Dark Matter: The Secret Revealed

Chapter 2: Belinda

My lungs ached and pulled at my chest. I was running through a dark and wet wooded passage skirting large vines and falling dead branches. I was trying to get away from someone whose presence filled me with such dread. But all was not lost. I knew I would see a shimmer of light in a moment that would lead me out of this dark and marauding wood.

Then I heard the familiar roll of window blinds. The image of the dark woods faded as I awoke briskly from my dream.

"It's three o'clock in the afternoon," I heard Rhea say.

I had a very large bedroom that Kevin and Sylvia had given to me when I came to live with them. It was on the second floor of our two-storey house. I had painted it a butter cream color when I first moved in. I also had my own bathroom connected to my room, half of which was painted a soft pink while the other half was covered in matching pink and cream gingham wallpaper.

My bed was in the centre of the room just below a large picture window that looked out onto the front of our house and which I had piled high with a bulky duvet wrapped in a lavender cover and matching pillow shams. I had an obsession with pillows and had at least a dozen decorative ones that I placed atop of my bed everyday after it was properly made. As I looked around the room I could see the multi-colored cushions strewn about in a state of disarray as a result of my aggressive tumble into bed last night following my graduation party.

"Why did you wake me up?"

"I want you to drive me to Esther's. Mom and Dad are busy cleaning windows, and then there's your graduation ceremony this evening. Mom has to get ready, and there isn't much time..." she trailed off. Something outside my window caught her attention.

"Oh, I see," I said mischievously. "I take it the outfit is for Evan!"

"What do you mean?" Rhea asked. She was wearing her new skinny jeans and pink designer t-shirt. She quickly stood up and ran over to the window.

Evan was the fifteen-year-old boy across the street who was two years older than Rhea, but who had caught her fancy. He liked her as well, especially the way she could throw a baseball. "Mean arm," is all he could muster when he first caught sight of her athleticism at a community softball event. It was enough for Rhea, though. I saw her thoughts that evening as she paraded around the house impressed with being seen for the strong girl that she was.

"I'm going out," she announced immediately. In a flash, she had left my room.

I loved this town. I made fun of it often enough to Damien and my friends at school, but Coriander, New Hampshire, had truly become home to me. It had been a textile mill town at one time, but textile mills, no longer dependent on New England water power, began moving to southern states in search of cheaper operating conditions a long time ago. After Coriander's mill yard was shut down in the late 1930's, it became a home to technology and government services' offices.

Tourism had become a bigger industry in our town because we were just close enough to the coast to offer a less expensive bed and breakfast or hotel option for families that wanted to vacation on the coast, but were on a budget. Coriander was the perfect compromise because it was a family friendly community.

But people in Coriander didn't know who I really was. They didn't know that I had lived in many cities and towns all over the world. They didn't know that I was a lot stronger than any of them, or that I could read their minds.

"Coffee?" I heard Kevin Benson call up the stairs.

"Yes, please," I confirmed in a raised voice. I got up and put on my blue plush slippers and my matching blue chenille housecoat. Sharing a cup of coffee with the man who had become like a dad to me over the past year and a half had become an everyday ritual that had helped me bond with him. It didn't matter the time of day—whenever we woke up and were in the house together—we shared a cup of Joe.