The ringing of the telephone was enough to get a person awake , Jack Thomas who was popularly known as Black Jack for reasons which are unclear is a trader in a little hardware store. Things couldn't get complicated in his life, everything ran in a simple routine.
Jack wakes up by 6:30 for his morning jog which lasts 30min then he skips into the shower, prepares breakfast, dress in his work clothes then he walks to his store.
This afternoon, the telephone's ringing was consistent but no one picked it up, Black Jack was out for the day. Who ever that was on the other end was persistent in delivery the message.
"It keeps going to voicemail,what do I do now? " the attendant looked up directing his question to the lady in front of him, "I could always leave a message behind if that would be preferable"
Venessa stared at the man wondering if that was okay. "Don't bother, I'll check on him later continue your dealings. "
With that she left the office and went upstairs into her apartment. The phone wasn't working in her room, Jack should have picked up the call. It was a Wednesday and he rarely went out during this time.
She picked up her laptop from the table and sat at the sofa to sketch out her plan once more.
Somewhere in the city
"Mom, be quick or we would be late,hurry up dad is already leaving" Rose glanced at her watch to note that had less than 5 minutes to reach the cinemas for the movie.
Today was the anniversary of her parents and they usually celebrated it with a large breakfast and a 4 hour movie, but the TV kept glinting of and on so they had to settle for the cinema to keep up the tradition.
"I'm getting too old for this. You say we like you are coming with us. Where is Zac by the way, can't he go with us?" She glanced around the room making sure it was tidy and in good care before they left. "Rose please do not break any more plates and also I have some old books stacked in the garage. The least you can do is to sort them out, rather than eat up all the pie" She rolled her eyes the entered the red van where Dad was waiting patiently. He zoomed off as soon as they were ready.
Rose waved them goodbye, after they left she ran into the house locked the doors ran into the living room up to the TV to watch her anime series which she was previously watching.
Zac was Rose cousin or so she thought, He was 4 years older than her and quite tall unlike Rose who was of an average height with red hair, the family thought it odd that she was red haired.After years at high school, she planed to leave the country to Africa where she wants to study Zoology. Zac thought that was dumb but Rose loved animals, she even had a duck as a pet when she was little.
"Zachary.! Come down here this instance, you still haven't cooked and Mom said you have to do the dishes"
She smiles to herself because she knows it's all a lie, besides Mom did mention something about the dishes.
Zac peeks his head out of the stairs leading to the upper floor. "What? You've got to be kidding, why would she tell me to do the dishes while you lay around doing nothing? "
Rose giggles "I don't know, you could have asked her but you were busy making gooey eyes with Vivian "
"You call that gooey eyes? You should she the ones you make while looking at Zayn. At times I can't sleep remembering it, it's that bad. " He laughs and walks down the stairs knowing he's hit a spot.
He stares at the TV and frown, "You are still watching this chinese cartoon , how old are you by the way, 15?"
She looks up and glares at him "No one and I mean no one calls that a cartoon it's like a sin to say that, and it's called anime" she holds up four fingers "You are four years older than me, do the maths"
He laughs and walk away into the kitchen and shouts "Bibi, you know I hate you right? " From the sofa she smiles "Bubu, the feeling is mutual"
She stands up "Ok, I'm heading out to the garage, Mom said something about old books been stacked there, please feed my fish while I'm gone"
"You say it like you are leaving for years or something, take your phone with you in case you get locked outside that door keeps getting stuck"
She locked the door and went round to the back of the house where the garage is located. She pulled the door open and was met with a dark dusty room. The family relocated to this place two months ago, most of their stuffs were still in here.
She pulled the door open and walked into the dark room, she switched on the lights and started to arrange the things in her way. Some books were clustered around a small shed she started with the small books rearranging them into groups of sizes, most books were old high school folders probably from mom and dad's days. It's popularly known that's they'd have had this relationship going since they were kids. Mom asked her to stack the books properly for memory's sake.
After 10 minutes off doing this, and another 20 minutes of going through the books, she left with some big folders of baby photos some were for her cousins, Zac, Lucas and Anthony but she couldn't find hers so she grabbed two with Zac's and headed in doors to torture Zac with his goofy baby photos.
On getting to the main door, she noticed it was slightly agar and she was sure she left it locked. "Zac, did you leave this open? "
No response came from him,with that she started to worry.
What if he had been kidnapped,this is what always happens in the movies.
Moving inside she noticed that the TV was switched off.
I left that off right? no need to panic i probably did.
"Zac?"
No response
She looked around the living room and couldn't spot him there, she left the folder on the dinning table.
" Zachary? This isn't funny"
She went up the stairs to check the bedrooms, she walked down the corridor and opened his door.
"Zac?" her voice was full with fear and doubt it was so tiny to show the fear in her heart, images from her past kept flashing and she had to fight back tears.
I can't loose someone else I can't bear it again
She moved the door to reveal an untidy room and Zachary lounged on the bed listening to music from his headphones, he looked up immediately to notice Rose already fighting tears, he quickly jump up from the bed and went to her leaving the headphones behind.
"Bibi,what's wrong?what happened? "
By now she was already crying her eyes out and was a wreck of sob.
He pulled her towards him, she kept muttering nonsense stuff that sounded to him like " I won't loose another person"
"Rose, please tell me what happened "
She wiped her face with her fingers gesticulating
" I went to tidy up the books Mom said I should on entering the house I saw the front door open and I'm sure I locked it, I called out your name and you didn't respond and I got scared, I thought something bad had happened to you or you left me, I checked the living room you weren't there I was so afraid thinking you might not be here in your room"
He looked down to meet her red face "Rose, no one is leaving you, you should have figured that I would be in my room
Sorry for not replying, my bad"
She moved away from his embrace and pushed him "What did you say about the front door being open. You locked it as you left so who would have opened it?"
"That's the same thing I thought, let's go down and check if anything is missing, we might have had an intruder"
They left his room with Zac checking the other rooms and Rose checking the living room and kitchen to be sure nothing was missing, after about 3 minutes Zac came back downstairs and into the kitchen
" Nothing seems missing from either of the rooms, what about here? "
Rose continued opening cabinets to be sure nothing was missing " I guess that all, nothing seems missing here too" He nodded and moved to grab the books on the table, "You brought these in? "
She turned around to face him "Oh yeah we haven't gone through it in a while thats why" the main intent was to frustrate him with teasings but the feelings died immediately she spotted that door open
" We have to tell them about this, maybe we would change our locks or something but if someone came in they would have done that with the intent to steal but nothing seems missing " He rubbed his forehead, something he always do while thinking. "Go and get some rest, don't over think your self, I'll sort everything out "
He pointed upstairs "Get going"
He pulled out his phone to call the neighborhood security
"Hello, we think someone broke into our house "
A chill went down Rose spine at the mention of that, she shakes off the feeling reminding her self that this was her life now. She went up the stairs leaving him behind to sort things out with security
".... I'm ordering new locks right now,what else?... No I haven't called the police..... There no sign of a break in or forced entry only that the door was left open, Yes we have gone through our stuffs nothing is missing, no one is missing..... OK, thanks"
She could still hear his muted voice from her room. She shut her door and laid down on the bed and closed her eyes trying to recollect herself.
What would we tell Mom and Dad
Memories from her childhood rushed into her mind,she could smell the fresh air from the trees, the noise from the birds, everything seemed natural until she started having dreams.
She was 11 when these dreams started. At first it was dreams about beautiful trees in clusters or a field filled with life and green earth, she would see herself walking around it, playing and giggling with Zac at her side then he would suddenly fall and disappear then everything would seize and the trees and plants would change form and disappear into mist. Then she would wake up and start crying looking for Zac.
Other dreams didn't follow that sequence, it would be a building or a happy spot with her and a loved one then it will all disappear and she would be lost.
Zac stayed with his parents then as their neighbors but after her dreams which became continuous, the doctors advised her parents to let Zac live with them. That's why he stay with them ever since. His Dad is her mom's brother so that was possible, his parents are retired government worker and they currently stay at a country house near their family and friends.
Zac wasn't fond of his Dad, they always had a disagreement. His sister Priscilla was the gentle soul in their family, she was 3 years older than him and she took Rose like her little daughter.
Their family was a happy one but Rose always had a feeling she didn't belong here and that was odd because she had always been here. At a young age, she had a crush on Zac and everyone thought it was cute that he came to live with them. They were like cousins for life ,they always went places together and he was her best friend.
Their friends at school thought them couples since they didn't bear the same surname and they hardly identified theirselves as family.
Her dreams stopped when she clocked 15.They had so many memories as kids but all that seemed like a joke now all she felt was a feeling of dread that something terrible bad was about to happen like her dreams going to come to pass.