Descendants Of Light And Dark: Normality
by Zallian
Aya lay in her king Sized bed for a moments still contemplating the events of her dream with her waist length dirty blonde hair laying about her pillow full of cold sweat, making it look stringy and unwashed. Early morning light began to spill through the lace - curtained bedroom windows illuminating the room with a pale blue aura and a digital alarm clock atop an oak night stand to the right side of the bed changed 5:53.
A soft thud just outside Aya's bedroom door jolted her back to reality. Curious, Aya shot up, threw off her silk comforter, turned off her alarm clock, (since she was already awake) and went to investigate the noise. She pulled the bedroom door open slightly and peered through the crack. Everything seemed normal for a darkened upstairs hallway of a suburban home at six a.m. except for the sounds of someone moving something heavy on the steps below the polished cedar banister and the light that was on at the right end of the hallway in Aya's parents bedroom. Aya cracked her door a little more to get a better look. She was so distracted by the shadows moving about in her parent's room that she didn't notice the dark figure moving up the stairs and down the hall toward her until it stopped right infront of her.
"What are you doing?" called a man's voice from the darkened hallway. Aya let out a short high pitched scream and covered her ears while taking a few steps back.
"It's okay, it's okay," said the voice as a shadowy hand reached inside of Aya's bedroom and flipped on the lightswitch. "What's gotten into you?"
"Oh, dad, it's you," said Aya breathlessly.
"What's all that racket, you two!?" called a woman's voice from the bedroom down the hall.
"Nothing, honey," Aya's father answered with a laugh. "I just scared the crap out of our daughter, that's all. So what's wrong, kiddo," he said leaning in the doorway of Aya's room.
"Nothing." said Aya catching her breath and lowering her hands, "I must've just forgotten that you guys were leaving today, that's all."
"Oh, well okay. Are you sure you're alright then?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"Well, in that case, I'll leave you to get ready for school," said Aya's father pushing his weight back onto both of his feet. "Meet us downstairs when you're done though. I know you know the drill, but there's still a few things we want to go over with you before we leave."
"Okay dad," said Aya, and she closed the door as her father went to help his wife finish packing.
Aya's parent's (well adoptive parents) were archaeologists as one might guess from all of the glass shelves and cases that lined most of the walls of their home each containing fossils, bones, ancient forms of money, pottery, scrolls and the like. They spent a lot of time away, over seas at dig sites and conferences, but they always made sure to spend quality family time with Aya when they were home and called her often when they were away. To tell the truth, even if Aya never met her real parents, that would suit her just fine as she always imagined them to be like the family she had now.
Aya made her way over to her dresser and looked at herself in the mirror and a pair of blooshot blue-green eyes stared back at her.
"Get a grip, Aya," she said with a sigh and shook her head as she began to search her dresser drawers for her outfit for the day.
A shrill high pitched alarm broke the early morning silence of the small trailer park home. It rang for five minutes before a sleepy black nail polished hand finally reached up beside it to turn it off, but ended up knocking it to the floor instead. "Shit!" the groggy teenager cursed as she sat up and leaned over to pick up the alarm clock. She shut it off and placed it back on her night stand and fumbled around for the switch for her bedside lamp. She turned it on and flopped back down onto her pillow and raised her hand to her forehead to wipe away some of the sweat. "That dream again," she mumbled to herself.
Like Aya, Leena had been having these strange and vivid nightmares. The only difference was that Leena had had them ever since she could remember (which oddly enough, was only about three years back), while Aya had only been having them recently. She let out a sigh and sat up, threw her covers off of her, swung her feet around, got up and made her way across the acid green carpeted room trying not to trip over the various articles of clothing and debris strewn across the floor. She picked up a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her computer desk, got out a cigarette, put it to her lips and lit it. Leena then picked up a pair of baggy, red trimmed bondage pants from the floor and pulled them up to her waist. She then grabbed a black girls tee featuring Slipknot from the chair by her computer desk and pulled it over her shoulders. She pulled her wavy dark brown hair back into a sort of half ponytail leaving the bottom layer and her dyed black bangs down, and then proceeded to do her make-up. She outlined her almost black eyes with eyeliner and black eyeshadow and blotted the black lipstick on her lips until they were a sort of pinkish grey.
Once finished, Leena grabbed up her school bag, shut off her bedroom light and set out into the kitchen where her father lay passed out on the kitchen table, a bottle of rum in one hand and a cigarette with a long stem of ash in the other.
It had been three years since Leena came to stay with this family and things had gone no where but down hill since she arrived. Her mother died of sickness after the first year, and six months later, her father was discharged from the military due to injury. He became consumed with grief over this paired with the death of his wife and eventually, he turned to alcoholism and using Leena for a scapegoat. When he drank, he became violent and though he had yet to hit her, (an event that she wasn't going to just sit around and wait for as she spent as much time as she could at Aya's) he often verbally assaulted Leena or destroyed her things.
Leena set her school bag down in a chair next to her drunken father and walked past him to make herself some toast to take with her. She made her breakfast and returned for her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and was about to make for the door when her father's hand shot out and grabbed her roughly around the arm, pulling her back. "Where the hell do ya think you're goin'!" he said in a slur, breath reaking.
"I'm going to school, asshole!" Leena shouted as she yanked her arm out of his grip and walked away.
"Hey! If you walk out that door, don't bother coming back!"
"Fine, I won't!" Leena called back before slamming the door behind her.
Aya cursed to herself as she drove along. Her parents always went over with her phone numbers and what hotels they would be staying in whenever they went on a trip, but this morning, she really needed to be out in a hurry. She was supposed to pick Leena up on her way to school, and now she was running really behind. She turned right into the trailer park district and spotted Leena soon after on the left sitting on her school bag at the end of her lawn. Upon her ride's arrival, Leena stood up and went over to the passenger's side door, opened it, and shoved the last bite of her toast in her mouth as she climbed in. "Hey Leena."
"Hey," said Leena after swallowing. "You realize we're going to be late again, right? Harman's going to have our asses."
"Yeah, I know," said Aya. "I couldn't help it. You know how my parents get before they leave."
"At least your folks care about you..." Leena said under her breath, slouching and staring out the window.
Aya glanced over at her friend, and she noticed a few small bruises forming on her lower arm in the shape of finger marks. "So he was drinking again, was he?" she finally asked, her eyes returning to the road.
"Yeah," the other girl replied, her voice even softer than before. "It keeps getting worse and worse. I'm sorry, Aya, but if he ever hits me, you'll probably never see me again. They'll lock me up for what I'd do to him."
"Do you want to stay at my place for a few days then?"
"If you don't mind."
The girls pulled into the parking lot, late as they had predicted. They gathered their things, slammed their doors shut and raced into the school building and were half way to their classes when all of a sudden..."Freeze, ladies." Aya and Leena stopped dead in their tracks and turned around to see a middle aged woman wearing a dull pink dress suit with straight shoulder length light brown hair, her arms crossed and a glare in her eyes behind a tiny pair of rectangle spectacles. "Hi, Mrs. Harman," said Aya, slowly waving her hand and forcing a smile. Mrs. Harman only scowled more at this. "My office. Now."
Aya and Leena sat in the priciple's office with their eyes glued to the floor as they listened to Mrs. Harman drone on about the repercussions of tardiness. They'd heard this lecture a million times, but she just never seemed to change her tune.
"I would have expelled you two a long time ago if it weren't for your grades. I'd get your parents in here for a conference, but yours are always away on vacation it seems, and you, your father never returns my phone calls," she said motioning toward Leena.
"I don't suppose that there's any way we could avoid going to detention, is there?"
Mrs. Harman gave Aya a dirty look, but then her face softened as a thought crossed her mind. "Actually, there is something you two could do for me." Aya and Leena exchanged puzzled looks as she continued. "There are two foreign exchange students starting school today, and I believe that the two of you share your second period classes with them. What I want you to do is introduce yourselves, and perhaps show them around campus a little, you know, help them to get a feel for things around here. It'll save me a full hour out of the day."
No sooner did she finish, the bell rang announcing the end of first period.
"Looks like you two had better get going," said Mrs. Harman. At this the two girls promptly rose from their seats, picked up their belongings and made for the door. "And no more tardiness!"
To Be Continued...
A/N: Anubis and Dais make their appearance in the next chapter, I promise.
