Family Reunion!?

Gabe and I were sparring outside when the call came. I usually never get calls so I was quite surprised when Janie came running. Alone that was shocking. Janie running. But the message she brought me was even more unbelievable. At first I thought she was joking but unfortunately I knew her well enough to know that she would never joke on that matter. So I sprinted towards the office where there was someone waiting to talk to me the first time in, well, ever.



I don´t know what I expected but most certainly not that. I checked the address multiple times to be sure I wasn´t standing in front of a wrong house. Shocked I looked up at the beautiful cream-colored mansion. It seemed to be from the 20th century but it had been renovated which much care.

The big garden which surrounded the house was neat. The grass freshly mowed and the flowers and trees clipped. The swing set and the trampoline that I could make out in the far corner of the garden were the only things that didn´t seem to fit in this perfect picture.

I couldn´t believe it. It was almost the exact replica of that house! The smell of freshly baked cookies and roses was in the air. Reluctantly I rang the bell and the big ornamented iron gates soundlessly swung open. Cautiously I stepped through them. I didn´t want to go in. Every fiber of my body told me that I didn´t belong here. I had to force myself to remember that this beautiful house that brought back horrible memories that haunted me for years was not my home.
That this family was a strangers.
That this house was a strangers.
That this neighborhood was a strangers.
This was not the kind of home where I belonged. There once was a time were…No, better not go there.

I had a family. A huge arguing, annoying, loving family. That family drove me mad but they meant the world to me. Still, for a moment I wished I hadn´t refused Gabriel to come along. This house was bringing back very old and painful memories and I could use a little reminder that those days were in the past. Thinking of Gabe and my family calmed me and I continued to walk towards the door, locking away everything that was about to crush me and concentrating on the task before me.

A different kind of anxiety overcame me now. She had told me that no one except her would be home but I couldn´t stop the hope and dread cursing though me at the thought of maybe seeing Gracie again. I longed to see her again in person after all this time but I also feared it. She would never ever forgive me. By now I had reached the big wooden doors and knocked.

“Come on in! I´m in the kitchen. The first door left.” Called a women´s voice from inside.

The house was just as elegant and expensive decorated as it looked from outside. The floor was a polished cream colored stone. A huge staircase of gleaming mahogany raised from the entrance hall. Pictures and statues on the wall and in the corners spoke of great wealth as did the huge chandelier that hung from the ceiling. Everything was shiny and expensive.          But it wasn´t like other rich people´s houses.
There were children shoes laying around next to the door, a stuffed rabbit was sitting on a chair next to an ancient looking table on which there was a box of crayons and children drawings. On the opposite wall next to what looked suspiciously like a Monet hung a picture of a little dark-haired girl standing in a flower field holding the hands of a little boy and girl. Everybody was grinning into the camera. In the lower right hand corner was written in three capital letters:

EGM.

There were a few more pictures hanging on the walls all signed by EGM. It has been some time since the last time I saw a drawing from her but her signature still stayed the same.

Emilia Gracia Michaelis.

Gracie. My little sister. She got a lot better in those few years. At that time her paintings were just childish scribbles though still better than most people many years her senior. Now they were so good that some looked more like a photograph or professional painting than something a nine year old had drawn.
Standing in front of her paintings I felt so close to my little sister as I hadn´t for years. I completely forgot why I had come in the first place until I sensed someone behind me and turned around.

“She´s got real talent that little one.” The woman was in her mid thirties I would guess. She had gleaming chocolate-brown hair that she had pulled up in a bun. Her eyes were a light brown and her smile was warm when she looked at me. “But I think you already know that don´t you?”

I nodded slowly not sure what to make of that woman.

“Oh, I´m sorry I didn´t introduce myself properly yet. I am Rachel Michaelis. Nice too meet you.” She held out her hand.

Hesitantly I took it. Her hand was soft and delicate in my, from training callused hand.
“Darius Vale. Nice too meet you -.” I froze. For a painful moment my mom´s smiling face flashed in front of me. There was no way I could address her as ‘Mrs. Michaelis’.

She noticed my hesitation but her smile never wavered. “Please, call me Rachel.” I gave a curt nod and she continued. “I want us to get along and I hope you will help me make this work. Stepmothers are usually hated by principle but please give me a chance. I – we- really need your help.”

“You are not my stepmother so I don´t think that´ll be an issue.” I replied calmly. She looked slightly hurt so I continued. “Don´t get me wrong. It´s not as if I wouldn´t accept you as my stepmother but you´re not my stepmother. You´re Emilia´s stepmom and the mother of my other siblings but not mine.” 

“This is still your family, your home, Darius.”

“No. It´s not. Did he never tell you that he kicked me out? Disowned me? Pushed me out of the family? A six year old. This is not my home. It never was. You are not my family. Emilia is. Your children are. But neither to you nor to your husband am I family anymore.”

She looked a bit startled and embarrassed. “I am very sorry for how things went for you. But as long as I life here you´ll always be welcome to come!”

“Are you sure you can handle him? Don´t ruin yourself by trying to rebuild something that has been destroyed so long ago. Neither me, nor him wish to rebuild this I think. He made it clear that I wasn´t welcome here.”

“This is your family, even if you won´t acknowledge that. He won´t keep my kids from knowing their brother and he has no right to keep you from them. It has been too long.” Rachel looked sad. “She doesn´t talk about it but she think she suffers a lot. She´s confused and lost. I try to help her but…well it´s not really working so good.” She looked tired.

“Emilia was just a babe…” I remembered my sweet little baby sister. Chubby little legs on which she stumbled after me and Katie. Soft light brown curls. Sky blue eyes. Her little giggles. My heart ached for that little girl I hadn´t seen in years. Pain arched inside me. “Let´s not continue this conversation now. We don´t have forever and I think there was a reason I had to come here.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” She recalled the reason we were sitting in this kitchen and got serious. “You do know that you have another two sisters and a brother, right?” she asked suddenly realizing that I may not know that.

“Yes I do. The youngest are twins, right?”

“Yes. Girl and Boy. Alexis Mae and Atticus Ciel.” Her voice was gentle.

“So what is the huge problem you couldn´t handle so that you had to call the exiled son and risk the wrath of him?” she flinched at that.

“I´m starting to think that they´re…different than other kids. I think they´re like you.” She looked at me scared.

“Why do you think that?”

“Well I always knew they were special but I thought every mother thought that about their kids.” She paused. “They were always chatting with everyone, but they never spoke to each other. It was like they were communicating…on some other level.”

I mentioned her to go on.

“I thought that they were twins and just shared a deeper bond. But then I noticed these things happening around them. They were talking with animals, especially birds.  All little kids do that but it seemed as they could actually talk with them. Lots of other stuff happened. Nothing that was really suspicious but I just always got this weird feeling.”
She shuddered.
“And then a few weeks ago something even stranger happened. There was this huge thunder storm during the night. I woke up and went to check on my kids. The twins worried me a bit since they are still so small so I went to them first. When I came in their room their beds were empty. Their door to the balcony was open. Almost dying of fear for my babes I ran out to the balcony. They were standing there. One hand holding the bars of the balcony and one hand holding the others. They were grinning, the wind almost blowing them over, drenched in rain, lighting flashing and thunder growling. Of course I immediately grabbed them and carried them back inside. When we were inside and the door closed again I checked if they were alright and asked what happened. They looked up to me and their eyes…they were different…almost as if they glowed and the color…nothing I have ever seen.”
She shuddered again.
“Please tell me if this is normal and what is going on with my twins!”

“How old are they?” I asked her serious.

“Three last month.”

“Three?!” that was surprising.

“Yes. Is something wrong? Is that bad?!“

“Well, depends on your definition of bad. If it´s that mans´ bad than yes very bad. If it´s my bad, not really.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”she asked confused. “Will they be okay?”

“It means that he won´t be very pleased that they are Carriers. We´ll have to wait and see how strong it´ll turn out to be but when you already notice things when they´re still so small and when their eyes…”

“What are Carriers? Are they sick? Is it contagious?”

“Calm down. I´ll explain. At least the things you´ll need to know.” I took a cookie and started explaining. For a few hours we sat there at the kitchen table, eating cookies, drinking milk and talking about the truth behind the lies everybody believed to be the truth. Of course I only told her the most important bits as not to needlessly endanger her but apparently she was still quite shocked since she neither ate, drank nor moved an inch. 
I felt kind of sorry for her because she surly didn´t expect this madness when she married that man but that also meant that I could eat all the cookies and I was hungry. And she did make some killer cookies. While I crunched on my food I could see her mind working. When I finished it was already early afternoon and I began to worry.

“When will your family return?”

“The kids have school until five o´clock. Richard won´t be home until night time.” She looked up. “So what am I supposed to do now?”

“Well, the best would be to let them go to school at the Academy. There they would be prepared and trained accordingly and would be able to learn how to control their powers without endangering themselves or anyone else. But I doubt that will happen if he can stop it. Be prepared to fight hard over having them be trained. I know that you want their best and if they don´t get trained properly…things could end badly. He knows that. He just doesn´t want to know it. It won´t be easy but I´ll help you as much as I can without making it worse.”

“Don´t worry. I´m ready to deal with my husband. I won´t back down if it´s about the safety of my children and family.” From the gleam in her eyes I knew she meant it. “Thank you, Darius. I know it was not easy coming here, I appreciate it a lot.”

“They are still my siblings and if they need me I will always be there for them.”

“I´m so glad that they have you as a brother. I will talk with Richard and when that is cleared and I talked with the kids you have to come and meet them. But I should prepare them. We´ll take it slow and easy. Especially because of Millie. She´ll probably have a hard time.”

“Yes. We should do it like that. You know how to reach me. Also if there are any problems or you need help there´re many instructors and the director who would help you-“

“Mooommmmmy!” I was interrupted by the excited scream of a little girl who came in running in full speed, a little boy close on her tail. The little kids ran up to Rachel and threw themselves in her arms. Shocked she looked at me over the table and hugged them back.

The two started about some teacher who was pregnant and her surprise goob-bye party and how they were allowed to go home early “- but Ces didn´t give you the paper so no one was there to pick us up but then Millie and Ari were there and we all went home and there was a little squirrel and it was sooo small-“

So these were the twins. Interesting. They certainly had power coming of them. But what they just said meant that…

“You?” I heard a soft disbelieving voice say. I looked up and there she stood. Her hair got much longer flowing over her shoulders and back. It also got a few shades darker and the curls straightened out a bit. Obviously she got much taller and slender and her round face disappeared as well.

She stood frozen. A girl pressed between her and the door frame.

“Move it Mills. Hey mom, sorry we didn´t call.” She kissed Rachel on her cheek. “Who is this?”

“You?!” she said again, her voice thick with emotions and not happy at all.

“Hey, Gracie.” I smiled, trying to make it look as casual as possible.

“ ‘Hey, Gracie’ ?!” she shot back furiously. “Is that all you have to say to me?!”

So much for taking this slow and easy.