What I Call Life

Chapter 24

I looked up as the ruins of the roof shattered across the floor of Isaac's room.
I saw a figure standing on top.
"Hello?" I asked quickly.
A girl with short, dark brown hair stood on a small piece of roof that had not toppled. She adjusted her glasses as she motioned for us to come up.
I climbed and stood next to the girl.
"Hello, Marcy." She said. Isaac tumbled a bit as he climbed. I reached down to grab his hands and pull him up.
"Who are you?" I asked the girl.
"Olivia. Olivia Van Hoey." She said. "But you can call me Liv."
I stared at her. Her brown eyes were illuminated behind her glasses.
"I'm one of Julia's friends..... or more like, was." She clarified.
"Why'd you come here?" Isaac asked.
Olivia looked into my eyes.
"Marcy, you're one of us." She says calmly. She puts a hand on my shoulder. "You can see the future, Marcy, and I wanted to take you to a place, we can meet everyone else."
"What?" I asked. "Is it me or does this sound like one of those cheesy psychologist clubs?"
"Marcelle Adams! Apologize!" Olivia snapped.
"Jeez! Sorry!" I snorted.
"No, it's not one of those. We use this.... this gift.... to help the world, and many people want to take it from us." Olivia explained.
"Oh great! Superhero cosplay!" I laugh.
Olivia looked as if she was about to bubble up with anger.
"Why so Sirius?" I ask.
It's Isaac's turn to snort.
"Why so nosey?" Olivia snaps.
I exchange looks with Isaac.
"So you're a fan too, then." I say as we walk along the toppled roofing.
"Jeez, Marcy, I'm never going to live with you if you keep being like this!" She shouts. Suddenly we come to the part in the two houses.
"How the hell do we get down?" Isaac asks.
"It's easy!" Says Olivia."Watch this." She leapt, looking as if she just flew through midair.
"Oh, hell!" Isaac shouted. "I'm not jumping! Screw this!" He scrambled towards the ruins of his house.
"Oh my gosh, how I hate dealing with snobby boys." Olivia snapped.
She took out her hand and pointed it towards Isaac. A blue ball of fire flew from out of it. It made him unwillingly turn around. She then brought him up, and to the roof she was standing on.
"Marcy, you can jump, you won't fall." She encouraged.
I looked down at my feet. The drop would be at least five stories, enough to kill an idiot like me.
Suddenly I jumped, expecting to feel myself plummet to the ground. But luckily, all I felt was the wind blow through my hair, and then, I was there.
"How are we supposed to get to this secret lair?" I asked.
Olivia rolled her eyes at my comment.
"Hang on to me." She sighed. He
"Whoa, are we going to apparate?" I asked.
"No, we're teleporting, ever heard of it?" And with that said, we suddenly disappeared through thin air. It was as if we were being squeezed through a tight tube, it seemed as if all the air was pushing us towards a sudden light.
I clutched onto Isaac, hoping not to let go.
Suddenly I felt air around me again. I opened my eyes to find myself in a room. In a bedroom.
I turned around to see a bed next to mine. The person who was sleeping in it must have woken up already.
I went out the door and trudged downstairs, where I saw a circular card table with three girls and four boys gathered around it. I couldn't help but notice how formally everyone was dressed. All the girls had long, silky looking dresses, and the boys had in tuxedos. One of the boys were Isaac.
I felt relieved.
"Marcy!" Exclaimed a girl with a white dress. Her curly blonde hair was tied up in a bun.
"What's going on? Who are you people?" I asked. I suddenly looked down at myself. They'd somehow gotten me into a black gown.
"Why?" I shouted.
I looked at one girl. She was a ginger, with red hair that went down to her shoulders, with cute little curls on the ends. She had a spelling of freckles across her nose.
Suddenly Olivia walked in. She was the only one that hadn't been dressed formally. She wore a plain, white button down shirt, and black leggings as pants.
"What's up with the outfits?" I asked quickly.
"They're for the dance!" Chirped the red haired girl.
"Shut up, Clara, I wanted to tell her!" Exclaimed the blonde.
"No fair!" Spat the ginger.
"Girls! Stop!" Yelled Olivia. She looked at me with a merciful expression.
"I swear, it's like I'm their mother sometimes!" Olivia admitted.
"Can we get on with it yet?" Complained the brunette, who hadn't spoken until now.
"Ok, I'm Clara!" The red haired girl said. She giggled a bit before turning back to the blonde.
"I'm Melissa." Sighed the other girl. They all looked towards the brunette in the corner, urging her to go next.
"I don't wish to share my name." Said the girl. She crossed her arms like a toddler with a tantrum.
"Ok, then." Olivia sighed. "Boys, introduce yourselves."
"I'm Emerson." Said a tall guy in the corner. He looked at me with questioning eyes.
"Um..... my name is Charlie." Said a blonde haired one in a wheel chair.
"And my name is Micheal." Said the third boy, calmly.
"G-Great." I sighed. "But what the hell is this place?"
Olivia looked at Emerson. He crossed his arms, as if about to explain.
"So what dreams do you have?" He asked.
"Hallucinations.... about, about Julia Brodsky, and- about- my friend being killed." I stuttered, looking up at Isaac for help. He shrugged and looked away from me.
Emerson looked back at Olivia, then back at me. He leaned against the wall.
"So um, you've been running from a killer for a long time, and this boy has been with you?" Emerson asked. Isaac nodded.
"That doesn't answer my question!" I snapped, snarling at Emerson. "Is there something you don't want to tell me?"
"Precisely!" He shouted. "You either take it slow, or I don't  tell you at all!"
"Fine!" I snapped, spitting in Emerson's face.
Emerson smiled, thinking he'd won the battle. I swear I heard him mutter the words "Brat." Under his breath.
"Since you're so goddamn impatient, I'll tell you as is." Snapped Emerson. "Olivia protects us while we save the world. Does that get through your thick fucking skull?!"
"People! Stop arguing!" Olivia shouted. The room fell silent.
"I'll tell you simply. I was born as something called a protector. Protectors are people born to protect the seers. Being a protector is extremely rare, even rarer than being a seer. This is because men killed most of the first born line of protectors." Olivia explained. "Now all of you guys, except for Isaac, are seers. You can see the past and the future, if you chose to. We're going to learn how to do that."
She stopped and looked around at us.
"We have the privilege of meeting someone with an even rarer talent." Continued Clara. She walked over to Isaac and made him stand up.
"This boy is both a protector, and a seer. We call these androheists. They came from only one person, Margaret Amy Johnson. She gave birth to two children, but she was killed later. Little did the killers know, her children inherited her gift. You are her great, great, great grandson. Do you have any siblings? They would share your power."
Isaac's face fell. I could tell he didn't want to go into everything about Laura.
"Not anymore." Isaac said simply.
"Do you have any siblings, Marcy?" Clara asked.
"Not anymore." I replied. My heart sunk to the pit of my chest just thinking about it.
"Well then." Said the girl. She slumped back into her seat.
I exchanged looks with Isaac. If they knew all that crap about us, how wouldn't they know about Kathleen?
"Can we get the dance over with, yet?" Asked Emerson.
"Why do you guys like that so much?" Olivia groaned.
"It's tradition!" Complained the ginger.
The boy rolled his eyes.
"Do you think they haven't danced already?" Olivia asked."The only reason they did that was to get people to bond, so nobody killed each other!"
"But it's special!" Melissa complained. "You never let us do this! You always have an excuse!"
I smiled.
"Let them if they want to." I said quietly.
Isaac looked at me.
"Dance in front of all them?" He asked.
"It's not that bad!" I laughed.
The two girls giggled. The brunette in the corner kept a straight face.
"Jeez, guys, fine!" Snapped Olivia. "But I swear, if you complain one more time, I'll assign partners!"
The two girls stopped laughing and sat completely still.
"Can I sit out?" Asked the brunette.
"Why are you so picky, Crimson?" Clara asked. She then blushed and covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, I said your name."
"You think you're so dark, Crimson, just introduce yourself!" Olivia snapped.
Crimson groaned and stood up.
"Fine. My name is Crimson." She said, expressionless. She then sat back down.
"I think you two will be great friends!" Melissa chirped. She and Clara giggled.
Crimson scowled at me. I smiled at her.
"I'm sure we will." I said, teasingly.
"Guys, don't make fun of her!" Olivia snapped.
Suddenly I put my hand on Crimson's shoulder. Light faded quickly, and suddenly I wasn't there anymore.
I gasped.
I felt like I was sucked into a reality unlike my own. I looked around. Everything was dark. I was in a bedroom, hiding in a chest of toys, atop stuffed animals and plastic cars.
"Don't come here!" I thought to myself. A shadow went across the wall in a hallway, that looked as if it was lit by a flickering street lamp.
The shadow took out a knife and slashed it.
I heard a scream.
Suddenly the shadow walked into my bedroom.
"Crimson." Said the figure. He took out the knife. It had red blood dripping off of it.
He put it on my skin next to my wrist. He was going to slit it.
Suddenly I screamed, throwing a glass teacup at the man.
With him distracted, I scrambled towards the open window and jumped outside. My head hit the ground, and everything went black.
Suddenly I woke up. I was thrown across the room into a wall.
I saw Crimson unconsciously sprawled across the ground.
Suddenly her eyes snapped open.
She jumped up and slashed her hand at me.
"Fuck you!" She shouted. She kicked me with an amazing force that sent me across the room.
"Crimson, I'm so sorry!" I said, reaching up for her to help me. She slapped my hand.
"Don't touch me!" She yelled. "You're- you're a monster!"
She stormed out of the room.
I looked up at Clara. Her face was red with shock.
Melissa offered her hand to help me up. I took it.
"I'm so sorry." I said quietly. I walked over to the window and looked out. I saw lots and lots of fruit trees. Apples sprung up all over them. I realized this was an apple orchard.
"You're home is gone, right?" Olivia asked. I nodded.
"Can she share our room, Livi? Please, please, please?" Begged Clara.
"Alright, fine, as long as you don't mind." She said to me.
I shrugged.
"I don't." I replied.
The two girls squealed.
"Dinner, and then bed!" Olivia shouted.
"Isaac will be sharing a room with the boys."
"Poor guy." I muttered under my breath.
We walked into the other room, where a rectangular dining table was set with a large ham roast.
"Three slices each, don't be greedy." Olivia said as she set out a bowl mash potatoes, a plate of bread, and a bowl of salad.
Crimson did not show up.
After we ate, Clara and Melissa bounded up the stairs, pulling me by the shirt, and squealing the entire way.
They went into their room, shut the door, and turned off the light.
Olivia came in two seconds later to check that we were asleep.
There were three beds along the wall, all matching colors. The one on the side was Melissa's. It had magazine cuttings of celebrities all glued up on the wall. There was one picture of a man and a woman in wedding clothes. The woman had long, curly blonde hair, which I guess is her mother. The man had black, spiky hair and chocolate skin.
After Olivia shut the door, the light suddenly turned back on.
"What?" I asked.
"Shhhhh!" Whispered Clara.
"If you want to be in our secret club, you have to come to meetings!" Whispered Melissa.
They both sat down on on the carpet with journals in their hands.
"You can have Julia's old one." Said Clara. "These are our secret club journals."
I opened the journal to see lots of doodles throughout the page. Mostly a lot of deathly hollow symbols, the names Julia and William in a heart, and a ton of potter head drawings. One drawing caught my eye.
It was a picture of a boy and girl walking next to each other. Beside the drawing were the words;

Many must walk the path of sorrow
But not all of them walk it alone

I stared at the drawing, my eyes widening.
"Oh yeah, Julia's drawings can be dark." Melissa said quietly.
She turned two pages.
There was one page that had a doodle of a dog, and then the next page was just, blank.
Clara bit her lip, tore out the two pages and put them into the dustbin.
"I can't bear to remember her." Clara said softly. She opened to a blank page.
"Now you can put your own drawings." Offered Melissa. She handed me a pencil.
"Thanks." I said quietly.
I drew a normal girl, and added horns to her. Next thing I knew, I had drawn long wings.
Underneath the drawing, I wrote:

Took me away before I was here.

"Wow, you're as dark as Julia." Melissa sighed.
"If you had my life, you would be too." I replied.
Suddenly we heard footsteps outside in the hallway.
"Shhh! Secret meeting over!" Melissa whispered. She ran to the light and turned it off.
We jumped into bed and got under the covers.
I fell into an uneasy sleep.
I awoke to Clara and Melissa bouncing on the end of my bed.
"Marcy! Marcy!" Clara chirped. "We're going apple picking! If we hurry, Olivia will make Apple Cobbler for breakfast!"
I stumbled out of bed and stretched, throwing on a purple sweater, a black skirt, and black leggings.
We stormed downstairs and saw Isaac playing video games with the rest of the boys on a flatscreen TV.
"Guess he's getting along with them." I said.
"What a pity." Murmured Melissa. We ran into the kitchen to see Olivia molding dough with her hands. I picked up three baskets and handed them to the other girls.
"Hurry up!" Olivia yelled.
We ran out the back door, past the vegetable garden and the barn which had farm animals inside.
"Whoa! You guys have animals?" I asked.
"Yeah.... if you live here, you have to do chores." Clara complained. We kept running into the apple orchard.
Melissa reached up and picked an apple, shoving it into her basket.
I picked one too.
"Hey, how did you guys get this place?" I asked.
"Ah. Julia and Olivia stumbled into it by accident. It was all broken and worn down, but they cleaned it up and nursed it back to health." Melissa explained, picking two apples. "Then they started collecting people like us."
"Oh." I replied.
We picked more apples up until our baskets were filled to the brim.
We carried the heavy fruit back into the house and washed them. I was about to leave when Clara pulled me back.
"What are you doing?" She asked. "You have to help peel and cut the apples!"
She handed me a spare apple peeler.
I ran it along the rim of the apple, then slicing the apple up to bits. We put them into a bowl and mashed them with a potato masher.
We handed them to Olivia, who poured in a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of cinnamon.
She stirred up the mixture, taking the potato masher and mashing the apples even more. Then she poured the batter into a hole of the dough.
"Meeting in the living room in five minutes!" Olivia shouted. I heard the boys groan in the other room.
Olivia covered the top with dough, sliding it in the oven.
We went to the table and sat down. I sat in between Clara and Melissa, although they were a bit girly, they were probably going to be my closest friends. Isaac sat across from me, joking around with the other boys.
"Alright, I have the list of jobs for today." Olivia sighed. She took out a piece of paper.
"Charlie, Micheal, your on animal duty." She said. She gazed up at Clara, Melissa and I. "You three are on garden duty. We need you to water some of the plants, put fertilizer on the tomatoes, and pull out the weeds."
Then she looked at Isaac and Emerson.
"You two are doing all of the dishes. And actually do it this time!" She snapped, scowling at Emerson.
The two boys groaned.
"Thirty minutes until breakfast!" Yelled Olivia as we ran out the door.
Melissa pulled out a key from her pocket and stuffed it into the lock on the garden shed.
The door creaked open as we stepped inside.
Clara handed me the fertilizer spray.
"Get to work." She said.