The Killing Hour

Prologue

August 3rd, 2010

Little Mabis ran around the backyard with her little brother. Their laughter filled the air so effortlessly that some people who passed by smiled. Mabis continued to run, letting her bubbly laugh escape her throat.

It took two minutes for Steven to touch her elbow to tag her back. In response, Mabis jumped up into the air with a squeal and quickly darted the opposite direction to continue the game of tag.

August 30th, 2010

Steven sat in front of the box TV in the living room, humming along to the theme song for Go Diego Go! His shoulders shimmied along to the beat, loving every second of it, and when Mabis went to join him, she smiled as she watched him. Something about seeing her brother act like a child made her happy.  He was himself. That's all she needed from her little brother.

April 6th, 2011

Steven turned eight years old, and to celebrate, the entire family went out for dinner to one of the fanciest restaurants in their town: Applebee's. The boy dressed up in his one and only black suit to fit the occasion, and to carry on with the formal dress code, Mabis jumped into a black dress that went past her knees. Their parents dressed in the same way, matching their children perfectly, before they all went out the door to enjoy the special day.

November 22nd, 2011

A new child was born. Not in the Weebe's family, but a new child was born somewhere, sometime this day. A boy, perhaps, or maybe even a girl. They may have cried the second they were born, or maybe they were silent. Maybe the parents cried, or maybe they hated their child. Maybe they wanted it dead, or maybe they wanted it to live. But either way, a child was born.

And it was taking up oxygen and space, like every person did. God created it all for that purpose.

But the Leaders didn't like that.

May 27th, 2012

Mabis went to the kitchen, as a thirteen year old girl with a pink fluffy sweater on and black leggings. Her mother was late to work this morning, but her father had a day off. Mabis, being Mabis, wanted to make brunch for her and the boys.

She cracked the eggs into the pan and heard their sizzles before her brother bolted toward her with excitement, now nine. She wrapped her arms around his body and kisses the top of his head so that his thin boy lips would curl up enough to be classified as a smile.

She only hoped that he would like his first plate of eggs made by his older sister.

December 31st, 2012

Mabis danced around with her dad in the house that she had grown up in. Her mother was videotaping the moment as Steven tried to get in-between the two, wanting to dance with them.

Their mother giggled behind the video camera and when Steven was getting a bit louder, she turned off the camera and lifted him up from the ground and began to dance with him. The music played in the background as the family swayed along, enjoying each other's company.

This was there life.

But then..

January 1st, 2013

Things changed.