Chapter 7: Home

Lyria: Yeah. I forgot to mention this, but I used the name Evangeline from the book The Eight Day. :)

POV Evangeline

There both gone. I knew that. I missed them. But I had faith they were alive. Of course I cared, but we can't do anything about it. Why do we have to sit around and mope when we could go on with life?

So I did. I moved on. I have friends. My best friend is a girl named Patrica. She is really sweet. She says that we are like sisters, except we don't look alike. She has long straight black hair and dark blue eyes. Plus she is African American. I am a total opposite. I have dark hair and teal eyes like Dad. I have pale skin and my hair is long and sorta curly. I began to dwell on remembering my sisters. Just in case. Let's see...Faybelle had blonde hair, teal eyes, and pale skin. Ember had blonde hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. They both had terrible fashion sense. Got it.

Perfect. Now moving on. I also found myself a boyfriend. His name is Fabian. He is nice but tough, and he is super cute. I love him.

I thought my life was pretty normal again, besides the family trauma. Well, that was until the plague struck our town.

Someone died.

Or, that's what I heard. Someone got sick and died. The worst part is, it affected my family.

Dad's an Emmerissy. He's supposed to be stopping the plague. So when he heard that someone in our town was dead because of his lack of duty, it, well, you know what, I'll tell you straight up this time.

It broke him.

Which, unfortunately broke Mom. My hope was crushed. That pain was back. No one can bring back a broken mind now. Sophie was our only hope.

That night, I am with Elwin. We are watching over them, giving them sedatives every hour. We are both crying.

People arrive. First Grandpa Vacker, then Grandpa Ruewen. Then Uncle Keefe and Aunt Biana. They take me home with them.

Since Aviana and Evelle, Biana and Keefe's kids, are only 12, they are asleep. It is only 9:00, but I am out cold on their couch.

No more hope.

POV Ember

That's it. Me and Jaelyn both went through torture. A word never escaped our lips. But I am done. I am going to fight back. We are going to get out of here. I gather up the girls in our room. They place us in an empty room after torture. We call it The Room. We plan an escape plan. It will be difficult, but we will do it. That is all I will say.

Our plan will be put in action tomorrow. We have all night here. I lay down on the hard floor, trying to fall asleep. Suprisingly, I fall asleep immediately. But, happiness comes with a price. I have terrible nightmares.

You don't want to know.

POV Faybelle

Ember, Jaelyn and I have a plan. I thought that might help me sleep better. But no. Soon, I can hear Jaelyn's snores and Ember's soft breathing. I quietly pull out my spyball.

I wish I hadn't.

The scene in front of me was terrible. Evangeline, the name I whispered to the ball, was on the couch of Aunt Biana and Uncle Keefe's house. She was asleep, but looked sickly and pale. Aunt Biana was sitting next to her, her eyes bloodshot and tired. She was unnaturally dirty and unstylish.

What had happened? Something was definetly wrong. I did the only thing I could.

"Show me Sophie and Fitz."

A image popped up. They were in the guest room of our house, both asleep and peaceful looking. Strangely, Elwin was sitting on the edge of Sophie's bed, looking as tired and frazzled as Biana. Suddenly, Sophie sat up, screaming. She flailed around until Elwin forced a sedative into her mouth. She fell back again.

I shut the spyball off. I didn't want to see that again. I didn't know what that meant, but it wasn't good. I shoved the image out of my mind and fell into a dreamless sleep.

POV Evangeline

I woke up on the couch that morning to hushed voices. I looked around, and found that Keefe and Biana were talking quietly at the bar. The twins, Evelle and Aviana, were already up. Everyone looked at me as I sat up.

Evelle tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and mumbled something I couldn't hear. Aunt Biana laughed, but there was no happiness or sparkle in the sound. It sounded ghostly and distant, like an echo of what it used to be. "Darling, there's no need to be sorry. It wasn't your fault." Keefe cleared his throat. "We need to go soon. They'll be expecting us." "Huh?" I asked. Aviana looked at me. "We're going to see your...your parents." "Oh." I suddenly became interested in the blue carpet. This was going to be a long day.

We light leaped to Evergile. (My house). We stepped inside. Elwin and Alden were in the kitchen talking. The looked up grimly as we came in. "They're in there," said Elwin, pointing at the guest room door. We walked that way. We all stood in front of the door, but no one moved. They seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me. I couldn't go in there. I couldn't experience more pain. But Aviana finally opened the door, and we all stepped in. Grady was already in the cramped room.

My breath caught in my throat. Mom and Dad were both silently sleeping, and not moving. Suddenly, Dad sat up, screaming and flailing. I screamed, and Elwin ran in, looking around. He spotted Dad and exhaled, frowning. He dumped an elixir down his throat. Dad fell back, silent.

Elwin turned to us. "Sorry. When I heard the scream, I thought something bad had happened. Not- that this isn't bad." He added when he saw my expression. "Just something worse." He mumbled. I didn't want to know what that meant. A sound brought me out of my thoughts. It was a doorbell. I heard a door open and hushed voices. Then Uncle Dex and Aunt Linh came in. ( there not really our Aunt and Uncle, there more like honorary.) Following them were Arian, Kirsten, and Aulie. Aulie looked terrible. Dex looked pretty bad to.

"We came to visit," Aunt Linh said. "But we can leave." Elwin shook his head. "Oh, no. It's fine. Make yourselves at home." I studied the Dizznees. They had grown a lot. Aulie and Arian had dark brown hair that looked like Ariana's. And Kirsten had blonde hair like Dex. Arian and Kirsten had Perrywinkle eyes like Dex, but Aulie had pale blue ones like her mother. And they all had bad fashion sense. How do these people handle themselves?

Anyway, they all sat on the edge of Sophie's bed, and we all started to sniffle. It was either me or Aulie who started actually sobbing first, but soon the ground was just a puddle of tears. We were all water works.

After the break down, Grady led us out of the room. We all sat down in the living room, not knowing what to say. Finally, Tam and Mystelle came. They looked worse than the Dizznees. They were all frazzled and unkept. I wondered why, until I realized Jaelyn was their daughter. They were going down the same path as us. Lessi and Calt, Jaelyn's younger siblings, plopped down in the living room. Mystelle followed, but Tam stayed standing.

Finally Alden seemed to have an idea. "How about," he started carefully, "we play a memory game? We could all say some thing you remember about Sophie and Fitz." Everyone flinched at there names, but Alden didn't give us much of a choice. Grady started off.

"Let's start with Sophie. Um...she had warm, soft, brown eyes." Everyone nodded in agreement. Dex was next. "She could be seriously stubborn at times." Everyone gave a hollow laugh. Keefe was next. "I was starting to rub off on her, but she lost it when Evangeline came along." Everyone actually laughed that time. We were getting better!

But then it was my turn. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I couldn't. It was to painful. I started to cry. Tears blurred my vision and I felt someone pick me up and carry me up the two flights of stairs to my room.

OH MY FAIRY GODMOTHER THAT WAS THE LONGEST CHAPTER OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! Sorry about Sophie and Fitz, it had to happen, you'll see why. Anyway, R&R!