Don't own and not claiming to, so don't sue! I don't have anything worth suing for anyway. :D
Remembrance
Chapter One
"No." a voice seemed to call to Alex in his sleep, forcing the brown-haired, above-average looking man to slowly open his eyes. "No!"
"What the hell?" he whispered to his darkened bedroom, sitting up in bed and rubbing the last bit of sleep from his eyes. Who the hell was calling out to him?
"No!" the scream came, stronger this time. "NO! AMY!"
Finally registering that it was coming from his little sister, Bea's room, Alex was quick to throw on his boxer shorts and run over to the next room. He found the younger woman thrashing about in her sleep; her face contorted as she screamed.
"NO! AMY!" Bea begged, "AMY!!!"
"Bea!" Alex said, shaking the brown-haired woman lightly. When she didn't wake up right away, he shook her even harder. "BEA!"
"What?" a groggy Bea replied, finally opening her eyes. A confused gleam appeared as she looked around the room. "Where am I?"
"It's all right." Alex reassured, rubbing her shoulder. "It was just a dream."
"Oh, Alex." Bea sobbed, sitting up and leaning into her brother. "I had that nightmare again!" Tears streamed down her cheeks as he wrapped his arms around her lovingly. "I was in the room when they..." She buried her face into his chest. "Amy."
"Shh." Alex soothed, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back.
A year ago, the pair had traveled with Bea's best friend, Amy, to Brazil for what was supposed to be a fun getaway. Little had they known that they would end up being kidnapped by an organ trafficking ring along with some other tourists. Alex and Bea had barely escaped while Amy hadn't been so lucky. To this day, Alex swore that he could still see Amy's lifeless and cut open body still lying where it had been tossed aside by those bastards.
Of course, he had never meant to tell Bea exactly how Amy had died. He figured that the pain of losing her best friend would be enough without finding out the gruesome details. However, as time went on, they had been forced to tell their tale to the authorities and the sordid details had leaked out to the newspapers and magazines. Hell, Alex thought, we're just now able to go out and not be known as those "poor kids that nearly got their organs taken out".
"It was horrible." Bea said, jilting Alex out of his thoughts. "I was in the room with Amy when they..." Looking up into her brother's eyes, she shook her head. "I couldn't save her, Alex."
"Hey, hey." Alex soothed, smoothing her hair and rocking her gently. "It's all right, okay?" He smiled down at his sister. "Why don't I go make you some warm milk or something? It'll help you get back to sleep."
"Damn it." Bea replied, shaking her head and pushing Alex away. "I hate it when you do that."
"Do what?" a curious Alex asked, shrugging his shoulders.
"Pretend like nothing happened." an honest Bea answered, looking directly into her brother's eyes. "I'm having nightmares about what happened to us, Alex. Do you really think that I want to go back to sleep?" She grabbed a nearby pillow and hugged it to her chest. "How come I'm the only messed up?"
"You're not, Bea..." Alex started, not really knowing what to say.
"You haven't had nightmares, Alex." Bea pointed out, "You're not still in therapy." Fighting back a sob, she looked away. "Shit. I walked past a bar the other day and I almost lost it just because I heard two guys that sounded like Liam and Finn."
"Don't even think that I don't think about it." Alex sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I think about them everyday, Bea. Liam, Finn, Amy..." He shook his brown-haired head. "Hell, even Kiko should still be here."
"But they're not." Bea sniffed, wiping her nose.
"I know." Alex replied, sitting down on the floor next to Bea's bed.
For a while, the two siblings simply sat in silence. Each reflecting upon what had happened to them in Brazil and why they had survived while others hadn't. Although, for Bea, it was never a question of how or why she had survived: the others didn't have Alex. The only thing that had given the brown-haired woman hope in those couple of hellish days was that her brother would have moved heaven and earth to make sure that she had stayed safe. Even now, she could tell that silently he was berating himself for not thinking of a way to take her pain away from her.
"I think that I'm ready to go back to sleep now." Bea yawned, getting Alex's attention. In her mind, she berated herself for causing her brother so much misery and bringing the memories of what happened back to him.
"You sure?" Alex asked.
"Positive." Bea lied with a smile as she laid back.
"Okay." Alex nodded, getting up from the floor.
"Alex?" Bea said, resting her head against the pillow as her brother headed for the door.
"Yeah?" Alex replied, pausing in the doorway.
"Thanks." Bea smiled before closing her eyes.
"Anytime, sis." Alex grinned, closing the door behind him.
"Alex?" a voice from somewhere nearby asked. "Hey! Are you all right, man?"
"Huh?" the brown-haired man replied as if coming out of a trance. A confused look appeared on his face as the interior of Bea's bedroom suddenly changed into the sands and surf of the beach and the carpet he had been sitting on changed into the familiar wood of his surfboard, his most prized possession. Shaking his head, Alex realized that, while surfing the next morning like he had planned, he must have flashed back to the previous night. Although, he wasn't really surfing at the moment; just sitting on his board floating aimlessly.
"Hey, space cadet!" his friend, Tim, teased from where he sat alongside him. However, concern was prevalent in his blue eyes as he watched his friend. "You okay, man? You seem really out of it."
"I'm all right, man." Alex waved off, not really feeling much like surfing anymore. "Although, I think that I'm going to head back to shore and get a bite to eat."
"All right." Tim agreed, nodding his head. "You are going to Leah's party later though, right?" The teasing smile reappeared on his face. "And you're bringing that fine sister of yours?"
"If you're good." Alex laughed, splashing water at Tim as the latter paddled away to join other surfers nearby. Taking a few moments to watch his friend leave, Alex sighed before starting to paddle towards shore. Normally, the salty ocean air would have made him forget any problems he would have had, but not today. Nothing seemed to be able to take the thought of Bea's nightmare and what happened to them in Brazil out of his mind.
"I thought you said that you were a great surfer." a girl's voice with an Australian accent teased as Alex finally made it to shore. At first, all he saw was her feet as he reached down to collect his board, but when he followed them up, the brown-haired man discovered a rather beautiful woman his age with blonde hair standing there. "What happened?"
"Pru!" Alex exclaimed happily, throwing his arms around her.
To be continued...