At about midnight we showed up soaking wet to my sister’s house. Its perfectly maintained lawn, straight edged walls, and meticulously set out potted plants were a good representation of the occupant. So, I knew we were at the right house.
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Arriving At My Sister’s House
As I knocked on the door, Beck asked, “Where are we?”
“This is my sister’s house,” I answered as the door cracked open.
“Hi Andromeda,” I greeted.
She took one look at me, and immediately tried to slam us out.
I jumped forward and held the door, reminding through gritted teeth, “Remember when I took the fall after you broke mom’s vase??”
She stopped, then let out a defeated sigh as she opened the door.
We entered my sister’s house and shook the rain drops onto the white tile floor.
“What are you doing here Comet?” she asked annoyedly.
I answered, “Running from dad?”
“Yes, I know that,” she replied as she went to a linen closet. “What are you doing at my house? Don’t you have your own apartment somewhere? In some great new city with a great new job?”
She began passing towels around.
“This was a lot closer. I don’t think we could’ve made it back on a sunny day let alone in this down pour,” I explained.
She glared at me, then I asked, “Wait, how did you know we were running from dad?”
“I’m his personal assistant,” she added as she walked away. “It’s my job to know what’s going on.”
Explanations At My Sister’s House
“You’re his personal assistant now?”
“Yes, because some of us actually wanted to be in this family,” she growled before adding, “You can stay here for the night but I’m calling you a cab in the morning.”
“We can’t afford it,” I argued.
She glared at me again before continuing, “You’ll pay me back some other time then.”
With that, she stomped up the stairs of the little house, leaving us to dry off.
“Must’ve been some vase if we have a room for the night and a cab for tomorrow,” Beck quipped.
“It was a family heirloom from our great grandma,” I explained. “I had just made the principles list with all AP classes so we figured they’d go easier on me.”
“Did they?”
“Um, I’m not sure….” I added an awkward chuckle as I began drying off my hair.
“Sofa?” Ivan asked.
“Well- “I attempted, as Steve rushed to the couch a plopped himself down.
“Looks like he’s claimed it for the two of you,” Beck quipped.
I chuckled, then went to push him off.
“No, you should get the couch,” Beck argued. “You’ve been through it the last few days.”
Ivan started nodding his head.
“You were in Russia with me,” I contested.
“Yeah, but I didn’t just find out I was a clone.”
Beck stopped for a second, pulling back from his words.
To save the cringy situation I added jokingly, “Yeah well at least I’m not a supposed to be dead ex-gang member.”
Beck smiled and nodded, then we swiped some more blankets from the closest, and settled in for the night.
Around seven o’clock the next morning, I could hear rustling coming from the kitchen. Now, considering what we had just been through, I was pretty freaked out, and decided to investigate.
I poked my head around the refrigerator, and found my sister doing her breakfast dishes.
She jumped at the sight of me, then explained, “It’s not like I’m going to let you throw off my morning routine.”
I nodded, then looked to the floor, trying to ground myself.
“I’ve called a cab for you. It’ll be here in a few minutes,” she concluded as she set her last dish up to dry.
“Thank you,” I barely managed.
“This was to repay a debt. Nothing more. If it was anything more, I could be risking everything I’ve worked for.”
“Everything you’ve- wait, you’re not still planning on working for dad, are you? After all he’s done!?” I tried.
“Why wouldn’t I be!?” she argued as she started hauling the trash outside.
I followed her through the sliding glass door and pressed, “Because the man is a psycho! Do you know how many people he’s hurt!?”
“Approximately 338 if you include affected family members.”
I stared at her in disbelief as she slung her bag into the bin.
“How…. how could you…” I tried.
“I’m his personal assistant now. I know about his work for the families, I know about his little trip to Russia to save you.”
“Do you know I’m his clone?” I threw out.
She hesitated, then practically whispered, “He said he’d never tell you.”
“So you did know!” I accused. “For how long!?”
“Since we were kids?”
I glared at her.
“Look, I ran into dad’s notes one day and he told me. He didn’t think it would hurt anything, and he used it as a test to see if he could trust me.”
The Truth Found At My Sister’s House
“So… you’ve known about this, practically forever, and never once thought I needed to know?”
“You had a blissful ignorance. Who was I to take that away?”
“You’re my sister! That’s who you are! You should’ve told me!”
“And blow my chances with dad!? Comet you have no idea what I’ve had to do to get here! He made you! I’m just the kid he got stuck with.”
“You can’t mean that. Ann,” I reached out my hand only for Andromeda to slap it away.
“Don’t you Ann me! You had everything you could’ve wanted, you had the best of the best, the world at your fingertips, and you threw it all away because the work was a little hard for your delicate little hands.”
“Andromeda he was using me, turning me into him I- “
“Well, isn’t that what you’re supposed to be?! You’re dad so start acting like it! I always knew you’d turn into him and so did mom. That’s why she left you know. She said she couldn’t handle a world with two of dad in it.”
My heart fell to my feet and I could feel the tears starting.
Our mom had left just before I turned a year old, since then, no one ever talked about her. Besides a blurry memory of her crying over me, then running out the door, I knew nothing else of her.
“You took the life dad gave you for granted. I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he just decided to get rid of his experiment. At least that’s what I’d do.”
I didn’t know what to say. How could I say anything after finding out my sister didn’t care if I was dead or alive?
“Um, the cab’s here,” Beck announced as he poked his head out to the patio.
The Cab Ride Home
Andromeda glared at me, nudging my shoulder as she walked past. If it wasn’t for Steve jumping on me, I don’t think I could’ve ever broken out of that trance.
“Comet?” Beck asked.
Quickly, I whipped off my eyes, then turned with a smile.
“Yeah, we should probably get going,” I answered as I rushed past him.
I didn’t say anything else to Andromeda, and the five of us, hopped into the little cab.
“Did she say something to you?” Beck tried.
I didn’t have any kind of reply. I just stared out the window hoping to find my answers somewhere in the trees.
Before we knew it, we made it back to the apartment, where I numbly reached for the door handle.
‘Wait,” Beck admonished.
I looked back at him, and he asked, “How did the cabby know where to take us from your sister’s house?”
“I suppose Andromeda told him,” I suggested.
“And why would she know that?”
I paused for a minute, realizing what he was saying. Beck then scooted between me and the door, and carefully opened the room.
Inside, the doors had been pulled off the cupboards, the pillows on the couch had been torn to shreds, and the few things I had were thrown into the mess of stuffing and wood on the floor.
“Well, looks like I’m not getting my deposit back,” I quipped as I walked to the lone standing mirror by the sliding glass door.
“I’m gonna check the area, someone might still be here. Ivan, come with me,” Beck ordered.
Their footsteps faded as the cruel joke in the room finally set in. The lone mirror. A symbol to show me who I looked like, or more specifically, who I was.
I stared into the reflective sheet, looking at my messy blond hair. Add a little grease and it’d look just like my dad’s. I then saw my height and realize we were the same size. Then the eyes, the eyes were so close, so close I could…. I could see my dad taking over the mirror image.
In a panic I threw the mirror to the ground shattering it to a million pieces. I knelt down and picked up a shard, not daring to look in it again. Who was I? Was I really my dad? Was that my only hope?
In A Panic
“Comet! Are you alright!?” Beck cried as he ran into the room with Ivan and Steve.
“I…. My dad he was… I could see him. In the mirror,’ I barely managed.
My whole body began trembling, and the glass shard glistened in my hand.
Steve came though, and laid his nose right on the shard. He looked up at me with his big round eyes as he always had, and I couldn’t help but reach out to pet him. As the thought’s started racing in my mind again, I began pulling back, but Steve leaned forward and pushed his snoot into my fingers. Happily, he wagged his tail and stuck his tongue out.
I couldn’t help but feel like the only thing stopping me from falling completely off the deep end was this dog. Then, his eyes rolled back, and he fell over my legs collapsing into my lap.
“Steve? Steve!?”
He didn’t budge.
Beck rushed to my side and Ivan started petting Steve trying to wake him up.
“What happened? Was, was he hurt or…” Beck tried.
“Sick?” Ivan suggested.
I stared at my hand as my thoughts started racing.
“Comet! Comet look!” Beck cried.
I stared into my lap and saw Steve trying his hardest to move closer to me. Wiggling himself weakly with his legs, then reaching his nose over to touch my hand.
“We’ve gotta find Mariah,” I blurted out.
I have no idea what brought me to that conclusion, but no one argued and in a matter of seconds, we were racing to his lab.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this installment of The Adventures Of Comet And Steve! If you missed the last chapter in this adventure, you can find it here. I post every other Tuesday so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing! I also publish lifestyle posts on my adventures through adulthood on this very blog. This is one of my favorite posts!
P.S. What was your favorite part of the Pain Hidden Within My Sister’s House post? What do you think is going on with Steve? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think!