Jut random things I write

Started and continued, story - 2

Warnings; none

this is just something I wrote in my spare time and it's not finished yet so I'll do my best to finish it but it might be really long and take a while

Golden sunlight slanted through the crisp autumn leaves as two children played contentedly. A cool breeze, which hinted the arrival of winter, weaved between the bare trees, and filtered in the very soul of the forest becoming one with the wood. Her foxy brown hair shone like a thousand stars under the shimmering sun. The air around her filled quickly with leaves of red, orange and bronze – framing her. He wished that he could stop time and stay forever entranced staring into those dark, velvety eyes.

Silence filled the space between them and Caine realised his mouth was hanging open and promptly shut it. Smiling, Saker noticed a familiar figure loping through the grass towards them as, just like that, the peace was shattered. Girl and dog tumbled to the ground in a mad flurry of fur and tongue just as Saker's sister came jogging up behind them. The large Australian Shepherd dog which had previously been bombarding every inch of Saker's uncovered skin with sloppy, loving kisses clambered sheepishly. Wren's cheeks burned brightly with shame partly from the scene they were making in public but partly because she saw Caine. She had liked him ever since he had come to her school two years ago and had delighted upon finding that he often accompanied her and her sister to the dog park with Bandit. Although, a few weeks ago he had said he trusted her and had to tell her something very important and highly confidential and, well, that was the end of any dream she had had of their future together; Caine liked Saker, not her.

Turning slightly away from Caine to face Saker, Wren said ''I think Bandit is getting tired – we should probably head back soon.'' Wincing even as she told the lie she glanced over at Bandit who looked anything but tired and back at Saker. Whilst she didn't look entirely convinced, Saker knew when her sister wanted out of an uncomfortable situation and always acted on it. ''Oh, you're right,'' she replied, ''see you Caine!'' ''See you I guess.'' Caine sighed and turned fully away. Ever since he had told confided to Wren his feelings, she'd just made everything awkward, and he'd barely got see Saker at all because she was always bailing Wren out of having to talk to him. He still wondered why although it was all becoming clearer now; she didn't like that he liked Saker because, maybe, just maybe, Wren liked him.... No! Of course not that would be absurd! Although it would also be kind of ironic because he had to be the only boy that didn't like Wren in all of Canada, and yet he was the one she was chasing after! After that thought Caine couldn't stop grinning like a maniac.

–

Light flashed and suddenly Caine found himself back in his grey basement staring into the milky blue swirls of the Seeing Ball. Since that memory everything had turned upside down and it wasn't even fair that Saker had been chosen to save the world from 'imminent peril' because there was none. It had been 6 months and she still hadn't returned from the Everlands; sometimes Caine even wondered if she had made it there at all, but he tried to push that doubt out his mind most of the time. Sighing once again and closing his eyes he placed the palms of his hands flat on the Seeing ball and he wished. Hard.

–

Waves crashed methodically against the shining sands while gulls' piercing shrieks filled the summer day. The sun was high in the sky and even fifty layers of sunscreen wouldn't have stood any chance against the scorching rays radiating down to the beach. But till Saker tried. Even Bandit, who was usually so full of energy, was content with lying in the shade panting happily. A reckless gull even chanced it by hopping around a few feet away trying to scavenge the little food dropped by tourists, but all it received in retaliation was a futile and weak snap in that vague direction. Although the radio was playing it was far too much effort to listen, so Wren switched it off; the hip hop music hadn't really been met with much enthusiasm anyway and was just playing to itself. Finally, feeling the silence was getting too deafening, Caine stood up and walked to the jetty where and ice cream cart sat waiting patently for potential customers to realise it was too hot to be comfortable. When he returned with eight ice lollies he said, ''Lemonade for Wren, Mrs Mitchell and me, Coca-Cola for Saker, mum and dad, orange for Mr Mitchell and one pup cup for Bandit.'' Everyone looked up at him gratefully and thanked him. Bandit wagged his tail and followed Caine who went to sit next to Saker in the deep hole she had dug. Wren joined them and they sat in silence slurping their rapidly melting ice lollies and listening to the adults nattering on about the latest episode of I'm a Wizard, Get Me Out Of Here!, even Bandit was quiet for once whilst eagerly licking his pup cup.

–

Regretfully, Caine pulled himself away from that memory; that was the day Saker had been Chosen. Suddenly tensing up he heard footsteps approaching the basement door and froze. Because he wasn't yet 18, he shouldn't be Seeing without adult supervision which meant that the adult had to actually be in the memory with you, but it just wasn't the same with you mother breathing down your neck and making continuous comments about how cute you looked in your little blue sunglasses. Before he could move the door creaked slowly open and framed in the doorway was Caine's older brother, Sam. He hadn't been around when they went to the beach, or when Saker was Chosen because he was at his fancy boarding school which he got a scholarship for. Too busy with his fancy friends in his fancy dorm with his fancy girlfriend; too busy to come back home even when the rest of his family were devastated that a close friend had been Chosen. Too busy even to care when his new baby sister was born premature and died in hospital a day later. It was fair enough to say that Caine despised him and all he stood for but right now was not the time to tell him that – Sam needed to keep it a secret that Caine was Seeing without an adult, otherwise he could be faced with severe punishments maybe even jail time it was so serious an offense.

Biting his lip Caine stood and turned to face his brother. Sam's eyes were icy cold and his mouth turned down in a small frown – not good. He had always snitched on Caine in the past so Caine had almost no hope that today would be any different. ''What are you doing here? Last time I checked, Seeing wasn't for whining babies to use to see their dead girlfriends!'' Sam laughed like he had just said the funniest thing of the century. ''You don't know she's dead. You don't,'' Said Caine, more trying to convince himself than his brother, ''And you don't care about Saker, you never did. Only about Wren!'' it was true. When they were younger Sam had said that he thought Wren was pretty and that he was going to knock-her-up, but he just thought that meant knock on her door and ask her out, well it didn't. But even 7 years later when he was 18, he was still hitting on her non-stop. And sure he had a girlfriend but when she asked him out he had been drunk and said yes. Caine had seen pictures of her too and she was hot enough, and smart. She had a pretty name too, Evelynn. It sounded to Caine like a warm summer morning at the beach. Sam blushed when he that and retorted '' Come on bro, you know I have a girlfriend and I would never be unfaithful'' 'Yeah right...' Caine thought, 'first chance you got you would go out with Wren, and you know it.'

Well they must have been talking loudly because just then their mother came over to the basement saying ''Is everything alright down there, I heard shouting.'' Caine knew this was it; Sam would tell her and it would all be over. ''I just saw Caine,'' Sam opened his mouth to tell her but then stopped, ''And he was practicing kissing on the mirror. I just brought him down here to show him how to kiss.'' 'Oh no! Wait? What! Did he just.... lie to protect me?' Caine thought. Well, that was unexpected. ''Oh, ok!'' she said, clearly confused and a little surprised. ''Well dinners almost ready, so don't be long,'' ''ok!'' we chorused and she went slowly back up the stairs. Their mother didn't know it, but the brothers knew she was listening out of sight at the top of the stairs for a while; definitely suspicious of what was really going on.

Once she had gone, Caine turned to Sam and raised one of his eyebrows waiting for Sam to explain why he hadn't gotten his little brother into trouble. ''What,'' Sam said, and Caine replied, ''We both know there's something weird going on with you – I mean why did you even come home in the first place? And why did you lie to Mother?'' ''Well.... there is something I wanted to tell everyone. As a family.'' The look on his face was indescribable, he looked he had seen a ghost, eaten it, puked it back up and then eaten it again. ''Well ok then what is it'' interrogated Caine, ''Did you not hear when I said 'as a family?'' was Sam's reply; he was clearly worried about something private. Caine desperately wanted to know what it was that Sam was so worked up about, but he had to wait until later that night when the family were sitting round the table finishing off cold apple crumble and custard, which was their weekly treat.

When the time came for Sam to tell his big secret, Caine was nearly falling of his seat in anticipation – he had been trying to catch his brother's eye all night but he had looked away whenever he saw Caine staring. ''Umm... I have an announcement – Evelynn is pregnant.'' And it was out just like that. Silence filled the room and a fork clattered loudly onto the table, breaking the silence. No one had been expecting that. Sam's face was unreadable - Caine could see fear, excitement and, was that guilt? "We didn't mean to," he said sheepishly – Caine had never seen him so......vulnerable.

1830 words