Okay, guys, I have finally fixed Rayne's War! So this has some of the old text from the original, but I've changed the story around a bit. So I hope you like this!
SAME SUMMARY: Rayne Ferrier, the middle child of Ray Ferrier and Mary Ann, is preparing herself for another dreaded weekend with her siblings. The story through Rayne's eyes as she races against time with her family to stay safe and survive the last war on Earth.
Chapter 1: Dreams
What was going on? Why is this dream more violent and terrible than the dreams I usually have?
"Dad…DAD!" I ran to keep up with my father, but he and Rachel charged up the hill after Robbie. They all ran through the wall of flames and disappeared. I tried to run after them, but the heat forced me back. I saw my mother, Tim, Grandma and Papa walk into the fire. Suddenly, this enormous, terrifying, thing that looked like some sort of machine, arouse from the wall of flames, it aimed down at me. The last thing I saw was a bright light, and then I saw my family. They were waving to me, telling me to come over, but the second I moved my foot, they disappeared and everything turned black.
Then I saw this man whom I'd never seen before, carrying a gun. He looked down upon me menacingly, and said these confusing words in a flat, cold and emotionless tone.
"They've been planning this for a million years…and these are only the first…they'll keep coming. Nothing's going to stop them from taking over now."
What the hell did that mean?
He lifted his gun and shot it in the air. The black light burned red, and I realized a gun was at my feet. I'd seen it before. It looks like dad's gun. The one he keeps locked in a small safe in his room.
I picked it up and pointed it at the man. "Who are you?!" I pulled the trigger, but he was gone. Rachel suddenly appeared. "You wouldn't do that, Rayne. He lost his family, just like us, remember?"
I was silent. How did she know this?
"Remember commandment number six? 'You shall not murder?' You'd be breaking that commandment if you shot him."
"There's another commandment, Rach, that you haven't been following. Commandment number four. 'Honor your parents.' You and Robbie haven't been very respectful to Dad."
Rachel's face hardened, and she turned into Robbie. I glared at my older brother.
"Ray's an asshole, Rayne. You should've come with me."
"Shut up, Robbie." I snapped.
"What the hell Rayne! I came back and you STILL treat me like shit."
I gripped the gun tighter in my e back from where?
"What, are you gonna shoot me?" An insane grin like that man's was twisting around my brother's face. "I left cause of you…"
"No…"
"We all left cause of you…"
"NO!" I threw the gun to the ground. It went off, and suddenly Robbie collapsed.
"ROBBIE!" I threw myself at my brother's side. I touched his freezing face. His expression was blank, his eyes were wide open.
A shriek was heard behind me, and Rachel ran up to Robbie. She crumpled at his side and began to sob. I reached toward Rachel to comfort her, but a pair of hands grabbed me and yanked me away from my brother's body.
I blinked and my friend's face came into focus. But it was as I had never seen it before- twisted with anger.
"Look what you did," Danni said. She twisted me around and forced me to look at my brother's body. "See? SEE? It's your fault, Rayne."
"What- I didn't-"
"What do you mean, you didn't?" Skye suddenly appeared. "You did everything!"
"You killed you brother, Rayne! You freaking killed him!" Allie's enraged face appeared next to Skye. I was shocked. Allie was always so sweet and gentle with her words- she never swore or accused anyone of anything, in any situation.
"Guys, please…let me-"
"There she goes again!" Brittani was next to appear, as well as Slick. Their expressions were both cold. "She's always trying to get out of everything, all the time! You can't get out this time, Rayne! You're a sick, lying, foul, twisted, little b-"
Brittani kept shouting insults at me, and they keep getting more and more vulgar. The whole time, Slick never said a word. He just stared me down and shook his head.
I pushed away from my friends and looked at my brother's body. But wait- that wasn't Robbie's face.
It was Dad's.
I stood at the intersection. Grandma and Papa's house was right in front of my. My entire family was standing outside, calling my name.
"Wait! I'm coming!" But I couldn't move. My family left and walked inside the house.
"NO! I'm here!" I burst into tears. A violent shaking knocked me over. The ground split, and a machine similar to the one before arose from the ground. It let out its haunting war cry, and the building exploded, and collapsed on me. A single scream stood out of all the noise…
"Rayne? You awake?"
Rayne Ferrier opened her eyes. "Ye-yeah, dad. I'm good." She looked at her clock. It was 7:30 at night on a Friday. She had come in early from a curfew for who know what, and fallen asleep unexpectedly.
"Rye?" Her dad, Ray Ferrier walked into her room. "I'm about to leave for work. I'll be back tomorrow at eight-thirty, okay?" he said. Rayne sat up.
"And, why might you be telling me this?" Ray looked at his daughter in surprise. "Because Robbie and Rachel are coming tomorrow."
Rayne groaned and fell back against her pillow. Ray frowned. "What?"
"Why do they have to come? They hate coming here."
"They may live with your mother, but I have my visiting privileges."
"I hate them."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do."
"Since when?"
"Since they started hating me."
"When did they start hating you?"
"When I moved in with you."
"When did-" Ray cut himself off and smiled at Rayne. "Nice try. Robbie may be a little uptight, but Rachel still loves you."
Rayne snickered. "Yeah, right. She hated seeing my spring cleaning technique."
The room the girls- and Robbie- shared used to have pink walls, flowery curtains and teddy bears and other stuffed animals littered the room (on the girl's side. Robbie had put up a bunch of "punk junk."). Rayne finally changed it after Rachel's tenth birthday, and painted the walls red, got new black furniture, and got white bed sheets. This was after her dad had gotten a raise.
Ray glanced around and laughed. "Yeah. Anyway, I need you to be here when they all get here, OK?" Rayne stared at her father. "But…the rehearsals-"
Ray glanced up in thought, as though trying to remember when Rayne had ever told him about any rehearsals.
"Dad," she groaned "The ones we've been waiting for, for like, ever, and this one is serious. We could get a gig if we make this one. And-"
"All right, all right," Ray sighed. "You can go to the rehearsals as long as you make it home in time for your mother to get here. Deal?"
Rayne nodded. "Deal," she agreed.
"Right then. 'Night." Ray kissed Rayne goodnight and walked out of the room.
This sucks, she thought. Okay, they barely came, but it just plain annoyed her. She tried to convince herself that Ray didn't like them either. Well, he did, but that whole bonding thing just doesn't work out. With him and Robbie, that is. Rachel was still struggling with the little relationship she and Ray shared.
Rayne heard her father's mustang pull out of the driveway and speed down the street.
Ray and Rayne shared an interest in cars, and Rayne could name almost any car model that drives down the street. Ray, for example, drives a rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT-350H, black with gold stripes. Rayne wanted a black Mazda MX-5. She had inherited a lot of traits from her father other than the car interests. She had his jet-black hair, grayish green-blue ever-changing eyes, skin tone, and some of his personality and attitude. This was the reason Ray and Rayne got along so well, but it caused a lot of tension between Rayne and her siblings.
Another trait was her sleeping habits. It didn't matter how late she'd stay up, she'd always wake up between six and seven o'clock. When she was younger, her mother would badger her to get up earlier to go to church with the rest of the family, but Ray didn't bug her to go to church- Rayne went when she felt like it.
Yes, her life was good…but it didn't start out that way.
Rayne's two siblings were Robbie and Rachel. Robbie was seventeen, and a senior in high school. He was a vision of Ray at his age, with his dark hair, light eyes and pale skin. Sometimes Robbie can be a total asshole, but he cared about Rayne, even though they wouldn't admit it.
Rachel was ten, and more like her mother- straight-up, serious, and wise beyond her years. She had wavy blonde hair, big blue eyes and was small as a ten-year-old could get.
Rayne lifted her head and looked at an old family picture. There they were. The happy, loving Ferrier family. Ray was in a suit, and he looked clean and handsome. Mary Ann was wearing a blue dress, and her reddish-brown hair was loose around her shoulders. Robbie was wearing a suit and tie, and he looked like a ten-year-old version of his father. Rayne's seven-year-old self had a yellow dress on and her hair was worn short. Tiny little toddler Rachel was wearing a cute pink dress with matching ribbons in her blond hair. The family looked normal and happy.
But behind the photo, a dysfunctional family lingered. Ray and Mary Ann's smiles were big and fake. The children's eyes- Robbie and Rayne's mostly, as Rachel was about three- were sad and confused. That resulted, barely six months after the photo was taken, with Ray packing his bags, going around the house and saying goodbye to the children and then jumping into his car and going away. They didn't see him for a month, and then later learned that he'd gotten a job at the docks and a small apartment afterward. Then they got to see him barely once a month, besides holidays.
Finally, when she was ten, Rayne told her mother that she wanted to live with Ray, and that it wasn't fair they barely got to see him even though he loved them as much as Mary Ann loved them. She didn't want Ray to be lonely. Mary Ann didn't argue, but put a lot of thought into it, and then Ray was given custody of Rayne. Since then, her relationship with Robbie and Rachel sort of… fell apart.
Mary Ann got married to a rich guy called Tim, and they lived in a big house several miles from where Ray and Rayne lived. Rayne lived with Ray, in a small house near the river, where Ray worked to pay for electricity, food and child support and everything else they needed for a fit home. Rayne was happy. And that was good enough for Ray. But not her siblings. Rayne received a few tearful phone calls at midnight from Rachel and Robbie about every other night for about two or three weeks after she moved in. Rachel was the one who actually cried, but it seemed to rub off on Robbie because he sounded a little chocked up as well.
Rayne looked at the clock. It was now 7:45. She reached up to the shelf and pulled down the iPod that her father had gotten for her as a gift for making the volleyball team at her high school. She scrolled through her artists- Aly & AJ, Aerosmith, Flyleaf, Haste the Day, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kelly Clarkson, My Chemical Romance, Paramore- and decided to listen to "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" and kicked back on her bed.
She frowned a bit and sat up again. Setting the iPod on pause, she hopped off of the bed and quickly pulled off her clothes and searched for her pajamas in her bra and underwear. She snatched up her comfy striped pants and her favorite Green Day shirt. Before putting them on, she glanced in the mirror and glared at the reflection. Damn it, she thought. She forcefully pulled the T-shirt over her head and pulled the pants on. There. The baggy shirt makes me look bigger, but it covers my freaking huge hips. She remembered that she was in her own room and shrugged. Pulling herself back onto the bunk bed, she stuck her iPod back into her ears and slipped under the covers. Looking one more time at the photograph, she rolled over and closed her eyes, her dreams taking over once more.
Reviews and constructive critiscism is welcome!