give a damn. However, I couldn't help but think he was trying to hide something... I tried to brush it off.  

I went to pick it up and i was stunned to find how incredibly heavy it was. Not only was i shocked at it's weight, but i was also shocked that my scrony brother could carry it. I liked to think of him as the weaker link in the family- always sitting on his butt and complaining about how hard phys.ed is. Cry-baby. I was definitely stronger than him.

 At that point I was wide awake and dying to know what was inside, so I quietly unzipped the bag and to my surprise, all I found were books. As I took a closer look, I could tell these were not your everyday books, these books were really thick, and I mean REALLY thick. At least a thousand pages each. Right when I was about to pick one up to read the title, Troy called from outside. I decided to screw it and zipped the bag back up. After all, he was going to a geek-fest.

That's when I noticed the keychain attatched to the backpack zipper, it was covered in gibberish writing. The only letters I was able to make out was an N,S,T,A, and another A... I stayed kneeling on the floor. I didnt get it.  

I had no clue what was going on, but i do know that i followed him.

He called for me once more, and I could tell he was starting to get frustrated by the tone of his voice. I finally threw what felt like fifty pounds, out of the window and asked him again where he was going, I really didn't believe that he was going to a videogame convention now that he came back for a bunch of thousand-page books.

"Wait, Troy! You're headed to the convention, right?" I asked pretending I really couldn't care less.

"Uh, ya sure." that's not the response I was hoping for.

I shot him a look. He paused for a moment then continued to walk further. As he grew smaller and smaller, the little voice inside my head that kept telling me to go after him grew larger and more intense, as if it was my duty to find out where he was really headed.

I grabbed the first jacket I could find- the 'stylish' neon yellow one my mom had purchased from Sears that looked like it was a part of a hippie costume, my coach purse only containing around 10 dollars, and my converse shoes. I slipped everything on and climbed out onto the roof and down Lilith- yes, I named my maple tree.

Strangely enough, the fog-filled air was relaxing. I could barely see anything. But that's a part of why I felt so at ease. It was like I was walking through a large, never-ending cloud.

I followed right beind him, close enough so that I could follow his direction, and far enough so that he wouldn't notice.

 He was about to reach the bus station and I was expecting him to stop and wait for the next bus going to town but instead he passed right by it and just continued walking.

 Everything my brother told me was a complete lie. I had no clue where we were going! But all I could do was follow and wait to find out.

We started to approach Benford Park. I hadn't remembered being there since me and Troy were really small. Our dad used to take us every summer. I still remember gulping down the cherry slushies after the long walks through the trails. Those were the good days, Believe it or not, back then me and Troy were really close; we used to share secrets and spill all the goods about pretty much everything! Now, however, I can't even trust him to tell me where he's going at ten o'clock at night! We have definitely grown apart. And just look at where that had led us.

He passed through the gates which are normally locked, then turned right on one of the trails, this one in particular called Gabriel's Horn.