Raven stared at her sister from the floor, where she was sitting. She was still sleeping. Raven was leaned against the wall and sighed as her stomache growled. She was afraid to walk out of the room.
The curtains were shut tight and the lights were off. The morning light still seeped through the curtains slightly and Raven sat as far away from it as she could. The light was painful to her eyes. The light burned her sensitive skin. The light was her enemy. That was the way she saw it. She was raised in the dark and that's where she should stay, in the dark. But the masters of this house would most likely not listen to her if she tried to explain that.
The masters. That's how she had begun to refer to the two boys she had met. She couldn't call them her owners. No, that title was already taken, so she decided on masters. It stated that they had control over her, but they didn't own her, at least, not yet.
Raven wasn't sure how the world worked. Could they somehow buy her from her owners? What were they planning to do with her anyway? Before her owners had thrown her into the basement thay had been cunducting experiments on her. Would those experiments continue?
Raven jumped slightly when she heard a knock on the door. Her eyes narrowed, but she slowly stood up and walked to the door. She opened it and slipped out, closing it behind her. She didn't want the masters to see her sister. Not until she was sure what was going to happen to them.
"Raven," Tala said. "You need to get something to eat."
"I am not hungry sir," Raven said, resisting the urge to sheild her eyes from the light.
"You still need to eat," Tala said. Raven nodded. It was best to do as they said until she figured out if they would stand for rebellious behavior.
"Yes sir," Raven said.
"Stop calling me sir," Tala said as he led her into the kitchen. "That's what I call my dad."
Raven bit her lip and nodded, though she figured that was stupid. He couldn't see her anyway.
Raven looked around the kitchen and frowned. She wasn't sure how to cook or what to cook. She didn't even know how to turn on the stove. She frowned and looked at Tala helplessly. He sighed.
"You just want cereal?" He asked.
"Cereal?" She repeated blankly. She had never heard of cereal before.
"Haven't you ever had cereal?" Tala asked her. She shook her head. "Okay. Well we have Co co puffs, fruit loops, fruity pebbles... Damn. What the hell has Kai been eating?"
"Excuse me?" Raven said politely, not knowing how to respond to the question.
"Ummm..." Tala said. "Right. Just say a number one through three."
"Two," Raven said, not understanding the importance of a number when they were talking about cereal.
"Okay," Tala said, grabbing a box and a bowl. "Fruit loops it is."
He poured her a bowl of cereal and she stared at it. Why was the water white?
"Sir," Raven said, biting her lip as soon as she said it. "What is this white liquid?"
"It's milk," Tala said. "You've never had milk either? What did you live off of?"
"Bread, fruit, water and once a week w- I mean, I got tomato soup," Raven said instantly. She had known what she got to eat every day of the week since she was five.
"Wow," Tala said.
Raven tilted her head down so that her bangs covered her eyes. She couldn't take it anymore. The light was driving her crazy!
"May I eat in my room sir?" Raven said.
"Sure," Tala shrugged as she picked up her bowl and started walking away. "And stop calling me sir."
When Raven entered her room, Rayane was sitting up, tears falling silently down her face. Raven put the bowl on the table and threw her arms around her little sister. She was still burning up. Raven didn't know much about sickness, but she was positive that if Rayane didn't get better soon something very bad would happen.
"Shhh..." Raven whispered. "Shhh... what's wrong? You don't have to cry."
"I-I-I had the dream again R-Rave," Rayane whispered.
Raven pulled her sister closer to her and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. She knew the dream Rayane had was scary. It had to have been to make her cry like that, for Rayane rarely cried, even when their owners had put her in the room. Rayane had never told Raven what the dream was, and Raven was sure she didn't want to know.
"It's okay," Raven whispered as her sister started to calm down. "It's okay. You don't have to cry. It's just a dream remember? Dreams can't hurt you."
"Yes they can," Rayane whispered darkly. "Yes they can."
"Shh..." Raven said. "You should eat."
She handed her sister the bowl of cereal, which earned her a look of confusion from Rayane. Raven was sure she was thinking about what had been done to the liquid to make it white and why there were colorful circles floating in it.
"What is this?' Rayane asked quietly.
"It's called 'cereal'," Raven said.
"Am I supposed to... eat it?"
"I would think so, yes," Raven said. "The white liquid is called 'milk' and the circles are called 'fruit loops.'"
"What a funny thing to call something," Rayane commented, slowly picking up her spoon. "You're sure you eat this?"
"Yes," Raven said. "It's good. Eat."
Rayane slowly took a bite, trusting her sister, and her eyes widened.
"This is amazing," She said, taking another bite.
In two minutes (Raven timed it) the cereal was gone and Rayane was falling asleep again. Raven smiled at her and wondered why she liked the cereal so much before walking out of her room, closing the door behind her. Her stomache growled, but she ignored it. She returned to the kitchen and put the bowl in the sink. She had read in a book that was what you were supposed to do with bowls and plates and sppons.
"You're done?" Tala asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Yes sir," Raven said instantly.
"Well, I just called some friends and they're coming over and taking you to the mall to go shopping," Tala said. Raven stared at him.
"The mall?" She asked.
"Yeah," Tala said. "It's this big place where you buy stuff. My personal favorite place is the arcade, but you don't know anything about video games do you?"
"No sir," Raven said. "What friends-"
She was cut off by the doorbell. Tala smiled and walked out of the room. Raven heard a door open and looked at the floor so that her bangs covered her eyes. The sun felt like fire on her skin and even looking at the tiled floor made her head want to burst from pain. Raven heard someone enter the room and forced herself to look up.
Tala was there, accompanied by three girls. One had oddly colored pink hair pulled back in a pony tail and yellow cat like eyes. She was dressed head to toe in pink as well. Pink shirt, pink pants, even a pink ribbon that tied her hair back and looked like cat ears. Another had brown hair that came down to her shoulders and brownish red eyes. She was wearing a short white skirt and a pink shirt. The last girl had light blue hair and dark blue eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and white shirt that said in big bold letters 'You can have him.'
"Hi," The pink haired girl said hyperly.
"Raven this is Mariah," Tala gestured to the pink haired girl. "Hilary," The brunett. "And Skye," The bluenett. "Girls, this is Raven."
"So before we go to the mall you should probably change," Skye said, eyeing the girls ripped and dirty clothes.
Raven nodded and took the clothes she handed to her. She walked to her room and quickly changed. She was wearing a baggy black long sleeved shirt and blue jeans that were supposed to be tight, but on her small body would fall down unless he held them up. She walked out of her room, into the kitchen and saw that they weren't there. She walked into the living room and found them sitting on the couch.
The three girls burst out laughing when they saw her and Tala smirked. She was holding the pants up with her hand and the shirt was three sizes to big. Raven felt nothing but confusion as the girls laughed.
"Maybe I should get you a belt," Tala smirked as he stood up. He walked out of the room and Raven was left with the three girls.
"Oh my gawd," Mariah said. "You're, lyke, sooooo skinny. How much do you weigh?"
"Weigh?" Raven asked, once again unsure of how to answer a question. "I don't know."
"What's your secret?" Mariah asked. "Are you lyke, anorexic?"
"No," Raven said. "I'm just... like this I suppose."
She wasn't sure what the masters had told these girls and didn't want to make them mad by telling them something they weren't supposed to know. She didn't like the pink girl, Mariah, he had said her name was, very much and didn't want her to know anything about her anyway.
"Wow," Hilary said. "You must have an excelent metabolism."
"I suppose so," Raven said uncomfortably.
Tala walked into the room before they could question her further and handed her a hat and a belt. Both were black. Raven looked at the hat while frowning, but put it on anyway. She put on the belt, which wrapped twice around her skinny waist and the three girls were dragging her outside, into the sun. Into the pain.
The sun burnt her eyes even though she was wearing a hat and she closed them, forcing herself to trust the girls that were dragging her to who knows where. But before she knew what was happening she was sitting down, and the chair was vibrating. She opened her eyes and stared. 'This must be a bus,' She thought to herself. 'I've read about these. They don't seem too dangerous.'
"So..." Mariah said. "You're Tala's cousin? He said you're staying at Kai's 'cuz you don't like him very much. Or are you staying at Kai's for another reason?"
"What other reason would that be?" Raven asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She knew she should just go along with what the masters had said, but this girl was strange and she wanted to know what she was talking about.
"C'mon," Mariah said, rolling her eyes. "Everyone has a crush on Kai. Just admit it. We won't tell him."
A crush. She had read about that somewhere too. It was an attraction to someone. Was this girl saying that she was attracted to one of the masters?
"I don't have a crush on anyone," Raven said. "Kai was nice enough to let me stay at his house because I don't like my cousin."
That should work. She had assured the girls that she wasn't attracted to one of her masters and had agreed with her masters all in two sentances. That should take care of it.
"Suuuure you aren't," Skye said, rolling her eyes. Raven frowned. The girls didn't sound convinced at all.
When the bus stopped, the girls dragged Raven out and she closed her eyes to sheild them against the sun. When she opened them again her jaw dropped, but she quickly hid her surprise. She had never seen so many people. And they were all laughing and seemed happy. And the place itself was huge! There were rooms with bright, lighted signs above them everywhere you looked. Raven wondered why she had never read about this place and whether or not this was what master Tala had been talking about when he said 'the mall.'
"Let's go to Claire's first," Hilary said.
And thus started a long and painful trip for Raven. The noise gave her a headache, the stores themselves were too bright which made her headache worse, the girls didn't seemed satisfied with the clothes because they were all too big, though according to Raven, they were all too small. She still needed a belt, but the pants the girls seemed to want her to get would suffocate her.
When they seemed satisfied with the twenty bags of clothes they had gotten Raven (and had maxed out Tala's credit card), they left the mall and headed back to Kai's house. Raven was relieved to enter the house and immediatly wne to her room and didn't come out until an hour later when someone knocked on her door.
Raven opened the door and slipped out, as she had done before. The three girls were standing there, looking as though they would rather be somewhere else. Raven agreed with how they looked. She would rather have them be somewhere else too.
"Hey Raven," Hilary said, putting on a disgustingly sweet smile. "There's this party tomorrow and we were wondering if you wanted to go."
"It should be fun," Skye said.
"Thanks for inviting me, but I'd rather not go," Raven said.
"Well if you don't want to," Mariah said smiling and beginning to walk away. "We don't want to make you."
Raven slipped back into her room as the girls walked away. She returned to her sisters side and felt her forehead. Her fever had gone down, but not by much. But it was going down, and that was something.
Raven sighed and walked into the corner that seemed darker than the others. She sat down and leaned back against the wall. She glared at the small sliver of light that seeped through the crack in the corner before she looked at her sister. She looked so peacful. How could she be sick and still look like that?
She closed her eyes and pulled her knees into her chest. She rested her hands on her knees. Only a few more hours before the bright ball of fire known as the sun disappeared and the soft, glowing orb replaced it in the sky. Raven liked the moon better than the sun, though she had only seen it once. It didn't burn her skin or hurt her eyes. And it didn't make her feel like she was going to faint. It made her feel calm. Peacful. Something she hadn't felt in a very long time.
Mariah sighed as she and her two friends walked away from Raven's door. She didn't like the girl very much. She was too strange to hang out with her. She didn't speak unless spoken to, and even then her answers were vauge. Her skin was too white, like she hadn't seen the sun in years. Her eyes were pretty and big and she was skinny, but she had curves where she was supposed to. Mariah was jelous of her for that.
"What do you think?" Skye asked as they walked out of the mansion after saying goodbye to Tala.
"I think Kai needs to stop going out for all day training," Mariah complained. It wasn't a secret she liked Kai.
"I meant about the new girl," Skye snapped, knowing better than to call the girl by her name. It was a rule for new people they met. They called them 'new boy' or 'new girl' behind their back until they had decided weather or not they liked them.
"She's too weird," Mariah said.
"She's so pretty though," Hilary said. "That makes up for it. Should we let her in the group?"
"No way!" Mariah said. "She's too quiet and has no fashion sense at all!"
"You're just afraid she's gonna steal Hiwatari from you," Skye smirked.
"I am not," Mariah snapped at her friend. They were walking to her house, which was done the street from Tala and Kai's.
"Are too," Skye teased. "They would make a cute couple wouldn't they Hil?"
"Uhhhh," Hilary said, looking between her two best friends. Mariah was looking murderous and Skye was looking like she was enjoying seing Mariah look so angry. "Hey look! Isn't that Ozuma?"
Skye ducked behind Mariah at the sound of Ozuma's name and Mariah's glare turned into a smirk. It wasn't a secret that Ozuma liked Skye. He had been hitting on her since last year. But Skye wasn't interested in him, she liked Tala, who happened to be one of his best friends.
"Don't let him see me," Skye whispered to Mariah. She had been going with her 'avoid and evade' stratefy for the past two weeks. "Or I'll- I'll-"
"You'll what?" Mariah said. "Cry and tell your mommy?"
"I'll hook up Hiwatari and the new girl," Skye threatened.
"You wouldn't," Mariah challenged.
"Hey," Ozuma said.
"Hi Ozuma," The three girls chorused. Skye glared at Mariah. Mariah glared back. Hilary sweatdropped.
"What's with them?" Ozuma asked Hilary.
"They're just being stupid," Hilary said, tempted to add an 'again' to her sentance.
"I've gotta go," Skye said suddenly, and walked past Ozuma. She turned aorund and slapped him. Ozuma had a smirk on his face, despite the hand mark that was pulsating on his left cheek.
"Pervert," Skye hissed and walked away. "I'll get you Mariah!" She called over her shoulder. And she had every intention of doing so.
Kai sighed as he walked into his house. It was dark outside and he had just gotten back from his all-day training. The lights were all on and Kai remembered that Tala had a key. Then he remembered that Raven was there too. He walked into the kitchen and saw one of the maids in there.
"What are you doing?" Kai demanded.
"Making miss Raven some soup," The maid replied. "She's such a sweatheart. She hasn't asked for anything while she's been here and she refuses to come out of her room to eat anything."
"Why?"
"She won't say. Whenever I knock on her door or try to open it it's locked and she won't answer," the maid said. Kai couldn't remember her name.
"I'll take it to her. I need to talk to her anyway," Kai said, grabbing the tray from the maid.
He walked to Raven's room and kicked the door because his hands were occupied with the tray.
"Raven," Kai called through the door. "Open the door."
The door slowly opened and Raven slipped out, dressed in new clothes. She quickly closed the door behind her. making sure that Kai couldn't get a glance at what was inside.
"Here," He gave her the tray. "And I need to ask you more questions."
"Yes sir," Raven said.
"Do you want me to call the cops?"
"No sir."
"How old are you?"
"15," Raven replied. Kai rose his eye brows, but didn't say what he was thinking.
"Your parents put you down there when you were 4?" He asked.
"Yes sir," Raven looked down, the light was giving her a headache again.
"Why?"
"Something went wrong," Raven said.
"With what?"
"My owners were experimenting and something went wrong," Raven muttered, memorizing the pattern of the hallway carpet.
"Your parents were experimenting on you?" Kai asked. He let his surprise show for half a second before returning his mask to it's rightful place.
"Yes sir," Raven said.
"What kind of experiments?"
"They... put me in a glass container," Raven said, trying to remember. "It was filled with green stuff. Sometimes they would inject me with something and put me in a room afterwards. They said that it was to test my immune system. Other times they would cut me or make me fight something to see if the experiment had worked."
"Why?"
"A man with purple hair used to come and see their progress. I think he was their boss," Raven said, unable to stop herself from talking. She was seeing images in her head.
There was a man with purple hair in a lab coat. She was strapped to a table and he was looking at a machine all the wires connected to he went to. He was frowning and then turned to her. He began taunting her and she could feel the anger bubbling within her. She had her eyes shut tight, but then he said something and her eyes snapped open and the machine suddenly blew up. She saw him walk quickly out of the room, and then her owners entered. They were saying something as they led her down into the basement. They closed the door and she heard a click. All she could see after that was darkness.
"He strapped me to a table to restrain me because I fought against him a lot and then he said something and the machine blew up," Raven said as the images kept coming. "He left the room and my owners came in a put me in the basement. I don't know why, sir."
Kai frowned and began walking to his room. He was about to turn a corner before he relized what she had called him. He turned around to see her entering her room.
"Raven," He said. She looked at him. "Stop calling me sir."
She bit her lip and nodded, then entered her room and closed the door.