Attic

Empty, the attic sits quietly on top of the house. It's been sitting there for some time now, untouched. The memories it holds make it too painful for Isaac to actually venture up there. That is, until now.

As he climbs the ladder, which is surprisingly sturdy for it's age, he realises he should have brought a torch with him. He'll just have to hope that the light bulb, by some miracle, still works, because if he leaves to find one now he knows he's not coming back.

He continues up the ladder and, once he gets to the entrance, waves his hand around blindly in the dark, searching for the cord that will turn on the lights. Once he finds it he takes a moment to prepare himself. He remembers the last time he was up here and- gods. He tries not to think about it.

He silently prays that the lights still work even though it would be a great excuse to turn back. It takes a couple of seconds, in which Isaac has time to sigh in relief, but then the lights flicker on.

The first thing he sees is the old wooden train set that he played with when he was a kid. The memories and emotions that come from seeing it again hit him like a brick wall. He lets out a shaky breath and climbs into the attic.

It's still set up, just as they had left it. They had gotten new tracks that week and set them up all around the table. It was a pretty impressive set up for a 12 and 9 year old.

He wipes at his eyes and looks around the attic - his brothers old room. It was covered in dust but it was still exactly as Eric had left it. It was like going back in time. Isaac holds back tears and walks over to the bed, which of course is made, Eric would never leave his room untidy. He was always the complete opposite of his older brother.

Beside the bed sits an old, small chest of drawers. Isaac pulls open the top drawer, which requires some strength, and looks inside. There's a picture in there, of him and his brother. He lets the tears run down his cheeks. He remembers that day, it was Erics birthday. He had wanted to go to the fair so he could ride on his first roller coaster. After twenty minutes of contemplation standing in front of it, he finally stepped onto 'the Crazy Mouse'. The picture is from when they hopped off. Eric looks a little dazed but he's grinning from ear to ear. "I miss you, Eric," he whispers.

His hand shaking, he drops the picture back in the drawer on top of some socks. He opens the second drawer, which also requires effort, and finds nothing in it but old t-shirts. It must be in the next one then, he thinks to himself.

He opens the third and last drawer to reaveal a necklace, sitting on some clothes. It's the necklace Eric wore all the time. Isaac never knew why he loved it so much but that doesn't matter. It was his. The chain is silver with a golden heart charm. It was a simple necklace, and yet Eric would almost never be seen without it.

Isaac picks it up carefully and holds it so it won't get tangled. He's got what he wanted from here, so he quickly walks over to the attic entrance and starts climbing down the ladder. He doesn't want to stay there a moment longer. He pulls the cord to turn off the lights on his way down. Once he reaches the ground he grabs the bottom of the ladder and folds it up.

Before he closes the attic door, he whispers, "goodbye, Eric." The door shuts with a click.