The City Of Death

Before Skye Disappeared- Part Four

When the knock resounded through the apartment, Skye's hand was already on the knob to a different door. She looked between the direction of the front door and Macy's bedroom door, wondering how long she could put off answering. She needed to talk to Macy, sooner rather than later. She'd waited for two weeks, and she wasn't willing to wait any longer. She knew it was time. 

It was time for Skye to tell Macy the truth. 

The knock sounded again, more urgent than before. Skye sighed, knowing that if she didn't answer it, the knocker would get more and more urgent. And instead of gently waking Macy like she planned to do, the four-year-old would be jolted out of sleep. If that happened, she'd be in a pissy mood and unlikely to actually listen to anything Skye had to say. She only had one shot at explaining everything, and she needed it to go exactly as she had planned. 

As she walked to the front door, Skye thought about what had happened in the past two weeks. Or, rather, what hadn't happened. She had told her little sister that she had something to tell her, something that she had to keep a secret. Macy had nodded, bouncing in her seat excitedly at the prospect of her big sister sharing a secret with her. Skye, without sharing his name, had told her that she had a man, a man that she was very much in love with. She wasn't sure if Macy understood what that meant, but she had promised to keep the secret. 

She had. In the two weeks since Skye had shared the secret, no one had come up to her to ask about a mystery man. There had been no news and/or gossip that Newscaster Skye was in a relationship with some lucky, unknown man. Remy was as flirtatious as ever- that was the most important sign. As much of a flirt as Remy was, he would back off if he knew Skye was taken. She'd seen as such with some of the other women that he had tried to woo. 

What all of that meant, though, was that Macy could be trusted with a secret. And if she could be trusted with a secret, she could be trusted with the truth. And, to be fair, it was probably about time that Macy knew who her sister really was. What she had done, what she had seen, where she had gone. So as soon as the person at her door was gone, she would wake Macy up and explain everything. It would take some time, even if she summarized, and she knew the young girl would have plenty of questions. She wanted to leave plenty of time before she had to go to work, and since her sister would nap while she was getting ready for work, Skye didn't feel that guilty about waking her up early. 

"Hello?" Skye greeted as she finally opened the door. She immediately recognized the young, blonde Messenger. "Taryn! Nice to see you again." Taryn didn't seem to share the sentiment. She nodded solemnly, her face completely downcast. Skye felt the smile drop from her face as she pondered what was causing Taryn's mood. Best case scenario, she was just tired from working the night shift. Worst case scenario, something bad had happened. Something really, really bad. 

"You have a message from Salvia Street," Taryn whispered, her eyes glistening over with tears. Skye sucked in a breath, waiting for Taryn to continue. 

"What is the message?" she asked cautiously when Taryn didn't speak for a solid ten seconds. 

"You might want to sit down for this." Taryn breezed right past Skye, heading to where she must have remembered the kitchen was. After shutting the door softly and locking it, Skye followed. Her heart hammered in her chest as she saw Taryn leaning against the counter, gripping it so tightly that her knuckles were white. Skye put a hand on the table, not quite sitting, but in a position where she could easily sink into a chair if need be. 

"Taryn? What's the message?" Skye asked again. Taryn sucked in a deep breath through her nose before turning to face Skye. There were already tears trailing down her cheeks, and Skye put just a little bit more of her weight on the table.