Shadows

Chapter 1

"Are you sure you can handle it?" 

Aunt May stood in front of the closed door with her arms crossed. In front of her stood 16-year-old Rhea. Her brown locks fell in front of her face while she kept her eyes glued to the ground. Aunt May tilted Rhea's chin up so she could reach her gaze, but Rhea's eyes didn't meet hers.

"I can do it, you know. You don't have to go in there." 

Rhea sighed. She forced herself to look up into aunt May's eyes. 

"I have to do this, he was my brother," she stated. 

Aunt May held Rhea's tight stare, not quite convinced that her niece was able to it. After a few seconds of awkward silence while staring at each other aunt May broke the eye contact. She directed her gaze to the floor.

"I know, dear." Aunt May replied sadly. She stepped away from the door, letting Rhea pass through, and walked away. Rhea's aunt looked over her shoulder one more time before she walked down the stairs, pity in her eyes.

Rhea stood in front of the door, taking a deep breath. "I can do this," she whispered to herself. "I can do this..."

With clammy hands Rhea opened the door. Her brown eyes filled with tears but she swallowed them, she had promised herself not to cry. Everything was exactly the same. The bed was in the left corner of the room, the sheets laid messily on top. Luke never made his bed. The thought of aunt May scolding her brother every morning for it made Rhea smile a little. Dirty clothes were scattered across the floor. The dark blue wallpaper was in desperate need of replacement. Papers, files, and school books piled on the desk. Yep, this was definitely the room of an 18 year old.

An 18 year old that Rhea had to bury under the ground three days earlier. A tragic car accident after going out with friends on a Saturday night out, neither of the four passengers had survived.

Everyone pitied Rhea, for not only having lost both of her parents, but now her brother too. But the last thing Rhea needed was pity. So, instead of swallowing in grief, Rhea decided to clear out her brother's room. See if anything could be donated, and deciding what she wanted to keep. She figured it would keep her busy.

She walked over to his bed, sitting down on it. Rhea observed the room, looking at her brothers belongings. She glanced over the night stand placed next to the bed. On top of it was a book. Rhea tilted her head to read the title. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Rhea knew he read it multiple times, but the thought of him never being able to finish the book made her sad. She stood up and looked at the rest of his room. College applications were stacked neatly on his desk, along with unfinished homework and school projects. She picked up an essay on world war two. After reading a few sentences, she threw it on the ground. A sudden rage spread through her body. Rhea grabbed more stuff. Books, knick-knacks, videogames. Anything she could get her hands on, she threw it all on the ground. She ripped the posters of his favourite bands of the walls, and teared the Polaroid's laying on his night stand in pieces.

Forgetting about the none-crying promise the tears streamed down her face. She was both sad and angry because her brother will never have the life he deserved. He will never go to the colleges he applied to, he will never travel the world, he will never find his true love, or have kids. All because of a stupid car crash.

The tears kept coming. She backed away from the mess she created on the ground until her back hit the wall. With her hands in her hair Rhea let herself slide onto the ground. And there, on the floor of her dead sibling's room, she let herself cry her heart out.

A few hours later Rhea woke up. She was curled into foetal position on the ground, still in her brother's room. Her cheeks were wet from all the tears. Rhea didn't bother drying them with her sleeves. Slowly but surely, she got up. The pain in her chest still very much there.  The mess she made on the ground made her heart ache even more. She grabbed one of the trash bags she brought with her before and started cleaning, throwing away the broken pieces and teared papers.

She sat down at his desk chair and let her head fall onto her hands. Rhea cried once more, but this time out of guilt. She knew that she will forever regret the way she violated her brother's stuff.

After being done with crying for what felt like the 100th time that day, she violently wiped away the tears from her cheeks. No more crying today, she spoke to herself. Rhea then noticed that there was one last thing on the desk. Something she hadn't seen before, because it was nearly the same colour deep brown as the desk itself. She grabbed it from its spot. A notebook, probably for taking notes at school. Rhea thought of all the stuff she had just destroyed and couldn't bring herself to throw it away. She stood up, with the notebook in one hand, the trash bag in the other, and walked towards the door. She gave the room one last goodbye look and then closed the door behind her, not planning to go back in there anytime soon. Rhea made a quick detour to her own room to leave the notebook there, then headed downstairs.

Rhea was met with the sound of her aunt softly singing a tune and the smell of something delicious cooking.

"Are you okay?" Aunt May asked, tilting her head to meet Rhea's gaze. She was chopping vegetables in the kitchen.

Rhea let the trash bag fall into the trash can.

"No," she replied.

"I heard a lot of noise upstairs, what was going on?"

"I... A few things fell of the desk while I was... uhh... cleaning." Rhea replied, not wanting to tell the truth about completely destroying Luke's room.

"Okay," aunt May said. She knew Rhea was lying, but didn't want to push the conversation any further. Aunt May knew her niece was going through a rough time.

"We're eating home-made pizza tonight," aunt May said, trying to lighten the mood. "I also made some soup, if you like."

"Yum," Rhea said. She tried to sound genuine, but she couldn't care less. "I'm going to my room for a bit."

"Okay."

Rhea hated being curt with her aunt, but she just didn't feel like talking. Besides, she was really curious about that notebook that she has never seen before.

Rhea's room was right next to Luke's. Looking at the closed door of her brother's room made her heart ache. The 'keep out' sign with skulls brought back the memory of that one time aunt May caught Luke making out with the neighbours daughter. He put the sign on his door the next day. 

She opened the door to her own room. The walls were painted in a light grey. It wasn't a very big room, but it was ok. The bed stood in the right corner, with a night stand next to it. On her left she had a desk with a chair. On the wall opposite of the door were two large windows. Next to her door was a closet for her clothes and other personal belongings. She didn't have much, but she didn't need much.

The notebook sat on top of her night stand. Rhea couldn't find it at first since the colour of the notebook blended in with the colour of her night stand.

"Weird..." She mumbled to herself.

Her nightstand was a very light bamboo colour, while her brother's desk was a dark brown oakwood colour. She thought it was the same colour as her brother desk, not as her nightstand.

Not giving it much further thought, she picked up the notebook and plopped onto her bed. She was kind of hesitant. Maybe this was Luke's personal journal. She didn't want to violate his privacy and intrude his darkest thoughts. She stared at the cover for a while, debating what to do. 

Finally, after giving it much thought, Rhea opened the notebook.