Zach was tossing and turning in bed. He was sweating and kicking around wildly. He then immediately woke up shooting into a sitting position. He was breathing heavily then felt a touch on his left shoulder. He looked over to who it was. It was Irene. She looked happy and supported a huge smile. Her ears were perky, and her tail was waving behind her.
"Hey Zack. I love you." She said it with a smile and a wink.
This caused him to smile back at the blue haired fox.
"I lo-," before he could get any farther Irene leaned forward and started to fall off the bed. He went with her and hit hard on the floor but caught her before she hit the floor.
"Irene are you okay?" He said staring into her blue eyes.
She reached up with her hand and stroked his face. When she did this, he noticed that her normally white shirt had a large red stain on it.
"Irene you're bleeding! What happened who did this to you!?" He said in a panic scream.
She didn't answer but only smiled back. Zack blinked and looked closer at her shirt.
"Irene these are large scratch marks. How did this happen?" He said in an even more worried tone.
Zach blinked once more. Then he felt an ice-cold breeze roll down his neck. He looked up and realized it was now night time. There was fire, destroyed buildings, Gunfire, clashing of weapons, Screams of the people, and the roars of the Grimm. He blocked all of this out and focused back on his love.
"Irene were going to find you some help. Just hold on. Please hold on!" He started to yell.
Before he could move to stand she placed a hand on his cheek, stroked it, and tapped his nose. Then with a final smile her arm went limp and her face turned back.
"No Irene you can't go you must stay." He yelled as he held her closer and tighter. "You have to stay with me." Tears started to form in his eyes. "Irene, I don't want to lose you. Please don't go." He tried to hold her tighter, but it didn't feel like he could. When he tried to her would just slip more. He looked through the tears to Irene, but she wasn't there. He looked up and through his watering eyes he could barely see. When he wiped his eyes, he realized something.
'Where's the screaming and the gunfire and the metal clashing.' He thought to himself. 'Where's the rubble and the broken school and the airships.'
There was nothing around him. Everything was black, and it was quiet. He continued to sob while holding his knees. Suddenly it felt as though the walls of black were slowly closing in on him. He made to scream but nothing came out. His mouth was open trying his damnedest to yell out, but nothing came forth. No air or sound. He tried once more and felt himself suffocating. He felt the walls closing tighter around him. He tried one more time with everything he had.
He shot up at his desk and yelled at the top of his lungs. His desk was drenched and so was the shirt he was wearing. His mother busted in the room as fast as she could. She saw her youngest son standing in his room crying and covered in sweat. She quickly took him in embrace.
As she started to stroke his hair she whispered, "It's okay. It's over. You don't have to worry anymore.
He continued to sob into her arms. He tried to speak but the words just came out as sobs. He tightened his arms around his mother and felt her body heat against him. This let him relax slightly and to somewhat get his outburst under control.
"I'm s-sorry you h-have to s-see me like this." He quietly said to his mom as he stayed in her embrace.
"It's okay sweetie. You don't have to be strong for me. I'm just glad you're here and safe at home." She softly whispered into his ear. This statement broke something inside of him
"Well what about my friends!" He yelled pushing away from his mother. "They're all gone." He began to exclaim as more tears started to come forth. "Their families don't get see them ever again! They were taken away from them and from me! So, I must be strong for them! I don't want to cry! I don't want to be useless! I don't want to be depressed! I want to be strong! How could I possibly be strong If I want to cry at the mention or thought of their names!?" He stared at his mother with eyes of sadness and anger.
His mother looked back for a minute. She then made a move to talk.
"Mom I don't want your pity. Please just leave me alone. Don't expect me for a while. I want to be alone." He said this in a monotone voice that scared his mother.
She quickly turned toward the door to leave. As she slowly opened the door she looked back to see something she had never seen in her son before. The sight scared her more than any Grimm ever could. She saw the look of someone who was done. A look of nothingness. A look of a man with nothing to live on for.
"I love you son." She whispered as she turned away and left the room shutting the door quietly behind her.
Zach continued to stand there for a while. He stood there for so long the sweat in his shirt had dried. He looked over to the clock on his night stand it said 6:00pm. He didn't know what to do but he did know he didn't want to go back to sleep.
He sat back down at his desk. He cooled down since his outburst.
'I'll probably need to apologize to my mother for yelling at her,' He thought sadly. 'I hope she isn't mad at me.'
He picked up the picture he found in the front of his journal and gave it a bitter sweet smile. He then propped the picture against some books near the back edge of his desk. He then grabbed his leather journal. He stared at it for a few moments. Then decided to open it.
The front page had a message from his mom on it. 'Happy Birthday Zach! Nothing is better than memories, so as you go through Beacon write them down in here. You may never want to forget them.'
'Why did my mom have to be right' He thought as he flipped the page.
The page was labeled, 'Entry 1 – It's My Birthday!'
The Entry beginning was, 'So this is a thing now. I was given this among a few more things for my birthday. I got this along with a 6-inch bowie knife from my dad, a necklace with a small vile of dust that glows from my brother, and finally an ukulele from my best friend,'
'I bet all of those are buried under rubble now,' He thought to himself, 'I don't know if the dorms got hit or not, but I loved the shit out of those gifts. Maybe one day I can go scavenge through the dorms one day.'
As he continued to think about his cherished items being destroyed his eyes started to water. He quickly shook his head and kept reading.
'Oh. Neal and I decided to take his dad's scotch for my birthday. It tasted strong but better than I thought it would. We just walked around town. We didn't do anything real exciting. But thinking about it now getting drunk the day before Beacon was probably a bad idea considering how early we must get up. Luckily, we packed early today so we would be ready tomorrow morning to quickly leave. I put all my presents in my luggage, so I could take them to Beacon. Anyway, I'm going to go to bed, so I can get a small amount of sleep tonight and I hope I don't have a hangover when I wake up. I can't wait to write more.'
'That night was a lot of fun. I don't remember if we ever got caught, but it wouldn't matter now because he's gone. It doesn't matter because he's gone. He's gone isn't he. I'll never see him again.' He pondered the thought more and more as he got more and more teary eyed until he finally started crying once more. He forced himself up and to his bed where he continued to cry and cry until he slowly fell asleep.
So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. He's finally starting to read through his journal. I want each chapter to between 1,500 words and 2,000 words. I see some stories and they'll constantly post chapters with 5,000+ words and it blows me away. I'll probably never have an upload schedule for this story, but you never know. It's just kind of hard with college and High school and extracurriculars. I'll try my best to update this as much as I can. I also got feedback on my story which I'm super grateful for. So, thanks to LightningLink for the review. Remember to give a review of the story and to follow and favorite.