Soul of the Phoenix

Chapter 13

"You're kidding, right? An affair with your mother? The woman that we've lived with all these years?" Sakiya asked, shocked to hear this. She had no idea after all this time. "Well, it's a long story. To make it short, my mom was married off to my dad by her parents as a deal for their daughter to bring good fortune to them. My mom was in love with Reginald Luther, the man you guys just saw back there. I only know because I've caught them making loving gestures toward each other in the office. Mr. Luther works along side my dad at Polaris foster academy. He's not a foster parent, but he helps place children and deal with the inner workings of it all. From my understanding of the talk he had with me when I was a little younger and saw them kiss for the first time, him and my mom have always loved each other, but no one could know about it or else Mr. Luther and my mother could be killed for it. I've kept that secret until this day." Sylis explained. "Does your dad know about any of this?" Sakiya questioned, Maranda still looking interested in what he had to say. "No. They've kept it hidden. As far as I know, I'm the only one aware. Enough of that though, we have to get moving. Maranda, do you have a cell phone with you?" Sylis looked at her for an answer. She pulled her ceil out of the purse she had brought along, and Sylis quickly grabbed it and threw it to the ground, smashing it with his foot. Maranda and Sakiya both looked at him with shock on their faces. " Why would you do that?! I had so much on there!" Maranda told him angrily. He shrugged his shoulders and blushed. "I'm sorry, really, but we cannot have any devices that would elicit tracking. It's for your safety, the safety of all of us. In fact, it would only take one time for them to find us, and we could be dead meat. Now let's go, we have a boat to catch." Sylis said before walking away, the girls following behind him while Maranda was still huffing and puffing about her phone being broken. She had to get over it though. Sylis was right, it would just put them in more danger than they had already put themselves in by leaving.

The three of them continued walking through the woods, checking their surroundings each time they moved forward. They had to cross a large wooden barricade with a couple of tents set up in the woods as it seemed people had been staying there recently, but no one was currently around the site. They moved around it, Sylis breaking branches and clearing the way for the ladies to follow behind him without getting too many cuts or scratches from the long walk through there. They finally came to a small clearing, Sylis crouching down behind some brush that was positioned at the front of the clearing, motioning for them to do the same. He timidly peeked up to look through the clearing, the lake in full view with a few boats tied around the dock. He scanned the private marina, his eyes zeroing in on one boat in particular. "That's our guy!" Sylis said, the two girls slowly peeking up their heads to look at what he was pointing at. "Our guy? You mean the friend you told me about?" Sakiya asked. "Yep, now just to make our way over to him. Follow me, we can try and make it this way and come out on the other side by his boat to draw less attention." Sylis told them, moving away from the clearing, heading west to take the longer way around. The woods surrounded the lake on three sides, so they had to be careful not to run into anyone. "Are you sure about this?" Maranda asked neither one in particular. She was starting to be nervous. "Did you tell your mom you were leaving?" Sakiya whisper-asked. Maranda shook her head no. "Good. Yes, I'm sure about this. I'm more sure than I've ever been with anything in my life before." Sakiya stated confidently. "Don't turn your back on me now?" Sakiya stopped before looking at Maranda with those beautiful golden eyes, like a puppy dog. "You sure know how to get around anything, don't ya?" Maranda chuckled. "Come on, you know I'd never leave you hangin'." Maranda strung her arm through Sakiya's and they continued following Sylis through the woods, hand in hand.

As they were nearing closer to the side they needed to be on, they heard movement in the woods. They all stopped in their tracks. "What was that?" Maranda whispered. "Shh" Sylis mumbled, letting her know they could not make any noise and chance letting themselves be spotted. Coming out from behind a tree, they saw a beautiful white and black spotted wolf who suddenly stopped, staring in their direction. "Uhm, what do we do?" Maranda whispered to the side at Sylis while not taking her eyes off of the beautiful creature. "Let's just quit staring at it, and slowly walk away." Sylis said. He started backing away slowly, and then turned around to leave as Maranda copied his actions, but Sakiya was unmoving. When Sylis turned back around to see if they were following, he watched as Sakiya made her way towards the wolf. "Sakiya, no!" Sylis warned her, but she didn't care. She suddenly had this cold chill through her body as she locked eyes with the wolf, the greenery in them feeling familiar as if she had seen this wolf before, or knew something about it. Kind of like Deja Vu. Sakiya stopped though, listening to Sylis. She knew they didn't have much time and she couldn't spend it admiring the gorgeous being, she knew they had to keep making their way to the boat. I hope I'll get a chance to see you again, you magnificent creature Sakiya said to herself before backing away and leaving to catch up with the other two. "What were you thinking?!" Maranda scolded her when she made her way back next to them. "I don't know, it was odd. I've never seen anything so ethereal before," Sakiya answered, not revealing she had felt a connection to it, one that she didn't understand herself yet. She didn't know what had just happened, she couldn't explain it if she wanted to. "Well, now you have, come on!" Sylis sarcastically stated, Sakiya rolling her eyes at him. They moved through the trees for a few more minutes until they reached the edge of the woods they were going for. Dusk was starting to approach quickly, so they needed to get to the boat before it got even darker. Once they moved through another clearing, Sylis spotted the all black glittering boat with red pinstripe down its side. It looked to have 2 levels, and luxurious at that. "Wow." Was all Maranda and Sakiya could say about the view in front of them. The boat was definitely something that could have come from a boating catalogue. Sylis made the first move to start walking toward it, turning around to realize the girls were still standing there in admiration. He waved his hand in front of their faces, and they both shook their heads to get out of their trance. The boat was beautiful, but Sylis had to keep them on track. The girls followed him around the side of the boat, thankfully avoiding any confrontations up until now. Sylis approached the stairs, a middle-aged man looking to be in his 30s with blonde hair, big muscles and a tan line from his cut-off shirt on his muscled physique. The man shook hands with Sylis, before looking behind him and briefly scanning the two girls. "Sakiya, Maranda, I'd like you to meet Zachary. He's one of my long-time friend's dad, and is happy to help us out." Sylis introduced them. "Nice to meet you." Sakiya and Maranda said in unison. "You don't know how much this means to me, personally." Sakiya praised the man as he smiled back at her and waved for them to hop aboard the boat. She didn't know what to expect on this journey, but she was more than ready for it.