A Brother's Goodbye

Some places on Earth are beautiful. They could have green meadows filled with fragrant flowers, they could be cities with soaring glass sculptures. All were impressive, all were soulful.

This place that she found herself in was none of these things. The only impressive thing about it was that such a place could exist when the city that surrounded this small patch of wasteland was expanding so rapidly. The only way it could be soulful was if damned spirits wandered between the piles of junk. It certainly wasn't beautiful; unless you found ruined earth and twisted metal beautiful.

There were many places in the world better than this; even the most neglected garden would seem like some bright picture from a travel magazine in comparison. Yet this was where Sarah was and she knew she had nowhere else to go.

She felt like an animal, skulking in this place. Hair, long and black, might have been a discarded bin bag. Eyes, brown as the mud in which she crouched, looked fearfully out onto the world. Her small, thin body hugged the ground as she hid in the shadow of a burned-out car. A few more hours and she'd be able to go home.

But she might not last those hours.

Already she could hear them, their calls echoing across this forsaken place like vultures, looking for their prey. She wriggled deeper into her hiding place, throwing out a desperate prayer to any god bored enough to look her way, that she might be hidden, be safe.

What she got was a second's warning in a victory cry before a hand seized her ankle. She kicked back, squirmed, broke free. Powered by fear she ran.

She knew she wouldn't be fast enough and that knowledge weighed her down more than iron chains. She heard their barking laughs as they delighted in the prospect of the chase. Over the car they crunchingly came and the pursuit was on.

She knew her way through the maze of rubbish and zigzagged desperately but they caught her long before she reached any sort of exit. They surrounded her, grey laughing faces, tall as towers. She tried to turn but found no escape. A hand found her back and down she fell, like a tender sapling felled by an avalanche. She tried struggling back up but down she was pushed again, to louder laughter. She lay on the ground, exhausted in many ways. It was tempting to give up but the sooner she did that, the sooner the kicking would start. As she got to her knees she stared between the bullies legs for some brief sight of freedom. And what she saw made her breath catch.

Behind her were huge walls of junk but the ground in front was clear. And across that ground there came a bright spark of shining white, followed by a wave of green. The wave was moving fast and passed the spark. It reached the car that had been her refuge and, with a grinding noise, it turned to a large rock. Across the distance the wave came, with groaning when it reached rubbish and turned it to stone, then it was under her and past her. She stared in amazement as grass sprouted, grew thick and healthy in moments. Then her eyes went back to the spark.

They bullies weren't laughing any more. They too stood and stared silently as the light came closer. It coalesced into a figure, ambling along with something slung over its shoulder. It stopped a small way away and stood regarding them. Then it took a bite from an apple.

“I think you boys are in the wrong place,” it said. “You should be in some sort of zoo. Or maybe a nursery. Then you could find more babies to beat up.”

One of the boys growled and charged forward but the white figure brought its arm forward abruptly and with a sharp crack the baseball bat left his shoulder and impacted with the bullies head. The bully fell to the ground as the bat returned to its shoulder and and the shining person stepped forward, using the body like a bridge. It took another bite of the apple.

“Anyone else?” it asked as it swallowed. The boys shrank back and turned to run but where there had once stood piles of junk there was now cliffs of stone, impassible. The figure finished its apple and chucked the bits away. Then it started forward again.

With each step it shone brighter and with a rustle the grass began to grow again. It was over Sarah's head as the figure passed her. And she felt it's hand, still sticky with juices from its apple, brush her hair. Then it was past and now she had to stand to see over the grass. It stopped again and held the bat in front of it.

“You bastards don't have a car this time.” It didn't yell the words but the slow, calm way it said them was somehow worse, the anger evident.

Then it started walking again.

The bat exploded into white fire and lightening and the figure shone brighter and brighter. The bullies shrank back against the cliff walls, shielding their eyes against the light that turned them to indistinct shadows. The figure reached them, the bat swung, thunder cracked and they dissolved into the brilliance.

Later, as Sarah lay in the grass, the figure came back to her, the light around it fading to a warming glow. She looked up into the face she knew as well as her own.

“Brother,” she said, half questioningly, tears running down her face. It was him, as she always remembered him. Kind face, battered leather jacket. She stretched out her arms and he gathered her up, cradling her as he'd always used to.

“Sarah,” he half whispered, holding her tight, and they just stood like that, remembering how it used to be. Then he set her down again.

“This isn't how you are,” he told her. “You aren't seven any more. You've grown up. I've been watching and I'm so proud. But you can't let them push you around any more. You've got to stand up to them.”

“I can't.” A sob half caught in her throat. “You don't know what it's been like since you went. There was the accident and then nothing happened to them and then they got cocky and there was no one and then they...” another sob chocked her off. “They can't be stopped,” she said, looking up at him through tear-filled eyes.

Her brother sighed. “I know you feel this way. And no surprise. Look around. It was so barren before. Let the life back. Embrace it.

“Stop living in fear.”

She still looked at up him, unable to speak. He sighed again. “You'll have to go back in a moment.”

“No!” She scrambled to her feet, caught him in a desperate hug. “You can't leave. I can't loose you again.”

He hugged her back. “You won't. I'll always be here, inside of you. It's never goodbye.”

He began to shine again, the light wrapping itself around the two of them, swelling up to fill her entire world. Then there was only brightness.

She came back to consciousness reluctantly, face first in the dirt. Almost every part of her ached and she lay still for the moment, hoping that this was the dream, that she was about to wake up and be with her brother again.

“Is she dead?”

She knew that voice. It was Marco, one of the gang. They'd ambushed her today, as she walked back from school. It all came rushing back. She wished it hadn't.

“Maybe. Like Quanto.”

Quanto. Her brother. The one that had practically raised her. The one they had taken from her.

Her eyes shot open and she got unsteadily to her feet, firmly back in reality. She wasn't seven any more, she was fifteen and as of her last birthday her brother had been out of her life for more than half of it. All because of these people.

They weren't expecting the first punch, which got Marco in the face. He yelped and took a step backwards, dropping the bit of pipe he was carrying. She spun and hit another in the stomach.

But this didn't appear to have any effect. She was still weak, only barely awake and the man she'd punched had been skipping school to work out for years. She bounced off him, then another hit her from behind and she went down.

She fell heavily onto her hands and knees, tears flowing freely. I'm sorry, she thought at her brother, at whichever place inside her the dream had said he occupied. I just can't do it. Not without you.

All right, a voice seemed to reply. One last time.

Her body seemed to suddenly buzz out of her control. Without her willing it her hand reached out and grabbed the fallen pipe. She was risen gracefully to her feet. It was slightly frightening, having no idea how it was going to move, but through her veins she felt an energy course, warm and familiar, as her brother's soul streamed through her meridians.

As her body rose it twirled like a dervish and the pipe hit the stomach of the man like she had, but with more success. He doubled over and was given a firm tap on the back of his head which sent him crashing down. She was sent skipping through them till she reached the alley wall. Then she was turned and faced them.

Her shoulders rotated and loosen. Her legs dropped her into a crouch. Her fingers twirled the pipe like a baton and her lips pulled back in a mad cap grin. She could almost feel her eyes flash and blaze.

“Come and get it,” said her mouth, then her brother leapt her forward and into his vengeance.