Disclaimer: As I've said time and time again, I don't own Neopets.
Author's Note: Decided to keep Kate's POV (I was planning to change to Skip's) and I decided that I shouldn't let my habit of not finishing things I start to take over this fic.
Chapter 12
Questions, Questions
Evidently Kaymara answered all three of my questions. As soon as Skip took off Kaymara came half way up the stairs to avoid the faint trickle of light coming through the door. So question 1, the answer is I didn't have to go down, she came up. Question 2, yes Kaymara did go out last night but not before telling me that if she ever found out who had been up here while we argued in the basement, she would make sure they died a slow and painful death. Not to mention she said if I was so curious why didn't I spend today watching her in such away I had no choice. So in answer to question 3, no, I won't be seeing Skip today. In fact I can't see a foot in front of me. Suppose that's my fault though.
Kaymara yawned somewhere forward and to the right of me. Apparently she'd set up a makeshift bed next to the stairs. Even with my eyes adjusted to the dark I found that my sister's movements and sounds told me more about the basement's current condition than my eyes could. Of course any illuminating spells Rin and Moro taught me were out of the question. Kaymara would freak. Sure, I could be having more fun than this but so what, I mean I'm back at square one. I've been here before. So I slipped up, better to be bored than put someone in danger.
Unfortunately, those old questions started slipping back into my head. Why was I here? Shouldn't I be at the end of the tunnel, not at the start? Why did I turn back? I ask too many questions. "I was rejected, that's why I'm still here." I told myself trying to give an answer I would believe. It didn't work and more questions came. If when I came back I was yellow and orange, how come Kaymara was turned black and still lived? Is it just because I died, or did the flames even touch me? If I wasn't burned to death like I thought I was, how did I die?
I looked over at my sister's sleeping form. I didn't think she would help answer any question about my death but there was a question she could help answer. Where the heck did she go and what did she do every night? To pass time, I mentally made a list of unlikely reasons Kaymara left every night:
1. She's seeing someone
2. She's out on midnight shopping sprees
3. She's—
My mind went blank. I knew so little about my sister when we were both alive, now I no close to nothing about her now. I tried mentally composing a list of likely reasons Kaymara was out every night:
1. She's stealing valuables and food from late shoppers
2. She's looking to replace something lost in the fire
3. She's out venting her anger on the innocent
"What anger? You need to get angry for a reason." I told myself. Kaymara used to think losing her temper as a sign of weakness, but after a few words yesterday she was agitated enough to want to kill me (again). Kaymara was also never one to hold a grudge. Yesterday she told me that we're no longer on speaking terms. So what changed her? I'm pretty sure near death experiences usually make people quiet and withdrawn; not make them have killing urges. I tried to remember what Kaymara was like, right after I came back. Maybe she was possessed or something like that.
"Now you're just getting silly." I told myself. My memory was missing bits and pieces. I remember snippets of my 3-5 years, I clearly remember my 6-14 and then there's just blank and then I remember sitting in the wreck of a living room upstairs for three years, a ghost. Then there's the time I've spent with Skip. Sadly I don't remember about a week before and after the fire. I recall walking the tunnel and turning around and I recall the shear heat of the flames but that's it. Maybe while I tried to weasel the reason she left at night out of her I could try and ask Kaymara if she knew if I was burned alive or otherwise.