Kratos

01

It was a sweltering summer day in Coleville. With a high of eighty degrees Fahrenheit, most stayed indoors to escape the sun and a potential heat stroke. Outside on a hillside covered in tall, dry grass behind his house, Val Terminus slept, the buzzing of cicadas keeping his eyes shut. He dreamt of something familiar.

Val? the voice queried, distorted.

Val? it repeated, but now in a more familiar tone.

He opened his eyes, only to see his mother, Loren, standing over him, her thin eyebrow raised.

"Valery Remus Terminus, have you been here all day?", she said in her dainty, southern accent. She had inherited this from her upbringing in Arkansas. Her son answered back, but with a different voice modulation.

"No, ma'am", he said, unconvincingly.

She looked at him, her eyebrow raised even higher than before (a nearly impossible feat), while putting both hands on her hips. She knew where he had been.

"Well, I heard from a little bird that you were sneaking around Mister Woodsworth's property...again."

Val sighed. Mister Woodsworth, Coleville's only carpenter, was a very old man who had never liked Val ever since he met him. It was probably because of the time he broke his car window, or perhaps the time he tricked his friends into believing Mister Woodsworth was a serial killer. Luck was not on his side.

"Okay, so I may have accidentally lost something important of mine when I was there last time", he said while shrugging. "It's no big deal."

"How important was this thing?"

Val gave her a guilty look and then looked at the garage. Rachel's eyes widened in fury.

"You did not lose the keys to the car! Do you know how much money it was to find it in a junkyard! 'No big deal'!"

"I know, it was a lot", Val answered, "but it's not like it's still missing. Don't worry, I found it."

He dangled the keys in the air, a smirk on his face. His mother's frown slowly became a smile. She let out a laugh.

"If you ever do that again", she started, thinking of what to say. "I'll make you clean the dishes...for a year."

"It's a good thing I won't have to", Val said, his smile faded. His mother looked down at the ground, remembering what was going to happen the very next day.

"Your birthday is tomorrow", she said in a quiet tone. "Is there anything you want?"

Val was hesitant. He was turning eighteen, which meant bad news for his mother. He would be enlisted into the military, or he would be forced into a prison camp, which didn't sound like a bad idea considering he might die anyway. He only wanted one thing, but it was impossible to get unless he had a lot of money, which wasn't the case. Instead, he smiled at Rachel.

"Peach cobbler sounds great", he said. "It would be even better with vanilla ice cream."

Rachel smiled back, sadness in her eyes.

"Your wish is my command."

Val leaned back down into the dry grass, closing his eyes. He heard the back door open and close, signaling his mother's leave. He sighed once more.

"Tomorrow", he whispered to himself, opening his hazel eyes.

The cicadas no longer buzzed.