Chapter 4 - Reunion

But something else greeted her this time."hello, princess."

Her head shot up. Reclining on one of the couches in the sitting room were her dad and Rizwan.

"d..dad? you came back!", she found herself grinning; something she hadn't done in a while.

Her father and brother came forward and hugged her. And then she lost it. She started rambling; for some reason, everything she's been holding back came rushing together at the sight of her family.

"i..i..i thought you had work, and that you wouldn't come this vacation. And Rizwan, you said you were going to stay at the hostel for preparing for your exams. You guys could have told me you were coming, I had lost all hopes of seeing you this year. Please dad, take me to California with you. I cant take it anymore..",she was sobbing now. She hated breaking down; but she couldn't help herself. " its horrible here. Amir gets himself into all kinds of trouble and I have to save him. But he tortures me, guys...he locks me up in my bedroom and starves me for days. He doesn't have a job, he comes home drunk and beats the hell out of auntie. Please, take me away from here, please."

"well i am here to take you away, Sarah.",said a rough, stern voice from the corner of the room.

Sarah rubbed away the tears and looked in the voice's direction. Standing in the far corner, melting into the shadows was Mr.Mathew, Alan's foster father.

"wh..what?", Sarah stammered.

Mathew started to speak, but Sarah's dad cut in. "its OK,my darling. I am so sorry you had to go through all that. Your grandma,aunt and cousins returned to their old house. You don't have to worry about Amir or anything else now, dear."

"but...but what's Mr.Mathew talking about?"

Rizwan spoke up for the first time, " there's a lot of explanation to be done, sis. Even me and dad don't know the full details. We just rushed here on getting a phone call from Mr.Mathew saying that our lives are in danger, and that you needed us."

"I really don't understand. Our lives are in danger?", Sarah asked, perplexed. The only thing she could thing of that would be 'dangerous' to her would be the giant spiders hiding in the dark corners of the house.

Mathew walked to the couch and sat down heavily. He was a huge man, but muscular in a way; more like a retired army man. " oh Sarah... always so naïve. You cant be seriously saying that you didn't realize anyone was following you on your way here?"

Sarah thought about that that. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize she was being targeted. Or is Mathew lying?

She shrugged."look, I am not an old man like you; I don't get paranoid. So instead of needlessly insulting me, why don't you start by giving some answers to us?"

She expected her dad to scold or something for being rude, but he didn't say anything. Sarah thought that he also wanted some answers.

"well, fine. You want answers, I'll give them to you. But trust me; once you know the truth about your mother, you'd wish I never told you anything.", said Mathew with an evil smirk.

Sarah never was that fond of Mathew, now she was despising him with every ticking second. Who the hell does he think he is?

"mom? What does she got to do with all this?", rizwan asked loudly.

" oh well, this whole sticky situation was her creation in the first place. Now all of you, sit down and be quite. We don't have much time. And don't interrupt me when I am talking. I want to get ever with this soon."

Sarah, her dad and rizwan scooted to the nearby couch and sat down. Sarah couldn't help but think of how unlucky she was. She finally got her family back, but now her life was supposedly in danger.

"it all began when I recruited your mother 23 years ago. I run a secret...camp of sorts for special teenagers with extraordinary talents. These teenagers usually are born with magical abilities. And yes, before you interrupt, magic is real, and its not something you want to dabble in. Sometimes kids in our world are born with magic and once people realize it, they get scared of them , call them a witch and most probably kill them. So, my camp had been prevailing in our world for centuries to keep these child prodigies safe.Your mother, Sania, she had pure talent in archery. The wonders she could do with a bow and arrows; I had never seen such things in my life before. I decided to give her a place in my camp. Sure,it was hard to convince her parents, but they were blinded easily. Sania started of pretty good, and soon had caught the attention of all the campers. One camper particularly. Thomas, who was gifted in all martial arts. He could disembowel anyone within seconds and didn't even have to learn any moves or anything. He was, like I said, born with magical abilities. He felt deeply infatuated towards Sania ; and when she refused him, he went mad and tried to hurt her. Sania escaped and survived with her skills. She and I decided that it would be best if she left camp for good. And so she did. She migrated with her parents to this country and got settled here. But Thomas didn't let her go that easily. He thought that Sania deserved to die for making him heartbroken. I tried to contain him as much as I could, but eventually he broke free after a couple of years. And by that time, Sania had already married and had kids. Thomas's family was really rich and he took advantage of it. He started tracking Sania down, to destroy her and her family that she made without Thomas. He finally succeeded in doing it; at least half of it,anyway. That car accident that killed Sania? Turns out it wasn't much of an accident. He murdered her. And made it look like a car accident. After that, he went into hiding because he knew I was behind him. Now he's back again, and he wants to kill the three of you, the family that Sania cherished for such a short time." ,he finished with a sigh.

Sarah just sat there. She felt like time had frozen. She sat there and tried to digest what all she just heard. But a few words rang in her mind, filling her with anger.

He murdered her.

"you're seriously expecting us to believe all this?", she heard her father say.

"well you'd better believe me, because he's right outside the house. We better get moving; the back door, now!", Mathew said .

None of them moved a muscle.

"COME ON, NOW! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! I PROMISED SANIA THAT I'LL KEEP YOU IDIOTS SAFE,NOW I DON'T CARE IF YOU BELIEVE ME OR NOT, COME WITH ME NOW!!", He barked.

CRASH.

A window broke. They dashed for the back door, Mathew leading. Then they took off at a sprint, Sarah could hear people pursuing them on foot. They ran through the back yard; outside, a white van was waiting for them. Mathew went straight at it, slid the door open and ushered them inside. He himself got into the van and slid the door shut.

"move it, Gray!", Mathew shouted to the driver. The van took off with a lurch, speeding down the road.

Within minutes, a trail of black cars were following them. Sarah didn't think that the white van was any match for the expensive cars on their tail, but somehow it managed to escape. They turned into the airport tunnel.

"where are we going?", dad asked worriedly.

"my camp", Mathew said, panting heavily.

"your camp is in the airport tunnel?", Rizwan asked.

"do you seriously think you are in a position to joke right now? ", Mathew said, glaring at Rizwan."anyway, my camp isn't anywhere near, its not even in this country. Once we reach the airport, we will lose them. Thomas wont dare to follow us to camp."

"but what if he does follow us to camp?", Sarah asked.

"then its up to you to save yourself with the skills your mother taught you."

Behind them, the cars were gaining on them fast. Gray sped on until they reached a pair of towering gates. He honked loudly; and the gates swung forward. Sarah could see a small plane parked on the tarmac just beyond the gates.

The white van stopped abruptly 10 feet from the plane. Mathew ordered everyone to get out of the car in a way that made Sarah wish that she was deaf. Sarah looked back and saw that the cars had stopped at a distance from the gates; bulky men were pouring out from them but she didn't wait to look at them twice. This was all so overwhelming for her that she wished that she could melt on to the tarmac and forget about everything. But only if life was so easy. She sighed and climbed aboard the plane after her family.

Mathew slid the door shut after her and after barking a quick order to take off to the pilot; who was having a good time sipping his coffee, he sank into a seat.

He indicated to Sarah to take a seat. She didn't sit down ; instead she insisted her dad and Rizwan to sit. She looked around and spotted Alan at the back of the little plane. She headed there.

"oh hey, Sarah.", he said, looking smug as usual as if nothing weird happened.

"What are you doing here? You know about this magic and camp stuff that your dad keeps talking about?", she said, talking a seat beside Alan.

"well, I am here helping with his 'business '. And this time,his business happens to be my best friend and her family. And yes, I know about this 'magic and camp stuff'. I also knew all about your mother. And now don't ask me why I didn't tell you it was just because I didn't want to burden you with such a huge truth."

Sarah felt dizzy. And it was not due to the fact that it was her first time on a plane. It was because she couldn't believe all that changed in the past 3 hours. She looked out through the tiny window. Completely dark. She knew Alan had done the right thing by not telling her all this information because she knew that if he did, she would laugh and call him an idiot. She had to accept all this. She remembered what her mother told her 2 years ago.

one day, you will get a chance to be a hero.

This was that day . she had to be a hero, protect the only family that she have left. she was not going to let Thomas, the man who murdered her mom, win.

"where are we going?", Sarah asked out of the blue.

Alan smirked and said, " to your new home, Magic Isle."