The Secrets We Keep

Chapter 2

We got to our house in what felt like a lifetime. We pulled into the garage and I realized my parents weren't home yet. I had enough time to make dinner before they got home. I got out and went to the kitchen to get started. I decided to do something simple since it was later than I normally made dinner. When my parents got home, my mother went straight into the kitchen and smiled at me. My father went straight up stairs to their room, Arya came running after my mother with Lucas hot on her tail.

" How is his mood?" I asked, gesturing to my father as he disappeared.

"Well it's your dad, so what other mood is he in?" I sighed at my mother's response. I knew how my father could be, so as soon as I finished cooking, I called for the rest of my siblings, made me a plate and went up stairs before my father made his way down.

As soon as I closed my door, I heard my father stomp by to go get his dinner. I decided to throw a movie on and get comfortable and eat. There was a knock on my door, then it opened, letting Arya and Lucas in and jump on my bed, sending my dinner flying.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?! LUCAS AND ARYA GET OUT!" I regretted it as soon as I said that, only because my father was standing in my doorway.

"Erika! Calm yourself now!" He yelled and my little brother and sister ran out before I had the chance to get them and pummel them for causing a mess and drama I tried to avoid.

"Calm myself?! The brats came in and made a mess!"

"It looks like it was your plate. Why blame them?" I hated my dad. He never cared for what I had to say or felt. It was always about Arya and Lucas. Uriah used to be included in that, but as he got older he was less important, just like me, Zeric and Alana.

"Ugh you always take their side!" I felt my anger spiraling. I decided to leave before I let it get the best of me. I pushed past my father, who tried but failed to stop me. As I made my way down stairs, the rest of my family was standing at the base of them staring at me.

Zeric grabbed me hoping I would stop, but that angered me more. I was relatively strong for a girl, so when he grabbed me, I used the momentum and slammed him against the wall and ran out the front door.

We live out on a ranch, so it was away from everyone. It was getting dark but I didn't care. I ran until I came to a river bank and climbed up a tree that had a thick branch that hung over it.

I sat up in the tree enjoying all the fresh smells of nature. Being out in a forest always calmed me and brought me back from an uncontrollable rage.

About 30 minutes had past when I heard leaves rustling on the other side of the river. I steadied myself as I watched to see what it was. I saw what looked like a huge black wolf making its way down the river. I watched it in awe and I was amazed. As I was watching the wolf make its way down the river, I heard voices coming from the direction of our home.

"Erika!"

"Sissy, stop being dumb and come back!" I looked towards where the wolf was and it was gone. I jumped out of the tree right as my brother got to the base of it and I landed right in front of him. It always gave him a spook and I loved it.

"Dont do that!" I chuckled when he yelled at me.

"Shut up idiots, we aren't alone." I pointed to the other end of the river where the wolf was. "There was a black wolf. I'm pretty sure you all scared it off."

"A wolf? Ha are you joking?" Alana laughed at me and gave me a look of disbelief.

" Don't believe me, but I'm going to find it."

"Great are we running away again?" Uriah was definitely the least athletic of the four of us.

"No Uriah, I'm going by myself. You three losers are going home." I looked at all three of them annoyed and I started across the river. I was about waist deep when I heard the three stooges behind me. "Oh my God, hurry up if you guys are coming!"

"Shut up Erika, it's cold!" Alana yelled at me.

"You shouldn't have worn shorts dumby!" I yelled back. As I reached the other side, I was sure going after this wolf was a mistake, but I had never seen one before. My brothers and sister made it across a lot quicker than I expected, so we were able to make it to a clearing in the direction I thought it went.

"Where did it go?" Zeric asked. I just rolled my eyes and turned on the flashlight on my phone and kept walking straight. As we were walking through the clearing, something started to take shape. As we got closer, it looked like a castle. Uriah thought it was the coolest thing ever. We walked around it and found a door. It was pitch black inside. Especially now that the sun was down. It had a sense of dread in it. I thought it would be fun to explore, so I made my way in alone.

"Hey, wait for us!" Uriah called behind me.

"Well, hurry up. I wanna look around." I smiled as I followed the hall that led to what looked like a living room/game room type of den. "I wonder where the people who own this place went?" It looked like it could have been some type of hotel or something. It had an odd smell lingering in it, it smelt like death.

"I don't think they're alive." I heard Zeric say from somewhere close to the front door. He was looking down at something so we all went over to see what it was. It was old blood that stained the carpet. I squatted down and examined it. It confirmed my suspicions of the smell. It looks really old. I moved the light I had shinning on the floor, to what looked like a huge stairway. Zeric appeared next to me. I looked up at him.

"What is this place?" He looked uncomfortable.

"Zeric, if you don't like this, go home. I don't always need you to come with me." I broke the silence, making sure he knew I wasn't asking him to do something he didn't want to do.

"I followed you into this world, I follow you everywhere. You're my sister, and I came into this world to protect you." I chuckled slightly.

"What?" He could feel me looking at him.

"Oh nothing. You're scared, but you still want to go up there?"

"No you want to go up there." He snapped back at me.

"Yeah, but I'm not afraid of whatever is up there."

His line of sight never changed from the stairs case, even with me giving him an out. I patted his shoulder and made my way up the stairs. I made it to the second floor before anyone else. There was another open area much like downstairs that looked like a living room. I walked through it and saw a couple of different hallways. Uriah picked one and went on his way to explore and so did Alana. Zeric didn't move as he looked up and saw more stairs to another floor. I walked up to him and bumped him with my shoulder.

"Stop that!" He yelled at me so loud I swear the room shook. I rolled my eyes at him and started up the stairs with him following me. I got to the top and got a sudden chill that made me freeze in place.

"Now who's scared?" He asked sarcastically as he pushed past me and used his light to shine on the door to this level. He looked back at me curiously and I nodded. I caught up to him and he pushed the door open, entering first with me right behind him. I walked into the corridor that seemed like a mile long. There were splatters all over the walls and floors. I walked up to a wall with the discoloration and reached out to touch it. Before I made contact with the wall, my brother grabbed my hand. I looked at him about to be offended and say something but he spoke first.

"It's blood, Erika. Don't touch it."

I put my hand down and shivered and walked on. There were a couple of doors to the left that were offices, in the same condition as the hallway. Same for the doors to the right. One was what looked like a master bedroom. But it was untouched. No blood, but cleared out of everything but the furniture. Zeric turned around and walked out of the room. I followed him further down to the next room. It looked like a child's room, the same as the last cleared out, but there was a large spot that was a pool of blood. I was imaging how horrible the scenes throughout this place probably was. We looked around the room and I found a bear by the side of a tall dresser. Turned around to show Zeric and found him kneeling down by the large blood stain.

"Zeric?"

"What happened here?" He whimpered. His voice sounded so hurt, I didn't blame him. The thought of what incident occurred here hurt me. I got his arm and pulled him to his feet, and turned him so we could leave when two figures whose eyes looked like they were glowing were in the doorway. We screamed and so did they.

"Geez Alana and Uriah! What is wrong with you?" I yelled once I realized it was them.

"Us? You two are the ones that started screaming! What are you doing in here?" Alana laughed at the miniature heart attack they gave us. Zeric's shoulder bumped them on his way out, annoyed. I followed him, feeling his exact irritation.

We went down the stairs out the front and kept walking. Our siblings following us followed jokes as we exited the building. We all walked on and came to another building that looked just as interesting as the last. Of course us, being us, decided to go inside. We each explored the building in our own direction. It was some type of medical building. Each room had a bed and outdated monitors. It looked exactly like the first building with old blood stains everywhere. I followed the hall I was in till it connected to another. Then I saw Uriah standing there at the end facing down another hall.

I stayed where I was and watched him. He slowly stepped forward and reached the door leading down to the second hall. I decided to play a prank on him and quietly made my way down the hall hiding in the shadows. I was a couple of feet from where he was standing and just before I was about to jump out, I heard a growl coming from behind me. I slowly turned around and stood up and Uriah saw it too.

"Erika, what is that?" I could hear him start to get scared. I backed away from the direction it was coming from and reached him.

"Open the door and go in." I kept my attention toward the dark hall that was barely lit up by moonlight shinning through the windows. I saw a figure that was in the shape of a dog, but then I realized. "Its a wolf." I whispered to my brother.

"What about you?" I heard him as the door creaked open. I wasn't about to stay out here and get eaten, so I took a few steps back closer to the door. I stepped on the broken glass and it made a crunch and just like that it snarled. It gave me enough of a scare and to top it off my brother and sister came running and slammed into me and we went straight through the door and Uriah closed it right after. He stuck a metal pole through the handles to keep the wolf out.

"Geez! You guys have impeccable timing." Uriah chuckled after our brush with death. "Now is there any way out through here?"

"I guess we are about to find out," Zeric said. We all made our way through the building and we came to a room at the end of the hallway.

It was a L and D room. Everything was prepped for a baby's delivery. The only thing that freaked me out was all the blood stains everywhere. The question Zeric asked earlier flashed into my mind: what happened here? The window was busted out so I was about to direct us out when I turned and saw Uriah at the incubator meant to hold a baby.

"Do you think it lived?" I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

"I'm sure it did bubba."

"I don't." He said flatly.

We didn't have time to just stand around. It was really late by now and it was a long walk home. I explained to them it was time for us to head home. They all agreed. We jumped out the window and ran. I swore my dad was going to kill me but I didn't care.

The rest of the way home we all laughed and joked around, pushing and playing around like we always did after a bad day. By the time we reached the river it was well past midnight, so it was freezing cold at that time. But we didn't care, we crossed it all joked about how cold it was. After we crossed the river it was about a 15 minute walk home. And all I wanted was to go to bed and sleep. I decided to have some more fun and pushed Zeric. He stumbled and I ran laughing. All three of them ran after me, I took a small detour through a field that I thought cut through closer to my house.

We hadn't had so much fun in months. I felt bad because it was my fault. We hadn't had so much fun in months because of me. I looked back at my siblings running behind me laughing and having a good time. All I could think about was how much I missed this, how much I missed them. I really believe my dad picked this place just to make us all miserable because it's a small town. It's a farm and ranching town. It was very similar to the last one we were in, but something about it was different. Something about it felt more like home.