"Mommy, when is Hisashi going to get home?"
His mother gazed down at him, her lips thinly pressed together, but it didn't hide their tremble.
"Mommy?" He rubbed his right hand with his left, shifting where he stood. Something was wrong. He could tell by the way his mother averted her gaze.
"Akuro..." she knelt down after a few moments, placing her hands on his shoulders.
Suddenly, his stomach hurt and he couldn't speak. A shiver ran down his spine, though it wasn't cold.
He searched her eyes and noticed the shimmer of the light reflecting off of them.
When she blinked, he whimpered.
He saw tears escape the corners of her eyes.
"Mommy?" In a hushed whisper, the single word escaped him.
"Akuro... Hisashi..." she shook her head.
Her lips trembled, "Hisashi isn't going to come home."
Not understanding her meaning, he blinked his almond shaped eyes. "When will he be home?"
His mother shook her head, "Never Akuro. Hisashi is never coming home."
The thought of Hisashi never coming home, felt like he'd been hit with a baseball in the gut.
Akuro might not have understood what never meant, but he did know that their cat had died two years ago. A cat that would never wake up again.
"No!" He cried, and struggled out of his mothers grip. Hisashi couldn't be gone. He had to come home! Without a thought, he ran for the door and outside.
His mother called after him, but he didn't stop, he couldn't stop. She was lying! She had to be lying! No, she couldn't be, because she never lied.
He clamored up the hill and into an overgrowth of trees. Behind the trees, he found a well worn path. A path he and his brother had walked before - hand in hand.
The further and faster he ran, the more his vision blurred, thanks to his tears.
Several yards into the forest, his pace slowed. Wheezing, his chest rapidly rose and fell.
It wasn't until he'd heard the sound of the babbling brook that he finally stopped.
He gazed into the water of the small waterway and sniffled, wiping the back of his sleeve across his nose. "Hisashi, you can't be dead."
Their mother hadn't told him he was dead, only that he was never coming home.
"Why don't you want to come home, Hisashi?" He whispered as he gazed at his own reflection, pondering every possible reason. He was unable to come up with anything that made sense.
Closing his eyes, he listened to the sounds surrounding him. Laughter was carried by the wind, to his ears. A sound that he'd suddenly longed to hear again, because then he'd know that his big brother was okay.
The laughter he realized as he opened his eyes, did not belong to Hisashi, even though he wished it did.
Sitting down, he removed his shoes and socks and rolled up his pant legs. With a weary sigh and sniffle, he plunged his feet into the water. The place, their place would never be the same again.
The adventures they'd had, they'd have no more. The fun they'd had together, they'd never have again. Hisashi was gone and with him his smile, his laughter and his hugs.
He sniffled again, "Hisashi," he closed his eyes, kicking his feet in the water, "you were the best big brother anyone could have."
It wasn't long after that he noticed the sky getting dark. With a tiny shiver, he got up and picked up his socks and shoes and began walking back toward home.
That was when he noticed a figure in the distance holding up his hand and a light red hue forming. It was as familiar to Akuro as the well worn path.
Hisashi had wanted to be able to make his hand glow like that too.
"Papa!" He gasped and began running toward him. Maybe Papa knew what to do and how to bring Hisashi home.
The closer he got, the more the area above his fathers hand glowed, turning into an outline of a heart. One with a doorknob.
When he was but a hundred feet away, he called out to his father, "Papa!"
In that instant however, the tears of the heavens began to pour down. A flash of lightening lit the sky as if it were noon instead of evening.
Akuros' eyes widened, his body unable to move as he watched in terror the lightening strike his father.
His body shook as the thunder boomed so loudly that his ears rang.
In just a flash, his father had vanished into thin air.
Finally, he was able to scream, "Papa!"
His mother came out from the house and ran to him, pulling him into her arms, holding him tightly against her.
"Shh, shh, Akuro. It's okay."
She rocked him back and forth, but he thought not only for his own comfort, but for hers. In the length of a single day, two men of the Kikuchi family had disappeared.
Nothing was okay anymore.
Author Note: I do hope those whom have stumbled upon the beginning of this original fiction of mine will have enjoyed it. I started this back in August 2010 during Camp NaNo and have since been editing it (anyone else been a NaNoer?). It is also my hope that readers will look forward to the next installment of this story next Sunday the 17th of February.
Please do feel free to let me know if I've been redundant, have comma-splices, run-on sentences or any other grammatical errors. I've gone over this a few times myself, but I always wonder if there's still something I've missed.
Thank you for reading!
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