Alas, I have no excuse for my hiatus. Forgive me.

Enjoy.

~Sorry~

His brother said nothing for a moment and then, in one steady movement, the other chipmunk leaned forward out of the shadows. Alvin saw then that his dress shirt was filthy and that the bangs on Simon's forward where damp and limp as though he too had been running in the rain.

"Alvin, didn't you?"

Hadn't he?

Alvin stumbled forward suddenly; his head reeling as the joints in his legs suddenly gave way. On is knees, He could feel his thoughts and memories slam against his temples before rebounding violently into each other, fervently pressing and blending like two lovers who'd been keep separate for too long.

This morning, he had already known that his car was in the shop. And that afternoon-in the hallway, had he not uttered the very location of his brother's cuff links? And how about his neck pain? His pills…Their Birthday…

Alvin felt the damp stiffness of his jeans press into the fur of his fingertips. Awareness caught him as he caught his bearings. Yes, he decided. He'd known. He'd had to. Marking it all up to a coincidence simply didn't make sense.

But…if he had known…

Alvin rose slowly, a new frightening thought leaping like electricity across his skin.

If he had known, then what had made him forget he had in the first place?

Alvin sent a trembling hand across his face and into the wet tangle of his bangs. Normal people didn't just wake up forgetting about car crashes! And they didn't just randomly overlook their own birthday either! Not at eighteen. Not him. Alvin couldn't recall ever forgetting his birthday before…

Did the crash damage him in some way that the doctors had missed? What about the pain killers? Was there something wrong with his dosage? Or…

His fingers tightened, yanking at his slippery roots. Or, perhaps there was something wrong with him?

Alvin saw again the sniffling trembling silhouette of Theodore bleeding into the loveseat that morning and turned toward the wet shivering silent form of Simon as though really seeing him there for the first time.

"Perhaps…"Alvin thought, meeting the feverish hoary headlights of his brother's eyes across the room, perhaps, there was something deeply wrong with all of them.

A deep sigh emitted from Simon then and Alvin watched, alarmed, as the taller chipmunk slumped forward in his seat. It wasn't until the he realized that his younger brother had simply dropped his head into his hands that he also noticed that the lights were back on. Despite the distinct rumbling he could still make out just outside…

The artificial lighting stirred something inside him, prompted his feet to move forward until he found himself in front of Simons lax broken body. He knelt, mind already steeled against the potent mint that pinched his nostrils and keenly aware of the audible crunch of the shiny sharp something that surrounded Simons chair. He could see now…

Under the new revealing light of the bedroom, Alvin could now see that his usually flawless particular brother was absolutely filthy.

His once white dress shirt was a smarmy mud streaked fabric soaked to the point of near transparency across his back and his black slacks were so caked with sludge and dirt that they appeared almost brown. Simon's thick rimmed glasses, Alvin noted, were missing as was his brothers ash vest and the tangled mat of the tawny chipmunks hair held all matter of twigs and unidentifiable debris within the still dripping locks. The cuffs, he noticed last as they were nearly buried beneath Simon's lowered head. One was still undone, withered and flapping uselessly. The other was gone completely. Torn away.

Worry hit him first as Alvin slowly extended his hand and then a deep sorrow that made him pause and fight against the sudden tell-tale tightening of his throat. God, what had they all become? He made to reach for his brother's soiled quivering shoulder…

and abruptly, Simon's head snapped up!

Dark inky pupils, black and endless seemed to bleed into the cracked splintered cinereal of each of Simon's irises. The result was a shaded menacing color, not unlike the sky just before some terrible storm. His brothers mouth opened, wide and angry.

"You LEFT me!"

A new smell hit Alvin then, a dank medley of storm and copper so terrifyingly familiar that the sudden intimacy caused him to gasp and scramble backwards unto his feet swearing. "I know!" he tried breathlessly, his back having found his bedroom door sooner in his panicked retreat than he thought possible. "Simon, I'm sorry-!"

"SORRY?"

In front of him, his brother was on his feet, straight as a board save his left hand which firmly clutched at the stretch of neck just below his own chin, as if the extra knuckled support was needed. The violent mixture of anger and storm that seemed to surround his form took Alvin right back to the time that started this mess…

By the time Alvin had neared the corner of Denmark and Kings Street, the storm had increased ten-fold and so had his anger. It lay festering beneath his fur like a heavy second coat. Rain beat heavily against his car windows and the quick heated furtive glances he keep shooting at his dashboard and his call log only hindered his already swimming view- the excess rain turning the world outside his front window into a swirling watercolor.

Fuming, the still damp teen stabbed at the cars windshield control only as an afterthought.

There had been three messages left on his Audi's phone system, two from Dave that he could only vaguely recall in passing, having rightly guessed that these had more to do with the way he'd shot out of their front yard and, in a fit of pure rage, had driven straight through the family garden. Not that that mattered to Alvin. His Audi was an industrial beauty that handled well, cutting through the shrubs like butter.

The last recording he had ignored completely. Next to the blinking call button was a visual call log with the name Simon.S on top and, next to it, a partially revealed message that read:

Out of practice. Waiting outside…

Alvin once again found himself staring harder at his dashboard than at the road ahead of him.

It irked him that his brother had seemed to have already predicted that he would press "ignore" and had chased his call with a text message as well. But then, that was Simon...

Again Alvin saw the hopeful look in Dave's eyes as he handed the cuff links to him, his fingers cupped as though he were dealing with something truly precious.

He was always seemingly one fucking step ahead of him…

A horn blared!

Alvin swore and swerved, narrowly missing the stream of pedestrians that were running across the street , each gray shapeless form just as eager as the next to find shelter from the booming thunder and pelting rain that rendered even the best umbrella obsolete. Reaching over his belt, Alvin rolled down his window and offered an apologetic wave to miffed drivers in front and behind him before he turned into an available space by a side walk. He'd reached the Theater hall quicker than he'd thought.

It still boggled Alvin that it had been through the will of Simon himself- not Dave- to secure a job at the Jr. Theatrics School. It was a community run program that, even with the rain obscuring his side window, Alvin could tell was really nothing much to look at. If anything, the smog seemed to improve it a little...

Alvin scanned the long stretch of yard, the storm was so thick that people passed by in black shadowed heaps that made both adult and child indistinguishable. They appeared and disappeared from his line of sight like ghosts against the grey rumbling sky. He was supposed to search for that dweeb in this mess?

He felt his temper flare again and sat back in his seat with a grunt. Also vexing was that the pious punk had bothered to actually fill out an application for the crappy school as though he couldn't have just waltzed right in and took the job just from star status alone. For what purpose, Alvin had absolutely no idea. He couldn't fathom three hours a day directing plays for a bunch of snotty–nosed kids. And for free at that! Dave, of course, was exceedingly proud...

A devious plan hit him suddenly. Alvin glanced down at his watch and was slightly surprised to see that it still worked. Five minutes he decided. If his brother didn't make himself known in the next five minutes…

Then he'd simply leave for the award show without him.

He'd just say the bespectacled chipmunk never showed, and since his brother was supposed to do the opening presentation speech at the show…Alvin imagined the millions of disenchanted would-be fans, the bad press and, most importantly, the disappoint on Dave's face when he realized that his perfect Simon just wasn't as reliable as he thought he was. A slow grin tugged at his lips.

A loud ghastly screeching pieced the air and abruptly ended his daydream, the jarring sound making Alvin jolt upright and reflexively grab onto the steering wheel, his heart pounding against his ribs. When he'd calmed down enough, Alvin leaned forward in his seat and squinted out the front of his car, glad that he'd decided to keep the windshield wipers going.

Just Ahead of him lay the aftermath of a horrible would-be tragedy. A dark mini van appeared to have not stopped at the stop sign and had instead plowed into the schools cross walk like he himself had almost done earlier. From what he could see, the driver had tried to hit the breaks but the inch of water on the road combined with the speed had instead caused the car to hydroplane, making it swerve over the entirety of the walk instead of in front of it. Any child crossing the road at that time would have probably been killed instantly. Luckily there appeared to have been no children crossing the road, which struck Alvin as odd. The light was red…

Swiping a palm against his fogging window, Alvin looked again and saw what he had missed the first time.

Right in front of the sidewalk, blocking the way to the crosswalk with two outstretched arms pushing backwards unto the crowd of children who would have been walking just as the car swerved into them, stood non other than Simon Seville.

Alvin could even make out the white of his dress shirt, the surrounding headlights making his brother glow like some saintly beacon. The only light spot in the tumbling storm rain and rabidly arriving adults who, like him, had wanted to know what happened. He slumped back, just as a rush of people sped forward past his car, a deep gnawing animal chewing at his insides.

He could see it already: Simon's face on the news where he'd proclaim, to the awe of the journalist and millions of viewers, that he was "No hero". The newspapers that would quote him in bold screaming black print. The engraved award he'd receive from the Jr. Theatrics School for saving the lives of some its students. The extra mention at the award show. The look in Dave's eyes…

In front of him, a man made as if to cross in front of the car and then appeared to change his mind.

And, just like that, Alvin made up his.

Alvin checked his review mirror, backed out of his space, and pressed the gas. He could just make out the concern on his brother's face as he passed him by.

He only made it to the next two lights before someone reportedly rear ended him into incoming traffic. All he could remember was the bright intrusive light, his back cracking against the window and that his world was suddenly spinning…spinning…spinning…

"I'm sorry for leaving you…you must have been so worried about me. I should have-… I'm so sorry."

Alvin opened the eyes that he hadn't even realized he'd closed and let out the breath he wasn't even aware he'd been holding. Squaring his shoulders he looked his brother straight in the eyes, they seemed to grow and waver like ripples in a pond.

"I'm sorry."

"You left me…"

"I'm sorry."

"No. You left me t-"

Alvin didn't realize that had backed into his bedroom door until three quick sharp knocks shot through the hollow oak and took hold of his ribs, rattling his torso. He leaped forward just before the door unexpectedly gave way.

"A-Alvin?"

He didn't have to turn to know that it was the youngest Seville inquiring by his doorway. He'd recognize the trembling pitched voice anywhere.

"I was c-calling and you didn't answer...A-Alvin?"

Alvin focused instead on Simon who, at some point had made his way back to the corner of his bedroom where he sat, his pale fingers digging in his dripping tresses and rocking himself gently back and forth.

"He'll be fine." He heard himself say, though for whose benefit he wasn't entirely sure. Alvin looked back at Theodore only to find that the youngest Seville's eyes had followed his- a look of pure distress absorbing his already wet face.

"He'll be fine." Alvin said again, closing the door behind him and heading down the stairs. He heard the soft tentative steps of his brothers stocking feet follow soon after-saying nothing.

This story is far from over...

Any thoughts yet? Have they changed? Still the same? Questions? Concerns?

review.