Chapter 3: Her Help
14 hours earlier
March 2, 2016
I lied in bed thinking about how much my life has changed in these past few hours; Daniella ignoring me, my step-mom yelling at me because I was a half a hour out past curfew, my dad doing nothing to help me at all, Toby and Aiden are being little demons, pestering me, asking me questions about my life, not like it’s any of their concern. The only thing that has been going for me is Tommy and Ryker. They have been amazing searching for answers about my… condition. It happened again last night, and I was lucky enough to not have woken up Daniella. But I have noticed something strange. Every time I look at Daniella, her eyes widen and she quickly turns away.
I probably would have spent all Saturday lying in bed in my ocean of thoughts since my “mom” told me to do my homework even though I have already completed it all if Ryker hadn’t burst into my room, followed by my dad and my step-mom who had an angry face on, well more than usual.
“Bobbi, we need to go,” he managed to gasp out grabbing my hand and starting to pull me downstairs. I followed without question. However my mother did not have the same idea.
“You will not take Barbara anywhere. She is not leaving this house at all! She will stay in her room and you will leave my house immediately!” This tipped me off. Who was she to control if I leave or not? I certainly was not her house. Heck, she isn’t really at all a part of my life.
“I can leave if I want to. You do not control me. It is not your house and my name is Bobbi. You have no privilege to call me Barbara. You never have. You’re not my mother, so leave me alone!” I yelled back at the woman who replaced my real mother.
“You will listen to your mother Barbara and you will not correct her in anyway. You are a child and you will listen to me or I will lock you in your room and you won’t leave for a month.” This stunned me. My father has never yelled at me before; at least not like this. By this time Ryker was slightly pulling me to the door and my step-siblings were just staring, not daring to say anything to me. I felt like I might cry but I didn’t. Whatever Ryker wanted, it was important. I could see it in his eyes. I was about to respond when suddenly my step-sister who has ignored me and hasn’t even given me a second glance spoke up.
“She’s right mom…” Everyone was looking at her now. “This isn’t your house. It isn’t even any of ours. You’re not Bobbi’s mother. I’m not her sister. Toby and Aiden are not her brothers. We never have been her family. We’re just the fake imitation of a real one.” No one dared to speak as the younger girl continued.
“She needs to go with Ryker.” Her mother was about to respond but she just kept talking,
“I’ve never seen Ryker without Tommy, or Bobbi without one of them so if Ryker is alone why shouldn’t we worry? If something is wrong, Bobbi and Ryker have a right to go look or do whatever for Tommy. They’re important to each other…” My sister finished her speech and smiled at me, I matched hers and looked expectantly to my parents.
“Our answer is still no,” my father pushed Ryker out of the house but not without a few tears sliding down my face. Once he was gone my father turned to me.
“Go to your room.” He looked at Daniella, “You too.” I was so angry, I began walking but before I actually left the room, I looked at my father dead in the eyes and said,
“You are not my father.” And walked away. I could hear Daniella behind me. We didn’t dare to speak; at least not until we reached our room. We sat across from each other on our beds in silence until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Why did you do it?” She looked up from her pillow she was holding to her chest. “Why did you stand up for me even though we’ve never been friends, we never really talked, we never called each other sisters? You have ignored me all day and now you’re sticking up for me, why?” She slightly smiled but it faltered when she took a deep breath.
“Why? Because everything I said was true. We are not your family. I’m not your real sister.” She paused again then looked me right in the eye.
“I’ve been ignoring you because last night you were gasping, breathing really hard. I think you tried to hide it because you didn’t want me to hear. But I did and when I looked at you, I just expected you to be having a nightmare or something but you starting glowing. You floated into the air while clutching your head. I was so afraid but then you floated towards my dead fish that had died just before we went to bed and your hand shot out and you touched it. The gold glow went onto Mr. Bubbles and then he started moving again. I was surprised.. Then you floated back towards your bed and you stopped groaning and making noises.Then you turned around and fell asleep. I couldn’t sleep at all after that. I was scared, terrified even, but I was also perplexed. How did you do that? The next morning, when I looked at your fathers newspaper, it said that there was this really bad car crash but strangely the two people were not hurt even if they insisted that they were hurt. Then I thought, was it you? I took the newspaper and I got rid of it.”
It took me a couple of minutes to actually process everything she had said. I was shocked, especially about the part with Mr. Bubbles. He died but now he’s alive. I looked over to the bowl and saw him swimming around making bubbles every now and then.
“Where did the crash happen?” I asked my sister.
“Behind the public library? Why? Where were you?”
“I was in the library…” I couldn’t believe this. Could I actually have this crazy ability to heal somebody, let alone a fish?
“So it was you.” She said smiling
“Wait, we don’t even know if I can heal people. You saw me heal a fish, not a human.” She rolled her eyes and looked at me excitingly.
“You can heal people!! Aah! This is so cool.” She started jumping on the bed and screeching. I giggled and grabbed her hands.
“Okay, okay, calm down. If I do have this crazy superpower then we do not want our parents to find out right?” She nodded but then her expression changed. she was still happy but now something was different.
“What is it?” I asked nervously. She was going to do something bad.
“It’s just for the first time, I finally feel like our my sister.” I thought about it, removed my hands from hers then replied,
“You were wrong.” She looked at me funny and kind of upset.
“You were wrong before. You are my sister.” She lit up like a candle and attacked me in a hug. We laughed and hugged until we heard a tapping noise on our window. We looked at the window then looked at each other shocked. On the window was Ryker looking this way and that every now and then. I rushed over and opened it.
“Come on, we don’t have much time.” I was still confused on why we had to go but I trusted Ryker none the less.
“Ok, let’s go.” I began climbing out and motioned Daniella to do the same, Ryker caught my arm and whispered in my ears,
“Are you sure you want her to come along?”
“Yes, if I go then Daniella goes. Besides we have something we need to tell you.” He nodded then Daniella came and we jumped down to the ground and we were going to begin walking away when we heard a psst. We whipped around to see Toby and Aiden at the window. I panicked at first trying to decipher the look on their faces.
“Mom stormed out of the house and dad is in his room,” Toby began while looking over his shoulder in the living room.
“You need to go before your dad sees you out of your room.” Aiden finished before they slammed the window shut and covered it with the curtains. I smiled knowing that my younger step-brothers had my back. We quickly got into Ryker’s car and he began to speed down the road.
“Okay, what is so important that you couldn’t wait to tell me, and you had to sneak me out of my window?” I asked Ryker while gripping the side of the headboard.
“Tommy’s been kidnapped.” That one sentence crashed down on me like a giant anvil on my head.
“What do you mean Tommy’s been kidnapped?” I asked and Ryker glared at me.
“What do you think I mean? I was at his house in the bathroom when I heard crashes. I peeked out and saw three guys in complete black dragging Tommy out the door. I didn’t get seen but I did hear them say when he asked why they were taking him, that it was because he was a friend of the Healer. Any idea of what that means?” I processed this new found information until it hit me.
“The gold glow went onto Mr. Bubbles and then he started moving again.”
“You can heal people!!”
I was the Healer, I’m the reason they took Tommy. I need to save him. It wasn’t until the car bounced on the curb that Ryker hit while making a turn did I answer.
“Okay, this is going to sound completely crazy but this is what it means…” I told him the whole story with Daniella correcting me about certain parts. After the story was finished, Ryker was silent for a long time.
“So let me get this straight… You are this so called Healer even though you have only healed three times? And the men in black took Tommy because he’s your friend and they are trying to get to you?”
“Yeah pretty much…” He shook his head then Daniella asked from the back.
“Where are we going?” I looked out of the window and noticed we were in a very familiar neighborhood,
“This is Tommy’s neighborhood,” I explained to my sister, “But why are we coming here?” I turned towards my best friend.
“I don’t know where else to go. I’m not going to put my little sister and mom in danger and since Tommy’s parents are not in town, I thought it would be the safest place to be.” He finished explaining right as we pulled into the driveway. We all got out of the car and into the house. Everything was exactly the same as the last time I was here, except for the, you know, everything being knocked over in the sign of struggle. We all sat down on the couch to decide over our next move.
“Maybe we could see if they left any signs to where they came from.” Daniella suggested.
“Like what?” Ryker countered back, obviously not liking that Daniella was here.
“I don’t know, mud or leaves.” I looked at her funny but she just shrugged her shoulders,
“What? I watch a lot of CSI: Miami, okay?” I rolled my eyes and stood up,
“Where are you going?” Ryker asked grabbing my hand before I could get anywhere.
“To the bathroom to get some Advil.” I said and he nodded slowly before letting go of my hand. I walked into the small room and opened the closet. I popped open the lid and took two of the pills and rubbed two fingers against my temples. My head was pounding but I refuse to heal anything right now since I have to find Tommy. I looked up into the mirror to clean my face but was startled when I saw a man in black,
“RYKER!!” I yelled but as soon as I did, everything turned black.
Lauren Stangl Writing 