Down End Road

My fingers fumbled and fiddled as I tried to put my key into the hole. I finally scraped it through the lock and flung the door open with such force that a cold breeze flew into the house behind me.

I slammed the door shut and went to the wall on the right side. Next to the elaborate coat stand and umbrella holder was the house intercom.

I pressed the red button and yelled into the intercom for my parents to come meet me in the down stairs living room. I speed walked across the foyer, passing the stairs and walked straight down a smaller corridor that led to three doors.

One door was open and the bright sunset streamed through it. We rarely used the downstairs living room. My mother had claimed that its sole purpose was for family visitors and family meetings. As such it was always impeccably clean and organised.

I heard the click-it-tee-clack of my mother’s kitten heels gliding across the foyer. I sank into the wooden chair at the card playing table.

It was a deep antique cherry wood and had four matching chairs tucked into the four points of the table. My mother walked into the room her blue eyes surveying the scene. I had always been told that me and my mother looked alike but my hair had always been a coppery strawberry blonde whilst hers was always a more buttery blond.

My father followed in after her and they both took a seat at the table. My father ran his fingers through his cropped ginger curls and avoided my icy and saddened gaze. I opened my mouth, but felt my lungs constrict. My face fell, my heart dropped and my stomach twisted into gnarled knots.

I sat there for a moment, perplexed, by what to say. what to ask, how to feel. I rung my fingers and twiddled my thumbs, finally coming up with a string of words that I hoped would form a complete sentence. “I know about the society of the civil and about its history and I know that we were apart of it at some point.” I whispered.

I shrank back and hung my head low. I was no longer angry, no longer curious, just sad and confused. Did they not trust me? Did they not think I could handle the truth? My parents gazed at each other tentatively.

My mother pursed her lips and my father plastered a sad look across his face. They both nodded hesitantly and turned their serious gaze to me. I looked up and tried to speak again but failed. My mother finally spoke.

“I know how you must be feeling, and I know the thing that you probably want most right now is to have a very detailed explanation from us, but first we have to know, how did you find out”? She asked sensitive to my emotionally confused and fragile state.

I wanted to yell and scream. However, I thought better of it and answered her simple question. “There was a boy at my grad party who stole my necklace, anyway one answer led to another and he basically led me straight into the society.” I said, my voice heavy and low. “Thats where I've been talking to this guy named Ben and his wife Cassandra. They offered me a spot in there fancy summer school thing, seeing as I was born into the society,” I exclaimed, the little ride that I had carried with me over this feat lifting my spirits ever so slightly.

My fathers nostrils flared and his went wild. My mother put on a forced and dutiful smile. I smiled back weakly and she reached out to touch my father hands, which I realized were writhing and twitching. My mother exhaled then began to explain.

“We were expelled from the society for fraternising with the descendants of John Adam. Me and your father were both very skilled at our tasks and therefore certain exceptions were made for us because of our skill. We were lucky to not have been put into the prison on shift island.”

My face twisted into a confused expression but she waved off my silent questions. “At first, we were devastated, because you had just been born and we were being kicked out onto the streets penniless. In our anger we sold something that had been given to us and the society did not like that because they claimed it could of exposed us all.” She sighed and looked to my father for guidance.

He lifted his head higher and looked at me intently. “Your mother and I were threatened for years, but we were smart and established our name in society so that if anything happened to us questions would be raised. The society doesn’t like questions,” He scoffed. “Anyway, as part of our ‘exile’ from the order of Hamilton's official sanctuary, we were not allowed to set foot on the grounds or they had the right to kill us.” He said.

Something in my brain clicked, the wolves it was why the strange house had wolves and why they didn’t eat maverick when he came to pick me up off the ground. “The wolves.” I said in an understanding tone.

He nodded somberly. He fiddled some more and finally continued, “we didn’t tell you because we knew that something like this would happen and we did not want you in harms way.” He explained.

That was apparently all he could take on the subject, he stood up violently and rushed out of the room very fidgety. My mother cast an apologetic glance in my direction and told me that we would discuss this further tomorrow when my father calmed down.

I slid my chair underneath the table and heard the hollow sound of the doorbell ring. My face lifted and my feet ran to the door. My socks slung me across the foyer and I had to forcefully stop myself with my hands.

I flung the door open and saw a welcoming and elated sight. “HAPPY GRADUATION”! Screamed Kaylee. She was wearing a feather boa and sequin party bowler hat. Marriane was wearing two boas one blue one purple.

She wrapped the blue one around my neck and handed me the heavy carrier bag filled with cookie boxes, several tubs of ice cream, soda and very low alcohol content champagne.

We all squealed and engulfed each other in a massive, feathery group hug. We held on to each other so tight, I felt like I could squeeze all my problems away in the group hug. We started jumping up and down and squealing.

My mother drifted down the stairs, her pink satin dress flowing in the evening breeze, drifting through the front door. Her face was glowing and smiley. From early on my mother had told me that the secret to a good business deal was seeming engaged and happy even when you were terribly bored and miserable.

I had always been able to tell the difference between my mothers genuine smiles and fake smiles. However, at that moment it seemed like she was putting on both.

In a way I understood, she was excited for her daughter but dismal about everything else. She walked over to the carrier bag and took out the champagne. She raised a suspicious eyebrow then smile mischievously.

“Dom Pere happens to be my favorite brand.” She laughed. She beckoned for the housekeeper to bring over four champagne flutes for our small group of giggling women. I smiled gratefully and made a promise to be responsible with my consumption of alcohol. “To your graduation, may you enjoy your complication free youthful lives for as long as possible.” She announced.

We clinked our glasses together and sipped our champagne. I thought about that word she had used ‘complication’ it was almost comical how relevant that word was to my life then. Almost.

I carried the bag of treats to what my family called the den. It was a room that adjoined to mine and it had all my comforts in there. It consisted of a small food area [a mini fridge, microwave, kettle on a counter made from a blue Moped split in two] a foosball table, air hockey, coffee table and couches with my DVD collection and a massive flat screen tv.

Kaylee and Marriane burst into the room and made a nest of pillows and blankets on the couch. I set the food over in the mini Kitchenand ran into my room to go and change out of my grimy, dirt coated clothes.

I came back into the room and Kaylee and Marriane were already rummaging through my collection of DVD’s and popping popcorn. I snuggled down into a corner of the couch and waited for them to join me.

I turned to Kaylee and Marriane and suggested that we put off the movie and just hang out for now. They agreed and sat next to me. I switched on the sound system and turned the volume up to ten. The sonic sound system boomed out Jemma smiths latest album: Fearless and on fire!!!

I had always found Jemma smith’s music rowdy and preferred to listen to it when I was exercising or distracted. However, tonight I needed her rowdy music to fill in the blank spaces in my mind that were currently being filled with worries, doubts and fears.

Kaylee pulled the latest issue of Celebrity shock, HarpersBazaar and Vogue out of her black Michael Kors handbag. I had always preferred backpacks to handbags and purses, with the exception of extremely fashionable clutches that could be converted into shoulder bags.

We talked for an hour about the latest albums, celebrity incidents and fashion trends. At around ten o’clock we put on Love, life and Death. Our favorite murder mystery romcom.

After we finished that we decided to watch another movie, but Kaylee and Marriane fell asleep half way through. I switched off the flatscreen TV and surround sound speakersand cleared the rooms sugar packets and bottles of soda. My toes dug in tothe plush carpet as I crept across the room, trying to get into the hallway.

I reached for the brass door handle and opened the white, ceiling high door. I stepped out into the ventilated, breezy hallway. I soaked up the Floridian summer night heat and stood there reminiscing and revelling in the simplicities of life before I had met Maverick Landon.

As the memories flooded my brain, I felt the tiniest hint of hollowness in my life before, my trivial thoughts and big decisions. Feeling the sudden need to move and my parched throat I started winding down the corner passing the closed doors of my house.

I turned left for the stairs and saw that one door had a glow of light streaming through the bottom of it. I heard hushed voices and the quick and frequent footsteps of my father, pacing up and down the room.

I stood there for a moment mesmerised by the yellow glow of the light streaming through the floor clearance. I was brought out of my spell by the yelled mention of my name and the word Society. There was a silent pause between these words.

I pressed my ear to the smooth, white wood of the door and scrunched my face in concentration. “No, she won’t go to End Road for the summer. I don’t care how many times that place has been deemed a sanctuary she could still be hurt there, goodness knows that its happened before.” My dad warned.

I could almost see my mothers reaction in my mind. She probably pursed her lips and looked at him empathetically. That was my mother’s specialty, empathy, no matter who it was, she could always be kind and imagine herself in their shoes.

However, like me, my father was stubborn but smart. He knew when he had lost, knew when to fight back and when to back down. On the other hand, when he thought he was right, he was like a boulder, and would not budge.

“Honey, she would be safe there not from everyone but from most people, and she would thrive, learn her way through it rather than be hit in the face with everything.”

My father snorted disrespectfully, “You know that’s exactly what would happen, we may have taught back in the day but even then we were not as good as Ben, Cass and Andy may he rest in peace.” She said, her voice louder and sterner than usual.

My father paced around the room again, his Italian loafers echoing throughout the room. I could image him running his hands through his hair, splitting the perfectly looped curls.

“Charlie, I don’t want to fight with you, but you know as well as I do that Hamilton manner is the best place for her right now. I know you agree with me, I also know that your just being stubborn because of what happened to Andy.

We love our daughter, and we need to surround her with people that can help her grow into herself. And if you’re worried about the students, you don’t need to be, I heard that the number of students enrolled there halved as soon as we were kicked out.” She joked, her lighthearted and gentle manner back.

My father chuckled. “Hey at least we left our mark when we left.” “Aright she'll spend the summer with the Landons at Hamilton manner,” he conceded “As long as she takes back her necklace.” He compromised. My mind was baffled by the importance of my necklace.

My mother sighed tiredly. She had obviously been expecting this twist. “Ok, but we do not release any big pieces of information slip to her,” she said. My father agreed and with that they walked to the door. I panicked I ran back to the den and gently closed the door careful not to wake my friends or alert my parents that I was up. I exhaled relieved that I had not been caught eavesdropping. I crawled onto the sofa and covered my legs with a blanket letting all the information from the past twenty four hours, sink in and lull me into a deep and heavy sleep.

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Shout out to my first readers. Y'all are the original crew. Love you all.