Shards of Moonlight || A Short-story Collection

Promise to Protect

A scream sliced clean through the silence.

Stumbling into their shared bedroom, Jay stepped on a brownish-green plastic dinosaur making him yell in pain. Jumping one-legged through bits and bobs of toy blocks, he came to rest his arm on the dusty wooden closet. His little brother once hid in that ancient piece of wood from their parents' fight and scared Jay to death. His heart still beating out of his chest, the teenager of about average height and built looked around the deserted room in confusion. He shook his head about to retrace his steps back to the door, careful not to step on other painfully sharp toy edges as he noticed crumpled jeans peering out from under the closet. He bent down and opened the closet door, only to come face to face with deep, dark eyes in the pitch-black closet. The worn-out denim pants he intended to put back, fell to his feet.

God.

One day that kid would give him a heart attack.

"You really need to stop hiding in there", he grumbled quietly, trying to cover up the chills running through his veins.

Following his instinct, Jay reached over towards the far wall and switched on the light.

Grabbing the bridge of his nose while debating whether to scream or cry at the mess surrounding him, Jay breathed in deeply. The view that presented itself to him seemingly possessed no beginning nor end. The short and skinny middle-schooler cowered in the closet underneath walls of winter coats and button-down shirts that stretched out onto the floor fusing with toys, scissors, bottles, food...? Hell, a sure damn lot that Jay refused to pay any more attention to. His patience had already hit an all-time low.

"Sheesh, I was gone for a minute. What did you do now, Tommy?", the older brother complained.

The boy whimpered and leaped towards his brother, catapulting himself from underneath the tornado of clothes. Tommy pressed himself against Jay's chest, hugging him tightly while shaking like a leaf during an autumn breeze. "Hey, hey, shh. What's wrong?", Jay asked, his forehead wrinkled in concern. He sat down in the middle of the fusion of a stuffed rabbit and a destroyed castle of toy blocks while pulling the child into his lap.

"There, there were 11 spi-spiders! At least! I-I-I am sure of it!", the little boy mumbled into his big brother's stormy-gray sweater. Jay mumbled a soft curse. He drew soothing circles on his little brother's back while removing the remainders of the chaos, a sock with tiger strips and a light-blue scarf, from around his brother's arms and shoulders. Tommy cried messily into his sweater, making his brother reflect on all the times he had checked the whole room for new spiders' webs as the child could not fall asleep in the evening. Even the teeny tiniest spider could likely sneak under his blankets at night, deciding to make a living in his ear.

"Hey, Tommy?", Jay asked quietly once his brother had stopped shaking violently due to the rough sobs that turned into soft sniffles. The boy moved back some inches and innocently stared up with those bright blue eyes into the chestnut-brown ones of his brother, yet still clutched the rough fabric of the sweater in his tiny fists. "You are a big kiddo now, 'rn't ya?", Jay asked, ruffling Tommy's messy, thick short hair. The child nodded slowly, shakily. Jay grinned and pulled the boy up by hugging him underneath his armpits.

"What are you doing?", Tommy sniffled, now standing and holding onto the sleeve of his brother's sweater.

"Come, follow me."

Jay started to push all the toy blocks aside with his oversized feet and prance around a collapsed tower of dinosaur books, making way for them. Nearly stumbling over a Lego stone, Jay moaned and did a princess twirl holding his foot and stepping onto even more stones. Tired he finally collapsed onto his bed, the lower one of their shared bunk bed. "What a pain", he grumbled. He glanced up to spot the tiniest smile on Tommy's lips as he jumped over the chaos in the lane his big brother's steps had carved and flunked down next to Jay onto the bed. The big brother held out his hand. "Let's make a promise."

"A pinky-promise?" Tommy's head appeared from behind Jay's legs. Due to the fact, the high schooler had to uncomfortably tilt his head up to catch a look at the boy's face, he sat up straight and crossed his legs.

"I will make sure no spiders will harm you. Ever. But promise me to be strong tomorrow, 'kay?", Jay looked at the middle-schooler in front of him, protective- and softness in his eyes. Slowly a grin formed on the child's face mirroring his role model's wide smile. 

"You will? 100 percent for sure?", his big, round eyes looked pleadingly at his brother.

"Of course silly", Jay chuckled, locking their pinkies with a chuckle. They held onto each other's fingers for a little while longer than necessary and time froze.

For a moment they felt safe.

"HOW COULD YOU FORGET?! I TOLD YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER! NO BEER CANS ALL OVER THE LIVING ROOM!!"

The furious, high pitched scream gave both boys a jerk.

In a second Tommy's smile disappeared as fast as it had appeared seconds before. A look of fright crossed his face, before he crawled underneath Jay's blanket.

His body vibrating in fear, once again.

*****

Some hours had passed since the pinky-promise. At last, a door slammed shut and silence filled the void their parents' fight had created. Tucking the little one in, Jay let out a deep breath looking up at the rising moon wishing he could protect his little brother from all the evil in the world.

From being a target at school.

One day, the little one would be able to hide those threatening notes and bruises from bullying.

And from their parents' mad voices constantly echoing throughout the family home.

He would need to grow up.

Maybe he could teach him to become the powerful, quiet kid at school. The one that wore pain on the inside and never let anyone see any weakness.

Maybe he would if it did not break his heart so painfully slow, seeing the little one grow up so fast.

Maybe.

He reminded him of someone. Jay thought to himself, drifting to sleep while resting his head against the cool windowpane, after having sat down on the wooden, wide windowsill.