The Secret

Chapter Three

That morning, Arabella woke up to something poking her in the shoulder. Groaning, she rolled over to see her father standing at the side of the bed with a stick in his hand, gently nudging her with it.

"Good morning," he said, grinning. She sighed and pulled the covers over her head. Sometimes she thought that she was living with a little kid.

"Go away," she mumbled.

"Come on, Ara. School is today. And you're catching the bus," her father said with a sigh.

Arabella groaned and reluctantly sat up, her hair sticking up at odd angles from shifting around while she slept.

"You mean you're not driving me to school?" She asked, looking at him. He always took her to school.

"No. I need to work some more on my writing," Luke said, turning to leave.

"Great to know that work comes before your own daughter," she muttered under her breath just loud enough for him to hear. Luke sighed and left, shutting the bedroom door behind him.

Arabella stuck her tongue out at his back as he left and then reluctantly stood up before falling back on her bed, her legs not wanting to support her weak.

She shuddered involuntarily and looked around, feeling like someone was definitely watching her. It was ridiculous, really. She was losing her mind. It was that stupid letter.

"You're being silly, Ara," she muttered as she headed into the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom.

Sighing, she turned on the shower and slowly undressed before getting into the shower. She tried to relax and let the warm water that was bordering on hot sooth her sore muscles that she had from lifting the boxes.

She slowly soaped up her body and began to rinse off before stopping when she got to her right shoulder. On it was some sort of marking. Upon closer examination, she found it to be the crescent moon with the sun.

Arabella stifled a gasp and quickly finished before getting out of the shower and looking into the steamed up mirror. She had to be imagining it.

Moving with speed she didn't know she possessed, she cleared the steam off of the mirror and looked at her shoulder. And there, clear as day, was the marking. It was identical to the one that had been on the seal of the envelope from the previous night.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, before pulling on her clothing. It was early September, so she could get away with jeans, a tank top and a light gray hoodie.

Still feeling perturbed and confused, she left the bathroom and headed into her room where she grabbed her backpack containing a few notebooks and her sketch pad and left, heading down to the kitchen.

Her father sat there at the table while he typed with his left hand and ate a bagel with his left.

"Hello, Ara," her father said with a small smile.

Arabella ignored him and grabbed the thermos of coffee that he had packed for her along with a granola bar before heading out the door into the cool and crisp morning.

"Now where was that bus stop?" She muttered to herself, looking around before heading left. When in doubt, that was what direction she went. She always went left.

She smiled slightly when she found the bus stop. Two kids were already waiting there and she stuck her ear buds in so that no one talked to her before walking over to them.

They gave her strange looks, but they didn't say anything and she offered them a small smile before sipping her coffee as she waited for the bus.

When the bus finally showed up, Ara had finished her coffee and was nibbling on her granola bar.