Jai woke up at 6 in the morning like he did everyday. He sat up on his bed and hung his feet off the edge. He rubbed his eyes, feeling the sweat cover his face from the nightmare he had.
It was the same dream that has haunted him for eleven years. He's running. One foot in front of the other, he's running towards a park in the middle of the night. Left foot, he looks behind him. No one is there. Right foot, he stares ahead of him and hears a scream, a scream that he has become all too familiar with. Quickly, he picks up his pace and runs towards the house, the big and bad house. This house holds his fear, the only thing he's ever been afraid of.
Suddenly, Jai is pulled out of his thoughts when a loud sound of something falling on the floor in the small one bedroom apartment he lived in.
He got up and grabbed the baseball bat next to his bed. Slowly he made his way into the kitchen. He turned on the light and saw the one thing he protected from the entire world, his sister.
Jai sighed in relief even though his sister was in a corner scared that she dropped something. He put the bat away out of sight and slowly walked up to her.
"Ira? Are you ok?"
Ira picked her head up and saw her big brother. She suddenly relaxed and smiled when he came close. Jai reached out and helped her stand up.
"Ira, you're not supposed to be up yet."
Ira just smiled and clapped her hands. She found the situation amusing after Jai had to pick up the broken glass. He got another one and filled it with water and gave it to her. She gobbled it down and let out a sigh of relief since her thirst was taken care of.
She gave the glass back to Jai and walked to the bathroom. Jai went in with her and helped her get ready for the day. He helped bathe her, brushed her teeth, gave her the clothes she liked, and put her shoes on.
"Wait here while I get ready ok?"
Ira nodded as Jai went and got ready in five minutes. She sat in the exact same spot on the couch as she did when he left. He got his keys for the apartment, wallet, water bottles for the both of them, and took his sister's hand in his as they walked out, ready for the new day.
They went on their 3-mile walk just like every other day. It took them 3 miles to get to Ira's school. Once they reached, Jai opened the front door for Ira to go inside and play. While he opened the door for Ira, Mrs. Hendricks came out to greet them.
"Why hello, Miss Ira."
Ira smiled and clapped her hands happily making the two watching chuckle at her excitement.
"Well go on Ira. I'll be just there."
Mrs. Hendricks turned to Jai and smiled.
"She's doing well. She's improving. I know she has autism, but as an eleven year old, she's doing really well. You should be proud of yourself."
Jai shook his head and smiled at the sight of Ira drawing on her desk through the classroom window.
"She's the very reason I get up everyday wanting to be a better man. If anything is the cause, she is. I just stand back and support her."
Mrs. Hendricks shook her head.
"Don't sell yourself short, honey. Everything you have done for that little girl, people twice your age couldn't even imagine doing."
Jai smiled at that. All he ever wanted was to make sure his sister was safe from the evil in the world.
Jai walked into his first period just before his class started. He sat in his usual seat and waited for class to begin. There were a few kids that started throwing paper balls at him, but he ignored it just like any other day.
He got up when the class ended and went to his locker. He reached into his bag and got the drawing Ira made for him the day before. It was a simple drawing of him and her as stick figures on a hill with a purple sun. He chuckled as he remembered she loved drawing.
He got a magnet from his bag and put the drawing on his locker door, so he could see it as he opened it everyday, just like the other 20 he put in there.
Suddenly, a hand from behind ripped the drawing from his locker door. Jai turned around to see Colt Wallace looking at the drawing.
"Need something, Colt?" Jai asked.
Colt smirked. "Yeah, just need this drawing here."
Jai stepped to him. "Give it back man."
"Come and get it."
Jai walked into his face with a cold stare. No one was in the hallway. Just before Jai would do something he would regret, the principal walked out and saw them.
"Hey you two, why aren't you in class?"
Jai didn't take his eyes off Colt.
"You two have detention now. Get to class."
Jai walked away to his class immediately. He had to text Mrs. Hendricks that he would be late because of detention.
Jai walked into detention and took his seat. He texted Mrs. Hendricks that he would be two hours late because of detention. She said that she would take Ira to her home since that is where she stayed while Jai was at work. Jai thanked her and was ready for a boring hour and a half in detention.
He got his notebook out and decided to continue to work on his latest project. He loved music. He loved the feeling of getting his guitar and loop pedal and making all different kinds of melodies. His latest project was trying another song of his favorite musician, Ed Sheeran. He started scribbling down the words and memorizing the tune of the song as he scribbled the music notes too.
Suddenly, out of his corner eye, he saw Colt bothering Billy Cranston. Billy was the genius of the school. Everyone knew that, but nobody knew why he was in detention.
Just as Colt was snapping Billy's pencils and calling him a freak, Jai started getting up form his seat. However, Jason Scott, the quarterback, got there already and pushed Colt out of the way.
Jai watches as Jason ridicules Colt and ends up slapping him. Thank god for Jason, because five more seconds and Jai would have laid out Colt into a coma. Jai went back to his work for the rest of detention. He was too busy to notice Kimberly Hart cut her hair while she was in the bathroom.
Jai walked out of the school and quickly got down the stairs. He bent down to tighten the laces on his shoes. He tightened the straps on his backpack and set off to work.
If Jai was asked what he loved other than music, his answer would be running. The complete freedom of nothing holding you back, the air breezing through his hair, and his rhythmic sound of his shoes slapping the concrete was exhilarating.
He got to the mining site just in time for his shift to begin. He was working the night shift and the owner of the site said it was legal because he was seventeen. He changed out of his black leather jacket and yellow shirt, and put on the white shirt required for construction workers. His blue jeans were a part of the uniform, and he didn't want to waste time changing, so he always had them on.
He got his hardhat and flashlight and walked down to the site. The guys greeted him as got to the site and started working on drilling.
"Hey Jai!" One of the workers greeted. "How's life?"
Jai smiled and responded. "I'm on top of the world, man."
Everyone laughed as they got back to work. After their shift ended, Jai stayed back since it was his night to check the perimeter. Just as he was about to finish, he heard an explosion, which was weird, because everyone was supposed to start the explosions tomorrow.
He set off in a sprint with his flashlight into the woods. He was running as fast he could in fear that someone was hurt.
He ran up to the site to find five teens arguing with each other.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MINDS?" Jai yelled.
The five teens stopped arguing as he came up to them. He recognized all of them, since he actually paid attention to the people around him in school and in town.
"Who the fuck did that?" Jai asked.
"This stupid idiot did." Zack yelled as he started to step towards Billy. Jason pushed him away and just before they could start throwing punched, Jai stepped in between them.
"ENOUGH!" Jai yelled as he pushed Jason and Zack away from each other.
Meanwhile, Billy was looking at what was left of his explosion.
"Hey guys, look at this."
Everyone looked to see some type of glass in the rock. Jai got his flashlight to look through. He and the others found six coins embedded in the glass. Each one was a different color.
Suddenly, Zack grabbed a pickaxe and started chipping away the glass. Everyone tried to stop him, but he just kept on chipping until the coins fell out.
Jai walked over as he saw the six coins. He saw one that felt like he was pulled to it. He picked up the gold coin with the white jewel while Jason picked up the red one, Kimberly picked up the pink one, Trini picked up the yellow one, Zack picked up the black one, and Billy picked up the blue one.
Just as they were examining their crystals, a siren and lights went off, signaling police coming up on the site. Jai was scared now, since the owner let him work here discreetly under the impression he was of legal age.
He looked to see the other five standing in place.
"Run you idiots!" Jai said.
They all went in different directions. Jai ran off into the woods, but couldn't get back to the lockers to get his back and stuff since patrol was coming from that direction. He started running for the tracks, since he knew of a different way to get home. He kept running until he saw a van approaching from the side with the door open. Jason held his hand out as Jai jumped in the van to find Kimberly and Trini with them and Billy driving the car. Billy was having some problems, so Jai told him to move over.
"Billy, move over. I know the way out." Jai said.
He got under Billy into the driver's seat and took over as Billy moved into the passenger side.
He maneuvered the van towards the railroad tracks. He saw that the patrol cars were getting closer and decided that he needed to get them off their trail. He found a small tower crane just off the side of the road. He quickly pulled the car close to it.
"Watch out!" Kimberly yelled as Jai drifted the backside of the van to knock the crane down. It fell just in front of the patrol car. Jai sighed as none of them had gotten hurt. Just then, the roof of the van dented in. Jason pulled Zack in as he jumped onto the van from the cliff next to them.
Just as they decided Zack was crazy, they all heard a train's horn. Jai looked to see a train rapidly approaching the tracks. He immediately stepped harder on the gas pedal despite Trini's remarks.
"We have no choice. They will catch us." Jai said as they broke through the barrier.
"We made it." Billy exclaimed.
Jai sighed right before the train crashed into the van out of nowhere. The last thing he remembered was Ira's face, right before he was pulled into the darkness.