LOGAN (Book One)

ONE

The car had flipped so many times that I had become disorientated before I could even sustain the concussion that had me drift in and out of consciousness; my little body could not handle the impact. I jumped in my booster seat. My bones and muscles and joints, and insides felt like they were being crumbled and smashed into a tiny box. My torso and head pressed hard against the windshield while my arms and legs flailed. I don't even know if it's still bright outside. I was fleetingly aware that the bloody taste in my mouth made me cringe at the flavor. At times my eyelids fluttered, and I thought about what had just happened.

Why the pain? Oh, why so much pain?

I cried out to my mom, "Mommy?" No answer. "Daddy?" no reply from him too. I sobbed, crying out for them and crying hard to wake them up as I use every weekend morning. I would jump on dad and fist his bareback as a drum, and mom would join by tickling his sides until he woke. Athena and Ares would jump in and tackle him to wake him up fully. But that will never happen.

"Mommy... Daddy..." I tried struggling out of my chair, but the glasses on my skin would hit a nerve sending my brain I'm in pain. "Mommy, I'm hurt... Daddy, help me..." No matter how much I called for them, they'd never respond. The world must have kept flickering its figurative light switch because my vision flashed from bitter darkness to blinding white light.

"Mommy... Daddy... Thea... Ares... Mom-"

________________________________

"Effie, get up. You're going to be late."

My eyes shot wide open as I went up drenched in sweat—that nightmare. I pulled up my knees and hugged my legs, putting my head in between. I took slow and deep breaths easing my shaking body and my soul.

"Effie, are you up?" I didn't answer. "I'll use the bathroom first."

Ares' bellow voice saved me and woke me up before I would be trapped in my nightmare, unable to escape it. My eyes land on the door. I heard my brother knock on the door, telling me to get up once more, then he dragged his feet into the bathroom in the hallway, hearing a door close. We have two, one in the master bedroom-my parents' room and the one in the hall where three siblings share and fight over who gets to go first.

It will get wild in the morning, but since my parents are gone, everything lively in this house no longer exists.

I slowly moved out of bed, put on my fluffy slippers, and gathered my clothes for school. Choose a black cardigan. No care if it's warm outside fall is coming up, and I'll be the one who is laughing at those who dressed so little. Then I pulled out a graphic black t-shirt with a Pikachu on it, black leggings from my dresser, and converse in black. Everything I wear is in black, and I like it that way. I didn't care much about what I wore because it was school. It represents my mourning, my grieving. I wasn't ready to move on, not yet.

I walk out of my room, hugging my clothes, and at the same time, Ares, my brother, comes out of the bathroom while steam from inside is smoking out. His short black hair is damped and loose, and his five o'clock shadow has been shaved as the towel wrapped around his waist reveals his torso with tattoos of the Filipino sun on his right chest and a Japanese design covering his whole right arm. He has another one on his back with the Greek words agape, pistis, and theos.

Love, Faith, and God

"Morning, sis," he greets with a smile as he plays with his damp hair, brushing it back. "Sorry about the steam kind of cold in the morning."

"It's okay," I say quietly.

Ares groans, rubbing his face. "Effie, please speak up." I could tell by the sound of his voice he was cranky from waking up early for work. "You are seventeen, and you're not making friends with that soundless voice."