June 26, 2018

-Chapter Three-
Straight To Business

-Autumn Blackthorn-

"Uh... what?" Ella looked so confused but who could blame her?

I mean, you hear urgent knocks at your door in the middle of the night to find your friend's twins asking you a bizarre question.

...Technically it sounded more like a statement.

"You know who our father is," I repeated matter-of-factly.

Ella let out a small laugh that held a hint of nervousness, "Who got this wild idea stuck in your head?"

"Hmm, let's see," I began to list out the clues we've both gathered so far, "Been friends with my mom since we were our age. You'd bound to have met our father."

"Today or.. er yesterday, considering it's midnight so it's tomorrow," Varian, the oh-so-wording-things-more-complicatedly Varian, added, "You told mom, 'He would've been proud'. It's gotta be dad."

"So," Ella said, a slightly amused look on her face, "Is that all?"

I exchanged a glance with Varian. As you can see, our list was actually not that long.

"The wording in 'would've been proud' would've implied that he might've died," I said before turning to Ella, "Mom said that he left because he had to. We just.." I sighed, "We just want to know if he's still alive. If he.."

"Cared?" Ella finished.

I didn't reply but Varian did, "Sure. I guess."

Ella looked at the two before sighing deeply, opening the door wider, "Come in."

We entered the house and of course, it wasn't the first time we'd been in it before. Nothing out of the ordinary except for a couple of picture frames of some barely recognizable faces, either pointed out from our mom or Ella. There was one picture of Miku and Rob, Ella's brother, wearing these redcloaks. In another picture had mom and Ella in it along with a couple of their friends. I think one was Ray and another.. Tyler?

We both made ourselves comfortable on her couch while Ella took a seat on her single couch. There was a few seconds of silence.

Ella finally broke it, "It has been a while since I last saw your father. About.. 15 years ago.." Her gray eyes grew pained and sad.

"You must've been.. close," Varian tested cautiously. I elbowed his rib.

"Yeah," Ella let out a small chuckle, "He was my-" she stopped himself just in time.

"He was your what?" I pressed.

Ella hesitated, "I'm afraid I can't answer that. Your mother's going to kill me-"

"We'll protect you," I told her reassuringly, "She doesn't have to know you told us this secret that she's kept from us for years."

"Yeah," Varian chirped, "She's not that bad when she's mad." I gave him a look. He seemed to have realized what he just said, "Okay.. so maybe that's not accurately true but we'll still protect you!"

"Now spill!"

Ella looked at me then at my brother before letting out a small but amused smile, "Weird. Your mom said almost the exact same thing when she was trying to get a secret out of me concerning your father."

Varian raised an eyebrow, "You find it weird that this is coming from your best friend's own kids?"

"Good point," Ella nodded.

"Now," I shifted in my seat, "About dad."

Ella looked thoughtful for a moment before she sighed, "He's my brother. Or well, half-brother."

We let that thought process in our minds. I finally managed to say, "Wait.. then that means you're actually our aunt?"

"Half-aunt." Varian complicatedly specified.

"Not now, Vari."

"Yup, seems like I'm not just some honorary aunt," Ella smiled at us, "We've got the same blood."

"And the same eyes," I pointed out.

"Yes though your eyes are just the exact shade of your father's, if I correctly recall."

Varian met my gaze as we exchanged an astonished look. It was weird to finally get something about our father, even if it was just the color of his eyes.

"Is he.." Varian hesitated to ask and I was relieved he was the one who popped the question, "Is he still alive?"

Ella let out a long, sad-sounding sigh, "Like I said, it's been years since he last visited. I don't know of his whereabouts any longer.."

Great. There went any progress of finding our dad.

She must've noticed our subdued expressions because she then hesitantly added, "You see, your father travels around the world quite a lot."

"So you know, there's a 50-50 chance he's dead or alive," I added, rather sarcastically.

Ella cracked a smile, "I wouldn't give up on your father so quickly. He can be quite... persistent when he puts a certain goal in mind."

Varian sighed, "Well, at least tell us his name!"

"His name?" Ella frowned, as if she was wondering if she was going a bit too far with the information she was giving us. Then again, we needed to know. "His name is-"

(JOHN CENA! Jk)

Several things happened at once. The door literally went flying off the hinges, a black panther came leaping into the room, snarling, and before you know it, our mom was there, yelling, "Ella!"

We both flinched as we exchanged a nervous glance. Dam Kopa and his too good senses.

She stood there, that dangerous look in her green eyes only reserved for enemies.. and it seems as if she was using that on Ella right now. So much for our promise to protect her. Whoops.

The Greencloak was only looking at her door, "Ash.. did you seriously just break down my door?"

Ash ignored her, turning her scary gaze to us, "What are you doing past your bedtime?"

"We have a bedtime?" Varian whispered to me and I elbowed him in return like the considerate twin sister I am.

Now to try and smoothen things up, "Sorry mom, we couldn't sleep so we decided to.."

"..Sneak out to Aunt Ella's house," Varian offered.

Welp, that sure cleared things up.

"Go back to your house," Mom ordered, her voice stern and filled with boiling anger just beneath the surface. Her gaze was now turned on Ella who just sighed.

I attempted to try and keep our promise of protecting Ella, "Wait, Mom-"

"I said, go," she repeated in a tone that meant its finality.

Ella gave us a small, reassuring smile, "Go on, kids. You've got a big day tomorrow."

There was something about the way she said that, like.. a double meaning. A spark of determination flickered in her gray eyes.

With one last glance, we headed back into our house, our minds reeling from what we've almost managed to learn.

Why is mom trying so hard to hide this from us?

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Can't find a cover pic sooooo yeah we're just gonna deal with that.

Next: The Search: Chapter Four