Ilona and the House of Knights

Chapter Two: The Reunion

I zip my backpack closed and I’m about to open the front door until I realize I forgot to put on the necklace Isaac gave me years ago. I jog back to my room and open my dresser drawer, where I keep the necklace hidden. The necklace brings back painful memories but I can’t leave it behind. I put the necklace on and make my way back towards the front door.

            I close my eyes and exhale slowly before opening the door. With a twist of the knob and a light push, the door opens and I take my first breath of fresh air since a little over a year ago. I take a step outside and shield my eyes with my hand.

            The brightness of the sun blinds me, causing me to stumble over a tree stump and fall to my knees. Maybe going outside wasn’t a very good idea. I stand up and wipe off my knees with my hands. I look up into the sky and squint, hopefully it won’t take too long for my eyes to adjust to seeing the sun again. I look forward to the trail in front of me and start walking into the forest that connects Heart with the abandoned house.

            Trusting myself to multitask, something I’m not very good at, I walk the trail and take in the nature surrounding me. I forgot how beautiful it is outside until now. I look up and squint at the sun once again as clouds surround it and sprinkles of rain begin to fall. I decided to come out at the right time, I love the rain. I smile to myself sadly and imagine Isaac next to me, he loved the rain too. I shake my head at myself and focus my mind on different topics. I need to see my friends and my mom. I can’t wait to see Jamie again… well once we get past the her being mad at me part. I walk slowly through the forest, taking my time and admiring the nature surrounding me.

            Nighttime falls fast and I post next to a tree. I lay down, using my backpack as a pillow. I fall asleep quickly and dream very little.

            I wake up to the blazing sun shining in my half open eyes. I slowly stand up, stretching, and brush the dirt off my blue jeans. I grab my backpack and put it over my shoulders. I quickly start walking up the path that will lead me back to Heart. No time for eating, I need to hurry home. A rush of happiness runs through me and I begin jogging. I’m almost home!!! My jog turns into a sprint as I think of my mom and everyone else. I’m glad that I finally decided to do this.

            “Ilona…” I hear a familiar voice whisper my name. Isaac? I look over my shoulder and slow down to a jog. My jog is stopped short as I crash into something, sending both it and I stumbling to the ground. Confused, I look up into an equally confused pair of large brown eyes.

            “Ilona!” A very familiar voice squeals with joy, and I’m smothered in a hug. Shocked, I hug back timidly.

            “Jamie?” I ask, recognizing her smell, voice, and touch.

            She gives me an annoyed look and we both stand up. In moments her annoyed look morphs into a face filled with pure anger. She slaps me, hard. Taking a step back I put my hand on my red cheek. I look at my best friend wide eyed.

            “Where the f**k have you been?!” She shouts at me as her face turns a bright red. “Do you have any idea how worried we have been? Damien and I have both been looking for you guys. We thought you were dead Ilona. Do you even realize how that feels? Do you even care?”

            Speechless, I just stand there with my eyes filling with tears. I knew she would be mad but I didn’t know exactly what to expect.

            “Don’t give me that face, and where the hell is Isaac? If you think you got it bad just now, wait until you see what I have in store for that little shit.”

            Dozens of tears spill down my cheeks as I look into her oblivious eyes.

            “Ilona… Where’s Isaac?” She asks, stepping closer to me and grabbing my shoulder softly, sensing that something is wrong. I look at the ground and cry silently.

            “Isaac is dead.” I whisper shakily. Jamie immediately embraces me.

            “Oh my god what happened?” She asks horrified. I tell her everything, forcing myself to stop crying. She listens to me, disbelief taking over her features.

            “So… You isolated yourself after that?” She asks as we start walking to Heart. I nod in silence and close my eyes. Jamie sighs and locks her arm around my shoulder.

            “Well you didn’t have to do that Ilona, you should have known that we would always be there for you, all of us. We could have helped you… I just can’t believe that Isaac is gone.”

            I look at her, tears threatening to pool in my eyes at any moment. “I know.” I say. We walk in silence for a while. I know they could have helped me, but I wouldn’t have been able to handle being around anyone, I needed to be alone. I keep that to myself, avoiding hurting my friend.

            “Do you have any food in that giant backpack of yours?” She asks holding her stomach. “I’m starving.”

            “Yeah.” I stop walking and plop my backpack on the ground, sitting down next to it. I take out the canned food and hand it to Jamie.

            “What is this?” She laughs. I smile at her. “It’s actually not as bad as it looks.” I insist as she rolls her eyes at me and opens the can. She looks at the contents inside and sniffs it. She then looks up at me and frowns. “I’m not eating this.” she mumbles and throws the can, walking away from me. I stand up, zip up my backpack, and fling it over my shoulder.       I jog over to Jamie and walk with her.

            “You’ve really grown a potty mouth over the past year.” I smirk at her.

            “No I haven’t.” she denies. I smile to myself as we continue to walk. Soon enough we reach the ‘Heart’ sign that sends me flying into town with excitement. Jamie runs behind me trying to catch up.

            “Hold on!” She shouts at me.

            “Run faster, fatty!” I tease her, yelling over my shoulder and laughing laughing. God, I have such horrible mood swings, but I really have missed Jamie. I look ahead eagerly, running faster, until someone steps from behind a tree, walking into my path and causing us both to tumble to the ground quite hard.

            “Ow…” I moan, laying on a hard chest. His chest rises and falls quickly as he laughs at me. I immediately get off of him, recognizing his voice. I stand up, looking at his blue eyes and dark blonde wavy hair.

            “Damien!” I hug him tightly.

            “Well hi Ilona, it’s nice to see you too.” He laughs more, hugging me. Letting him go I take a step back and take a long look at him. He grew so much in just one year. He’s actually kind of cute… I mentally slap myself and I start walking into Heart. Isaac has my heart, and only Isaac, even if he is dead. I walk the familiar steps up to my house and pause before knocking on the door. What am I going to say to my mom? Before I even have a chance to decide what I am going to say to my mother, she opens the door. Confused, she looks at me grabs my shoulders. Her mouth hanging open and her eyes never leaving mine, she asks, “Ilona, is that you?” I nod. She instantly wraps me into a warm embrace and starts to cry. Relieved that she isn’t mad at me, I hug her tightly and cry with her. We hold each other and cry like babies for longer than we should have, but when we let go of each other, I look into her eyes and see pure love in them. Love that only a mother who has grieved over the thought that she lost her only child.

            I breathe in deeply as more tears flow from my eyes and down my cheeks.

            “I’m sorry.” I cry as I look into her hazel blue eyes. She puts her hands on my cheeks and kisses my forehead. She takes a step back from me, looks at me, and then closes her eyes for a few seconds.

            “Where have you been?” She asks, concerned of what has happened to me.

            Before I can answer, Jamie does for me. “Oh she’s probably been sleeping under a tree and living with the wolves.” I give her an annoyed look.

            “Are there even any wolves around here?” Damien asks. My mom laughs a little bit.

            I ignore Damien’s question and answer my moms. “I found an abandoned house a couple of miles East from Heart.” She looks into my eyes with a confused expression.

            “Why didn’t you come home?”

            New tears start to form in my eyes. Jamie grabs my mom’s hand and walks into the house.

            “Hey Mrs. May, do you have anything to eat? I’m really hungry and Ilona only has nasty canned food.”

            Mentally thanking Jamie for changing the subject, I smile at little at her. “It really isn’t that bad, you’re just scared of what you don’t know.” We all walk into my mom’s house and Jamie, Damien, and I sit on the couch.

            “What do you guys want to eat?” My mom asks.

            “Chicken!” Damien suggests.

            Jamie makes a disgusted face. “Chicken is gross.

            I roll my eyes. “You’re so picky Jamie.”

            “No I’m not, I just know what good food is.”

            “Chicken is good!” Damien argues.

            “Stop it you two or else you can make your own food.” My mom laughs. The rest of us laugh too.

            Being squeezed between Jamie and Damien on the couch makes me feel awkward, so I grab the radio on the table in front of me to play something in the background.

            “What do you guys want to listen to?”

            Jamie shrugs and Damien takes the radio from me. He turns to channel 92.7—a channel that Damien, Isaac, Jamie, and myself always used to listen to together. He hasn’t changed at all. I giggle to myself a little, causing Jamie and Damien to give me a weird look. Embarrassed, I ignore them and listen to the radio, but they are currently on a commercial break, talking about some new cleaning product. My mom brings out three ham sandwiches on a plate for us.

            “What are you guys listening to?” she asks. “It better not be those horror stories again.”

            “ Mrs. May, there is absolutely nothing wrong with horror stories” Damien exclaims, “Besides, Ilona likes them.” He adds, smiling at me.

            I briefly make eye contact with Damien and then quickly look away, blushing. My mom rolls her eyes at Damien and sits on the recliner across the room from us. She munches on some chips while we quietly eat our ham sandwiches. My mom slowly walks over towards us and takes the radio. She changes the station to listen to the towns news. Damien makes a pouty face that makes Jamie and I laugh. He’s always been a bit childish like this.

            My mind quickly drifts away from this happy reunion and focuses on Isaac once again. I can’t forget the main reason why I came out of my little dungeon that I called ‘home’ for some time. I have to find him, or whatever is left of him. I know that no one will approve of this, Jamie, Damien, nor mom. They would all be against it. The best thing to do would be to sneak out while everyone is sleeping and not paying any attention to me. But this time I’ll come back. Its just that, I’ll feel better knowing that Isaac was buried. I know he wouldn’t want me going back to a place as dangerous as that but-

            “Ilona, are you paying attention? Helloooo?” Jamie snaps her fingers in front of my face.

            “Yeah sorry I was just thinking about something. What did you say?”

            She sighs and repeats herself. “Don’t you think that it would be fun if you, Damien, and I went and did something? It’s been a long time since we’ve hung out.”

            “Yeah sure. What do you have in mind?”

            “We should go swimming at the lake!” Damien jumps in.

            “No, no we shouldn’t. That lake water is disgusting and we would probably get sick if we swam in it.” Jamie puts her hand on Damien’s face and pushes him away. We stay sitting and chatting until the sun begins to set, not agreeing on what activity we should partake in.

            “Well guys, it’s getting late. You should probably head home soon.”

            “But Ilona, you just got back. We haven’t seen you in forever!” Jamie whines with dramatic amounts are arm gestures.

            “We’ll see each other tomorrow.” I assure her with a smile. Jamie sighs and heads towards the door with Damien.

            “See ya tomorrow Ilona!” Damien waves goodbye, along with Jamie. They close the door behind them and my mother locks it.

            “Well,” she says, “We better go to sleep, I’m sure we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” My mother smiles at me. I smile back.

            “Yeah.” I agree with a yawn. “I’ll see you in the morning mom, good night.” I walk to my room. Guilt sits low in my stomach as I open my door and shut it once I’m in my old bedroom. I have already made up my mind that I am going to sneak out, but I shouldn’t tonight because they might be expecting me to run off—not to mention I promised to spend time with them tomorrow. I open the bathroom door connecting to my room. I strip my clothes off and turn on the shower. Tomorrow night I’ll sneak out, I decide in my head as hot water flows down my body. Before I leave, I need to talk to Isaac’s parents, they deserve to know the truth… It takes me awhile to fall asleep that night, as I try to come up with a way to tell Mr. and Mrs. Daniels that their son is dead.