Life by Patricia Silva (e books for reading TXT) 📕

My only reply to that was a sigh.

"Siena, she told me that, after she comes home, she's going to take very good care of you, and you're going to be spending alot more time at home."

"Yeah, after you told her that you take better care of me than she does."

He looked at me for a second, then pursed his lips and looked down. "I know, I shouldn't have said that, but-"

"But it's true," I said.

He looked at me. "I know," he mumbled, looking away.

I opened my mouth to speak, however, I was interrupted when Tomas spoke instead.

"How about we eat out for dinner? Early-ish dinner?" he asked.

"Okay," I shrugged.

So we did. We had a good time, and when we got home we had a good night. I was almost positive that the rest of the week would be good, well except for school, of course. In fact, I was pretty sure that the next two months would go good. Great, even.

And I would end up being right.

For the most part.

It was finally saturday again.

After we arrived home from the castle, the next week went by slow. It wasn't a bad kind of slow, it was actually pretty enjoyable. I didn't take my medicine, though I didn't have any bad dreams. In fact, I don't think I had any dreams at all.

School didn't seem so bad either. In p.e. on monday, I actually decided to run fast, but I ended up tripping. A really tall boy named Mark helped me up and he ran the rest of the mile with me. After that I realized for the first time this year that I had pretty much all of my classes with him. He only had a couple friends, Josh and Ronnie, and the four of us started hanging out.  They're all funny, stupid and kind of perverted, but they were pretty cool. Mark had green eyes and long-ish dark brown hair; Josh was an inch or two taller than me, had brown eyes and brown hair, and always wore beanies; Ronnie was the same height as Mark and had light brown eyes, black hair and a septum ring.  For the first time ever, I actually didn't mind going to school anymore.

When I woke up on saturday the first thing I did was open the window, letting the sun pour into my room.

Then it hit me. The one thing I hadn't thought about at all in the past two weeks. Blake.

Not that I was suppost to think about him, according to Tomas. But still, Blake was my best friend. Today was May third, in exactly one week Blake was going to turn fifteen.

Since it was getting warmer, I put on a grey tank top and some skinny jeans, then grabbed my phone and my wallet and headed downstairs.

 "And where are you going?"

I turned around. "For a walk."

Tomas walked down the stairs and stopped in front of me on the last step. "Where to?" he asked.

"In town," I replied.

"By yourself?"

"I've been to town by myself before. I'm fine."

"Did you think to inform me of your 'walk around town'?"

"I was going to..."

"After you already left?"

"Maybe..."

He sighed. "I'm fine with you going, but next time just tell me, alright? What if I'm looking for you? Especially with the contents of that letter, you just never know, Siena."

There's the other thing I had forgotten about. The letter.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry," I said.

"You have your key?"

"Yes, sir."

"You have your phone?"

"Yes, sir."

"You know your way around, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're alright with out a jacket or something? You're not gonna get cold?"

"Yes, dad! Jeeze. You don't even deserve to be a dad, you deserve to be a mom. An over-protective one at that."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I just want you to be safe," he replied with a grin.

"I'm fine. I'm gonna be fourteen next month. You've taught me everything I know. Every single thing. Don't you trust yourself?"

"Well, my parents didn't trust me when I was your age, however, I suppose that was centuries ago, so..."

"I'm fine."

"I know."

I stepped back slowly. "So...see you later then?"

"Alright...have fun?"

"I will."

And I was out the door.

I turned left down RainCloud Street because the name of it interested me. Like lots of other streets in Mead, it was lined with little shops and a few small resturaunts here and there.  One store caught my eye; it didn't have a name on it, though it had a picture of a wolf howling up at a full moon on the window, in the window there was a male mannequin wearing a black shirt, jeans and a grey hoodie, next to it there was a female mannequin wearing the exact same outfit but the girl version.

I walked in and looked around, liking quite a bit of the clothes. I walked over to the guys' section, where I found a necklace with a small wooden wolf charm with black eyes. I took it and continued to look around. Then, considering I'm not much of a purse girl, I found one that I liked. It was more of a bag than a purse. It was made of fake black leather and had studs on it. I looked at the price, which was very cheap. Come to think of it, everything in that store was really cheap.

I decided to get the bag and after a bit more looking around, I went to the check out. The cashier was a man with dark green scale-skin, wearing a dark grey shirt. At first, I thought the scales made it hard to tell if he was young or old, but then again, I was on planet Tyren, not planet Earth, so that didn't matter. I mean, Tomas was over three-hundred years old, but looked as if he were in his early twenties.

Before I left the store, I looked behind me one last time. I realized that I was the only one there, though considering just how many little shops there were in this town, I guess it wasn't that odd. But I looked at the register and the cashier was gone.

I went outside and took my new bag out of the black plastic bag that didn't have a name on it. I folded the plastic bag and put it inside the leather one. I put my phone and wallet in there, too. I looked at the receipt, but it didn't have the store's name on it. Neither did the tags on the bag or the necklace.

I walked back up RainCloud street, turned a few corners then went down Maine street, which was always busy. I headed to Between The Lines, the biggest book store in town. I browsed around for a while until I found a book that Tomas had, which I had read at least five times before. It was about a wizard prince and a werewolf girl who fell in love.

I don't think I ever realized just how ironic my liking of this book was.

I bought it and put it in my bag. At this time my stomach realized I hadn't eaten anything all morning, so I went across the busy street to a smoothie place and bought a smoothie, then headed home.

 When I entered the house there was a muffled voice coming from the office. Using magic, I sent my stuff up to my room while I slowly crept towards the closed office door. Tomas was yelling but I couldn't quite make out all of the words. He was on the phone with someone and, from what I could hear, it sounded like my mother.

Then, he hung up and the house was silent. I pressed the side of my head against the wall next to the door. He dialed a number on the phone and began another conversation. This time he didn't yell. His voice was barely higher than a whisper that I couldn't hear that well. He obviously wasn't talking to my mother anymore.

I stood there, straining my ears for no results, for about ten minutes. Before I knew it, the house was completely silent again. I didn't know what to do.

"Come in here, Siena," he said loud enough for me to hear if I were outside.

I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip. Then, I opened the door and slowly walked in. Tomas was leaning against the table in the middle of the room. He was facing the door with the phone in one hand and an envelope in the other.

"How'd you know I was home?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I guess it was nothing to worry about," I said, nodding at the envelope in his hand that had my name written in cursive on the front,"I mean, nothing happened, like how it said."

"Siena." He looked at me with slightly glowing eyes.

"What? What's the matter?"

He handed the letter to me. "I found this on your bed after you left," he explained," and I have a feeling you're not the one who put it there. It's not the same letter."

"What?" I muttered, staring at the envelope in my hands, everything was exactly the same, except on the back there was a small, red wax seal.

"What does this one say?" I wondered.

"I don't know, I didn't open it yet. I thought you better open it."

So I did.

  You were not meant to recieve the previous letter. It was sent out after I ordered it not to be. I couldn't keep my word of the other letter, however I will keep it of this one.

You have a great power. A power in which I wish to have. A power in which I intend on possessing. I will have the gift of life one way, or another. Though, how I get it is entirely up to you.

You can give your sister the chance to never have to experience the side effects that you have. You can do so by meeting me in the forest, in front of the old house, at midnight.

Or, you can have no side effects, for the rest of your life. You can do so by sleeping that night, while I take your sister, instead.

 I will take one girl on midnight of next saturday. You have exactly one week to make your choice.

Choose wisely, Princess.

                                                                  -C.H.

 "What does it say?" Tomas asked.

I looked up at him and hesitated before saying, "The other letter...it wasn't real. This one is."

"What do you mean real?"

"I mean I didn't meet with whoever sent the letter last time and nothing happened. But, this time, if I don't meet with them..."

"Something will happen?"

"They'll take Sophia instead," I whispered.

"Siena, that's what the last letter said," Tomas said, stepping closer to me, "how do you know this one is telling the truth?"

"I don't... but... should I really take a chance?"

"Siena, meeting up with whoever is threatening you is taking a chance."

"But..."

"But what?"

"If this is real... I'd rather they take me than Sophia..."

"Siena... she's your little sister and you want to proctect her, I get that. But you can't just-"

"Do you really?"

"Yes... My brother... he would've done anything to keep me safe. And he did... That's how he died. Siena, I'm not going to let you end up like that," Tomas said, his eyes glowing.

My eyes were glowing, too. A tear escaped from the corner of my eye and ran down my cheek.

"Tomas, what are we gonna