Planet X (Under Construction)

CH 5: Home

(Clearwater, Florida)

"Where here," Sierra opened her eyes and saw that she and Ace were cramped inside the kitchen Pantry.

"This isn't my room," Sierra hissed at him.

"Its kind of hard to shadow travel into someplace I've never been inside or seen before so be thankful that I actually got us inside," Ace retorted.

They both fell quite after Ace's comment. Listening intently for the sound of any life, besides themselves, stirring inside of the house. With the confirmation that no one was in the house, they both made their way out of the pantry. Sierra made her way quickly into her bedroom, Ace trailing closely behind her. "Don't," Ace said in a hushed tone as Sierra moved to turn on the lights in her room. "Someone might notice." Sierra nodded, and carefully maneuvered her way through her room.

Sierra made her way towards her nightstand first, where she had left her cellphone charging. Grabbing it she used the light to help find her way to the closet. She grabbed her school bag, dumping out all of its contents onto the floor.

Now empty, she placed the backpack down on her bed, and silently made her way through her room, contemplating on what to take. "Money and extra clothes," Ace suggested, breaking the silence that had settled over the room. Sierra nodded and scattered around the room, gathering the necessary clothing items. Then after neatly placing all of this inside of her bag, she grabbed her secret stash of money which she kept hidden at the bottom of her sock drawer and placed it inside one of the pockets.

Sierra stared at her bag for a moment. Pictures. She needed pictures. Silent she set off towards her parents room with Ace following closely behind. They both slipped inside the dark room, and with help from the dim light of her phone, Sierra made her way towards her parents closet.

The closet opened with a protesting creak that made Sierra, and Ace flinch. She paused for a moment, afraid that somehow her family had heard it, but the fear passed quickly as she remembered that she and Ace were the only people inside the house right now. Because your family's worried sick and probably searching for you right now. The tiny voice inside her head chided, but she dismissed it.

Sierra up stood on her toes and turned on the closet light. Now able to see, she reached up towards a box on the top shelf of the closet labeled 'Family pictures'. Once the box was securely in her grip, she plopped down onto the floor with it and propped it open, grabbing a random album inside.

She began to flip through the photo album, dozens of pictures flashing past her eyes, long forgotten memories' surfacing back up in her mind. Sierra stopped on one of the pages. She remembered this. She thought a smile finding its way onto her lips as she stared down at a picture of a five year old Kai sitting uncertainly on a surfboard. That was the day her father had given Kai his first surfing lesson. He'd been so terrified but the moment he'd managed to ride his first wave he'd became hooked. She took a picture of it with her phone before continuing to flip through the album. "That you?" Ace asked curiously, and Sierra jumped up slightly haven forgotten he was there.

"Uh...oh..yeah," Sierra replied after finding the picture he was looking at. It was a lose picture inside the box that showed what appeared to be her as a baby being held by a man she didn't recognize. She picked up the picture and studied it. Where had this come from? She thought her eyebrows' scrunching up from confusion.

"I think its from here," Ace answered her unsaid question, picking up a small packet that had two other pictures halfway outside of it. It was a packet her mother had always told her contained extra ultrasound pictures of her, but that had obviously been a lie. Ace pushed the pictures back in and handed the packet to Sierra who took them all out and began to look through them.