Descendant Of The Red Moon

The warmth of the sun kept tingling my face through the large window next to me. Enjoying the warmth, I close my eyes and shut everything around me out. It’s exactly as if the weather is a reflection of all my emotions and feelings. Like when I’m down or sad, the sky would be grey, occasionally accompanied by rain. When I’m really happy, the sun would shine with me together with a cooling breeze that would dance all around me. I always tell my friends it’s one of my superpowers, controlling the weather. Obviously they think it’s just silly and laugh as it’s probably just coincidence but to me, it’s really comforting.   Just like right now, the sun seems to enjoy the day as much as I do. However, my daydreaming got cut short when Lisa, my childhood bestfriend, slightly nudged me with her elbow. Opening my eyes I realise I’m still in English class with my favorite teacher miss Adams, who’s suddenly standing right in front of me.   “Victoria, I’d appreciate it if you at least tried to focus on my lesson. You don’t want detention on your birthday now, do you?” she says with a small smile, lightly shaking her head.   My birthday… My 19th birthday… For the record; yes I’m still in high school since I had to double a year.  Sucks, right. But I didn’t mind, I really liked going to school. Not necessarily for school itself but everything around it. People really don’t think about it much but to me, high school really projects my journey of finding who I am. School doesn’t just impact your career, but in a way it shapes who you are as well. So it really feels like a second home to me. A home that in 3 month I sadly will be leaving as we’re all graduating. But like I said, it’s my birthday and I intend to enjoy my little day so let’s not think to much about it for now.   “Sorry miss, I will focus”, I answer as I turn my attention back to the front of the class.     After one more lesson, the school day finally finishes. Together with Lisa, I make my way out of the school and start our walk home. Lisa and I practically do everything together. She really feels like a sister to me and even though we don’t look like it, we do sure act as if we were.   Lisa has straight blond hair and when she walks in the sun you could see all the beautiful natural in her hair. She is pretty thin but has the curves and the length of a model and her big green eyes make her look even prettier.   I, on the other hand, have bright ginger hair that softly waves till my waist and brown hazel eyes. My body, stretching to the incredible length of 5’3, is completely different as well. I probably have nicer curves but my waist and thighs are not even close to as thin as hers. But hey, I’m not insecure, we just have completely different body types.   Walking home together, I show her my new accessory around my wrist. “Oh my god Tori, that’s beautiful”, Lisa says as I show her the bracelet Benjamin got me for my birthday.   I got al lot of small presents and cards from my friends and classmates as I wasn’t really going to do anything special even though it’s Friday. I just wanted to keep it simple so we just celebrated my birthday during the break at school.   “I know…” I answer with a big smile that just can’t seem to leave my face today.   “Benjamin is so into you, you know that right?” she questions me as we continue our walk.   “Lisa, please. He’s one of my best friends. We really don’t see each other that way…” I tell her for the hundredth time.   “Are you sure about that?”   “I don’t know but can we not talk about it today, pretty please?” I say giving her a pout.   “Whatever, Sullivan. But just because it’s your birthday and because I’m just an amazing best friend”, she answers smugly.   “Sure you are, Jenssen” I reply throwing my arm around her shoulder as we continue our walk home.     Stepping up to the front door, I quickly look for my keys and wave Lisa goodbye. After finding the key, I swiftly unlock the door and get inside the house.   “Hey Tori, how was your day sweetheart?” my mom asks as I enter the kitchen and sit next to my little brother Jake behind the counter.   “It was really fun, mom. Except then that we had to dissect frogs today in biology”, I answer.   “Cool, I wish we did things like that in school”, Jake said crossing his arms and leaning his head on them on the counter.   “Believe me Jakey, it’s more disgusting than cool. Plus what business has a nine year old dissecting a frog”, I tell him patting his shoulder.   After a few minutes of talking with mom and Jake, my dad enters the kitchen and gives Jake and me a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.   “How’s my little family doing?” dad asks as he makes his way to mom and hold his arm around her waist.   I’m honestly really blessed with my family. My parents always told my brother and me to be open and truthful and that it’s fine to make mistakes, as long as you take responsibility for them. We really have a close bond and there are pretty much no secrets between us. People often describe us as the perfect happy family and in a way we were. I did manage to be the odd one in the family though. My mom, dad and Jake all have dark brown hair which is of course pretty different from my ginger hair. Except for my hair though I’m a spotting image of my mother. We don’t have any contact with the rest of my family, in fact I don’t know anything about them and it’s always been that way. It’s  a pretty sensitive topic with my parents so I don’t give it too much attention as they are all the family I need.   “So, what if you guys quickly go make your homework and then I’ll order Chinese food later?” dad starts getting my attention.   “Do we have to?” Jake whines as he drops his shoulders.   Dad just nods his head so with no other choice, Jake and I make our way upstairs to start with the horror called homework.     Two hours later we’re all sitting at the dinner table with the delicious smell of Chinese food filling the room.   “That’s really pretty present. You did thank Benjamin, right?”, mom said as I showed them the bracelet.   “Who’s Benjamin?” dad said, looking between me and mom.   “Just a friend dad, relax”, I quickly answer.   “It’s normal for her to have guys in her life, Matthew. It’s not like she’s engaged to any-“, my mother suddenly stopped and looked at my dad.   “Uhm, I just meant to say that it’s nice you have a friend like Benjamin”, she continuous giving me a nervous smile.   Okay then…   We just continued chatting about random stuff. Stuff like dad’s boring business deals, mom’s day at the store and Jake’s completely over exaggerated story about how he ‘destroyed’ the boy who had pushed him today. Just a normal family dinner at the Sullivan’s, but I wouldn’t have it any other way because one day I’m going to miss the moments like these.   As I want to take so more food on my plate, we suddenly hear our house phone ringing.   “I got it”, I stand up and make my way to the kitchen to where the phone is.     “Hello”, I say picking up.   For a few seconds it’s death silent on the other side of the line.   “Hello, who’s this?” I ask again.   I hear someone clear their throat before I hear their voice come through the phone.   “Uhm, it’s Alexander Richard. Can I get your father on the phone, Victoria?” I hear them say. By the way he pronounced his name, I’d say they’re French.   But wait, how does this French dude know my name? Dad never mentioned he knew someone French but it’s probably just a colleague or one of his business partners…   “Okay, just a moment”, I answer as I put the phone down and make my way back to the table.   “Dad, there’s a French guy on the phone for you”, I nonchalantly say plopping back down next to my brother.   All of a sudden the atmosphere becomes all tense as see my parents giving each other a worried look. He quickly looks back at me and tries to hide his nervousness with a small smile.   “Did he tell you his name, sweetheart?” he asks.   “Alexander something, I forgot his last name”, I reply looking nervously between my parents. My brother however, was being completely oblivious to the situation and just continued  eating.   “Okay, thank you Victoria”, dad says, getting up and giving my mom wary look.   As if sensing my nervousness about the situation, she quickly grabs my hand from the other side of the table and gives me a big smile.   “It’s nothing sweetheart. It’s probably just a work thing”   I just smile back, slightly relaxing and continue eating until dad walks in after a few minutes looking extremely pale. Mom stands up immediately, drawing the attention of both me and Jake.   “We’ll be in your dads office. When you finish, just leave your dishes in the kitchen and go to bed, okay?” she says sternly and immediately walks to the office with dad, not giving us anytime to reply.   There is something really, really wrong. They wouldn’t normally act this way and they most definitely wouldn’t shut us out like that. That’s not who they are. This is not good and I have a feeling that the phone call has something to do with it.   “Tori, what’s going on?” Jake asks looking at me with big eyes, clearly not comfortable with the situation either.   “It’s gonna be fine, Jakey. You’ll stay with me tonight, okay?” I say taking his hand in mine after which he nods his head.   “Why don’t you go upstairs while I’ll clean up”, I ask him. He just mutters an okay and makes his way upstairs while I start cleaning up the table.   After a good 10 minutes I make my way out the kitchen and hear mom cry as I pass dad’s office.   “What do we do, Matthew? She doesn’t even know the smallest thing about this, how do you think she’s going to react?” I hear her cry out.   “She’s not going anywhere, honey. He has no right to take her”, my dad answers as my mom starts sobbing harder.   This is not about me, right? Hearing that really didn’t help with my nervousness. I quietly make my way upstairs and get in bed next to my brother. I protectively put my arm around him and relax a bit as I hear that his already sleeping. I probably wont even sleep at all in this state. Great way to end my birthday…