London POV:
Cairo and Egypt were sat at the table in the kitchen, supposedly doing their homework, but Egypt's hair continued to get bigger and frizzier and more vertical with every minute that passed. Meaning Cairo was using his gift to provide entertainment, by electrocuting the only person in the world that couldn't feel it.
I snickered and went back to scrying with my black mug of grape juice; trying desperately to find out more about the man from my visions. So far, nothing. It was infuriating.
"If you're trying to aid your search with the grape juice and dark liquid, you won't get very far." Maddie said as she took a seat on the other side of the table, at the opposite end to Cairo and Egypt. Scowling at their antics.
"Do continue, Einstein." I arched my eyebrows.
"Well, witch craft doesn't really exist, so that ritual wont work."
I cast a long look at the twins.
"That doesn't count," she pushed her frameless glasses up her nose, "And besides, even if it did exist, that's gr-apple." she shrugged. I took a sip of the juice and realised she was right, she always was. She smirked and pulled the sketch of the man in the visions across the table to study.
"Who's this?"
"Lonnie's mystery man." Belle sighed dreamily, flopping onto the bench next to Maddie, a liquorice bootlace wrapped around her fist while she chomped on the end.
"You mean her soulfinder?" Maddie frowned at Belle. Maddie is a girl who likes things cross referenced in twelve languages, run through eight supercomputers and quoted by the minimum of four experts before she will truly consider it fact.
"We don't know that." I replied and Belle rolled her eyes.
"But you did have a vision about him?" Maddie pressed.
"Just this scene, he was in Amsterdam, it was night, it was raining and he was sulking in a cafe. That's all I got." I pushed my short blonde hair off my face, it was wavy with all the static in the room. There were a few bubblegum pink and purple streaks in it from when I got bored last week.
"Interesting." she murmured.
"What is?"
"Well, you haven't had a vision that's bothered you so much since you saw Rio get hit by a car." she stated. I flinched.
"So..." Belle frowned and gave Maddie a sideways glance, "You're saying this guy, whoever he is, might get hit by a car?"
Maddie sighed tiredly, like a pre-school teacher explaining something for the tenth time to a toddler. "No." scowling at Belle, "Idiot." Belle stuck her tongue out, "It means whoever he is, is important to London."
"If his name turns out to be Ben. I will laugh." Belle smirked. I rolled my eyes at her.
Cairo's head fell to the table and he began to snore. Egypt shrugged at me. "You didn't really expect me to let him get away with this did you?" he gestured to the seventies afro he was sporting.
"Rome! Pizza!" Paris hollered from another room in the house and the two of them skidded into the kitchen on their gym socks, pulling on the oven gloves with flare, Rome opened the stove door to pull out a baking sheet with a huge, rectangular, golden pizza on it. Paris proceeded to remove a tray with two baguettes sizzling with garlic butter.
Sydney strolled in and levitated ten plates from the cupboard onto the side so that the boys could dish it up. "I'll get Rio and Vienna." He said and left the room again.
"Remember Rio's gone veggie..." Rome murmured, arranging the salad with surgeons precision. Paris got out the pizza slicer. It never ceased to amaze me how sensitive Rome could be when it came to Rio. But he always made sure she was happy, even though it really takes a lot to make Rio sad.
The girl in question danced into the room, barefoot, toes painted moss green, picked up a plate of meatless pizza and salad, and dropped into a seat at the table. "Yummy."
"Egypt, wake up Cairo would you? His head's in the way." Sydney commented as he levitated his plate above the table. Rome and Paris floated the plates across the room to rest in front of each person.
"Ooh, Italian." Vienna gushed and slid into the seat next at the end of the table, making sure Paris was at least four people away on either side. Cairo slowly came to his senses, practically inhaling his food once he'd seen (or smelled) what was served.
Vienna and Maddie were on clean up duty since Rome and Paris cooked. Subtle splashes and clumsy chinks could be heard across the room. The boys were watching Batman in the living room; Curtains drawn and volume up high. Belle was braiding Rio's hair, loving the Puerto Rican genes which made her hair thick and wild.
Sydney was searching my mind and studying the sketches; trying to identify the mystery man. He was silent for twenty minutes as he searched, then he hummed a little tune as he processed the information through the huge human database that was, his mind.
"Ooh!" He gushed dramatically.
"What?" I jumped.
"American." he rolled his 'R's theatrically.
I gave a deadpan look, "That's it? That's all you got?"
"I'm looking at his passport, but it's just a little bit out of focus." he tutted and closed his eyes again.
"Born... second of October..."
I gasped, my birthday was October eighth. So Belle could have been right. Sydney just loved to be dramatic and drag things out.
"What year?"
"Every year." Sydney drawled.
"Syd!"
"1989." he rolled his eyes behind the lavender lids.
"Ben?" Sydney raised his eyebrows questioningly. Belle snorted. "No. Benedict." Belle's shoulder's slumped. "William. William Benedict."
At the mention of his name I was ripped from reality with a vision. It was lighter this time. A park. Beatrixpark. The pool with the stepping stones, surrounded by trees on the east side. Vibrant greens and blue hues, a curved stripe of beige, black sharp accenting lines, both horizontal and vertical, dots of beige in the blue, He's stepping from one to another, continually making that circuit, almost as if he were waiting for someone to break it.
"Lonnie?" Sydney's voice broke through my thoughts, the vision clearing like wafting a hand through the herbal smoke in the cafes.
I looked down to see that someone had put a pencil in my hand and placed a sheet of paper before me. I'd sketched out the scene, a snapshot. A black and white snapshot.
"Syd?" I asked, feeling a little sick, sick like I might have missed him.
"Yeah?"
"What colour were the trees in Beatrixpark this morning?"
"Some were on the verge of turning yellow?" He answered, "Does it matter?"
"Yes. Yes it matters. Because this might not be the future, it might just be something about him. The leaves in my vision were green. Bright green."
He held my scared gaze for a few seconds before he slammed his chair back and stood up, snatching his and my jacket of the back of the door, he turned to Belle. "Belle, your in charge. Don't make me regret saying that." he told her and tossed my jacket to me.
Pulling it on, I followed him out into the dark night. "Syd! Where are we going? The park thing happened in the day time."
"Are you sure? The flood lights are pretty impressive." He replied, dragging me across the road.
"I... I don't know." I yelled over the noise of the traffic.
"Exactly. If he's not there tonight, I'll look up his contact details tomorrow. We'll find him, Lonnie, I promise you that." He took my hand and pulled me along, his long legs eating up the ground faster than mine. "Think about it, the flood lights might explain the colour of the leaves." We rounded a corner. "They could really be turning yellow, but in artificial light look green."
"Yeah, yeah they could."
"It could be really close future."
"Like really, really close."
Running faster and faster, I had to yank Sydney back before he ran in front of a bus I almost saw too late. I was scanning, searching, reaching desperately to catch a glimpse of William Benedict. But I couldn't nothing would come. He was just like a ghost. Two visions in one day and then nothing. Nothing at all. Why couldn't I see him?
We skidded to a halt when we reached the pool. Syd had been right about the flood lights. It looked exactly like my vision!
Except it was deserted.
"He's not here." I panted. "Why isn't he here?" I spun to face Sydney. "Why isn't he here Syd?"
He shoved his hands through his dusty blond curls. "I don't know London. I don't know." He sighed.
"He cant just not be here! That's not how the vision showed it! He has to be!" I glared at the sky. "He should be here Syd." I argued defiantly. "Tell me why he's not."
"London..." Sydney sighed.
"Tell me why he's not here!" I screamed. "Tell me Sydney!"
I remember mum saying that people only shout when they don't have the vocabulary to whisper. But I didn't believe it then. No. The screaming helped.
"London." he sighed again, "He's not here." and he pulled me into his long gangly arms and kissed the top of my head. I didn't know I was going to cry until I felt the dampness of Syd's shirt against my cheek. In all the rush he hadn't buttoned the coat up.
"Ssh." he soothed and squeezed my shoulders from where his long arms had reached all the way around me. I felt small. I felt insignificant. "London Baker. You are not insignificant." he tutted. Great, I was leaking thoughts again. "Don't you remember what Mum used to say? Your body stops growing when it reaches perfection. It just took me a bit longer."
A watery laugh bubbled from my lips. I looked up to smile at my brother.
Sydney and I had the same chocolate brown eyes, we both had fair hair with eyebrows that matched the leather loafers he wore for work, we had the same nose. We had the same intolerance to raspberries. All traits and characteristics we'd inherited from our mother. But Sydney had a stronger jaw, steeper cheekbones, taller frame, longer fingers. I was shorter with a sharper structure. Hands more solid; sculptor's hands, Mum used to call them.
Paris and Vienna had the silvery blonde hair and stunning, pale complexions. Vienna's eyes were indigo rather than the forget-me-not Paris had. But they were the only ones that could really pass as our siblings looks wise.
Rome, Cairo, Egypt, Madrid and Rio looked like siblings. Inheriting the hispanic/mediterranean olive skin and dark curls, every one of their eyes a different shade of roast coffee. The twins had stronger noses and features slightly too big for their faces, in a good way. The striking Pharaoh memorability, not that the twins needed any more reason to be remembered by...
Rio's hair was wilder and had the texture anyone with caribbean heritage had, but like Rome and Madrid, she had the soft finer features that came from Spain and Italy.
Belle was the odd one out with fiery red hair and milky skin coated in strawberry freckles. Eyes that were emerald like the country she came from, with a ring of amber like a cat's around her pupils. Tall for a girl and stronger than she led you to believe with skirts and frills. Just the way she liked it.
"C'mon." he said and tucked me under his shoulder, leading me through the park and out onto the streets.
The harsh neon lights of all the cafes and bookstores and record shops reminding me of how abstract Amsterdam was. New and old blending more and more with every generation and every new skyscraper and every memory Anne Frank left behind with the holocaust.
I sighed, wrapping my arm around Syd's waist, "Let's see if Paris and/or Vienna need measuring for a coffin..."