Take You Back

CHAPTER 35 PART 2

~I miss you in ways
that not even words
can understand.
-Gemma Troy

I was awakened by the sound of two voices. I stirred in my sleep and threw a pillow. "Ouch!" I thought I was envisioning things when I heard the voices, peeling my eyes open to see the scene before me. There were two children, a young girl and a boy who looked around seven years old. The boy was helping the young girl off the floor. The pillow that I threw lay carelessly on the floor. It gave me the idea that I hit the young girl with the pillow.

"What are you two doing here?" I addressed the small boy. He looked up at me with his eyes like daggers. His eyes pierced me. His face was very familiar and I looked up. Confusion washed over me. I knew I'd seen him somewhere, but I couldn't seem to know where. "Say sorry to my sister!" he said with his voice holding power. My eyes bulged out of my sockets at his tone. He ventured forward like he was a man, whereas the little girl was covered up behind him. I wasn't able to see her face and I was very enticed to see her.

"I said, what are you doing in my room?" I ventured closer to him but he didn't move. No fear crossed his face. His eyes stared at me as if he was looking through my soul. He was testing me and I needed to see how far he could go with this. He gazed deadpan at me and I've sworn I've seen that face sometime recently. "And I said to apologize to my sister." He drew forward and I cocked an eyebrow. A deep chuckle boomed through the room. "I will not apologize until you reply boy." My voice came out thunderous. This time he didn't even look scared. He was tempting me. He didn't indeed seem at all frightened by anything I did.

"Vince, let's go. Mom said she'll be back before you know it. Let's get out of the room and go downstairs." The young girl's voice came out as a whisper but I heard it very clearly as she pulled on her brother's arm. She held her head low, letting her long dark hair stow away her face. In spite of the young girl's protest, he didn't swoon, whereas he kept talking and I saw the irritation on his face grow into anger when he stepped closer again. There was only a small space between us.

"I asked you to apologize but you challenged me to question my stateme--" he was cut short by his sister's voice and I was moreover stunned by her voice. It held so much power. "Vince I said enough of this or I'm reaching out to tell mother, You are acting like a man once more." He scowled and opened his mouth to challenge her, but she glared at him, which seized his speech. The look she used was somewhat like Laura's. When she looked at me, the air in my body started to suffocate my lungs.

"Laura," I whispered. I walked in reverse when I felt the bed hit my foot. I halted. She resembles so much of Laura, but her hair was the color of mine, grimy like charcoal. She tilted her head and smiled at me, the dimples on her cheeks getting deeper. I felt tears gushing down my face. I held my head downwards, not needing to look up once more. I might be hallucinating again, or perhaps this was a sign from God to let me see Laura once more.

"Vince, look what you did." She scolded him. There were small footsteps drawing near to me. I could see her small feet coming into view down below me. I didn't want to look up. She tapped my head and that's when I looked up into her big blue-brown eyes. She wiped my tears and that ate my heart. Nobody had ever seen me cry before, other than Mason. "Mother doesn't like it when we cry, so she wipes our tears like this." She demonstrated wiping my tears while I watched her keenly. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I patted her head and waited for her reaction. She seemed to not like this, just like how Laura wouldn't move on to the bed sitting next to me.

"Who let you guys inside my house?" I came to ask her I also observed Vince while he strolled around my room. Sometime later, he vanished inside my closet. that brat, I trust he didn't touch anything or break anything. "Mother brought us here to meet somebody but left to do something." So their mother seems to have the thought of leaving her two kids at my house. At that point, I wondered who their mother was. The voice inside my head tells me that Laura is alive and these are her kids.

"What's your mother's nam-" There was a break-in of something that caused my question to linger in the air. Vince came out running with a picture frame in his hands. He looked between the picture outline and me and I was curious to know which photo he had in his hand. "So you are Vincent?" he said casually, and I pondered how he said my name like he knew me all his life, in spite of him being around seven.

"Yes I am and how do you know my name?" I asked curiosity eating me inside, crossing my arms over my chest, "I've seen you on the news, you're said to be a multi-billionaire, a man who people respect. I've also searched you up on the internet. You're a very famous man, but you don't look at all smart." So let's say that this kid is very imperious and presents himself as being presumptuous and overpowering. The way he talks and postures himself as a king, he has the attitude of me but is much younger.

"So I've seen you taking an interest in me. Why is that so?" I said, speaking in the same manner as him, "I have my own reason, but you are blind as you seem." He paused for a while, looking at his sister for words of approval, but she shook her head in a no. They knew something I didn't and it was eating my curiosity. "You do not know who we are, but we are aware of who you are, but it's her place to tell, not mine. My mother would be gravely disappointed in me if I uttered a word." I hummed proceeding with the conversation.

"You have this attitude I like, your parents have groomed you well." His eyes trained on me and they showed sadness all over, but he masked it all up in anger. "I'm afraid you are wrong. My mom grew me, my father," he gritted out. "He didn't know I existed," he states. I nodded my head in understanding, not wanting to take the conversation further. The young girl who was close to me wasn't right now. She strolled towards her brother. She at long last reached his side, taking the photo frame from his hand, pinching his cheeks. He let out a cry, batting her hand away on what she did. "Mother will disapprove of this. You shouldn't have spoken in that manner. This is not one of your debate matches Lorence." She pointed a finger at him in which he rolled his eyes, turning his back towards her. "Until mom returns, I will speak to him like a grown man. He owes mom and us an apology."

"Enough already Vince! How could he possibly know she stayed away from him!" I sat and watched the two argue as if they were a couple. I've never seen kids this age speak as if they were adults. "You owe our mother an explanation for your actions," he said and pointed at me. He seemed to be more upset than he already was when he stepped out of the room with a loud bang of the door. "I'm sorry da- sir take back your photo," she said, handing me the photo. She was hiding something and she was good at hiding things. I felt a connection with her, but I had to be sure when my eyes landed on the frame. It brought tears to my eyes. It was a picture of me and Laura at the shoreline. I managed to even smile at that moment, something I failed to do occasionally. Even when all of this was going on, I knew something but I denied it. Who was their mother? Could it be? No, no it couldn't.

"You look exactly like my wife, but your hair looks different from hers." I gave a weak smile, tracing my fingers over the frame. The little girl managed to squeeze between my laps while I talked about Laura. "She was so bossy and troublesome, but despite it all, I adored her. Truly, I never stopped loving her after she died. I wish I could tell her how much she meant to me." She shook her head as if saying no to what I said.

"She wouldn't be our mom if she died and you wouldn't be my dad." She smiled sweetly at me and I stared astounded, not being able to get out of my trance when I felt tiny hands touch me. It was true, they were my children. "Father, why did you let mommy go?" She asked playing with my fingers. "Mommy and I we," I said, rubbing my eyes. I felt tears pricked the side of my face, but I fought it back, "I had to protect her, so I had to let her go."

"I asked mommy to meet you. The trip was so long." She drew out. I smiled at her while she talked about her trip. "We went on a plane and there was a boy who said he liked me. Vince threw his cupcake out of anger and said he would break his neck if he talked to me again. Momma says he takes everything after you." When she was finished talking, she was breathing heavily. Well I wouldn't throw my cupcake at him, I'd throw him out of the plane. I badly wanted to say, I'm surprised that she was willing to just randomly speak to me despite that she only met me ten minutes ago.

"What is your name?" Her eyes lit up, with a smile spread across her face, "Venice Lory Johnson mother says that we have special names." She said, Laura didn't give them her last name. I placed Venice on her feet and took off my shirt. I lifted my arm up, exposing the tattoos that were on my side, 'Vince & Venice'. "That's my name and Vince" I hummed, pointing to my chest where Laura's name rested. It was in cursive writing. I had it done years ago. It felt just like yesterday when it happened.