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“Blind Within The Shadows”


“In the darkness you will find, dirty little secrets we all hide. Cause we all have a darker side, a place we keep where no one else will find. Cause everybody wants to hide their secrets away, but nobody wants to stand up to the pain.” - Good Charlotte, “Secrets”


Chapter 5: A Secret Worth a Thousand Words


After Jessica calms down from her fight with Mike she goes to her mirror to check and see the damage he had done when he hit her earlier. She raises a brow when all she sees was a bruise faded to the point you would think she had gotten it days ago instead of only a few hours. She touches it gingerly and finds it to be sore but thinks it should be more sensitive than it is seeing that she knows how hard he hit her. The damage should be worse. She sighs and pushes her short hair away from her face, tucking it back behind her ears. Why did her real parents have to give her up? It’s not fair. Jessica doubts very much that her real parents had imagined her stuck in the hell she is forced to call her adopted parents and home.

She hears the door downstairs slam and the door be locked from the outside. Mike must be leaving. The teen rolls her eyes at that. Jessica goes to the window to watch him get into his old run down hummer he claims is left over from his army days before she was born. She’ll climb from her window when no one is looking. She’ll wait fifteen minutes and then meet up with Brian and Kevin and let them know she’s ok. What could Mike or Rachael do even if she was caught? It’s not like they will take her back. Even if that is what she’s aiming for. She sighs as she watches out the window. She’ll have to wait an hour though just so she doesn’t have to get hit if Mike comes back again. Or if Rachael decides to come home after whatever the hell it is she does all day. Jessica stands, changing finally out of the PE uniform she had been in since she passed out. She put on light blue track pants and a white tank top that flattered her trim and slightly muscular frame and also brought out her ocean eyes. She heads out and starts walking up to the third floor where the attic is. Time to entertain herself. What better way than to see if her feelings about her foster parents hiding something were right?

The door is locked but she’s too determined to let that stop her in any way. The teen takes a step back and places a well aimed kick at the door. The force of her kick loosens the lock and the door swings open and only cracked slightly near the handle but nothing truly noticeable. Mike and Rachael would think it just got worn down she figures. If not, well then she’d pay for it then. Who knows, it might be worth it.

She enters the attic quietly, even though she knows no one is “home” but her. As if this place could ever be a home anyway. The dust bunnies scatter about as if fleeing from her unexpected entrance into an area untouched by anything but the dust for years. A ray of light shines into the room, coming from a small upper window just before the slanting roof. The window is dirty and stained sickly yellow, cracked and giving a small amount of illumination. Jessica reaches for the light switch along the wall, and discovers the light bulb to be dead. She sighs and begins to look around anyway. She has an unknown amount of time to do this so better not to waste time so she can make a quick escape later on. The room keeps on an eerie glow as the sun outside starts to slowly set. She has a flashlight just in case she wants to keep looking after, but she’d rather not. Jessica frowns as her eyes skip about. Where to start? Her eyes narrow onto a trunk that doesn’t look as old as the others. The layers of dust aren’t nearly as thick. She heads to it immediately and growls in annoyance when she sees a tight padlock keeping it shut. Jessica examines the other trunks for a moment and raises a brow with curiosity when she realizes none of the other ones are locked.

“What the heck? Why lock one but not the others? Why lock any? This is an attic not a freaking safe.” She muses with a sigh, not sure how to get it open. Force could shatter the entire trunk. She’s not sure if she wants to do that. As she tries to think up a way her eyes spot where the lock is, it is just on a weak hook on the top of the trunk that can easily be broken. If done right the trunk itself won’t be harmed. She can just push it to the back of the attic so no one can see.

She grabs where the small hole where the lock goes through and roughly twists it and it easily snaps off in her hands. Jessica blinks though when she realizes she did more damage than she meant to. The entire top lie was cracked in half and for a split second after breaking it, not long enough for her to really notice, her hand glowed once more.


****************


Nick lies on his bed in his room, studying for his biology class. It is actually something he enjoyed, not that anyone knows. He keeps his intelligence a secret, lest he be teased and categorized as some kind of nerd anyway. He lets them all think he just is all about basketball. It’s fun for him, but to be honest he’d most of the time rather be inside drawing, reading, or writing. He learned early on in elementary and middle school however, that that is not something to brag or talk about. When it comes to the honors classes he takes, he just says that his mom kind of pushes him into it. They know he’s smart but no one thinks he enjoys it. Only AJ really knew, and that’s because back when Nick was nine, he had caught his little brother reading Tom Sawyer and had the video game in his room on for show. He sighs, he can’t concentrate really, despite his attempts to. Nick doesn’t understand why he can’t focus the way he usually can anymore. He likes science, why can’t he just focus?

“Come on McLean, you can’t fail that test. You haven’t studied worth crap since those stupid blackouts started again. Focus before mom kills you for failing.” He tells himself softly with irritation at his lack of motivation.

Yet again his mind drifts back to the rage he felt earlier out of nowhere when he had been goofing around with Howie. He had felt as if he were somewhere else instead of on the basketball course of his school. He had almost thought he was in a small house no one can ever call home. That was ridiculous though right? He sighs, touching his cheek. There was no mark there now but his cheek still throbbed dully. None of it makes sense. He was never hit. Why does it hurt then? Why did he suddenly stumble back from the force of an unseen backhanding? He sighs again and lies back on his bed, pushing the textbook aside. Studying is obviously not an option.

He reaches over onto his nightstand and grabs his drawing pad. His golden locks falling into his face just above his ocean blue eyes that focus in concentration as he flips to a blank page and begins to draw. He draws as if entranced an image forming into his head from nowhere. For no particular reason the form of a young athletic looking girl begins to show upon the page as his eyes begin to illuminate from an unearthly glow. His hand flies over the page madly, the picture becoming more and more intricately detailed. Soon it looks as if it was almost real. Still Nick doesn’t stop. His hand keeps going into the drawing, adding more and more, as if what is one the page is never enough. Then suddenly he stops, the pad is dropped to the floor. Nick collapses into nothingness, his body sliding off the bed. His eyes glow so blindingly bright for one moment before shutting, the gaze directed at his door. Moments later, a soft aquamarine colored flame appears on a corner of the door, slowly beginning to devour it as an unaware Nick lays unconscious on his floor.


*************


Two men come out of the shadows in an alley in downtown Los Angelus. Neither says a word at first they wait until a bum in ragged looking clothing and smelling of rotten fish comes by. They give him some change to shoo him away. He leaves and one glances at the other, he is older and having graying short brown hair and hazel eyes. The other is more concealed, tucking his hat down to cover his face in a shadow, the only thing truly visible being his piercing dark eyes though one cannot even be sure of their color.

“It has truly started,” The older man states gruffly, having his hands stuffed in his coat pockets and glancing around in case of more unwanted visitors.

“The physical prowess in part is growing.”

“The mind in part going beyond expectation.”

“Far better than the plan.” The more mysterious one replies, leaning against the wall and letting the shadows the ever setting sun provides consume him.

“Soon it will all be ours.”

“We shall take the next step. “

“Yes, keep it from discovery. It cannot learn of what it is.”

“It shall be done. Only we shall prevail.”

“The next step must be cautious.”

“Yes”

“It can never meet.’

“It shall die before we let it join.”

“It shall not meet”

“Never.”


*******************


Jessica opens the trunk, too curious to keep thinking about how she just accidentally broke the not so weak lid of a heavy trunk in very good condition before she damaged it. She accidentally makes the dust poof up in a cloud about her and she sneezes rapidly for a few minutes. Annoyed she pushes the lid away and looks inside. At first she sees nothing. Just a ratty old blanket covered in dirt in dust. She rolls her eyes.

“I got excited for a damn blanket. Smooth Jessie.”

Her gaze fixes upon something illegible written upon the old blanket and she lifts it up, making another cloud of dust appear. She covers her nose to prevent another sneezing attack and then wipes the dirt away. There, written on the blanket in a childish script are the words, “Jessie n Nicky”.

At that her eyes widen slightly. Nicky is the name she’s heard in those dreams. Was he just a friend she had at the orphanage? She looks at the writing closer and frowns. That’s not her handwriting. She has things from her childhood and it didn’t look like anything she had written when she was little. Jessica shakes her head, her short blonde hair going about like a miniature golden curtain that stops just below her neck. She probably did write it, heck all kids writing looked the same anyways. She looks along the trunk to see some of the old toys she had brought with her when she had been adopted. The Karonas didn’t buy her many playthings once she was here. As goes to fold the blanket up when she spies something along the bottom of the box, almost completely hidden underneath an old doll of hers. A picture frame, but there is so much dirt and dust along the glass, she can’t see the picture. She quickly wipes it away, curious as to what it is. There were no pictures of her that she knew of before her adoption. She stares at the picture. It’s her at age five, just before her adoption; she could see it was her. She isn’t alone in the picture, there next to her, she recognizes the figure immediately. Even though in the dreams she never sees the face, she knows.

“Holy shit…” She murmurs to herself.

The resemblances between the two children in the picture are unbelievable, even at that age. Jessica stares at the one next to her. “Nick…” She breathes, running her hand along the frame.

She runs downstairs to her room, not caring what evidence that she had been up there she left. She makes the connection immediately, too much evidence. Striking resemblance, two kids the same age, strange dreams? Memories start flooding back to her. Memories of a childhood before Mike and Rachael long forgotten. Memories of a time she was happy. Memories of a twin brother she made herself forget she had…


She’s only six years old and in a strange home. In the corner of a room that doesn’t feel safe to her. Downstairs all she hears is the frightening screams between her new parents. Parents who didn’t want her to call them mommy and daddy. She’s only been there a few months and she wanted to go back to her old home. Where the love is. Jessica starts to wail. She misses her Nicky. Why couldn’t her twin come? Why did he leave her? Mike had said to her that Nick didn’t want to come. Why? She thought he loved her, just like she loved him. They used to be a family, since the two had no mommy or daddy. The two of them, the other orphans, and the nice ladies who took care of them. Rachael ha told her that Nick had forgotten about her already, that he had gotten a new mommy and daddy to replace her instead.

“Fine!” Jessica cries to herself, aching for her best friend who had forgotten her. Her twin brother and other half. That was what the ladies always called them. Two halves of the same person. “If he forgets me, I’ll forget him too….Nicky is gone gone gone…Jessie don‘t need him”….


She had blocked him out of her memory since she realized. Soon after that she was more accepting to her new residence and new life. To escape the pain of losing it all, she made herself forget. She was only five years old, how could she know Mike had likely lied to her all this time? Jessica scowls at the thought. He made her hate Nick and then forget him completely, when he had probably missed her the way she did. The few memories she could have of him fill her mind. All of them slightly hazy since she had been so young, but it’s better than not having them at all. Jessica sighs and stares at the picture, her azure eyes glazing over. She wonders what he’s doing now. Where he is. He could still be at the orphanage for all she knew. The long forgotten yet familiar ache returns full force. They used to be each other’s world. Jessica’s eyes blaze with anger at the lost time and grabs her athletic bag, dumping her things out and stuffing random clothes in. She’s tired of Mike’s and Rachael’s lies. Tired of the abusive treatment. She’s had enough. She didn’t care that she was too young to drive or have a license. She didn’t care if they reported her as a runaway. She bet Kevin would take her if she asked. Even if he didn’t, somehow, someway, she was going back to Huntington Beach, where she was adopted. The one true thing Mike told her, he showed her the papers. Time to go back to Sparking Waters. Time to go find her twin again. For as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And so is a secret.