Forever Dream — (Chapter 6) The Meeting With My Brother
I lean back on the locked classroom door and stare out the corridor to watch the sunrise over the sandpit in the highschool yard. It’s been almost 2 hours since I woke up near the teacher’s staff but I’m not too concerned. I like waking up in school.
I look at my wristwatch once more and smile when I realise that Ami will be here any minute now. She’ll probably jump down next to me and lie down in my lap. We’ll fight over who gets to lie down in whose lap until Yumi comes and then we’ll probably fight some more on who lets to lean on Yumi’s shoulders while waiting for someone to come and open the classroom door for us.
And sure enough, like some ghost that can read minds, her footsteps echo in the corridor. My smile stretches wider and it almost feels like my face with tear apart. But then it drops just as quickly.
Because standing at the end of the corridor is not Ami or even Yumi. Standing at the end of the corridor is a figure, dressed in a black turtleneck, a tan blazer, trousers and black loafers. At the end of the corridor is my brother, his face hidden by the darkness.
A cold sweat breaks down my spine as I find myself unable to move. He’s walking towards me, threateningly. Mockingly. Silently jeering me to run away. His footsteps echo the walls of the corridor like an earthquake. Getting more violent as he comes closer.
He stops an arms-length away. His face is hidden under darkness but I know he’s smirking at me. My lungs refuse to function and my limbs curl up in some form of protection. My voice is lost.
He hunches over me — hands in pocket. He smells just like Papa did but it’s not calming me down. It makes me shiver in fear.
He pulls his hand out from his blazer pocket and is about to reach out to me. His hands are gloved — to hide his deed. And he’s going to take me away again.
No! No, I won’t go back. I can’t…
My body goes numb when he holds my arm and pulls me up. Looming over me like some dark shadow ready to devour me alive. He starts walking away, pulling me in tow. And I can’t help limply follow.
He takes long, languid steps towards the exit. Taking his own sweet time, enjoying the darkness around us. The sun should’ve risen by now but it seems to have betrayed me too (much like my body that continues to follow him). We are turning the corridor when another set of hurried footsteps echo in turn with ours and a hand grabs my free arm pulling me away from the man. And just like that, I fall into Ami’s arm.
My brother turns angrily raising his fist to hit me but stops. His fist hangs in the air as he stares at Ami then stumbles back a step. Then two. And just as threateningly he had arrived, starts running away.
Ami holds me tight in her embrace as he runs back to the exit, taking away the darkness with him. The sun rises as he leaves and my breathing returns to normal again.
I smile when he disappears into nothingness as if swallowed by the light. And hide away into Ami’s arms. I know I’m safe as long they’re here.
After all, my brother may be evil but he too has fears. Just like Johan Liebert was scared of forgetting Anna, my brother is terrified of my friends.
He’s terrified of what they can do.
“How did he find you?” Ami asks me as we sit by the classroom door waiting for Yumi. I’ve stopped shivering and my sweat has dried into my school shirt. The cold dampness settling into my bones instead. She has concern etched into her features and I know how scared she is.
“I’m not sure,” I say. Because, truly, I don’t know. I’d thought I lost him ages ago but he’s back now. And since he’s back I know he’s not going to give up anytime soon. I’m scared. Terrified. “He’ll take me back home… won't he?”
“He can’t. We won't let him.”
I can’t bring myself to believe her so I don’t respond to her words. It doesn’t diminish the determination on her face but does allow sadness creep upon her forehead.
She pulls me into her side, patting my back as I naturally lean my head over her shoulder. The sun warms our feet as it rises and the smell of dewdrops fills our lungs as we sit by the classroom door waiting for someone to come down and open it.
Today, we don’t fight. A solemn silence engulfs us like a funeral procession and we sit dumb and deaf to the world. Ami occasionally caresses my hair, as my mother used to before the divorce, and my eyelids start to grow heavy. I smile at the distant memory as some of the tension seems to instantly evaporate from my pours.
But everything is not back to normal. Yumi seems to catch up on that when she comes a few minutes later to find us quietly sharing the silence. She sits down beside me and shares a look with Ami over my head. And doesn’t ask or even mention my brother.
I fall asleep once again between them, asking them to wake me up when the janitor comes by to open the classroom door.
