Ultimanium | Trials of the Guard [book one]

1 | When Dad Died

One year ago, Dad died.

He had come home a bit pale. He said he was fine, but Mom was still worried. She didn't stop checking on him the whole time he stayed. Then he left again, back to work, at the Guard. But... he came back, not even a week later. He almost collapsed at the front door, with Vander barely able to hold him up.

His skin was so pale, paler than Vander's. He was almost white like paper. His ankle was all swollen and black. And the blackness soon spread all over his leg. He couldn't walk anywhere a day or two after he returned. Doctors said it was poison, and promised they'd come back with a cure.

Dad was given a special room in the hospital, and nobody except family and the doctors were allowed to visit. Mom visited the most. She left me and Pet at home. Often, she came home with her head cast down, and would shake her head whenever I and Pet asked her if Dad was going to be alright. Vander left to the Guard, working double time so our financial situation wouldn't worsen. Mom went back to working as a part-time cook at her friend's old restaurant.

I visited Dad once. He was cheerful, even though the blackness kept spreading upward on his leg. Even though he was in pain, and coughed a lot. He smiled often, and we talked to each other as if nothing had ever happened. The only time he had a grim face was when Vander came, and he said that I should go out.

"Private talk," my Dad said. So I let them talk. And they talked for hours.

Mom and Dad's friends came to visit. Dad's friends, some who worked at the Guard with him, were happy like Dad, because they believed he'd get better. They talked encouragingly and laughed together. Only one or two had a solemn expression.

Mom's friends were less enthusiastic. But they comforted Mom just the same. Mom's best friend was the fiercest of the bunch. She kept coming again and again, and even brought stuff for us. She talked to me and Pet, grinning widely and saying: "Don't worry, kids, he'll be back home. Your father's a strong man after all!" And then she'd tap me on the nose like I was still five years old.

I believed her, and so did Pet.

I clung to that belief so much, like it was the last branch before I'd fall endlessly down the cliff. I believed it so much, it wasn't possible it wouldn't be true.

But in the end, it was all just fantasy thinking.

Dad died the next month.

He was gone.

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"Chin up, Alec." Mom raised my head. She spun me around to the mirror and fixed my long hair. I stared blankly at the mirror. Hazel green eyes staring back at each other through the sheet of reflective glass. I saw Mom combing out tangles from my hair, eyes puffed just slightly from crying last night. Her face was worn and tired from having to work at the office 24/7, and even overtime.