War Of Millennium

Chapter 2: Life as I Knew it

I wasn't exactly worried at first.

It was probably just some sort of trouble for something I'd done, like eat in the living room or something. Maybe I'd been somewhere or done something that I wasn't supposed to. I figured everything was going to be fine once I was confronted and apologized.

But then Shane said something quietly about my mom, and I felt my heart plummet back into my stomach, then lower and lower. Mom was the last thing I wanted to talk about that day.

Dad had always loved talking about her, which I understood, but I wished they'd waited until the next day. He hardly talked about her actual disappearance—he never explained his encounters with the police, or what happened, really—not unless he had to. He just loved talking about HER as a person. He only loved the good things.

But clearly they weren't about to deliver good news. I had a sickening feeling that they were about to give me awful news.

Even Shane looked grave, and that wasn't even close to normal for him. He was the optimistic one. He always tried to see the bright side of life, even when mom disappeared.

I even saw tears slowly well up in my dad's eyes. "Ugh," he mumbled to himself, trying to wipe the tears away. "You both remind me of your mother in so many ways." He said.

"I mean, you're so much like her, all the way down to the flecks of gray in your eyes. You're like little copies of her. Lucky for you, otherwise you'd have to look like me." He looked sad, but he sounded happy.

But he was right, despite his random commemoration of remnants of the past. Shane and I did share a lot of resemblance with our mother.

Shane quieted dad and took over the conversation from there. "What's this about?" I asked. "Look," Shane said. "It's probably about time that dad and I tried explaining something kinda important to you." He added.

The feeling of worry hit me like a bus. I wondered what they were trying to tell me. I was confused. Maybe they'd found her. Maybe they'd found her dead—though that wouldn't have come as a huge shock to me. She'd been gone for too long without a word.

"It's probably best that we discuss this with you before you're put into any immediate danger. It'll be okay soon, though." Shane explained. Immediate danger? What was that supposed to mean?

Something was telling me that they hadn't found her body. Something was telling me that much worse was coming—and my instincts proved to be correct.

Dad pulled himself together, just for a second, before tears began rolling down his cheeks again. "Yeah," he sniffed. "Of course. He has to know this. To keep him safe." He mumbled to himself.

By that time, anxiety was eating away at me. I just wanted to know what they were talking about. "Well, if you're actually planning on saying something, say it already, will you?" I asked, feeling slightly agitated.

"Well, Cyrus," Shane said, trying to find his words. "You can't be angry when we tell you this." I groaned. "When mom went missing," he began slowly. "We all knew she'd be coming back. That's why I wasn't super worried when she left." He told me.

I'd heard that story before. Shane wasn't worried when mom left—the full story was more of a drag, though, even if I didn't remember all of it. I just had bits and pieces in my head, but maybe it was better off that way.

Mom had come into my bedroom late at night with dad. "Sweetheart," a vague voice drifted over to me in the darkness. I knew it wasn't my mom's voice—it was mine, because I couldn't remember hers. My mom had a soft voice, and I sounded like a plagued-with-puberty adolescent.