saviors

one

I jolted up, my head hitting the ceiling with a thud. As soon as my eyes had opened I looked down to see my hand wrapped around my dagger that I slept with. I ignored the throbbing in my head from my former encounter with the ceiling and strained my ears to hear what had woken me. There was nothing, nothing at all. Not even a tiny scurry of little mouse paws, like usual. That meant that they were hiding from something, someone. That meant my suspicions were right. I hadn't woken up because there was the wind howling outside.

I slowly removed my blanket from my body, trying my best to keep my movements slow and silent. My back straightened and I was sitting up fully in my bed. Still clenching my dagger, I began to step off my bed, my eyes finally growing accustomed to the dark. My room was bare, as always. A bureau in the corner, a small collection of seashells atop it. Then my bed, with a small chest at the foot. There was a window I had long ago covered up with a curtain, just to be sure the Traitors wouldn't be able to see inside.

The Traitors were the people that were basically against us all. It had happened almost fifteen years ago, I was about two years old. Mom had been trying to explain to my brother Malcolm and I that the war would soon be over. It was an insanely huge war. The War of all Worlds, they called it. Yep, you guessed it, there were other world beings that were fighting against Earth. All of the people not fighting all got moved to Russia, the area in Russia that wasn't really inhabited. I had been born in America, but that didn't matter. We were all Russian now.

Everyone from Earth had thought that you either fought or you didn't, but either way you were all team Earth. Boy were they wrong.

Groups of Earthlings decided that the other world beings (we call them "Disasters") were stronger and more likely to win. So they left us. The team, they were still on Earth. And that wasn't good. That meant that those Traitors (see where we get the name now?) could get inside information about how we were going to attack against the Disasters. That also meant that now the Disasters could figure out exactly what to do to stop our plans. The scary thing was though, that the Government didn't know who the Traitors were. They didn't even know that there were Traitors within the world.

I heard a noise in my house and I began to walk across my room. My bare feet padded softly on the wood floor. I was still clutching my dagger, my fingers softly brushing where I was holding it.

All that time ago when Mom was trying to explain what was happening, that was when my young life was ruined. I might have been a tiny toddler, but Malcolm was about seven. And even though I was under the age of five, everything that happened within those next few moments is still fresh in my brain. How, I don't know. It was probably the scarring horrible reality that sunk in when I became able to recognize exactly what happened.

Mom was holding me in her lap, brushing my hair with her fingers. Malcolm was sitting on the floor in front of us, looking at Mom with his eyes wide, his little brain trying to remember exactly what she was saying.

 

We heard the knock at the door. I could practically feel her heart quicken. She set me next to Malcolm. Then she told us we were playing hide and seek. Don't come out until you can't hear me, she told us. We were excited. Be quiet, babies, she said. Mom gave us big kisses on our foreheads. I love you. I love you too mommy. When will you finish the story, from Malcolm. Soon honey. Soon, from mom. I giggled and hugged her. I felt a tear fall on my neck. She wiped her eyes and put us in the kitchen. Hide in here, we were told. We did.

 

Malcolm and I were giggling, knowing she'd never find us in the bottom shelf of the cupboard. He was holding me in his lap. I heard Mom open the door, let the people in the house. A huge gruff voice started yelling things at Mom. There was her calm voice. I don't have children, she said. There was a smash. Mom screamed. I heard another thud. She screamed again. Smash. Scream. Bang. Scream.Thunk. Scream.

 

Scream.

 

Scream.

 

Scream.

 

Silent.

 

And it stayed that way. The door slammed and that was it. Nothing else. But we stayed. We wanted Mom to find us. And she didn't. So then we got out.

 

And it was empty.

 

We stayed in the house, just waiting for Mom to come out and scare us, then we could laugh about it and have dinner. But that didn't happen. It never did. Malcolm and I ended up falling asleep on the living room floor, still waiting for Mom.

I continued walking, my steps soft and even. You could never be too safe here. No matter what you did, there was always someone out there who was bigger and badder and ready to kill you. You never really stood a chance against what was better than you. Unless of course you were my brother and I.

Slowly edging my head around, I saw Malcolm in his doorframe, waiting patiently with his own knives. He caught my eye and grinned. This wasn't the first time we had woken up this way, and it surely wasn't going to be the last. We knew that. Which is what made this so exciting.

You see, if you have Traitors and Disasters and Enforcers, you've gotta have something else. Something like a rescuer. Except that's a dumb name. So we were called Saviors.

Has a nice ring to it, huh?