Author's note:

Hello everyone! Another day, another chapter as I say. I hope you all enjoyed the longer chapter, because I can't always create a massive one every time. I have priorities, ya know!

Anyways, this time some special things: We learn more about our characters, and their time in summer is coming to a close. Wanna know more?

THEN START READING!

Chapter 7: Ending of Summer

I was sitting down on a tree-stump, my hand fiddling with the knobs of the guitar in my other hand. I worked out the right tone before starting, my hand moving across the strings swiftly. I played a simple, relaxing tune. I kept going like that until I heard a branch crack behind me. I turned around, a smile on my face at who had dared himself closer to me.

My son, Archer.

"Daddy, when can I play on the guitar?" He asked, his hands fiddling behind his back. I giggled at my son's timidness.

"Come here." I said, gesturing him to come and sit on my lap. He quickly sat down, my guitar in front of him. I took hold of his small hand and guided it to the strings.

I started guiding, his hand softly going across the strings. The tone wasn't right yet, but I could hear something coming.

I was suddenly surprised to feel the little hand reaching outside of my grasp, the tone getting better to near-perfect. I looked down at my son, his eyes closed and his hand moving across the strings of my guitar, playing a soft and kind melody.

I laughed. 'Of course he's better then his father.'

"And? How was I?" He asked, his eyes looking into mine with that glisten so unique to him.

"Wonderful, son. Wonderful." I said, not knowing another word to describe how proud I was at my son.

"Wonderful."

Wonderful.

I heard my fathers words echo through my head as I played on the old guitar in my hands. I was playing that one melody I played when I was younger. It was something that seemed natural to me.

I heard something move next to me and opened my eyes, a pair of kind, shy purple eyes looking towards me. The girl noticed I was now looking towards her, and she looked away, a blush on her cheeks.

I was sitting on the picnic-bench of the park in the forest. Andrea was sitting on the grass, now keeping herself busy with talking to Sky, who was telling her about the things girls do in our world. Rayleigh was using a stick he had found in the bushes as a makeshift sword, swinging in the air. Tyler was typing away on his laptop, busy working on yet another one of his simulations. But there was one thing that made the group so different.

It was the girl with gray hear, black robe and leather wings that was sitting in a nearby tree, her legs swinging back and fore.

Her name was Erin. She was the friend that Andrea had tried to save from The End. She was in our world for a whole week now, but these were the few moments we got outside. She was able to hide her wings, but it took time before she could actually hide them for a whole day. She was still recovering from her entering into the Real World.

Turned out that she had lost a lot of strength when she had faced her 'mother' during their first attempt to escape. It would take a very long time for her to regain that strength. Very long.

Luckily for us, not forever. She would have it all back by the week after next week. And not a day sooner: In three weeks the summer-vacation would end, and that was also going to be the first day of school for the girls. Ever.

We had decided that it was best for them to go to the school I, Tyler, Sky and Rayleigh were going. That way, we could watch them. I had already finished filling the forms, Sky using her arts-skills to replicate the handwriting of my mother. She wasn't going to be home any time soon, anyways.

'Of course not if you're working in a country at the other side of the world.'

I decided to play a different tune and started playing a more energetic melody. Tyler his tapping stopped, the blond turning to listen to the melody. Rayleigh took a break from swinging in the air and turned his face to listen to the melody. Sky and Andrea stopped talking, closing their eyes to focus on the music. Erin jumped from the tree, using her wings to soften her decent. They were all like that, listening to my melody, until I reached a part that was like a famous song.

"Hello, it's me." Sky started, her voice reaching the right heights.

"I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet." Tyler followed, not making any bad mistakes with the notes.

"They say that time's supposed to heal ye." Sky continued after whispering something to Andrea, who had a small sirk on her face. I shrugged that of and continued playing.

"But I ain't done much healing." Andrea suddenly finished the first part, causing me to stop. I was surprised how good she was able to control her voice, reaching the right notes and getting the tone just perfect.

"That was amazing. Maybe you should start a band or something?" Rayleigh said, having stopped with his practicing. I could see Tyler and Sky thinking about that. It didn't seem like a bad idea, actually.

"I can play on a keyboard." Tyler said, still a bit in thought.

"And I'm good with drums." Sky said, mimicking the movement of a drum-player in the air.

"I've got what I need for the guitar." I followed, holding up my fathers old guitar. 'But not this one.'

"Then, who's going to be head singer?" Rayleigh asked, now sitting next to Tyler. We all looked to each other until an idea popped into my mind. It was brilliant, but also risky. My eyes darted towards Andrea, who had been following our conversation. Sky and Tyler followed, until we were almost all looking at Andrea, who looked around until she knew what we were trying to say.

"Me?"

We all nodded. Andrea got nervous, her fingers starting to twirl around themselves. I could see she wasn't having it well under this kind of pressure.

"If you want to." I said, trying to assure her that we weren't expecting her to accept. She nodded and took a deep breath.

"I-I think that... that's a great idea." She said, trying to sound enthusiastic. I could see she wasn't very sure, so I came from my spot on the picnic bench and sat down next to her. She looked at me with a questioning look, and I grabbed her shoulder.

"You don't have to do this. We really understand if you're afraid."

Andrea looked at me with those eyes. Those eyes that showed admiration, trust. That showed she was calming down. Those eyes I loved so much. But then, they turned sad.

"I want to. I want to help you, but... I'm afraid I'll screw up." Andrea said, her head now hanging down. That was the kind of face that pained my heart. I felt that she was afraid of failing us. We were putting to much on her shoulders.

"What do you mean? You're voice is beautiful! You can't screw this up. And even if you make mistakes, that's only human! Come on, give it a chance!" Sky said, hugging the Endergirl. Andrea smiled at the embrace of her friend, realizing that we didn't expect her to be perfect.

"You can only get better with time." Tyler said, now standing next to me. I nodded, all of us smiling. Andrea her eyes glittered. She wasn't alone. She had us.

"So, what do you say?" I asked, putting my brightest smile up. She giggled before nodding. We started to laugh, happy that our friend was with us. This was going to be the best thing ever!

Rayleigh smiled before turning to his training. Erin was standing on his usual spot, holding the stick he was using a minute ago and he had dropped, in her hands.

"You know, when I first came into this world, I was worried that no one would accept us. But, instead we have a group of friends to rely on. This couldn't have turned out any better." She said, throwing the stick in the air before catching it with her other hand. Rayleigh smirked at the Dragon-girl's remark, who smirked even harder at that. Erin turned to us, me catching her staring at us, but avoiding to make eye-contact, Erin not aware I heard what she had said.

Perspective: Andrea

I had the best friends EVER!

Tyler was of to his house, the first to split from the group. We waved goodbye until we started going on, walking down the beautiful path in the forest. Sky and Rayleigh were the next to leave, as they were staying in a motel nearby. We waved goodbye to the siblings.

Now it was just me, Archer and Erin. My BFF was jumping across a few rocks at the side of the path, using her wings sometimes to get across a large gap. I saw Archer pay attention to her, but he quickly brushed the acting of my friend of and stared into the forest. I could see in his eyes that he was thinking, the clockwork that seemed to be hidden behind his eyes starting to run. I giggled a bit as he almost tripped over a rock in the path, causing his thoughts to be interrupted.

We finally reached his house, that looked amazing from the forest, with the sun lowering behind the trees to the right. It wasn't a big house: It had a bathroom, two bedrooms after Archer had cleared the spare room in the back, a living room directly connected to the dining room and kitchen, a small attic, and a small porch at the side. We left the path and walked to his house, passing the old shed of Archer's father. We were walking across the path to the back-door, Erin the first to reach it. She waited until Archer arrived, taking the keys from a pocket in his jacket. At the moment he had unlocked the door, she almost literally busted the door open and ran inside.

"First!" She yelled, running towards the back of the house and into her room, leaving me and Archer alone in the living room. We stood like that, not knowing what to do. My stomach growling caused me to blush a bit, reaching to my belly. I swear I heard Archer giggle before he headed into the kitchen, opening the fridge to grab what he needed to make us a dinner. I walked to the sofa standing at the edge of the dining room, facing the TV standing on a table against the back-wall. A small coffee table was standing in between, a few empty glasses standing on it. I looked to the old closet standing against the left-wall. It was made of old wood, possibly of Archer's great-grandfather, he said. On it was a small vase holding a lilac. Archer said he got that from his mother, and he keeps it healthy and blooming. I smiled at that thought, seeing how much he loved his mother even though she was in a whole different country.

I had learned much talking to Archer, Sky, Tyler and sometimes Rayleigh. I had learned about the history of their town, where around a few hundred people lived. To me that was a lot, but when they told me that their town is the smallest of the whole country, I realized just how many people there have to be living on this world! Archer told me that he and Tyler were living pretty far from the actual town-centre. The motel where Sky and Rayleigh were staying was actually very far from the town-centre too. The real town was a few miles away from them, and that they needed to take a bus to reach the school in the town, or anything else civilized, by that matter.

I sat down on the sofa, something stabbing me in the back. I jumped up, only to see that it was the TV-remote. I grabbed the peculiar device, remembering what Archer told me about it. Tyler had tried to explain before, but he went so far in the tech behind it that my mind was spinning, just thinking about everything behind it making me dizzy. I noticed the button on the top and pressed it, the TV behind me turning on. The screen turned on, showing a woman talking to two others, in a big city.

"Maddie's friends. It's a very famous reality-show on TV. I don't really get the point, though. It literally only goes about the daily misadventures of three friends in the city, no action or anything else whatsoever." Archer explained to me from the kitchen. I nodded and investigated the remote, spotting an arrow pointing up, with 'CH. UP' standing next to it. I tried it out, and the screen changed to show a woman talking about the weather.

"-Tomorrow it can be cloudy with a chance for rainfall. I do have to warn the people living inland, as the weather there can turn to a serious storm. Have caution is my advice.-"

"Can she really predict what the weather is going to be?" I asked to Archer, looking at the woman as she babbled on about the weather of the next week.

"Not predict, more 'accurately guess'. My father taught me how to predict the weather. Dark clouds from the west means a heavy storm and no clouds from the north means colder weather. I think that clouds from the east stood for sunny, and warm." Archer explained, busy cooking something in the pan on the stove. I nodded in understanding before using the same button the change the channel again.

This time, there was nothing but darkness. I was scared that I had broken the TV, until a monster jumped in the screen, scaring me half to death. Archer looked up, but started laughing. I turned to him with a glare, causing him to stop laughing.

"That's a movie about a monster hunting people in a far-off town. I saw it once, but believe me, it isn't that scary. The monster is made with the computer, it isn't real." Archer said, only to realize the message that came along. I rose an eyebrow at him, The brown-head now trying to correct himself. I started laughing at his failed attempt to correct his sentence, Archer soon joining in. We stopped, tears in my eyes of laughing. I heard a door open and saw Erin walking into the living room, a questioning look on her face. I turned to the TV, only to be scared again by the monster, who had jumped into screen yet again. I quickly grabbed the remote and shut the TV off, the screen turning black.

"I don't think I like that movie that much." I said, panting a bit from my second scare today. Archer giggled, but he didn't laugh this time. Erin just kept looking at us with a questioning look.

"What did I miss?" She asked, causing us to start laughing. She looked at us with the biggest questioning look she ever had, causing me to laugh even more.

"Not much." I said before going back to laughing.

Perspective: Sky

We reached to motel, the old sign flashing on and off. It was that kind of old, broken down motel from the 60's that hadn't seen a good customer since the 80's. The old neon billboard standing at the edge of the small car-park was ready to fall down, the pole filled with dents. The sign flashed once again, paining my eyes a bit. We finally reached the room we were renting. It was a two-person room, the door leading into the bedroom immediately. 'A place where privacy is underrated.'

I went to the bathroom and used the working sink of the two to wash my hands, some of the honey from the pancakes we had from lunch still sticking on them. I remembered how Erin and Andrea had almost eaten half of them. I couldn't blame them. Pancakes isn't something you can make in Minecraft.

Rayleigh dropped onto his bed, causing some dust to lift of. I had guessed that the room wasn't used since the turn of the century, having caused my brother to laugh, something he didn't do that often. Not after... The incident.

I shrugged the thought of and finished washing my hands, leaving the old, molded soap-block on the counter for what it is. I went to the low closet standing underneath the only window the room had. It wasn't of much use, as we discovered that the curtains hid the brick wall that was build against the motel, blocking off any sunlight. 'Like the place is designed for a vampire.'

I opened the top-drawer and grabbed my pyjamas, not in a rush to sleep though. I wanted to scare Rayleigh a bit by changing so quickly, but I was wrong though, as he had left the room. I changed anyways, waiting on my bed for him to return.

After about half an hour he came back in, holding a bag from which a nice scent escaped. I licked my lips from the scent, what turned out to be Chinese from a nearby restaurant. We ate well, although the scent was better then the taste. I threw the bag into the trashcan standing next to the door leading outside, the only thing that seemed to be taken care of by the motel-owner. The sun had gone down by then, the stars and moon starting to light the sky. We decided to call it a day and went to bed.

"Goodnight." I said, turning the lights off.

"Goodnight." Rayleigh responded, turning around in his bed to face the pointless window. I tried to fight the sleep for a little bit, but decided to give in and my eyes closed, my head resting on the old, muff pillows.

'We really have to find a better spot to sleep next time.'

Perspective: Tyler

I reached my house quite fast. It wasn't to hard to find, even though of its small size. My parents were divorced, so I had decided to live alone quite fast, buying a small, old yet recently renovated farmhouse near my, back then, new friend, Archer. I opened the door with the only key for the whole house. Turned out the old owners had changed all the locks to the same one, so it was easier to get around! I hadn't thought about changing, the idea always coming about as bad.

I closed the door behind me and took in the smell. If entering the house from the front, you would enter into a small divide between the living/dining room and the kitchen. I put the lights on, the sun outside already setting. I grabbed some things from the new fridge, putting a pan on the stove. Everything inside was bought with money my parents had given to me to get a good place to live. They thought I would buy a massive place, but I decided to exchange size for quality, leaving me with a one-person house and new stuff almost everywhere. A few pictures were scattered around, some showing me with my parents, but many showing me with my new friends. A very recent one was hanging in the divide, showing me with Archer, Sky, Rayleigh, Andrea (who was standing suspiciously close to Archer) and Erin, who had used her wings to tower above the rest, and also to hide them behind our heads.

I finished preparing my diner and put the plate down on the small dining table. I dug in, eating fast yet taking in the decent flavour. I wasn't an impressive cook like Archer, but still I could make things that were eatable and taste decent. I finished eating fairly quick, putting the plate on the counter in the kitchen, next to the rest of the dirty plates, glasses and cutlery. 'I really have to start cleaning that up.'

I sat down in the small sofa standing before the TV that was hanging from the wall, a small coffee table in between. A vase with a few petunia's was standing on it, a few showing that they would need water soon. I took a mental note of that and turned the TV on, the screen going to a movie that was going on.

"Monster-hunts 3. Great!" I said when suddenly a monster jumped into the screen. It didn't catch me off guard though, instead making me laugh.

"They really need a better animator."

Perspective: Unknown

I gazed down on the small town that was at the bottom of the hill.

'So, this is where we're moving to? It looks like time stopped in this place in the wrong era.'

I started walking down the old, worn path. It passed a few spots for people to relax, but the sun was setting and everyone had left to their houses. A flock of birds flew through the air, all of them searching for a place to sleep. I shrugged and kept going, reaching a bridge crossing a small river. Across the riverbed I could see branches, and noticed a sign.

'Caution! Beaver-habitat nearby!'

I gave the sign another look, noticing that the letters were rather new, compared to the rest of the place. 'Probably the act of a nature-activist.'

I started walking again, stopping at a road-junction. A gas-station was on one side, a motel with an old neon-sign on the other side of the road. A car passed by, but didn't regard anything that it passed, crossing the junction, which I noticed didn't have any signals.

'Bad mayor to leave this place so worn down.'

I reached a clearing, a picnic bench standing in the middle. A stray stick was lying on the ground, a few splatters of water on the bench. I noticed that the place seemed used, recently. I decided to leave the place, a strange feeling going down my spine. I walked across a very overgrown path, passing a house that was in the middle of he woods, an old shed the only detail that caught my eye. I kept walking and reached the road, a crossing leading to the remainder of the path. I kept walking, deep in thought, until I heard something. My eyes went to the left, only able to catch the front of a truck before going dark, a hard pain vibrating through my body. Everything went dark, and I felt the feeling of my surroundings fading into nothingness.

'Shit.'

Can any of you gues what will happen next? Remember to leave a review if you like!