Family Vacation

"Alfred! Olivia! Come on already, how much longer-"

"we're here, mom. Stop yelling " I pleaded as I gestured her towards the car. Where dad was already in the driver's seat waiting.

"Wait! I left my bag inside!" My older sister, Olivia cried out, taking out the house keys from her bag as our mom sighed. "Just wait one second, I'll be back!"

"At this speed, we'll reach the resort tomorrow," Mom muttered worriedly. A speciality of all moms, especially mine. Then, she turned to me abruptly "you know Alfred, I've read that despite that place being very beautiful and rich in heritage it is very DANGEROUS at night. And it's advised to not-"

"Why do you so MUCH?" Dad walked towards us. I don't know how he managed mom for so many years, I mean I couldn't.

I walked away while dad was still explaining to mom, I went inside the open door. And sat down on the couch waiting for Olivia to finally come and we can leave already, I mean, this is the first vacation we've taken in years. Tho I shouldn't be the one complaining as I'm never on time myself. I'm a master of flaking-

"Hey! What are you thinking? Are you coming or not!" Olivia exclaimed and interrupted my thoughts. Not that I was thinking about something important but I didn't even notice that she was already outside. Did I zone out that hard?

I walked towards the door as Olivia gestured for me to come quickly. "About time" she complained when I reached. I just rolled my eyes and started toward the car but Olivia handed me a few heavy bags. "You're, gonna help me carry those" she smirked evilly. And carried the Lightest bag out of them.

I groaned "you always do this to me!"

"I'm older after all. I can do what I want" she grinned and walked away and towards the car where our parents were waiting. I followed her, mumbling my usual complaints. Olivia always does that and I have a bad feeling that this vacation is going more tiring than relaxing.

And my genius instincts were right once again. This is going to be ridiculously tiring, and that doubles if you're hungry, which I am. I mean, why do we just have to have a flat tire.

I got out of the car and shut the door, it was a cold, cloudy evening. I could hear Olivia and dad say some motivational words. If only dad hadn't broken his arm, I won't be the only one who had to suffer. I opened the trunk and removed some of the bags and suitcases above the tire, and then slowly pulled out the new tire and laid it down -I was already tired. I noticed something had fallen from the trunk. I bent down and pick it up. It was a beautiful, sparkling stone in an ombre style. It was pretty but wasn't ours.

"So what was it doing in our trunk," I thought suspiciously. I mean think about it, what would such an expensive-looking stone would do in our trunk But then again dad has a bad habit of spending money on weird things so it must be one of them, but still, we were not doing that well off to buy this.

"Don't overthink everything" I sighed. But since it was so beautiful, I was gonna steal it from dad. And with that, I stuffed it inside my pocket and turned to face my fate. Which I still hadn't done. I groaned.

Flopped down on the fluffy hotel bed. I was dead tired and after sitting uncomfortably in a car for so long, without a break, this was heaven. In the end, we arrived at midnight, thanks to that thunderstorm, our original route was destroyed and the other route was seriously very long.

I dug my head deeper into the pile of cloud-like pillows. I was comfortable and was feeling drowsy again. And just when I was about to fall asleep my phone ruined it. I groaned "who in the hell is calling me at this hour!" I complained loudly. You know when someone or something interrupts your sleep you get irritated. That is exactly how I felt, but I was too comfortable and exhausted to move.

"Let's just ignore it. It will soon realise that there is no point and go away itself" I thought rationally. I waited and waited, minutes passed by, and the phone just rang again and again. And my patience was at its end. I sat up straight and looked around for my phone. I checked under the sheets and in my pockets, it wasn't there. and my phone was still ringing, it was so annoying.

I stood up and did a quick scan to remember where I left my bag after entering my room. Then I realised something obvious and facepalmed. I advanced towards to wardrobe and flung it open. And there it was, my bag and besides that my ringing phone -also that pretty stone I picked up earlier. I picked up the phone and answered it without checking the caller ID.

"For f*ck's sake, who is this!" I demanded. "Did you-" but before I could say anything more than that the person on the line interrupted.

"Dude! Why are you getting so pissed off? I just called, you're acting like I broke into your house or something"

"Oh, so you're the idiotic dumb*ss who forgot that people at night, especially at this hour" I grumbled. I knew exactly who was on the line.

Rad Truman, an annoying bastard I met at elementary school. We shared many common interests and often noticed each other in the same clubs and I just that's how he became my best buddy -he won't if I had more friends.

"I was just checking on ya. If you reached safely or you're no more" Rad explained " plus, you're forgetting about the time zone difference. It's afternoon here. so I'm not at fault here, you are" he retorted. Okay, I indeed forgot that he and his family also went on a family vacation to a faraway country.

"Okay, okay. I was the wrong one. I apologise for yelling at you, I am very sorry" I said sarcastically as I turned and moved towards my bed. As I did I glanced toward the full-length mirror opposite the wardrobe. My attention went towards the reflection of my arm.

"As you should be" Rad chuckled

"Rad?" I mumbled. I advanced closer to the mirror and rolled up my sleeves to get a better look.

"Hm?" He answered

"Did I ever get tattoos?" I asked, puzzled.

"No? You, yourself said that your pops would never allow it" Rad sounded as puzzled as I felt.

"Then why are there so many tattoos on my arms? And I think there're some on my neck too" I was truly surprised. Rad always says I got fish memory and I wouldn't disagree, but it definitely couldn't be this bad...

"Say what! No way- wait you're not pulling my leg or something, right?" I could hear the scepticism and disbelief in his voice, I mean I can't believe my own eyes.

"Why would I pull your leg. That something you would do" I sighed, Did I get drunk so bad that the thought of doing something crazy ended up like this? But when did I get the time too? I rushed to the wardrobe and rummaged through my bag until I found my pair of glasses. I wore them and went back to the mirror.

"Those tattoos are still there even with my glasses on" I informed. At this point, my head was starting to hurt a little. I mean it was strange and made no sense. As I stared at the mirror, something caught my eye at the edge, near the frame. It was a shadowy figure in the corner of my room.

Rad cleared his throat "how about you go to yourself, alf. Maybe that'll help" he suggested, I could hear a faint voice of his dad calling him.

"Hm. I should, bye, text you later" I concluded and hung up the phone, and didn't even wait to hear a reply. I put the phone in my pocket and turned around. The shadow was looking at me or more like staring at me with white, wide eyes. Smiling...

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