~8~
Silence follows. Only the chatter from the rest of the restaurant could be heard. I turn and look up at Zed, seeing him just as shocked as everyone else. His breathing starts to quicken, his fists still clenched on the table, staring only at his mother. He pushes back from the table suddenly, his chair falling over in the process. He storms off and out of the building, his face getting redder as he leaves.
"Zed!" I hear Sky shout her lovers name as she stands up, aiming to follow after him. She scurries away, ignoring the calls from the other Benedicts. By this point, we had managed to capture the whole rooms attention, waiting to see who runs out next. I spot a teenage couple sitting nearby, the boy holding his phone out as if to film the comotion. I glare at him as I catch his eye, making him hurry to put his phone away. The rest of the table consisted of my family sitting awkwardly in silence as the Benedicts questioned each other about this uncovered secret. Karla was full out crying now, her husband having to console her as their sons continuely asked each other if they knew what was going on. The meal that was supposed to celebrate the joining of our families turned into a family drama show, one in which my family were all too familiar with. Feeling an urge to follow after the youngest Benedict, I stand up and start to head towards the front doors when I hear my name being called.
"Violet?" Ignoring my father, I walk out the restaurant as fast as I could. "Violet!" As soon as I'm out the doors, several raindrops hit my forehead, making my regret not grabbing my jacket from my chair. I wrap my arms around myself as look around to see where they went. They only thing I could see were parked cars and business men and woman rushing past me to get out of the rain. The feeling I felt in the restaurant comes back, making me want to turn right, heading towards the alleyway a few buildings down. Once I reach the opening, I spot Zed with his back against the wall and Sky in his arms infront of him. It might've just been the rain, but I swear I saw tears trickling down his face. After squeezing his soulfinder once more, he looks up and spots me at the opening. He gives me a small sad smile, whispering something to Sky, which makes her look up as well. I take a couple steps into the alley, not too sure what I was going to say or do once I got here.
"Hey." The only thing I could think of that wasn't cliche like 'how are you?'. Quite obviously he wasn't fine or ok, so there was no point in asking such a stupid question.
"Hi." His accent rings out loud and clear against the patter of the rain in the background. He huffs as he lets go of Sky, looking at the soggy ground. "Did they send you after me?" Sky looks at me curiously.
"No. I just... Actually I don't know why I came out here. It just felt right." Zed nods, looking at Sky with a small frown on his face.
"I can't go back in there. They lied to me. All of them." He runs a hand through his curly hair. "Why didn't they tell me?" Sky reaches up and grabs his hands away before he could hurt himself. Her touch calms him instantly.
"You're both welcome to come back to mine. Jett's staying at Lilys house tonight so we have a spare room." The two stare at eachother for a moment before turning back to me and nodding. "We can go now if you like. Although, I hope you have a bus pass because I can't drive." I look to the opening of the alleyway, groaning when I see the rain had gotten worse.
"Or we could get a taxi." Sky announces, pulling Zed behind her to stand next to me.
"Yeah, that would be better." I look down the street, hoping it wouldn't be too long before one comes by. Seeing as we were in the middle of London and right by a hotel, one came along only moments after. "Oh there's one. Taxi!"
~8~
Once we had arrived back to my house, I ushered them into the living room, telling them I'd be right back. I ran to the cupboard upstairs and grabbed a couple blankets, before running to Grays room to get Zed some dry clothes and then my room for Sky and me. I gave the couple the spare clothes and blankets, offering them some hot chocolate to warm them up, even though it was May and supposed to be nearly summer. Sky agreed excitedly while Zed groaned and asked for coffee instead. I made the beverages and changed my clothes, happy to be out of my wet jeans. I sat down next to Sky and turned on the telly for background sound.
"Thanks for letting us stay here. Are you sure your parents won't mind?" Zed said, wrapping an arm around Sky, the blonde snuggeling into it. It was strange. Normally I hated when soulfinders shoved their happiness in my face like Sky and Zed were doing right now. But I didn't feel the normal angry and, I hate to admit it, jealousy that I did. I didn't care that I just offered another set of soulfinders into my home, agreeing to spend at least the next twelve hours with them. It felt almost... normal to see them being coupley and to not care.
"They won't mind." I realise I hadn't answered his question. "Just as long as their precious Scarlet is happy, they won't care about me." I shrug.
"One thing that has been on my mind. You said you had three older siblings," Sky speaks up after a few minutes of silence. "But only Scarlet and Gray were there. And Jett looks younger than us... Do you have a secret brother too?" Zed snorts at Skys question, clearly comfortable with joking about the recent outed secret.
"Sort of. It's... He's in prison." Zed's laughing stops immediately. "Don't worry, he's the only psycho in the family. And he won't be getting out anytime soon." Silence follows yet again, only the sound of the T.V. and the rain could be heard. "So... how about we talk about something less depressing? Like, what are your gifts?"
"Well, I'm a seventh child too so I have a bit of everyones gifts, but I can read minds and forsee the future." I nod at this information, impressed that Zed had such cool powers.
"That's cool. Sky?"
"I'm not a seventh child but, I can read peoples emotions. And I'm pretty good at telekenisis." She smiles proudly, making me float in the air slightly using her mind. I laugh, holding onto my blanket so it doesn't fall off.
"Ok ok! I believe you. Please put me down!" I ask through my giggles. She complies, letting me down gently. She laughs too while Zed looks on amused.
"What about your gifts? You can turn invisible right? And you've got strong shields or something." Sky says, still grinning.
"Well the shields are strong, but I can make them physical too. For example, if you ran at me full force I could push you back with it. And the invisible thing is really a mind trick. I can make you think that I'm not there, even though I am. It works on technology like cameras too." I chucked my phone at Zed, which he caught one-handed, so he could try it out. I imagined myself disappearing as Zed took the picture.
"Wow. It really worked." He showed the photo to Sky in awe. I decided to mess with them a little and stayed invisible, standing from the sofa to in front of them. "Violet? Are you still there?" I didn't anwser, moving to the gap between the sofa and the wall, right next to Zed's head.
"BOO!" I whisper in his ear, making him jump as well as Sky. I become visible again, laughing as they clutch their hands to their hearts. I lean back against the wall as my laughing gets worse. The door slamming shut from the hallway stops me though, my name being shouted from the front door.
"Uh oh." I whisper, recognising the voice as Gray. My brother walks into the room, wet and angry.
"Violet! I've been looking all through town for you. Why did you run off?" He glares at me before noticing Zed and Sky on the couch in front of me. "Guys, there're in here." He calls out to the hallway. Xav, Crystal and Victor walk through the door, also dripping wet.
"Zed, Sky, thank god you're ok." Victor breaks his seemily constant icy look to smile at his younger brother and Sky. "Everyone was so worried about you, especially mom." Zed looks down at his lap, refusing to answer. "None of us knew, by the way. We had no idea that we had another brother." Zed looks up at this, a curious expression on his face.
"It's true." Xav speaks up. "Mom and dad told us everything before we left to find you. The others stayed behind at the hotel, even though they all wanted to come find you."
"I'll give you some privacy." I try to get past Zed to grab Gray and leave the room when Zed reaches out and grabs my arm.
"No, it's ok. We're friends right? I want you to know too." He smiles at me, letting go of me so I can sit down on the arm of the sofa beside him.
"If I'm right, this does actually involve you too Violet." Crystal annouces, taking a seat on the couch adjacent to the window. Xav and Victor sit either side of her while Gray goes to the kitchen to make us some more drinks.
"I'll start from the begining then." Victor says, shifting slightly to get comfortable. I had a feeling there was more to this story than just a missing brother. "So, you know mom and dad have been key players in the Net for as long as we could remember, pretty much since before Trace was born. Well, when mom was pregnant with you... and your twin brother, they took down a crime boss called Lothar Fitzpatrick. He was the mastermind behind a line of drug crimes which lead to many people dying, most of them being savants." Gray enters at this point and hands Xav, Crystal and Victor their drinks, standing beside their sofa. "Our parents were involved in the operation to take his gang down, along with putting him in prison. He escaped but during the raid, his son got caught in the cross fire and was killed. Fitzpatrick was distraught and decided to take revenge before he was captured and taken to prison. Seeing as mom gave birth to you two while the raid was going on, he couldn't think of anything better than taking you both. But for some reason, he only took your twin, mom and dad said they still don't know why. When Fitzpatrick was tracked down a couple weeks later, our brother was gone and he refused to give up his location. The FBI eventually gave up and assumed that he had killed him. Mom and dad hated the fact that they couldn't protect him, they still do."
"Dad said that he wished they never agreed to help with that case, even if it meant a lot more people would've died, just so he could have all his sons." Xav adds on at the end of the story. Zed sits in silence, a glum look on his face. Sky, who had been holding his hand the whole time, moves to squeeze his arm in comfort. I reach out hesitantly and rub his shoulder. He looks up and smiles a small smile at us both, before looking back to his brothers.
"But, what about the rest of you. How come you guys don't rememeber it? Vic, you would've been old enough to remember me - I mean us - being born."
"Our parents decided that to protect us from any of the gang, they'd get someone to erase that part out of our minds. It was Uncle Scott actually, he has a similar gift to me, he was the only person with the gift that they trusted to do it. It was buried so deep I couldn't detect it until it was mentioned."
"So my twin brother, who was stolen away when we were born and who no one but mom and dad remember, is dead?" Zed tries to make sense of all the information he had just been told.
"No, I don't think so." Crystal says, rubbing her hands around her now empty mug. "The FBI only assumed he was dead because they couldn't find him. This is where you come in Violet. When I looked at the link between you, Sky and Zed, I said there was another link leading off somewhere else. But the link between Zed and him was brotherly, more than that. Like a twin link."
"What has that got to do with me?" I ask, confused.
"Well... because the link between you and the twin one... was a soulfinder link."
~8~
Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I updated but I just haven't really been motivated to write because of life stuff. Believe it or not, I have a social life which has been quite busy lately. But here is the explanation chapter. I hope it makes sense and you enjoyed it. Please a review of what you think! Thank you to all those that have and those that favourite and followed it :) xxExx