I was shaken awake by a familiar hand. I didn't even dare to look up; I knew it was my forever annoying brother, Carter.
"Sadie," He hurriedly whispered as he aggressively shook my shoulder again. "Get up." I nearly smacked the poor boy as I sat up in bed; he nearly cringed when he saw that I was giving him my infamous evil eye.
"What on earth are you doing, Carter?" I hissed at him, completely annoyed by the fact that he was waking me up at the barbaric hour of three 'o clock in the morning. It seemed as if even my alarm clock was tired, its red figures glowed wearily.
"Are you forgetting what day it is?" Carter questioned me, a highly expectant look on his face; I personally wanted to smack that look right off of him. But, I managed a usual roll of my eyes, blowing a piece of bed head hair out of my face.
"If this is another unknown holiday of the Egyptian culture that dad taught you about, I could care less." I grumbled my warning as I pushed my comforter off of my body, sitting towards the edge of my bed so my feet could touch the floor.
I saw Carter purse his lips at my response.
"Hey," He started, getting defensive. "I thought The Rebirth Celebration of Nehebkau went out with a bang." I crossed my arms with impatience, curtly telling him to get on with his point. "But, anyway no, that's not what today is." He paused in his small speech for effect, I guess. "It's Father's Day, and I thought the least we could do was go and visit dad." I narrowed my eyes at the boy.
"You bloody woke me up for Father's Day?" I gave him an incredulous look. "How old are you Carter, five?" I saw that a look of hurt settled on his face.
"I…I thought it would be nice thing to do. It's not every day we get to see dad, Sadie." My lips went into a line; the boy did have a point.
"All right, all right," I surprised myself; I usually don't give in to Carter's suggestions this easily. After I agreed to his plan, Carter began to smile; I think I even saw a victorious fist pump through the darkness of my room.
"Right," He said as he crossed back over to my door. "I'll leave you to get dressed now." I gave him a frank wave before groaning as I climbed out of bed, but I stopped him before fully leaving my room.
"Wait, Carter!" I quietly called after him; he poked his head through the doorway when he heard that he was being paged.
"What?" He responded.
"Do you even know how to get to the Afterlife?" I raised a sharp, but tired eyebrow at him and his seemingly insufficient plan. However, I was also surprised to see a mischievous glint in Carter's eye; he was slowly but surely becoming more like me. Perfect.
"Uncle Amos showed me the cabinet in the kitchen before he left Brooklyn House." He had a proud look on his face. I smirked even if I wasn't enjoying this moment; he had finally beaten me to something. He shouldn't get used to it.
"I'll meet you in the kitchen in ten." I gruffly replied.
I tried to fix the last haywire pieces of my hair as I quietly made my way down the main staircase; I made sure that my boots didn't rambunctiously echo against them. The rest of our trainees were trying to get some nice shut eye…except for me.
I saw that Carter almost jumped out of his skin once I entered the kitchen inaudibly; he also nearly dropped the vile of the potion in which we needed to get to the Afterlife. I caught the vile before it could crash onto the floor, causing everyone in the House to awaken. I glared at the boy as I stood back up, holding the vile preciously in my palms.
"Nice going, butterfingers," I murmured, handing him the vile back. He gave me a look as he began to open it.
"Ha ha," He sarcastically joked. "You're so funny." I shrugged nonchalantly, a sly smile starting to appear on my face.
"Naturally," I shot back at him; I saw that he only rolled his eyes, the cork finally coming undone. He took a sip from it and once he swallowed it, he winced, a look of disgust molding onto his face.
"God," He muttered, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt. "That tasted worse than mom's cold medicine!" I snatched the vile from his hands, I was suddenly jealous that he could recall another memory of mum, while I still couldn't. She was merely a hazy memory to my brain, but in my heart, she meant the world to me.
"Well, what were you expecting it to taste like?" I scoffed. "Cotton candy and gum drops?" I placed the vile to my lips and swallowed the remainder of the drink. I blinked a couple of times as my vision went spotty.
I only remember hearing the vile crash on the ground; I must've lost my grip on it.
My vision came back to me and I discovered that we were in the Afterlife; I could feel the cold of the black marble easily seep into my linen pants, chilling my skin. I ignored it and shakily got to my feet, I had to help Carter to his. Apparently, the potion had made him feel worse than I did currently. Hopefully this queasy feeling was only a temporary setback.
Together, we both made our way down the long trek, but I smiled with happy relief when I saw our parents. It felt like they knew we were coming for us, our father sat in his usual seat of his throne, our mum by his side. And thankfully, they both looked happy, even in this continuously dreary atmosphere.
"Hello, mum and dad." I quickened my pace so I could get to their arms quicker. Per usual, I hugged my father first.
"Good morning, Sadie." He patted my back two times, which instantly made me feel better. "I'm surprised to see you up this early." I gave him a look as I pulled back, I saw my mother float up to us.
"Yes, even when you were little you wouldn't wake up this early." My smile faltered, my mother's voice sounded hollow or distant. I couldn't place my finger on which adjective was right, though. "Carter was the early bird in our family." She gave him a generous smile as she opened her arms to my brother. His face instantly lit up as he ran up to hug her, I saw that he almost tripped through her with childish excitement. He reminded me of a year one after their first day of school, especially when they get reunited with their mothers.
"Hey, mom," He only said in response to her caring gesture. My mum tried to rest her head on his, but it didn't work. When my brother was content, my mum had a look of concern on her almost transparent face. She hid it when Carter pulled back, her hands idly rested on his shoulders.
"Are you two okay?" She asked us and Carter and I both nodded, but Carter decided to take the reins on this one.
"Yes, we are. But we came down to visit because it's Father's Day." I saw my dad's eyes brighten a bit.
"Ah, yes, Father's Day." He contemplated. "We haven't celebrated this in a while, right Carter?" Carter only nodded, along with my dad. I felt a little jealous that I was being left out of something…again. I opened my mouth to rant, but my dad continued.
"Well, this calls for a glamorous celebration, then." And before I knew it, a long table full of food appeared in front of us with only a snap of my father's fingers. I sure hope that I inherited this helpful power. Carter and I made our way over to the table, surprisingly sitting down next to each other. Soon enough, our parents joined us.
Overall, I had fun. We mainly ate and talked, talked and ate. Carter and I shared the stories and backgrounds of our new trainees, our parents seemed interested in them. We told them about Jaz and her awesome healing powers, we also mentioned Walt and his gift with creating charms and amulets. I was the one who talked most about him, even if I could see Carter snickering at me while I talked. He flinched when I successfully kicked his leg under the table.
Carter shut off his snickering and entertained my parents with telling my parents about Felix and his zealous obsession with summoning penguins and penguins. My parents found this more hilarious when we told them about Khufu and his liking of food that ended with Os.
As I continued on with telling them about Walt, Carter cleared his throat, lightly tapping his foot against my shin under the table. I shot an angry look at him for interrupting me, but he tilted his head in the direction of behind me. I raised an eyebrow and to my sight, I saw Anubis standing a couple of feet behind my chair. To be honest, I nearly melted when I saw him, my brain instantly replaying my kiss with him.
He gave my family an apologetic smile; I knew that he knew he was walking in on something.
"I'm sorry to suddenly burst in like this, but I got concerned since I could tell that something living was here." His eyes ever-so-quickly flickered to me, making me turn back to my roll.
"Do not worry about it, Anubis." My dad swiftly accepted his loyal friend's apology. "You were only checking up on things." Anubis nodded, resting a hand on the back of my chair.
"But, now that I discovered who was here, could I borrow Sadie for a couple of minutes?" I instantly heard Carter snickering again, but I was too shocked in order to kick him. I saw my dad nod as he took a drink from his goblet.
"Sure," He said, but I saw the same kind of sly glint in his eyes like I did in Carter's earlier. "Just don't take too long." And to my horror, my dad even added a wink to his already dangerously embarrassing statement. I tried to hide my face from everyone, I'm sure it matched the shade of the cranberries that sat in the middle of the table.
The awkward sound of my chair scooting away from the table echoed around us and I followed Anubis out of the sight of my family.
Anubis led me to the entrance of the Afterlife where the scales and Ammit were. I think Ammit the Devourer growled at me; maybe he didn't get enough hearts fed to him today.
Hate it when that happens.
"So, how are you doing, Sadie?" He asked me, crossing his arms. "It's not this frequent in which you get to grace me with your presence." My eyes flew to the god from the moody croc.
"I'm quite well, thank you." I said stiffly. "But, don't get used to it: Carter dragged me out of bed to in order to celebrate Father's Day." I saw that Anubis stiffened slightly, but he nodded.
"Right," He paused, his eyes going back to me. I guess the floor wasn't interesting anymore. "How's Walt?" I crossed my arms defensively. Why did he always have to bring him up? Bringing Walt up always made me feel so vulnerable around him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Anubis raise an eyebrow.
"Is that really what you think?" My head perked up a bit at his question, but I managed to nod. I guessed I forgot that he can read my feelings or something. What an invasion of privacy.
"Yes, I do indeed think that. And I would appreciate it if you would stop bringing him up." I bit my bottom lip. "It's stressful enough living with the poor boy, always questioning whether or not today will be the day…" My depressing thoughts drifted off; even they didn't want to continue on. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm a bloody mess! I saw a hint of a smile appear on Anubis's face, I knew it wasn't his usual playful one, but yet a comforting one.
"Sadie," He started as he rested a hand on my shoulder. "You know when it will be the time." I gave him a questioning look, and he continued on. "You'll know because you'll see my again. But, don't worry: that won't be for a while." I watched Anubis's hand slid from my shoulder down my arm and away.
"Walt's a strong guy, he still has some time." I saw that his face grew grim, it looked like he was in some kind of pain or something. "You should enjoy his presence while he's still there." I nodded, feeling a small smile come onto my face.
"Thanks, Anubis." I took his hand and squeezed it. I felt like I did this mainly through comfort, but I also felt some resentment escape from me.
That was the only thing I got to say before I was called back to my family, leaving a heartbroken Anubis behind.