"No! No! No!" An excruciatingly shrill scream of terror rang up in the crowd as Cari Mitchell was grabbed from behind and yanked mercilessly from her place in line at the ticket counter. Her thick black and gold hair spun wildly as she lunged out with her balled fist blindly, smacking something hard and rough. She yelled out yet again in pain and cuddled her now swelling left hand.
She looked up and grimaced. The sight she saw was not exactly what you would call normal. The 'person' she saw in front of her was tall, about 6 foot 9 inches with short-cropped blue hair, and piercing red-orange eyes that reminded Cari of roaring flames. She tried to back up but was once again grabbed by a rough hand. She turned around and saw an even scarier sight- a cheerleader.
"What do you want, Sonya?" She asked softly, trying to hide her fear of being alone and helpless. She backed up again, and pressed her shivering body up against the black brick building that stood tall behind her.
The cocky cheerleader laughed snidely and shook her head, hands on her hips. "As if it isn't, like, obvious! We are, like, kidnapping you." She reached out with a small black and red box and pressed a translucent button. Out shot a thin, tight, blue beam, which struck Cari in the chest.
At first, all Cari felt was a tickle. Then came the pain. Oh, it hurt like a bullet penetrating her thin skin and working it's way though her heart and stopping it from carrying out it's necessary job.
"Why..." Was all she managed to choke out grimly before the loud pounding of her heart finally slowed, and then stopped all together.
Sonya and her tall apprentice Eric picked up the now unmoving body and pressed another translucent button on the black box and energized. The three disappeared into the night just as the full moon rose to its peak in the dark red sky.
The stars in the sky shone resiliently as Rachel and a now very drowsy Zac walked down the gray stone walkway to the memorial park in the center of town. Rachel looked at Zac and smiled.
"Tired?" She asked, stopping momentarily to tie her sneaker laces.
Zac looked over and nodded slowly and put his arm over her bare shoulders. "Not very much, though." He looked over and noticed her shivering. That outfit obviously was not made for parading out in the chilly elements. "Want my jacket?" He asked, stopping to look in her crystalline hazel eyes. That was one very strange thing about Rachel's family; they all had those amazing eyes that almost drank in every detail of you. They almost seemed to be searching for some imperfection, or trying to understand everything about you. Zac hated to admit it, but Tanner had the most beautiful eyes in the family. They were the purest blue he had ever seen. They almost looked clear, but had tints of blue around the inner edge of the cornea. They were very beautiful.
Rachel smiled gratefully and nodded as she slowly pulled on the flannel overshirt. "Thank you, Zac. You're very sweet. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and turned away, continuing down the path.
"So," Zac attempted to catch up with her, starting up on the subject of their kin. "Do you have a plan for tomorrow?"
Rachel nodded and smiled slyly. "Yeah, I have most of it all planned out. You see-" She sat down on the nearest bench and patted the spot next to her. Zac sat down and proceeded to listen to her rendition of what the day was to be like. "-what we'll do is have them hang out with us for about an hour, and then we'll say that we want to have some private time.." She let the word hang as she licked her tiny pink lips. Zac noticed that they were naturally quite dark. He smiled to himself as she continued. "..and then we'll leave them alone."
Zac looked down thoughtfully. "How about we tell them to go see that new movie, um…what's it called? That new romance flick-"
"'Here on Earth'"
"Yeah, that one. Let's convince them to go and watch it, and then we'll have no problem." Zac clapped his hands with excitement and smiled at Rachel. "What do you think?"
Rachel nodded in agreement and stood up, almost just recently seeming to notice that it was almost 10 o'clock. "Sounds good, but don't you think that we should head home? I think Tanner and Jasmine are probably getting all worried and stuff." She slowly pulled Zac's overshirt off her slim shoulders and handed it back to the blond boy. "Here, you might need this. It's really starting to get cold."
Zac stood up and wrapped it around Rachel once more. "Nope, you forget, I'm a big strong man, and you're the little weak woman." He struck a Fabio pose as Rachel hit him in the arm.
"Weak woman?" She put her hands on her hips playfully, egging him on into a fight, as the fact that the time was quickly reaching midnight slowly disappeared from her mind. "I'll show you weak woman!" She jumped on Zac's back and put her freezing fingers on his neck. He let out a small shriek of surprise and flipped her over his shoulder and into his arms.
He smiled and kissed her softly. "Yeah, I thought so."
She laughed and pulled him closer as the minute hand on her clock slowly hit 11:00.
"WHERE IS SHE!?!" Tanner screamed in exasperation as she checked the hall clock again. The hands read 11:45. "I told her to be home at 10:00! Oh, she's gonna get it now."
Suddenly, the front door opened slowly. In walked a very messy looking Rachel. Her hair was a mess, her cloths were all ruffled up, and her makeup was smeared.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Tanner. I lost track of time." She grinned sheepishly, and Tanner smiled.
"Rough night, dear?" She grabbed a brush and began to pull it through her sisters chestnut locks. She decided not to push the issue of her being late. She remembered the times when she herself was late for curfew. Her mother never punished her. She just kept warning her never to do it again.
Mommy… Tanner shook away the tears that were threatening to well up in her eyes and proceeded to finish her sister's hair.
Rachel laughed. "I guess you could say that. Zac called me a weak woman, so I decided to show him exactly how weak I was."
Tanner looked at her questioningly, then turned away giggling.
"NO! Tanner, we did NOT have sex!! We just wrestled." She pulled away from her sister and hit her playfully. "You have a sick mind."
Tanner shook her head and stood up. "Well, we have a big day tomorrow. Better get to bed." She held out her hand and helped her sister up from the floor. "Come on, I'll tuck you in."
Rachel smiled and nodded. Ever since their mother died, Tanner had been playing mommy. She made dinner, did the laundry, tucked everyone in at night, and kept stressing curfew times. She was very good with the house. She even had a job to help pay the bills. She was very mature for her age.
As Rachel ran off to her room to change, Tanner walked to the kitchen to get her some cookies and chocolate milk, her favorite.
As she shuffled through the cupboard looking for the mix, she imagined how life used to be. She used to have a sweet boyfriend, she used to be popular and well liked, and she was always out at parties, dates, or just at the arcade playing games. But now..she was a housewife. She cooked, cleaned, and paid bills. Not much of a life. And even though her sisters tried to help out here and there, she always felt as though she was alone.
Enough negative thinking. She though to herself as she mixed a small brown package of cocoa mix into the milk. She piled on some chocolate and raisin cookies, and sauntered in to her sisters' room.
When she walked in, she noticed that her sister was already asleep. She placed the cookies on the nightstand next to her sisters' sleeping head and gently pulled the blankets over the small frame body.
"Goodnight baby." She whispered. She kissed Rachel's forehead and walked out quietly. She didn't want to disturb her. She had a rough day.
As Tanner exited the room, she smiled, knowing that all the mistakes that she had made in life were not impressing on her sister. "You deserve a good life." She whispered softly to no one in particular. "Don't make the mistakes I did." She walked down to her own room and slipped out of her jeans. She pulled on some green and blue frog nighties and slid beneath the covers. She sighed slowly and drifted off into dreamland.
