Memory Bottle

Chapter 3

When I awoke the next morning, I found myself in the same sleeping position.

But the necklace that had been resting in my opened palm was missing.

My heart sank like a stone in water.

"I knew it," I thought to myself with anger. "It was too damn good to be true. He's never coming back."

But as I rolled over onto my back, something cool and hard slid across my chest. My heart shot back up with hope just as fast as it had sunk with despare. Putting a hand to my chest, my fingers found and enclosed themselves around a dog tag necklace. I put it to my lips and kissed it.

"Thank you," I thought with a sigh, looking up at my ceiling.

That was the first time I was actually eager to get out of bed. My brother was actually home, and I wanted to see him again. Tearing the sheets off my body, I jumped out of bed and made for the door to dash down the hall into my brother's bedroom.

He was still asleep when I entered, but the joy of knowing that this was all real was so overwhelming that I bolted toward his bedside and pounced on him like a hungry lion.

Big mistake.

The moment my body landed on top of him was the moment I heard a loud roar and felt myself practically get slammed to the floor, a hand clutching my neck tightly. 

"Ahh! Trent!" I choked, trying to pull his hand away.

My brother was looking at me very angrily.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!" he yelled angrily.

"T . . . RENT! IT'S . . . ME! AVER . . .Y!" I began to cry. Tears of struggle came to my eyes.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR KILLING HIM!" Trent yelled again. He began making stabbing motions at me.

I attempted to call out for Mom and Dad. But it was no use. Trent's hand only squeezed tighter the more I fought, reducing my cries to nothing but an inaudible squeak.  I started to feel all of me go numb and saw the room being swallowed by darkness as my brain was being denied even an ounce of oxygen. 

I was going to die in his hands if I didn't do something quick.

Looking around, I found a glass of water next to a thick copy of Trent's favorite novel, n the low bedside table above me just within my reach. Throwing a hand back and grabbing the water, I threw the icy liquid into his face.

Trent yelped and finally let go as he jumped back in surpirse. That gave me the opportunity to get into fighting position in case he decided to attack again. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed the family Bible that had been next to the kshelf to smack him away with and backed against the wall, afraid and startled, my hand around my neck. My head was pounding from the hard impact.

But Trent didn't attack. The water had knocked him back to his senses, and he just sat there looking at me in surprise, blinking.

"Avery?" he finally uttered.

"Trent?" I coughed. "What the hell was that?"

"What do you mean?" he blinked. "Why am I wet and why are you looking like that? What's wrong with your neck? Are you hurt?" he got up from the floor and came toward me.

"You attacked me." I coughed again. "I jumped on you to wake you up like I've always done in the past, and you threw me to the ground and tried to choke me. You even threatened to kill me. You don't remember?"

Trent looked at me in horror. "Avery. I'm so sorry." he took my face into his hands and began examining me. "I just thought that you were..." but he stopped.