Book 1 - Warriors: The Shadow Outcast

Chapter One

Matthew lay in bed wondering if any other members of his family were awake yet. His blue eyes gazed absently at the ceiling as he waited for his alarm to go off. It was sometime around six thirty, and he had been awake for a while.

Just another morning, he thought, the same old thing, every single day. Walk Daniel to school, go to school myself, come home, watch Daniel, play and help him with his homework, eat dinner, go to sleep. Could life be any more boring? It wasn't this way when Alfie was here. . .

Matthew closed his eyes, forcing the thousands of memories that tried to break through his perfect barrier. His twin brother, Alfie, was gone and he just had to accept it and move on. The only way he found that he could do that, however, was to basically build a wall in his brain and make himself forget Alfie completely. The more he pushed away the memories, the stronger the imaginary wall got. No matter how strong it got, however, he still managed to remember, making the ocean of grief and depression, not to mention guilt, return.

Matthew sighed as he heard the loud beeping of his alarm clock, and then turned it off with a push of a button. He sat up and got dressed for school.

Even my uniform is terrible! Thought Matthew as he put on the grey shirt and dark grey pants.

As he did, he tried to avoid looking at the large star-shaped scar that had been there since he was nine. It only made him remember once again that it was his fault that Alfie was gone.

After getting ready to go, Matthew made his way downstairs and into the kitchen for breakfast, tying his green and red striped tie. Since his father's car was gone, he knew that he had gone to work, as he always did. This meant that Matthew had to once again take care of his little brother Daniel, and that was the way he liked it. To Matthew, his brother was his only family and so it was his job to protect him. It was the only way he could make up for what he did.

"Matt?" asked Daniel. "Why are you up so early?"

"It's not that early," said Matthew, laughing a bit. "It's already seven fifteen." Daniel's green eyes widened, and then he sped back up into his bedroom, probably to get dressed. Matthew sighed, still trying not to laugh, and then made breakfast. Hopefully Daniel would be down on time. He was already going to be late to school.

After eating a bowl of coco-pops and waiting for Daniel to get ready, they were off. Matthew's school wasn't that far from their house, but they did have to cross a few roads. Today seemed busy for some reason. Matthew walked beside Daniel, not holding his hand, but still walking close to him.

Winter was drawing nearer and the coldness was already showing. The bare trees, the dead grass and the light grey clouds above made him shiver. Why was his life so gloomy all of the time?

It wasn't like this when Alfie was here, he thought, it always seemed sunny to me.

Alfie's death had brought a whole new meaning to the word change. Matthew had spent most of his days in the forest near the lake; his mother had divorced his father and then left; Matthew's father had gotten a job that made him work all day, and Daniel, poor little three year old Daniel at the time, was left with no one to take care of him. Matthew hadn't really thought of protecting his little brother until Daniel was five because at that point he thought he was going crazy. He'd lost his best friend and twin brother, his mother, and almost had lost his sanity. This was almost proved when he had seen the same orange cat with black spots several days in a row. It just seemed to watch him, and then he knew that he was going insane. However, after he built the imaginary wall in his mind and started worrying about Daniel more, he seemed to get a hold of himself.

"Hey, Harry!" Daniel suddenly called, making Matthew return to reality and figure out what was going on. Harry, one of Daniel's many friends, was on the other side of the street, waving to them. Daniel suddenly darted forward through the street. Matthew tried to grab him, but he didn't get there in time.