Those we lost (work in progress)

 

Prologue 

    

With there barely enough light to see three feet in front of you, the bedroom seemed like a dreary place.  The walls were lined with shelves filled with books and games, but it was merely a dark blob in the moonless night.  A cold breeze sifted through the room through the window.  At the window there stood a man, hands gripping tightly on the window sill.  The only sounds in the room were a deep inhale, and a long exhale.  The cold air entered his body, and with it came peace of mind.

 

    Chris looked back to the only light source in the room, his laptop.  Feet seeming to move on their own, he slowly made his way back to the laptop.   He must now go back to his work and finish what he started.  He must finish the story that shaped his life and made him who he is.  This story isn’t necessarily his, however.  His story is a story of survival, he was fortunate.  He must tell the story of the unfortunate, he must tell the story of his brothers and sisters whose names the world has long since forgotten.  

 

    Chapter 1

    

    Damien awoke before the sun, sitting up in bed he looked around the dark, sparsely furnished room. Staring at the four beds in the boy’s room, everything seemed normal.  Every one of the boys was in the middle of a restful sleep (excluding Damien).  Everything seemed fine at first glance, but Damien knew there was something wrong.  He couldn’t quite remember what but something had happened over the past week.  Trying to remember, Damien looked out the window and into the woods.  The woods spanned several miles and seemed to never end.  Looking out into the woods the memories that Damien had forgotten had slowly started coming back to him.  

 

    He remembered Sarah, he remembered spending most of last week scouring the woods for her, and worst of all, he remembered Papa’s words, “It’s already been a week, we're not going to find her.” 

 

    These memories came to Damien all at once, and they began to weigh on him, he dropped his face into the pillow and cried.  Pressing his face firmly on the pillow, breathing became difficult, but he couldn’t let anyone hear him.  As the shock of these memories died, the crying died with it.  His attempts to stifle his cries were successful, everyone remained asleep.  Now staring at the ceiling he wondered what he would do next.  

 

    The woods surrounding the home were as expansive as any, and there could have been no way they'd searched all of it.  There had to be even one small stretch of land where they have yet to search.  Thinking about this he remembered there was a place that remained unsearched.  

He now remembered their heavy boots making a loud crunching sound in the snow, Papa and all of his Brothers were calling Sarah’s name.  It’s strange how he seemed to remember such small details about that day.  as his eye's focused, Damien scanned the woods looking for any sign of Sara, all while frantically calling her name.  Searching the woods Damien thought about how easy it was to get lost in these woods, he could understand how Reina could have gotten lost in them.

While Damien was thinking about this a firm hand suddenly grasped his shoulder, he turned around to find that it was Papa.  “We shouldn’t go any further, it’s easy to get lost in these woods.”

There was a look of hurt on Damien’s face, “ but we need to find her.”

“And who will find her if we get lost as well,” his voice was getting stern.

Now one of Damien’s brothers, Randolph, stepped forward, “But who will find her if we don’t look.”

“That is enough!” Papa screamed.  “It is bad enough that one of you is lost and I will not risk losing any more.”

Randolph took a step back and Damien lowered his head.  Stan, who was also with the small search party, stayed silent.

“Look, I’m sorry for yelling,” Papa continued.  “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to you”

Stan was the first to break the awkward silence,  “Maybe we should go to the police.”  He said in his quiet voice.

 

“You know we can’t do that,” Papa replied, his voice on the edge of tears.   “If we go to them they will take you all away from me.  I can’t let them take you.” 

When they saw the look of hurt on his face the three boys walked home in silence.  They walked back home.  They walked home where Reina now sat babysitting Chris.  They walked home to a place of memories.  They walked home to a place without Reina.

Chapter 2 

 

    With these memories, one thought process lead to another, and Damien was soon preparing to set out into the woods.  Under normal circumstances, Damien would not have done such a thing, but circumstances were not normal.  He moved through the room as silently as a mouse but as swift as a hair.  Putting on the shoes he had trouble with the laces, his hands were badly shaking in anticipation of what he was about to do.  He had never before defied the orders of Papa, and he had never gone past a certain point in the woods.  But there was only one place he had yet to look, and he was determined to go there.

    Within minutes he was slowly lifting up the window, praying to whatever god that may exist, that the window would not make any noise.  The window opened silently.  Climbing out of the window feet first, he landed in the crunchy snow.  After taking one last glance behind him to make sure nobody had woken up, he set out into the woods.  Within minutes he was surrounded by endless trees.  Looking back he could no longer see his home, now feeling at a safe enough distance from the house, he turned on his flashlight.

    The dark path ahead of him was suddenly illuminated by a great blast of light.  Damien now felt like he could see past the edge of the earth, but even this did not slow the paranoia going through his mind.  A million thoughts went through his head, what would happen if Papa found out what he was doing?  What if he found Sarah?  Or worse, what if he found Sarah’s corpse? 

    He also wondered what would happen if something bad happened out in these woods.  What if he was attacked by a wild animal?  Or what if he got lost just as Sarah had?  With these thoughts came paranoia, which seemed to grow and grow with every passing minute.  Not a single minute passed by where he wasn’t looking over his shoulder and shining his flashlight every witch way.

    Within thirty minutes of incessantly looking over his shoulder, he realized he was at the place where Papa had told them to go no farther.  He looked around him, the landscape seemed to be the same as it was a few minutes ago.  Trees as far as the eye could see (which wasn’t very far in the dark) along with snow spread out like a thick blanket.  The only thing setting this one spot out from the rest was a mark on a tree, made by Papa long ago to signify they must go no farther. 

    Before continuing Damien had a moment of slight hesitation.  He had never been past this point.  As far as he knew none of the others had ever been past this point.  But he knew that if Sarah was still out there, this would be where to find her. 

    Stepping past the marked tree he felt he was going past the point of no return.  There was a look of guilt on his face, he knew he had just defied Papa, something he has never done before.  The intense guilt running through his mind only served to make his paranoia worse.  It looked like his head was on a swivel, turning every which way, anticipating for Papa to come out of the shadows at any minute.  But of course, such a thought was ridiculous.  As far as he knew Papa was at home in bed.  But did you check?  No, he hadn’t checked, in his haste he had never even thought of it.

    Dammit, why didn’t I check?  Just while he was in the middle of chastising himself for his shortsightedness he heard a loud metallic noise.  Within a second Chris had turned off the flashlight and dropped to the ground.  Hands shaking, he peered ahead of him to search for any clue as to what that noise could have been.  A million thoughts ran through his head in the space of a second.  What was that loud noise, is someone out there, was it Sarah or Papa?  

    Then, through the darkness, he got a glimpse of a bright light seeming to come out of the ground.  The light bobbed up and down until eventually, something else came out of the ground too.  It was a person and a large one at that.  Damien had only seen one man as large as that, and that was Papa.  But it couldn’t be Papa, what would he be doing out there?  Damien could see the amnios figure slowly move towards him, the light in his hand bobbing and weaving in the darkness.

    As the silhouette moved closer and closer, Damien began to see the dark shape more clearly.  Soon he began to make out some small features of his face, and to Damien’s awful surprise, the figure did seem to be Papa.  Why is Papa here?  What is he doing?  These questions were soon overshadowed by another question.  What happens if I get caught?

Slowly and quietly he began to shimmy to the side in hopes of getting out of his path.  If Papa kept walking at his usual slow pace Damien should be able to clear out of his path.  Papa did continue to walk at his slow pace and Damien did manage to clear out of his path.  After Papa walked past Damien he watched him for at least ten minutes, seeing his light slowly fade into the darkness.

Soon Damien was again enveloped in darkness, with not a single light visible.  Damien stood up and began to walk towards where Papa seemed to emerge from the ground.  He had many questions in his mind, and the first thing he wanted to know was what Papa was doing.  He walked slowly.  Every footfall brought a loud crunch, which brought a new wave of anxiety. 

After such a scare he had been hesitant to turn on his flashlight, but seeing as he couldn’t even see a few feet ahead of him, he decided to risk it.  Within a second the ground ahead of him, which had been nothing but a dark blob was suddenly illuminated, and now he could see a hole in the ground.  Inching closer and closer to the hole he realized it wasn’t just a normal hole.  The edges were lined with concrete and there was a large case of concrete stairs leading down into the unknown.

Going against every nerve in his body, he began to make his descent.  His heart rate grew faster while his body grew slower.  With every step he took the echoes of his footfalls grew louder until the incessant noise was all that was left in Damien’s mind.  After what felt like an hour  Damien found himself in front of a large metal door with a spindle attached.  Taking one deep breath Damien set down his flashlight and put his hands on the cold wheel.  Using all of his strength Damien slowly began to move the wheel.  With every passing movement, the mechanism groaned and squealed until finally, there was a metallic click that sent vibrations through Damiens's hands.

Pulling back with all his might the door finally began to give way inch by inch, until finally, it was open.   Damien was greeted with a rancid odor, it is an odor Damien had encountered once before, when a cat was found under their home it emanated a similar stench.  It was the stench of death.  Shining the flashlight through the open door he could see a shelf lined with dozens upon dozens of canned goods and water.  Maybe this is where the smell came from, Damien thought.  But he knew even then that was foolish, this was clearly not the smell of rotting food.

Chapter 3

After pulling his jacket over his nose in an attempt to hide from the smell, he took one hesitant step into the cellar.  His attempt to hide from the smell was pointless as upon stepping in the smell only intensified, filling his nostrils despite the jacket.  There was nothing Damien would have loved more than to leave this place at once, but as his discomfort grew so did his curiosity. So, he took a few more steps in.

    Shining the flashlight around he could see that all the walls were lined with a plethora of nonperishable products like canned food and water.  He slowly hovered his flashlight across the room until caught a strange object on the floor.  It was a red, filthy blanket, but that wasn’t all.  It seemed like there was something under it.  Curiosity bigger than it ever had been, Damien took one hesitant step after another. He found himself standing directly in front of the strange lump on the ground. Realizing that the stench had only grown stronger it took every fiber in his being not to recoil at the pungent odor that invaded his nostrils.  

Letting his fingers gently touch the blanket, the crusty feeling made him recoil in disgust.  Damien, however, had no plans to let his disgust stop him.  Now in one swift movement, he grasped the blanket with his hand and threw it back.  The flashlight in Damien’s hand dropped to the ground as he recoiled in horror. It was the horror of the face he had been searching for, although you could hardly call it the same face.  The cheeks which were once so full of color and life  were now sunken and hollow.  The long black hair that once flew freely  now stood in greasy strands matted to the floor.  The legs that once stood proudly were now bruised and scarred by dozens of lacerations.

First, he took one step, then he took two steps, and then there came a dozen more as he ran out of the cellar at full sprint.  Once outside he ran, weaving between trees, dodging left and right.  The sun was beginning to rise, but Damien didn’t notice.  Several minutes of running brought him to his knees, gasping for breath the cold air began to hurt his lungs.

Hands and knees on the cold snow below he didn’t know if he wanted to vomit out of exhaustion or disgust, but vomit he did. He rolled