Twenty Seven

CHAPTER 27

San Antonio, July 2012

*flashback chapter*

Someone's POV.

Do you know what it's like, when your perfect, perfectly fine life suddenly takes a very strange turn and changes completely. Her complete life suddenly becomes a mess. You are no longer the main character in your own life story.

Do you know what it feels like to be the second person, not the lead actor who gets the spotlight at center stage? Even if there is someone better, you will be replaced easily.

Your feelings are ignored by everyone.

Do you know how that feels?

Because that's what I was feeling when that strange girl came to my house. I didn't know her, but they said she was part of this family. Since when?

That day she came to my house. She was a child who survived the fire incident. My parents said he was the son of one of their friends. They were very close and felt indebted in the past, so they felt the need to save that little girl with her pale face. I don't know why, but my parents had to pick up, I mean-pick up someone else's child, when they had their own child that they didn't care about.

And she was Alicia. She had long gray hair, messy like it had never been combed. Or maybe it was all because of the fire incident? I don't know, she looked unkempt. Even her clothes were very shabby and full of dirt. Did she really have no clothes where she lived?

My parents said that we needed to help her, she needed to be healed of her trauma. And I obeyed my parents' words as my filial piety.

I disliked her from the very first meeting. Especially when mom said that the girl named Alicia was going to be my sister. Gosh, I didn't want to have a sister who looked more like a hobo. I don't want her as part of this family. My family is already perfect, even without the need to include her in the membership list.

But unfortunately, my parents sympathized with her. On the sad story of her life that 'she' said she had been left in front of the orphanage gate since she was a baby, bullied by some orphanage friends and almost raped by one of the orphanage officers at the age of ten. What a miserable life she had. She even told us all about it while we were having dinner. It was so disgusting. And I wanted to vomit when I heard it.

"How unfortunate your fate is, Alicia," Mom said, as she gently rubbed the head of Alicia who was sitting next to her and pursed her lips to hold back tears. "You even have to feel the loss after all these hard days."

"I'm fine, Aunt Marry," Alicia said. Did she really have the skill to make others sympathize with her?

I was so sick of seeing her face, but she was in the spotlight.

Dad suddenly pulled out a box and said, "Tadaaa! Surprise! This is for you, Alicia. I hope this can cheer you up a little today."

Alicia looked at everyone, including me but I quickly looked away. I didn't want to sympathize with her at all.

"What is this, Uncle?"

"You can open it, it's a gift because you're here," Dad said, he sounded like he was very grateful that Alicia could join us. How annoying.

But my misery didn't stop there. Dad suddenly said, "Alicia, you will live in this house and will sleep together with your sister." Dad then looked at me. I hated the way he looked at me, it was like a bad signal that my life would be ruined as soon as he came into my life. "I hope you guys will get along. You don't mind if Alicia sleeps in your room first, do you, Rosie?"

I pondered for a moment. The piece of meat on my plate was no longer appetizing, I had lost interest in mom's steak because of that girl. I then looked up and met dad's eyes-who was sitting across from me-seriously. "Do I look like I want trash in my room, Dad?"

And her reaction after that was simply shock. She widened her eyes and exclaimed, "Watch your language, Rosie!" in a high tone. "Dad never taught you to be that rude!"

And for the first time, Dad looked at me with an unfavorable expression.

He never spoke to me in such a high tone, he never yelled at me if it wasn't for Alicia. And that girl Alicia had changed everything, right from her first day at my house. That was another reason why I hated her, so much.

The next day, mom and dad were busy preparing for a barbeque party in the yard. They would invite the neighbors to welcome Alicia and introduce her to them. Meanwhile, the shabby girl and I were asked to wait by the pool, near the garden.

"Rosie, do you want to play with me?" she asked. She stood before me with a teddy bear that Dad had given her last night. He held it out to me. "We can play with it if you want."

I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. I saw that the teddy bear was indeed quite nice, I wanted to have it. But I wasn't interested in second-hand goods, especially when the second-hand doll was Alicia's. I raised one eyebrow and said, "Do I look like I want to play with you?"

She paused. Her eyes turned sad as she looked at me. "But I thought we were sisters," she said in a pleading tone. If she thought I would beg for it, she had made a mistake.

"Don't expect that to happen!"

I stood before her, looking at her straight on. She still had her face down, like she was going to cry or something. But I really didn't care. "Listen, Alicia. You're at my parents' house, but we'll never be close. We're not brothers, and don't expect you to be my brother."

Alicia looked up, a look of innocence on her face. She was too naive, and I hated it. Was she using that method to attract my parents' attention too?

I turned around and was about to leave her, when suddenly a bird crashed through my body and ended up on the slightly wet grass under my feet. "Oh my. What is that?!" I exclaimed.

As I patted down my shirt that was covered in dirt from the bird's body, Alicia came over to me and lowered her body. She then looked up at me after lifting the little bird's body off the ground. "He's dying, we have to help him!"

I spluttered. "What are we helping him for? It's going to die soon, just leave it alone!" and the bird seemed to twitch in Alicia's arms. It looked like it was in a lot of pain. Very, very much in pain.

Maybe Alicia was right. We had to help it.

My eyes wandered around the garden area looking for something, while Alicia held the bird with teary eyes. She was so useless. Did she think the bird would be better off if she hugged it while crying? What a stupid girl.

I ran south to get a large stone that Mom used to block the flower pots. It might weigh enough to help the bird, I thought. And I quickly returned to where the bird was after successfully bringing the boulder from the garden.

Alicia immediately frowned when she found me standing in front of her. "What are you going to do with that boulder, Rosie?" Her eyes looked at the boulder warily.

I remained silent and looked straight at the dying bird. And as if she understood my intentions, Alicia immediately rounded her eyes. She held the bird tighter and blocked it from me. "You're not going to hit it with that rock, are you?"

"You said we should help him," I said.

Alicia shook her head quickly. "You can't do that, you'll hurt him even more," she snarled.

And all I did after that was try to snatch the little bird from Alicia. The shabby girl clung to it so tightly that I had to push them apart. The bird then fell and lay on the grass, its body still twitching there.

And fearlessly, I lifted this boulder with both hands into the air. "NOKKKKK!" cried Alicia, as I dropped the boulder onto the bird's head.

The little bird was no longer in pain. I had helped him, hadn't I? And something in my heart told me that this felt really good.

I turned around and saw Alicia collapsed behind me. She was crying her eyes out, as the fresh blood from the bird slowly flowed towards her. "You...you killed him, why... Rosie?" She looked up so that I could clearly see her tear-soaked cheeks.

Surprisingly, I wasn't moved by the tears at all. I didn't feel any pity. It felt like I had just won something. It was fun. Next, I dropped the blood-soaked boulder in a random direction, because I didn't want the blood on my hands. I looked back at the little bird. It looked calm now. But then, I felt like doing it again, one more time. I wanted to hit that boulder at something, or... Someone.

I turned my face and found Alicia's eyes looking at me in fear. She was hugging her teddy bear tightly and her body was trembling slightly. My feet then moved closer to her. I smiled and extended my hand to her,

"Alicia, do you want to play with me now?"