By the end of the afternoon, all the streetlights were on, the clouds were getting darker. Koda had his tongue hanging out from all the walking, me too. I didn’t want to go home, but even Gustav wanted a break from our trek. My legs were tired. The sky was now black, and I couldn’t see anything with the sunglasses. We took the way home. Koda and me to ours, and Gustav to his.
When I turned the corner of the block my heart started racing, I almost went back to the grove, but I couldn’t. The living room light was on, my father was home. No Auntie Eva to be seen. If at least I saw the blue Beetle parked in front of the house, I would have one more breath, but it wasn’t there. I held back before coming in, but a horrible thunder scared Koda on his chain. He ran inside by the back door and went to hide under my bed. When the first drops started to fall. I didn’t have a choice, I had to go in.
As soon as I closed the door, the strong storm came down. I could see the TV on in the living room, I ran to the kitchen. My father heard the noise.
“Jessica?”
By his tone, I could tell he was a little drunk. My voice could barely be heard with the storm noise.
“It’s me, dad,” I said, almost without any strength. My aching legs went mushy, it was time to face him. I was still wearing my sunglasses.
“Oh, it is you… Your aunt called, she said she would need to stay late at the store. Did you talk to your mom? She left…,” he interrupted his words when looked at me.
“Why are you wearing sunglasses with this storm? Take them off, it is almost nighttime, and you are inside.”
I couldn’t stop shaking. My stomach was twisting, and my mouth was dry. It took all my courage to take the sunglasses off my face and stare at him. He had gotten up from the leather armchair in the living room and was coming to meet me in the kitchen. He stood still, pinned to the floor, mute. We faced each other in silence, I couldn’t say anything for myself.
He put his hand over his head, his face contracted. He didn’t believe what he was seeing.
“What is… what is it, in your eye?” he asked pointing in my direction, hoping that I would have some other explanation, not the one he feared the most.”
“Why don’t you tell me, dad?”
He sat on the closest chair. His legs couldn’t hold this check mate.
“Why did you lie to me, to mom, all this time? Why did you…” He jumped from the chair into the telephone’s direction.”
“I’m going to kill your aunt.”
I ran there and ripped the telephone out of his hands.
“It is not her fault! I knew something was wrong. Why, dad? Why didn’t you tell the truth? Mom hates me and I never knew why!”
“WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO SAY? HI, I WENT TO THE FOURTH DIMENSION AND GOT MARRIED TO THE KINGDOM’S PRINCESS, WE HAD A DAUGHTER AND I HAD TO RUN AWAY BECAUSE A MONSTER KILLED THEM ALL, WE ESCAPED FOR A BIT!! HAHAHAH WOULD SHE BELIEVE? WOULD YOU?” He yelled while my heart was torn apart by his words.
“Eva is going to regret giving you that necklace… she should have destroyed it! How did you go there? How did you come back? Tell me, are all them dead? TELL ME! YOU COULDN’T HAVE GONE THERE, IT IS DANGEROUS!!!”
He held my arms and shook me like a bunch of keys, I didn’t have time to answer. When he let me go, it was with such force that I hit the wall. The shallow noise of my head hitting it sounded like a bell.
“Where is the necklace? I’m going to destroy it with my own hands, now! Is it in your room?” He turned on his heels and ran upstairs, two stairs at once. My tears wet my cheeks while my eyelids were trembling. The storm had gotten stronger, the windows were shaking from the wind outside. I could hear him breaking the mirror, turning my things around, searching for the necklace through all the room. I slid down the wall sitting in the floor, the noises made a lump in my throat, I felt like I was chocking. All those feelings I was holding in from the last few days started to surface like volcano lava through my throat. I couldn’t handle it anymore, I exploded.
“STOP! GO AWAY!” I shouted as high as my breath let me.
BRUMMM! I covered my ears and put my head down. A clap of thunder, which sounded like it came from inside the house, made the glasses dance in the sink. All the lights went out.
After the thunder, the storm calmed down, as if by magic becoming a gentle rain. When my eyes opened, the house was lit by the dim streetlight and my purple eye. There was an unusual silence that gave me the chills. Something was wrong.
“Dad?” I called to him with a weak voice.
I went upstairs drying my tears. Looking from the hallway, there was no one in my room. I went to Rodrigo’s room (screw my mom’s warning not to get in there), but he wasn’t there either. Then, I went to my parents’ room, called him, no one answered. My heart beat so fast that I started shaking to its rhythm. I put my hands on my chest and tried to inhale some air through my mouth. I had just heard him swearing seconds before. I looked over the floor, maybe he had fainted, looked out the window (he could have fallen or, worse, thrown himself from there) but thank God, he wasn’t there either. I couldn’t panic. I took a deep breath, counted to three, swallowed my saliva with some difficulty, and started over.
I got back to my room and it looked like a hurricane went through there. He had broken all the mirror and turned over everything on the way. The frame still held some mirror pieces that resisted his fury, there were broken mirror shards even on top of my bed. A shard on the floor shone, it reflected the streetlight and revealed something written on it using my eyeliner. ‘Come and rescue him.’ The necklace lit up again in the corner, my father hadn’t found it. When I took it in my hands, I saw its color wasn’t purple, it shone with a type of smoky gray, opaque, like a fog moving inside the stone. I had never seen that color, what did that mean? I had no idea, but that was a sign something worse was coming.
Chapter Six
A New World
“Come and rescue him. What does it mean?” I asked myself out loud.
“We have to rescue your father, dearest.”
My heart almost came out of my mouth. I turned around to see a huge old man standing in the dark besides my wardrobe. He had a deep voice, I moved very slowly until I could see him. He was quite a tall man, almost like a door, large shoulders, wearing dark Viking clothes. He held a wooden stick with an amethyst on the top that was lighting the whole room. His hair was white and his eyebrows look like there was only one. His beard was long, reached his chest, and was done into a braid. His eyes were light purple and highlighted his face.
“My Gosh! You can take whatever you want sir, I don’t have any money,” I tried to show him I was calm, facing this stranger more than six-feet tall.
“I’m not in need, thank you anyway.”
Although he had a scar from his eyebrow to his beard, he didn’t seem dangerous. Anyway, I stood back.
“I’m going to call my father.”
“Lars is not here, Lola. We need to…”
“How do you know my name?”
“I’m Nefarious, responsible for Lumen’s Kingdom.”
This name… It took me a few seconds to show any reaction.
“So, it is you sir.”