CHAPTER NINE: RANDALL'S SORROW

I didn't know where I was. I had been driving for an hour now, still following that car. It had disappeared a few minutes ago, and I had kept following its main progress.
Now I pulled into a dead end, ending in a huge factory. The factory had a sliding garage door, and I saw a a glint of blue...
I sped into the parking lot and parked the car in a small clearing in the trees. Getting out, I immediately hid myself and ran up to the factory.
Inside, I saw a huge room, all white with a little white furniture, and in the far corner, a cage. I ran over, unseen, and saw Vanessa.
I ran inside the cage (the door was open) and looked down at my sister for the first time in almost thirteen years. She was very thin, wearing a light blue top, the one she'd been buried in. Her eyes looked tired, she looked so starved. She was talking to Zavier. "Randall was my brother. My parents have been looking for him for years now. He thinks I died. Everyone does. But I'm not. I'm here because my father works here. My mother works nearby in a grocery store." she said in a soft voice that I heard in my dreams every now and then. Behind her, I reappeared. I was crying, remembering that day, twelve years ago.
Flashback... I stood at the front of the crowd in between the staff who's shift it was at the group home. My sister's casket stood on a low table at the front of the morgue with the lid up.
Inside, Vanessa lay still, as though sleeping. She was wearing the light blue top that I'd gotten her that Christmas. Her scales were all milky and she had a huge scar that ran from her chin to her lower stomach.
I am only fifteen, but I'm crying. I know she and I will never share a happy home or live a happy life, because she's dead. Inside, I loathed to think about the life I was to lead. Without my sister, my savior, my best friend, I wanted to die too.
Back to the present... I looked down at Vanessa, kneeling on the floor, and I cried again, just like I had at her funeral. I didn't want to know how she was alive again, or what she was talking about our parents for, all I wanted was to hug her. "Hem hem." I cleared my throat. Vanessa spun, and her eyes widened. "Randall!" she cried. "...Nessa." I choked my throat thick with tears. She jumped up and hugged me. I buried my face in her hair, noticing that she smelled like decay.
"Oh, Randy, mom and dad have been looking for you for so long..." she mumbled. I looked over her shoulder at Zavier, and was surprised to see that she was crying too. Her make-up was smudging and starting to come off, and she slowly lowered her mask.
I let go of Vanessa, and smiled at her. "Randall, oh it's so good to see you again. Mom'll be so happy.." she whispered. I shook my head, wanting to get to the point of all her talk about our parents. They had died when we were only twelve years old. We had gone on living at our place for another four weeks before someone noticed we were alone. Excluding those lived with my parents, those times had been the happiest of my life. "Vanessa, mom and dad are dead, they died a long time ago, don't you remember?" I asked. She looked confused and shook her head. "No. Your confused, Randall. Mom and dad aren't dead, neither was I, we just had to go away for awhile. Now we're back and we've been looking for you for years." she explained. Zavier shook her head and stood up. Without her make-up and mask on, she looked very out of place with just the costume on. "Why did you have to go away?" she asked. Vanessa turned around and faced Zavier. "We were happy to finally go on a vacation. Randall couldn't come because he was sick, but I got to go. We had to come back because there was a power failure up at the cabin by the lake. Someone crashed into a telephone pole." she explained. Zavier gave her a skeptical lok and frowned. She always did that when she was in deep thought.
"Hey! What do you think your doing, Deadbeat? Get outta there!" called a monster with horns, a thick tail and red and orange fur. I hid and Rain obediently sulked out of the cage. Zavier looked at Vanessa with a look of horror and understanding on her face. I crept over to stand beside her and nudged her with an elbow. I wasn't as skittish to touch or be touched by her anymore. "What?" I hissed. "I just remembered! I saw some charts in the trunk of that car! They looked like plans for some sort of gun and I remember.." she trailed off. "Well!" I urged hr impatiently. "Some of the labels had stuff like' needs more crystal', or 'get rid of some attachments'.
"What are you talking about? And what does a gun have to do with bringing the dead back to life?" I hissed. She shrugged. Then she smiled. "Okay, give, what's your plan?" I asked I could tell just by the look on her face that she was thinking about something.
"Just play along, Rand. You'll see." she whispered. And that was it. She frowned a moment, as If trying to remember something, then she started crying. I was a bit taken aback, but figured she was doing this for a reason. She began to add punctuated wails to her tears until the orange horned monster came back, flanked by another monster with tentacles like that guy who used to work at Harryhausen's. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded. "I w-wanna go ho-ome!" Zavier cried, making her voice sound young and girlish. She sounded about eleven and looked it too. The orange man, looking disgusted, shoved a rag at her through the bars and said "here, kid, quit cryin or my boss'll have to come down here." "B-but why am I here?" Zavier whined. She took the rag and wiped her wet face. The tentacled monster rolled his eyes.
"We thought it'd be obvious. We want that lizard, Randall. We know you hang out with him a lot and we think he'll come here trying to rescue you." he explained. Deep down, I was mad. Mad for keeping my sister here and ordering her around like a maid. Mad for being called lizard, no matter how much I may look like one. Mad for being taken advantage of. "Stop the pity act. I'll handle this." I whispered as softly as I could. Zavier quieted down. Making no noise, I slithered out between the bars and grabbed a shovel out of the corner.