Prologue
At sixteen, Ella Dunham was becoming more and more like her Uncle Peter every day. There were a lot of little things that pointed to this. She was becoming extremely good at reading people. She was incredibly smart, and knew about many different subjects that somehow always came in handy. But the point where it was highly obvious that she was going down the path of her Uncle was when she dropped out of school.
School had seemed so trivial at this point. Her father was far away, and had been out of the picture for a long time. Her Aunt Liv had disappeared a few years ago with no trace. And a culmination of several things she believed she'd never understand had led to her mother's suicide.
Her school had nothing to give her educationally either. Thanks to Uncle Peter and Walter, she had a near college graduate level understanding of biology and mechanics. And the nagging feeling that by staying where she was would never give her any answers, had ultimately been one of the final straws.
She had a lot of questions for a sixteen year old. She wasn't quite sure where it stemmed from. All she knew was that deep down, she couldn't really believe that what was given to her as factual was really it. This was very likely the bit of Walter in her, and thankfully, the only bit. No drugs, or madness for her.
In the end though, perhaps what had pushed her out of school were the stories she'd been told when she was younger. Not from her mother or Aunt Liv. They'd always given her the sweet fairy tales, of princesses being rescued from dragons or evil witches by knights in shining armor. But on the occasions that she got stories from the Bishop boys, it was a much different experience.
Peter told her stories about super heroes going to save the world. They never seemed to be fighting super villains though. Instead they fought monsters, and seemingly normal people. In the end, their goal was to keep the universe safe from total destruction by fighting whom they did. His stories always seemed like he'd been there fighting these monsters. It made her feel safe.
Walter told her stories about detectives. They were full of plot twists. There was always something to change up the story just after something else was solved. But there was something in the way that he had a sad look in his eyes during certain occasions in the stories. And the fact that he was always telling these stories off the top of her head, yet seemed to know all of the plot points before they ever happened.
She had of course, confronted the Bishop boys about this on one occasion. But they had assured her that there was nothing to the stories, and being ten at the time, she'd preferred the idea that they would be telling the truth.
But now, at sixteen, Ella was packing her bag. She'd taken most of her savings out to buy a plane ticket to San Diego. She was going to get a fresh start, with nothing to her self but her wits and her possibilities. It was grand. She only hoped that Walter and Peter would not be mad at her. She needed this, and no matter how great they had been in taking her in when her mother died, she just couldn't stay.
In the middle of the night, Ella slipped out the door of their apartment. She left behind her phone, and didn't leave a note.
"Please understand," she whispered.