The Age of Terror

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Brewing Chaos

"Allie, get your ass over here, I need a hand." Alec beckoned me from the house, irritation flooded me, I had just sat down and already he was too incompetent to manage a simple task like picking raspberries. I weighed out my options and decided that ignoring him was my more beneficial choice.

I laid back on the grass and soaked up the new spring sun, today was what I would commonly refer to as a perfect day, probably about 30°C, and a slight breeze that brought refreshment whenever the sun beam was too strong.

"Alisha, get up and help your brother, you know he'll pick all the unripe berries." My Pa's voice broke the peaceful silence that I longed. I sighed and got up, heading towards Alec, who was standing in the garden, looking baffled. I rolled my eyes and looked over at the house, merely meters from my brother, it stood at two stories high, an isolated castle of mud-brick against the soft glow of the land, with large double paneled windows and a beautiful stain glass door, 116 acres of pure bliss. 

"If you stare at that fruit any harder, your brain will explode." I exclaimed loudly as I approached him, making sure Alec heard every word. He glared at me, his icy blue eyes piercing into me, a hint of playfulness glistened in the corner of them as he took a quick glance down at the over ripe raspberry in his hand. Without hesitation he threw the raspberry at my face which I just managed to dodge.

Thick laughter filled the air, we turned around and saw Pa standing by the gate, his glasses wobbled on his croaked nose as his laughter boomed. His hair was silver with small patches of brown which was clearly caused by age and his slightly tattered shirt's sleeves were rolled up above his elbows.

I smiled at Pa as he caught his breathe and adjusted his posture, his eyes shined with pain as his legs creaked from arthritis as he smiled weakly. I looked back to Alec who was staring down at the garden intensely, the vein in his forehead popping from concentration. I smirked, "what are you doing?" I said with slight sarcasm.

He looked up at me with irritation and annouced "I am looking for good berries, what else?" I rolled my eyes and bend down, catching a juicy berry in my sight, which I grabbed swiftly and popped it into my mouth teasingly as my brother stared. He tried to imitate my actions which resulted in his face scrunched up from a sour raspberry. This is why I normally pick the berries, but Pa wanted Alec to learn how to identify them, obviously the training wasn't going as smoothly as Pa was hoping.

The soft breeze grew and I smiled as I saw clouds begin to roll in and the smell of dew drifted in, indicating that a storm was coming tonight. Storms relax me, there is nothing better than sitting undercover, with a blanket, and a hot chocolate watching the rain fall and the lightening strike. I love warm days and cold nights, the balanced weather felt amazing to me, this truly was a perfect day.

As the sun sunk behind the hills, the wind roared loudly, tree branches knocking roughly against the windows, the static from the tv pierced my ears. Alec sat on the edge of the couch, arms crossed, he wore a mask of irritation as Pa flicked through the channels, the sound of static restarting continuously. I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs, my head felt heavy so I closed my eyes, trying to drown out the sound of annoyance.

"Just give up Pa, we'll listen to the news on the radio." Alec grumbled.

Pa sighed in defeat and switched off the television, he stood up wobbly, cringing from pain, the arthritis in his ankles must be increasing. I sat in the warmth of the lightly lit fireplace, guilt slowly seeped in as I watched Pa hobble over to the radio, and saw Alec completely unfazed by the limping elder going out of his way in order to make his grandson happy.