None of us had any classes together, and we all had after-school practices or lessons that never left a day open. So we waited until the weekend. It was Saturday morning, and we-Shawn, Sakura, Autumn, Isabella, and I- were about to meet up at the bayou's edge, where there was a mini cliff, or a drop-off of sorts, about eight feet tall, where the land gave away and there was a steep drop into the water. We had installed a rope swing there about three years ago, when I was fourteen. We would throw each other in the water and seeing if they could grab onto the rope in time before tumbling into the freezing bayou. It was smaller than the one at the swimming hole, but it was more private; a place where just our class could go, and not be bothered by anyone else.
I was thinking about that as I trekked through the woods, scraping in between trees, jumping over underbrush, ducking branches, and detangling twigs from my hair. It used to be a more cleared path, but as we got older, we used it less and less, so the worn dirt path gave way to undergrowth, and eventually, trees.
I had woken up this morning and found it to be unusually warm for the end of October. It was going to hit seventy today. So I dressed accordingly, in a pair of jean capris and a short sleeve shirt, the color of mint leaves.
But I eventually made my way there, the last to arrive. I the trees gave way, and there was just bare, hard dirt, giving us about ten feet across and maybe six feet deep. And the others were already there, in a big, loud argument.
I parted the two branches in front of me and entered the clearing. No one had noticed I had arrived yet. So I just let them talk, catching only fractions of sentences. I wondered if any of them knew what they were still talking about.
Finally giving in, I cleared my throat and announced, "Excuse me."
Everyone ceased their talking and turned towards me.
"How long have you been standing there?" Shawn asked.
"About two years."
Shawn rolled his eyes.
"What were you even arguing about?"
"What to do." Isabella answered sheepishly.
"Did you come up with anything? Or just waste time?"
Before Isabella had the chance to respond, I said, "It doesn't matter. We just need to talk."
And we did. Sakura started off, just laying out everything we knew at that point. Then after a little while, Autumn went off on a what-if list, stretching as far as the moon.
I zoned out at that point, staring off at the water, lapping and playing in the bayou. I thought about it for a second, letting it seep all over my mind; that we're not in control. We've had no say our whole lives about what we were and weren't told. When you're younger, you're always told to listen to adults, that they know more than you, and make the right choices. But they don't. In the past. Present. Future. They never planned on telling us.
A voice cut through my thoughts, belonging to Shawn. "Then we stop guessing."
"What do you mean?" Isabella questioned, crossing her arms over her chest.
"We look into it." Shawn elaborated. "Up close and personal."
"Who?" I asked, rubbing my neck.
"Everyone we suspect and all the families we think are involved." Shawn answered.
"What if we get caught?" Sakura asked, her voice filled with concern.
"We won't. We'll make sure of it." Shawn assured her.
"This is crazy!" Autumn bursted out. "We're treating our friends and family like their suspects."
"But that's what they are," I said in a calming tone, but added, "For now. We don't know who we can and can't trust!" at Autumn's alarmed face.
"Who should we start with?" Sakura asked.
"All the verified Supernaturals in the group; their families."
"Who's our first suspect?" Isabella asked, uncrossing her arms.
Silence fell over everyone, thick and choking.
I broke the silence. "My dad."
"Are you sure, Vera?" Shawn asked.
"Positive." I thought for a second. "At least ninety-two percent."
"We can start with my dad first if you--"
"I'm sure. Think about it; why else has my dad so overprotective all these years? I mean, there's caring for your kids, but then there's insanity. Maybe he's been worried I'll discover my Supernatural genes. That was his way of controlling it, and controlling me."
"If you're sure?" Sakura verified.
I nodded. "We can check my house tomorrow. He'll be out all day."
Everyone else nodded.
"Tomorrow," Shawn stated. "We'll start our search."
***
The day was overcast and rainy, the air humid, thick with precipitation. It was warm again, and it appeared it would stay that way for a little while. I woke up that morning feeling like the weather. But nonetheless, I sprang from my bed, dressing for the day. I had a gray short sleeve shirt on, paired with a pair of black leggings, and my black running sneakers.
We had planned to meet at my house at twelve o'clock, and it was about to be that time in about five minutes. I was on my way down the stairs when my doorbell rang. I hurried down the last couple of steps and pulled the door open.
Sakura and Autumn were standing there, dripping with water. I invited them in, holding the door open for them.
"Are we the first ones here?" Sakura asked.
"Looks like." I answered. "Hungry?"
Sakura nodded.
I led them to the kitchen, and we popped a few pieces of toast in the toaster, waiting for them to pop.
Just as I sat on my island counter, the doorbell rang again, as if telling me I'm late.
I smirked, then jumped off, heading for the door. Turning the corner, I opened the door again, and everybody else had arrived.
"Join the party," I said, welcoming Shawn and Isabella in.
We all came in the kitchen, and Sakura and Autumn had nearly finished eating. When they were, we were ready to start our search.
"Where should we start?" Isabella asked, shrugging her hands in her front pockets.
"Maybe his room?"
We filed upstairs, and entered the first door on the right. My father had always kept his room clean, but now it was unkempt, matching his frustration with me. I also remember him yelling at me, going ballistic, whenever I went in his room. Maybe he was hiding something in there; something he didn't want me to find.
I mentioned this to my friends, letting them know to look in the less obvious places. They nodded and started searching, fanning out in all directions of the room.
I crouched down and checked under the bed. The only thing under there was a thick layer of dust.
Sighing, I sat back up and started rifling through the desk drawers. I found nothing of importance, just a couple of old photos… with my mother in them. They were of my mother, holding an infant me, smiling at the cameraman, most likely my father. She had the same smile as me, I noticed. I fingered the photograph, tracing the outline of myself. Then I snapped myself out of it. We needed to focus. I needed to focus. I put the pictures back, carefully setting them exactly how they were.
I turned to the rest of the room, but no one else had found anything.
"Anywhere else you can think of?" Autumn asked.
"Probably his office."
"Let's check there," Shawn declared, leading the pack.
He got to the bottom of the stairs, then asked me, "Which way?"
I stepped down off the staircase next to him. "This is what you get for trying to take control."
He rolled his eyes.
"To the right."
We crossed through the dining room, where there was a closed door. I turned the handle and pushed the door open.
The room was bigger than my father's room, that was as neat as a pin, not one paper out of place. There was a long desk in the middle, and every wall lined with bookshelves, save for the two doors, the one we just came through, and the one on the opposite side, leading in from the back kitchen hallway.
Fanning out again, we searched this room as well. Sakura, Autumn, and I searched the bookshelves, knowing full well what we found in the library at Autumn's house. While Autumn crept up on her tiptoes and searched the top shelves, Sakura and I, both shorter than Autumn, knelt down and checked under it, but found nothing. Then we pulled out books at random, checking the shelves, sliding our hands across the ones we were too short to see. Still nothing.
I felt an itch at the back of my neck. An instinct came over me, then I flipped the carpet up, hoping to find something down there, but found nothing.
Then Autumn, Sakura, and I joined Isabella and Shawn at checking the desk. But we still came up with nothing.
"Come on," I said, heading towards the door. "We're not going to find anything-"
"Stop!" Shawn blurted out at me.
I stopped in my tracks. "What?" I asked, spinning my head around, startled.
"Stomp you're right foot."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it."
I gave him a look.
"Trust me."
I mentally rolled my eyes at him, but I still complied.
The wooden floor board I was standing on, shook and wobbled, sounding hollow underneath.
I stepped off of it as Shawn came jogging forward, knocking on the wood. He pulled the rug off of that side of the room, and found a small latch and hinges installed on a few boards.
"Wait," I interrupted, "How did you-?"
"I think it's my animal half. I've been noticing intensified senses, like smell and sight. I'm also getting a little stronger, which is pretty cool, but I accidentally broke, like, three things the day I figured it out."
I nodded, impressed. "Do you think I���ll get those too?"
He shrugged, distracted. "We're different animals, so probably not the same stuff, but I don't see why not."
I smiled for the first time that day. Maybe there were more plus sides to my agonizing transformation that I cared to admit.
But, I returned to the present, as Shawn undid the latch, opening up the secret compartment. It wasn't a compartment at all, I realized as Shawn stepped back. It was an entire room.
Without thinking, I jumped down into the darkness, desperate for answers.
"Vera!" Isabella shouted as I jumped down.
I landed on my feet, dust coming up. It was colder in the small room, on a lower level. Something rattled next to my head. Turning, I saw it was a single light bulb, hanging down from a cord. I pulled on it and it illuminated the space. Then Shawn was landing next to me, causing more dust to cloud into the air. I coughed, fanning the air around my face.
"Thanks for the warning."
"No problem."
Then the others were jumping down, first Isabella, then Sakura, then lastly, Autumn. I nodded at them, then we scanned the room.
It appeared to be a version of the panic room. There was only one thing in the room; a small filing cabinet. I rushed to it, quickly opening it.
I scanned the papers inside, and they were mostly work stuff in the front, but the back held a black folder, with no label. I opened it, flipping through the pages. All I found were pictures, of barn owls, and an unknown place in the woods, with coordinates on the bottom of the page.
Barely even thinking of it, I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the forest location. I slipped the pictures back in the folder and clicked it back in place in the file.
"What did you find?" Sakura asked.
"Just some pictures. Of owls and a strange clearing in the forest. I have a copy of it on my phone."
"Are you okay?" Sakura asked.
I gave an exasperated laugh. "I think we're going to be asking each other that question a lot this week."
Sakura showed a pained smile. "I think we can take it. Do you?"
I nodded confidently.
"Good. Now let's get out of here before your dad gets home."
At her words, I pulled out my phone again and checked the time. It was about four o'clock. "You're right. He gets home around four thirty; it's four o'clock."
We jogged back to the opening. Shawn turned around, clasped his hands, and helped boost everyone up. Autumn went first, then Isabella, then Sakura, and finally, me.
Clicking the light off, I placed my right foot in his hands and both of my hands of his shoulders. He lifted me up, transfering from dark to light. I jumped off his hands. We turned around and helped heave him up, climbing out of the mysterious hole in the floor.
We closed and locked up the hidden room, and fixed the room as if we were never there. I led everyone out, letting everyone pass me, then closed the door behind me.
I let everyone out my house, a silent parade. As Isabella left, she placed a hand on my shoulder. I nodded at her and she moved on, pulling her hood up as she jogged down the street. Shawn was the last to leave.
He turned to me as he left and gave me a one-armed hug. I let him hug me, then let him go. "See you tomorrow," I called out.
He nodded, then turned down the street.
I leaned against the door thinking. Trying to interpret my thoughts was like trying to look through a dirty window, outside looking in, or trying to untangle the world's biggest knot, all jumbled and confusing.
I was upset about not finding anything concrete, curious about the picture, uncertain why Shawn hugged, and about not wanting to let go, and about there being a whole other room to my house that I never knew existed.
I gave up trying to read my feelings and closed the door. Turning back into my house, I looked at it from my perspective. It seemed to plain, gray, and ordinary. But there were so many things lurking beneath the surface. So many secrets, lies, and confusion.
Then I realized most things, and people, for that matter, wear a mask. What's on the outside never matches what's on the inside, even something as simple as a house.
People were much better at hiding their masks, but I knew by now, we all thought we did, but most of us were transparent more than half the time. I didn't understand why we try to hide it; most people know you well enough to not be fooled by the disguise.
I walked upstairs, and retreated into my room, closing the door, pressing my body up against it, trying to keep the rest of the world out. But it followed me into my safe place, and it wasn't going to leave. I crossed the room and sat on my window seat, hugging my legs close to my chest, staring out at the dark gray sky.
Lost in my thoughts, I tried to distract myself, so my thoughts returned to the dream I had from the night before. I was thinking about it while we were searching, but I was too distracted to put it in the front of my mind.
A teacher once told me that our dreams, or at least the ones we remember, are trying to tell us something. I tried to interpret my last dream, but I couldn't think where to start. I gave up and realized it was now much darker outside than it was the last time I looked up.
Checking my phone, it was nearly seven thirty. I got ready for bed, putting on a matching pair of navy blue sleep shorts and sleep shirt.
I sat back down at my window seat after I changed and brushed my teeth for the night. I wasn't hungry for dinner tonight.
I plugged my headphones into my phone and stuck them in my ears. I powered up my phone and scrolled through my apps until I found Pandora. I selected a rock/alternative playlist and nodded my head along, staring out the window, my thoughts floating in the air, free-falling through the sky.
I soon found my eyes drooping, my head slipping down onto my chest. Turning of my music and unplugging my headphones, I set them down, clicked off my light, and settled into my bed for the night. I could tell, it would be a rough night.
Flying used to feel free; that all my worries would just disappear, but not today. Today they stuck to me like cobwebs, sticky and dark, unwilling to come undone.
I felt like I was flying now, the day a whirlwind swirling around me. I saw images from the day flicker in my head, and then pass me by. I saw us ransacking my father's room and office, and I felt my feelings of hopelessness I had felt earlier.
Then the images flickered and disappeared, replaced by a new one, or rather, a replay, of me jumping down into the secret room, finding the picture, and hurriedly running out before my father came home. My turmoil of emotions rolled through me like ocean waves; large and destructive.
Then it shifted again, to the hug Shawn gave me before he left. The feelings I had felt came back to me, more clear than they were before; I didn't want him to let go.
I blinked in confusion. How come I had to dream this in order to understand my own feelings? I mentally asked myself. But I wasn't going to do anything about Shawn. We had more important things to be thinking about.
Then, as if I was watching a movie, everything went dark, and the wind came to a stand-still. Then I plummeted from the sky, no longer flying; falling.
I screamed, but they were soundless. No one could hear me. No one could help me.
I had been awake for a while, I supposed, but I had just laid in my bed, in a sleep state. The feeling of like you're asleep, but you're know you're awake, but you're not going to move, and pretend you're still asleep. Even though you're fooling nobody, not even yourself. Especially yourself.
But I finally sat up, yawning and stretching. I was always tired now. My days were filled with uncertainty, and my dreams were never peaceful, so my nights were restless. I hadn't had a decent night of rest ever since my first shift.
Still, I got out of bed and unhurriedly walked over to my window seat and grabbed my phone, sitting down again. I saw I had some texts from the group chat I made with Shawn, Isabella, Autumn, and Sakura.
It read:
Sakura- When do you guys want to meet up again?
Shawn- I'm free whenever.
Autumn- Same.
Isabella- me too.
Shawn- Where's Vera?
Isabella- I'll call her.
Autumn- And?
Sakura- Did she answer?
Isabella- No. She's probably still asleep.
Shawn- We'll wait for her.
I answered their texts.
Vera- I'm here now. I was asleep.
After a few minutes, I got a response.
Shawn- Good. We can all meet up at my house if you want.
Vera- I'll be there.
Autumn- Okay.
Sakura- Sure.
Isabella- Same.
I set my phone down and got ready for the day. I pulled out a pair of jeans, colored white. I paired it with a navy blue short-sleeve shirt. I brushed my hair out in small waves, leaving it down. Slipping on a pair of tennis shoes, I came down the stairs and turned out the front door.
I walked down the sidewalk, jogging at a steady pace. The shade from the trees above shone down over me, the wind rattling the branches and ripping harshly against my skin.
It only took about fifteen minutes to reach Shawn's house, even if he lived all the way on the other side of town. I knocked on his front door and within a few moments, he had opened it in a flourish.
He smiled. "Good, you're here." He took my hand and pulled me in, down to where he and Sakura were waiting.
Sakura smiled when Shawn came back with me.
I waved back. "Am I not the last one here?"
Sakura shook her head. "To be honest, I thought you'd be last. I guess the others are just slower."
We waited and talked until the doorbell rang twice more, bringing in Autumn and Isabella. When they finally arrived, we talked again.
"So what should we do now?" Isabella asked.
"The question is; who should we investigate next?" Sakura added.
"Well," Autumn started, "since we're already here, we could just check around here?"
Shawn nodded. "I already looked in all the obvious places around my house, but we can still try."
I nodded. "Where have you already looked?"
"My dad's room, for starters, then the garage, and the shed."
"What other rooms do you have in your house where he might hide something?" Sakura asked.
"There's a guest room, and maybe the dining room?"
"Let's check the guest room." Isabella stated.
Shawn led us down the hall and opened the door to the guest room, flipping the lightswitch on.
Starting our search, we spread out into the room. It was a simple room, with a bed in between two windows, a dresser, a trunk at the base of the bed, and a small closet. I swung open the closet doors, scanning the empty space; there wasn't even a speck of dust on the abandoned hangers.
I crouched down and skimmed the edge of the wall, seeing if there was anything on the floor. Discovering nothing, I moved on to searching under the bed. An obvious place to hide something, but the one place someone might skip over. Ducking my head down, I saw nothing except a piece of folded paper.
I pulled it out, sitting with my legs tucked under me. Unfolding the paper, I found it blank. I set it on the bed, and then pulled up the side of the comforter on the bed, to see if anything was hidden back there. There was nothing.
Tracing the rest of the room with my eyes, I saw no one else had found anything, or even gotten close. I felt the familiar sadness creep into my mind, and I stared ahead blankly, thinking. Then I remembered somewhere I didn't look: the trunk.
I spun on my heels and unlocked in a flourish. Pushing the lid open, a sprinkling of dust came fanning out, spreading its cloak over me, washing over me in a cloudy wave.
Coughing, I looked down into the trunk and found a small collection of books, their old leather spines cracked with age, the pages tinged yellow, smelling of ancient ink and old paper.
I reached in and grabbed the book on top of the stack. I flipped through it, and it was just an old story. Tossing it aside, I pulled out the whole stack and set it down on the carpet.
Once I had set down the aged books, I noticed my friends had crowded around me, noticing that I found something. We divided up the books, each of us taking one and scanning it, turning it upside down and shaking it, incase something was stuck inside, but there was nothing. They were just books.
I let my book fall from my hands as I fell backwards, sinking onto the carpet, the feeling of defeat clouding my thoughts.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and it was Shawn, trying to make me feel better. It wasn't working. But I didn't want to tell him that. He needed that. We weren't even looking for my secret. It was his turn to feel down, not mine.
I sat up. "I'm okay," I told him.
Shawn nodded.
"Do you have any more places we can look?" Isabella asked.
Shawn thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers, an idea sparking in his brown eyes. "The attic! I completely forgot about it. Maybe my dad hid something up there."
"Lead the way," Autumn said, gesturing forward with her hand.
Shawn inclined his head and started out the door, leading our group up two flights of stairs and down a small back hallway, and up a tall and narrow staircase, with rickety wooden steps and matching railings. Shawn scaled them and then opened the attic door, entering the dark and dusty room.
I was close behind him, and came in the dark doorway after him, a low-hanging cobweb finding its way into my hair. Ripping it off my head and flinging it on the ground, I kept going into the small attic, giving room for the others to come in. Shawn pulled down on the light bulb string, illuminating the small attic.
We all filed into the room, disseminating out against the walls, searching through the many boxes, attempting to find some clues.
I knelt down on the dirty ground next to a few closed boxes. I started rifling through the first one, looking for something… anything, to be a Supernatural connection we needed.
The search through the attic took much longer than we all thought. Shawn had many boxes in his attic, many of which were filled with old clothes and linens. The ones we had already looked through, we started putting them in the middle of the floor, out of the way of the ones we hadn't already looked through.
There wasn't chatter as we searched, focused on our task at hand. Or, at least none of us were in the mood for it.
I had already looked through about four boxes, all of them containing a lot, but nothing at the same time. Nothing we had found was helping us, so it was all useless, a waste of time.
Just as I was about to get up and be done for the day, Sakura called out, "Hey guys, I think I found something."
I sat up and walked over to where she was hunched over a box. I bent over to see what she had found, just like everyone else, my hair falling over my shoulders.
Sakura was holding a small collection of papers, scanning them with her eyes as she flipped through them.
"What are they?" Shawn asked, breathing in heavily.
Sakura flipped through the pages again, the paper crinkling in the air. "They're a little confusing, but they seem to be about you."
Shawn grabbed them from her hands, his eyes hungrily searching the pages, trying to decipher the content.
While Shawn looked at the pieces of paper, Sakura pulled Autumn, Isabella, and I aside. "Those pages," Sakura started, murmuring to us in a soft whisper, "Are written in some sort of code. With phrases represented by single words. His name isn't secret, but what it's talking about is. All we can really gather from this is that his dad knows, but we have no concrete proof of that."
I nodded. "So what do we tell him?"
"We need to be tactful," Isabella suggested.
Autumn, Sakura, and I exchanged glances.
Isabella noticed. "What's that about?"
"We had to do the same thing with Autumn," I explained. "When she found the letter from her parents."
Isabella nodded, and a look crossed her face.
Before I could ask her about it, Shawn cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to him. "This all means pretty much nothing to me, but at least we found something."
Shawn was right. It wasn't what we needed, but it was something; a start. And we would keep going until we reached the end we desired.