Chap #6
(Liesl's P.O.V.)
I sat laughing at a stupid joke Ace made, we were walking down the path of my old house and just talking to each other like any other day. We were happy, that's something that rarely happened lately.
As we cleared a corner I saw Damon, Axle, and Aaron, playing on a tire swing that they had all helped each other build. They were all a day apart in birth. Aaron was born a day before Damon, then Axle was born the next hour, which was about 12:28 am the next day. They were the best of friends being only eleven each.
We smiled and climbed the tree and watched them while talking about random stuff, stopping occasionally when the boys would yell something like "Look at this!" or "Hey Ace! Liesl! Watch me!" while they jumped off the swing.
Suddenly I heard Axle on the ground crying, I jumped down and jogged over to him. I bent down to try and make him look at me, but he was covering his face. I gently tugged at his forearm telling him to let me see.
He yanked his arms down and screamed at me with an ash covered and flame enveloped face. I gasped and scooted away as fast as possible, but hands went straight to my shoulders, I looked up to see Damon, Aaron, and Ace, with the same face as Axle did. I screamed bloody murder and tried to get up as fast as possible, but they surrounded, me yelling things at my face, and in my ears.
"Why did you just leave us there!?!? Why did you get to stay alive but we died!?!? Help us!!!!! Liesl help!!!!" They yell straight in my eardrum making it ring and my heart pound. I covered the sides of my head and closed my eyes tightly while screaming, telling them to go away.
Suddenly, I open my eyes to have Ace in front of me, and Mason cradling me in his arms, telling me it was ok, and we were going to be ok. Ace had tears streaming down her face, and Chris stood in the doorway but was soon picked up by Jack (Mr. Johnson) and carried to her room. Linda came in with a glass of water and a wet cloth.
Mason told me to take deep breathes, and calm down, while he still held me on his lap. I felt uncomfortable with him being this close, so I gave Ace a look, and she told Mason I needed air. So she took my hand, and we slipped on our boots, then walked outside on the porch steps, while sitting huddled together under a blanket.
"The usual?" she whispered
I nodded still thinking of my two baby brother's faces on fire.
I finally let the tears fall, wanting to let everything out before tomorrow.
Ace held me tightly next to her side, giving me a hug then wiping the tears away with the warm wash cloth.
The front door opened and Mason came out, holding a quilt in one hand and tissues in the other, Ace stood up and went in after whispering something about going back to bed.
He sat next to me and wrapped the cover over me, then handed me a tissue.
I gave him a short nod, my way of a thanks, while I blew my nose and threw the tissue into a trash bin, that I'm assuming was there for tobacco, because it was next to an old worn rocking chair, and had brown stains on the side from missing when spitting.
Minutes passed with us just sitting there, watching the horizon. Then he broke the silence.
"I used to have nightmares like that too." He sighed
I looked at him, showing him I wanted to hear more.
"My older brother, he got into a car crash. The other driver was drunk, he had a lady in the passenger seat. He died but she was put into a wheelchair."
