The Darkest Moments

The younger years where so much simpler. Most of the time it was the parents and the children, living in a middle sized home with a dog and a turtle. The happy life. It was sort of like that for us until I reached the age of nine.

I was only nine.

My two older brothers, Damian and Luke, who were both eleven, had been taken first about a month a head of me when they turned twelve. A month after, I meet my destiny.

It was a bright day in North Shore. I know, the name is somewhat ironic, considering I lived in sunny, south Florida. My mum was out in the yard picking some of her famous and miraculous “strawberries” and I was out in the yard waiting for my best friend, Sloan Harper. We were so different, but had so much in common that we had become best friends the moment we met in first grade. He had dark blond hair and sort of slanted eyes that nearly closed with his big, crooked smile. I, on the other hand at my young age, had plain brown hair that was wavy in some parts and plain brown eyes. There wasn’t really anything special about me except that I was relatively short for my age and that I had golden skin while Sloan’s was pale. But we had so much in common it was crazy, and I knew it was because we grew up together.

After five minutes of waiting, I headed into the house to grab some of the juice my mom had made with the fruit we grew in our backyard. The clear picture the juice was in made my head look weird, as though I was standing in front of a silly mirror. The pinkish red juice that my family and Sloan loved so much slid down my throat as I contemplated where my best friend actually was. And then I thought about where my brothers really were. About a month before, my brothers went to “Summer Camp.” Of course it didn’t really make sense to me because first of all, we never did those kinds of things and secondly because it was still early May. No “Summer Camp” starts that early and lasts for a whole month. It was a simple, no-questions-asked fact.

My parents begged to differ my points.

Just as the last of the juice dripped from the bottom of the cup to my mouth, I heard and felt a rumbling. What was that? Both grew, the sound louder and ringing in my ears and the earth making me grab onto the counter for dear life. Plates with strange symbols fell out of the cabinets and glass cups clattered to the floor, shattering all around me. I couldn’t keep myself from getting cut by the glass and sliding out of the kitchen so I slowly crawled under the kitchen table during all the chaos. What seemed like a sonic boom stopped the ringing, the earth from shaking from its reign of terror, probably two minutes. The silence was eerie and I was scared half to death that something had happened to my mum, instead of my own well being. I felt blood slowly coming down the side of my forehead and there was a throbbing in my left arm but I ignored it to get up and search for my mother.

“Mummy!” I screamed. (What? I was only nine!) There was more silence for a second. Then there was an unmistakable laughter. Mum’s laughter.

I ran out through the sliding glass window to find my mother hugging two men her age, around thirty-eight, and laughing. The two strangers had huge smiles as well as my mom which made me confused. The town I lived in was small and everyone knew everyone, or at least knew that they were alive. Who were these men?

“Come over here sweetie. Oh, I thought you weren’t going to get this opportunity.” She squealed and signaled me over to her where she was trying to wipe the dirt off herself; mom probably fell during the rumbling. I shuffled over a bit to her but hid about half of my body behind her, shy about the strangers. “This is Chief and Rodney. They’re here to take you where your brothers went! Say hi.” I whimpered a ‘hi’ and clung to the side of my mum.

“Hi Everett. I haven’t seen you since you were born.” Said ‘Chief’ with a cheery smile. I decided then that I liked Chief because he smiled at me and because his voice wasn’t deep and rough like other scary strangers but just right- soft and smooth. When Rodney greeted me as well with a nice voice alike Chief’s, I ran over to the two and shook both of their hands and smiled up at them. There soft chuckles floated from their mouths to my ears which made me giggle a bit. (I’m still nine.)

“We gotta go, Joana, or we won’t make it before night.” Chief explained as he reached our for my hand once again. Where was I actually going? For how long?

Suddenly at the explanation, my mum burst out crying and held onto me. I looked at her confused. Why would she cry when moments before she was laughing, joy in her eyes.

“Everett, honey, you have to realize that this is the last time you’ll see me for a while.” At this, I pouted and started to cry like the nine year old I was. I had always been close to my mom, a part of why most people thought I was a bit girlie. She was there when everyone wasn’t, not even Sloan! What would I do without her. My mum spoke up again.

“Don’t worry about me, you’re a great young man. You can make new friends and learn new things. It’ll be fun.” I started to cry even more. What about Sloan? My best friend.

“Mummy, I don’t want to leave you and daddy and Sloan. I want to stay here.”

“Everett, I have to explain something to you. When you were one and the boys were three, we moved from somewhere. . . different.” Mum explained while whipping up her own tears as well as mine.

“. . . No, we’ve always lived in Florida. That’s what you and daddy have always told me.”

“Sweetie, just listen until I’m finished. We moved from a place called Ataielen Island. Your dad and I had special jobs to protect people around the world. That’s where we meet.” She paused to smile at the memory and then continued. “Anyway, we were the best of the best, Everett. Everyone looked up to us. And then we had your brothers and I had to settle for a bit. Chief, here had to train a new person to do my special job. Two years later, I had you. By then your brothers were toddlers and the person they trained to do my job had perfected it. Because of this, I decided to retire from it and your dad did as well, do you understand? That’s when we moved to Florida. Now, you get to have a special job but you have to be trained first and it takes a really long time Everett.  A really long time.”

I stood silent for a moment, my mother’s eyes glistening from her remaining tears as mine probably did. I thought about it for a second. If my mum really wanted me to do this, then I would. On one condition.

“Can I take Sloan with me?” The three grown-ups began to laugh.

“Sloan had to stay here with his family. Besides Chief and Rodney are going to take you right now to your new home. I’ll see you in two years sweetie.” She wiped the last few tears from my face and kissed the top of my head before walking away from us and into the kitchen. Through the sliding glass door, I saw that she was taking cover under the kitchen table and I laughed a sad laugh.

“Come on, Everett. We’ll clean those cuts up and it’ll all get better. You can even meet my son Jake tomorrow morning. I’m sure you’ll be great friends.” Rodney said trying to cheer me up. I nodded and walked behind them, still upset. Where my house met the sand and the sand met the beach, a car floated in the air, obviously where the large rumbling came from. Before I got on I look back to my mom. “Sloan’s supposed to come today!

What is he going to think when I leave?”

“Don’t worry I’ll tell him something.” My mom yelled back. Just at that moment, I can see Sloan in the distance, running to a hang out that will never happen. The last time I saw him.

Cautiously, I stepped into the car with the help of Chief and thought. Chief then closed my door and got in the front seat next to Rodney who was starting up the hovering car. As the rumbling and shaking started again as we rose higher in the sky, I looked down to a wobbling Sloan and my teary mother. I touched the window, as if to remember the two most important people in my life and whispered, “Two more years.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey! This is a really special story to me. It's the second one I've ever written but never published it. This is also a remake. The first draft of this story was boyxgirl. This one is boyxboy. I'm refraining from writing boyxboy in the title until I pick up the writing in the Summer. I hope you guys enjoy this story!

If you like it so far make sure to vote and comment on what you thought. Anything you want to tell me to improve my writing, please write! Thanks a ton for reading.

Vote, Comment, and Fan me!

-CrazedWriter