when you were my father

house

"Mai! Where are you taking me?" Micah asks, as we make it towards the house I'd run away from only moments ago.

"We're almost there. Just don't ask questions." I instruct him, hoping he'll just shut up and come along with me.

Luckily we reach the house within minutes, it still sits there in the normally empty over grown lot.

"Umm... what are we doing here?" He questions, looking at the old abode. "Why'd you take me to an old abandoned looking house?"

"Just trust me. It'll all make sense in a minute." I walk up to the house's entrance way and peer inside a dusty window. The woman's just sitting there at the counter, seemingly staring at nothing. The man's steadily pacing around. They seem confused and distraught, like me. Micah leans further into the window. Suddenly hitting his head against the glass, it causes the two adults inside to whip their heads around and investigate the disturbance.

Quickly, I pull him away from the window, before either of them can see us. I grab his arm and run around the side of the house, which leads us to the backyard.

"Mai, why are we here?" He asks, way too loudly for my comfort zone.

"Just shut up, and follow me to the shed in the back. Alright?"

"Fine, but I still don't..."

I quickly slap my hand over his mouth.I hear the front door opening, followed by the sounds of light feet stepping out.

Together we quickly run into the backyard, where I see the shed sitting there like before.

************

I drag Micah inside with me, carefully closing the shed door behind us, hoping whoever has followed us outside of the house won't hear.

Micah slowly backs up, not looking at the interior of the small building. His back hits the center table and I watch his eyes widen as he turns around to find the rabbits and chemicals.

"Mai..."

"Yeah?" I ask, trying to act like he hasn't been super annoying this whole time.

"What is this place?"

"I... don't actually know. But it's not a good place, that's for sure." I tell him, glancing around the room. It hasn't changed since I was here earlier, except for the fact that the rabbit that was twitching seems to have disappeared. A large purplish brown stain sits in it's place on the wooden table.

"Then why'd you bring me here?" He asks, impatiently.

"Here, look at this." I say, pulling out Isla's drawing from my pocket and handing it to my brother.

He stares at it for a few moments, before turning to me, eyebrow arched with perplextion. "What is this?"

"It's a drawing. That looks exactly like this room we're in right now."

Micah's eyes roam around the room, bringing him to a realization. "Where'd you get this?" He asks, holding the drawing up to my face.

"Isla drew it." I say, pushing his hand away from me. His eyes start to glow with confusion, the dim light illuminating his frown.

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. Why would I be joking?"

"I don't know. This is all just so..."

"Weird?"

"Yeah."

"Hello? I've got a gun." Announces a voice from outside. It's definitely not the voice of the man or the woman though. It was younger sounding, like a small boy maybe.

"Someone's outside. And they've got a gun." Micah whispers to me and I can't help but roll my eyes

"Yeah, duh. I can hear too." I whisper back, trying to figure out what we should do next.

Slowly, I walk towards the shed's rusty door. Sliding the bar to the side, I pushed it open, not cutting myself this time.

***********

Once the door fully opens, I see a boy who must be around the age of eight standing there in the grass pointing a large gun at us. His cheeks are pink and eyes bloodshot, like he's just been crying. His arms are red, hinting at the possibility of bruises forming.

"Put the gun down." I advise him, stepping carefully out of the shed. "We're not here to hurt you."

Without taking my eyes off of the boy, I motion for Micah to follow me out. He does, reluctantly.

"Who are you?" The small boy asks, his eyes flashing back and forth between the two of us. "Why are you in my dad's shed?"

"Please put the gun down, and then we can talk." I tell him. He slowly lowers his weapon and sets it on the dead grass. "Good. Now, do your parents know that we're here?"

"No. I saw you outside, but didn't tell them. Because you looked like kids, and I thought you wanted to play."

"Oh. Sorry, we're not here to play." I tell him, slightly smiling. Still confused as to why he brought a gun if he thought we were there to play.

"Then why are you here?"

"Well..." I turn to Micah, unsure what to tell to the kid.

"See, my sister drew this drawing. A different sister, not this one. And then the sister that's actually right next to me right now saw it and when she was coming home from school she saw your house. But she'd never seen it before, even though she walks home this way everyday. It looked old and empty so she walked up to the front door, and saw that it seemed empty inside. She came inside and explored, seeing that it actually was empty. She made her way into the backyard and into the shed. Until your dad came and scared her. But he was talking to her I'm guessing as if she was you. And then we came back because I didn't believe her."

The boy looks at Micah like he was crazy. He honestly does sound crazy, and it doesn't help that he explained the predicament terribly.

"Basically, my sister drew your father's shed and we came to see what it was."

"Right... well you'd better go before my father finds out that someone was in his shed. He's very protective of it." The boy tells us, shaking his arm. I notice a deep blue and purple bruise on his arm below his shoulder, like someone had hit him hard.

"Okay. What's your name, you've been awfully nice to us. Besides the whole pointing a gun at us thing."

"I'm Brian. And you are?"

"I'm Kamaile and my brother is Micah. Nice to meet you Brian." I say, before running out of the backyard with Micah. We run into the road and down the street.