Soccer, Brownies, and Love

3. Terrified

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The only light source is provided by two flashlights situated in the middle of the treehouse causing all sorts of shadows. Everyone is leaning against one of the walls of the treehouse. Ivan is sitting in the middle of the wall that leads to the exit, next to him on his right is Carlos, Xander, Danny, Caleb, Juliana, Liz, and Ken near Ivan’s right. That’s how they tend to find themselves seated though they don’t realize it or pay much attention to it. They are munching on snacks when Ivan gets everything started.

“So there was this teenager who dreamed of living in a far away land away from his family. He didn’t think they loved him. His parents were always away and his older brother was there, but he didn’t know him. They never spent any time together.”

“Why didn’t they spend time together?” Liz asks.

“Well stop interrupting and we’ll find out.” Danny responds smiling.

“He spent his time alone in his room until one day something made him think he should explore the woods that were about a mile away from his house.”

“I’ve never liked the woods.” Juliana whispers.

“He went to the woods after school the following day instead of going straight home like he always did. He told no one. Who would he tell anyways? The walk to the entrance of the woods didn’t take him long. As he neared the entrance, the sky turned black, but how could it he asked himself. He shook it off and entered. He continued walking and he didn’t think anything about there not being any other noise besides what emitted from his footsteps. He strangely found himself at peace in this new world he had unintentionally discovered. As he neared the middle of the forest, he saw and heard…”

Juliana and Liz have scooted closer to each other; Juliana hugging herself. Liz is listening attentively. The only one with an almost bored expression is Carlos. Xander is almost as animated as Ivan. Everyone else is hanging on to every spoken word.

“What?” Xavier asks.

“What do you think?” Ivan asks.

“Ivan!” Liz exclaims.

“He saw the middle of the ground illuminated by torches, the torches strategically surrounded a high rectangular stone and three people surrounded it; partially blocking his view of whatever was on the stone. He couldn’t see the faces of the people, but their frames seemed familiar, but his mind didn’t want to believe it. He moved closer and when one of the people move to the side he got a better view...the teenager brought his hand to muffle his gasp or any sound he might make...he sees a young boy strapped on the slab, his terrified face, tears streaming from his eyes, but no sound coming from him. The teenager is frozen. He wants to get out of there, but he can’t.

He catches a glimpse of one of the people and recognizes that it is his brother. Denial springs up, he knows who the other two people are. He tries to move his legs, but they’re still not cooperating. He asks himself if it is why they have always been so distant from him. A distant, distant memory surfaces, they used to be united before he got terribly sick. Everything changed after his recovery. Everyone considered his recuperation a miracle. He finally is able to move when…”

“What?!” Juliana asks.

“He is heard!” Ivan exclaims startling most of them and some moving closer to the person next to them.

Danny throws a pillow at Ivan for startling him; making him grab Caleb.

“Hey, I’m just telling a story. Don’t be so harsh.”