I'm finally back!!!

not edited
"What?" He asked his eyes wide as mine were. I was baffled at his question. What made him ask that when I was the one at the other end of the gun.

"You're the one pointing a gun at me, I should be asking that," i squeaked, pressing against the door as the car came to an abrupt halt.

"I'm not pointing the gun at you. You shrieked. This isn't exactly the safest area at night. I was just ready to do anything," He replied, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"Anything as in kill me?" I exclaimed, eyeing the gun in his hand. The moment he caught my gaze on the gun, he snapped the safety back on before stuffing it in the back of his seat.

"Anything as in protecting you from anything, in any way possible," He muttered, starting the car back on again, "Did you really entertain the idea of me killing you?" He asked, refusing to look at me.

"Well, we haven't been on the best of terms since I came back," I muttered, trailing off.

"I know, but I would never kill you, hell, I can't even dream of hurting you. You're still my sister." His words were followed by silence as I tried to get rid of all the bad thoughts.

"I know," I whispered, settling back down, "I'm sorry, I don't know what I was even thinking." His silence followed my words as he started the car back up again.

"We should get going, the forest isn't exactly safe to be without protection," He muttered as we continued on the trail. I slowly turned to him with one of my eyebrows raised. He let out a little scoff at my wordless reaction before paying attention to the road again.

"Why are we here in the first place?" I asked softly as we started our journey again, I was tired from sitting for such a long time. We've been driving since morning and even though it was still evening the sun had surprisingly gone down.

"Because I wanted to bring you here," He muttered, stopping the car. I looked out of my window and my eyes fell on the beautiful house in front of me. We were standing outside the gates that looked guarded with different equipment as well as guards. Dorian talked to one of the guards as I looked at the mansion which had devastatingly beautiful memories attached to it. Even through the strong snowfall, I could make out guards making rounds every once in a while to make sure everyone was safe. The guards stationed at the gates were inside their cabin.

As soon as Dorian had finished talking to the guards, he entered his biometrics and the gates swung open. Dorian drove straight to the driveway and into the garage. Unfortunately the garage of this house wasn't attached to the main house, it was a few yards away. The door opened as he stepped out of the car and walked over to my side. He opened the door for me and waited patiently for me to step out but I stayed frozen in my seat. The last time I had been here was with my whole family. I vaguely remember, most of it from the photos I've owned. I was five and we were always came here to spend our vacations. Away from the whole mess of the world. A small town was just minutes away from here on foot. They were good people and my family had acquaintance with them.

I looked back at the building that stood tall and proud infront of us even in the middle of a snowstorm and the memories came rushing back to me. "Astria?" Dorian called as he bent a little to peek inside the car. He extended his hand forward, offering it to me. I glanced at his hand before glancing back at the house as i hesitated. It felt wrong to come here without him, it was like a tradition and without him it all seemed useless.

I looked up to see Dorian looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed, waiting for me. I felt as if I saw a hint of concern in eyes as he stared at me but his next words forced me to think otherwise, "Can you get out? I can't wait the whole night in the cold," he muttered with an expressionless mask on his face, hiding any signs of human emotions that were previously present on his face.

I pushed my concerns to the back of my mind before taking his hand. Eventhough he had been out in the cold for quite some time his hands were still warmer than mine. I absentmindedly squeezed his hand as we neared the beautiful mansion. As we exited the garage, i felt him pull the hoodie over my hand before speed walking through the lawn with a firm grip on my hand until a man came running with umbrellas in his hand. He bowed a little before handing one of the umbrellas to Dorian who thanked him before dismissing him.

As soon as Dorian and I reached the top of the front porch, the doors swung open as a man in his early-thirties came into our view. He bowed a little as he greeted Dorian who nodded back. He shot me a small smile before bowing slightly out of respect. "Mr. Kiehl, it's good to see you again" I muttered. I was surprised to see that he was still. Kiehl worked as a butler to this estate of the Crawford family.

"I apologize but have we met before, miss?" He asked. Dorian let out a small huff of air before turning to talk to one of the maids.

A soft smile took over my face as I turned to face the man looking at me with confused eyes, "It's me, Astria, Kiehl," I said and realization shone in his eyes.

"So the rumors are true after all, I'm happy that you're back Miss Astria," he said, with a small smile on his face. I shot him a small smile back before Dorian called me.

"The rooms are ready, let's go," Dorian said before leading me upstairs. This mansion was divided into small wings, each wing belonging to one of the members of the family. Each wing was small, containing of one room, a sitting area and a small study The one towards the middle of the house belonged to me when I was little. My parent's wing was towards the front of the house while the two wings in front of mine, on the opposite side of the house belonged to the twins while two towards the back of the house belonged to Dorian and Octavian.

There was an observatory on the top floor in the middle of the house. There, instead of a ceiling, a glass globe covered the hall where we would spend nights watching the stars making out constellations and then eventually falling asleep, our warm beds forgotten as we laid on the mattresses laid on the ground by the maids.

As predicted, Dorian led me to my wing. Both the study and sitting room were the same as they weren't used by me before but my room was definitely changed after. The furniture was similar to the one I had before but this one was more catered towards a teenage girl and everything was changed from pink to more of a neutral color.

"You can freshen up and then meet me downstairs in the kitchen. Also, Rhea is just outside, so if need any help, just call her and she'll be here to help," he said, before turning and walking down the hallway to his wing.

I thanked Rhea as I entered the kitchen. Immediately, my eyes fell on Dorian who was nibbling on the chicken nuggets left from the trip to McDonalds. As he saw me enter the kitchen, he pushed the box towards me. The box of 20 chicken nuggets now held only four. We had eaten more than half of it in the car, which meant Dorian just had one or two. "Have at it, this is our dinner for today," He muttered as I furrowed my eyebrows.

"There's no food here?" I asked.

"The maids and Kiehl kept the space clean and maintained but they only bring food if we are coming so that nothing goes to waste. None of us has been here after dad and I did not inform Kiehl of our plans so there's no food in the main house. All the staff live in the town nearby and not at the servants' quarters because they don't need to be here as there's nobody to tend to, so there's no food in the servant's quarters as well. They are here right now because of the blizzard and received food before the blizzard started. So, we have nothing here right. So these nuggets are our dinner," he explained as I sat down two seats away from him before biting into one of the nuggets.

I pushed the box a little so that it was between us and motioned for him to have some which he refused. Before I could say anything, he stood up, pushing the stool violently, making me flinch a little. Without saying or doing anything, he turned his back towards me before walking out of the kitchen and upstairs. I sat there dumbfounded for a couple minutes before shrugging and going back to the nuggets.

After completing my dinner, I too left the kitchen and checked my phone. It was dead, so I just left it in my room to charge. I left the room and walked out, wandering aimlessly about the big house. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the grand doors to the hall.

I cautiously opened the door, stepping inside. The hall was lit by the moonlight which entered through the humongous glass dome. The snowfall had stopped and the sky had cleared, allowing a clear view of the beautiful winter night sky. I slowly stepped forward, my steps echoing in the silent hall. I lowered, my eyes glued to the sky as I sat down on the ground, just like old time.

A hand landed on my shoulder and a shrill scream escaped from my lips and my head whipped around to look behind me. There stood a tall man behind me with two teacups in hand as he looked down at me a blank face. The color returned to my face in moments as I realized that the person behind me was Dorian.

"Gosh, you scared me, I though I was alone," I muttered, pushing my baby hair out of my face as he sat down beside.

"I was here for quite a while before you came here," he answered, offering me one of the cups. It was not bright enough to determine what he was giving me but I went with it.

"So, the tea is the only edible item here?" I asked after I took a small sniff of the drink and we both looked up the twinkling stars in the sky.

"Everything else is expired," he muttered, taking a sip of his drink, "Even the sealed cookies have gone bad."

A small laugh escaped me as I took a small sip of my tea as well, "Chamomile?" I asked, once I had made sure what the tea tasted like.

"No," He muttered, taking another sip of his tea. My eyebrows furrowed as I was quite sure of my guess. "It's shi-mo-male," he said before letting out a chuckle.

"Oh my god, really?" I asked with a blank look on my face as he continued chuckling. When I was small, I got my hands on my dad's teabox. I was about four when I read Chamomile as Shimomale. I was hoping nobody remembered those embarrassing moments but alas, here was one. I decided to ignore his chuckling before sipping on my tea with a small pout on my face.

That was how we spent the first half of our night, reminiscing about old times while drinking the chamomile tea left behind by our father. As I laughed with Dorian while recalling the twins' antics, I did not realize that the night ahead wouldn't be as pleasant and happy as it was now.

•••

A/N

I'm back!!! Ahh, it feels really good to be posting again. I hope y'all were looking forward to this comeback as much as I was and I hope you're excited to continue N this journey of Astria finding herself back again!!

So, now that I'm back, I have a shit ton of free time on my hands so I will probably be posting according to my previous schedule which was once a week or sometimes even twice a week!!

so, I hope y'all like this chapter and obviously I'm not going to kill Astria of and that too at the hands of her brother. My fragile heart could never.

Well, hoping you liked this chapter. If you did please vote and share and let me know which part of this chapter was your faviourite!!!

QOTD: Do you listen to music that you don't understand? (like it's in a language you don't speak or understand)
AOTD: I just started, and surprisingly it's not as hard as I was expecting it to be!

HERE'S THE SIBLING MEME!

Toodles

~Ash