Author's Preface
By the age of four, William was already showing promise. Joyce, David and Chloe herself could watch with joy as the young man displayed wondrous bouts of skills and intelligence well beyond his years, and that was thanks to their parenting.
He would run around the house, make different sounds, and talk the chicken off the bone whenever he had the chance, which at times drove everyone crazy; his routine tantrums would of course force Chloe out of the house or into her own room that was kept for her until the mess cleared.
One time, while she laid in her bed, he would come in to disturb her, not that she minded. When Chloe saw his plushy face staring at her as he peeked through her doorway, she couldn't help but take in how adorable he looked, considering that his genes took mostly after David .
"Hey, William!" Chloe sat up, putting on the daintiest voice she could for him. "What can I do for ya?"
William pattered his little feet as he dashed over to climb up onto her bed and sit across her with that cheek smile.
"How come your hair is always blue?" He asked randomly, which was a trait of his.
"Excuse me?" Chloe gripped her hips with an eyebrow raised, trying to act perplexed.
"Mom and Dad's hair is never blue, so why is yours?"
Chloe quieted for a moment before answering. "A friend got me to do this. I thought it was hella stupid at first—."
"You swore!"
Chloe shot a finger over his mouth to shush him. "Sorry, please don't tell." When Will nodded, she continued. "So after some convincing, I decided to try it on, and it turns out I really liked it, so I've kept it ever since."
William reached over to touch his sister's locks. "What colour is your hair really then?"
She rolled her eyes, hoping he wouldn't ask that. "I was a blondie."
To that, the boy laughed.
"What's so funny?" Chloe twisted her face into a cartoony frown and then lunged at the kid with her long nails armed to tickle him. "What is so funny!?"
The poor boy shrieked in laughter as he tried to escape her grasp, but Chloe refused to let him go easily.
Finally, he hopped off her bed and ran back outside, Chloe right on his tail.
"Aargh! Your treasure will be mine!"
"Never! You will have to kill me!"
In their backyard, Chloe had her playsword up while William, wearing the eyepatch and captain's hat, played the role of the defending party.
"En garde!" Chloe yelled, and so they engaged.
As they duelled, William swung as hard as he could while Chloe casually parried his attacks but did her best to look like she was struggling against him.
"You'll never defeat me!" She taunted. "You're too small !"
"You should not have called me that!" William yelled.
Chloe turned around and darted, acting cowardly as the boy chased her around the small field until he managed to nick her leg with his own weapon.
"Shiver me timbres! My leg!" Grasping her leg, Chloe performed a dramatic fall to the ground before allowing William to 'impale' her.
She made a croaking sound as she fell back dead. Will then planted a foot on her belly and raised his sword to declare his victory. "I win! The treasure is mine!"
Chloe suddenly shot her head up, dropping her facade and she looked at him straight. "That's where you're wrong!"
Realizing what this meant, Will stepped off, and it was his turn to be chased by his sister and her Ticklish Fingers of Death.
Chloe had grown so accustomed to playing with William that it earned her the trust of David and Joyce to babysit him while they were away.
Of course, that meant being left alone to suffer his tantrums and change his diapers with no means of escape as a way of paying her back when she tormented her own parents as a baby.
Sometimes, she would nearly break; she'd in these cases trap herself in her room while shutting him out so she could call her mother or stepdad for help. Most of the time, she had to resort to turning on the baby channels on their TV just to calm him down. Worse, she would have to sit with him and endure the boredom.
Still, these bad days never overshadowed their better moments, and it didn't stop her from loving her little brother any less.
His presence alone was enough to bring warmth and fill a void that had long been empty since... losing Max.
These days, she could remember her fondly without tearing up and breaking down, but deep down it would always hurt; Will, as well as Kate Marsh, helped to numb that pain.
Speaking of Kate, Chloe was able to have her spirits lifted whenever they either met up somewhere or chatted online. Despite the numerous years that passed, they managed to always keep in touch; this sweet innocent figure of faith turned out to be one of her dearest friends.
Sometimes, their conversations would last hours nonstop about the most trivial things they could think of.
This bliss, however, would cease whenever Kate would ask her the usual question. "How are you feeling?"
"Better." Chloe would always answer, sometimes the truth, yet other times a lie.
"So... you're still not seeing anyone?"
She shook, hiding her eyes from the camera so Kate couldn't see, but she could hardly ever be fooled, even through a blocky screen.
"Maybe you can try finding another person..." Kate's worry was displayed very clearly for her friend.
"No." Chloe stated sharply. "Just, no." Her eyes return to the screen. "Not yet."
Still too soon...
"I'm sorry." Kate apologized, meekly as always.
Chloe mustered a smirk and waved it off like it was no big deal. "Chill, it's cool. I'm glad you care."
"I'll always care, Chloe." Kate smiled at her. "You're my friend."
"Thanks." She nodded back.
It was then that the other girl decided to shift the subject. "How's William?"
Just as she was about to answer, William, right on queue, came bursting through her door to join her on the bed.
"Hi." He said while waving to the screen.
"Aww! Hi, William!" Kate waved back, her voice pitching up from the cuteness. "He's so adorable!"
"Are you Chloe's girlfriend?" He suddenly asked, causing both girls to jerk up before buckling with uncontrollable laughter; for Chloe, it was half hilarious.
"No." Kate answered in between gasps. "But I'm trying to help her out."
Chloe had nothing to say to that.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Chloe interrupted; it was past nine in the evening.
William just shook his head with a mumble.
"Young man!" David's commanding voice boomed from outside the room, and the man entered, glaring down both of them. "Why are you not in bed right now!?"
Now shrinking out of fright in his pyjamas, William stepped off the bed and moved at a snail's pace toward his father, his shoulders bunched, Chloe watching the poor kid awkwardly.
When he got to the door, David seized him by the shoulder to pull him out and then pointed him back to his bedroom. "March! And don't let me catch you out of your room again!"
He then shook his head at his stepdaughter and sighed before leaving the two girls to continue their talk.
"A moment of silence." Chloe was able to relate too well with Will's position, having been there herself too many times before, so she put a hand on her chest to give him just that.
"Looks like he also has a knack for getting into trouble." Kate commented.
Chloe could only agree with a hum.
On another occasion, Chloe was allowed to take little William to a quiet beach where he could freely stomp his feet into the wet sand where the calm waves of the sea always lapped.
The sun was always just right for them, for it was neither too hot nor too dim, the radiance bouncing off the rippling foams.
Thanks to David's strict swimming regime, William could play in the water with no trouble whatsoever, even when getting bowled over by those rare big curls that were thrown their way from time to time.
Together, they splashed each other without getting any salt into their eyes luckily. Another time, Chloe would balance him on her shoulders before he would jump off. On the sand, they helped to dig and big hole for Chloe to bury herself in until only her head remained unearthed.
Chloe wasn't always around for the family, but when she was, the two siblings were almost inseparable .
"I love you, little brother." Chloe said to him, a talking head. "You know that, right?"
One time of any day, William wandered into Chloe's open room, expecting to find her inside. Instead, what he found lying sprawled on her bed was an old canvas.
As he edged closer, he saw what was a painting of three peculiar girls in these strange unearthly forms; one of them had butterfly wings and long blue hair just like Chloe's. It interested him.
"Chloe!" He called for his sister as he exited the room to head downstairs.
His instincts led him to find Chloe sitting on one of the old swings in their backyard under the setting sky; her head was hunched, and she had her beanie on again.
With her back to him, he peered round to find her eyes drooped with a smoke in her hand.
Soon enough, when Chloe sensed her little brother approaching her, she hurriedly tossed the cigarette away and patted her clothes to make sure she didn't have that stench around him.
"Why are you sad?" William asked the older girl.
Chloe's eyes popped open for a moment, surprised at how observant he was for his age, but then tried to dismiss his worries.
"No, I'm not sad." She lied. "I'm just exhausted, that's all."
Actually, I'm fucking miserable.
Standing next to her, but quickly backing off from the smell of fresh burnt weed, he went on to his next question.
"Who are those girls in your painting?" Chloe jolted for a second time. "I found a picture in your room, and I thought it looked cool."
"Yeah..." She nodded, her face hidden from him. "Sorry that I smell, by the way."
"It's gross, but it's fine." William brushed it off, but still kept his distance as he waited eagerly for his sister to open up to him.
Sucking in a deep breath, Chloe removed her jacket and tossed it away to make herself smell less and patted the bench next to her. "Sit." She commanded.
William, not taking his eyes off her, sat on the swing next to her, swaying her legs.
"I have an incredible story to tell you about two special girls named Max Caulfield and Rachel Amber..."
THE END.