What are you hiding?

Esmeray Akamine looked around her small bedroom with wide eyes, examining every shadowed nook and cranny for whoever had called her name.

"Hello?" She called anxiously before her stomach clenched when she didn't get a reply. She got up, looking around, "Is anyone there?" 

This wasn't the first time she'd had a peculiar nightmare. But no matter how many times she had a dream, she needed to be sure someone wasn't in the room with her.

"Hey, Esmie!" Esmeray nearly shrieked when she felt arms grip her shoulders. But sighed in relief when she realized it was just her little sister.

Imelda grinned, "Good morning, Esmie!" She threw her arms out, one hand turning on the light, "Like my new outfit? I need to look my best for the first day!" 

"Imelda, tonight's your first girl scout meeting, you really don't need to dress up." Esmeray yawned, opening the window and wincing at the sunlight streaming in from where it peaked out from behind the evergreen trees. "But regardless, you look great, sis." She said, but a part of her mind wasn't focused on her little sister, instead finding herself thinking about that dream. She pondered it for a moment, before turning from the window and going downstairs to see if there was anything in the fridge, finding some bacon.

"Are you cooking, Esmeray?" Esmeray turned and saw her youngest sister, Adelina. She was by far the youngest of the three sisters, being only six years old. She also looked much different from her sisters, looking much more like their mother and taking little from their father.

"Yeah, I'm cooking. You hungry, Ade?" The two looked at each other before Esmeray shuddered involuntarily, no longer able to stare at Adelina's soulless obsidian eyes. There was something about Adelina that had an aura of wrong to it. Sometimes Esmeray wondered if Adelina had some sort of mental disorder since she had a tendency to kill small animals in cold blood for no particular reason.

"I am hungry," Adelina replied, playing with a strand of her dirty blonde hair, which got darker as she got older, "But not for anything we have."

Esmeray gave a long-suffering sigh, "Well, what do you want?" Adelina just shrugged, before going outside, most likely to find a squirrel to kill or something.

Imelda came downstairs, "Esmie, Dad wanted me to tell you that he loves you. He didn't want to wake you up too early since you haven't been feeling well the last couple of days."

Esmeray sighed. She wished she'd been able to say goodbye to her Dad. The two of them shared a close bond, unlike her relationship with her mother, and they hung out together. He understood her where nobody else in the family did.

"I'll call him when he and mother get off the flight." She sighed and went back upstairs to draw for a bit, before frowning as she looked in the direction of her parents' bedroom. She felt like something was pulling her to go in there. Maybe just rebel teen behavior.

"Esmeray," she muttered to herself, "That was just a dream. You're okay."

Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she saw her phone buzz with an alert from her friend, Sam.

Sam: Hey Esmie, how ya doing? Your Dad asked me to make sure you and your sisters were taken care of if you were too sick to care for the three of you ;).

Esmeray smiled. She had been friends with Sam since they were six, so of course, her Dad called him as the emergency caretaker.

Esmeray: I'm just drained, Sam. No biggie. Thanks for checking in, though.

Looking through her texts, she saw a message from her Dad. The timestamp said it had been sent at about five in the morning.

Dad: Hey, Dude. I didn't want to wake you up since you haven't been feeling well the last couple of days. When I was your age, I felt the same way. Fifteen is a tiring year of your life if you're anything like me, but it does get better. Your Mom also wanted me to tell you she loves you.

Esmeray chuckled,

Esmeray: Best of luck, Dad. I love you.

Dad: <3 I'm getting on the plane now. Wish your Mom and me an uneventful flight.

She giggled, getting back to her anime sketches. In the background, she had music from her favorite musicals.

Imelda bounced in, "Esmie! Can you teach me how to draw? Sam said he's gonna pick me up to take me to girl scouts, but I have a couple hours."

Esmeray looked up, "Sure. Did you check on Adelina?" 

"Yeah, I checked on her," Imelda said, "She was sitting on the roof as per usual. I tried to talk to her, but she started talking to herself, and I decided I didn't want to mess with that."

Esmeray massaged her temples as she felt a throb of pain pulse her brain. She wanted to help Adelina, but the girl was so secretive, unbefitting her young age by a considerable margin. Then again, she had been a sponge when it came to information ever since she left the womb.

Neither of their parents knew anything for sure, but she could tell their Dad suspected something from the worried looks he sent the young child when she wasn't looking.

"Esmie? Are you okay?" Imelda asked. Esmeray blinked a couple times,

"Yeah. Do you mind giving me a second? I need to get some Advil from the medicine cabinet." Imelda shrugged, and Esmeray got up.

"Esmeray..."

Esmeray whirled around from where she was reaching for the medicine cabinet, and looked towards the closet, where that pull she had felt earlier got significantly stronger until her body was moving of its own accord.

She didn't bother to turn on the light, seeing an indigo glow pulsing from a dresser, and she couldn't stop herself from opening the smaller drawer and finding the glow was coming from under it. 

Then she noticed the fake flowers, and one of them had a needle-like point. Esmeray took the artificial rose and looked at the bottom of the drawer and used it as a key, which lifted up the base, revealing a hidden section.

"Huh?" She looked inside and gasped at what she saw.

It was an amulet with a silver chain and leaves wrapped around a glowing gem of what looked to be a purple opal, which shone like the moon.

"Esmeray..." it called to her. Esmeray gazed at the amulet, transfixed by it to the point she didn't let herself focus on wondering why her Dad had this hidden in his drawer.

"What are you?" She wondered aloud, running her hand along the smooth surface of the gem, and the dull throbbing in her head stopped, which urged her to put it on. 

Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to know what this was. Her Dad must be hiding it for a good reason. And her mother might literally kill her if she found out Esmeray had been in their closet snooping around. 

But she wasn't able to put it back before the amulet released a blinding flash of light, engulfing her, and plunged her whole body into disarray.

Esmeray's head was pounding; every cell in her body was screaming for oxygen. She fought against whatever was holding her until she felt like her head was about to explode. She had to take a breath. So she did. 

For some reason, it doesn't hurt like she thought it would. She wasn't scared anymore, feeling almost at peace, content to fall further and further into the darkness until it threatened to swallow her whole.

"Hello? Are you okay?!”

A voice cut through the darkness, and she found herself slowly opening her eyes, and coming face to face with unfamiliar spring green ones.