REWRITE OF NOTHING BUT A MEMORY FOUND ON MY PREVIOUS FF ACCOUNT: MOONWARRIORS.
The account still exists and so does the story, check it out if you're really into spoilers!
I do not own Big Time Rush, characters Sydney, Scarlett, and Nikayla were created (6 years ago omg) by users fabuluslyfamous, If life was a movie, and AveryPotterFangirl respectively.
This story may contain content sensitive to some readers.
CHAPTER ONE
12 years ago…
James POV
"Happy Birthday to you!" we finished singing.
"Make a wish and blow out the candles, darling," my best friend's mom smiled as she held Serenity on her lap. Serenity squeezed her eyes shut as she made her wish, then sucked in a deep, audible breath and blew out all six candles on her pink princess cake.
"What did you wish for?" I called to her over the cheers.
"I can't tell you, silly," she giggled as she leaned over to ruffle my hair. "Then it won't come true." I frowned and fixed my freshly messed hair. Girls were the worst. They had no respect for the effort we put into our hair.
Serenity's dad cut up the cake, distributing each slice to a member of the party: my best friends Kendall, Carlos, Logan, and Serenity, and Serenity's older brothers Shiloh and Silas. Carlos wasted no time in shoving his entire face into his slice. Serenity let out a ferocious laugh upon seeing Carlos's face covered in pink frosting. While Serenity's mom cleaned him up, her dad emerged with an armful of presents.
"Guess what I've got!" he called out. Serenity's icy blue eyes lit up with excitement.
"Presents!" she shrieked.
"Open ours first!" Kendall grinned, exposing a gap in his smile where his two front teeth used to be. He'd lost them both when Logan accidentally nailed him in the face with a hockey puck during practice. Logan probably cried more than Kendall did.
Serenity grinned as she ripped open the box containing our combined present. I was nervous as I watched her. What if she didn't like it? Our parents helped us pick out her present; girl gifts were so hard. We should've just gotten her Legos.
Serenity gasped and I immediately felt better. The look on her face was enough to tell me she loved it. She held up the charm bracelet to show her mother. Four charms decorated the thin metal chain, each half of a best friend's charm. Our parents paid extra to have our names engraved on the back of each charm. I thought it was weird. Since the best friend's charms split in two, each of our names were split in half. "Ken." "Lo." "Car." "Jam." It wasn't my idea. When I noticed the other guys pulling out the chains they had hidden under their shirts, I did the same. We matched the charms on our necklaces to the ones on her bracelet.
Carlos matched the monkey head. Logan completed the book. Kendall had the other half of a bird with outstretched wings, and I connected the other half of a crown. Serenity squealed with delight. She held her arm out for her mother to clasp the bracelet around her neck.
"Your names are on the back!" she squealed again when she examined her present again. I wondered if her voice hurt going that high.
"I want to see how it looks!" she jumped out of her mother's lap and sprinting up the stairs to her room.
"I think it's safe to say you boys did a great job on her gift," Serenity's dad chuckled. Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and I smiled at each other in satisfaction.
"I thought you guys were getting her Legos," Silas looked confused. I shrugged.
"Mom said no," I told him. While we waited for Serenity to come back downstairs, we finished our cake slices. She was taking a long time. How long does it take to look at a bracelet?
Moments later, a shrill scream filled the air. Serenity's parents exchanged quick, concerned glances before racing up the stairs.
"Serenity?" her mom called. "Serenity, are you okay?" There was no response.
"Serenity!" her father yelled. There were a few minutes of just her parents calling out my friend's name. I couldn't hear a response. Where was she? This is not the time for a spontaneous game of Hide and Seek. Shiloh and Silas got Serenity a new hockey stick and I was itching to go out into the court and play.
"Serenity!" I'd never heard that sound come out of Serenity's mom's mouth. There was so much pain and despair; I was scared.
"Mom?" Shiloh called. When she didn't respond, he commanded us to stay downstairs while he checked it out. Shiloh was the oldest of the three siblings, at 9 years old. We usually listened to whatever he said. This time, Silas decided he was also old enough to go see what was going on, as he had turned 8 two months prior. The two ran upstairs, confident that we would obey their orders.
Kendall, Carlos, Logan, and I looked at each other, unsure of what to do. What happened to Serenity? Was she okay? Only a few seconds passed before we made the unspoken agreement to go get answers.
We raced up the stairs, heading to the first door on the right: Serenity's room. We found her mom kneeling on the floor, crying. I'd never seen an adult cry before. I didn't know that was allowed.
"Mommy?" Silas asked. "What happened?"
"Where's Serenity?" Shiloh asked. He knelt down next to his hysteric mother.
"S-she's gone," she sobbed. We all knelt around her, wanting to comfort her and somehow make her stop crying. In her hand was the purple ribbon that had decorated Serenity's ebony hair just minutes before. Shiloh threw his arms around his mother's neck and Silas followed suit. I looked around at my friends and knew they were feeling the same thing I was: confusion.
Her dad entered the room, his eyes red with tears.
"The police are on their way," he choked out. The police? What was going on?
Minutes later, six men in blue police uniforms arrived and ushered us out of the room. They wrapped caution tape around the doorway. We all sat in the living room, surrounded by dirty cake plates and unopened presents, waiting for an explanation.
"Your parents are here, boys," one of the officers told us. "You'll know what we learn about what happened to Serenity as soon as we know." We nodded and followed our parents out the door. If Serenity was just playing Hide and Seek, she was going to be in big trouble when they found her.
Weeks passed by and we had yet to see our friend. Her face was on all kinds of posters and on TV commercials. They wrote "MISSING" in big red letters underneath her picture. They never found any traces of her.
Our parents tried to tell us she lived a good life. We didn't understand what was happening. Death was a concept we hadn't quite grasped at our young age. All we knew was we didn't see our best friend at the playground anymore. As we grew older, we began to understand she wasn't coming back. It wasn't until I was 13 years old that I learned hope of finding her alive was gone once she had been missing for 72 hours. We never took off the chain necklaces that held our individual half of Serenity's charm. They came to be our good luck charms. They were symbols of our friendship and of our young friend's memory. They were symbols of hope that she was still alive. Still out there. Somewhere.
Until next time xx much love
Team No Sleep
If you're a Supernatural fan, head on over and check out Drew's story: Chardonnay.