The Doll That Saved Team Crafted

Chapter Seven

"........... and now I'm all alone"

     People had stopped coming to the great manor house after the revered Team Crafted disbanded. No one had the nerve to disturb the land, either. So the wooden structure sat silent, collecting dust. It had usually been empty anyway while the residents were traveling through the land. This was a different type of empty, though. Windows covered in dirt, walls creaking and groaning, dust gathering on the barely walked upon floors. But not quite empty.

     One soul still lingers in the manor. The closet one to the fallen leader. He refuses to leave, believing that Sky will still come back. That he'll come back for him. With a stained T-shirt and headphones dully glowing, Ty Lox of Team Crafted still remains in the old home of the heros. It didn't seem right to him to abandon the one place where he felt like he belonged. Ty never spoke a word of his past to anyone, not even Sky. He's sure that the others may have found it strange, but Ty had his reasons. He likes to think of Sky as his savior, pulling him from the brink of darkness. Wouldn't you mourn the loss of someone like that?

     I don't know how long it's been. I've tried to get over it. I tell myself every day that the 'glory days' are over, but that doesn't stop the ache in my chest. I have nowhere to go, besides here. Do people even  remember that I exist? Perhaps they think I followed Adam. Maybe I should have. Everyone left. Jason was the first, just because of the growing tension in the house. He never did like stressful arguments. Ian followed soon after. You could practically see the bloodlust in his eyes. Mitch and Jerome then left, but they themselves had fallen to fighting with each other. Quinten left a week after. It hurt to watch everyone slowly fall apart. I guess it was a fool's hope to 'make a better world' like Adam always wanted. I clutch a wooden doll in my hands as my thoughts scream.

     He started with me. I was a nobody. Just another child orphaned in the soon to be ending wars. I was only eleven when I met Adam. A year older then me, and seeing the good in everything and everyone. He could of asked anyone in that village, but he asked me. "Do you want to go an adventure? I'm going to make a better world! Will you come with me when I get older?", he said with a smile as bright as the sun, "What's your name, by the way?". His blind trust is what won the hearts of the people. Everyone who met Adam, felt like his friend.

     I was jealous for a time after Adam gave the same invitation to Ian. But I soon felt just as close to Ian as well. He insisted on us all having nicknames. Mine was Deadlox, Adam called himself Sky. He called Ian Ssunndee. "We're like cool ninjas with secret identities!". Then came TruMu, Bajan and ASF (Awesome. Super. Furry Thing), Fish (he hated it), and Seto (he never told us his real name, not wanting to carry part of his past).

      My makeshift family. That's what we were. They were my brothers and my parents. My friends and playful rivals. I don't think people realized how close we really were. They just saw us as a team of kids trying to clean up after the war our parents started. Even with that, we were succeeding. The continent was healing. GoldenEye was knitting itself back into a kingdom, even without a king. Some people wanted Adam to rule. He wanted nothing of the sort. "How about everyone rules?" He would suggest with an excited smile, light shining behind his eyes. Adam was like an Angel; a temporary being sent to help fix an issue. But if that's the case, and the remaining seven of us were meant to finish the task.....

     I can't bear the thought. I shove myself to my feet, my legs momentarily weak at my sudden movement. I walk over to a window in the hallway. Gazing at the forest around me really makes me feel alone. No one comes anymore. People did at first, but they would never come inside. No one knows that I'm still here. I only leave every now and then to hunt. A long time ago, Jason built a system to collect rain water. Quinten made a sort of 'explosive reactor' to heat the house, so we didn't have to keep cutting wood for the many fireplaces in the manor. I set the little doll down next to a vase as I can injections through the house.

I still feed Ian's chicken and cows that he kept in pens behind the house. Mitch't target practice room has been empty for a long time. A spare bow fell off its hook and scared me half to death the other day. Jerome was trying to figure out how to grow fruit trees in the front yard. His frustrated claw marks are still faintly in the bark of a few. As soon as he decided to hate plants, the trees started to thrive. He chopped down one with his axe in revenge. I sometimes sit on the stump and stare into the trees. I can't see it from here. I must sound like such a rung-out trash bag, with all of these demons in my head.

I sigh before leaving the window. Dust lines the corners of walls, doorknobs to bedrooms, and any decoration in sight. Dust could never gather with how much running around the eight of used to do. It would literally sound like thunder at times, with all of us charging up the stairs. It's probably a good thing we never had neighbors. I know walk down those same stairs, some creaking being the only sound that marks my passage.

I miss the noise. I miss hearing sound from every direction in the house. I miss the times with all of us bundled in the dining room with hot chocolate on a cold day. Mitch tried to use Jerome as a blanket, once. Jason used the laser in his suit as arm warmers. Adam flopped on top of his arms and wouldn't move. I sat and laughed at it all, Seto reading in a corner. Ian would came stumbling in, two small cakes balanced on each arm. Quinten grabbed one when it fell, scolding Ian for not asking for help. Adam suddenly jumped up and grabbed the cake, running away as the rest of us chased him. Ian and Seto sit at the table eating cake from one of the other three. Tears are dripping from my face before I can stop them. I'm now standing in the foyer, thinking about when we first decided to build this place. Somewhere for us to relax and call home. A place that we could always return to after long months of travel.

      A sudden sound catches my attention. I wait a minute to make sure that I'm not imagining it. It's two voices now. I'm frozen for a moment, before I force my legs to move and take me to the nearest window. Two figures are outside in the fading sunlight, facing each other. I blink, and they're suddenly hugging each other. A small smile appears on my face as I turn towards the door. I fling it open and step outside.

     Thank you for not forgetting what we use to stand for.