Coming Of The Knights

*Laura’s POV*

Their loud voices woke me up.

It always did. I glanced at the time and noticed it was already late. It was way past six already.

"Laura! Dinner's ready!" Mom called from downstairs. Of course, dinner will be ready, you food mongers! I didn't exactly want to eat; moreover, I had already lost my appetite a long time ago, but I made my way down the stairs anyway.

The smell of pancakes and brownies wafted through the air, and the dining table looked like a feast was about to take place. Wait, when exactly did she get home to prepare all this?

"Thank goodness!" Annabel exclaimed sarcastically as I made my way into the space that served as both the kitchen and dining area. Mom was taking out the brownies so I decided to help.

"Thank you." she said breathlessly and I could only nod. "Laura…" Mom called softly, making me look up in shock. Shocked that she'll ever talk to me using that tone of voice because she never did. She never really did anything, she never even spoke to me! "I know I've not been great towards you and I'm—"

"Just drop it!" I snapped, cutting her off. I didn't want to listen to her pathetic excuses. I was sick of them! Her eyes widened for a millisecond and then she nodded at me.

Suddenly, I didn't want to be anywhere close to her, so I picked up the bowl of fruit and went to drop it at the dining table. This time though, my stepdad, Charles, was on his seat going through the letters I picked from the mail cubby earlier. He looked extremely exhausted.

"Good evening Dad." I greeted him, plopping down on my seat opposite Annabel. He grumbled a reply, but I didn't bother listening. Annabel, on the other hand, was staring at me like there was something suddenly sprouting from the top of my head.

"What?" I snapped.

"You're ugly." she spat back, and went back to picking her nails. Mom saved the moment when she brought in the remaining dishes. 

Their normal chatter resumed and I went back to eating silently. I was halfway into eating my food when the doorbell rang. At first, we all exchanged glances before my stepdad stood up. Guess no one was expecting a visitor.

We all kept exchanging glances for about 10 minutes until my stepdad returned. He looked terrified and I couldn't help but feel dread wash over me.

"What's it Dad?" Annabel asked. Mom nodded towards Annabel, as if saying that she just asked what she meant to ask as well, but Charles wasn’t paying attention to any of them. In fact, he looked like he had been run over by a tractor.

He said nothing but instead raised another copy of the black envelope with the golden seal. The envelope we’ve been getting in our mail box every day for the past two weeks.

"That's a first, they never send two of those the same day!" Mom said exasperatedly, "What's happening?"

"I don't know;" he replied coldly, but continued speaking when Mom kept staring at him "…but I think I've wasted enough time." he looked dejected as he walked to his seat and plopped down, his food long forgotten. 

Annabel and I were lost, and for the first time in a long while, we exchanged glances. He broke the seal, pulled out the envelope, read the contents in silence and gasped. This time, he was visibly shaking. 

"What's happening?" Mom shrieked, the urgency in her voice got me out of my seat in the blink of an eye.

"They're coming." Dad answered simply. His voice was quiet, too quiet. It didn't sound like him.

"Who's coming?" I spoke up for the first time that day. Annabel turned to look at me, not with the hateful eyes I was used to, but with a look that I couldn't quite decipher.

"The Knights," he said. Immediately he mentioned the name, Mom slumped on her seat burying her head in her hands. 

I didn't know who these people were, but it was obvious that they were bad news.

"And how's their coming any of our business?" Annabel said sassily. She was always sassy.

"They're our business because I freaking owe them a large sum of money!" Charles snapped at her. I was shocked. And she was shocked as well. Mom was so shocked, because this was the first time we had ever seen him raise his voice at her. It just never happened. She was his fucking baby!

"Dad…" she whined, but he totally ignored her.

"How much are we talking about here?" I asked quietly. I didn't expect him to answer though. He never talked to me, but when he replied, I was surprised and shocked at the same time; because he had talked to me, and also because of the outrageous sum he called;

"I owe them 4 million dollars," he said, sighing. Both Annabel and I gasped in shock.

"No way!" Annabel whispered.

"How?" I whispered; And again I was shocked when he decided to answer my question instead of listening to his daughter’s rantings.

"I asked for a loan from him when I lost my old lab to a fire. I thought I'd be able to get the money back if I could invent the Time Machine and get investors, or even get the government to buy it... But the Time Machine never worked, it keeps experiencing a shortage of power and no power source has been able to keep it running for 15 seconds at it's most- and now I'm in huge debt!" He rushed out.

Mom's cries broke the sudden stillness that descended into the room. "What do we do now?" She cried. I swear I've never seen her this frightened before; even Annabel was lost.

The way Mom and Charles were going about it was so frightening that I couldn't help but ask; "who are these people?" This time, no reply came but Mom's sobs became louder. So I asked another question, "is there something they're asking for now?" Mom kept quiet and stared at her husband.

"Yes," he replied quietly.

"Don't give it to them Charlie, they're bad people!" Mom sobs grew louder.

"If I don't, they'll kill us" Dad snapped.

“Well, we can complain to our Alpha!” Mom cried in a high pitched voice, her eyes looking crazed. 

“Oh don’t behave like you don’t know everyone’s scared of them!” He scoffed, sitting up.

"What's it they want then?" Annabel asked now.

"They're coming." He replied flatly. "Annabel and Laura, get ready, they're coming to take one of you." And with that he left the table, his food completely discarded.

I silently watched Mom as she wailed uncontrollably, and I couldn’t do anything but stare into nothingness. 

At this stage, I was glad, glad that I wasn't the sexy sister, because I knew deep down that they were coming for Annabel and not me.