Shot Two: Fade Away

When we got home that night, my father told my mother what happened and my mother practically ran to me asking if those heathens had hurt me. I told her they were harmless but she didn't seem to have heard me, seeing as she proceeded in checking me for wounds. Landon stood in the corner and never took his eyes off me. His eyes were cold compared to Lawrence's warm brown eyes. The difference was quite remarkable. When I looked at him again, he had gone off to bed.

Landon and I shared a room. I didn't really have a choice. I used to have my own room but then Lawrence was born so it was either I move out, or tolerate Lawrence's screaming wails at night. Lawrence, by the way, was quite the wailer. He could cry for hours. But that was years ago. I just never got around to moving out of Landon's room.

Even if I did move out, where was I to go, back to Lawrence's room? That would seem awkward. How was I to explain to my parents about Landon's hostility towards me? As far as I knew, they thought we got along just fine. Landon never said anything stupid in front of my parents. He was clever enough to not say anything at all, just in case something slipped out.

I went to bed not long after my mother's check up. When I got to my room, Landon was pretending to sleep. He did this often. I knew he wasn't sleeping because, he was breathing too fast, and when he really was sleeping, he snores. Not loudly, mind you, but a gentle type of snoring.

Our bedroom was small and he got the best spot for his bed. It was right under the window. It was the only window in the room. In the corner of the room was an end table with a lamp on it. Our beds' head boards were pressed against the end table. This was supposed to replace a night light but it's too bright. I didn't complain about it because I knew my mom only had good intentions for us but we never used it.

At around two in the morning, I heard a light tapping coming from the window, even through Landon's snoring. I sat up and looked at the window. I saw one of the twins waving at me. I quietly slipped out of bed and looked at the window tapper questioningly. He looked motioned for his brother, whom I assumed was right behind him, to give him a notebook and a marker. He wrote something then pressed the notebook against the window for me to read:

Do you want to take a walk?

I looked down at Landon then back up at him and mouthed "How?". He thought for a moment before pointing at the window sill. He wanted me to crawl over Landon and climb out the window.

Is he crazy?

I shook my head and he rolled his eyes. He pressed his hands against the glass of the window and pushed up. the window opened and he motioned for me to follow him. He and his brother silently slid down the roof and jumped to the ground below. I should probably tell you that my house, though rather small, is two stories. My bedroom, unfortunately, was on the second floor.

I carefully climbed over Landon (who rolled over onto his belly and buried his face into his pillow) before I clambered out the window. I didn't have my boots so the rooftop hurt my feet. The twins were waiting for me below. They looked like they were about to give up and leave but my clumsy foot work must have caught their attention. I slid off the roof and onto the floor with great difficulty. The twins must have had a great deal of practice.

"Dude, that took you forever." One of them said.

"I didn't have my boots so the shingles hurt me feet!" I argued.

"Look, I don't think we've been properly introduced." Said the other who walked out of the shadows to greet me. "My name is Leon."

"And I'm Theo." Said the one I was talking to earlier.

"I'm Keralyn." I said, following their suit.(By the way, it's pronounced Kee-Rah-Lin, not like Carolyn.)

"Oh, we know who you are." Leon said. "We know more about you then you do, but we won't be ruining anything for you… yet."

"What?" Yeah, they lost me.

"Never mind that." Theo cut in, "We need your help in finishing that Solar Cruiser. We're not going to be able to finish it during the day because of your brother and your father chasing us around and throwing away our work, so we're going to have to work at night."

"Yeah, and you probably know the password to the warehouse, don't you?" Leon asked. I barely nodded before he continued, "So how about helping us?"

"Alright." I said. I still couldn't really tell them apart though.

I started sneaking my boots in before I go to bed. I couldn't go out the front door because Landon likes the bedroom door closed when he sleeps and if I tried to open it, it squeaked awfully loud. It's already been a few nights that I had been helping them and the Solar Cruiser was almost complete.

I was pretty sure that we'd be able to finish it that night as I laced and buckled up my boots. I lifted the window up and climbed over Landon, this time, a hand grabbed me around the knees. It surprised me enough to knock me off balance and I landed on Landon's feet.

"Where are you going?" he asked as he sat up.

"I just wanted some fresh air!"

"No, your bed was empty yesterday night. You're sneaking out somewhere. Where are you going?" he demanded to know, the hostility in his voice returning.

"What do you care anyways?" I argued and tried to climb out the window. He grabbed my leg and pulled me back in, then proceeded in shutting the window.

"Go back to bed." He said. I knew I probably wouldn't be getting out that night. At least he didn't press me about what I was doing.

I couldn't sleep. I knew Leon and Theo would come looking for me. Somehow, I knew that Landon was thinking something along the same lines. He laid in bed but didn't sleep. He was watching me to make sure I didn't escape. I pretended to sleep and took a peek at him every few minutes.

A shadow crept up over the cover of his bed. I knew that I'd be fried alive. Even Landon looked surprised, but didn't move. He laid still and waited, like a predator waiting for his prey. I shut my eyes praying that Leon and Theo would just turn around and leave once they saw me sleeping. I heard the window slide open and a small surprised squeak. I opened one eye and saw that Landon had grabbed Leon's arm as he tried to climb in.

"Shit!" Leon whispered and Theo got the idea. He slid down the roof top as fast as he could, before coming back to try and rescue his brother.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" Landon asked. His voice was just a little louder then a whisper. Leon didn't answer.

"Big brother, stop! Let him go!" I jumped out of bed and tried to pry Landon's grip from Leon's wrist. Landon was pretty strong for a nine year old.

"I'm not your brother, mutt." He snarled at me. "You should know better then to hang with these two. They're thieves!"

"I've had it with you, Landon!" I said in response. "I'm not a mutt, I'm your sister!" I let go of Landon and went to retrieve my boots. The room went quiet as the twins and my brother watched me put them on. I walked back to the window and squeezed myself around Leon, who was half way through the window. "I'm leaving. You can keep Leon, I don't care." I said to Landon, before jumping off the roof and running down the road. I heard two thumps behind me, meaning that Landon had let go of Leon and the twins were following me.

I didn't stop until I got to the warehouse. I punched in the password and went inside. I got started on finishing up the Solar Cruiser right away. (A Solar Cruiser looks like a Wind Surfer for those of you who didn't already know that.)

I looked up when I heard snickering. Leon and Theo were laughing as they came in. I threw a wrench at them, nearly hitting one of them.

"Hey, you weren't serious when you told Landon that he could keep me right?" Leon asked as he put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a slight shake.

"I knew he wouldn't." I said. "I hate him. I don't know why he just can't accept the fact that I'm his sister."

"Maybe it's because you're not." Theo said. I looked up at him in alarm. "That's right Kera, old Landon's been telling the truth this whole time."

"How would you—" I started but Leon cut me off.

"I told you that we knew more about you then you do. We're the same age as Landon. We remembered what happened." Leon said. I stared at him, waiting for him to say that he was just joking. But he didn't.

"We were four years old then?" Theo looked at his brother for confirmation. Leon nodded. "A ship came crashing into the docks one night. It looked like it had been attacked. You were the only one that survived."

"You can't be serious." Was all I said. I didn't really want to believe it.

"But we are." Leon said. "You were two years old, I believe. Just old enough to walk and talk. You told everyone that your name was Keralyn and that you were two years old. I don't think you really knew what was going on."

"Mrs. Boldt had always wanted a daughter so she took you in. At that time, she was pregnant with Lawrence and she had Landon." Theo explained.

"So…" I asked, still overwhelmed, "Who am I really?"

"You are Keralyn and you are seven years old. That's pretty much all you have." Leon patted my shoulder and started working on the Solar Cruiser like nothing was wrong.

"How can you two remember all this?" I asked.

"We'll show you after we're done." Theo promised.

We dragged the Solar Cruiser outside. It was almost dawn by that time. I helped them carry it to where ever it was that they were leading me. We came to a manor. I looked at them questioningly but they didn't say anything. They left the Solar Cruiser in the shed and walked right in through the back door.

"Are we allowed in here?" I asked cautiously.

"Of course. Why wouldn't we be allowed in our own house?" Theo asked.

"This is your house?" I asked in amazement.

"Yeah, our father was a nobleman. He kind of dumped us here with a house keeper when we were younger. We communicated through letters until he passed away. Then we inherited all of his money and all of his estates, then fired the house keeper." Leon said. We walked into what seemed to be a library. Leon began digging through a desk's drawers and came back with a newspaper clipping, explaining the whole event.

So it was true.

I'd rather not go through the details but Leon and Theo had pretty much summarized it earlier anyways. I never realized how smart these two really were. They might not have been very good at building the Solar Cruiser but they had me. And now, all I've got left are them.

"Let's go test out the Solar Cruiser." Theo suggested, breaking the silence.

"Wait… why did you guys want to build one when you could have bought over a hundred of these?" I asked.

"You see, that's the problem with money. You have everything done for you. It's just not fun." Leon said.

"Yeah, there's no risk of it breaking down." Theo added.

"You want it to break down?"

"No, but it's just more fun if you could build it yourself." Theo clarified.

We took turns riding on it. It worked fine until the thruster clogged up and the oil started to leak out.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"What do you want to do?" Leon asked me. Theo watched me too. "I mean, we already made you help us build the Cruiser. Now it's your turn."

"I don't know." I answered.

"How about… explore the galaxy?" Theo offered. I looked at him. "Come on, you don't really you can hide your secrets behind a few crates do you?"

"You two really scare me sometimes. At first, I always thought you two were abandoned kids turn delinquents, but now I find that you two are my best friends who just happen to be noblemen." I admitted.

"Never judge a book by it's cover." Theo gave me the late warning. "You seem to be the only one who knows."

"We're going to need a ship." Leon said, cutting in.

"We've got one." Theo said. Leon lifted a brow in question. "The one we arrived in about five years ago. All we need to do is have Kera tune it up."

So I ended up tuning their ship's engine. It was a fair sized ship. It hadn't been used in five years, and it really showed. There was no way I'd be able to do it within one night (Well, two hours before dawn anyways). Not only that, but I didn't have nearly enough experience at the age of seven.

"So, what are we going to do? We need a bloody ship." Leon said and crossed him arms.

"We could always steal one." Theo suggested and pointed at the harbor where a few dozen ships were docked calming in the air.

"Alright," I said as we stood at a small ship's deck, "do you know how to sail this thing?" I sure didn't. I was a mechanic, not a skipper.

"Not exactly, but we could try." Leon said.

The first thing we did was unfurled the sails. After that, we let the sails grace up the solar energy emitted by the stars before we started the engine. As we got farther away from the dock, we started to float. Leon maneuvered the ship so that we docked it again, so we could search for the artificial gravity lever. It was pretty clear that we weren't going to survive. The look on the twins' face told me so. But they also had a determined look, which described how I felt. I didn't want to stay here forever with a family where I knew I didn't belong.

"You know, we're going to need more help. Three isn't enough to pilot this ship, even though it's pretty small." Theo admitted at last. Truthfully, I was waiting for one of them to say it.

"Let's go kidnap some skipper's son. Do you know who Damien is?" Leon asked.

Damien Wolfe was who he was talking about. He was eleven and was his father's first mate. His father was a merchant and sailed the galaxy to sell his goods. I never spoke to Damien, though I knew who he was. Everyone in town did. He was the prodigy. He could navigate the stars better then some of the older men. He truly was a must-have.

The problem was going to be convincing him to come along with us. He had his whole future to look forward to. His father was well-to-do and his mother was a nice sweet woman whom everyone liked and respected. Last I heard, he had a few girls in town that fancied him. I could tell that by the look on Leon and Theo's face that they had never talked to Damien either.

"Well," Theo said unsurely, "we could always force him to come with us. This ship has to have some guns lying around here somewhere."

"This seems unnecessary…" Damien said when we tied him to the ship's rail, next to the wheel. He willingly followed us to the ship, not looking all that glum. At first we went back to that small ship we tried sailing earlier but Damien suggested that we take his father's ship instead. "I'm more familiar to it." he had explained, but we could all tell that there was more to it. We didn't press him about it but planned to after the ship was out of the harbor.

"Alright, Mr. Wolfe, which way now?" Leon asked. He was the one steering.

"Well, that kind of depends on where you're going…" Damien said.

"Anywhere." I stated.

"Wait, I know you!" Damien said after he took a good look at me. "You're Boldt's girl, aren't you?"

"Yeah, so I am…" I answered, not finding this at all interesting.

"I knew you'd end up shipping out one day." Damien said, grinning at his accurate foresight.

"Why is that?" I asked, and stood next to him.

"You're not from around here, you know." Damien said.

"That's late news. We told her that a few hours ago." Theo called from the main deck.

So they were listening.

I saw Leon's eye dart away from the wheel towards me and Damien then back again.

"Why are you running away?" Damien asked me, ignoring Theo's last comment.

"I don't belong here. Besides, my brother hates me." I said, feeling sure of myself.

"You know you can't just fade away, right?" Damien asked. I gave him the 'What's it look like I'm doing?' stare. "You see, you'll leave memories behind. People will remember you." He explained, then added, "Even Landon."

"How do you know that it's not Lawrence I'm talking about?"

"I talk to Landon. He's a nice boy." Damien shrugged. "He's got his reasons for being cruel to you."

"What are they?" I ask, tensing up.

"How did you think I knew that you'd leave one day?"

"He doesn't want me to be part of his family." I stated after a long pause.

"Exactly."

"We're going to need a bigger crew." Theo shouted from the main deck.