The Guardians

Chapter 2

Abbie yawned, and rubbed her eyes with her overlong sweatshirt sleeves. She could have sworn she heard voices...

She shrugged, and worked her way slowly out of her lovely warm covers, and into the coldness that midwinter seemed to always carry with it. Once she had picked out the appropriate fandom shirt and hoodie for the day, along with jeans and worn-out black Converse hi-tops, she gazed above her window to the five characters she'd drawn and put up about a month ago. They were her "knights", she called them. They were drawn without fingers, and large, adorable heads, but she still felt like they could protect her given the chance. There was Percy and Annabeth, drawn with swords and their Camp Half-Blood t-shirts. Sherlock, with his coat collar turned up and his mop of curly dark hair. Harry Potter, wand out and emitting sparks, his invisibility cloak over his shoulder. Finally, Laurance, from Aphmau's Minecraft Diaries series, with a smirk and messy brown locks, sword on his back and his hand up as if he was waving. Abbie blew a kiss to them, smiled, and continued with her morning routine for school.

The reason for these "knights" was her grandfather. He had given books to her every Christmas and birthday, and had introduced her to Harry Potter when it first came out. She had loved him a whole heck of a lot, and he had died from cancer about a month ago. She remembered reading books with him for hours, and him reading aloud from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. She had showed him BBC Sherlock, and he had fell in love with it, as had she. Laurance was someone she had found on her own, and even though her twelve-year-old sister watched Minecraft Diaries, Abbie loved his character steadfastly and had squealed with delight whenever she saw him on her sister's phone. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase had been her role models since the third grade, and she looked up to them, even though they only existed in her imagination and the writing of Rick Riordan.

Once she heard about her grandfather's death from her mother, she had burst into tears. Abbie did not attend school for an entire week, and even missed the sophomore band field trip she had been desperate to go on for months. Towards the end of that week, she rubbed the tears off her cheeks, stood up, and looked around her handmade poster-covered room. She knew exactly what she needed to do to help her. Draw.

She grabbed paper, colored pencils, and a pencil sharpener, and drew. She drew until her fingers cramped, and her back was sore from being hunched over for so long. She drew characters she knew could shield her from the pain of her grandfather's death. Even though she thought it was stupid, it helped her to know that maybe, just maybe, they could protect her.

"Hey, Charlotte. Watching MCD again?" Charlotte nodded, her blue eyes a bit glazed from her cold, and she blew her nose. Abbie ran her fingers through her little sister's dark hair.

"She's staying home today." Abbie's mother informed her, as she gave Abbie a kiss on the forehead. Abbie pulled out a few Poptarts from the pantry, and sat down to her relatively short breakfast.

"Where's Dad?" Abbie asked, taking a giant bite of Poptart. Dan and Phil would be proud.

"He's taking the day off work. He says he's not feeling too good either. He's downstairs sleeping." Her mom answered, taking a cup of hot water out of the microwave and plopping a tea bag in.

"Hope he's not getting sick too." Abbie said with a frown, and she checked the microwave time. Her eyes widened, and she slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Alright, I gotta head out. See ya later Mom and Charlotte! I love you!" Abbie yelled, running towards the door. She was always grateful that she had said that before she left. Abbie looked at her reflection one last time in the mirror by the door, nodded her approval, and ran to the door just as the bus pulled up. After she got on the giant yellow machine of horrors, she plugged her earbuds in, and closed her eyes. Little did she know that the next few days were going to the more trying than anything that she had ever experienced in her sixteen years on the planet.

A couple hours later, Abbie watched smoke rising from her demolished house.

They told her it was a freak accident.

It almost looked like it had been attacked, with all the scratch marks over the remains, but she shook that thought away. Probably some stray dog, she decided, and walked away. A storm had come while she was at school, and a powerline had fallen and lightning had struck at the same time, they told her. Abbie wiped away a stray tear from her cheek, but she kept walking. She didn't know how much she believed that story. Her family had all been taken to the hospital, and she had visited them all already. Her mom, dad, and Charlotte were all in comas. They all looked unscathed, so the doctors were scratching their heads to figure out what had happened. For the moment, she was staying with her grandmother, Eve, who had an undying love for Downtown Abbey, so they got along fine.

Months later, she still remembered when her teacher had answered the phone call. She looked shocked, and placed the phone back slowly before turning to Abbie.

"Abbie, go to the office please."

The childish oohh's rippled throughout the classroom, and the giggling. Abbie's friend gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, and Abbie packed up and went. That was the last time she would be in school for a long time.

"There's been an accident." Her principal had said carefully. "Your parents and sister are already in the hospital. Your grandmother is coming to pick you up." Feeling numb, and fighting back tears, Abbie slid her arm through the strap on her backpack, and turned the knob on the office door.

About a week after the accident, Abbie heard a knock on the door at her grandma's house. Putting down her phone, she yelled behind her,

"I'll get it! I'll be back soon, Wattpad, my love." Abbie blew a dramatic kiss to her phone and ran towards the door. Behind that door was the beginning of her new life, but she didn't know it yet. She was between the end of her old book, and the beginning of a new chapter of a new story, but she didn't know. She was blissfully unaware of how much her life was about to change in the next few minutes. She thought of those few seconds often over the next few years, and how symbolic it all was. Abbie, running towards the door, just hoped it wasn't her ex-boyfriend bringing back a belonging of hers from his house.

She opened the door.

"Hello Abbie." said the man behind the door, looking completely serious, "We need you to come with us."

A/N: CLIFFHANGER!!!!! Yeah, I know, I'm mean, I get it. Lemme know if you guys like it so far, or what you think I should change. Your comments are most appreciated! Potato. Out.