The Victimised Bloodline: Chapter 2

 What would I do without tea?

 A good cup of tea was a cure to cancer in my opinion. Ah well, at least a cure to the knowledge that cancer is plaguing the world and multiple people succumb to the illness every day. Which would probably be the opposite of a cure to someone who actually had cancer, but that's beside the point.

 The point is, tea was the elixir of life in my opinion. It always had me cool down from a burst of anger. Which meant I drank tea almost daily.

 I wasn't sure where Reece's family had gotten their stash of tea bags, but they made for some excellent tea. Plus, I didn't have to pay. It was a subject me and Reece joked about constantly. I don't have to pay for the tea, but if I kept coming by maybe I had to. It had gotten a little stale in my opinion, but we still laughed at it.

 How humorous. The voice in my head said. It had spoken multiple times after my conversation with Frank. I'd always ignored it, and now was no exception.

 We were in Reece's living room. It was a lot bigger than Frank's, but still not the largest I'd seen. Not by a long shot.

 It had quite a lot of open space, as not Reece nor her mother liked reading. Her father usually kept his books elsewhere, as her mother didn't want books 'lying around doing nothing'.

 The walls were covered by a moss green tapestry, with the exception of a white painted wall with a smaller than average TV on it. The sofas were grey and comfortable, and due to the lack of other things Reece's mother had in the room, she'd spent her money on way too many of them and an absurdly big birch wood table. Except from sofas, tables, and a TV, one of the corners were filled with musical instruments to the brink of one's near incapabilty to even set a foot in that one corner. I believe half of those instruments hadn't been usen in over a decade. Reece's mother was very much of a hypocrite, if you'd ask me.

 Reece herself was a short girl, quite a lot shorter than me actually. Her skin was pale enough you could mistake her for a vampire, if not for the absurdly flat yet somewhat dirty teeth and her chestnut hair. Her eyes were a deep purple, one that was supposedly rare and a trait neither of her parents shared. I wan't an expert in human DNA and the inheritance of eye colour, but I was sure it was a rare occuence, like a point zero zero one percent rare or something.

 She was a woman of exotic style. She refused to wear trendy clothing, and instead mostly used outlandish and unique clothing. That day, she was wearing a black dress with incosistent length, a shirt that had sleeves that were neither long, nor short, striped black and white on one side and completely silver white on the other.

 "You were early today. Mom and dad barely just got to work." She said, casually. Her voice was clean and surprisingly deep for someone her height. I suppose height diesn't affect voice, but she looked much younger than she were.

 We'd been friends for about five years, after I moved to my uncle. In the beginning, new school hadn't been much of a difference. I used to have no friends back in London, so I didn't care much. Did my own thing. I read a lot.

 But Reece had been determined to befriend me. She was one of those people who couldn't stand others being excluded. She didn't know I preferred it, and when she did find out I considered her somewhat of a friend.

 "Yeah. I started my bickering by breakfast." I grinned. My anger was long gone, and so was my desire to punch my uncle in his unnaturally big nose.

 "Oh? You're usually too tired to speak by then." Reece stated. She, too, had a grin spreading across her face.

 "Eh. I had a nightmare. Woke up earlier than usual." I responded, my grin slowly fading into a more neutral expression.

 "Makes sense." Reece said. "I guess."

 I chucked. "That's why I went angry. My uncle thinks somewhat realistic nightmares equal death of one's guardian." Shaking my head, I said "What a stupid person."

 Reece tilted her head. "Stupid I wouldn't say. Superstitious, yeah, but not stupid." It was precisely what I called him a few hours ago.

 "Superstitious, then." I corrected myself. "Reminds me of that one character in a book I read... About three yars ago." I said for myself. I didn't want to pester her with the details, as she wasn't much of a book person.

 Over the years we'd known each other, I'd tried to get her into books. Let's just say, my attempts weren't succesful.

 "Gosh. We were eleven back then. Feels like so long ago." She said. It made me feel young.

 "Yeah." I said. The book hadn't been very child friendly. It was a harrowing experience.

 For a while, we sat quiet.

 I remembered the days before we met, when I lived with my parents in London. It hadn't exactly been a happy time, but it hadn't been absolutely trash, either. I stayed on my room with a book, or I was at school. Simple life.

 Then, that horrible day. I was in school, and some random, strange looking man came in and wanted to speak with me. He'd proceeded to tell me my parents had been murdered. At first, I didn't believe it. I asked for proof. I got to see their bodies. I was enraged. I believed I could find the murderer and have him arrested. I thought I could bring him to justice.

 Then, I moved to my uncle. My old life was over. I wished I could hace them back. I begged whoever was in control of the universe to give them back.

 No one answered, and I was left in a tiny city, with a lazy uncle and an old, crappy school. I cried every day of the coming months.

 Now, I'd accepted that they're dead. I'd accepted the new life I was given to by fate. I had a friend, a home, an education, all that stuff. I'd sworn myself to look at the good thing in life, and despise the others. You'd think this would work, but no. I'm still in grievance for what happened, but not nearly as much as I used to be.

 Damn, looking back made me feel nostalgic.

 Reece, being the restless girl she was, picked up conversation again. "So... Has he gotten a new job yet?" She asked. I shook my head. He'd been fired from the police station due to an 'unfortunate tendency' to be extremely rude to his coworkers.

 "He hasn't. Due to his... Previous experiences, people don't want him despite whatever skills he may have." I explained.

 "I guess that makes sense."

 I nodded in response. "It makes plenty sense, except when you consider the fact that he actually does have a stable income." I suggested.

 "He does?" Reece said, confused about my statement.

 "Yep. Apparently, the internet can get you a long way if you're lucky." I stated, somewhat sarcastically. "Which means that he's been gambling a lot lately and it's only a matter of time before he loses eveything."

 Reece's eyewhites widened. "He's gambling?" She said in shock.

 "Yep." I confirmed.

 Reece sighed. "You know, I kind of saw that coming." She said after a moment's brief silence.

 "You did?" I said. I hadn't suspected it at all until I saw him doing it.

 "He's been unemployed for over a year. I figured it'd be something like that." She chuckled over her own cleverness. I merely raised an eyebrow.

 "I suppose that's logical." I said after a few seconds.
 "It certainly is." Reece responded immediately after my statement.
 Sipping my long untouched tea, I thought of the changes that happened after I moved. I had a friend now, which was I believe somewhat decent. My uncle wasn't much. He felt like an old man, an empty husk doing nothing but feeding me and giving me a place to stay. Of course, he hadn't always been like that. When I was young, he used to be energetic and even playful. Now... Well, you read chapter one. Now he was a gambler without a job who lived on eggs alone. The town was much smaller than London was. At first, it had been werid. Now the tables had turned, as my last visit to London had felt weird as hell with the sheer size of the place.
 Goodness, I've really come a long way.
 "But really, he must have a very low income if he gets it by gambling." Reece said spontaneously.
 "Obviously." I said. "I've been living on nothing but eggs and water for the last few months." It was a bit of an overstatement, but not much of.
 "Goodness, Esme, you really need some food." She responded, being Reece.
 "Oh, I can wait till lunchtime." I informed her. "It's only quarter past... Twelve." I stopped when I saw the analog clock stuck to the wall. Had it been so long? I'd woken up, like thirty minutes prior. It couldn't have been more than ten o'clock.
 "Oh, don't mind. That clock has been displaying the wrong time of day for, like, ages now." Reece apologized. I was... Sceptical.
 "It was correct yesterday." I stated.
 "Huh. Well, it does at times?" She suggested, genuinely having no idea what was up with the clock.
 I looked back. It was now displaying quarter past ten. Much more logical. What wasn't logical was its sudden change from twelve to ten. Was there some kind of magnetic force or something nearby? I stopped caring after about five seconds, as I ran out of tea. An inconvenient situation.
 "It's possible." I muttered, no longer paying much attention to the conversation. I was looking for a spot to change topic. Luckily, Reece did that for me.
 "What kind of nightmares are you having, really?" She asked curiously.
 "Last night I was surrounded by nothingness, and that was it." I said. I didn't bother to explain the voice I'd heard in my head that morning. I'm still wondring if that was a good choice or a bad one.
 "That's... Interesting." Reece nodded in a slow manner as she spoke.
 "It is?"
 "Yeah." Reece didn't bother giving an explanation. I suppose she must've spent too much time near me.
 I looked down into the teacup. "I... Um... I ran out of tea." I said. Reece sighed. Because of course she did.
 "Well, we're running out, so I'm not going to refill for you." She said briskly and straightforwardly.
 It slightly disappointed me, but just slightly. "Oh. Well, I wasn't going to ask you to do so." I said, but it was bit of a lie. "I was going to state it was a good timing, because I should probably be heading back." I continued.
 "Is that so?" Reece said. "Well, have a good rest of your day. Good luck with your uncle."
 "I will. On both ends." I responded and I walked to the hall. Reece stayed in the sofa, sipping her tea. I pulled on my jacket and walked back out into the rain, unbeknownst to the events that would follow. The incidendiary event that was happening at that very moment, merely a few miles away.