Chapter 3
I woke up the following morning with a harsh pounding on my head, my vision blurring around the edges. I sat up and placed a hand on my forehead, which was boiling hot.
"Iris Delilah Keyr." My mothers voice was heard, yelling my name up the stairs. I groaned in response.
"What do you want mom?" I called back, my voice weak. I struggled to get up out of bed and was trying to stable myself and keep my balance when my mother's head poked through the door.
"You have to get ready for school, it isn't the weekend yet. I've been calling out to you for the past - " She stopped, gazing at my face quizzically, which was contorted in pain as I grabbed my stomach, moaning quietly. She tucked a piece of her brown hair - almost the exact shade as mine - behind her ear and gazed at me, a worried expression flitting on her face, "Are you okay Iris?"
"Yeah... I'm fine." I tried to shrug, but the movement proved too painfull and I gasped, biting onto my lip and feeling my teeth dent into the soft skin. My mom guided me to my bed, pulling the striped comforter off the floor and put it over top of me, brushing my hair back from my face like she had done whenever I was a little girl.
There was the sound of a door being opened, and the slam that followed was loud, echoeing throughout the hallway. I stiffened, now, who could that be? It was only me and my mom that lived at home.
"Tanya." A man's voice was heard a couple seconds after the door slammed. My mother froze, her eyes widening in fear. We both recognized the voice as soon as he spoke.
"Iris, I want you to stay here, okay? Don't let him know your home." Tanya whispered, her voice shaking slightly. I nodded mutely, aware of the situation.
"Tanya?" His voice was heard again, and I flinched at how close he was to my room. My mother stood, bracing herself and walking out my room door, going to straight to the man who had messed up our lives.
"Hello Richard. What are you doing here?" Her voice was cold, and I could picture her staring hatefully at the man whom she had loved, had married. But sometimes, love wasn't enough, it could drive you to insane things, and that was the route that my father had taken.
"Tanya," He repeated her name for the third time, "I need to talk to Iris." I felt my blood run cold as his heavy footsteps beat across the hardwood flooring, my heart thrumming.
"You have three seconds to get out of my house and away from my daughter before I call the police." Tanya's voice shook as the footsteps stopped.
"She's my daughter aswell." Richard murmured.
"Then act like it. You haven't been around for what, the last 7 years of her life? She doesn't want to see you." I felt the tears sting my eyes as I waited for my father's reaction to my mother's bravery. He hadn't been afraid to hit her before, and he wasn't now.
The sound of the his hand connecting with the side of her face was more than i could bear. I slipped out of bed unsteadily and limped to my door, turning the gold handle and opening it to see my mother clutching her cheek, the sound of her sobs burning into my memory.
"What are you doing here?" I gazed up at him, too exhausted to speak above a whisper. Despite how quietly I spoke, he heard me, spinning around to see me clutching onto the side of my door in a feeble attempt to stand. His eyes widened when he saw me.
"Iris..." He whispered, stepping forward and reaching out towards me. I shrank back.
"Get the hell out. Now." I hissed, trying to make my voice sound at least a little bit threatning, ignoring how my knees wobbled and sweat beaded on the nape of my neck.
"Iris, you're sick. What happened?" I ignored the concern in his voice; if he really cared about my health, he wouldn't have done everything he did.
"I said get out." I shrieked, pushing him away from me when he came to close. He caught my wrists, holding onto them with an iron grip and glaring down at me.
"You dare try and hit me?" He shouted, shaking my arms as if I was a toy. He turned my wrists around, then stopped as he saw my tattoo. He froze, his eyes widening and his mouth parting in a shocked expression, "Oh Iris no." He murmured, letting go of my wrists. I yanked them back, drawing my arms to my chest so he couldn't see the tattoo.
All of a sudden, there was the sound of a siren outside of the house, the blue and red flashing lights tinting the curtains of the windows. He cursed under his breath, then bolted for the door, it's frame swinging into place with a loud slam.
"Good ridance..." I muttered, watching him race across the road without any regret.
"So, are you okay?" Zak asked, frowning. I shrugged. It was a couple days after the encounter with my father, and I had just finished telling Zak and Chandra everything that had happened. Chandra picked up her cup of coffee, then stopped and put it back down without taking a sip.
"You can come stay at my house for the weekend... I mean, if you're worried." Chandra offered, her big brown eyes wide.
"No, it's not that i'm worried. It was just a shock, you know? I mean, I hadn't seen the man in 7 years, after he hit my mom, and even me. I don't regret him leaving, at all. Then he just shows up one day, acting as if he had every right to come into our house? It's agrivating." I bit my lip in order for me to stop ranting. I put my head in my hands and groaned.
"Hey, Iris. Do you know him?" Zak muttured. I lifted up my head, confused, and saw Zak nodding descretely to a guy, who looked at least a year or two older than I was.
"He looks familiar... why?" I turned my head, dragging my eyes away from the strange boy and gazed at Zak.
"He keeps staring at you." My eyebrows rose up and I felt heat flood to my cheeks.
"He's hot." Chandra stated, looking back at him, "What? I'm just stating a fact." She scoffed, me and Zak rolling our eyes. I glanced back at him.
I guess Chandra could be right. I mean, he was deffinatley attractive, with blond hair that looked almost white in the lighting of the small cafe. His hair was straight, brushing over his eyes, which were light green and framed with long lashes. He wore a tight black long sleeved shirt, showing the muscle underneath. I looked back up to his eyes and saw he was staring at me. I blushed and looked away
Why does he look so familiar? I thought to myself, thinking back. Suddenly I remembered. That night walking home from work, when I got attacked... he had shown up, hadn't he?
I bit my lip, thinking about the way they had spoken to eachother. They had deffinatley been familiar with eachother... maybe they were a part of a cult? I gulped, stiffling the thought. Somethings were better left unknown.
I was walking around outside, which probobly wasn't a very good idea considering what happened last time, when I turned the corner and saw the guy from the cafe in a store reflection. I whirled around to confront him and looked around confused. He wasn't there. I suppressed a shutter and turned around, running face-first into somebody's chest.
"Cold?" I looked up to see the guy from the cafe staring down at me, hardly suppressed amusement written all over his face as he grabbed my arm, stopping me from falling backwards. I jerked back as if electricuted. He let go of my arm.
"You're the one from before, in the alley." I stated, my eyes narrowing at him. He laughed.
"Are you attempting to look angry? Because truthfully you're too short to pull that off." He grinned down at me.
"Really? Well that's ressuring, coming from the walking skylight." I folded my arms across my chest, looking up at him in fury.
"Wow, I thought I'd get a little more gratitude after what happened with Aloura. I saved you're life."
"What do you want? Brownie points? A pat on the back?"
"Well a thank you would be nice." I rolled my eyes and spun on my heels, walking away from him without answering.
"Jerk." I muttured, walking up the front door of my house and shutting it, locking it after thinking of my father and how he casually strolled into the house before, "Mom, i'm home!" I called out, walking upstairs and entering my room, throwing myself onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, but when I did, I knew I would have the dream again.
As my eyes closed, I dimly saw the wing tattoo on my wrist take on a faint glow, but I disregarded it and fell asleep, exhaustion taking over me.
