Before it's too late

Midnight run

     None of them wanted to be alone that night so they ordered pizza that they didn't eat and turned on a crappy movie that they didn't watch and one by one they fell asleep on Brent's couch.

Brent woke up covered in sweat and shaking rapidly. Saoirse and Coleman stayed asleep too exhausted to move. Brent downed a glass of water from the sink and spilled it over himself. His sister was alive and she hated him. He should be with her, he should have tried harder to find her.

Brent Irons went for a run that morning. The sun wasn't up and the ground was covered in a thin layer of fluffy white snow. He never ran, not outside at least, and defiantly not in the snow, that's why God made health clubs Irons thought as he pulled on his hat and unlocked his door careful to not wake Saoirse and Coleman. They lay opposite each other, Saoirse's face blotchy from tears while Coleman's was pale with grief. Irons closed the door locking them in, locking everything else out.

Agnes, Agnes, Agnes. He couldn't think of anything else as he ran, he ran faster as his heart pounded, he ran faster as he saw her face in his mind, faster. She had grown but somehow she stayed his little sister. It was like she was frozen in time at 6 years old. 13. He couldn't believe it had been 7 years, he could believe it, he had never stopped looking but what he couldn't believe was that after all this time...

His searching was really to help him grieve, to help him move on find closure when he found her dead decaying body but finding her alive after all this time. He slipped on a patch of black ice and for a moment he was flying as he feet flew out from under him and then he hit the ground hard. He lay momentarily paralyzed, snowflakes falling onto his eyelashes, he blinked them away.

"Brent what are you doing?" A small voice asked curiously but he didn't move from the ground his body had become heavy and his mind weak. "I thought you stopped loving me" the voice said again. Brent tried to move to see the person attached to the sweet voice. "You gave up." It stated bitterly.

"No. no, I didn't give up." He tried to move, he leaned back on his elbows as he searched for the voice but only say a flurry of snowflakes.

"I got a new family."

"Agnes?"

"They loved me better."

"No, Agnes I loved you, I still do." He tried to get up but his head spun as though he were on the tea cups. Tea cups, that's it. "I took you to the amusement park, we spun on the tea cups, do you remember?" The voice stayed silent as he looked for her. "I took you on the tea cups and then we played games and I won you a pink toy."

"I wanted the purple one." The voice said as it grew nearer.

"I know but I didn't win enough for the purple one." He reasoned, where was she? "I tried to convince the man in charge of the game Agnes, I tried to win it for you."

"I wanted the purple, they would have gotten me the purple one."

"They would have killed the man to get it." Brent stood up breathlessly now, slowly moving away from the sidewalk and onto the snowy grass. "Agnes please come out, you shouldn't be out here all alone. Let me take you home."

"My home is a crime scene. You made sure I lost my family. I lost my family all over again." She bellowed her voice echoing in all directions.

"I am your family!" Brent screamed and finally he saw her. "Agnes" he took careful steps towards her and as he took a gently step he tried to calm his voice. "I am your family, me, not them."

"They love me."

"No. I love you," his rage was growing he tried to stay calm but it was so hard, he loved her why couldn't she see that? "I will always love you and I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner." He wept.