Chapter Four:
Siobhan walked up to the house, her heart pounding. Every step sounded like a shot in her ears- or maybe that was just her pulse.
Mom’s gonna kill me. If she even cares.
Her hands were slippery as she lifted the cover on the eyescan box. Finally, though, the door swung open and she walked in.
Immediately her mother swooped down on her like an overgrown bat- though an odd bat, considering her carefully-dyed blonde hair was swept up into an elegant updo.
“What the hell did you do?” she screeched.
Banished. The word seemed to ring in her ears. Banishment was the worst punishment besides death. It meant losing everything you owned, and it tarnished your family’s reputation for generations.
“All I did was help a little girl,” she said, a lump in her throat. Her mother splayed her fingers across her face and sighed.
“Siobhan, you can’t just go around feeding peri. If they were meant to be helped, they’d be inside the gates.”
“You didn’t see her,” Siobhan said quietly. “She looked like Sarah.”
That seemed to hit home. Her mother sighed again. Siobhan noticed her evening dress. Had she interrupted some social function? Serves her right, she thought viciously, remembering the times her mother had neglected to go to her events because of some social obligation. If this is the only way to get her attention, then good. I’ll even talk about Sarah if I have to.
She walked down the halls, thinking about how fancy the house looked. Every surface was impeccable and decorated tastefully. I can always say the lack of parenting drove me to it. But that wasn’t it, really. She stepped into her room, noticing everything now that she knew she was going to lose it all.
Is this what people on death row feel like? she wondered. Realizing that they never truly appreciated everything until it was gone.
The sign written on the door, scrawled in marker: KEEP OUT. She pushed it open with a smile, remembering a time one of her mother’s socialite friends had inquired about it. Spitting fire, her mother had told her to erase it but Siobhan had just written it in permanent marker. She opened it, greeted by the familiar sights.
The bright orange walls, splatterpainted with red and gold, were the first way she started trying to annoy her parents. A pastel color scheme could be seen throughout the house, and Siobhan was sick of it. Her messy bed, with things cluttered on it. The wallscreen and desk. Her beanie bag chair.
And finally, the one picture she’d ever bothered to get printed and framed- a snapshot of her and Sarah, laughing, sitting on a checkered blanket in the park that was across the street.
Siobhan smiled wistfully and picked it up. The five- year- younger Siobhan had long brown hair with no streak.
My face was so chubby then, she noticed.
Sarah… Sarah looked about five.
This must have been pretty soon before the accident, then.
There was a knock at the door. Siobhan frowned. Her parents never knocked.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Linn,” Linn said, her voice muffled by the door. Siobhan, surprised, opened it. Linn walked in, her face tear-stained and puffy.
“What are you doing here?” Siobhan asked.
“Well, I could hardly stay away,” Linn said indignantly. Siobhan smiled. “Whatcha holding?” she noted, looking at the frame in Siobhan’s hand.
Siobhan showed her, not trusting herself to speak.
“That’s Sarah, isn’t it?” Linn said, smiling fondly. “Cute.”
“This was just before the accident,” Siobhan said, sounding a bit hoarse.
Linn didn’t say anything, just looked at the picture.
“She was just five- and we never caught them,” Siobhan choked, tears welling up in her eyes now. She brushed them away angrily. Big girls don’t cry, she had been taught. It’s not ladylike. It’s a show of weakness.
“What exactly did happen to her?” Linn asked. “You never told me after it happened.”
“Apparently the auto-stop wasn’t working on a dude’s car and she ran out into the street for something she dropped on her way to kindergarten. She was hit and the guy didn’t even stop.”
“Oh my God,” Linn said in a hushed voice. “I’m sorry. So… the little girl peri…”
“I really shouldn’t have done it, oh God, what have I gotten myself into?” she cried. Linn hugged her, even though she knew full well Siobhan wasn’t the touchy-feely type. This was a rare display and must be treated as such.
“It’s alright,” she soothed, trying to get her best friend to calm down. “You can always try to escape.”
Siobhan pushed away and stuck out her wrist, showing Linn the barcode-like stamp there.
“Oh, shit,” Linn said.
“Yeah.” Siobhan grabbed a tissue from the box beside her bed and wiped her eyes. “I’m being silly. If the peri can do it, so can I.”
“And I’m coming with you.”
“Absolutely no way in hell, you’re not the one being punished.”
“No!” Linn got up, hands on her hips. “What kind of a person- what kind of a friend- would I be if, after all these years, I abandon you outside?”
“This isn’t like us doing something stupid together,” Siobhan said, her eyes still red. She got up herself. “This isn’t something where we’ll be in trouble for a bit but we can always just laugh about it. This is big, Linn. Like, ruin everything you could possibly have big.”
“I don’t care,” Linn said stubbornly. “Like you said, if the peri can do it, so can we.”
Siobhan smiled and wiped her eyes again with a chuckle.
“Of course I had to pick the one girl more stubborn than me to be my crazy best friend,” she said, rolling her eyes. “If you really want to, then go ahead, I can’t stop you.”
“Cool. By the way, I’m sleeping over.”
“Mom won’t care,” Siobhan said. “And Dad’s on another business trip-”-she made air quotes for the last two words- “so he won’t care either.”
“So what now?” Linn asked.
“Let’s pack for now and worry about the rest later.”
What do you pack when you’re being tossed out like garbage?
YOU ARE READING
The Eden Compound
Teenage FiktionSiobhan didn't think helping the little girl would get her in so much trouble. She didn't think she'd be banished. And she most certainly didn't think she'd be at the top of a revolution. But then again, when have people ever thought?
