Writing for the Sake of Writing

Remembrance

Aug 21, 2016

Story

Remembrance - Chapter One, Treehouse Of Memories

Aki looked up at the sky from her tree house. How calming the cloudless sky was and how it slowly tinted pink as the sun went down. She sighed, wishing she could be as calm as the sky is. Anxiety, stress, facades, aliases, masks, short-fuse, depressing... Aki shook her head quickly, trying to tear herself from her weighted thoughts.

She looked from the ever fading sunset to her small and cramped tree house. It was old, but aged faster than she ever could. The ladder had fallen off and the wood began to show its age based on the dimming color and the complaints it let out whenever Aki tried to jump inside.

Slowly moving her hand along the aging wood, letting her mind sink into one of her few memories. The day her father and grandpa, or Tata as Aki called him, made it for her birthday. It wasn't always a tree house, it was once made for an entirely different purpose.

-8 years ago-

Aki giggled as she ran around the island in the kitchen as her mom was baking a cake.

"Come on, Aki. I can't have you running around in here when I'm cooking," her mom said with a light tone,"because..." Her mom left a pause there waiting for Aki to finish the sentence.

"TOO MANY BUTTS IN THE KITCHEN," Aki and her dad said in unison, causing them to break out into laughter.

"I'm serious though, Aki. It's pretty dangerous for you to be running around here. Go see what Dad and Tata are up to." When her mom said this her dad stood with sudden pride, the smoke coming from his nose almost visible.

"Okay!" Aki said cheerfully, making plane noises as she and her dad "flew" over to the backyard.

"Cover your eyes, Aki. I want this to be a surprise," her dad said excitedly. Aki giggled as she covered her eyes and he led her right in front of the swing set.

"Now open them!" Aki opened her eyes and gasped at the swing set. It was everything she asked for. She looked at the swings to the see-saw and her favorite part of all, the small house on stilts connecting to it.

The fresh wood glistened in the summer sun and saw dust could still be smelled. Her tata leaned against the end of the swing set as Aki rushed over to give him a bear hug.

"Thank you, Tata! I love~ you!" She said with a big toothy grin. Her stoic grandpa cracked a smile and pat her on the head before replying,"I love you too, Mijo."

Breaking the bear hug, Aki then tackled her dad in a hug. "THANK YOU, DADDY!" Her dad chuckled as he got off the floor. "You're welcome, Aki. But next time, don't tackle me. Your old man is getting even older." Aki giggled some more.

-Present-

The memory seemed to fade away as quickly as she remembered it. Aki closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows as she attempted to recall the memory, but to no avail. She sighed, looking back to the sunset that she could barely see over her neighbor's rooftops. The sound of the sprinklers starting brought Aki back to reality with a mini-heart attack.

She jumped out of the tree house and rushed to the porch right in front of the sliding door. By now, the sun had set and it was too dark for Aki to comfortably relax, especially since the sprinklers just started. Which meant it was time to go back inside, much to her dismay.

It's not like she hated her family. Aki loved them so much that a cliche teenager might find absurd. But her family and her would often get on each other's nerves, to the point where if someone even sighed the wrong way it would start a flame war. Aki was normally the one to sigh, being one of her few ways of communicating when she doesn't want to talk.

Looking through the glass she could see that her mother, father, and grandmother are all in the living room, but something's off. She couldn't hear the drone of the television that they normally watched, heck, she couldn't even hear them talking. Just, silence. That wasn't even close to normal for her family. Assuming the worst, Aki took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Immediately, Aki could feel the tension. Trying to keep her cool, she waved to the people in the living room. Seeing that no one replied, Aki felt a little hope and walked towards the stairs. Maybe she could get to her room without detonating anything. She hadn't even reached the first step when her mom spoke up.

"Aki, honey, we need to talk to you," she heard her mother say from behind her. In Aki's head, a simultaneous sound of glass breaking and an explosion could be heard.