The Devil's Smile

Chapter Twenty-Two 🤍

Everyone sat in the living room quietly, wondering what might happen when Samantha's father discovers she had "run away," when in reality, we had taken her. Well, I wouldn't call it kidnapping, but more like saving.

"Will he call the cops?"Alex asked, sitting on the couch with his arms on his knees, glancing over at Samantha.

"He won't, especially with the bruises on her." Zane replied, sitting on the other couch right beside Samantha, who was sitting on the edge.

Samantha's facial expressions said it all. She was afraid and nervous, fidgeting with her fingers. "Maybe... I should go back." she said hesitantly.

"NO!" Everyone yelled at her, causing her to flinch.

Maya stood right beside Samantha, hugging her tight. "You have us, we'll protect you." she said, sounding comforting.

"Are you sure?" She whispered.

"We are your family after all." Elliot winks while stuffing chetto puffs in his mouth.

"Stop acting like a pig." Alex kicks Elliot off the chair, chetto puffs scattered all around the floor.

"Agh, I'm not picking that up." Elliot groans and lays on the ground defeated, Zane glares at both of them.

While chaos happened in the room next to me, I lay on a soft white carpet in Zane's library area. His little library was full of photo albums, books of different kinds, and scattered papers.

I usually come here to read the new fantasy books Zane buys for me. A silver book caught my eye, it must be one of Zane's photo albums. I reached out, stretching my arm to grab it.

My fingers traced the front of the album. It said "Family". Flipping to the first page, then on to the next, and so on, my eyes were glued to the images as old memories resurfaced. Memories that had faded away or I buried deep in my mind.

Then, one photo caught my attention. It was taken so long ago, ages ago. It showed all of us running around in a water park with water guns. It made me giggle as I looked at it.

In the very front, there was Maya chasing Alex with buckets of water balloons. Geez, were the balloons so gigantic, or were we just too small?

To the right, Elliot was crying on the floor because he broke his toy dinosaur, and Sam was laughing, pointing at him. They both were wet, their clothes drenched and dripping with water. Finally, Zane was eating ice cream with me on the benches, witnessing all the chaos.

The other children were scared, of course, since they always returned to their mother crying after hanging out with us.

Suckers.

I flop over to my back and held the album up to the ceiling, is that a smudge on the photo? I think there was a person behind us taking a photo. I squint a bit but it didn't seem to help so I brought the book closer to my face.

Loads of photos fell everywhere, some even landed on my face. Quickly, to avoid getting scolded by Zane, I hurried to pick everything up, but I managed to examine a few.

Among them were tons of baby photos, some of strangers, and a graduation photo that caught my attention.

There were my brothers, smiling brightly and holding beers, cheering with Zane and two other guys. Shawn, Christian, Issac... my three brothers. The two other guys held bouquets of red roses, smiling brightly. But something about one of their smiles reminded me of someone.

I've seen this smile before but cant place my finger exactly where, butterflies circled around my stomach.

Sounds weird enough, but my nipples felt hard. What is WRONG with me? I place the photos back inside the book and gaze up at the ceiling. I can't possibly be turned on by a simple smile, I nervously laugh at my self. A simple word appeared in my head..

Noah.

I sat up, thinking, "Why in God's name am I thinking of him?" The photos fell on to my lap. My thoughts vanished as soon as I heard a loud crash coming from the living room. What's going on?

I pushed the remaining photos off my lap and stumbled as I got up, rushing out to the living room area. There was Elliot, smashing a phone with a metal bat, with everyone circled around him. "What's going on?" I yelled, and they all stared at me with anxious faces.

"There was a tracker." Maya explained, her face filled with terror. My eyes widened.

"I didn't know." Samantha's voice shook, her hands gripping her head. Elliot kept smashing the phone, clearly angry and venting his frustration.

Alex rushed out of the kitchen with a bowl of water. "Stop!" he demanded, but Elliot ignored. I glanced at Elliot, Nathan, Alex, and Zane, it was clear they were all on the verge of exploding, with veins bulging from their arms and necks.

Maya shoved Elliot aside to grab what was left of the smashed device, then she threw it into the water bowl. Bubbles rose to the surface and popped, and everyone stared at it, relieved but still unsettled.

"I'm sorry." Sam apologizes & starts to sob.

"It's been a long day, maybe let end it." Zane points upstairs, looking at everyone. We nod.

"Taking couch!" Alex blurts out.

"I wanted the couch!" Elliot mumbles, Alex sticks his tongue out at him.

"I'm sharing with Maya then." Elliot smiles with his cheeks turning into a tomato while Maya paid no attention.

"Poor Soph, all alone." Alex playfully whines at me.

"Goodnight." I rolled my eyes & began walking away.

"Wait." Zane yelled, everyone turn their attention to him.

"We didn't choose who we are sharing with?" Zane points at Sam & him.

"Are you stupid?" Maya asks him, Samantha laughs.

"Goodnight." We all spoke, leaving Sam & Zane together & Alex laying on the couch. They look at each other eyes then down at each other lips.

"Zane?" Sam whispers.

"OUT, I don't wanna hear smooching." Alex screams like an old mean hag, chasing both love birdies to Zane's bedroom.

End of Chapter Twenty-Two.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter, don't hesitate to like it and leave your thoughts in the comments. I love hearing from readers! 💘

Author Note
Hey! Doing much better & have encourage myself to write again. Thank you all so much for 100,000+ reads. I didn't think my book would reach that certain amount & I appreciate it greatly. To get back into my writing, I'll be posting updates of this story every FRIDAY or days earlier from it mostly. Stay safe to all!