Eyes Of the Lost

10- Brother

I walk towards Ethan, arms glued to my side. I shake my head quietly to myself. Nothing is different... I whisper its the same as its always been.
Ethan notices me shuffling towards him and his eyes light up with surprise. "You look nice with purple eyes," he smiles. I shake my head.
"I need to go to Nath- I mean... My father. Our father."
Ethan nods and crosses his arms.
"So... You remember, don't you?"
I nod.
Ethan looks like he wants to know more, but doesn't bother me in asking.
"I've been so worried about you," Ethan breaks. "I stayed here all day waiting. Thinking about you and Samantha..."
My heart lurches. Samantha.
"Have you found her yet?" I ask.
Ethan sighs.
"They set out a search team for her today. That's what Dad is dealing with."
There's a pause of sadness, grief for someone who may not even be dead.
"So," Ethan says, changing the subject, "Dad left me with the job of showing you around our home, and introducing you to the others."
"Wait..." I say. "I don't understand... Can you at least tell me why you brought me here? And how... How did I never know of you or Nathan?" I shake my head confused. This doesn't seem real. It feels like a fading dream.
Ethan sighs, scratching his brown head of hair.
"We knew about you and your powers," he finally speaks. "Ever since you were a little girl, we knew you had powers. Its because of your purple eyes. When we were transferred to a camp, we saw what you could do. Your abilities were so strong and strange, that we really don't know the extent of your power," he breathes. "But we need to teach you to harness it."
"That's pretty vague," I push.
"Listen, I'm really not supposed to tell you this in the first place. Give me a break, okay? Now lets get going. You're probably starving."
I nod, and Ethan leads the way. He seems... Much softer now that I've regained my memories. Like its a weak spot for him.
We reach the end of the hall, a large door before us. Ethan pulls glasses out of his pocket and hands a pair to me, slipping his own onto his face.
"Do you just have a million of these things on hand, or what?" I grunt. Ethan chuckles quietly. "Sort of. We need them because we are in doors all day. When we go outside its hard for our eyes to adjust to the light quickly. So we need them on hand if we don't want to be blind," he says, gesturing to the glasses in my clutches.
I really don't want to go out there I think. I'd rather stay inside forever, but Ethan swings open the door, sunlight flooding into the dim halls. I shove my glasses on hurriedly and step back. Ethan looks at me curiously.
"This place is safe, I promise. People patrol the area constantly, there's nothing to worry about."
And at that, Ethan grasps my wrist and pulls me along.
"You seem... different," I finally say as I'm pulled outside, the soft glow of the warm sun on my hair.
Ethan stares at me through his glasses. "What do you mean different?"
"I don't know, just nicer."
Ethan flushes and shrugs his shoulders.
"I guess I tend to get a bit hostile towards people I dont know."
I nod and look past Ethan into the forest, but am shocked when I realize, we aren't in a forest.
"Wh-where are we?" I stutter, overwhelmed. Around us stand giant buildings with millions of windows, mostly broken or covered in vegitation. The ground below us is made of black, cracked stone, wide and lengthy. Some buildings look as though they've collapsed, nothing but a mountain of steel and stone.
"An old city. Its where we live," Ethan says.
I look around. I don't see anybody.
"You keep saying we," I say, "but I don't see anyone."
"We usually are never out during the day. Besides, the buildings are large enough to live in. We don't have much a reason to go outside unless its one of our jobs."
Ethan steps forward on the black roads.
"Follow me, I'll show you our main building," he says looking back at me.
We walk towards a large building in the distance. All around us is silent. Just the towering buildings and broken streetlamps surround us, making me shiver. How many people have died here? I shake the thought from my mind as we near the entrance of a tall and wide building.
Ethan steps up to the door, which really isn't much of a door. It looks like it used to be glass, but wooden boards have been nailed to the front, as well as many of the windows.
Before Ethan opens the door, he pulls what looks to be a small flashlight out of his pocket. "See this hole?" He asks, pointing to a small hole in the wooden boards.
"Always shine a light through here so they know we aren't intruders."
Ethan pushes the flashlight up to the door and turns it off and on before swinging it open.
The inside of the building is a giant room. There are desks piled up in a corner, most likely to clear out space. The floor is a white tile, and there's more light than you'd think. Its almost as bright as it is outside, but I take my glasses off anyways.
Then, I notice the people. New faces. There's more than I thought there'd be. Everyone is different. Different hair, different skin tones, different sizes... But every single one of them has purple eyes.
Purple eyes that are staring at me.
I flinch as Ethan steps forward.
"This is Nathan's daughter, my sister. I'm here to show her around," he announces, the room completely still.
Then everyone erupts into a symphony of whispers, making my heart cry out. I hate all this attention.
"Can we... Go?"I whisper to Ethan, "I'm starving." In reality, this isn't much of a lie. But I really don't see myself eating right now while my stomach is in knots.
Ethan nods and grabs my wrist. He leads me through the crowd of people who had formed around us and continues through the room and down a hall. We enter a large, Cafeteria type room. There are tables and chairs scattered around, half-eaten food all over. There's no one here, most likely because its far passed breakfast time.
Ethan leads me over to a long table with an array of foods. Well... Actually that's a bit of a stretch. Most of the food is gone, just a pile of crumbs. Ethan grabs a circular piece of bread and hands it to me.
"Here, these are good, homemade," he says, grabbing one for himself as he slathers it with a creamy white cheese. He also scoops a couple eggs onto a plate. I follow suit, taking a plate of my own and filling it with whatever food there is left.
Ethan takes me to a table and sits down in a rickety chair that has a loud squeak as he plops down into it. I sit down as well across from him. Just as Ethan takes a giant bite out of his food, someone comes over and sits down next to him. Its a boy, with short and straight blonde hair. His eyes are a lighter shade of purple, like lavender. The boy gives Ethan a playful bump with his elbow, smirking. "Who's this?" He asks, eyebrows raised.
Ethan rolls his eyes, hiding a smile. "My sister."
The boy drops his jaw to the floor, eyes wide. He quickly shakes off his expression and gives me a smile. "What's your name?" He asks, eyes shining.
I try to hide my flushed face. "Vivi," I say, head down staring at my cold food.
The boy nods and turns back to Ethan, as if completely unfazed. "So, this is the girl everyone's been talking about?" He asks.
"Yeah," Ethan sighs. "When Dad isn't around to sort things out, rumors spread like crazy."
"People have been talking about her powers, guessing what they are and such. So," the boy looks me dead in the eyes, making me blush even fiercer, "what are your powers?"
I shrug. "I... I don't really know," I say, sounding stupid. The boy doesn't even budge.
"Really? You're pretty old for not knowing your powers yet. Speaking of..." The boy stands and stretches.
"Ethan, I want you to watch me transform. To make sure everything looks in order."
Ethan sighs, spooning a bit of food into his mouth. "Sure."
"Why pout so much?" The boy grins. "Vivi can come too!"
Ethan stands and takes his plate in his hands. "You ready?" He asks me. I look down at my plate to find it mostly untouched. I know I'll regret not eating later, but I nod anyways. Ethan takes my plate and puts it next to the other leftovers. "We don't throw away food," Ethan says as we follow the boy. "We need everything we can get."
We reach a small clearing in the cafeteria, the boy and Ethan pushing away a few tables and chairs.
"Step back," Ethan says to me. We step away from the boy and watch as he becomes nearly completely still. He grasps his own arm and closes his eyes. Its as though I can see heat radiating off of him, he is focusing so hard on seemingly nothing.
Suddenly, there is a flash of light, nearly blinding. "Don't panic," I hear Ethan whisper to me. He grabs my arm as if to keep me from running away.
Before us, the boy has completely disappeared. He's gone, but he is replaced by something so strange.
So huge.
So terrifying.
Before us stands a giant beast with blue foaming from it's mouth.
Howlight.