Ballad of Souls (Book 1/4)

Part 1 Chapter 2: Ethan

Ethan was not the kind of person to say 'no' to his friends. It was because of this he ended up at a party, on the other side of town, on Christmas evening. He tried to enjoy the party but he felt guilty the whole time. Guilty about not spending Christmas with his family. Guilty about making his parents come so late at night to fetch him. It was too late now, though.

He sat on the pavement, scrolling on his phone. He kept checking on his phone for messages from his parents but there was nothing. He had been waiting for half an hour. His friends tried calling him back. He did not want to disappoint his friends but at the same time, he did not want to disappoint his parents. He just said to them whenever they called him back and that his parents were on their way.

Ethan grew impatient and decided to call his parents again. He expected no answer but ,much to Ethan's surprise, his mom answered the phone.
"Hey," Ethan said, lifting the phone to his ear. "Where are you guys?"

"Just turning the corner onto your friend's street," His mom answered. "We will be there in a few minutes."

"Okay," Ethan said as he ended the call.

He looked up from his phone and stood up. He shoved his phone in the back pocket of his jeans and made his black shirt neat again. He saw his parents white Polo Vivo pull up in front of him. His mother had an annoyed look on her face. Her green eyes tended to become more pale when she was ever angry or annoyed, so Ethan knew he was in shit.

"Hey mom," Ethan said, dipping his head down to the car's window where his mother was sitting. He put his hands behind his back and smiled, hoping his mom was not too angry with him.
"Get in, Ethan," His dad said softly, but firmly.

Ethan opened the back door and climbed in and they started driving. We turned a corner onto a road going through the forest bordering the suburbs and the city. Ethan's friend's house was in the city and Ethan's house was in the suburbs.
"I cannot believe you," his mom angrily said, clutching the steering wheel harder. "First you decide to go out with friends instead of spending Christmas with your family. Then you have the audacity to call us after you said you were going to spend the night at their house."

"What happened that made you feel like you wanted to come home?" his dad said.

"It was getting too rowdy for me," Ethan answered. "And I was feeling guilty about leaving you guys on Christmas, I guess."

The street grew quiet. The wind started howling out of nowhere. It sounded like a tree in the nearby forest crashed down. Then more started falling. One crashed loudly on an electrical circuit box behind us and the lights in front of us sparked and turned off. The street was dark as far as they could see.

"That is no excuse, Ethan," his mom said, glaring at him through the rear view mirror. She pulled the car over and turned the car off. She turned in her seat and pointed her finger at Ethan. "I shouldn't be out here in the middle of the night, picking you up in the city. This town has been experiencing animal attacks lately and it's not safe for anyone." she took in a deep breath. "Get out."

Ethan raised his eyebrows and his jaw dropped. He was shocked. "Wait, what?"

His mom opened his door from the front seat and repeated herself, firmly pointing. "If you are willing to stay out late, not caring about your safety, calling me to pick you up and not caring about mine or your father's safety, then get out."

Ethan's shock turned to anger. He grabbed his bag and climbed out. "Fuck you, you good-for-nothing mother. You are willing to put your son's life at risk out of spite. What the fuck is wrong is wrong with you?"

"There is nothing wrong with me. I am not doing this out of spite. I'm doing this to teach you a lesson?" his mom answered loudly.

Ethan pulled the middle finger at his mother.

His mother drove off.

Ethan's anger quickly began to feel painful and his knees buckled. He hit the ground. He heard tires screeching and a loud crash. He looked up to try to see what happened but the street was too dark. Another loud crash happened. Unfortunately it was a telephone tower and it caught fire. It did not make sense to Ethan, though. The power went out during that loud wind storm. Ethan did not notice that it died down. Just as he thought that, the storm started up again. It picked up the fire and made it spin around in a circular motion. Ethan was terrified. He looked at where the fire had started and noticed it was a white Polo Vivo. His parent's Polo Vivo. The fire had developed into a tornado looking thing. It started floating higher and higher. It looked like it was getting bigger. Ethan looked at it closer, slowly realizing it was not growing, it was getting closer. He could feel the heat becoming more intense. Suddenly it flew incredibly fast towards Ethan. The only thought going through his head was that it was all his fault for bringing his parents out so late at night, unintentionally bringing about their death. The heat became too much for Ethan to handle and he passed out.