Learn To Drive

"Can you please control yourself?"

"How do you expect me to do that?!"

Monette wiped her snot with the back of her hands and Iris grimaced with disgust. She hasn't stopped crying since Calixto sent her parents back to their apartment and they followed his words like zombies.

They had been standing just at the garage, huddled side by side with their back on the wall, waiting for Calixto.

Monette bumped Iris's shoulder with her fist.

"Why did you have Calixto take me too?"

"I didn't," she glared at her, rubbing her shoulder. "You kept on pestering him, that's why he decided to take you too. Why do you have to blame me for that?"

Iris stepped away from Monette and strained her neck to the direction of the main house. She wondered what kept Calixto. He said be ready in half an hour and she was here in the garage as soon as she could and she had been waiting for more than half an hour but he hadn't shown his face.

"They are my parents! What do you want me to do?" Monette yelled. The tears in her eyes were gone and they were replaced with anger and fear.

"I want to say sorry for what happened to your parents but I can't. With the way they treated me all these years, I don't think I would feel any pity for them…but—" she raised her hand when Monette opened her mouth. "I feel pity towards you because just like what you said, they are your parents." She said, ignoring the anger in Monette's eyes.

"I also don't know what Calixto was doing. I don't know a lot of things and I wish I had a way of knowing but I don't." Her voice softened because at the back of her head she felt a tick that seemed to disagree with what she had just said.

She knitted her brows in wonder. Since she woke up this morning, she felt strange. She wasn't able to pponder her thoughts because Calixto choose that moment to show himself

"You know how to drive?" He asked Monette, throwing her the car keys without waiting for her reply. "Drive!"

Monette missed the car keys and she scrambled on her knees to pick up the car keys that rolled down on the garage.

Iris yelped in surprise because Calixto grabbed her elbow and dragged her to the car. He opened the backseat and shoved her inside and he quickly followed.

They were already sitting in the backseat when Monette got in the driver's seat.

Monette fixed the rearview mirror as soon as she got in, trying to catch Iris eyes but she had pressed herself to the door on her side, putting a big space between her and Calixto who was sitting right behind the driver's seat.

"Master, where are we going?" She asked after starting the engine.

"Just drive to the interstate and from there I will tell you where to go."

Iris snapped her head at Calixto's. She was almost never out of the house. Knowing that they are driving out of the state excited her but she kept her facial expressions to a minimum. She didn't want Calixto to know that the interstate would be the furthest she had traveled away from the house.

Theo had bored into her head that the house was the only place that was safe for her ever since she could remember.

When she was about eight, she tried to get out of the house. Her curiosity got the better of her that she ventured out of the house. She took the opportunity to get out while everyone was busy celebrating Monette's birthday.

And that was the last time that she got the courage to get out of the house because she learned first hand that despite the many lies that Theo and Minerva had told her, the fact that she wasn't safe outside was true.

She hadn't gotten that far from the house when two men grabbed her and she wasn't even done crying with fear before the two men who got her were killed in a gunshot and the one who killed them took her to an abandoned hospital and tried to dry her of her blood.

That was enough of a lesson for her that when Minerva suggested to Theo to keep her in the basement, she didn't cry and complain. The dark musty basement was the only comfort she had for so many years until she found a way to be part of the outside world without leaving the safety of the basement with the help of her computer.

Now that Calixto came into their lives, she had no idea what would happen. But unlike Monette and her family, she was excited with the changes because she wanted to venture out again.

This time she was armed with knowledge. The only thing that she was waiting for was to test out if she could protect herself with the knowledge that she knew.

Monette's family saw the awakening of Calixto as a hindrance for living off the richness of Calixto but she found Calixto's appearance as an opportunity to test how dangerous it still was for her outside.

She glanced at the rearview mirror to look at Monette who had her full concentration on the road and wondered if she could also learn to drive. It would be a useful skill to learn and helpful to move around quickly.

"Do you know how to drive?"

Iris jolted up from her thoughts and stared at Calixto with anticipation.

"No. But can I learn?"

"Why Monette can and you can't?"

She glanced at Monette in the rearview mirror. Her gaze was warning her to lie.

Iris returned her eyes to Calixto. "I haven't told Theo and Minerva that I want to learn," she said not to help Monette but because she didn't want Calixto to ask too many questions on why she could not drive.