Chapter One: New Experiences
"But Tisha!"
"No, Mil, I don't want to."
"But TISHAAA! It's Peter Pan! You HAVE to come watch it with me. I know you've just come back from your special party, and you're WAY tired, but there's no one else to watch it with me. Nani left two hours ago, and I was all alone. Please, PLEASE, come watch the movie with me!" my little sister Milikah begged.
I rolled my eyes and sighed, "You've seen that movie a THOUSAND times! Why on EARTH do you want to watch it again? You can quote the movie by heart, by now."
"That's just the best part! Sometimes, I notice little things I haven't remembered since the last time, which makes it all the more worthwhile. Please, Tisha, PLEASE!~"
"No means no and that's final. It's really late, and I'm tired. You should've been in bed HOURS ago, little missy! You're lucky I don't call Mum and Daddy right now and tell them that you've been up far past you bed time."
Milikah pouted at me with a twisted scowl marring her adorable face. Our parents often went on long trips to other countries for business, and we also moved at the drop of a pin. We, as in my sister and I, didn't always have an opportunity to make good friends before moving again, so we were pretty close. Though, I knew I had a tendency to get bossy as well as motherly with my sister. But what choice did I have? Our various nannies couldn't move with us, and they had their own curfews to attend to. So, in reality, I was raising Milikah on my own.
"You can't do that, or I'll tell them that you've been outside after Nani has left, and when it's dark to boot. You'll get in much more trouble than I can because you're the oldest," she retorted.
"No, I wouldn't get in trouble because Nanny Ai gave me permission to go to that party. Enough arguing; just go to bed. I'll watch the movie with you tomorrow morning, ok? How does that sound?" I compromised.
"But I wanna watch it NOW!" she whined.
"MILIKAH MARIE MARZCHILD! You listen to me. Go to bed or I'll destroy that beloved movie you hold so dear. GO!"
With an angry but submitting expression, Milikah scurried up the stairs of the mansion to her own room. I was glad at that moment that Mum and Da hadn't given in and bought that widescreen TV that Mil had begged for in her room. And Mil knew that my threat wasn't an idle one. I'd made much the same threat when she absolutely HARASSED me to play some dolls with her.
She was sorely sorry in the morning when her dolls heads hung from the ceiling of her bedroom with the bodies lying in mutilated parts scattered across her bed. She had bawled for an entire week until the nanny we had at the time went and bought her some new dolls. Mil has never asked me to play dolls her while I've been in a bad mood, again.
Sighing heavily, I climbed the opposite stairway to my own room. My triplet of a braid flopped energetically against my back. Though, I was beyond tired. I was exhausted. After scolding Milikah with her full name, I was always left extremely drained. I hated to reprimand her, but if I didn't, how was she going to learn? At ten years old, she was a nuisance to my very being. I was sixteen, and rebellious to the point of dressing contrary to my childlike disposition.
My limbs went limp at the thought of my soft, lusciously deep bed. I wanted nothing more than to sink into my own world of dreamless slumber on that cloud. Still in my party clothes or not, I was going to sleep.
I promptly opened my door, slammed it closed behind me, and jumped onto my bed. I loosened my boots so that if I chose, I could kick them off during the night, and half way undid my belt. I smoothed my black shirt and black and red checkered skirt into a more comfortable position, and fell asleep directly.
Muffled creaking and whispers woke me from my light slumber. To say I was annoyed was an understatement. I didn't open my eyes, hoping to fall back asleep. When it continued and sleep wasn't forthcoming, I groaned and opened my eyes.
I had come home at ten o'clock that night. My clock read two AM. Angrily, I wondered what on EARTH Milikah was doing up at that unholy hour. If she was up, watching that blasted movie, there was going to be an explosion. I couldn't guarantee whether or not Nanny Ai was going to find the mansion in one piece when she arrived at ten AM.
Then a thought came to my mind. To make myself seem all the more disgruntled and upset, I should look like I've just woken up – which I had – but to make it a little more dramatic when I went to scold her… I threw a long, lacey night gown over my head, kicked off my boots, and slipped on my primitive style fuzzy slippers. Working quickly then, because Mil seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to her being about to be scolded, I separated my three, two feet long braids, and wrapped them like a crown around my head. I deftly pinned them into place, and hurriedly, yet silently, snuck out my room.
I had to be careful. Even though Milikah's room was on the other side of the house, she had ears like an elephant. Which was why I considered myself an apprentice ninja, or at least, that's what I told myself. I had to learn to keep silent, or she would find out that I was coming for her.
Old floor boards creaking alerted me to more than one presence. I stopped dead in my tracks, listening. I was standing stock-still on the stairs to Mil's side of the mansion. I knew for a fact that she hadn't invited anyone of her friends over for a sleep-over. Why would there be more people than my little sister running around the house?
We may have been a rich family, but my parents only bothered to send someone to clean the house once a week. And in that one day, Milikah and I were confined to our rooms for six hours – no exceptions. But that day had come and gone, and they never, EVER, came during the wee hours of the morning. That was one of my parents' never-actually-enforced-except-when-they-were-present rules. No one who lived/worked in the house was to be mucking around, indoors or otherwise, after eight PM.
"Quietly now, boys. We have to get the little girl before she wakes up. We don't want to repeat what happened with Jane or Lilly. The Capt'm was furious for weeks after…"
"Aye, Smee. But it ain't fair tha' the blame be always on OUR heads. We shouln' hafta walk the plank after a failure tha' wasn' our own!"
"Too true, Will. But I'm nogh' the one who is the Capt'm. Let's just grab the girl and go. I don' need no trouble from this lass's parents."
Captain? Blame? Smee? PLANK? No. They had to be some robbers on crack. Not to mention kidnappers. I was caught between the action of creeping down the stairs to phone the police, and helping Milikah immediately. If I waited and called the police, they might grab Milikah and go before help arrived. Or even worse, threaten her. If there was one thing I knew about my sister, it was that Mil was a complete and total wuss.
Having made my decision, I crept quickly, quietly up the stairs. The lights were very, very dim out in the hallway, but Mil had insisted that the entire mansion have a twilight feel after dark. In which case, I was extremely grateful, yet also dismayed. If in the case I had to make a report, I wouldn't be able to say much about the intruders' features. But, they wouldn't be able to see me very well, either. I knew the mansion far better than they did, and could most likely sneak past the goons, grab Mil, and spirit out the window, onto the veranda, and hide in my room.
Or so I thought.
I was in the process of figuring out how to enter Milikah's room without alerting the idiots to my presence when I felt myself being lifted up off the floor by the scruff of my neck. It hurt. A lot. But I'm proud to say that I didn't cry out. That for sure would've woken Mil, and she would've come running… straight into their arms.
"Oi, Smee! I've cau't a wee spy. Wha' shall I do wit' it?" the giant, burly man (who was almost strangling me) demanded in a low whisper.
The one I assumed to be called Smee – and also the shortest of the lot – turned to face us, seemingly surprised. "What? What are ye' talking aboot? There's only suppose' to be ONE child in this here house. Ever since the Fairies' Curse…" he mumbled.
"I don't know who you are, or what you're after, but this is MY house, and I'd appreciate it if this man UNHANDED ME!" I angrily cut in.
He dropped me, and I landed in a crouch. I had to get the upper hand. They were all so much heftier than I was. If not in height, then in weight. Thinking at supersonic speed, I calculated, and acted. I sprang into Milikah's room, and slammed the door shut behind me. I locked the door as a precaution. It wouldn't last long, if they were determined to get in, but it would serve as a deterrent long enough to at least wake Mil.
Milikah was a small ball of sweetness under her covers. She looked so peaceful under the light of the full moon, I almost felt bad for waking her. Almost.
"Mil, wake up. Someone's broken into the house, and we need to go. Mil, wake up!" I hissed.
She was slow in waking. Dangerously slow. She merely moaned as I tried to shake her into consciousness. I heard the door handle jiggle furiously behind me, and knew I was running out of time. The burglars had surely picked the lock to get in, in the first place. An old lock like the one on Mil's door probably wouldn't be much trouble to them. No more than if I had simply left it unlocked.
Panic rose inside of me, and adrenaline rushed through my veins. In a moment of pure terror for our lives, I plucked Milikah off the bed, just like I had when she was sixty pounds lighter and five years younger. I wrapped her arms around my neck, and pleaded to the Heavens that we would live to see the morning. I was fiddling with her window lock when the door sprang open behind us.
"Don' just stand there, git 'er!" Smee commanded.
I don't know how I managed it, but I was able to open the window, and jumped out onto the veranda with Milikah hanging limply on my back. It was a very narrow ledge, just barely wide enough for me to walk on in my wider-hipped-taller-body, let alone with Milikah on my back. I sighed to myself. She was blissfully unaware of her circumstances. How I longed to be a child again.
Being a teenager sucked. Especially if you have to take care of a younger sibling. Even more especially so if said younger sibling was about to be kidnapped by weirdoes who may or may not be after you next.
I had to walk much more slowly than I would have liked, but I was able to get out of range of grabbing before they made it to the window. The need for escape only grew stronger as I inched my way towards my own room. It was going to be a very long tight-rope walk to my room, but I had to risk it. Milikah may not have been the ideal little sister, but she was all I had. I loved the girl to death. My only wish, at that point, was that I wouldn't be the one to mourn for the other sibling's death. I was leaving that to my sister for when I was old and fragile.
"Little lass! Come back here! If you work wit' us, you'll git all the gold and silver doubloons you cou'd evah want!" called Will the burglar.
"Money has no meaning to me! And I'm NOT giving you my little sister!" I retorted.
She was literally the one who held all the meaning in my life. All the "friends" I made over the course of our many moves were the ones who only ever saw my façade of kindness and mercy. Milikah was the one I had with me always, the only one who shared my pain. There was no way in heck I was going to hand over my only treasure.
The same burly man who had come close to knocking me out earlier called out the window, "MATEYS! Bring the ship 'round!"
There were MORE of those snuffed out intruders? Obviously, if they thought they were pirates, they had had one too many sniffs of good stuff, and killed off whatever precious brain cells they had possessed before. What worried me was what he meant when he said "ship". Did he mean a fancy, decked out car that was tricked out for burglary? Or a dilapidated old heap that could barely run on its own?
I wasn't about to stick around to find out. I inched all the more towards my side of the mansion. In the mean time, I cursed the ones who had originally built the stupid thing. It was as inconvenient as they came, and most definitely NOT burglar proof. The house was extremely old, and my parents were so taken with it, that they refused to add many modern technologies to update the poor building. I considered myself lucky that the parapet on which I stood wasn't crumbling underfoot.
With a grand sigh of relief, I made it to my own room. I pushed on the window, and thanked anyone listening up above that I hadn't been energized enough to lock it before I went to bed. Quickly, I eased my way down onto the floor, but was uneasy… The curtains were very long, and stood in my way…
I was right to be anxious.
As soon as I poked my nose out into my room, a hand shot out and clamped something over my mouth and nose. It was just like in the movies. I knew enough of self preservation to not inhale, and tried to shy away. But all that was behind me was certain doom by open street and hard cement pavement. Not to mention the work gravity would work in not only my demise, but Milikah's as well.
Though I struggled to stay not only awake, not breathing in the fumes of whatever they were trying to make me inhale, and not kill the two of us, I had to keep reality in check. A ship. A real pirate ship was… floating in the air next to my window. I figured that the crap that was practically being shoved up my nose was already working, so I figured that I may as well give up… but I couldn't let myself do that. I was a fighter. To the end.
"NO!" I choked.
"Give up, girly. Ain't no one gonna come save you…"
My gaze went hazy from lack of oxygen, and the room was spinning, but I didn't inhale that crap.
"She's far 'nuff gone, now. If ye' keep tha' up, she'll be out for too long. We need 'er awake for Pan."
Who? Pan? As in the Greek god that was also a satyr? In any case, the cloth was removed from my face, and I drank in greedily the non-contaminated air… but the darkness was already fading in too fast to stop. I didn't even feel it when my body hit the floor…