Here it is. The second chapter.
Thankyou to those who reviewed.
Just thought I'd mention IWillBelieveIt who helped me with my confidence to start writing.
On with the story.
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Chapter 2: Old Fashion Mail
Zoe's POV
It was cold, really cold.
I was sat in the lounge room of the apartment I was renting while I was here in Africa.
I was used to this. Getting home late, sitting on the couch, moping about the terrible day I'd had.
They were always terrible days.
Not one of them had been good so far.
I'd tried my luck again today. But nothing, it was always nothing. I hate it.
My friends back home had believed me after I proved myself.
My sisters seem like they'll never believe me.
Many of them, like Frank had said, were living normal lives.
I tried to tell them but all they did was scream at me. Yell at me to go away.
I didn't realise how hard this would be. I was naïve.
I'd only met one person who'd believed me so far.
Unfortunately Korps must have done something to her because, to put it bluntly, she was insane.
After I'd told her she started pacing and mumbling about how she knew she was different. Then she started screaming and crying.
I felt bad that I'd caused her so much pain, so I left.
I'm starting to question why I'm still here if I hate it so much.
I guess it's because I can't go back.
I'd gotten the mail in the morning but I didn't want to read it when I saw who it was from.
Maybe I should. How bad could it be?
I picked up the first letter from the pile and opened it with trembling hands. It read…
Dear Zoe,
Um, hey, I don't really know what to say. Well I'm Keri. I'm one of your sisters, a clone of the mastermind.
So they had managed to get her away from Korps.
I don't know as much about you as I'd like to know.
So I guess I'm famous now. I laughed silently to myself.
Aneisha has told me a bit, Tom says the odd thing but Dan won't tell me anything.
I stopped smiling. Dan.
He won't even tell me why he won't. Every time I ask him he either yells at me or becomes a lot less happy than he was before.
Dan can't do that. Me leaving doesn't mean he has to be sour to Keri.
I think he misses you.
Oh I hope your right Keri. I miss him too.
Aneisha won't tell me why she always says it isn't her place to say.
Aneisha should tell her. She deserves to know what's going on.
Tom says he's depressed but he won't go into detail.
I frowned. Dan wasn't really depressed, was he.
Maybe you know. I hope to meet you someday.
Me too.
Kind Regards
You're Sister Keri
Well that wasn't that bad. I guess.
I picked up the next letter and began to read…
Dear Zoe,
I hope you receive this. It's been a while now and you haven't contacted any of us. I'm okay with it but Dan isn't.
Dan, again.
I don't care if it's just one text message he needs to hear from you just to know you're okay.
You don't understand Neish, I can't
I worry about him.
I smiled sadly. I do too.
Sometimes he just looks so depressed and others he looks like he's going to go and find you just to make sure you're all alright.
I reread the previous sentence. I'm not alright and I know it. I wish he could come and make sure I'm alright.
The one thing that you leaving has taken away from him is his smile.
Now I feel like a criminal.
Dan's smile always made my day. Just seeing it made me feel like I was floating on cloud nine.
To think that I was the reason it was gone.
A tear fell down my cheek at the loss of the thing that always made my day.
I don't remember the last time I saw it.
Neither do I.
I miss you, come home soon.
Love
Aneisha
A couple more tears rolled down my cheeks.
I really wanted to see my best friend again I missed her.
Well on to the next one…
Dear Zoe,
I hope this got to you alright. I was just guessing your whereabouts. I don't know why but I thought it would be nice for everyone to write you a letter.
Count on Tom to come up with the ideas.
Dan wasn't too keen.
Again.
Although we knew he'd like to he'd much rather here from you.
Yeah, Aneisha told me that. Another tear rolled down my cheek
Things are different without you here and I miss you.
I miss you to.
I hope all goes well with you finding your sisters.
You can stop hoping. That course of action is dead.
I hope there hasn't been anything too terrible said to you about it.
That's sweet but you're too late. I've had it all.
We can't force people to believe we just have to guide them.
I wish you could help me.
From
Tom the technical genius
I laughed quite loudly after that, the technical genius alright.
I sighed and moved on with the next letter…
Dear Zoe,
It's been a while now and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss you.
I smiled.
That surprised me.
I didn't think Stella would write.
In the time that you were part of the MI High. team you became like a daughter to me.
Wow. I didn't Know that was how Stella felt about me.
The lack of family you had made you all the more lovable.
Lack of a caring family, I have plenty of family.
I grew accustom to your childlike innocence. Now that you're gone I feel kind of empty.
More tears slid down my cheeks.
I guess they really do care.
It's all work, work, work, all the time. It gets dull after a while.
Stella, get bored of work, never.
All of us would appreciate it if you could come home.
I laughed with words of cruel sarcasm etched in my brain. Even I'd appreciate it if I came home.
I understand that finding your sisters is important to you but we're your family too.
More and more tears trickled down my cheeks.
Your more family than my sisters will ever be.
We miss you and we care about you. All of us care.
The tears continued to fall.
I do not mean to influence your decision in any way and I'm terribly sorry if I've taken up some of your time you could be using to find your sisters.
I sighed, always so proper.
The tears fell faster now that Stella had gone back into business mode.
Thank you for taking time to read my letter.
I scowled; I hated it when she was so proper.
Yours sincerely
Stella Knight
I felt bitter towards Stella for putting up a façade at the end of her letter.
She was always so proper.
She never let her guard down.
It hurt that she couldn't put her properness away for one whole letter.
I was nervous to pick up the next envelope.
I knew that these next two would be the hardest to read.
I carefully picked up the next letter and read…
Dear Zoe,
I've been thinking about writing for a little while now but I didn't have the guts to until Tom suggested we all wrote you a letter each.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in.
It was Frank writing not Dan.
It was a great idea but I'm not sure how well he thought about it.
What's that supposed to mean?
I don't know.
I guess it doesn't really matter.
He misses you as do all of us.
That's certainly one thing all the letters have in common.
It's different without you here we lost something when you left.
I dropped the sarcasm and more tears slid down my already tear stained cheeks.
I guess they all do feel empty.
Even Stella seems to miss you.
The tears flowed faster.
She does miss me Frank, she does.
Everything seems to have gone dull. It's funny how before we found you it was lively and when you were here it was lively but now you're gone it no longer is.
My heart rate picked up.
That's what happens when you lose someone you love.
Happy tears joined with the sad tears.
It's great with Keri but it's not the same. I hope you come back to us someday.
I smiled, how about soon, very soon.
You're like a daughter to me and I miss you.
Looks like I really do have parents that care.
I hope to see you sometime soon after you've tracked down your sisters.
Forget sisters, I think I'm coming home, maybe.
Yours truly
Frank
That wasn't as bad as I thought.
Dread overtook me as I looked at the last remaining letter.
Dan…
Dear Zoe,
There are a lot of things that I want to say but I don't know what to start with.
I gulped.
Why didn't you call?
Here it comes.
Why didn't you answer any of my calls?
My breath caught in my throat.
It hurts.
One lone tear slipped out,
It really does cut me deep.
And another,
You said you would call.
And another,
Do you not care anymore?
Then they came hard and fast.
Does it matter to you what's going on in our lives?
It does matter, I do care, please stop.
The flow of tears continued.
You called Tom. Why couldn't you call me?
That was work it was important, I…
You didn't even call Aneisha.
I only called Tom for business.
I thought not calling was for the best.
Do we not matter to you?
You do matter, you matter so much.
The never ending stream of tears intensified.
Tom had this dumb idea that we should all write to you.
No, don't go bitter.
You're probably not even going to receive them.
I did, I have.
I can't believe I'm even writing to you.
No,
You ignored me.
I…
Why?
I don't know
Look I care about you a lot.
I wiped away the tears that were falling.
I love you.
Then they stopped after I read those three words.
I was dumb founded.
I opened my mouth just a little and whispered four unforgettable words, "I love you too."
Look I'm sorry for bothering you it's clear that you'd rather find your sisters than read some dumb note that I wrote because my friend told me to.
The tears came back.
Don't go bitter.
I don't know how much you know about hearts but you broke mine.
I felt even more like a criminal now.
I'd not only stolen a smile but I'd broken a heart, and in the process of doing that I'd broken mine.
This is stupid
Dan
It's not stupid.
If anything it's the most logical thing anyone's ever come up with.
I checked my phone, it was 8:47.
Just one small message…
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Dan's POV
What a dumb idea?
Tom in his so called ingeniousness had decided to get us all to write a letter to Zoe.
It's not like she's going to get them.
Even if she did she'd never reply.
I was sitting on my bed, absentmindedly throwing my phone in the air and catching it over and over again when it rang.
I answered, "Hello?"
There was a short pause before the person on the other end faintly said, "I love you too."
Before I could say anything the caller hung up.
It was Zoe, she read the letters, she called, she cared.
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There's the second chapter.
Should I write another chapter?
Let me know.