-Missing Pieces-
My parents were finally given an answer when I was eight years old. Dad was right, and know that we knew Mom was acting a lot different.
Childhood schizophrenia.
It's almost unheard of. It's so rare you're more likely to find a unicorn having lunch with Santa in your bedroom then be diagnosed with it.
Mom wouldn't let me go back to school after what I saw on the bus. She said it was just too much stress for me. School wouldn't help me right now, she said I needed special attention. Mom would tell me that I couldn't go to school with Nick because of my special powers.
She taught school me at home, in our living room. I liked having Mom as my teacher. We would go outside more, and I was starting to meet more kids my age.
My Parents were always trying to keep Evelyn and Cashmere away. Getting me to do things like color and play outside with my brother. Even with all of the distractions the cats didn't stay away for long. They never really did leave, they still haven't to this day, they grew up with me, they became a part of me. Nothing could tear the three of us apart.
Mom and I would hang out and make things in the kitchen while Dad and Nick were gone. She was a lot nicer, and didn't get as upset about the way I acted anymore. The arguing between my parents subsided to an almost complete stop. That was my favorite part of the diagnosis.
At the age of nine years old I began to understand what was really going on. Why I was different from the other kids and what made people afraid of me. I started to realize that it was super powers I possessed, it was something else that possessed me.
Reading became one of my favorite pass times, Mom taught me to read fluently before I was six. I remember the excitement rushing through my veins when I found that old copy of the classic Alice In Wonderland at a homeless shelter downtown. I was five years old and there with mom while she volunteered to help raise money for the place. Being intrigued by the detailed pictures I instantly fell in love. I wouldn't but it down, I knew it was wrong at the time, but when it was time to go I slipped the book under my jacket and took it home with me.
I later confessed this to Mom, who laughed and grinned not sure what to do about the situation. After apologizing for days she finally convinced me that the book wouldn't be missed. She taught me how to read with this book, I finished it that summer. I've read that book over a dozen times now, I could probably recite it by heart if you asked me too.
The was the start of my reading addiction. Ever since I was little I had loved reading. I thought maybe entering the worlds in my novels, I might be able to find a passage into Setainia with Cashmere and Evelyn. But that wasn't going to happen for a while.
I didn't get my books from the library, because I was afraid someone would track my finger prints off the pages. I bought all my books from used book stores or thrift shops. This scared me a little, not knowing where the books were coming from; but they were always the cheapest at those places.
My books and I had a special relationship, I would read anything that was recommended, even if I didn't like it even half way into it. I could finish the stories so fast that I would read books I hated just to have something to read. James always had the best recommendations. I liked that about him. Dad would take me to get a stack of new books once a month. When I was waiting for a new book I would read back over the old ones, mostly the Alice In Wonderland story.
"Uhg" I growled picking up my newest read from the kitchen table.
"What is it sweetheart?" Mom cooed from the stove. I wasn't sure what she was making but it's delicious aroma filled the entire downstairs.
I fanned out the paged of my book and pointed to the various bite marks along the pages. "Corners got to it again." Corners was a rat that lived in Setania with Cashmere. He had earned his name because of the fact that he was always munching on the pages of my books. The corners were his favorite.
"It doesn't look like he got to any of the print dear, it's still readable." Mom smiled pretending to see my delusion.
Cursing him under my breath I sighed heavily and drug my feet to the couch. Plopping in a heap I began to lose myself in my book. I could block anything out whilst absorbing the print like a sponge. I had read for what seemed like forever (but was only three chapters) by the time Nick had gotten home from school.
Today Nick would be turning fourteen, being two and half years younger that made me eleven. Mom was busy in the kitchen getting ready for Nick's party was starting in just a few hours. I completed my school work due to my nerves with my dread of the night. My stomach felt uneasy with the thought of having a house full of Nick's rowdy, teenage friends.
As he and James passed me from behind the couch, Nick reached over plucking the hardcover from my hands. "You know, I think it's possible to die from reading too much." he snorted continuing on into the kitchen where he dropped my book on the counter top. Huffing out my nostrils I rolled off the sofa to retrieve my book.
"Nick, be nice to him." Mom said handing me the story back. Pointing towards the backdoor she began rattling off instructions of how the backyard should look for the party tonight. The two boys then made their way to the backyard with very little enthusiasm in their step.
I sat up the bar with my nose still buried in the words of the pages. Mom was trying to pull my attention up for just a second by talking about Dad, but she wasn't going to win this battle. I was so taken in with my story that I blocked her out and I nodded not caring.
Seven chapters later a few of Nick's friends had shown up and they were all in the living room playing on the Xbox when Dad came and ran his knuckle across the bead-board of my bedroom door. "What do you say me and you get out of here before this place goes up in smoke." He had a smirk drawn up on his lips hinted with a laugh.
I nodded setting my Batman bookmark in it's new place. Eager to spend some time with my dad I stuffed on my shoes and rushed down the stairs. Only to slam right into a boy with blond hair and a disgusted look in his eyes. He looked terrifying, he looked like someone I didn't want anything to do with.
Slowly backing away I crept over to my dad who was standing by the large wooden front door. "Have fun boys!" Mom called after us as I pulled the heavy door shut.
Dad and I went to Red Robin for a burger and then down to the movie theater for a show. It had been a while since me and Dad had hung out just the two of us, but Dad seemed a little off. I knew he was busy at with work so I figured it had something to do with that. We decided to call it a night after the movie and go back home. It was late anyways so I didn't mind.
When we got back home everyone was out back throwing a football around. Mom was still in the kitchen, only this time she was cleaning up. "Hey," she greeted me with a smile and Dad with a hug, complimented with a kiss. "How was your night?" I let Dad take that one and staggered upstairs to finish my book. I had five chapters left and I intended on finishing it before I fell asleep tonight.
Later that night things were getting out of hand. Cashmere kept walking across my chest and Evelyn wouldn't stop nudging my face with her nose. I just wanted to read but that wasn't going to happen. I was going crazy with them mauling me like this. This would happen when I would stay up too late like this. Mom would give me green pills every morning, they scared Cashmere, Evelyn, and everyone that lived in Setainia. The pills would make them hide and I wouldn't see the as often.
In the beginning I didn't care. But after a while I would realize what was really happening when I took the pills; and I didn't like that.
The days seemed to drag out after this, when I didn't have the cats to chase around I didn't really have anything. I still read a lot, and I would fill sketch books with creatures and monsters I had seen before the pills.
Nick and I still shared a room, he used to get frustrated with my stacks of books around the bed but he knew I couldn't get rid of them. He was always asking for his own room, mom said for his next birthday they would remodel the guest bedroom for him. I was really scared to be alone though, so I continuously begged him to stay on the top bunk.
He still was the toughest kid around, he never cried, and he was always standing up for me. But just as when we were younger, there was an exception. He had only one fear, a fear of being hurt. Now don't get me wrong, Nick would jump his bike off the highest ramps and accept any dare he was given. It was physical pain he was afraid of, it was heart ache, and mental scaring that scared him.
When I was twelve years and five days old my views on the world changed drastically.
I was becoming more familiar with the human race and I was starting to see the evil in this world. I never could understand this type of evil until it attacked my family though. I thought this form of evil only existed in the TV shows and bad neighborhoods. I didn't think that anything so strong could know our family down.
One Friday Nick was supposed to walk to baseball practice after school with James and then come home. Like they did every Friday. But this Friday he didn't come home at his usual time. Mom figured he was just running late and didn't think anything of it, when it started to get dark she worried. Dad suggested maybe he went to James's house instead of coming home. But Mom knew better.
Nick was a smart kid, he would have called or dropped by. He knew better than to make Mom worry like that.
Mom sat up in the living room all night that night waiting. She had made calls to all of Nick's friends parents and multiple calls to Amber and Tyler to see if he was there. The scariest part was that James was missing too. So where ever they were, they were together.
"Nick isn't scared of anything." I told Mom rubbing my hand up and down the back of her t-shirt. "He won't get hurt. He's a smart kid."
Nick was still playing baseball, his coach had remained the same with all the years. He was a father of one of his teammates. I knew that James and my brother were his two favorite players but I didn't think to connect anything to it. Nick hadn't said anything about his coach acting odd since we were kids, I had no idea he was just hiding it from all of us.
Nick never did tell Mom or Dad what he told me that night when we were younger. I didn't want to tell a secret that wasn't mine so I just kept quiet about the whole thing. He and I had a very special bond I always thought. We confided in each other a lot. He knew all about Setainia, everything there was to know. Sometimes I thought maybe he could see it too.
But from what I could remember about or recent late night confessions I didn't remember anything of his coach. He told me he didn't want to play ball next year though, he said this would be his last year. Him and James would both be quitting. But that was all he ever said about it.
Mom didn't sleep for three days while we were looking for him. Dad insisted he was just out being a stupid teenager and wouldn't let her file a missing persons report until after one night. She wouldn't sleep while he was gone, she sat up on the couch waiting for him to come home. She would sometimes go driving around the neighborhood as if she were looking for him. Maybe she thought she would find him walking home.
Sometimes I think to myself, what it is that makes people do such bad things to kids. We're not always asking for it, sometimes people just get caught up in bad luck.
Sometimes life isn't fair, and sometimes people get mixed up in the wrong things.
Sometimes people who don't even know you, take a piece of your family away because they needed to relieve the stress of a bad marriage.
Life isn't always fair. This is where I learned this.
Mom waited another four days for a phone call, she would stay up on engery drinks and coffee. She was terrified if she slept she would miss the phone call to tell us where he was.
Seven sleepless nights.
One hundred sixty-eight uncertain, heart wrenching, hours. We waited for a call.
Just to know where he was. That was all she wanted. She wanted to know he was alive, or just that he was ditched in a gutter somewhere.
"What did we do to deserve this?!?" Mom screamed from downstairs. "Who would do this to us Kaden!?!" Dad never knew how to answer her shouts. He would always just stare at the ground whenever he got yelled out. He hated raised voices more than anything. Her voice calmed as she shook her head and fell into his chest. "I just want my baby boy back." This is when she would break out in sobs and Dad would hold her close swaying back and forth very, very, slowly.
He did this whenever Mom was upset. He knew exactly how to calm anyone down, he was always good with helping people out of a slump.
Resting his sturdy chin on mothers delicate shoulder I could see the sorrow and darkness that lurked in him as well. I didn't like being alone like this, we were missing a chunk of our family and it was showing apparent, that we were not a family without Nick.
I had been sleeping in Mom and Dad's room since Nick was gone. I didn't mind sleeping upstairs alone but Mom insisted I stayed on the main floor with my parents.
Dad told me to do as she said without question and be on my best behavior while Nick was gone. He told me that I needed to be strong from Mom, I needed to be the though one now; to help Mom no worry as much.
After another three days no one would say it out loud, but I knew we were starting to lose hope. He was gone... My brother had been taken, and we had no idea where he had gone.
Just the security of knowing he was dead would be enough now.
It was not knowing that was killing us all.
Dad got the weeks off work to stay home with Mom and me. Mom wasn't seeing her usual clients, she told them she needed some time to get caught up with family stuff.
I remember being woken up by Dad shaking my shoulder. He rushed into the bathroom before I could ask him why he was waking me. Mom handed me my jacket and some slippers before grabbing my wrist and pulling me outside.
In a confused daze I tried rubbing the sleep from eyes. "Where are we going?" I asked looking up at Dad as we pulled away from the house.
"To the hospital, they found Nick." Was all he said. But it was all I needed. I was going to see my brother again, he was going to be okay.
Only twelve years and twenty-two days old, my life was about to shape shift before my eyes.
-Author's Note: Hi guys, I don't normally like to leave AN's but I think this is important. So I know it has been a very long time since i have updated. But allow me too explain. My foster mother is in the hospital, she is suffering from a very terrible illness and she is dying... I've been visiting her often, and reading my writing too her, she loves to hear my stories. She is a very big part of my life so it's been pretty hard on me.
Wattpad always shuts down on me at exactly 2:36 EVERY NIGHT so I have lost large chunks of this chapter many times.
But it's finally up, and I swear, I will try my hardest to get back in the grove of updating every few days. Thank you so much for reading, I swearing seeing this story blossom only boosts my mood. I love writing so much so it's just amazing to see people actually like my style :')
Also... it's almost 5 AM here, so I didn't edit this in full, I will get to it though I promise I just am gonna go to bed but I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer so yeah... haha I really hope you liked it and be expecting an update very soon :)
Thank you <3