Chapter Two
After a homemade family breakfast with his parents and baby sister, who had apparently lost her first baby tooth that morning, Cain found himself lugging box after box of his things up the staircase to his bedroom where he began unpacking while listening to his CDs that he had refused to give up looking for until he found them the previous week.
Cain's father, Mitchell Tenebris who was an incredible surgeon, had been transferred from the hospital in Ohio, which he'd worked at for ten years, to an important branch of the same hospital in Essex. The transfer had forced Mitchell to uproot his family and haul them to England. Up until then, they had lived in Mitchell's hometown of Aurora, Ohio; not too far from the east coast of America.
Mitchell was a tall thin man with close cropped dark brown hair and brown eyes. He's a friendly man who would gladly do anything to make someone else's life just a smidgen easier. He met his wife Louise while they were still in high school and married her directly after their graduation. That was nearly thirteen years ago.
Louise Tenebris was of average height with mousey brown hair and green eyes that had always, at least as far back as Cain could remember, held nothing but warmth and love for anyone she'd cared for. She was the sort of woman who could get anything she wanted just by using her looks, but never took advantage of it. Her mindset wouldn't allow her to indulge in such a thing.
Cain was born a short after their marriage and Anna six years after that. Cain had always loved and cared for his little sister. Any time she ever felt threatened by anything, she always knew that her big brother would be there to guide her along. As a fiercely protective older brother, Cain would always immediately resented anyone and anything that may pose a threat to his anyone, especially Anna, in his circle of loved ones. Louise and Mitchell had never once raised a hand to their children; time-outs and a good talking to had always been good enough to settle the young boy and girl down.
Currently, as Cain sat in his bedroom by himself, he couldn't help but let his mind wander back to the owl and the letter that was currently hidden in his desk drawer underneath a stack of folders. He wondered if the animal would come back with a response from the sender or perhaps even a dead rodent. He wouldn't mind. Just as long as he knew that it had been real.
He unpacked several boxes of his books, school supplies, and clothes, all the while feeling like he'd had a cruel joke played on him. He wondered what the person who had written that bogus letter was doing just then. Were they howling with laughter at how excited he'd almost gotten? Or was there someone actually waiting on him to inform them that he would in fact be ready to attend their school by September 1?
Before he knew it, Cain saw that it was nearly six o'clock in the evening. He'd just realised that he was absolutely parched as well. He figured that he would run downstairs to fetch himself a bottle of water and come back up to try and empty a few more boxes before midnight.
Cain was a little upset as he remembered that not even his mother had wished him a happy birthday that morning at breakfast, but he didn't want to bring it up to them. He felt that that would make him seem needy and as though he were begging for their attention. He decided that he would just continue on with his day and if someone gave him a "happy birthday," then he would gladly take it with gratitude, and if not, well then he would just have to deal with his newfound bitterness alone.
In the kitchen, Cain saw a light coming from the living room and went to see who might be downstairs as well since he'd been cooped up in his bedroom for most of the day. Headed toward the doorway, he heard some shh-ing that sounded like it came from his father.
"Surprise!" came the shout of the three most important people to Cain upon his entrance. Cain gasped in shock and stumbled back, tripping over a garbage bag full of clothing and landing flat on his rump with a huff.
"Happy birthday, bubby!" Anna shouted as she launched herself into his lap, throwing her tiny five year old arms around his neck.
"Thanks, sis," Cain laughed as he hugged her back.
"Did you really think that we would've forgotten your birthday, honey?" Louise asked as she helped him from the floor to wrap her arms around him as well.
"I almost forgot about it myself," he lied.
Mitchell barked out a laugh as he clapped him on the back. "Happy eleventh, son."
"Thanks, dad."
Cain noticed a store bought cake with eleven blue birthday candles, their flames dancing, sitting on top of a few cardboard boxes arranged into a makeshift table in the middle of the floor. There were the words "Happy Birthday Cain!" written in cursive with blue icing.
"Well go on," Louise told him, giving him a shove toward the cake. "Blow out your candles."
"Don't forget to make a wish!" Anna reminded him raising a laugh from everyone else.
After a moment of silently making his wish, Cain took a deep breath and snuffed out every one of the flickering flames in one go. Looking up to his parents, Cain saw that they were each holding a wrapped gift in their hands.
"You got me presents?" he asked excitedly. He could hardly believe that they'd had enough money left over after having to eat out for the last two weeks. Anna suddenly dashed into the other room and rummaged around for a moment before running back in and demanding that he open her gift first.
"Okay, okay," said Cain. "Sit here with me." He patted the spot in the floor next to him.
She plopped down beside him and watched as he began to tear the bright red paper off of his new brown leather journal. He gasped in surprise. Cain popped open the clasp that held the book closed and looked through the pages of yellowish paper.
He had expected something more childish like a sticker book or maybe a sixty four pack of Crayola crayons.
"Whoa, Anna, did you pick this by yourself?" Cain asked turning the book over.
"Yup," she answered proudly. "Look here-" she pointed to the bottom right corner of the front cover. In wonderful calligraphy it read "J. Cain Tenebris". "Do you like it?"
"Yes, Annabelle, I love it! Thank you!" He tackled her with a bear hug that ended in a fierce tickle fight.
"Guys, guys!" their father shouted over their hysterical giggles. "Do you want to open the rest of your gifts, Cain, or would you rather us return them?"
"No, no!" Cain replied, tearing himself away from his little sister. "I'm coming!"
Louise handed to Cain a thick, rectangular parcel wrapped with silver paper telling him, "Happy birthday, baby."
Cain pulled the paper away from the red and black cover of his new H.P. Lovecraft book. His mother knew that he absolutely loved reading horror stories and that he idolized Lovecraft. She'd caught him more times than he could count reading under his blankets with a flashlight late into the night and scaring himself into not wanting to go to sleep.
"Oh my gosh, mom, thank you!" Cain started flipping through the large book full of Lovecraft's short stories while Louise ruffled her son's hair and told him that she loved him. "Love you too, mom."
"My turn, birthday boy," Mitchell stated, brandishing a third gift, this one wrapped in Cain's favourite colour.
Cain accepted the package and immediately found a place to rip away the wrapping. Underneath the bright orange paper, was a wooden box with a glass front and a small hook to keep the doors latched. Behind the clear glass was another sheet of brown paper to, Cain assumed, make sure that the glass wasn't broken during transport. Curious, Cain swiveled the hook around to allow the tiny double doors to be pulled open.
Cain pulled away the protective brown paper and, arranged with the biggest on top, the smallest just beneath that, and two matching in size at the bottom, were four hacky sacks. The top sack was a deep red hue; the middle was a yellow, almost gold, colour with white on the sides; the bottom two were a black colour.
"Well, what do you think, kiddo?" Mitchell asked, starting to grow concerned with his son's silence.
"Dad, these are awesome," Cain reassured his father. "What do the colours represent?"
"I don't know that they represent anything," Mitchell replied. "As soon as I saw them, I knew that I just had to get 'em for you."
"It just seems like they're in this order for a reason, ya know?"
"Yeah, it does seem that way, doesn't it?" Louise chimed in.
"When I was your age, Cain," Mitchell started, "All of my buddies and I would gather around in a circle and kick a sack around 'til somebody dropped it."
"What did you do when it was dropped?" Anna asked.
"Well, sweetpea, we'd kick that person out of the circle and keep on going."
"Did you ever drop it, dad?" Cain asked.
"Oh yes," came Mitchell's quick reply with a chuckle. "I dropped it many a time."
"Yes he has," Louise agreed, laughing at fond memories of a teenaged Mitchell repeatedly dropping a hacky sack and having to watch as the rest of the boys went on playing without him.
"After a piece of cake, you both should go to bed," Mitchell told his children after a glance at the Roman numerals on the huge clock that continuously tick-tocked on the wall above the fireplace.
Having eaten their piece of cake, Mitchell had taken Anna to clean up for bed while Cain hung back to say his goodnight to his mother.
"Do you think I could stay up a while longer to empty out a few more boxes?" Cain pleaded.
"Because I really don't want to wake up surrounded by a million boxes anymore."
"I supposed," Louise allowed, "But be in bed by twelve at least. Deal?"
He nodded. "Goodnight, mom." He let her press a kiss to his forehead.
Cain gathered up his birthday gifts and bounded up the stairs to bid his father and sister good night as to clean himself up for bed as well before returning to his bedroom to continue emptying out his boxes. Closing the door softly behind him, Cain chose one of his many CDs-Metallica this time- and put it on quietly before he glanced around the messy room. He half expected the owl to be perched once again on his desk chair, but the bird was nowhere in sight.
Trying to not to feel so disappointed, Cain piled his wonderful birthday presents onto his night table and went about unpacking some more boxes. There were only about five of them left, and those were mainly books and things, his digital clock among them. Once they'd been emptied, Cain glanced at his freshly unpacked clock and realised that it was 11:58 pm. He still had two minutes to spare. Two minutes that he used to put on his pajamas and climb into bed.
Cain lay awake hoping to at least have a response from the owl telling him that they were sorry for sending him the the acceptance letter by mistake and that they would like his help in finding whomever it was supposed to have been delivered to. With that thought rolling around his head, Cain finally drifted off to sleep.