That Was Easy

A Chapter by SwagMaster

Ahhh! Finally, they're in public, in a lovely neighborhood, that they reached by following the son of a madwoman into a tiny magic room, which led them to the neighborhood. Yep, sounds totally safe.

Inside was like being a perfectly normal neighborhood. There were houses, lawns, dogs, children, adults, street signs, cars, roads, and sounds of laughter and talking. As we all cautiously followed Alex out of the door, I looked behind us, shocked to see the door we had just walked through looked as if we had just left a pretty, light pink house with green shutters.

With Alex in the lead, we travelled down the houses, gaping at two men chatting and laughing as one washed his car, another man teaching a boy to ride a bike, a foursome of women having a luncheon on the lawn, and a group of small children playing tag. One of the children, and little girl with brown eyes, freckles, and long, wavy red hair, ran up to Sadie, shyly offering a daisy chain. Sadie accepted it, warmly thanking the girl, then shot me a look like, What the hell?!

I almost bumped into Alex when he stopped walking, I was so distracted by the eerie neighborhood. I tried to focus, ignoring the other happy, smiling faces that surrounded us, as Alex led us up to the porch of a darkish tan house. This one had a navy blue roof, black shutters, and a bright red door. He rang the doorbell, and a dinging sound rang throughout the house, then followed by footsteps approaching the door. The knob clicked and turned, and the door swung inward to reveal Damien.

He was clean, wearing fresh clothes, and his face broke into his adorable dimpled smile when he sighted.....me? No, Alex! He smiled when he saw Alex?!

"Hey, dude!" Damien high-fived a guilty-looking Alex who refused to make eye contact with me. "Where ya' been? The guys and I missed our point-guard!"

"Just busy." Alex mumbled, and Damien seemed to just barely see us.

"Whose your girlfriend?" Damien teased, as Kate happened to be standing right next to him. Kate, without hesitation, socked Alex in the jaw, then shoved her way past everyone else to wait a safe distance away, on the sidewalk.

"Sorry. Dream girlfriend?" Damien apologized sympathetically.

"Working on it." Alex gritted his teeth, nursing his jaw.

"Damien!" an unfamiliar woman's voice shouted. "Are there guests? Let them in!"

"Sorry, Mom." Damien ushered us into the living room, and waits as Kate sullenly drags behind. Where the hell were all these freaking mothers coming from?

"Hey, let me introduce everybody." Alex chimes in. Still won't look me in the eye. "This is Sadie."

"Hi." Damien shakes hands with the introduced person, and Alex continues down the list, and everyone receives the same generic, "Hi." and a handshake. When I'm brought up, I stare, still in shock at the whole ordeal, into his eyes. He shakes my hand, then lingers for a moment. A funny look crosses his face, like he was trying to place a memory, but couldn't quite remember, but then he dismisses it.

I now know what it feels like to have your heart shatter into a million pieces.

In case you were wondering, it hurts like hell.

I was so distraught, I didn't even notice that as we were invited onto the living room couches, Jeremy sneakily slid next to me on the lounge, sitting uncomfortably close. Damien, however, did notice.

"You guys keep it PG over there, 'kay?" Damien teased, and I snapped my head to my right to find a smug Jeremy. Inside, I snapped.

"Oh, God, no. We are not together." I corrected Damien coldly, and pretended to take no notice as Jeremy stood and waltzed out the door. Everyone else watched, confused, as Jeremy left, shutting the door behind him. After a moment, the rest of the group shrugged it off while I took a great pleasure in controlling Jeremy's movements. As conversation struck up again, I contented myself with repeatedly having Jeremy walk into walls outside, back up, then crash again.

"Milk and cookies!" came that woman's voice again, and a lady with blond hair like Damien's came in bearing a tray. She set it down on the coffee table and dusted off her hands on her paint-stained jeans.

"Sorry for the mess." she laughed. "I've been out back, painting the shed. If you kids need anything, I'll be out there." Without further chatting, she disappeared into the kitchen and out the back door. I held myself back as everyone else eagerly grabbed at the glasses of milk and the plate of Oreos, still wary of the whole situation.

"You're welcome to anything you want." Damien offered, but I shook my head.

"Lactose-intolerant." I lied.

"No, you're n-" Sadie started, but I clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Of course I am. Shut up and eat your cookie." I snarled. A fairly awkward silence followed, filled only with the soft munching of cookies and the swallows of milk.

"So, Alex, what brings you here?" Damien finished up, leaning back on the couch.

"Nothing." Alex replied nonchalantly, and I glared at him. "Actually, um..." Alex tried to think up a good excuse, but he is a lousy liar. Good thing I'm so good at it.

"Alex is just so nice." I started, worked my magic. "Dexter here is a foreign exchange student, and he's been staying with me and my siblings." To clarify, I gestured to Sadie, Kate, Peter, Auriela, and Jeremy, who was still outside.

"You guys don't look anything alike." Damien observed.

"For your information, Mr. Nosy, Mother is barren. We are all adopted or foster children." I snapped peevishly. The best way to kill suspicion is to fabricate another lie detail that is usually personal and embarrassing to the listener. As predicted, Damien reddened.

"I'm sorry." he apologized.

"Yeah, well, anyway..." I continued. "We were going to show Dexter around, because he's from England and doesn't know anybody." I elbowed Dexter, and he played in perfectly.

"America is just ace, but I was about to bloody kill myself with boredom. That's when this bloke offers to take me skateboarding, and I say, 'Brill!', and Bob's your uncle." Dexter chirps, and I halfway wonder if he really does talk like that, or if he just pretends to. In any case, Damien eats it up.

"Sounds great! Do you guys want me to come?" he offers, eager to help a foreign exchange student.

"That's why I was here." Alex was relieved to have his work cut out for him. "You're super good at teaching skateboard, and you can do way more tricks than I can. Think you can make it?"

"Sure thing! One sec." Damien hopped up and jogged to the back door. "Mom! I'm going out!" he yelled, and closed the door after receiving a muffled reply. Snatching up a skateboard leaning against the couch and pulling on some DC skater shoes. We lured him outside, and started back to the light pink house.

Children and adults still lounged and played about, and the kids playing tag had moved onto kicking a soccer ball around.

"Maybe we could play some football after, yeah?" Dexter showed off a couple fancy soccer movements as he walked, and I shot him a look that reminded him of why we were here. He sullenly stopped, trudging along the grey sidewalk.

"Let's just go inside and grab my skateboard." Alex said slyly, and Damien followed right behind him, and the rest of us walked behind Damien. Leaping up the steps to the porch, Alex opened the door to the light pink house and practically skipped in. Like a lamb, Damien simply trotted in after him.

"What the-" Damien gaped at the tiny room with the thousands of buttons, but Kate, who was directly behind him, shoved him inside into Alex's waiting arms.

"Quick!" I hissed, and shooed everyone else in the room as Alex placed a hand over a struggling Damien's mouth. To my shock, his resistance to Alex holding him down was a normal amount, and it although Alex was barely holding him back, he was holding him back. I wondered why Damien was just wrecking Alex, but didn't have time to really ponder it, for Alex transferred Damien to me and Jeremy.

Alex punched in some code, and something beeped.

"Program terminated." a female computer voice came on, and then Alex pushed open the door leading out of the room and into the hallway, where Damien tore free and rushed right into Oliver.

"Whoa!" Oliver gripped Damien's arm, preventing him from fleeing, as Damien looked back and forth with panic.

"Look, calm down." Alex said soothingly, making eye contact with Damien.

"Where are you taking me?" Damien demanded. "Where are we?"

"We are back in the real world, Damien." Alex spoke in a calm, reassuring tone. "You have been tricked and brainwashed. Your life in there has been nothing but a lie; your parents are dead, you do not live in a normal neighborhood, and all that remains of your family is us, including your biological brother, Peter." Peter smiled at Damien, but Damien simply stared with uncomprehending eyes.

"I know this is hard to take in, Damien, but you must believe me." Alex continued. "I am your friend, as is the rest of us. We are trying to rescue you from the evil people who have tricked and betrayed you, and you must simply trust and follow us. I promise a better explanation later, but we now, we have no time. We must move." Damien hesitated, and I stepped forward.

"Please, Damien." I whispered, and a single tear sparkled in the corner of my eye. He looked at me, and I saw a flash of the old Damien, my Damien; sadly, it was gone as quickly as it had come.

But it was enough.

He murmured his consent, and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. Signaling for all of us to follow, Alex began tiptoeing down the hall, leading us (hopefully) to a way out of here.

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