A Relative
Arianna jolted up from her bed, panting as her heart raced like a car on a deathly race, racing for its life.
The dream she had every night— the unknown stranger she always sees in her dreams, the unknown people and also of her dying. And every night she had to wake up panting, with beads of sweats running down her head, and also recollect every horrifying piece of the dream. She had to recollect every detail of her dream, every of his touch, his hot breath on her neck, his sweet yet manly voice and lastly, the deathly look in his eyes.
She had been dying to get the better of her dream, know who the man who was hunting her dreams every night and get her life together. She looked around her and sighed in relief when she saw she was back in her room, it was obvious that all that transpired last night was all a dream, but to Arianna they felt so real, like she was reliving them over and over again.
She doesn't know why these dreams come to her and why that beast was after her life every single time and as always at the end, she ended up dying after professing her love to the beastly man, ironic. She sighed and shook her head, "no more thinking of that dream Arianna, you'll be fine. Everything is going to be fine." She got up from her bed, her legs still shaky as she walked to her bathroom. The first thing she did was to look at herself in the mirror, and this time she wasn't surprised when she saw some faint marks on her neck, wrists, and ankles.
"More makeup to hide these marks from everyone." She whispered, and laughed. The girl in the mirror was so different from the girl she knew before, she looked so thin with eye bags under her eyes, skin pale as that of a vampire and she was always tired. She sluggishly took her bath and after getting ready she came out of the bathroom but stopped when she saw someone sitting on her bed.
"What do you want, Nickel?" She asked, taking her dirty night dress to the basket beside the bathroom door.
Nickel gave her a grin but didn't reply.
Arianna sighed then walked closer to the bed, she was so tired and wasn't in the mood to deal with her annoying little brother. "Why are you here, Nicky?" She asked again, standing in front of him with her hands folded on her chest.
"Mum wants you downstairs." Nickel said, his eyes roaming round the room like it was the first time he was coming, no barging into his big sister's room without her permission.
"And?" She continued, knowing there was something more he was going to say.
"And, we seemed to have gotten a letter from a distant relative." His words made her paused, she eyed him suspiciously.
A relative?
"What distant relative are you talking about? The last time I checked and when I asked mum about our family, she said we don't have one, so what distant relative are you talking about?" Nickel scoffed and sat up on the bed.
"I saw it clearly Arianna, the mail man brought some letters and we both know we haven't received letters in like forever," he paused and gave his sister a look, and when Arianna nodded he went on, "so when this letter came this morning I was the one who received it from him, I took a look inside to know what I was taking inside and imagine my surprise when I saw a letter to my dearest sister." Arianna snorted.
"You took a look inside, or you went snooping on others business." Nickel let out a nervous chuckle.
"Whatever, but what are we going to do? Mum told us she didn't have any family, and now one just showed up out of nowhere." Nickel got down from the bed, and have her a pointed look.
Arianna's thoughts went wild, she was very sure they didn't have any family members apart from the three of them, her mother, brother and herself. So if this lady or whoever was claiming to be their mother's sister, then does that mean her mother has been telling lies to them? But why? They're her family, and they needed to know that they were alive and well, so why was she hiding from them.
"Listen to me, Nicky, I want you to act as if you didn't see anything. Act like you don't know anything, we'll wait for mum to tell us the truth, but for now, we won't pressure her." Nickel nodded in agreement. Maybe their mother had some things she would like to protect, or perhaps it was then she was protecting.
Arianna glances at her brother, "but that didn't give you the right to barge into my room as you like, Nickel. I was in the bathroom, for God's sake, what if I forgot my towel and decided to come out naked?" She asked, but he shrugged.
"I knew you were with your towel before stepping in and also, if that ever happened, know that you'll be the one who'll be embarrassed and ashamed." He winked at her and bolted out before she could hit his big head.
Arianna left her room after tidying up her bed and making everything sparkly clean, she took the stairs and smiled when the fresh scent of baked bread and cookies hit her. Her mother was at it again, and she would make sure to gobble everything up. She took a turn in the living room and found herself in the kitchen, she smiled when she saw her mother humming happily to herself while stirring whatever she was cooking in the pot.
She always likes to see her mother this happy, although they weren't that well-to-do like some other families, but their mother was able to provide three square meals for them and for that, she was deeply grateful about it and the one thing she ever wished for was to always see her mother happy.
"Oh, Blue, you're here!" She snapped from her thought and gave her mother a smile before walking in fully.
"Good morning, mum." Arianna back hugged her then pecked her cheek, peering into the pot from her shoulder.
"Morning, my sweet angel, how was your night?" Her mother asked.
Her night was horrible, but she wouldn't tell that to her mother, she would rather not add more burden on her.
"It was fine mum, what about you?" Her mother stopped what she was doing, then faced her.
"Are you sure you are alright, Blue? I heard you screaming last night, but when I came to your room you were sleeping soundly." She asked worriedly, and Arianna smiled. She always liked it when her mother called her Blue, although it was a weird name to her, she liked it whenever her mother called her that. Arianna still didn't know who gave her that name, and from the look of it she wouldn't say it was because her mother liked the blue color. No, her mother's favorite color wasn't blue but violet, so whose color was that.
"I'm fine mum and about that I thought I saw something on my bed, but it was nothing, just my imagination." She assured her mother, who nodded and went back to her cooking.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Arianna asked, although she could tell everything was almost ready by the look of things, but it wouldn't be bad to help out.
"Nope, I'm almost done here. You can help me with those, take them to the dining table and go call your brother." Arianna groaned when she heard that.
"I thought he knew breakfast was ready, then why is he still in his room." She grumbled. Her mother chuckled and shook her head.
"Be a good big sister for once, Blue, and go call your brother downstairs for breakfast."
"Fine." She stomped out of the kitchen, cursing and grumbling under her breath.
She went upstairs and passed the other two rooms before getting to the last room in the hallway. She hated coming to the geek of her brother's room, it was filled with books upon books and some wired diagrams on the wall.
She knocked on the door but didn't get any answer, she tried again but was met with the same silence, so she shrugged and turned to go downstairs. She stopped and groaned cursing again before walking back to the door, she placed her hand on the knob and luckily for her, it was opened. So she went inside, Nickel was nowhere in sight, the room was in disarray and the window was opened, so she panicked. One thing she knew about her brother was that, opening that window was like a death sentence to him. He liked his room dark and less airy, only taking the ones provided by the ceiling fan in the room and since that window was opened then something might have happened to him.
"Nickel!" She called out, roaming her eyes around the room for any sight of him, but still didn't see him. She walked straight to the open window and brought her head out to see if he was maybe out there but…
"Argh." She yelled and fell on her butts.
Her breathing came out fast and heavily, What was that? Nickel's laughter and taunting brought her back to reality, of course she should have known; her brother was and is always going to be a naughty brat.
"The hell Nickel! Why did you do that?" She snapped, standing on her feet.
"Don't know, maybe I love to see your reaction." He added, still laughing, and that did it for Arianna.
She got to where he was and immediately sparked his head hard.
"Ouch!" He groaned, taking a hug step away from her.
"That isn't enough Nickel, get back here!" She yelled going after him and so the chase began. Arianna pursued him until they got to the dining table, where their mother was already seated.
"What took you so long, Arianna?" She asked, ignoring Nickel standing behind her as his shield.
"Your son had to be so naughty mum, I was so scared that something happened to him only to see that it was a prank." She explained, breathing heavily, she took the chair closer to her mother and took a glass of water and gulped it down.
"I didn't do anything, Mum..... she was the one who walked into my room with permission." Nickel argued back, and their mother sighed.
She was already getting a headache from their fights.
"Take your seat Nicky, I won't repeat myself and Blue tell me what happened?" Arianna glared at her brother before explaining what happened to their mother.
"That's so not acceptable, Nickel, and for your punishment you'll have to uproot the grass in my garden." She said, and Nickel gaped.
"But mum…."
"I won't change your punishment, Nicky, so just faced your food. Now pray for us." Nickel said the prayers even though he felt wronged, after praying, he gave his dear sister a look and when she met his stare he whispered only to their hearing, "It isn't over yet." Arianna snorted then took her attention back to her food.