Silver Lining

TWO

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In my dreams, the sky was always dark; pitch black high up above. The only time it'll get bright is when the thunder crashes and lightning strikes from the clouds. I'll get a glimpse of my surrounding while there's a little rain and a river with a current that doesn't reassure safety. The flow of the blackened water tells me to go back, that I'll drown if I continue. I was on the shore, afraid to take one more step further but looking at the other side, there's a silhouette of a man.

He is my father.

Atleast, my instincts tells me he is. I wanted to meet him. I yell and call him over and over again but all I can hear was my voice, bouncing back as it echoes from the mountains. Until silence takes over, it's my cue to wake up.

I shook my head upon rereading my note. It was sure a crazy thought, imagining what would a weird dream be like. As I mentioned before, I don't remember my dreams whenever I wake up so I could use any sort of help to stop me from thinking about it.

Genius me, ended up to this conclusion. What if it's really like this? I wish I could record it while I'm asleep because quite frankly, these things starts to bother me.

I stared blankly at the TV where a local drama was being aired, it was an action-packed scene where the main character was being chased by bad men, they were shooting him with their pistols but being the cliche it was, none of the bullets scratched the protagonist. I cackled, shaking my head.

When I was a child, I often dream of men with loaded guns chasing me. They want to kill me for some reason and because of that, I've always slept in my mom's room.

I know that wasn't a distant memory because even if I don't have a happy childhood, my life is quite uneventful. Besides, my mother always tells me that we've been in this place since I was a baby, noone in this town owns a gun, probably. It's a remote country where none was known rich and from what I heard, guns are expensive.

Who would choose a deadly weapon over food? That person must be sick.

Even so, I wanted to have one. A rifle, like the ones I see in movies. Women who held guns looked cool and perhaps, if I own one, mom wouldn't be so afraid of telling me her secrets in the past. Because I will be the one to protect her.

When the doorbell rang and snapped me from my daydream, I walked over to the window of my room to check who's out there this early. My mom wouldn't come home so soon since she told me she'll be back in the afternoon, she also has a spare key and knocking wasn't in her vocabulary, she even told me not to open the door when we don't expect any visitor.

She's that secretive.

Upon checking, I saw two muscular men outside the gate. Both standing about 6 feet tall, tanned skin and long hair tied in a ponytail. The brunette had his hair in dreadlock, the other guy's hair color was mauve.

I closed the curtains and immediately ran towards the door, making sure it was locked before crawling under the bed.

The TV has gone static in my mind at this point as I curled on the floor underneath the old mahogany bed frame, my shaky fingers clasped together. There should be no reason to be afraid of people, I wasn't raised in isolation even if this small town had a few population. I blame my mom's cowardice for this. She always taught me to watch my back, to stay home if I don't have anywhere important to go. I grew up being awkward, tensed and paranoid instead of careful.

Though I know this isn't the way she planned to raise me, I still became introverted.

**

Hours passed and I heard my stomach growling. The TV is still playing at the background and I knew I should go out of my hiding place.

I seriously can't understand myself, who in the world wouldn't find me under the bed if there were intruders in our house? It was an obvious spot but I guess I tend not to think clearly when I'm nervous.

Another question was who in the world would try to intrude our house? It's not like we'd be a subject for robbery, too. Well, I'm not really proud of myself.

I went down to the kitchen to stuff my aching stomach. Mom has prepared food for the whole day before she left, sad to say, she doesn't trust my cooking ability. I'm a great cook, in my opinion. It's just that her taste was different with mine. Though I eat, gratefully, whatever she serves.

When situated at the spiral staircase, I stopped on my tracks, fear crept against my skin as my legs freeze. Two sets of eyes gazed upon me when they noticed my presence.

It was those men outside the house earlier. They were sitting on the black, leathery couch on the living room, like two cats waiting patiently for the mouse to come out. The mauve haired dude stood up and walked, with big steps towards me and I began to shiver.

“You must be—”

“Stop right there! If you come any closer, I'll..” I took a step back, preparing to run up again. “I'll shout. You people are trespassing!”

“Calm down, we didn't came all the way here to harm you. In fact, your uncle was the one who sent us.”

Huh?

The brunette also rose from his seat, standing next to Mr.Pinkie. “That's right, were here because he wants to relay a message for you and your mother.”

“Yeah, that is, to come home.”

I heard their words but it all sounded too surreal for me. I never knew I had an uncle, and now, what is this home their talking about?

My home is here, where my mom is. But my curiosity stirred within me and I just found myself lending an ear to all the things they have to say.

By the way, their names were Alpha, the dreadlocked dude and Saber, the Pinkette.

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I kinda like this book :)