“Okay so far you haven’t answered me at all. For the millionth time where are we?!” I whined to my Uncle Xavier as he dragged my two heavy suitcases behind him. We where currently in the airport and the flight was very long so it was dark out now. Uncle Xavier still wouldn’t tell me where we were so of course I was upset.
“You know you look a lot like you’re sister but you sure are nothing like her at all.” He mumbled and I suddenly felt the same sadness that I felt when he told me she was gone.
“I wish I would have been able to see her again, I don’t even remember what she looks like.” I mumbled to myself as we walked through the crowded airport; heading for the exit.
“I have many pictures of her that I could give you.” He said.
“That would be great; maybe they would help me remember something.” I said.
When we finally came across the big automatic glass doors they opened up for us and I immediately felt a cold breeze smack me in the face. I shivered and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans. Thank god I changed out of my uniform before going to LAX because I would have been freezing my butt off in that dreadful skirt that we were required to wear. We walked outside and I felt my insides chill. IT WAS FREEZING OUTSIDE! When Uncle Xavier turned to me he laughed when he saw how pale my face was turning from the cold climate.
“Welcome to New York Loraine.” Uncle Xavier said before turning away from me and heading to the parking garages.
“I’m loving it already.” I said in a grim voice causing him to chuckle.
When we were in the parking garages I followed Uncle Xavier to a black Bugatti.
“Sweet ride, are you rich or something?” I asked with my mouth hanging open in awe.
“Something like that.” He said with a grin as he stuffed my bags in the trunk. He unlocked the car and I got into the passenger side as he slid into the driver’s side. He turned on the engine and it roared to life and he sped out of the parking spot and out of the garage.
“New York is nothing like how I imagined it.” I said as I stared out the window. Everything is so green and the sky was a little gloomy as if rain was coming and sure enough a drop of rain fell on the window and then followed by a few more before it was full out pouring.
“What’d you expect?” he asked while glancing at me every once in a while.
“Well when I think of New York I think of the big city, but now that I’m here its all so green… nothing like how I imagined it.” I said while staring aimlessly out the window at all the overgrown grass and trees.
“Well incase you haven’t noticed it rains here a lot so there is a lot of greenery. Not all of New York is 20 story buildings, concrete and bright lights.” He said with a low chuckle.
“Where are we headed to?” I asked while turning around in my seat so I was facing forward now.
“Brooklyn, I’m taking you to a mansion that you’re brother and sister own along with two other family friends.” Uncle Xavier said.
“At least I’ll meet my brother.” I said.
The drive was long as well but I managed to keep myself occupied with my I Pod Touch. After about two hours of driving we finally made it. We came across big fancy black gates. Uncle Xavier punched in a code and I watched as the gates opened up revealing a three story mansion. I gasped at the sight of it. It was enormous and really fancy; it was hard to believe that my brother and sister owned this place. In the driveway were a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Lamborghini Murcielago and a BMW Mini. My family must be very rich to be able to afford all these expensive things. When we parked I opened the car door and got out. Uncle Xavier got my bags out of the back as I walked slowly toward the house and observed. I stood in front of the door and hesitated whether I should knock or not. My heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. I was finally going to meet my family… or a part of my family at least. I finally found the courage in myself and knocked on the door. At first I heard yelling and footsteps.
“Get the door Maxi, I’m busy!” I heard a male voice yell.
“Yeah busy getting your ass handed to you!” I heard another male voice yell.
“You guys are so childish!” I heard a female voice yell before opening the door. She was very pretty with light brown skin, hazel eyes, a tall slim figure with long wavy black hair. She smiled when she opened the door but her smile vanished when she saw me and was replaced with a face of shock.
“Loraine?” she asked in a hushed voice while staring at me with wide eyes.
“Yes…” I answered and she immediately smiled and pulled me into a tight hug.
“Oh my gosh! Loraine it is you! Look at you! You’ve gotten so big!” she yelled while squeezing me half to death but I hugged her back and smiled.
“Who’s at the door?!” I heard a male voice yell from upstairs.
“Guys come down, you have a guest!” Uncle Xavier yelled up to them while bringing my bags inside and closing the door behind us. When the girl let me go she smiled down at me.
“Wow you are so gorgeous.” She said with a huge smile on her face.
“Thank you um....” I said waiting for her to give me her name.
“Oh! Where are my manners? I’m Maxi, a family friend. I’ve known you since you were in diapers but you probably don’t remember me.” She said with sad smile.
“I don’t really remember anyone to be honest.” I said.
A few minutes later two guys came running down the steps while pushing and shoving each other playfully trying to see who would get down faster. When they finally got down they both looked at me with smiles but just like Maxi their smiles vanished and their eyes went wide.
“Wow, you’re gorgeous.” One of them said with wide green eyes and I just blushed. Why was everyone calling me that? Both guys were very good looking with short blonde hair, about 6 feet tall, with muscularly built frames. One of them had bright blue eyes while the other had bright green eyes.
“You’re Loraine?” the one with the blue eyes asked.
“That’s me.” I answered with a nervous smile.
“You’ve grown so much! Come here kid don’t be a stranger!” the one with the blue eyes said while pulling me into a tight hug just as Maxi did. When he pulled away he looked down at me with concern.
“You don’t remember me do you?” he asked.
“Unfortunately I don’t remember anyone.” I said.
“Right, well I’m Maxx you’re older brother.” He answered and I smiled.
“And I’m Axel, a family friend. I also met you when you were a baby.” The other blonde guy said with a smile from behind my brother, I smiled at him.
“So kiddo, got any special powers?” Maxx asked.
“Yup but I haven’t seen the full extent of them though.” I answered.
“Well we could see today if you’d like?” Maxi asked.
“Sure, if you guys are interested.” I said while glancing at all of them.
“Of course.” Axel said.
“Well, I’m going to leave now. I see that you’re in good hands.” Uncle Xavier said while walking out the door. “See you all tomorrow!” he said over his shoulder before leaving.
“Well shall we?” Maxx asked.
He started walking to the back of the house to the back door and beckoned for us to follow. We walked outside to the backyard which was a huge stone courtyard with plenty of room to run around. To the far end of the courtyard was the forest with lots of tall trees.
“Well let’s see what you’ve got.” Axel said as they all stood to the side giving me room to do my thing.
“Here goes nothing.” I whispered to myself as I pulled off my shoes. I wasn’t sure but I knew every time I run my back stings so I wanted to see what the outcome of that would be. I threw my shoes over at my brother and he caught them. I set myself in a runner’s position before I took off in a sprint. I began to feel my back sting as I sprinted through the courtyard. But that wasn’t enough so I pushed myself to run faster and ended up running into the forest disappearing in the trees. The stinging became more urgent so I pushed myself faster and faster and faster until all of a sudden two huge feathery white wings burst out of my back and I began to take flight. I screamed when I realized what was going on. I looked down and saw that I was at least 20 feet off the ground above the trees. Maxi, Maxx, and Axel were yelling up at me to be careful or to come down.
“OH MY GOSH! HOW DO I GET DOWN?!” I screamed.
“TRY TO CALM DOWN!” Maxi yelled.
I stopped screaming my head off and closed my eyes but I was still breathing heavily out of panic. I took in a big breath and let it out. I tried to think about things that calm me the most. I thought of the California Ocean and how the waves would crash into each other, and I thought of how the sunset looked like it was dipping into the Ocean and the soft sound of children’s laughter as they played in the sand. As I did this I found myself falling slowly and gracefully down until my feet hit the stone courtyard with a faint tap. As soon as I was standing straight they all ran to me and examined my wings with pure awe and shock in their faces.
“What am I a bird?!” I exclaimed while touching the soft snow white feathers of my wings.
“No, more along the lines of an angel or something.” Axel said.
“If she’s not an angel then what is she?” Maxx asked.
“I’m not too sure, but I think Xavier may know.” Maxi suggested.
I looked to my side and stared at one of the wings. My wings looked like Angel wings with big white feathers. They came from my upper back and they reached a little higher than my head then they hung all the way to the floor; sweeping it lightly. Although they looked graceful and beautiful in looks, I could feel the power of them. They were strong and I felt adrenaline run through my veins as I felt the need to take flight again; just to get used to them.
“Do you think you could unravel them so we could fully see what they look like?” Maxx asked and I nodded.
They backed up and watched me as I took in a breath and with a wave of wind they were fully pointed out as if I were to take flight. They were huge as the tips of them reached above my head. I probably looked like some kind of angel to them because they all stared at me in awe with their mouths hanging wide open.
“Wow, their beautiful.” Axel commented as I closed them up so they hung to the floor again.
“Is there anyway for you to put them back?” Maxi asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never used them before.” I said.
“Is there anything else we should know about you?” Maxx asked.
“I can make people do as I ask.” I said with a shrug.
“Cool, show us.” Maxi said with an excited smile.
“Okay, I need a volunteer though.” I said.
“I’ll do it.” Axel volunteered and I smiled at him as he walked over to me.
I stared him in his eyes and I fluttered my eyelashes at him while pursing my lips at him. I saw him swallow hard out of nerves. I put a gentle hand on his shoulder and ran a hand through my hair causing him to stare at me in pure awe. I knew my eyes were turning pitch black as I felt myself in his mind.
“Axel, would you do anything for me?” I asked in a seductive voice while fluttering my eyes at him and I saw his face go blank as if he were in a daze.
“Yes.” He said and I smiled and looked away from him releasing him from my powers.
“See?” I asked and we all laughed at Axel who looked confused.
“Wow, you’re gifted. I guess we’ll have to find out what you are from Xavier right?” Maxi asked Maxx who nodded.
“For now bed time, you’re probably exhausted.” Maxx said and I nodded as we went back inside. I grabbed my bags and Maxx led me upstairs and into a room that was dark and looked as if it hadn’t been touched in a while.
“This was our sister’s room.” Maxx said as I walked in and he stood at the door with tears in his eyes as he held onto the door for support. He didn’t make a move to walk in.
“What happened to her?” I asked as I sat on the bed and felt the sheets under my finger tips and smelled the air. It smelled like lavender and vanilla mixed together; it was her scent I knew it was but I wasn’t sure why I knew. Maxx walked into the room slowly and painfully and closed the door behind him and sat next to me.
“Let me explain this whole thing to you best I can.” He said and I nodded.
“Our entire family is apart of a very large Assassin business that includes killing criminals. We work closely with the CIA and FBI but for the most part we are an independent movement all our own. We’re not human Loraine… not fully anyway. We all have special powers and we call ourselves the ‘X’s. Our family is full of over a thousand members and all of us are apart of this business. At the age of 14 we have our initiation and we are trained and assigned to a group. Our sister Laurie was known as Alexa and she was what we call the Phoenix which is a VERY powerful creature designed as a weapon for our advantage she has all the power combined and she could cause mass destruction to the world if her powers get into the wrong hands. But on one of our biggest missions a year ago she was taken. It was a battle between just us four against hundreds of KTX’s which is a group sought out to kill us all. They captured Alexa and unleashed her wild side which is basically our other half just more mischievous and evil. Which means our Alexa is gone and Alexia is now alive. She cannot possess Alexa’s powers thankfully but she is still strong enough to kill any of us. Your sister saved our lives that day. We all owe her our lives. We’ve had some attacks but so far no one has been killed. So far we haven’t seen Alexia at all so we believe they are planning something big.” He explained and I stopped to process what he was saying.
“Can we ever get Laurie back?” I asked while looking down at my hands.
“Not any way that we know of but we are going to try any possible way to get our sister back.” He said.
“Who was Maxi and Axel to her?” I asked.
“Maxi was Laurie’s best friend and Axel was her boyfriend.” He said and I nodded.
“Well I should probably let you get some sleep kiddo; you have a big day tomorrow.” He said while patting me on the back and heading for the door. “Your first initiation.” He explained and I nodded.
“Night.” I said while lying on my back and drifting to sleep.
~I looked around to see that I was in the woods and it was dark out. It was eerily quiet until I heard leaves crunching from behind me. I turned around to see a girl around my age who looked a little like me. The only difference was her skin was paler and her eyes were a striking bright blue color exactly like Uncle Xavier’s and Maxx’s. Her long brown hair fell over her shoulders in waves as she sat down in the leaves and pressed her back up against a thick tree. She looked as if she were in deep thought as I stood a few feet away from her unnoticed. I watched closely as she opened her fist and a ball of blue fire came out of the palm of her hand and she stared at it until tears flowed from her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled as silent tears fell and she threw the blue flame away from her. It landed in the dry leaves and made a small blue fire spread revealing three silhouettes of men standing there. She gasped when she saw them and just then a man snuck up behind her.
“Look out!” I yelled but no sound escaped my lips and just as he hit her in the back of her head everything went black and I felt my body hit the ground.~
I woke up with a loud gasp. What was with that dream and why did I feel as if I knew that girl? I ran a hand through my hair which was stuck to my face from sweating. I threw the covers off my body and swung my legs over the side of the bed before putting my head in my hands.
“What does it mean? Am I insane?” I whispered to myself. Just then I saw a little paper sticking out from under the bed. I jumped off the bed and kneeled down on my knees to pull it out. When I got it I saw that it was a picture. It was a picture of the girl I saw in my dream but much much younger and she had a baby girl in her arms. I turned my head sideways as I examined it; the baby girl had the same dark brown eyes as me with a toothless smile making me smile myself. I turned over the picture to see that there was writing in purple ink. It said “1997, me and my little sister Loraine”. My eyes widened as I flipped the picture back over and examined it once more. Then I realized those bright blue eyes belonged to my older sister Alexa and those dark brown eyes and toothless smile belonged to me. This is who I was, and who I left behind. Now Alexa’s gone and I didn’t even get to know her, my own sister, who loved and accepted me even though we never really got to know each other. I didn’t realize I was crying until a tear dropped onto the picture. I wiped the tears away and kissed the picture before grabbing tape from her desk and taping it in the upper corner of the bathroom mirror so I could look at it everyday. To remind me of what I want most… to find my sister.