The Lost Boys

Not My Only Reason

You may have heard of the Lost Boys and their fights with Michael and Sam Emerson. You may think Sam stopped them because he wanted his brother back. Well, it was. But it wasn't the only reason.

Alexis Walsh was a normal teenager in the eighties. She had black hair, deep green eyes, and was about an inch taller than the average teenager. She had an older sister named Vanessa, who, despite the 2 year age difference, looked relatively the same as her younger sister. They'd grown up very close to each other and shared generally the same interests. Sometimes they were mistaken for twins, which would always make Alexis laugh. Nowadays it would make her tear up at the thought of it.

It was a typical summer afternoon in Santa Carla, warm and bright, with the most beautiful sunset in the world. Alexis and Vanessa had been dying to go feel the warm sand on their toes, and the coldness of the ocean beating off of their skin. They had moved to Santa Carla two months ago, wanting to escape the boring city-mountain life of Utah and feel the ocean air. A simple vacation to the beach would have sufficed, but their parents decided to move all the way out here. They loved their parents, but they hadn't been able to leave the house once since arriving. Their parents insisted they helped with as much unpacking as they could before playtime could begin. Tonight was their first night out, and they were going to make the most of it.

Alexis sighed as she snapped out of her day dream. She hated the flashbacks to when they were a happy family. She hated them even more than she hated living here; it was turning out to be the worst. She never thought she would hate living in the one place she had wanted to be her entire life, but she did.

It was all because of her sister. Her sister had 'gone missing' shortly after they had gotten the privilege to explore the outside world. Her sister had abused it, and left without a trace. At least, according to most records. Alexis was unfortunate enough to know the truth, but she knew no one would have believed her if she tried to tell them.

So Vanessa joined the hundreds of other 'Have you seen me?' posters plastered all over the town of Santa Carla, and Alexis lost any hope of seeing the outside world before graduating high school. Her parents became overprotective, so scared she would make any moves similar to her sister. They unregistered her from the school she was going to start that year and home schooled her, and the only times she was allowed out were if she was in a place her parents trusted AND she was accompanied by one of them.

It was now a year since it happened. She was finally getting over it, and wanted her freedom back. It was summer, and she still wasn't allowed out of the house. She wasn't stupid like her sister had been, and she understood the dangers now. She just wanted to go to the beach again...

Alexis put down the book she had been trying to read for the past hour to no avail. Her mind kept wandering to the waves not so far from her house, calling her name. She looked outside her open window at the setting sun. It's been long enough that it shouldn't hurt to go out...right? She hadn't brought up leaving the house in nearly a month, perhaps they'd let her out, if only just for an hour.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she'd decided to ask her parents during dinner. She thought up what she would use to counter what her parents would say, and prove she could go out. She was so focused, she almost jumped when she heard the call for dinner.

She was surprised when her parents said yes almost right away. Apparently it was a topic they'd been discussing since she hadn't made any friends since moving here, and how it must be affecting her development as a teenager. There was a lot of junk in their speech she neglected to listen to due to the fact her parents said yes. She pretended to listen until they got down to the rules.

"Remember Alexis," her mother nagged. "You're only allowed a couple hours out. You'll have time to walk there, have fun, and walk home. No lollygagging, no drugs, smoking, or alcohol, and absolutely do not bring anyone home. We WILL know if you do."

Alexis nodded her head eagerly, knowing she wouldn't do any of those in the first place.

Her parents smiled at her and finished their meals. Once she had helped her mother with cleaning up dinner, she changed from her pajamas to casual denim jeans and an old t-shirt from a tourist lodge while they were camping.

She walked the short distance from her house, to the infamous boardwalk. She examined all the stores and watched all the weirdos walking about. From their hairdos to their fashion styles, the people of Santa Carla were certainly unique. She felt bad for judging all the people around her when she saw a comic book shop.

'Huh,' she thought. 'I swear last summer this was a diet frozen yogurt bar.'

She shrugged and decided to look around the shop to see if anything caught her interest. She wasn't much of a comic reader in the past, but didn't see the harm of getting into them now.

As she walked in, the eerie feeling of being watched fell over her. Looking around, she saw two boys who seemed roughly her age staring at her. She didn't care too much at first, brushing them off as usual Santa Carla populace. But as she kept looking at the comics, they kept staring at her. She hoped that if she ignored them, they would realize she wasn't that interesting of a person. She looked at the comics, quickly looking over the titles and brushing her fingers against any which mildly tickled her fancy. When she brushed over one with the title Vampires Everywhere!, she picked it up to look it over. It seemed interesting, and she was really thinking about buying it. That was until she looked up to see the boys look at her with increased interest. She sighed and put it down, walking around for another minute before finally speaking up.

"Do you always stare at your customers like this?" Alexis asked the two boys. They looked away and tried to look casual, but it was a fruitless effort.

They were roughly the same height, but one was just a bit taller that the other. The taller one had dark brown hair, a longish face, and his skin a darker tone to it. The smaller one had lighter hair with a red cloth tied around his forehead. His face was a bit chubbier the other boy's, which made him look a little childish. They were both pretty cute, but their fashion sense and the way they carried themselves reminded her of Rambo. She hoped to confront them and get out of the shop as quickly as possible, not really not really wanting to hang around Rambo the second and third.

"Alright, you caught us," The taller of the two said. The smaller one gave him a look that probably meant he had blown their cover. "We were watching you."

"May I ask exactly why?" she asked with a slightly annoyed tone.

"We were just making sure," Rambo the third asked.

"Making sure of what?"

He stopped to think, "Making sure we could trust you."

That was easily one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard. "Really?" she inquired. "What am I going to do? Rob you?"

The boys looked at each other, carrying a silent conversation of how to proceed. They didn't want to scare her off too early; they needed to get their message across her before she labeled them too harshly.

"Okay, you caught us again," Rambo the second told her. "We were wondering if we had seen you before."

"Unless you saw me last summer, I doubt you would have," she shrugged, letting her attention wander to the comics next to her.

"What does that mean?" Rambo the Third asked aggressively.

"It means I moved here last year and haven't seen the light of day since summer ended."

They gave her a strange, but oddly intimidating look; silently asking for her to continue on with her story. She picked up a comic she wasn't particularly interested in and flipped through it, hoping that if she seemed disinterested they'd leave her alone.

"Overprotective parents," she explained. "Didn't think I was safe after my sister disappeared."

The junior Rambos perked up, more interested in her than ever, to Alexis's dismay. "How'd she disappear?" the smaller one asked, trying hard to remain stoic despite his obvious excitement.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try us," the taller one challenged.

She looked at them, her focus switching from one boy to the other. There was something telling her that maybe they would understand. In this crazy city, there was bound to be someone who would, right? After a few seconds of deliberation, she put down the comic and stuck her hands in her pockets. "My name is Alexis Walsh."

"I'm Edgar, and this my brother Alan," the smaller boy said. "We're the Frog brothers."

"Now you gonna tell us what happened?" the taller boy, Alan, requested impatiently.

Shaking her head, she walked out. "Maybe another night," she replied quietly.

"But-!" Edgar called out to her, only to have his brother pull him back. They would have to wait until she was ready.

After Alexis finally got out of there, she walked along the boardwalk to see what else she could look at before having to head home. Not too far along from the Frog Brother's shop was a pretty hip looking video store. She hadn't really seen a lot of the movies that'd come out recently due to being locked up, so she decided to go in and check them out. She was busy looking around when an older man appeared.

"Excuse me, Miss, are you finding everything alright?" the man asked.

She looked up and quickly looked back at the movies, feeling intimidated by him, "Oh yeah, but I'm just looking."

"Okay, but if you need any help or anything, just ask me. My name is Max."

"Thank you," she said quietly, giving him a small smile.

"You know, I have never seen you before, you new here?" Max asked, trying to be friendly.

"Well, I moved here last year, but I've been home schooled and stuck at home," she explained.

"So this is your first night free in a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah," she laughed a little nervously.

"Well I hope that you have a great night. And if you ever need anything, just come on over and I might be able to be of some assistance," he said, giving her a genuine smile. She didn't know why he was giving her the creeps, he seemed normal enough. She brushed off her uneasiness and gave him a better smile back.

She thanked him and found her way out of the store. As soon as she got out she grabbed some ice cream and started her walk back home. Looking back at all the lights and sounds of the boardwalk, she couldn't wait to get back out there again. She wished she could have stayed longer, but if she hoped to come back anytime soon, her parents' rules had to be obeyed.

Her mind flashed back to when she and Vanessa were finally getting their freedom. It was so much fun, until they met him. After that her sister became reckless, and often tried to hide the things she was doing, even from Alexis. Of course their parents found out about him, but they didn't know the extent of his influence over Vanessa. It pained her to remember it all crumbling down, so she focused on finishing her ice cream while finding her way home.

The first thing she heard when she walked through the door was her mother's voice as she jumped out of her armchair to greet Alexis. Although they trusted her, they were still worried out of their minds that she would return safely. It was nice of them to worry, but she wished that they would tone it down just a little bit. They sat her down and asked her about her time out. She didn't go into a lot of detail, but told her parents about some particular shops she liked and some of the weird people she knew would elicit laughter from her parents.

When she was finally able to get out of the conversation and off to bed, she quickly ran up the stairs to her room and changed into a new pair of pajamas. She lied in bed for quite a while, just thinking about her short time out. She lay there for almost an hour before she was able to finally fall asleep, hoping for another day out really soon.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost Boys. As much as I would totally love to, I don't.