Try {Emerson Barrett}

10

The color white was often associated with emptiness, sterile or unimaginative, yet to Emerson, the color reminded him of a time when he was still pure; when the skin on his arms wasn't lined with lines that reflected on his weak will.

He stood in the white fog waiting for the next movie- well memory- to play. The drummer had no idea how long he had been in the white cloud, but he didn't want to leave. After all, why would he? Here he didn't have any scars, he didn't hurt and most importantly he was able to live through his favorite memories of him and his brothers.

The memories that played were pleasant and soothed him through the emotional torment that silently played in the back of his mind. The memory that was currently playing was a happy one from when he was four or five. Both he and Remington had tormented Sebastian and thus the latter had begun chasing them around their back garden.

The older man watched as the younger version of himself ran around the yard laughing and giggling as his older brother closed in on him. Eventually, the oldest brother caught the youngest, pulled him up into the air and spun around. Their laughter merged together as they fell to the ground at the hands of the, then six year old, Remington tackled them.

The intentions of the tackle were successful and Emerson was freed from the grasps of Sebastian and the two were now chasing the other. Despite Sebastian being the oldest of the three, he still ran away from his youngest siblings. The two paired together could be quite a dangerous mix.

The three brothers ran towards the older version, however, instead of falling back when they made contact, they all went straight through the man. Emerson turned to continue watching the children, however, when he turned around the memory had changed.

Now, a new memory played in front of him. Remington, Sebastian, and Emerson all sat in the living room. They were only young, Emerson could see that. Sebastian had to have been only 11 or 12, which left Emerson at seven or eight.

All three of the boys sat on the couch with their heads hanging down in a mixture of guilt and shame as their mother paced in front of them reprimanding them. They had been play fighting in the house and had ended up breaking the coffee table, lamp, and a vase.

Looking back now, Emerson could still feel the guilt and shame he had felt in that moment. He could even feel the relief as Sebastian took the blame for breaking the vase and the lamp which had been broken because of Emerson. Emerson had dived for Sebastian over the coffee table, knocking the vase over. The vase had shattered into many tiny shards of glass and the flowers and water remained on the floor as Emerson continued attacking Sebastian.

The lamp had broken when Sebastian backed away from the approaching seven year old, he had bumped into the table and almost knocked the lamp over. He had turned to set it straight when Emerson pushed him. The lamp flew out of Sebastian's hands and onto the floor just as their mother entered the room. As expected the lamp broke and their mother put an immediate stop the playing.

They weren't even allowed to play fight in the house, and it was because of this very reason. They ended up breaking too many things. Once they had accidentally broken the TV in Emerson and Remington's room. Their mother had been furious that time as the TV had been a gift to them from a friend of hers for Christmas.

As Sebastian stood taking the lecture for the play fighting indoors, Emerson tried to intervene however, Remington stopped him. They always tried to keep him out of trouble, they claimed it was because he was the baby. He didn't know if it was true or not, but Emerson rarely ever got into trouble when he was a child because his brothers always took the blame for half the shit he did.

Suddenly Sebastian and Remington's heads turned to face the older version of Emerson who was standing in the doorway watching the memory. "Wake up Emerson." The corners of the room began to fade into white as the reality seeped into his mind. During the entirety of his stay in the white, he had not felt anything from reality, but he knew that these voices weren't out of his own imagination, they were his brothers' voices reaching out to him from outside of his mind. Reality was pulling him back.