Dinnertable Whispers

"Kids!~" Your mother says with a polite knock on the door, then she tries the door handle. It doesn't give. "Locked?" She whispers to herself and tries again.

You hastily throw on some clothes and go over to open the door. With a big smile on your face you block the view inside knowing Amelia and Sarah are scrambling around to fix themselves as well.

"Hey mom." You say trying not to glance over at the girls.

"Oh! Oh my~. There you are~. I'm sure Sarah has told you but dinner is ready, make sure to come eat before the food gets cold~. Is Amelia in there too?"

"Ah, yeah Amelia is uh....at her bed. Sarah told us but we got busy doing something. We'll be right down." You say to her and she smiles back.

Your mother stares at you for a second, which feels like an eternity of silence. "Oh? Alright then. Try not to lock the door though, okay?"

"Yeah, sorry." You say back.

....

About 10 minutes pass and you join the others at the dinner table. You sit down in a chair and your mother comes over to place an empty plate in front of you.

"Go on kids~ help yourself to the food, Sarah lent a hand which helped a ton. Let me know how it isss~." Your mother leans forward and kisses you in the temple. You just blatantly eye her cleavage before snapping yourself out of it realizing Amelia and Sarah saw you peeking. Both of them just have a blank stare as if to say 'really?'

You feel a little bit ashamed from thar, especially when you tried to give your mother some respect earlier but now you've just immediately went back to ogling her again.

"Ahem- yeah, yeah I'll do so. Thanks mom." You finally answer back.

"Thaaaanks!~" Sarah says to your mother and fills up her own plate with each of everything.

Your mother acknowledges Sarah with a smile then pinches your cheek playfully before walking away to the sink.

You let out a loud sigh....then turn to Amelia. "Hey, where's Ameko?"

"Don't know. She was working on something in her room last time I checked." Amelia says and reaches for a bowl of fish stew on the table. She quickly winces away putting a hand to her nose as if it reeks.

You give her a weird look and carry on. "What about....Kara?"

Sarah stuffs her mouth with a large spoonful of food and looks from you to Amelia.

Amelia looks up with a pondering look. "Hmm....now that you've mentioned it....I don't know. She's been gone for a few days....business trip maybe? Mom never tells me anything."

"Right...." You say and give yourself a small scoop of rice.

"Why do you ask?" Amelia says noticing the change in your tone.

You take a deep breath. "Remember when we found...." Your eyes look at your mother humming away at the sink and go down to a whisper. ".....that secret place inside Kara's closet?"

"Yeah?" Amelia answers back.

"Well, I think....I think I know why she has those things." You loosely point your spook at Amelia.

"...." Amelia takes a small sip from her cup of milk.

You look to Sarah. Sarah shrugs.

"Sighs I know why already." Amelia says pacing her words carefully.

"You....do?" You say and raise a brow.

"Yes, after finding out about....that closet. I became suspicious of her. It was so- so weird. I couldn't stop thinking about it. So when you went into a coma I snuck into their room again and opened up her closet....I uh, found a few things that raises some questions."

"That's....well, I don't know if dangerous is the word but I don't think Kara would like that if she found out. Regardless....what'd you find?" You say back to Amelia leaning in, your intrigue skyrockets.

"Well....other than what we saw the first time I also found this." Amelia takes out her phone and slides it over. Her eyes go to your mother, then her head does a quick scan of the room to make sure no one else is around.

You take the phone, Sarah leans in to look. Amelia has taken a photo of what looks to be a stack of letters with the Sun Corporation's emblem stamped onto each of them.

"The Sun Corporation?" You whisper.

"....I didn't take any of the letters....but I did manage to read one. It umm....said something about you I think? It's weird." Amelia says and reaches over to the screen and slides it to the next picture.

"About me? Is this about school?" You say as she swipes.

"Jun Woe?" Amelia reads out the name mentioned there.

Your blood runs cold and a chill washes over your body. It's been awhile since you've heard that name....more specifically the name 'Woe', the surname you had in your last reality....and the surname that connects you to your father. In this reality you inherited Miya, your mother's last name instead.

Something stirs deep within you. Your skin crawls and you cover your mouth. You feel sick. You've never thought about it before. Maybe you were too scared or just wanted to avoid the subject....but your father, he still exists in this reality doesn't he? How else would you have been conceived? Did he leave your mother early on due to the wish? The wish for you to not have a father....is that how things played out? Kara was the replacement....but that doesn't mean much if your father is out there somewhere still running around. What if-....what if he comes back!?

"Are you okay?" Sarah says and puts a hand on your shoulder. You look to her and then your bowl.

"I-I'm fine. Just....remembered some things." You say and begin to quickly feed yourself.

"What'd you remember? Something about....dreams and reality again?" Amelia says trying to get something out of you.

"Sort of. That name....it was my name from the last reality." You answer Amelia and give the phone back to her.

"Your previous name?....Woe....I understand I think." Amelia doesn't press further seeing your sudden shift in behavior.

Sarah sits there somewhat keeping up with these bizarre topics. "Well~....can't we just talk to Mrs. Kara about it? She's very nice right? What has she actually done to make you two act so weird?"

Sarah's got a point, but doing that is harder than saying it. You shake your head at her and continue on.

"Sure, that might be an option but....no one normal keeps those things in their closet. I'm sorry Amelia but....I think Kara is too mysterious of a person to trust right now which makes her dangerous. In the worst case scenario she may be an enemy. Either that or-"

"My mom isn't dangerous okay? I mean- yeah she has all those stuff but she's my mom. We can trust her, I might've been suspicious of her but that's because she's just keeping secrets." Amelia says looking at you still.

You have a small headache, you don't want to argue this. Not here not now.

"I understand and sure, she may be on our side. But it's the safest to be careful right? Plus, if she proves to be an ally then she's the best protection we've got....Oh- the reason why I even brought her up was because I heard a female voice when I was attacked in the city right before blacking out. I was saved. It was also the same voice that was talking to Ameko in the basement when I briefly came to down there."

Amelia paying close attention to your words take a sip from her milk again and wipes off her lips with a towel. "Okay?"

"It was Kara's." You say looking her straight in the eyes. "It makes sense thinking about it now. But with my head scrambled backwards and forward....I couldn't place it until a moment ago."

Amelia looks away making eye contact with Sarah and then stares down into her pale plate.

"Ameko and Mom are....both in on it." Amelia says breaking the silence. It looked hard to say coming from her.

"Yeah....and they are either both working together to help us....or to deceive us. Maybe even both for whatever reason." You say and Amelia hangs her head down. Her hands grip onto her thighs and you see her visibly tremble in place across from you.

You can't even imagine how she feels having to accept these possibilities.

"Amelia, I'm sure they're trying to help us. The only thing that makes me think otherwise is that they're keeping us in the dark about some- or rather most things." You say trying to reassure her.

"I know....It's just-" Amelia gets cut off.

"Oh! My my~ hello darling~. Here I'll grab you a plate." Your mother suddenly says and all three of you at the table snap your heads to your mother and then towards the stairs where her eyes are drawn to.

Standing there having just descended from the 2nd floor is Kara who's dressed more casual than normal. Her silk blouse splits down a little too low than what you're used to.

What's the occasion? You thought to yourself.

Your heart pounds seeing Kara....was she home all this time? Did she overhear?