Stray
Prologue- September 2009
Simone Rivers
It was a day like any other. That's the weird thing about it- the day the changes your life should scream abnormal, but up until Mr. Marsey knocked on my front door the day had been indifferent. I went to school, walked home, checked the mail- nothing for me as usual- and plopped down on our hideous yellow couch. My parents weren't home yet. They both work late, but that day they had been gone an hour later than usual. I didn't think anything of it; dad probably had a last minute meeting or maybe mom was stuck in traffic.
So I sat there, on the ugliest couch in town, listening to Beyoncé songs as I finished up the rest of my homework. When knock came from the front door I sauntered across the room, taking my time. I pulled open the white wooden door, I saw a small man standing at my front step. Before I could speak he looked sadly at me saying,
"You're Simone Rivers, correct?"
"Yes- I am." I stared at him intently. The looks of pity did not go away.
"Hello, then. I am Milo Marsey, Mr. Marsey to you." He extended his bony hand to me and I shook it, still confused by his presence. "Simone, it is my duty to inform you," he took a deep breathe, "that your parents, Dr. Julian Warren Rivers and Mrs. Sarah Marie Cartwright Rivers were killed this afternoon in a car accident," I remember searching his face, thinking that he's surely joking. My parents wouldn't do this to me. They wouldn't leave me alone in this world. There has to be a mistake.
Although, now that I think about it my family does appear to have an unfortunate. My grandparent's went on a cruise ten years ago, and never came back, for example. And my cousin, Ella, went missing days after my aunt and uncle died in a house fire.
"I am very sorry Simone. As much as I'd like to be lying to you, I am forced to be brutally honest." I looked for hints in Mr. Marsey's facial expressions for why he was doing this to me, but found nothing but sheer honesty.
After that it seemed to be a blur, that I can't completely remember to this day. After I accepted the tragedy I sank back into the yellow couch. I think I invited Mr. Marsey inside. The couch's color engulfed me. The yellow appeared even more obnoxious. I felt bile rise in my throat. I believe sometime after that, Mr. Marsey dropped another bomb on me.
He cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together like they were cold. "Simone," he waited for me to look up at him. "Sorry to be pushy, but I need to leave now. I'm running late for a meeting,"
"Okay, but how is that pushy?" I asked, speaking for the first time in an hour.
"Well, you have to come with me. I work for an orphanage downtown, where you'll be staying," Mr. Marsey looked at me uncomfortably as I puked once more, this time on his shoes. "Normally, there would be calls made to relatives, but since your aunt and uncle died in a fire years ago, you are the only 'Rivers' left."
Things went from bad to worse just like that.
Eloisa Partimore
Three years ago my life changed forever. I can't say whether it was a good change or a bad one because it was like a rollercoaster. I prefer to see it for the better, but some may say what I did was all wrong. Sometimes I like to think back on September 20, 2009
I stared out my window pane, and listened to the beating of the fat raindrops. My hand slowly slid down the cold glass.
"Eloisa, what are you doing? Aren't you excited?" My orphanage director, Pamela Green asks. She looked back at me for a moment before she smiled.
"Of course I'm excited," I practically growled. That day was the day I joined the Dynempts, a foster home.
"Are you sure?" Miss Green raised an eyebrow.
"Yes!" I hollered at her. I suppose my aggression is and was one of my weaknesses. Miss Green simply shrugged and turned back to the wheel.
"You know some people would die to be in your situation. I hear that the Dynempts have a bunch of kids your age," Although that might have cheered me up, I didn't show it. I was mad at Miss Green.
Thirty minutes later I stood at the giant mansion. The walls were made of slabs of rock and the windows had wooden shutters next to them. Miss Green was at my side, ready to leave me once and for all. I had been in her care for only a year, but we had both grown tired of one another quickly. I knocked on the towering door and waited. Seconds later, a burly man answered the door. He looked tough and rough, but his voice was abnormally high-pitched,
"Good morning ladies! You must be El-"
"-oisa. Eloisa," I told him quickly.
"Good luck," Miss Green nudged me, then headed off. I don't know too much about orphanage directors or counselors or whatever, but I'm pretty sure Miss Green shouldn't have dropped me off like that. She left so quickly that if there was a psycho-killer waiting for me inside, she wouldn't have noticed.
"Hello Eloisa. I'll show you inside," I heard a new monotonous voice offer inside. I poked my head around the door frame and saw a tall, slender boy with smooth black hair and startling blue eyes staring at me.
I followed the boy through the house. Sometimes he made comments, but his voice remained so boring and uninteresting that I didn't listen. That is, until we came to a broad room with tall grey walls and thousands of tiny chairs that sat behind one giant desk and chair.
"What's this?" I asked.
"This is the command room." The boy said. I laughed for a moment, but when the boy didn't even grin, I assumed it wasn't a joke.
"Why do we have a command room?!" I asked, faking a nonchalant smile.
"Eloisa, you didn't seriously think this was a foster home, did you?" He said grimly. His words sunk into me like stones. They made me squirm. It was like I was the weird one. Now I realize I was the weird one. I should have known. I should have known that Miss Green was a part of this too. She ran away when she dropped me off. She made me change my name!
"Well, yeah. I kind of did!" I stared at him in disbelief.
"You're in for a shock, then. This is the command room of course. We all meet here at 10 o'clock every Wednesday night."
"Why?"
"To discuss battle plans, of course,"
"With who?! I'm sorry but what even is this, 'Dynempt' thing anyways?" I asked frantically.
"We're an agency trying to make the Earth a better place. We want to kill the idiots in this world," The boy said slowly. I couldn't make believe of this. It couldn't have been real.
Now I know that it was.
And… That's my prologue! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and tell me what you think! This stories a little bit like CHERUB, but really different.
Eloisa and Simone are the main characters. Which one's your favorite so far?:)