Mateless and Home Bound (In Process Of Publication)

Chapter 8: Family Ties

He wasn't looking forward to that day. He really wasn't. Every fiber of his being was telling him to stay in bed. His heart was still so heavy. As much as yesterday seemed to help, it couldn't completely get rid of the crippling sadness that he had. He just wanted to stay in there and sleep his life away.

But he knew that he had to get up. He had to get up and face the day, make sure he got something to eat so he didn't feel sick and do the things he needed to do. He wasn't a kid anymore.

Even if he still felt like one.

Having a small family was tough, especially when you're only in a family of two. Without his grandma, he didn't know what he was going to do. A part of him was thinking about just living in her hut for a year or two. It seemed like a good idea now that he knew he had some friends close by. He would just do what his grandmother did to make money and live off the land. It wasn't his dream to be a nurse or doctor, but it would still be nice. At least he wouldn't have to deal with annoying people.

It would just make him feel more alone than he already was.

He had the family friends that always did their best to help him out, but they weren't his grandma. He couldn't just run into their houses like it was his own and have some crazy food ready for him in an hour or two. He would no longer have someone to whine about why they cooked with just a fire. He couldn't complain to her about the silly things that went on in his life or the fact that he would probably never find love.

That was just making him feel worse. If he never found anyone, then he really was going to be a hermit his whole life. As much as some people enjoyed it, he didn't. He loved people. It was people who didn't particularly like him. If it weren't for his grandma and the rest of his family friends, he would have wound up bullied a lot in school.

He was still in bed, doing his best not to look at his phone or the clock. He needed to be at the lawyer's place at one in the afternoon and he wasn't going to make it if he didn't eat something at least. But his mind was too occupied by its downward spiral of thoughts. He held onto the necklace that he had around his neck. It was the main thing he had as a memory of her. She had made it when he was just a kid.

"This will protect you from things you cannot see," she put it over his head.

"What do you mean?" he looked at her with nothing but wonder.

"Dangers are everywhere, Sage," she told him. "Somethings you can see, but the most dangerous things in this world are the ones in which you cannot see. This necklace will protect you from those, no matter what."

"But you always protect me, Grandma," he told her.

"I can't protect you against everything, little one," she chuckled and hugged him. He liked her hugs. They were always warm and comforting. "I'm just one person in a world full of crazy things beyond your wildest imagination. There will come a day where I cannot protect you."

He didn't believe her back then. He was too young to understand what she was trying to say. Now that he was older, it made tears fall from his eyes. He was so sick and tired of crying. He had been doing it ever since he got the call. It was the worst night of his life. He was positive that there was no way he could have a worse night. That was when his world got darker, and everything got slightly scarier.

The necklace was his only comfort at the moment. It was such a strange thing. His grandmother said that she had gotten the wood from the oldest tree in the forest. The oldest tree was the sturdiest. The gems in it were a mixture. He recognized that amethyst was in one of them. The other was a sapphire and then a ruby. He always worried about it getting stolen because of the gems. That was why he always hid it under his shirt and didn't tell anyone about it.