Alek sneakily entered the room and was greeted by a boy facing toward the window opposite the door that she just entered. She thought that was Kai.
She prepared to scare him. But before she tried to do anything, he snapped his neck to where she was standing.
She was caught off guard.
But what she saw next was enough for her brain to stop functioning.
"What the..." Alek could not continue. The boy looked like her dead brother, Aether.
---- A few days before ----
Alek woke up with the alarm ringing directly into her ears. She groaned, but she didn't move to stop the alarm from ringing in her ears as it was her daily morning routine.She only stopped the alarm after a minute of ringing.
She always bragged to her family that she hasn't gone deaf despite the alarm ringing into her ears every day.
Alek's body was not working the way she wanted. It took five minutes for her brain to finish processing and start functioning. She finally moved, rolled, to be precise, out of her bed and went to open the curtain. The sun was so bright, it forced her eyes to close. She turned her back to the sun and went outside her and her sister, Bia's room.
Panacea greeted Alek 'morning' from the kitchen. Alek greeted her mother and went into the bathroom to wash her face.
She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were puffy from tears she cried yesterday night, or call it early today, from reading a book that she has been reading for a while. She couldn't help the tears that escaped from her eyes as it was so painful to read it. Her favourite character died. She felt like she was the heroine and watching her love die in her arms.
'He didn't deserve it. He was the good guy!'
"Eh." She shrugged her shoulders and splashed her face with water.
After washing her face and slapping her cheeks to fully awake, she looked more awake. Although her eyes were still puffy, she didn't do anything to make the puffiness go away.
She didn't remember what her dream was like. She felt like she didn't have a good one, but not really bad ones. A casual bad dream, Alek guessed.
She came out of the bathroom and went to the dining room to eat. Apart from Alek, everyone was there eating. She said morning to everyone on the table.
When Bia said moring, she saw Alek's face. "Again?... I can't believe you are so emotional despite being my sister, Alek."
People used to compare Bia and Alek all the time saying, they are the complete opposite of each other despite them being sisters, and Bia agreed to that.
"What did you expect me to do, my lovely sister? Jem died. How am I supposed to deal with that?" Alek talked back to her sister with a hint of sarcasm.
"For my sake, he's a fictional character! He does not exist!" Bia almost shouted at her overemotional ass sister.
"Bia, that's enough. Alek, have a seat and start eating." Their mother butted in to stop them from making chaos from early in the morning.
Meanwhile, their brother, Kai and their father, Robin, looked undisturbed from the scene next to them.
"Alek, Bia, Kai, finish your food quickly and change. We are going to meet your brother today. And remember to wear something decent." Panacea told her daughters, who were still unsatisfied with her, butting in their fight.
Alek snapped her neck towards her mother. She didn't even see Kai stealing her plate, taking a bite of her sandwich, and putting it back in front of her.
She finally remembered that it was her brother's twelfth death anniversary. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten about something important like that!
Her brother, Aether, died due to an accident when he was eight years old and when Alek was seven years old.
Alek still remembered that day when she thought the whole world collapse.
****
When they were coming outside from the hospital, she was running across the road and her brother was behind her.
She doesn't remember why her family was at the hospital.
Eventually, she and her brother, Aether, were told they can play in the playground across from the hospital they were in. They were bored.
Alek didn't see the car coming at her really fast as she was excited to get to the other side of the road before her brother did.
By the time Alek noticed the car, it was too late that she thought she would be hit. She was stunned. Alek heard her brother calling out her name, but she could only stare at the car coming straight to her.
But the car didn't hit Alek because she was pushed hard, out of the way by Aether. But not hard enough to be completely out of the way. Alek's right foot was still in the way, and the car ran over her foot and hit her brother.
The car screeched and reversed after hitting Aether. Running away from the scene he caused.
She saw her brother on the ground with a blood pool. Alek crawled to her brother. She shook his shoulders, but nothing happened. She held her brother's head but he still didn't respond. Her breathing stopped. She threw her head backwards and screamed with all the strength she had and cried without tears.
She doesn't remember much about what happened later. She heard some voices but couldn't concentrate on what they were saying.
Alek just knew her older brother was not coming back. She would never be able to hear his voice and play with him.
Her parents heard the car's screeching sound and came outside to find their daughter cradling their son in her arms, crying without tears. Their son seemed to have died instantly when the car hit him.
Alek went into a coma for weeks after the accident. When she woke up on the hospital bed, she found out that her brother had already died. She knew it, but it still made her feel the unbearable pain in her chest.
Alek saw her right foot was fractured. The doctors told her that even if the foot heals completely, she would sometimes feel pain when she does extreme exercise.
Panacea and Robin were devastated but they still had children to take care of. They could not let their sadness get in the way of their children's happiness.
Alek saw the looks on her parents' faces and saw that they were just as sad as her but calmer than her. They still had Bia, who was four at the time and Kai, who was still a few weeks old.
The police said the suspect had fled from the scene and had not been found yet.
****
After the accident, Alek stopped talking. She wasn't mute, just didn't open her mouth to speak. She only nodded or shook her head to answer questions. But after two whole years of not talking continued, Alek started to talk and smile bit by bit. She began to remember how her brother liked her voice and smile.
She recovered slowly and brought herself back before the accident. She tries her best to always smile and try not to hate.
Even now and then, flashes from the accident come into her dreams, and she would jump awake to find tears streaming down her face. Some of the memories of her brother have faded away with time, and sometimes, she would feel his presence, see him and hear him.
She knows that it's not real, but she badly wanted to believe that he was still here by her side. Besides, she was now the oldest, so she needed to be able to look out for her siblings.
****
Bia and Kai doesn't have any memories of Aether, but they have seen pictures of little Aether and Alek together. Bia remembered the time when her sister never talked and smiled.
Bia also knew sometimes her sister had nightmares about the accident. She had heard screams and groans coming from her sister when she was having a nightmare.
Alek would try to hide that she had nightmares because she did not want her family to be worried, but she could not fool her sister.
Even though they would not stop quarreling, they knew they cared and loved each other and would always protect each other.
Bia wasn't good at expressing her feelings. She even found holding hands, hugging and saying I love yous to family was... not embarrassing but awkward-ish. Thus, when Alek hugs her and kisses her without warning, she finds herself frozen. Alek was straightforward with everything and it always left Bia cringy. Alek has been doing this for years but Bia was still not used to it.
----
After finishing breakfast, the children went into their rooms to get ready to go out. Meanwhile, in the dining room...
"We can't hide from her anymore. We don't know when she'll find out. Many people want her! We don't know when it will happen, Robin!" Panacea whispered to her husband, who was staring at the coffee in his hand. But she could tell that her husband was taking her seriously.
"Not yet, my love. We will tell her when she turns nineteen. I want her to have a peaceful moment before she gets into this crazy life. I promise. After that, we'll tell her everything before something happens to her." He returned the seriousness she had to him.
"But some have already started moving! We can't wait for that long, Robin!" Panacea whisper-shouted to her husband, who didn't seem to understand how grave the thing they were discussing was.
"Trust me on this. Please Panacea. I will make sure that nothing happens to our daughter. I swear on Aether." This time, he looked straight into her eyes. She felt the determination in his eyes.
"Okay... I trust you." After she said that, she saw Robin relax. She smiled a little.
It had been a while since Panacea had relaxed. She kissed her husband lightly on the lips for a moment and went to their room to get changed.