A/N: Well, this is the second chapter, I hope you like it! Please review for this story, I have it set up to where if you aren't a member you can review. If you are a member and review, I would gladly read your stories! Have fun reading.
Chapter Two
But imagine my surprise, when on Thanksgiving Day, I woke up and knew that there was a killer on the loose in Chicago, and he was about to kill a family called the Flappers. I thought - what a stupid dream. But then two days later on the news, there was the house, the family, and the cops. The Flapper family was dead; a family of two parents and three children were all dead. No survivors. And I knew where the killer was. And then I see their ghosts looking at me that day, asking me to stop their killer.
I soon discovered that the dreams were called psychic premonitions, and those people, yeah, it wasn't a hallucination.
This should have been every kid's dream, but when you see people die and even see ghosts, you aren't that excited. I mean, what little kid would want to come to their mom all proud-like and say something along the lines of, "I see dead people."
Ha, not me.
But my parents had to learn sooner or later. Even if they thought we were joking. So to prove them wrong, I had the ghost in our house lift a box to prove it to them when they laughed about the imagination kids had now a days.
The look on their faces was priceless.
Soon my grandfather started to teach me to control these "gifts". I learned a lot about them, like how they don't just come when I'm asleep, but also when I'm awake. During this time, we had lived in a big city, Salt Lake City. So Anna came up with this idea to go around and stop criminals and put ghosts to rest. That is why the Emergency Room loved us so much, they were rolling in the dough.
But as soon as our grandfather died, we moved to a small city because mom and dad found out how we really were getting injured. I admit the peace of a small town life was great, like a vacation, but I couldn't stop those premonitions or stop trying to put ghosts to rest.
The sad part about my "gift" is that it will back fire. I mean, like sometimes bad things will happen and I won't see it. Granddad never got around to showing me how to summon them at will. Like how I could have saved my parents, but I didn't know. Yeah, that sort of stuff.
I looked out the window to watch us land and I heard Anna let out a huff. "Riley, surely you aren't blaming yourself?"
Silence.
"Riley Wren Anderson, stop blaming yourself for what happened to mom and dad right now!"
"Let's face it Anna, if I had just seen it coming I could have prevented it."
"You couldn't have seen it coming," she said with her face getting red with anger. I opened my mouth to protest but I was cut off by Anna. "Don't you dare say, 'I have a "gift" I should have seen it'. Because that is a load of bull, you can't see and stop everything in the world Riley, and you need to learn to deal with it."
"Anna, you know it's true," I said, I knew I had to calm her down. We were getting weird stares from the people seated around us, and the flight attendants didn't look too happy about our "sibling squabble" as the lady with a huge bird nest-like hair said to her child. "Now calm down, we're in public." That is always what she says to me, "Calm down, Riley, we're in public," or "Riley, you are embarrassing yourself." Bull crap I'm embarrassing myself, I'm never embarrassed.
But what I said seemed to have gotten her mad. Anna never swears unless she is mad. "Bullshit," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm not…"
"Would you two be quiet?" a small voice between us said. Zach now started to fully get up and stretch. "You two are causing a scene."
What a sad day it is when a five year old kid puts you to shame for getting mad at your sister, especially when that kid happens to be your brother.
"Sorry Zach, Riley," Anna said lowering her head in defeated shame.
"Yeah, sorry Anna. Sorry we woke you kiddo," I said to Zach ruffling up his hair as I did so.
He smiled as he batted away my hand and said, "That's OK, I need to start getting up anyways."
I felt the jolting and bumping as we started to land at the Portland International. We waited a while for them to say we could unbuckle our seat belt and get our stuff. When the pilot said it was all right, we grabbed our bags and made a run for the door while everyone was about to get up. Zach hated having to wait in the line. I was leading the way and almost there when all the sudden I felt myself run into something solid. I looked up and saw a boy a bit older than me looking down at me with shades on.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I saw that the boy was wearing shades inside. Another guy trying to look cool. "Um…sorry dude, didn't see you there." I couldn't help but say dude, it's like my word.
The guy seemed strangely amused that I said dude and just shrugged. I gave him the once over and saw he had black hair, tall, strong looking arms, a tight black shirt, and worn out blue jeans. I could already tell he was a snobby rich person.
But I really didn't expect what happened next. Zach looked up at him and then went into an asthma attack; I swear it was the weirdest thing I have ever experienced with his health problems.
"Buddy, where is your inhaler," I asked.
He took it out and inhaled it, but his eyes were still on the guy in front of us, and they were filled with fear. I looked at him and saw that he was looking at us.
I glared and took Zach's hand. I turned around and looked at Anna. "I don't like the guy in front of us," I said in a whisper.
She just rolled her eyes and said, "Please Riley, you hate any guy that looks at me the wrong way, I don't need you hating every guy that looks at you."
"Someone has to look after us," I said rolling my eyes.
The flight attendant opened the door and let us all out. As we walked to the baggage pick up, I noticed that the guy with the shades was now walking behind us, and staring at me. I knew he was staring at me even though he had shades on because I could feel his eyes boring into my back. It was enough to make one sick with worry, preferably me.
I shuddered a bit before I got it under control and stood up tall. Still, his eyes felt like daggers burning into me. Though I can't help but wonder what color they are.
We made it to the pick up only to discover a shocking horror. There was a woman and an eighteen year old boy standing there with a huge sign that said "Welcome to Our Home Wren, Annabel, and Zachary!" (Aunt Joanna was really mad when she learned my parents gave me a boy's name, that's why she calls me by my middle name, Wren.)
Some of the kids behind us snickered and pointed while the adults admired it and some old ladies went 'how cute'. But that didn't stop the embarrassment, or end it. The woman had red hair in a bun, wearing a pink dress; she was kind of short and pale, and had bright green eyes. She is Dad's sister, Aunt Joanna (Is it just me or do we have a lot of Annas in our family? Must be some family heirloom or something.)
Then there was the boy beside her, which I am guessing is our cousin, Jackson. He was tall, scrawny, dorky, and had long fire red hair. He wore a black t-shirt that said "I hear voices" and black jeans with chains. His eyes was covered up by thick black, square framed glasses and he didn't look happy having to sit there holding up that sign. I don't blame him.
We stood there for a second, Zach, Anna, and I, with our mouths wide open. Which I think that is what gave us a way. Our mouths being open, I mean. But the worst thing that happened was that Aunt Joanna screamed with delight. No, she didn't scream she squealed like a pig!
"LOOK JACKY, THERE THEY ARE!" she said jumping up and down like a five year old and pointing at us. I felt Zach nudge me in the side and I saw they were looking around like they didn't know who she was talking about. But it was too late, she noticed us.
Then she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug while twirling me around. I think I heard my bones crack. For a small woman, she was pretty strong.
"Oh, let me look at you!" she said clapping her hands. After she gave us all the once over, she began talking a mile a minute. I finally just tuned her out and waited for our luggage to come out of the hole so I could leave. That's when I heard it. Laughter, lots and lots of laughter. I turned around and there he stood.
While Aunt Joanna was talking to Zach and Anna, I marched straight over to the guy that had been in front of me and kicked him in the shins. But he didn't howl in pain, all though he did clutch it and his jaw kind of sagged.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"Piss me off one more time and see what happens," I said and then turned around without another word. He just kind of stood there a moment and looked at me as I stalked back over to the luggage pick up. Ok, I know I shouldn't have kicked the guy, but I didn't like him and I could tell he didn't like me. I was just glad that I would be in a huge town where I could lose him for good.
I waited and waited and waited. Then I let out a sigh and turned to the person next to me and noticed for the first time, my family wasn't there. Best way to describe my feelings? Panic!
I began to twist and turn looking for them. My stomach gave me a jolt and then I realized that I was in a huge city, and they could be anywhere. I felt faint, real faint.
Then I turned fully around to run and look for them, only to run into a solid object…again.
I looked up hoping it would be a policeman, only to find Mr. Indoor-Glasses-Wearing-Piss-Me-Off-Jerk.
"You know, you still didn't answer my question," he said.
"And that would be?"
"Why did you kick me?"
"You're rude and you laughed at me. Do I need a better reason? Now let go of me," I said holding my chin up with an expression on my face that I hoped would look like a "I-Don't-Give-A-Crap" rather than a "Oh-Crap-He-Is-Going-To-Kill-ME" look. No, it wasn't that I was really scared of him; I mean I was already coming up with a plan on how I was going to beat the living day lights out of him. Though it never occurred to me that he might want to kidnap me or kill me in front of thousands of people and cameras.
But, boy, did I feel that sweet relief come over me when I heard my aunt and sister call my name (Aunt Joanna calling out Wren). I never felt so grateful in all my life. I actually started to like my aunt.
That was, until those words I wish I could shove back into her mouth just came flowing out like it was a normal thing to say. "Oh, sweetie, is this a friend of yours?"
I looked at her with this shocked expression on my face. I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the ground.
This jerk, my friend? Ha, yeah right!
"Oh, no ma'am, we just met. My name is Daniel Newton, and may I say you have lovely daughters and sons," Mr. Indoor-Glasses-Wearing-Piss-Me-Off-Jerk said, oh I mean Daniel Newton.
"Oh, thank you Daniel, though I'm sad to say that my only son is Jackson," she said laying a hand on Jackson's shoulder.
You could tell Mr. Indoor-Glasses-, oh I mean Daniel was confused, but he didn't say anything. I was about to turn around and walk away, but leave it to Aunt Joanna to introduce us. Only, she introduced me by my middle name. HA!
Finally Zach, who had remained quiet and looking at the floor or anywhere else besides Mr. Indoor-Glasses-, I mean Daniel, tugged on my shoulder. I looked at him and noticed our bags coming out. It was the first one to come and circled directly toward us. Luckily, they all came out at the same time. I couldn't help but look up to the sky and mouth 'Thank you'. I think God felt sorry for me at the moment.
I loaded the entire luggage on one cart to wheel out and made sure they were ours. Then I let out a sigh of relief as I grabbed Anna to let her know I was ready. I think she was a little relieved to be getting out because Aunt Joanna was talking nonstop. Jackson grabbed her shoulder and said, "Come on mom, let's go." We were almost out of there before a dark brown haired boy, wearing a Hollister shirt and holey jeans walked up to Daniel and said, "Hey Dan, I got the luggage," in this British accent. He looked up and swept his long brown hair out of his face and said, "Who is this, Dan?"
"This is Joanna and Jackson Taylor and Zachary, Annabel, and Wren Anderson."
"Nice to meet you all," he said shaking hands with all of us. I could tell by his smile when he shook Anna's hand that he fell victim to her beauty. Also because he kissed her hand. So just to show him how strong I was and that I could beat him up, I gave him a firm grip. "Well, aren't we a strong gal."
I rolled my eyes and gave him the once over, only I did it very slowly to make him nervous. I saw that he had a square jaw, a full bottom lip and a half full upper lip, and sparkling blue eyes. But no matter how intimidating I tried to look, by giving my brother's famous watch-it glare, he didn't flinch or stop smiling. It annoyed me to no end. Which I told Anna about later, who only laughed and said that I think everyone is annoying.
Finally he looked at Daniel, and said, "Let's go mate. We have to get home soon or your mum and da isn't going to be very happy." He waved and left to get their bags. I finally thought that I was in the clear as I grabbed the stuff and made a charge to the door, until I heard Daniel say, "See you later Wren!"
"Whatever, Newt."
I was happy about two things that day. One, Portland is a huge city, which means I can lose him real quick. Two, I was never so happy about Aunt Joanna telling someone my name was Wren.