Perdix Stone and the Perdix Stone

Chapter One

I was running. She was more insistent this time. The one who sent me here. Mom.

I was running towards someone. I needed to pick them up before it got dark. Or else. I didn't know what that meant. Only that I should trust her. I looked to my left and saw the sun. Beautiful as it was, it was my timer. My deadline. Or else he'd be hanging by one. My little brother. Tommy had soccer practice. It was my usual schedule. Wake up, go to school, have kids pick on me for no reason, get home, do my homework, then pick Tommy up, and come home to a wordless meal. I was running late today. I don't have a bike anymore. I ran up to the park where Tommy plays. It doesn't really have a name. We call it The Park. But The Park was different on this hot summer evening. As I jogged up to the field the air had started to turn brittle and cold, cracking my lips. Something was strange. Different. I didn't hear little kids laughing. I didn't hear the kick of a soccer ball, a whistle blown by the coach, him yelling "Goal!" As I stepped up to the curb, the sun went down and I knew I'd failed her. The night turned dark quickly, but before all source of light went away, I noticed the field covered in white. And a figure laying in the middle of it with a soccer jersey on. The number: 7. Tommy. I ran to the middle, the grass crunching underneath my feet. I now realized the white was ice. I ran to Tommy’s side and knelt down.

"Tommy?" I said my voice cracking. I rolled him over onto his back. I gasped. His lips were blue and so was his skin. His eyes were sunken in and he had no pulse.

"No. Tommy. Please. I'm sorry. I should've listened to her. I should've got here. This is my fault. Please, Tommy." The tears were rolling down my cheeks now. "Please wake up. Please. Please?"

I cradled him in my arms and cried. Not for too long though when I heard a voice behind me.

"You were foolish, boy."

I stood up quickly, gently putting Tommy down. I turned and saw, "Coach Nelson?"

"I warned you and you didn't listen. I showed you what happens as a result of you disobeying me. Now"-he cracked his neck and his image flickered showing me a gruesome face instead of the one of Coach Nelson- "WHERE IS IT?" he boomed.

I ignored his question and anger took over. "You did this?" I asked pointing to my brother. "You killed  him?"

He laughed. "Yes, boy. I needed to get your attention. Now give it to me," he said in that scary quiet voice he used whenever Tommy did something wrong on the field.

"Give me my brother back!" I yelled.

"Oh? Don't care for your mother?" He asked in a voice that spit venom. He waved his hand and a woman appeared twenty feet away from me. She looked confused, only up until she looked blue and frozen. She fell dead at the base of a tree by the hand of Tommy's killer.

"Mom!" I shouted.

"Are you going to cooperate now?"

"No!" I screamed at the world. And the world responded. It erupted in flames.

"And what happens after that?"

"I wake up."

My name is Perdix Stone. I was 13 when the ones I loved were killed.