2 (:

Dark. Light. Dark. Light. Dark. Some light bulbs weren’t working so some part of the tunnels were dark and muddy, and the others were light and normal.

I was in one of those city tunnels. This one went to an old forgotten ballroom; I had been here before following other clues but had never gotten anywhere. The shoeprint I found in the principal office was made of the same reddish sand the ballroom had.

I was dressed in all in black, if someone saw I wanted them to think I was some gothic girl. I had the blond wig just in case someone knew my real hair colour. These were stupid but necessary precautions.

The light started to grow stronger. I put a scarf around my head so my blue eyes were the only thing visible. I kept going. In the entrances I stopped to look at the room.

It’s grandest never failing to take my breath away. It was one of those old ballrooms that were surrounded by columns, each column with a different kind of decoration. There was another entrance at the top of some stairs that led to a little room with a big wood table. But the really extraordinary thing was all the light this room had, it looked like if the room took the light it was given and multiplied at least three times more.

I heard footsteps but instead of running away I followed my gut feeling, I stayed.  I listened.  The footsteps were coming from the stairs.

I put myself between the entrances and the stairs so they could easily see me.

Two persons walked out of the table room. One was an old man and the other one a boy with black hair. Then the boy looked up and I saw what I had missed before. It was him. The murderer. The tall boy with green eyes and black hair. The boy that killed my aunt.

Without thinking I pointed the gun to the columns behind them, blocking the other entrance. If they wanted to go out they would have to pass by me first.

The old man took a gun out and the boy just started at me with wide eyes.

I ran to the boy, he was the weak point. I took him by the arm and put the gun in his temple.

‘Give me your gun’ was all I said. The old man looked like he was about to shoot me ‘just give it to me. I really don’t want to shoot him; it would make my new outfit a mess’ I had learn that if you talk like you don’t care for the person life they will do anything you want ‘come on, I’m losing my patience’

He put his gun down. His eyes never leaving my face. After he put his gun down he didn’t move, he wanted me to go near him, it was clear in his eyes.

‘How about you kick it?’ I said making my gun go to the middle of the boy’s eyes.

He did as I told him. I picked it up. It wasn’t heavy and it had some kind of decorations, a nice gun actually.

I let the boy go. This was the part I enjoyed, the little dramatic part. I made them stand apart pointing a gun at each one of them.

The boy looked like he was about to passed out. I put the gun pointing at him down; he seemed to relax before he saw my hand moving. I wanted them to see who I was. I took the scarf off.

The scarf fell to the floor and my black hair went loose. The boy looked at me with his eyes and mouth open, like if he was seeing a ghost. The blond wig lay at my feet.

The old man was petrified. His face just like the boys.

I hadn’t notice before but the man looked just like the boy only in an older version. His hair was black with some withes showing up. He had the same strong chin and nose the boy had. The only difference was the eyes; the boys were green and the old man’s were brown.

‘Who are you?’ they seemed to flinch when I talked.

‘Mary...’ The boy started to say. But I cut him off with a hand gesture. That was my real name, I didn’t know how he knew it but I wasn’t going to let him talk to me without drawing some lines.

The old man was still petrified.

‘Do. Not. Call. Me. That.’ I said it slowly to make sure he understood he was swimming in dangerous waters. ‘How about you call me Kat? And then tell me who you are’ my voice going from the I-don’t-care patience one to the I-will-kill-you cold voice.

That single name brought far too many hard times to my mind; my parents’ murder, my aunts murder, the crimes I had to make to get off the cops hands and worst of all: the happy times, the dinner party with my aunt, the park, my aunt’s house, my friends and all the good stuff.

‘Ok’ the man said. He started to speak but the boy cut him off with the same hand gesture I made to cut him off.

‘I’m Josh’ he said. He moved a step closer. I pointed the gun at him and he took the step back ‘Bet you can’t defend yourself without that gun’

‘Of course I can. I just wanted to show you that I kept the gun you used to kill my aunt’ I said with a fake sweet voice. He looked shy and hurt, again ‘Don’t try to be smart again and I won’t have to use words to hurt you’

‘I’m Josh’ He said. Every time he said his name some images tried to come back but when I tried to catch them they just disappeared. ‘That man over there is Jacob’

All the images the boys name brought came back to me with the man’s name. A stone castle, a bright blue lake, a black horse, my mom, my dad and a 3-years-old boy staring at me with wide eyes. There were more but they didn’t stay as long.

I dropped the guns. I felt weak, my legs no longer hold me, and I fell to my knees. The memories still going around my head. Half me said it was my past and the other part said they were just fantasy pictures.

Josh and Jacob were coming. They were talking but I couldn’t hear them. The images were still flashing. Then my mom image stood still and I knew that all those images were real. I lived in a place very far away from here. I was some kind of royal girl. My parents had a crown on their heads so if I was right; I was some sort of princess. Those images were my past and the people in front of me were my...

‘Family’ I whispered. I looked at Josh’s green worried eyes. I tried to beg him to explain but the darkness was fast, it took me in less than 30 seconds.

I fainted.