Prologue

“Quiet,” he said.
His light breath swirled in a still and foggy mist around my face. Brown eyes, clouded in fear stared back at me, causing my own eyes to well up with cold salty tears. The fear I felt in these tense moments was unremarkably real, and crippling. My only brother, Michael, was leaving for the war. It was the war of the world, horrible, terrifying, and a death sentence for almost anyone who went.
This should never have happened to him. Of all the people that could have gone off to war, why was he chosen to go, to lead troops to a quest of freedom? It was a fool’s errand, a stupid child’s quest. I couldn’t understand why he was picked, out of all the people in the world, or why he even wanted to go.
We had begged him to run from the war and forget about retribution, but his honor, irrational honor, told him that he had to go and fight to free our people. So now my family, or what was left of it, was seeing him off, and probably forever.
He was being escorted by three other soldiers. They were unmistakably rugged and tired souls judging by their face, with cold cavernous eyes and blank emotionless expressions. The war was draining them, and why wouldn’t it? Everyone knew it would never accomplish what we sought. But still, they were here and they were leaving tonight. I had only moments left with my brother.
The roaring of the helicopter blades was deafening. The sky seemed to scream in pain with each ground shaking blow of thunder. My heart, a lump in my throat, thudded through the pounding rain. Our fear only intensified our rushing pulses. As the lightning pulsed in the sky I could see his strong form silhouetted against the sky. Black hair was thickly matted into wet clumps and eyes trailed desperately for words he couldn’t find. I tried to memorize his face. Eyes, lips, cheeks, however I could imprint him in my mind for the dark moments his absence in my life would bring me. His dark tan skin glistened with raindrops. I was like a beacon of light next to him. I was paler than the moon.
My mind slowly set to the knowledge that he was leaving me. I would be alone. I would be completely and utterly and uselessly on my own. That is until he came back, if he came back. I tried desperately to keep my hopes up, but, hope was gone. Nothing would prevent him from leaving me. Unless the chopper spontaneously combusted, I would be alone.
He grabbed me by the shoulders and held me steady in front of him. His eyes pierced my soul with a fierce and fiery passion I had never seen before. It nearly frightened me but I was so scared already that nothing else could induce fear. I moved toward him for a hug but he held me firmly there still staring back at me.
“I give you the call,” his short black hair blew in the wind. My hair hung down like blond strings, soaked from the rain, “find out the truth, and escape. Don’t let him win,-” He was cut off by tears and the men pulling him away from me towards the roaring helicopter.
My mind tried to wrap around what he had just said. A man grabbed his arm and screamed something that I couldn’t understand, but I knew his purpose. He was taking my brother away.
My last moments with him had come. I uttered a quick prayer for his safe return. As my mother pulled me from behind I screamed out for him, but I was drowned out by the helicopter blades incessant roaring He was hunched over as he entered the chopper.
His eyes met mine for an instant and I slowly mouthed to him I love you. Then he was gone. The doors slammed closed and the blackness of the night embraced my body. The helicopter lifted from the ground and just like that he disappeared. My heart reached out to him, straining desperately to find him. I prayed he would return home one day. I knew in my heart that it would be the last time I would ever see him.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.01.2011

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