Orphan Chap. 11

  So there we sat. The three of us. It was more awkward than not.
Me, the adventurous type, Axel, the dark, serious type, and Stan, the science guy.
I walked around and examined the house. It was sort of like any old house. It had a Dining room, kitchen, and bathrooms. The house was in like a sort of desert area. Sure, there were other houses, but they were kinda far. I looked around more. There were jarred fruits in the kitchen, butcher knives. I liked the black marble of the counter tops though, nice touch. I looked at the back yard. There was a 10ft pool, a tennis court, a tree house. Man, what I wouldn’t give to live here. Still didn’t like Stan that much.
Luckily for me, I brought my DSi with me. Yes, a DSi, I can’t stand all this 3D nonsense. I sat there playing my game, minding my own business, when Stan sat next to me. “What’s that?” he asked. He seemed interested. That’s when I took the opportunity to let my cousin have some fun. “It’s a DSi, a handheld gaming system.” I replied.
“I know THAT!” said Stan, “I want to know what you’re playing.”
I looked at Stan like he had a few screws loose, then I looked at the game I was playing, then back at Stan and put my hand on his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked.
Stan answered “Yeah, I’m fine.”
I looked at him again. “How do you NOT know who Sonic the Hedgehog is?”
Stan replied “I know who he is, I just never played his games, it looks tricky.” I smiled and gave him the DS. I watched him play a couple times..and die all those times. I probably should’ve given him Classic Collection instead of Colors. Ah well.
Axel walked by. “What are you two doing?” he said. I told him, and that’s how our first day there pretty much was. The next day, Grandpa left. So that’s when Axel and I realized that we’ll be here for a week. Great. 3rd day: I sat there, watching TV, there was nothing on, I have no idea how I ended up watching golf. I changed the channel. I stopped at this channel that had a Illusion Show on. Illusionists interested me, the way it looks like they can move things with their minds. My Uncle Lex walked into the room. “Whatcha watching there, boy?”
I turned, “Mark of the Illusionists,” I said in an annoyed manner, “and my name is ‘Nick’ not ‘Boy’.” Uncle Lex walked over “I see..” he looked at the screen, “And you want to be an Illusionist?” I sort of nodded. “Well, that would be your last resort,” Lex said, “THAT is when you can’t qualify for ANY of the GOOD jobs out there and resort to cheap gimmicks.” He walked out of the room. My dreams, though stepped on, were not completely crushed. I went to the nearest store and bought myself an illusionist book. This would make this week go by SO much faster, take that Uncle Lex.
Axel, on the other hand, was bored out of his wits; he sat on the porch, mostly in the shade. I think he has slight photophobia.
  I walked to the guest-room, where Axel and I were staying. It wasn’t much.  The room was olive green; there was a huge walk in dresser, a bathroom, and a TV. I guess we could call it home for awhile. I was really ready to go home. This place was so boring I was watching flies mate. Axel walked into the room and sat on the bed.
“Hey,” I asked, “any breakthroughs?”
”Nope,” he replied, “but I did manage to get the boss to let us borrow the laptops for the server we were building.”
I jumped up on the bed. “Really!?”
Finally something interesting! Luckily for us, to save time, we work on separate laptops. I felt sort of at home; well, if you can call home a huge building filled with children and some secret experimental facility type thing in the back.  I turned my laptop on and once again became my digital counterpart, Zero.
  Now that I thought about it, Zero never had a background; and I honestly couldn’t make one up. As I walked around the server, switching between building and testing, a female child character skipped happily across my path. I was confused as to why she was there. I never made her, and the only other character I knew on the testing field was Axel’s character, One. So I concluded that Axel made her to test townspeople or whatnot.
 After what seemed like hours, I decided to call it a day and head to bed. I laid in the bed and looked up at the ceiling, like I always did, wondering if my family could see me now… would they be happy? Upset? I honestly didn’t know. Then I thought ahead in life. Would I still continue my dream of being a Telepathic Illusionist? Will I be a doctor? Am I going to be killed on my wedding day? Or should I become a vigilante? Fighting crime sounded fun, but I didn’t want to get hurt. Then I thought about crime. Not that I wanted to join it, but something crossed my mind that I never realized before. Who WAS that guy that shot my parents? He seemed to know Mom enough to kiss her forehead, but he looked at Dad with anguish and hatred. I was then more confused than before and chose to just go to sleep. I woke up to the smell of pancakes. I brushed my teeth and headed to the table.  I drowned my pancake in syrup, not letting it breathe. Man it was good!
 After breakfast I looked outside and noticed it was cloudy. So I mentioned it to Axel and he got up quick. Then Uncle Lex called out “Hey! Bring Stan along with you!”
That’s when my mood sort of shifted..
We walked down the dirt road and came across a forest. It was odd because it looked like Mauler’s Forest back at home. But we were two states away so I knew it wasn’t the same forest. With Stan being a Science Guy, Me being the adventurous type, and Axel loving dark areas, we decided to look around the forest. We walked across logs and crossed rivers until I was certain we were lost. I knew this because even Stan had no idea where we were. Axel looked a little disturbed at Stan’s lack of direction. We tried going back, but we couldn’t find any of the places we passed, and the sun was beginning to set. I panicked when I heard rustling in some bushes near by. As I went to the bushes, I noticed they were empty. That’s when the trees above us rustled and something swung across the canopy. I could’ve sworn it was another person. That’s when I concluded it was a monkey. Then that’s when I realized that monkeys live in rain forests, not regular forests. That’s when I got worried. “Guys….we’re not the only people in this forest.” I said. That’s when I heard a THUMP and looked to my left. Stan was out cold, like something hit him in the head. Another THUD and Axel was just a body there. That’s when I saw the person. A ripped Sky blue shirt and even more damaged jeans….it looked so familiar.
The mysterious person started walking towards me, shifting into a full blown run. “Quinn?” I asked. And that’s all I remember.

 I woke up with a huge headache. When I could finally piece together who I was, I realized we were out of the forest. Axel and Stan were slowly waking up as well. We decided not to tell his folks about what happened. The sun was fully set as we walked home, and a massive moonrise sat in its place.  I put an ice pack to my head as I crawled into bed. I was in serious pain, but I was happy nonetheless because my sister was alive, somewhere in that forest.


 Some days passed, and we were on the final day of staying with the Aero’s.
Axel and I were working on the Shaded project again, when I noticed that child character once more. She seemed more detailed, and not like a testing puppet. She also looked like someone I knew. So I highlighted the character and the name “Elaine” popped up. So I was certain that Axel made the character. I decided to confront him about it. I just wish someone was there to stop me. “Um.. Axel, who’s this character here? Her name is Elaine.” I asked.
Axel, seeming a bit busy answered sharply “Nothing, no one. Leave it be.”
I saved my work and closed my laptop. “Axel…you can tell me. How did Elaine die?”
Axel replied “It’s best that you drop this subject Nick.”
 I wasn’t done yet so I asked again. “Axel, tell me how Elaine died.” Axel saved his work and set his laptop down. “Fizik, I’m giving you to the count of three.”
He never called me by my last name before, so I got a little worried, but I wanted to know. “Then I guess you’ll have to count to three, because I’m not changing this subject.”
I should’ve ducked the next second. The result of me not ducking was a punch square into my mouth. I fell off the bed and tried to get back up, but Axel was too fast.  A swift kick to the ribs knocked me out of breathe again. I coughed up some blood and tried to fight him off. I dodged his next punch and banged his head against the wall. He grabbed me by my bangs and threw me into the window. The glass shattered and I received a huge cute across my left eye. My head was on fire, all I could see was red in my right eye, and nothing in my left, pure darkness. I tackled Axel into the china case in the hallway. He tried fighting me off, but I was too angry to budge. I took the biggest shard of glass and gripped it tight. I knew I was cutting my hand like that, but I didn’t care. I slashed Axel in the chest, and then slashed his right eye even harder. It felt right, letting him feel the pain that I feel. He deserved it. I felt like stabbing him again. That’s when I dropped the shard. What was I doing? I was basically destroying someone that was close to me. Luckily for us, No one was home. Stan had a Science competition to participate in, and his parents went with him. We cleaned the mess…well…what we could clean. Grandpa Ben came by and picked us up. We tried covering our eyes as well as possible. I looked out the back window, to the direction of that forest we were in the day before. I could’ve sworn I saw that person again. I don’t know what they’ve been through, or how long they’ve lived there, but I’m certain that deep down, they were still my sister.

 Axel and I didn’t say much on the car ride home. We got out the car with our things and walked up the steps to Erasona’s Orphanage for the Gifted and Disturbed. Now that I was looking at the sign for the first time in almost a year, I never noticed the “Disturbed” part.
I walked back inside with Axel and felt safe again. I started wearing my hair to the side to cover my eye. I bought Axel an eye patch and he bought me some medical gauze so my hair won’t get in my eye. I guess that was the best apology if not. A few weeks later I woke up, walked around the Orphanage and found some of my friends. They seemed quiet. None of them were talking to me. Even Axel was silent. I decided to go to my room. I turned on the tv so I wouldn’t be bored. But my boredom changed to alarm when this came blaring through the tv.

~Today marks one whole year since that horrible murder that rocked the town of Erasona on 513 Lead Drive. We still haven’t found the murderer or the weapon for that matter. Sources claim the son of the victims is either dead or alive. No one is sure where he went, but they hope he’s okay.~

That’s when I realized why every one was so quiet today. It all made sense and I really don’t understand how I couldn’t have realized it sooner. Today was my Birthday.