Kairo didn't understand why having to attend school was mandatory. After all, the only reason why half of the girls that go to her school and decide not to drop out is because they like all of the attention they receive from the guys. That's what going to school was always about, wasn't it? Kairo thought as she walked from school on a normal Friday evening, nervously clutching a sketchbook. Everything around her seemed gloomy, and she hated having to lift her hand up to block the dim sun from piercing her blue gray eyes. She hated summer. There wasn't a simpler way to put it. The heat was sweltering in the desert, and to make matters worse, her house was three miles from the high school. She would much rather have to trudge through endless piles of powder and snow than have to lug an enormous backpack all the way to her foster parent's house. She would choose a blizzard than a heat wave any day, no matter what she happened to be wearing.
She fumbled clumsily for her black hood behind her backpack and yanked it over her black mat of knotted hair in an effort to conceal her face from the hot rays of the sun. She hadn't even walked ten steps towards her home before she felt something wet slam into her back. Jumping nearly five feet in the air, the sketchbook dropped from her scrawny arms, and the pages flipped open on the sand. Cats. All she was good at drawing was cats. Kittens, tabbies, fat cats, bald cats, wild cats; you name it. That was all she was capable of. Before her attackers could shoot another water balloon in her direction, Kairo scooped up her book and burst down the dirt road. "Hey, where're you going?" said a nasally female voice of one of the preps. At first, Kairo had the urge to stop in her tracks and run back to pop her in the mouth. But then she would end up in the principal's office once again for attempting to instigate a fight, as she'd been accused of doing in the passed for self-defense. So she kept on running, craving the feeling of the wind brushing up against her face. She could've ran forever in the same direction without running out of breath, knowing where to step so she wouldn't slip on the fine sand of the desert trail.
Her foster family was spoiled for the most part. They lived in a three-story house located in the middle of the barren desert, quite far from the small town where she attended school. By the time she arrived at the house, she was pumped, wanting to run like the wind in a marathon nonstop. Kairo stopped in front of the ornate door to her foster family's living room. She knew what was in store. Amelia, her snobby stepsister, was probably home from her private school and most likely had a bunch of friends over. Considering the fact that she was able to hear pop music blaring through the sealed windows, this was clearly the case. Kairo sighed and nudged open the door quietly. She was hoping not to be caught by her sister and to sneak off into her room in the attic to draw some more cats, and maybe even try to draw a self portrait of herself. But alas, right before she reached the stairs, a set of strong arms wound themselves around her and embraced her in a hug.
"Oh, goody! Mah step sissie's home!" said the eighteen year old Amelia, lifting her up into the air and flailing her as if she were a teddy bear. "Wha-? Put me down Amelia! I've got homework!" Kairo tried to lie, only to be set down and have her cheeks squished by sharp manicured fingers. "Oh, the little poochie-poo has homework? What a shame, we was gonna have some funsies!" Kairo took one look at her older sister's face and realized that she was drunk again, the fourth time this month that she was drinking without Mother or Father knowing. Amelia grabbed her sister's wrist and tugged her to the kitchen halfheartedly, stumbling over her own two feet as she did so. She led her into the kitchen and held Kairo's hand above her head as if the was the winner of a wrestling match. "I got ha! Mah lill sissy is in da house!" There were seven other teenagers a little older than Kairo, most of which were guys. Treating her like a baby, Amelia lifted her little sister up and set her in one of the chairs at the table, scooting one over and sitting next to her. "Are you ready to get fun?"
Get fun? What's wrong with you? Kairo wished she could say, but she didn't really know what to do. In fact, she was scared. There were a bunch of drunken teenagers in the kitchen, her cruel sister being one of them, and nowhere to escape to. The situation could lead anywhere, and everybody else would be able to forget about it; everyone except Kairo, who would remember everything. Amelia pulled two beers from the icebox beside her and whooped loudly. She then placed a bottle in the center of the table, and two of the teenagers fought over it until one finally yanked it from the other's grasp, popping it open and sucking it down greedily. Amelia did the same with hers, opening it and chugging half of it down in moments. Gosh, Kairo thought, you're stupid. Amelia slammed the bottle down on the table and laughed hysterically. How many bottles had she had in the past few hours she'd been here? Four? Five?
Kairo suppressed her shivers and squeezed her sketchbook closer to her. She was in the midst of thinking whether or not to tell Mother about all this when she sensed Amelia looking at her. When she turned her attention to her older sister, she confirmed that she was being stared at by everyone. Her stomach lurched inside of her. Something bad was going to happen, she could feel it. The way Amelia looked at her sent shivers down her spine. It was an indescribable look, one that was meant to calm you down and show affection, only to abruptly change and make you feel nothing but fear. Fear was a funny thing, and even though Kairo had feared her sister many times before, she'd grown used to being glared at with such loathe and love at the same time. It was becoming an impulse to look away and cross your fingers that whatever happened next wasn't going to scar you for life.
Amelia's hateful expression turned into the same, drunken smile as it was before. "I love you sissy!" She said in the softest voice she could muster. At first, Kairo believed her. She was touched for a second. But she had let her guard down, for after that split second of understanding, she found herself sprawled out on the floor with a welt throbbing on her cheekbone. There was silence at first, before the entire room erupted with laughter and cheering at Amelia's sudden punch at her sister. Before Kairo could assemble enough energy to get herself up from the ground, she was rolled over onto her back with sharp stilettos. "I love you so much, sissy!" said Amelia as she grabbed her bottle off of the table and pressed it against Kairo's lips. Kairo coughed and gagged at the putrid flavor of the alcohol and desperately tried to whack the bottle away, only to find it jammed into her mouth once again.
"Chug! Chug! Chug!" chanted Amelia's friends, encouraging her to keep forcing her little sister to drink the beer. Once the bottle was empty, Amelia chucked it against the wall forcefully. It produced an echoing shattering sound throughout the house, and Amelia laughed to herself as she allowed her shaking little sister to upstairs into the attic. "Where're ya goin'?" She asked, stomping her stilettos on the floor to make Kairo think that she was chasing her. She adored seeing her foster sister's fear written all over her face. It gave her a sense of satisfaction. "We haven't even started the fun yet!" Kairo tripped over her own shaking feet countless times trying to escape her sister. The staircase, which previously had around fifteen steps, seemed to grow twice as longer, going on forever. The walls seemed so much thinner, closing in on her, suffocating her. Don't stop, don't stop, she thought, trying to reassure herself that she'll make it to the top. She heard the stomping of her sisters feet echoing behind her. "Come back! I looove you sissy!" Kairo couldn't believe her luck when she finally slipped through the attic door and lock it shut behind her.
There was nothing but sobbing coming from the attic room for the next few hours. Kairo couldn't believe that Amelia had taken things so far. But who could she tell? There was no way that Mother would believe her, for Amelia always had a story in mind when she got home from work. What would it be this time? "Oh mother, it was horrible! She just walked in on us when we were studying our biology and charged at me! I had to defend myself!" Then of course, when Kairo would fall asleep that night, Amelia would sneak in and hide all of the empty bottles in her room, only to reveal them later and tell her mother "Look! She has been intoxicating herself all those times she tried attacking me! Oh, mother, she's such a cruel person! Please take her back to the orphanage! Please!"
Back to the orphanage.
The orphanage.
She would much rather be there, living with dozens of other motherless and fatherless children, than put up with Amelia any longer. She'd rather be a homeless girl, living off of the dumpsters in the alleyways of the small town than have to be held prisoner and used as amusement here. She finally was able to dry her tears, only to have some more flood out when she realized that she'd left her sketchbook downstairs. Why bother searching for it or going back to get it? It was long gone by now, Amelia probably burned it in the fireplace or shoved it down the garbage disposal as she did with all of the other possessions she left lying around. Why did nobody ever give her a chance? She didn't she why she couldn't be treated like any other child, raised with a caring family, like it used to be before the fire…
The fire…
No. No! I'll not blame myself for that again! Kairo thought as she raised her head from the pathetic excuse for a bed and eased her way towards the window. She rested her head against the cool glass, staring down on the teenagers as they all said farewell to Amelia and started to head home. Then she spotted a black Excursion making its way toward the house. She closed her eyes. All she wanted, more than anything in the world, was love. It didn't matter who it was, it didn't matter if they were mass murderers or escaped criminals. If they loved her, then she would become one too. She had used to put all of her love in a teddy bear, only to find it had been completely destroyed by the kids at the orphanage out of jealously. She had used to put all of her love into a black bandana that she used to wear all of the time, only to find it plucked off of her head and flushed down the toilet by Amelia. She had used to put all her love into a sketchbook in the form of cats. That was gone as well.
And out of all of these objects that she loved so dearly, none of them had loved her back. She felt a strange sensation inside of her, a longing. It grew desperate, and she would give anything for it to stop. Anything…
A loud bang from the far side of the attic startled her out of her thoughts. Kairo scooted against the wall as her eyes scanned what could've made the noise. The attic that her careless foster parents wasn't as big as a room, and if all of the dusty furniture and boxes with white blankets over them had been removed, then it probably would've suited Kairo just fine. Something could've fallen over, she thought to herself, easing nearer to the piles of junk. Nothing was out of place or fallen over. It had to be under the blanket. Kairo rubbed her hands together nervously. She hated these sort of situations, where only you can do something about it, and if you didn't do it, it haunted you one way or another. Kairo raised her pale hand and gently pinched the white sheet covering all of the furniture. Then, aggressively, she yanked it off.
Dust consumed the room and filled her lungs. Kairo had a quick coughing spasm and rushed back to open the window and took a deep breath of fresh air. She made her way back to the furniture and her face lit up. Had she known that this is what she'd find in her room, she would've raided through it long before. There were old scruffy couches, fancy fur coats and dresses, an old box TV, a bear rug…
It wasn't long before Kairo noticed the huge rip in the TV screen. It wasn't necessarily a rip, more like a maelstrom of gray colors and blue colors merged together. It looked as if it were a tunnel that was going through the TV, a giant cyclone that whirled and twisted in different directions before finally coming to an abrupt halt. Kairo curiously peeked in. It looked very interesting. And it looked like it could've led someplace else. Kairo cautiously eased her hand toward the vortex…
"KAIRO! Get down her right this second!" The booming voice of Mother made Kairo jump and flip towards the door. She couldn't go through the tunnel, or whatever it was. Not now. They would probably follow her and take her back. Kairo nimbly flung the sheet back over the furniture cluttered on the corner of the attic and unlocked the door. "C-coming, Mother!" she shouted down to her foster relatives as she gradually made her way downstairs. This, she thought to herself, is gonna be fun…
