25. Chapter 25

A good night's sleep could do a lot to ease the mind. Lyra didn't wake up feeling refreshed and primed, but she didn't wake up tired and full of dread for the day either. She woke up somewhat in a daze, mechanically gathering up a change of clothes and making her way to the bathroom. She only truly woke up when she'd climbed in the shower and the water shocked her entire body and mind awake.

It all came back to her. She was at her grandparents' house. She'd gone on the run with her little brother after finding out about their illegal parentage. Her aunt had helped her. And now she was waiting for either her mom or her dad to gather their bravery enough to come here and face her and their own parents.

And to give her the answers she deserved. So many questions...so many answers she might find abhorrent. Lyra's apprehension came back. It might be awful, but it was necessary. And after she got those answers?

She really didn't know. Those questions seemed so important, it would be pointless to address anything else in her life, short-term or long-term, until she got answers.

A series of knocks on the bathroom door broke Lyra out of her contemplative state. Someone else must have woken up too. "Someone's in here!" She called.

"Hey Lyra!" It was Lily's voice. "Can I come in and pee?" Her aunt was an early riser too.

"Sorry!" She didn't have a problem with the request; it was something her and her mom did a lot. "But I locked the door! I'm almost done!" Lyra tried to hurry. Then she heard the doorknob start to jiggle. "Lily?" She called out to her aunt uneasily. She heard the door pop open, and a rush of cold air came into the bathroom from outside before it closed again.

"Don't worry about it. These doors are so old the locks don't work anyway."

"Uh… go ahead." Lyra called out after a beat, dwelling on how concerning that was. Lyra could extend her shower a little longer, she guessed.

"Yeah." Her aunt sounded unphased. "With how many kids lived here, it's amazing the second floor still even exists!" Lily had meant that innocently, but all Lyra could really think about was the horrible sinful stuff that had happened up here. Her aunt kept the conversation going, stopping Lyra from dwelling on that. "Do you think Lincoln or Luna will come by today?" By her tone, Lyra could tell she was waiting for it too.

"They might." But Lyra honestly couldn't say which she expected to show up first. Her dad was closer, but he seemed absolutely terrified of this house. Her mom might be making a beeline straight here, but Lyra had no idea which method of transport she was using. She did want to talk to them, but the anticipation of who and when was going to make her weary.

"Do you have any idea what you're going to say?" Lily asked next.

"...Yes." Lyra assured herself and answered her aunt after taking a moment to think. She didn't know the exact words she'd use, but she knew what subjects she was going to broach. Those were the same thing, weren't they?

"Do you want me to come with you?" Lily asked. "I want to talk to both of them." Something in her aunt's tone changed. It sounded hostile to Lyra.

"No." Lyra elaborated, since she didn't want to try and imply any form of seniority since her aunt had a stake in these events too. "Sorry, but they are my parents. I know they're your siblings...but they are coming here to see me. I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll have a chance too."

"Okay." Lily accepted. "Just let me know if you change your mind."

"Thank you." Even if she intended to take this on alone, Lyra was glad someone was willing to support her on it. Her aunt finished and left, and Lyra quickly exited the shower and started to dry herself off before getting dressed. She'd put on her underwear and was just throwing a button up blouse over her shoulders when she saw the bathroom door start to open in the mirror.

"Lemy!" Lyra practically shrieked, holding the front of her blouse closed. Her brother jerked to a stop, eyes opening in surprise as he caught sight of her. He scowled in obvious disgust and backed out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. Lyra stood there for a few moments longer, heart pounding in her chest and still holding her blouse closed. Realizing the door was still unlocked, Lyra rushed over and locked it, before hurrying into a full state of dress.

There was no point in getting angry, she reasoned with herself. Lemy had probably seen Lily coming out of the bathroom and thought it was free. Not his fault. Awkward incidents like that had happened to Lemy, her, and their mom on the road and in the many hotels they visited. So much, she didn't usually respond so emotionally. She must be on edge with everything going on.

In a bizarre way, it brought her back to the current turmoil in her life. Lemy had looked disgusted just then. He usually did if he caught her or her mom in an indecent state. That was a normal reaction, and a healthy one too. Lemy was normal, and so was she.

Her parents, quite plainly, were not. Exactly half her aunts too. Lyra had to wonder what could've triggered such a widespread amount of degeneracy. Did someone start it? It was something Lyra felt she should find out.

...Did her mom start it? Liena was older than Lyra, but she had no idea how long 'things' had been happening before they bore fruit, so to speak. Maybe it would be worth seeing from anyone here if her mom had any deviant behaviors growing up here, or could she trust the woman to be truthful?

Lemy was still outside the bathroom when Lyra exited, and he brushed past her without a word. Lyra headed downstairs, expecting her aunt to be there but also surprised to see her grandma awake too.

"Good morning, Lyra." The old woman said pleasantly. She was making herself some coffee, and Lily was getting herself some breakfast.

"Good morning." Lyra politely nodded while the woman smiled at her. She went to see what Lily was making-cereal. Name brand ones, like they usually got on the road. More importantly, stuff Lemy would eat. Lyra went back upstairs to tell her brother about breakfast before hurrying back down to make some for both of them. Just like the night before, Lyra sat next to her grandma and opposite of her aunt at the end of the table.

"I'm 18 and I still can't eat in my own room." Lily jokingly complained.

"Eager to get rid of your mother?" Rita countered her daughter's humor with her own.

"No." Her youngest backtracked, seeming embarrassed. "I'm just thinking it'll be cool when I have my own dorm I can do anything in."

"Our mom lets us eat wherever." Lemy entered the conversation. "We stay at hotels and the maids always clean up any mess." Lyra was about to admonish her brother, but her aunt seized the chance for a conversation with her nephew.

"It was always the coolest when Luna was in charge." Lily reminisced. "She barely had any rules and let us do anything." She sounded fond of her older sister, which confused Lyra when her aunt had demonstrated clear dislike since she found out what Luna had done. Was it genuine? Or was she making an act just so she could get along with Lemy? Lyra could understand the latter.

"Mom always says," Lemy started.

"'-as long as the place doesn't burn down.'" Lily finished the sentence with Lemy, and Lyra played it out in her mind with an imagined disdainful tone.

"But flooding it is fine." Lily's mom said with a knowing smile, and the young woman went a deep red color for some reason.

"Did you see the trophy case yet?" Lily changed the subject and turned to Lyra.

"Trophy case?" She shook her head.

"It's right there." Lily pointed to the other end of the dining room. In the corner was a wood cabinet that Lyra was sure she'd noticed, but hadn't looked at too closely. "Come see." Lily stood up. Normally, Lyra wouldn't leave the table without finishing her meal. But since Lily was so eager to show her, she got up anyway. Lemy did too. "It's the trophies we all earned growing up." Behind a glass door were eleven shelves lined with trophies and ribbons, with names on little brass plates denoting who each had belonged to.

Lyra's eyes were naturally drawn to where Lily was pointing, which ended up being her own shelf. "Journalism trophies I got in middle school." Lily explained proudly. Then she got kind of melancholy. "That's where I got my interest in it, I guess. Lincoln started the news team there when he was in school and they had his picture there. Since he was gone by then, I guess that's all it needed to draw me in."

Lyra nodded and opened her mouth, meaning to say 'Oh'. But no words came out. Her eyes had just shifted to her mother's shelf, brimming with awards unsurprisingly, when a realization hit her. There were trophies from everyone in there, even the wayward members of the family. Her grandmother had forgiven them, but that hadn't always been the case, and her grandfather didn't seem to have yet. She expected that reminders like this would have been discarded at some point, similar to how her parents and aunts had discarded every reminder except for that single family photo. But they'd stayed here, even if they might be a painful reminder. The contrast made Lyra consider again how mature her grandparents were about the mess than any of their children.

"Cool." Lemy was more easily amused by the outward aspects of the case.

Lyra dutifully finished her breakfast and made sure to wash both her and her brother's dishes. After that, she was left with the critical question of what to do. She had her personal affairs in order and was waiting on other people for things to do. In times like this on the road, she would reread her Bible. But something told Lyra she didn't want to sit and read for a long period of time. Socializing was the next most obvious option, but she doubted Lemy would be very chatty, or even willing to leave their new room. Lyra really should sit down and have a proper conversation with Loan, but she doubted the other girl was even awake at this hour. Lyra was afraid that if she tried to talk to her grandmother, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from asking difficult questions that might upset her, and Lyra didn't want to cover anything until she'd had a chance to talk to her parents. That left only one real option, but Lyra discovered Lily had gotten in the shower after breakfast. Socializing was a bust.

So, even though it made her feel a little creepy, Lyra decided she had enough courage to explore the house a little more. Her home, really, even though she'd been so young. She stepped around the first floor, taking in all the details. The trampled carpet, the well worn sofa cushions, and long faded stains on so many surfaces; this house had seen a lot of wear and took care of a lot of people. It had her for several years. If things had gone differently, it might even have done it up to her current age and beyond. But that wasn't the reality, just wishful thinking.

She moved to the backyard next. It wasn't very big, but like the inside of the house, it wasn't hard at all to imagine so many people finding enjoyment here. There was a tree on the left side from the backdoor, and a garage on the far right. And there was something else too, something Lyra's eyes had swept over on the first pass: something sticking out of the ground. Was that a dome? Or a hatch? Curious, Lyra descended the steps to get a closer look at it while keeping her distance. There was a wheel on the top, so it was a hatch. But what was it doing out here?

Lily just so happened to arrive to give her answers, hair still wet. "Oh, you found Lisa's old bunker?"

"Bunker?" Lyra asked. Was that what it was? In the backyard? And it was Lisa's?

"Oh yeah." Lily moved ahead of her. "Lisa built it when she was four. She wanted to have a place to do experiments where the rest of the family wouldn't interrupt her." She punched a combination on a keypad Lyra hadn't noticed, and the brunette stepped back in surprise as the hatch valve suddenly spun on its own and opened, revealing a ladder. "It has its own bathroom and power. We still use it for a storm shelter sometimes. Do you want to see inside?"

"Oh, no." Lyra declined the offer. She was already overwhelmed and not too keen to explore something underground. She was wearing a dress skirt for that matter, and those never mixed with ladders. "I was just curious." Lyra paused for a second. "Did you say Aunt Lisa built this? When she was four?"

"Uh huh." Lily confirmed, using her foot to push the hatch closed. It locked automatically. "Lisa was always really smart. Really, really smart. Some of it rubbed off on me because we used to share a room. I started kindergarten with a 5th grade reading comprehension and vocabulary. I didn't stay a genius forever though." She admitted ruefully. "But Lisa just kept getting smarter and smarter."

"I've seen her on the news." Lyra mentioned. "She's supposed to be one of the best scientists in the world."

"I'm pretty sure she's the absolute best." Lily corrected. "Space travel, vaccines, artificial gasoline. She makes so much stuff it's insane." Lily's smile started to fade. "She never really has time to visit though. To be honest, Lisa always had sort of a problem with other people. Even us sometimes."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Lyra offered. Her aunt didn't seem to be a sinner like her sisters, but she avoided her family in the same way. Or that's how it looked to Lily. But it seemed like it was for a good reason, and it sounded like things would've turned out that way even if the family didn't have a dark secret.

"She always tried though. In her own way." Lily explained. "Trying to help us with her experiments. I like to think that's how it is today. She works hard because she knows making the world a better place makes it better for us too."

"I'm sure you're right." It might've been disingenuous for Lyra to speculate about a woman she could never actually recall meeting, but her aunt seemed like a smart woman, so Lyra trusted her assumption.

"Yeah." Lily smiled again. "Anyway, I was looking for you."

"Oh, I was just looking around the house." Lyra explained. "I didn't expect you to be done so soon."

"Hot water ran out. It takes the house half a day to get any more ready." Before Lyra could apologize for that, her aunt kept talking. "I just wondered what you were going to do until Lincoln or Luna showed up."

"I'm just trying to find a way to occupy myself." Lyra explained. "I was curious about the house. I grew up here, but I don't really remember a whole lot. I was told a lot of stories about when you guys all lived here."

"Do you want a tour?" Lily immediately offered. "I can tell you over a million stories." She said seriously.

"I'd like that." Lyra accepted the offer. She wanted to know more, and she could trust her aunt not to tell or show her anything that would unsettle her. And Lyra wanted to hear more about her family. She always had found these stories from her...her parents...interesting.

And Lily had plenty of stories. Just stepping back into the kitchen, she had more stories to tell then Lyra was sure her mom and Lincoln had told her combined. And they weren't just about her and her sisters; Lily would talk about Lyra and her cousins when they were little too. The way she presented them reminded Lyra a lot of Lincoln; it was eccentric with a lot of movements, with the occasional tangent for several minutes to explain something. And just like Lincoln, Lily seemed really invested in telling these stories, prompting Lyra to listen to all of them to the end out of both obligation and genuine interest. Some of these were about her from times when she couldn't remember, and that caught her interest the most.

As they moved through the house, Lyra thought she saw her grandma smiling at them in the dining room.

There was something else Lyra noticed as they moved around: her aunt's frequent mentioning of her mom. It was kind, fond, or at the very least not malicious. Just like at breakfast, she didn't show the same hostility she had either that morning or the day before. Lyra did decide to inquire about it right after they got upstairs, giving her aunt pause. By the look on her face, even she hadn't realized how inconsistent she was being.

"Well...I want to be mad at her." Lily insisted. "But I missed her for a long time. I never thought of her as a bad person, I never thought of any of them as bad people." She leaned against the wall. "I'm not even really thinking of them." She mentioned. "I remember it like we were all together. Just all of my sisters, not one of them..."

"I understand." When Lily was reminiscing, she was thinking of the family as one, not a bunch of people together. Lyra got the same impression thinking back to how her mom and dad had talked. A lot of 'we' and 'us'. There was a sense of unity, not individualism like today. It was the impression she'd always gotten about what had changed. Lyra encouraged her aunt to continue with the tour and the stories, not wanting her to dwell on that and not wanting to do so herself either. Not yet.

And Lily did. And even though being up here made things a little too close for comfort, Lily knew what lines not to cross. She was telling Lyra about a fashion show Lola had put on in the hallway with them as the stars when Lily got the bright idea of showing Lyra instead of telling her.

"You know." She said suddenly. "I swear there's a video of that. I think we have a couple from when you guys were little. If you want, we can ask my mom. I'm sure she still has them in the house."

Lyra thought about it, and decided that she did want to see those if they existed. In her mind, it was just like the photo albums Lincoln had shown her. She knew she didn't really need any more reminders about what had been lost, but it wasn't just about this thing with her parents. It was about her own happy memories too. Lyra agreed, and her aunt grabbed her hand and pulled her downstairs.

"Hey, Mom." The old woman looked up as the two young women entered the dining room. "Don't we have tapes or something from when Lyra and the others were babies?"

"We're not that old, Lily." She gave her a look over the rim of her glasses. "They're on DVDs."

"Uh...right." The young blond responded in embarrassment. "Do you know where they are? We were looking for them. Rita set her book down and stood up from her seat. Lyra and Lily curiously followed her out into the living room, and then stopped to wait as she entered the master bedroom. She came back out with a fairly small box, stuffed with zip up CD cases.

"Here you are, girls." She handed them to the pair with a smile. They both turned back towards the couch, since there was a TV there. But there was no DVD player. Lily came up with a solution fast.

"Wait here." She rushed upstairs, and came back down with a closed laptop. "I wasn't supposed to use this until I got to school." Lily admitted. "But I don't think they'll mind." She opened it and it quickly booted up. Just like the walls of her room, the background was of an anthropomorphic animal, a fox. Lily was quick to pull the laptop into her lap and clicked away until a video player took up the entire screen, then she put it back in between them. "Pick one." Her aunt told her.

Lyra turned to the box and started looking through it. None of the DVDs were labeled, to Lyra's mild annoyance, and after finding that to be the case for all of them, she picked one at random and handed it to her aunt. She put it in the disk tray, and both leaned forward eagerly to see what would come up. The very first clip was of Lola, trying to dress a baby and looking a little annoyed at how hard it was. Lyra couldn't even tell if the baby was her or one of her cousins; it was bald and lacked any defining features. Lola was trying to apply lipstick with precision when the baby swung its hand out, causing Lola to instead smear the stuff over her own face. After a moment, the blond let out a screech of indignation, getting a small cackle out of Lily.

It became apparent that the DVDs weren't labeled because there was no rhyme or reason to what was on them. Each was just a variety of video clips stitched together. In general, they stayed in the same time frame- between thirteen and sixteen years ago- but who was in them, what was going on, or who was even holding the video camera changed between each clip. But just like Lily had said, they were about Lyra and the others when they were little. On their own, together, with their parents, or with anyone else in the family.

Something that grabbed Lyra immediately was just how young Lincoln looked in these clips, even though her existing meant something horrible had already happened. Her hand drifted up to cover her mouth, and she found herself drawn to him whenever he appeared in a clip over what was actually the main focus. The same was true of her mother. She even noticed Lincoln with a camera in some of the scenes, and she realized that these looked familiar. She was sure some of the clips were of the pictures he'd shown her. He'd captured the memories for himself as well.

Something they both noticed rather quickly was how much Lily was in them too. Of course, all of Lyra's aunts and uncle were in it; Lyra was even sure she saw her Aunt Lola in shot with herself more than her own mom. But as far as the focus went, Lily was either it or part of it with Lyra or her half-sisters. The focus of the videos was on the babies of the family and Lily, despite being close to five or six in some of them, was included.

And there were a lot of videos of just about anything. You had the standout events like birthdays, then you had what just seemed like random adorable moments. There was a video of Liena banging on the top of a plastic toy oven, a short clip of Liby sleeping splayed out on a beanbag chair, or Lacy throwing a ball against the wall and then getting immediately back up when it bounced back and smacked her down. Lily was right and there really was a clip of Lola trying to organize some very disinterested babies in a fashion show.

There were even clips to embarrass them, like when someone brazenly opened the bathroom door to show Lily on the toilet, Liby on a training potty in front of it, and Lyra standing there too, for some reason. "Lana, get out!" Past Lily shouted, and the camera retreated. Lyra and her sisters weren't always dressed either; Liena in particular seemed to have trouble keeping her clothes on as a baby. Someone even shot a video through the cracked bathroom door of the shower curtain and, while it thankfully couldn't see inside, Lyra heard herself and her mom both singing from within. Whoever shot that video got away without being caught. So whether laughter or adoration, both Lyra and Lily's faces were tinged red from embarrassment too.

But they both kept watching, Lily fondly and Lyra with rapt attention. Emotions welled in her, getting stronger and stronger with each clip. Not just amusement and embarrassment, but a sense of sorriness that she barely remembered the women beside her even though they had quite clearly been really close at a point. Shock because she never could get over just how young both Luna and Lincoln looked no matter how much bigger she got in the videos. And most of all, a sense of loss. She'd lost this. Lemy had lost a chance to experience this. Her half sisters had lost this. Lily had lost this. Her mom and dad-no, the entire family- had lost this. Seeing it in moving pictures just hammered it in so hard.

All because of what some of them, including Lyra's own parents, had done. The anger was gone, replaced by genuine sadness. And Lyra wondered: Did they feel the same sadness she did? Had they been feeling that all these years? Even though what she was seeing on the screen was worthy of smiles and laughs, her eyes couldn't help but well up.

The two stayed there watching the old videos well into the afternoon.

Upstairs later that day, Lemy was messing around on his guitar. He would play a part of a song on his music player, and then try to recreate it from memory. But he didn't seem that interested in it and more than once he'd let the entire song play without even touching the guitar. Quite simply, the boy was bored. He knew Mom was coming to get them soon, and his anticipation to get back on the road with her made him too impatient to do anything else. But his mind did occasionally wander.

Lyra and him had a dad. The same dad, actually, even though Lyra had told him that wasn't the case. Her being wrong about anything barely ever happened. But she had been this time. They had a dad, and they'd been with him for the past couple of weeks.

And Lemy didn't really care.

But he thought that he should care, but at the same time he didn't. It wasn't even the whole Mom's brother was his dad thing. Lemy had no idea how that worked. Lyra had said it was wrong, and Lemy had some sort of natural feeling that it was weird. Normally, Lemy wouldn't believe what Lyra said was right or wrong just from her saying it, but he did in this case. He was confused about why he didn't hear about this earlier. Why didn't Mom say they were staying with their dad? That played into his indifference. If it was that important, Mom would've told him. Lemy was sure of that.

But he still felt weird. He guessed he wanted to know why it wasn't important. He couldn't ask Lyra because she didn't know anything. But Mom did, and he'd be seeing her soon. So he'd just ask her then.

A noise started to break through Lemy's music, and he noticed it enough to pull out his earbuds. It was Lyra's new phone, left on top of her bag. He got annoyed and stood up, intending to carry it downstairs to her. Then he saw the name on the screen, and he answered it himself without a second thought.

"Hey Mom." There was silence on the other end for an odd amount of time.

"Hey, little dude." His mom answered, and a smile broke across his face. "What's hanging?"

"Practicing guitar." Lemy told her. He was only doing the same thing he usually did, but he was getting better at that. Perfecting one thing was still improving.

"Wicked." His mom praised.

"You're still coming to pick us up, right?" Lemy asked.

"Of course, dude. You're still hanging at your grandparents, right?"

"Yeah, but it's pretty boring here." Lemy let her know.

"I know dude. Don't worry about it. Where's your sister at?" His mom asked.

"Downstairs." He answered, disappointed.

"Oh yeah? Take the phone down to her. And then why don't you pop out front and come see your mum." Lemy perked right up and ran over to the window. He didn't immediately see his mom, but he saw a bunch of cars parked on the street. She was probably in one of those.

"I'll be right down!"

Downstairs, Lyra and her aunt were still watching videos, engrossed by them. Rita had come to stand behind the couch one or twice, but she didn't disturb them. Even Loan eventually woke up and slouched her way downstairs, but they didn't notice her either. It took her own brother calling her name to finally break her out of it.

"Lyra." She looked behind her to see Lemy coming down the stairs, holding something.

"Yes?" She asked, surprised to see him.

"Mom's here." He put the thing in her hand-her phone-and then made immediately for the front door. She was? Lyra's heart quickened. She looked down at her phone, and it showed a connected call to her mother. But Lemy started to open the front door. Was she already outside? Lyra was dragged out of the past quickly. The present was here for her now, just like she'd wanted, and of course it had caught her off guard.

"Lemy, wait!" She chased him out of the house. It was time for her to get the answers she was looking for.