Chereads / The Slate Of Vale / Chapter 9 - CHAPTER 8

Chapter 9 - CHAPTER 8

Matt walked out of his room in hast. It might be his brothers.

When Matt opened the door, he had expected to see the angry frown on Kyle's face or the disapproving glare from Tim, but there was not a soul at the door, just the cold night wind and the unpleasant noise of the owl and crickets. He looked at his right to where the key of the doorbell stood, firmly attached to the yellow wall. Was it a rat? Matt doubt a rat could climb the smooth wall to trigger the alarm, so he concluded that the alarm might be malfunctioning and promised to fix it later.

Matt was about to walk inside when he saw something on the base of the three step, sitting peacefully on the penumbra shadow. He picked it up curiously. It was a brown envelop, brandish all over with silver tiny lines. The red seal on it was shaped in an unfamiliar circular pattern.

Matt panicked. He remembered what Jeff had told him early that day, about a strange envelop from an unknown sender. He surveys the environment fearfully, who would be sending this, and what does it mean? The fear growing inside of him daunts him that he threw the envelope away and rushed into the house.

"I must call Jeff" Matt panted as he rushed straight to his room to get his cell phone.

"What da..." Matt gasped. The envelope he'd thrown away was sitting unharmed on his bed. "How did it get here?" Matt asked, looking around the room to make sure he wasn't dreaming. It took him a great deal of hours to suppress his fears and pick up the envelope.

Matt shut the door to avoid a third party whoever they were. The seal on the envelope startled him as it broke with ease. Without pausing to think, Matt deep his right hand into the envelope. He felt something metallic after the mysterious envelop had swallowed his hands up to his elbow. "Wow" he exclaimed as he pulled the metallic object out of the envelope.

It was a huge black bow, curved like the number three. It has three strong stings, and on each sting, were encrypted words Matt did not recognize. His fears were now replaced with surprise and confusion. The bow was beautiful and harmless, with nothing to suggest if it had been used.

"There might be a quiver" He said as he kept the bow carefully and picked up the envelope. He was surprise that this time, the envelope couldn't even take all his fingers and it was totally empty.

"Amazing, this calls the laws of physics a bluff. How can this little envelop swallow up this mighty bow?" That question was left unanswered as a hard knock came thundering on his little old door.

As quickly as he could, Matt slot the bow back into the envelope, drop it on his bed and rush to answer the door; with hope that the Sender of the envelope might be the one knocking impatiently.

"So Matty, you've been holing up in here hmmm?" asked the face on the door. Matt needn't raise his head to know who the voice belongs to.

Kyle his brother was more muscular than Tim or him. He was blonde naturally but he always wears dyes and today, his hair was a shade of green and red, and his mouth smell of hard wine. He also had a chunk of food in between the incisors of his upper teeth.

"I just returned" Matt replied not meeting his eyes, he was both disappointed and angry –

And there it came like a blast. Matt thought he saw stars in the galaxy as Kyle struck him hard on the face.

"Is that the first thing to say to your elder brother? We Gray's are respected for our good manners, where are yours? In that abase you call stomach?

"Am so...r...ry bro" Matt stammered, unsure of what to say.

"Since you decided to skip your morning chore for heaven knows what, get the broom and start it now, I mean NOW". Kyle shouted "And don't even think of sending those imps of robots you created or I would send them to the iron smith".

Matt nodded sadly; his brothers rarely never watched TV, they would have seen him on the television that day, and hopefully would have been showering him with endless praise. But, somewhere deep down Matt was glad they hadn't, let it come to them like a cloud of surprise, and before they would have the sense to see the genius they hardly noticed, he would be long gone.

"And have your room.... What's that?" From the door Kyle's eyes had caught the object sitting on the bed.

Now, Matt was sweating all over

"It's nothing -" He trailed off as Kyle struck him harder on the cheek. He didn't need a mirror to tell him that his fair cheeks were already red.

Matt stared in horror as his brother pushed him aside and walked in. He picked up the envelop - which for reasons unknown were already sealed - and whistled.

"Look what we have here, so Matt is now exchanging letters with girls?" Kyle chuckled crookedly. The seal on the envelope won't budge when he tried to open it; he looked at Matt from the corner of his eyes and decided not to force it open in his presence.

"Get to work" he said as he walked out of the room with the envelope in his hands.

"Please, give it back to me." Matt said tearfully and hurried after him.

Tim was sitting cross-legs on the old cushion chair when Kyle and the weepy Matt walked into the living room. He had a bottle of wine on his hands and his blonde hair was also dyed white. Despite their mother's warning, Tim would never quit drinking and smoking. He was skinnier with pale yellow skin and his cheek bones were out of his face as though he lacked proper nutrition. Matt sometimes had doubt as to whether Tim was his brother; he looks nothing like the Zonna's family, even though his blonde hair says otherwise.

"Our BL.S brother is in love" Kyle said with a smirk as he tossed the envelope to Tim. Matt went black; he hates it when they call him BL.S, which is short for Bottomless-Stomach.

"AWWUU gross, who is the unfortunate girl" Tim flipped the envelope in his fingers trying to find a weak spot.

"Who cares, just come on let's go, we would be late for the party"

Matt would have asked what party they were attending, but maintained his peace, it would only make his poor cheek hurt. Tim struggle up to his feet, the acrid stench of wine filled the air when he speaks and it made Matt's stomach churned.

"You will never read it" He said as he tossed the envelope into the fire of the hearth and fell in steps with Kyle. They both were laughing wickedly, as the hissing sound of the burning paper seemed to drown Matt's cry.