The Nerd Can Fight (#1)

Chapter 1

"Casey!"

I heard the urgent tone under his voice as he yelled. I sat up abruptly and forced my blurry vision to focus. When I realized what the pair of blinding lights were, I immediately strapped my seat belt on and curled my body up. I tried to protect my head by shielding it with my arms. A weight settled on me as I squeezed my eyes shut and the next thing I knew, I was facing gravity head on.

I woke up with my heart beating hard against my rib cage and my breathing was shallow. A sheen of sweat covered my forehead and back as I tried my hardest to get myself to calm down. It wasn't long until I felt my breathing was back to normal but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. Reaching out to my bedside table, I felt around for my phone and when I finally got a hold on it, I checked the time and found out that I still had 2 more hours before school.

I went down the stairs quietly. The only noise heard was the creaking of stairs bearing my weight and I flinched when the last step I took made a loud protest under my weight. I wouldn't have any explanation as to why I was wandering around the house if my parents caught me. I headed for the kitchen and grabbed a drink to quench my thirst. Washing my face in the sink, I tried to rub off any traces of the dream.

A year has passed and I still have dreams about it. I climbed up the stairs again and entered my bedroom, flicking my nightlight on. The dim light illuminated the two beds in the room. I requested that the bed beside mine to not to be taken out of the room.

One was neatly made and the other was mine, still messed up with the duvet strewed everywhere. I made my way to the bedside table of the neatly made bed. There were frames of untouched pictures, one showed a little girl hugged by an older looking boy. Both were chubby and round but they both had big smiles in their faces.

Another was a photo shoot. The girl looked a bit older now but she didn't lose the grin. She was using a small pink, fluffy flannel, sitting down on a stool while hugging a teddy bear and the boy was standing slightly behind her with squared shoulders, towering over the girl. Although he was a kid, he didn't fail to seem protective of the little girl. He wasn't wearing a grin in this picture, his whole facial expression was stony but you couldn't miss the slight twinkle in his eyes.

Another was of 2 children with a birthday cake with a candle that has a shape of the number '3' on it. Their parents were trying to divert their attention to the camera but both kids didn't budge. It seemed as if they were having an inside joke with through sibling telepathy. They were both grinning innocently while looking at each other and compared to the former picture, the boy's facial expression visibly softened when it was fixed on the girl.

The last picture showed a girl and a boy. Both looked to be in their teenage years, probably 16 and 18. The girl was grinning and anyone could tell that it was the exact same grin the girl in the other pictures had; innocent and sweet. The boy didn't grin but he did smile and his arms went around the girl's shoulders, hugging her from behind and he hunched his body a bit so that he rested his chin on the girl's head. The scenery behind them was of a mountain covered with snow that seemed to touch the clear and blue sky. Below the mountains was a lake that sparkled under the sun's rays.

I sighed and stroked the wooden frame of the last picture. How I miss you, brother. I put the picture down and was once again swallowed by grief with the remembrance of the greatest loss I experienced.

I crawled onto the bed and hugged a worn out cloth that has lost it's color and bore tiny holes on it. I wept as I clutched the cloth tightly against my chest, grieving over the brother I lost that night like I always do. 

It was the last thing that the little boy left behind.