"Through the darkness to the dawn

And when I looked back, you were gone

I heard your voice leading me home

Through the darkness to the dawn..."

- Nobody Knows, The Lumineers

Aeron sat on the floor, playing with small pins of different colors and metals. The obscure shapes and strange figures fascinated his four-year-old mind, and he loved to play with them for hours. His favorite was the creature his dad called "Stinky the Stegosaurus." He made up different sounds for them as he galloped them across the room in different herds, each headed up by a special leader. Stinky was always the leader of the green group.

His mom sat watching him from the couch in their old living room, where the dream - or was it a memory? - was taking place. A strange expression painted itself into her features as she watched him - something akin to displeasure, or perhaps even anger. Little Aeron didn't notice and continued playing happily with the Prattles' Pins, but the older Aeron grew increasingly tense as the expression on his mother's face continued to sour. Finally she got up and marched over to Little Aeron, who was at that moment enacting a dramatic scene between the king of the water group and the queen of the fire herd.

"Please marry me!" the water king (a mix between a catfish and a seal) pleaded.

"I've loved you forever!" the fire queen confessed, standing on her head (Aeron never could tell one end from another).

"Oh no! The evil shadow soldiers! I'll protect you!" The water king threw himself in front of the queen just in time to catch a rubber band in his side. He immediately collapsed.

"My darling! Don't leave me! I shall heal you with True Love's Kiss!" The fire queen attempted to kiss the king but missed and mouthed his eye instead. But the king didn't seem to notice as he came to life immediately and said, "You saved me! Now we will live happily ever after!"

Aeron didn't notice his mother standing above him until she reached down and plucked the pins out of his hands. "Enough of that," she said frostily. "I don't want you breaking these."

"But Mommy," the four-year-old protested, grasping for his toys, "they still have to get married!"

Big Aeron watched in horror as Sophie slapped her little son. "I said enough," she said angrily. She gathered up the toys and tossed them back into their box as Aeron burst into tears. It didn't really hurt physically, but the poisonous root of betrayal taking root inside him all but made up for it.

As the image faded from Aeron's mind, a quiet whisper in a familiar voice bobbed on the surface of his consciousness.

You were a burden…

Disobedient…

Useless…

We never could've loved you.

That's why we left.

Aeron woke to the dull background noise of muffled voices, beeping machines, and - causing him to peel open his eyes - hushed weeping.

He was in the hospital. Again.

The most people he'd ever seen in one room rushed around - a team of doctors, at least ten nurses, and his entire family. His grandmother sat in the corner holding a tissue to her face. Aeron's grandfather sat next to her, trying to comfort her, but her weeping continued.

Aeron sat up and immediately felt all the contents of his stomach rush to his mouth. He choked, tried to hold his lips together, and failed. A less exhausted him would've been intensely embarrassed at the fountain of half-digested food that erupted from his mouth, but he simply finished gagging and lay back down on his soiled sheets, closing his eyes and hoping to fall back into oblivion.

Mixed exclamations of worry and disgust showered his ears as a team of nurses swarmed him, changing his sheets and removing his soiled overclothes. He heard worried questions as his family was hustled out of the room, his cousins asking questions and his grandparents protesting strongly. He felt strange instruments pressed against his body and frantic communication between the doctors as they checked his heart rate and every other bit of information the multiple machines told them. The words "rapid heart rate," "irregular mental stimuli," and "can't fix this," floated on the surface of his consciousness. He did not have time to comprehend their meaning before his mind took another deep dive into darkness.

It was hours later when Aeron woke again. He felt the presence of several nurses around him, tidying things up, adjusting settings on the machines that surrounded him, and making sure he was comfortable. He kept his eyes closed; his only desire was to be left alone.

But gradually he became aware of a more dominant presence in the room and of a familiar (but not comforting) voice directing the nurses to leave.

Aeron opened his eyes to see his uncle standing across from him, the last nurse disappearing from sight behind him. Neither said anything for a long moment.

Aeron met his uncle's gaze. At first, there was a veil over his deep blue eyes, but as Aeron continued to meet his eyes, the cover that his uncle continually wore fell away, and instead of the frustration and impatience that Aeron had so habitually observed in his uncle, there was only brokenness. Aeron found himself staring at a man who was suffering with the loss of the world he had known, his former family, his wife, and now his daughter. A man who had lost everything. It was heart-wrenching to witness.

Darrin slowly lowered himself into the chair next to Aeron's bed and placed his head in his hands. "I am so sorry, Aeron…" the next minute he was breaking - Aeron could see the visible struggle it was to hold in the pain - but it was too much - his shoulders began shaking and his breathing became ragged and labored - sobs caught in his throat and thrust themselves out of him in erratic bursts. Aeron said nothing - there was nothing to say.

They sat there like that for a long time.

When the first rays of sunlight had begun to filter through Aeron's singular window in bloody streaks of pink and orange, Darrin ran out of tears. Looking at his uncle's bent form, rendered pitiful beneath the powerful light coming through the glass, Aeron was moved to tell his uncle his plan.

"I'm going to find her," he whispered.

Darrin's head snapped up immediately. "Don't you even think about it," he said harshly.

Aeron was completely taken aback by the father's strange reaction. "What the heck do you mean?" he asked weakly.

His uncle was right in his face now, forcing him to look him in the eyes. Darrin's were extremely bloodshot, adding to the effect. "Don't even think about it," he repeated fiercely. "Those creatures that took her-"

Aeron squeezed his eyes tightly, curling into a ball as he wrapped his arms around his legs and pulled his knees up to his chin. The vivid details of the night before rushed through his mind, taking his breath away. The blank eyes; the unnaturally long arms. The cold hands.

Darrin gripped him by the shoulders and forced him to meet his gaze. "Look at me, Aeron," he commanded, his fear evident in his voice. "You cannot overcome them. You cannot save her. You know nothing about them or what they will do when you meet them again-"

"And you do?" Aeron whispered, trembling.

Darrin closed his eyes briefly as if reliving some old, buried memory - and Aeron knew the answer.

"I won't go."

"Promise me." When Aeron didn't answer him immediately, Darrin shook him. "Promise!"

"Alright - I promise!" Aeron squirmed out of his grasp.

Darrin stepped away. "Good." He released a heavy breath. "Help your parents. Help the boys."

As Darrin opened the door to leave, an ugly realization dawned on Aeron. "Wait - stop. You're not going, right?"

His uncle looked at him with an unreadable expression. Then he was gone.

"Darrin!" Aeron yelled after him.

There was no response.

Cursing under his breath, Aeron ripped his sheets off and heaved himself out of the hospital bed, staggering as nausea rippled through his gut. He started toward the door; then stopped. It would do no good. Darrin had made it clear that he would not let Aeron going; he'd also made it clear that he would not follow his own rules.

Therefore, Aeron didn't have to either.

With only a second of hesitation, he ran to the window and tore back the curtain. He broke the lock on the window, yanked it up, and dropped onto the fire escape outside.

Darrin had said that he didn't know anything about the creatures; he was right.

But there was someone who did.

iliveinalibrary: You are awesome! You have been literally the only one commenting on this thing for like three chapters... thank you so much for your support! Please tell me if there is anything I can do better! The support means SO MUCH