"What?" Serena couldn't help it anymore. She came down the stairs and stood before her parents. She couldn't understand why they were arguing and exactly what they were arguing about. "What do you guys mean?"
"Abby is just stressed, she's talking nonsense." Her father said pointedly, looking at her mother.
"Richard, you can't stop me from telling her!" Abby protested.
"Telling me what? What was the stuff about being a prophecy child?" Serena wanted answers. All of this wasn't making any sense.
"Nothing!" Richard snapped but then he closed his eyes and calmed himself. "I need to talk to your mother alone, why don't you go out for a walk?" He asked nicely.
Serena reluctantly went outside. She didn't want to leave her mum and dad to argue with each other,she wanted to know what the problem was. Her curiosity had increased ten folds after coming out of the house but she decided to keep those thousand questions swirling in her mind for later, right now she really needed a walk.
She hadn't even taken four steps away from her house when her neighbor, Mrs. Bennett intercepted her.
"You guys are back?" She asked when she saw Serena. She seemed surprised.
"Yeah, I'm visiting for my birthday." Serena replied offhandedly.
"Oh, happy birthday! But I'm not asking about you, I'm asking about your parents."
"Wait, my parents are...back? Where did they go?" Serena wanted to grab her hair and pull them off her head. God, why was everyone confusing her?
"I don't know where they went but they were gone for a while. You didn't know?"
"No, or I wouldn't have asked." Serena said, annoyed. Why were her parents suddenly hiding so many things from her? Especially a thing like leaving their house. "When did they go? Did they look like they were going on a vacation or something?" She asked. She needed details.
"No, they definitely weren't going for a vacation. They were packing stuff and the day they left, they took a bunch of boxes with them." Mrs. Bennett told her.
Pieces started clicking together and things started making a little sense. So that's why some of the things were still in boxes, that's why the house was such a mess. They weren't leaving, they had come back.
And they were definitely hiding a huge secret from her.
___________________________________________________________
Serena's mind was conflicted. She wanted to confront her parents directly regarding their lies and secretive behavior but she also wanted to uncover everything on her own because she knew she would be handed another lie in answer to her questions. There was only one way to decide what to do now, she'd ask her grandmother for help.
Serena had always looked to her grandma for help whenever she couldn't take a decision or when she was unsure about herself and things. Even when her grandma passed away, Serena would visit her grave and tell her the problems that were bothering her, waiting for some sign so she could take it as her grandma's help. She was going to do just that now.
She hadn't visited this cemetery for over a year and now that she was here, she found her eyes tearing up thinking about her grandma. She had come to town with the original intention of visiting her grave so she could ask the meaning of her dream but she got distracted because of her parents. Now was the time to clear all her doubts.
Before going to her grandma's grave, Serena first searched for the graves of those women whose name she had read on various gravestones in her dream but she couldn't find any, except her great grandmother's. Her grave was normal, not at all like what it appeared in her dream. It was much older than the others around it which were fairly new.
Serena was tempted to stay and figure out the mystery behind her great grandmother's grave appearing in her dream but she decided against that and instead, went straight for her grandmother.
She spent sometime catching up with her. She told her about her thesis, her struggles to get out of her sister's shadow and many other relevant and irrelevant things. After she felt completely at ease, she decided to tell her grandma about her confusion and the doubt she had on her parents that they were hiding something big from her.
"They're lying to me now and they never lie." She told her grandma while she laid flowers on her grave. "There has to be something that they don't want me to find out, or at least dad doesn't. Mom wants to tell me something but dad silenced her everytime she tried to speak. I overheard their conversation and they said something about me turning 22 and then there was some talk about my right to know...maybe about some prophecy. I don't believe in this type of stuff, prophecy and all but mom sounded serious and I'm worried."
What if there was really something like a prophecy and it had something to do with her?