Dark Knights (Fan Fiction)

Remembering

Chapter 16- Remembering

Sara, deep in sleep, dreamt of her parents. She saw their love all over again and the times of their happiness rushed through her like a tidal wave. She remembers the little trips they had when she was too young to talk properly, or when she started preschool and how they doted on her to make sure she played nice with others as long as others did the same. She could see the smiles when she came back with scribbles she called "drawings" as an offering to her parents and how they hung it high on the refrigerator. She could feel how her mother would rock her to sleep almost every night, or the sensation of being thrown into the air by her father and knowing he would catch her. Sara could feel the constant pride and joy they had in her. She was happy.

Then one day all that changed. Her parents became distant. They brought home children she did not know. Children who were total strangers and began paying total attention to them. They constantly watched these strangers and took care of them, monitored them. But to no avail was Sara able to gain their attention. At night she would wait to be tucked in only to find that no one was coming. When that happens she would crawl out of bed and look for them only to find Max, the quiet boy who said nothing during the days who spoke no words to the others and simply observed with the saddest eye s. when she approached him out of curiosity he did not push her away, but invited her small and silent company with a slight smile. Sara understood him beyond his words. She knew him for what he was.

Lonely.

At night he would whisper about the stars and tell her stories until she fell asleep. Sara always found herself back in bed the next morning.

But for a moment she could recall a time when he was sick. Her greatest companion, ill, a distressing time for her, and her parents especially. Sara's parents forbade her from any visits with Max giving her all kinds of excuses. None of which she understood or cared to listen to.

One strangely dark night where the moon chose to hide itself well behind thick gray clouds Sara climbed out of bed with her little teddy bear she had renamed, Max. She crept past her parents' room down a dark abandoned hall way where every creak sounded like firecracker going off in an echoing cavern. She slides on hoping to once again see Max at any cost.

She had never before been down to the basement. It frightened her to stand before its door leading into a dark abysmal hole full of horror. It seemed like a monster waiting for her first step to swallow her whole. Frightened she turned to walk away, but her teddy's plush little arm is suddenly snagged on a loose nail that daddy forgot to fix as it jutted carelessly from the door sill. Sara in her panicked distress pulled relentlessly at the teddy's arm only to tear it apart from its body. The sickening rip rang in her ears like a heart-piercing gunshot through a soldier. She stands dumbfounded staring at the tear. Slowly sobs welled up in her throat and made there way out silently tears stream her chubby pink cheeks as she climbed her way down the steps searching for her one and only human comfort left only to be engulfed in darkness.

It took a while for her to make it to the bottom where a light with a blue hue illuminated the last couple steps and marked the end of her difficult journey down. The cold tile that greeted her made her flinch. Her tiny toes curls and uncurls at the cool touch. But upon entering the basement she found herself in an entirely different world. Her eyes grew wide with wonder for she was mystified as she scanned the room full of strange contraptions. To those who knew they were simply glass jars, flasks and test tubes hooked up to boilers and heaters. Some where filled with awkwardly colored liquids bubbling gently as colors twirled within. But to a child only five years of age this was magic. She spots Max in the corner of her eye. He laid on a hospital looking bed hooked up to machines with wires. He breathed quietly, as if asleep. Sara's moment of great joy and excitement compelled her to rush forward. Unfortunately her teddy once again got caught. It pulls a loose wire hooked around a tube. That tube was stuck inside a flask full of a strange yellow liquid and sent flying into Sara's direction. She didn't see it coming. She only turned to help her teddy, but was instead met with a shattering pain.