Chapter 10 - Enter Craig and Marina...
Haylen rushed downstairs to the front door, as the rings of the doorbell echoed through the whole 1st floor of the house. When she reached the door, she stopped to catch her breath, chuckled to herself, then opened it.
On her front step stood two adolescent kids, both a boy and a girl. The boy had short messy red hair, his round chubby face covered in freckles. The girl was tall and unnaturally thin. On her droopy poker-face was around 5 layers of make-up, and her stringy bleached blonde hair didn't help her appearance at all.
"Craig! Marina!!" Haylen greeted cheerfully. "Come on in!" Craig and Marina walked into the foyer, put down their luggage near the stairs, and took off their jackets. Craig smiled as he rushed up and hugged Haylen, as Marina stood by her luggage, an evil snobbish look on her face.
"Oh, Aunt Sue... I missed ya!!" Craig exclaimed. Haylen smiled, then they both let go of eachother. "I missed you too! But, y'know, you guys came here on short notice, huh?" Haylen laughed. Marina
made a clicking noise with her tongue. "Where's our rooms?" she hissed, her arms crossed over her chest, as she chewed her gum loudly.
"Marina... always a pleasure..." Haylen sighed. She moved aside from the stairs, and fixed her hair. "Well, Craig, I guess you can have the 2nd master bedroom with the king size bed, and you... Marina... will get the guest room next to his." she replied.
Craig smiled and nodded, and with his luggage raced up the stairs to unpack. Meanwhile, Marina cooly picked up her luggage. Her evil eye still set on Haylen, she shoved her out of the way even more, and made her way up the stairs.
Haylen rubbed her shoulder, as she watched Marina ascend the stairs. "I knew I always hated her..." she mumbled to herself.
A few hours had passed, and the kids were now settled in. Marina refused to leave her room, as she yakked away with her many friends on the phone. Craig, instead, happily played his Playstation 2 in the livingroom.
Haylen on the other hand, sat in the kitchen, staring at the family photo of Steve. "Aw... how can I keep him in the attic like this?" she thought to herself. She rested her head on the table and sighed. "Ohh... Steve... I'm so inhumane... maybe I'M the monster..."
"Aunt Sue??"
She heard Craig call. Haylen raised her had off the table, and stood up, leaving the photo on the kitchen table. She slumped out into the living room. Craig sat on the couch, his game paused. "What is it?" Haylen asked, smiling.
Craig scratched the back of his neck. "I was wondering... do you still work with B.O.Ws?" he asked. Haylen froze up, but she immediately calmed herself. She remembered that she told Craig about her job, what B.O.Ws were, and all that jazz.
Why wouldn't she? Craig was her favorite nephew... her only nephew... "Y-Yeah, I still work with them, I--" she paused when she began to think of Steve. Maybe she should just let him out of the attic, since Craig already knew about BOWs? No way. Nobody understood Steve like she did.
And even if she DID just let him out, she'd rush the relationship between Steve, Craig AND MArina. Thay might blab about him to thei friends, rumours may spread... It was too risky. Steve would be much better off alone up there.
Craig looked at Haylen oddly. "What? What is it?" he asked. Haylen shook her head. "N-Nothing. But yes, I work with them... why do you ask?" she asked him, as she fixed her pony-tail again. Craig shrugged. "I dunno. I was looking up T-Virus species on the net the other day, and I saw something called a 'Hunter'. It looked like a big frog!" he laughed.
"Yeah... big frog.." Haylen laughed weakly. "Anyways, did you ever work with one of those?" he asked.
Haylen nodded. "Oh, tons of times. They're really dangerous, though. You have to tranquilize them before you do anything to them!! Like bathing them, extracting a virus sample from them, eating pizza with them..." Craig snuffed. "Eating pizza with them?" he asked. Haylen paused again. "Uhh... sorry. I meant, uh... nevermind." Haylen stumbled.
Craig shrugged again, then unpaused and continued to play his game. Haylen scratched the back of her head, as she turned and went back to the kitchen. "Any more slip-ups from me..." she thought "and they'll know more stuff about Steve than I do!"