Dinner AND a Show

Penelope stared across the table at Logan.  He threw a tiny piece of bread at her.  Kelley elbowed him in the sides.  He let out a quiet ouch.  Cleo frowned at the casserole cooling on the table.

“Where could that boy be?  ‘I’ll be home in an hour Mom, no later.’”  She imitated her son.  “I swear, I go through the trouble of having dinner on the table the moment he walks in, and he ends up late?  This is so typical of him.”  She shook her head in disbelief.  Penelope giggled silently.  She loved the way that Mrs. Manson fretted over her children and by extension her.  Her father didn’t care where she was or when she got back.  All he’d ask is “can you get a free dinner?”   Not Lady Manson.  She cared where you were, when you got back, who you were with, and what you did.  It was something that Penelope found both endearing and annoying about her.

“Maybe if you had told him you were putting dinner on the table, then he’d be here.”  Ben Manson beamed a loving smile at his wife.  His once black hair was pulled back into a gray ponytail, showing the small wrinkles around his eyes, the same way that the other two Manson boys’ did when they smiled.  Penelope couldn’t help but smile as she took a bite out of her role.  This was more of a home to her than her actual home was.  Its high ceilings and bright colors made her feel like she was in a church, while not having to act like a saint.

They all became silent as the sound of the front door opening and closing filled the room.  Penelope could hear Mrs. Manson holding her breath.  She listened as the sound of heavy boots falling repeatedly to the ground filled the space behind her.  The entrance to the dining room was right behind her, so she knew that if she wanted to she could get the first glace at him if she turned around, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Cleo’s loving hopeful face.  She wanted more than anything for someone to want to see her that much.  Anyone. 

“My baby!”  Cleo cried as a marvelous smile broke out over her face.  “My baby’s home!”  She hopped up from her chair and ran to hug Ryan.  I heard him chuckle.  It was a dark heavy chuckle, but it was full of love.  She turned in her chair to watch them.  His head was buried in her shoulder.

“Hi Mom.”  His muffled voice told Penelope that he was smiling.  As she watched a smile spread across her face.  Lady Manson reminded her of what her mother would have been like after not seeing her or her sister for a long time.  She missed the purity of the maternal instinct.  Her father didn’t have that.

As he unhooked himself from his mother, he looked around the table, and Penelope froze.  “I see we have company,” He said in his rough voice, smiling.  Penelope fell from her chair.  He was extremely hansom.  He had sort black hair that was sort enough that it stuck straight up.  He was very muscular but not disgustingly so, and his strong jaw was covered in stubble.  Yes, he was extremely hansom, but that wasn’t what had made her fall.  It was his eyes.  They had no pupils, no irises.  Where they should have been there was nothing but the continuation of the milky white that covered the rest of the eye.  Penelope quickly searched her brain for an explanation

Maybe he was blind, but that wouldn’t cause the pupils and irises to disappear, they would just be glazed over.  Maybe it was a birth defect, or maybe contacts.  Maybe she was just crazy.  Maybe she hadn’t seen what she thought she had saw.  But she had… Penelope decided to just ignore it.  It was probably something that he didn’t want called to attention anyway. 

She sighed and took one of the hands that were extended to her.  “Thank you!”  She said as Ryan pulled her up.  “I sorry, I’m a little clums…”  She stopped.  She grabbed his face and pulled it toward hers for a closer look.  “Your eyes…”  She whispered, but this time it wasn’t because they were odd, but because they were perfectly normal.  A pair of beautiful green eyes sat on his face where different eyes sat just a second ago.  “How?”  She whispered.

Penelope abruptly became aware of all the eyes that had fallen upon her.  Slowly, she released Ryan’s head.  “Sorry.”  She whispered looking down.  She knew that what she had done seemed odd, but the way he was looking at her was even weirder.  He didn’t seem surprised or angry, or even confused.  He looked, excited?  More, in awe.  This confused her even more than his eyes.  If a stranger had come up to her and grabbed her face, she would have flipped, but he just stood there and stared at her.

“Well…”  Lady Manson broke the silence.  “If we wait too much longer my lovely casserole will get cold.  Come now all and eat.”  Ryan slowly moved to the chair beside Logan.  He didn’t take his eyes off of her.  It made her uncomfortable the way he stared at her.  Like he was waiting for something.  As they stared to eat, Penelope tried to look everywhere except at Ryan.  As everyone settled into polite conversation, Ryan was silent watching her.  They were halfway through dinner when he suddenly shouted her name.

“Penelope!”  She looked at him without thinking and her eyes were stuck.   She tried to pull them away, but they were glued to his.  Everything around them started to fade away until she was surrounded by the blacks of his eyes.   She was left floating in a sea of nothing, yet she didn’t feel lonely.  She actually felt right for the first time since her mother died.  She marveled at the weird blissful feeling as she floated, happy to be away from everything.

 

 

                She didn’t know how long she had been floating.  A second?  An hour?  A day?  A lifetime?  But, suddenly, someone yelled something very loudly.  The blackness faded away, and she seemed to fall back into the pains of her everyday life.  When she was aware of her surroundings again, she was shocked at what she saw.  Logan was standing over his brother, who was now on the ground.  It seemed that he had pushed Ryan over.

                “What’s wrong with you?”  Ryan snapped at his brother.  Logan just glared him down.

                “Not her Ryan.  You can have anyone, just not her.”  He hissed.  Penelope looked around the table wondering what had happened while she had been floating.  She looked around the table for a clue.  What she found was just confused her more.  Kellie and she were the only ones surprised!  Cleo just looked tired and Ben looked like he was watching a wrestling match.  He quickly glanced at Penelope with a streak of passion, and then returned his eyes to his children.

                “It’s not for you to decide.”  Ryan said after calming himself. 

                “You can have ANYONE!” Logan repeated.  “Just leave her alone!  You could pick anyone off the street…”

                “You know it doesn’t work like that!”  Ryan snapped at his brother, no longer patient, and neither was Penelope.

                “What the hell is going on?!”  She snapped bringing them out of their bubble of “solitude”. 

                Lady Manson sighed.  “Kellie, honey… I think that you’d better go home.  I’m sorry dear.”  She gave the girl an apologetic glance.  Kellie gave her a hard stare.  As she looked at Penelope her face filled with hatred.

                “Does she get to stay?”  She spat in Penelope’s direction.  Logan’s teeth ground together.

                “Just leave Kellie…”  He growled, looking back over at his brother.  Kellie looked taken aback.

                “But…”

                “Leave!”  He shouted.  Everyone at the table looked at him in shock.  It was the first time Penelope had ever felt sorta bad for the cheerleader wannabe.  She stared at her boy friend with hurt eyes, but he didn’t meet her eye.  Slowly she rose from her seat and walked toward the door.  Just before she disappeared behind it, she turned back around.

                “Will you call me later?”  She asked in a small voice.  Worry was painted on her expression.

                “Whatever.”  Logan said as he sat back down and looked at his dinner.  She fled through the door, but not before she could see the panic that was vivid on her face.  She thought that she was losing him.  Knowing Kellie, she probably took it one step further and thought that she was losing him to her.  

Penelope wanted to laugh at the concept.  Sure, Logan was good looking, sure he was sweet, charming, and gentle, but that didn’t matter.  It didn’t matter that he was accepting and open minded.  It didn’t matter that she loved spending time with him, or that she hated his girlfriend.  He was Dylan’s brother.  Even if she did like him like that, it seemed… wrong somehow.  It would be like running away with your brother-in-law right after your husband died.  Not that Dylan and Penelope were ever romantically involved, but for some reason, it still felt like cheating.  She could never be with Logan in that way.  Not that she wanted to anyway.  He was a friend, just a friend.

                Penelope pulled herself out of her train of thought.  This was not what she wanted to be thinking about at that moment.  She needed to understand what was going on with the family that she had come to love just as much (if not more) than her own.  Something was going on, and she knew that it had a big deal to do with her.

                “Okay…”  She took a deep breath.  “What’s going on?”  Ryan, back in his chair, assessed her for a moment before speaking.

                “Penelope… do you know how Dylan died?”  She gave him a confused look.

                “What does that have to do with anything?”

                “Do you know?”  He urged.  She sighed.

                “He was murdered right?  By some psycho?  Lady Manson told me that they had said that the killer had skinned him, then burned the body.”  Penelope shivered.  She hated to think of her friend like that.  It practically broke her heart.  “She had to go and identify the ring he was wearing as his.”  She gave Cleo a sorry look.  Ryan sighed.

                “I suppose that is what you would have heard.  I guess telling you the truth would be a violation…”  Ryan grumbled as he slid some lettuce into his mouth.  Penelope’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead.  The “truth”?  She had been lied to?  By Lady Manson?  She studies her replacement mother’s face.  It was a shadow of pain.

                “She only needs to know what she does already…”  Logan snapped.

                “I really think that’s up to her, Logan.”  Ryan said emotionlessly.  His brother was anything but.

                “It’s not bad enough that Dylan died on your little crusade, now you want Penelope too!  It’ll never end Ryan!  Not until everyone is dead, and I will not stand by and watch you recruit her into a suicide mission.”  His eyes were mad with anger as he said, “I won’t let you kill her.”

                Ben joined the argument.  “I can’t believe you see it like that!  They are fighting for a good cause!  A cause that your mother and I once fought for as well, and look, we’re still alive.”  He gave his son a disappointed look.  “We accepted it when you said that you didn’t want to join.  We let you make your own decision, even if we didn’t like it.  Give Penelope the same courtesy.”

                “Doesn’t anyone else care that she could DIE!?”  Logan boomed.

                “Shut up Logan!”  Penelope snapped.  He turned to her in disbelief, but was instantly silenced by her expression.  Her face only showed a fraction of the anger and pain that she had felt.  They had lied to her.  All of them.  They had lied about their lives, their family, even their own son’s, my best friend’s, death.  It took all her control to keep the tears from slipping from her eyes.  She turned slowly to look at Ryan, the only one of them that she could trust, the only one who had told her the truth.  “How did Dylan die?”  She hissed.

                He gave her a sullen look.  “He was murdered… but…” he hesitated.

                “But what?”

                “Do you really want to know more?” He gave Penelope a dark glare, as if daring her to say no.  She gulped back the bile that had built up in the back of her throat.  She would not be afraid of him.  Yet, she couldn’t get her mouth to move.  She just nodded, staring back with a look she hoped was just as hard.  He gave her a wicked smile.  “Then we should be going.”  He got up from his chair.

                “NO!”  Logan yelled, pulling his brother back down.  “She isn’t going with you!  Mom…”  He looked to the silent Lady Manson for help.  Cleo looked down at the table, not meeting her son’s gaze.

                “Penelope is an adult Logan... she can make her own decisions, though I wish she would choose the least dangerous, you’d have to be blind not to see that your brother needs fresh blood.  If there are more people it’s less dangerous for all involved.” She said, not looking up.  He stared at her in disbelief.

                “Except for the one who joins who could be safely at home instead of risking her neck for a cause that she has nothing to do with!  Don’t any of you remember what happened to Dylan?!  Don’t you remember what he was doing when he died, who he was running from?  Don’t any of you care at all that that could be Penelope in a few weeks if she joins?”  No one met his gaze.  Penelope could tell that they all remembered.  Ben and Cleo stared at the table in shame, but stayed silent.  Ryan just continued to stare at her, but she could see the pain losing his littlest brother had caused him.  Logan gave a cry of tired frustration.  “Penelope,” he turned to her, “please!  Please, don’t let them get into your head.  What they’re asking you to do is dangerous. Not sky diving dangerous, not police officer dangerous, but stabbing a knife into your side dangerous.”  He looked on the verge of tears as he begged, “Please…”

                Her breath caught in her throat.  She considered leaving right now and going home, if that would make that tortured look on his face go away, but… “Logan, he was my best friend…”  Her whisper had left his face blank, which was worse.  He slumped back in his chair, just staring at the food they had stopped eating.  “I’m sorry…” she tried, but he just shook his head at her.  It felt like she was going to cry.  A second ago Penelope had been furious at him for lying to her, but now, she was thankful.  He was trying to save her, trying to save her from some unknown horror that, apparently, was certain death.  She wanted to leap across the table and take him into her arms, but she thought better.

                “Penelope?”  It was Ryan.  He looked at her with an emotionless face.  When she finally looked at him, he went on.  “Do you want to know what killed Dylan?”  She nodded.  “Then come with me.”  Logan’s head snapped up.

                “Wait!”  He called as Ryan led her towards the door.  He sighed.

                “Logan, I think that her minds made up.  You won’t be able to change it…”  Logan interrupted.

                “I know Ryan.  She’ll go if she wants to, but not without me.”  Everyone stared at him.

                “You want to join?” Ben asked, looking as if he was afraid to hope.  Logan took a deep breath.

                “If I can’t stop her from joining, I’ll just have to protect her best I can.  Someone has to make sure she’s okay, and it’s obviously not going to be any of you, so…”  He let his words drift.

                “So…” Ben finally concluded, “You want to join.”  A proud smile spread across his face.  Logan saw the look and quickly clarified.

                “Only because Penelope is, I don’t care about your stupid cause.  The moment I can convince her that she’s insane and it’s too dangerous, we’re both leaving.”  His father’s smile didn’t waver.  He picked the boy out of his chair and gave him a bear hug.  Cleo smiled at the two men, while Ryan sighed.

                “Come or don’t, all we really need is Penelope.”  He turned to looked at her.  “Are you coming?”  He asked as he pulled the door open.  Logan pulled himself out of his father’s grip and stood beside her. 

                “There’s still time to listen to me.”  He said looking at Penelope with still pleading eyes.  She gave him a weak smile and he sighed.  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the night, somehow knowing exactly where he was going.

Reviews

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

Well, wow! This is so interesting.. now i have to know what 'the cause' is and what these people are. Doesn't seem they are human now. Being that Penelope saw his eyes, Ryan's , is she perhaps not human? Suspensful this one is!
I am waiting anxiously to know what is going on ... if this were a finished book I would not stop reading until the last page.. it is engrossing. Very good, Nix.

I saw a few minor typos which i find odd as i never see my own! lol and mine are more than a few minors lol ..
Keep me updated, please.. I am in suspense... what a wonderful imagination you have.

Chloe

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

oh. i also meant to say a wonderful title for this chapter, and what a show!