Chapter 2: Signs that Foreshadow a Dark Future

Maybelle stayed up really late that night, waiting for Jess to come inside so she could ask him what was with his behavior the night before. She fell asleep with her light still on around 11 PM. Jess had yet to come back inside.

"Sweetie, wake up!" a voice whispered in her ear.

When Maybelle opened her eyes, her mother was standing there, urging her to get up and get dressed.

Maybelle was about to complain, when she happened to look over at Jess's bed.

She sat bolt upright and was immediately fully awake.

"Mom? Where's Jess?" she asked.

"He must've gotten up really early and left for a jog or something. You know how much he likes running. I think he might've said something last week about having another race today. Maybe he's just warming up," her mother replied.

"Yea, but you still haven't gotten him any new shoes, so he wouldn't risk something happening to these," Maybelle refuted.

Her mother just turned around and walked out of the room with an "I don't know, then. Figure it out for yourself".

Maybelle continued with her morning chores and activities, all the while wondering where the heck Jess was.

It wasn't until she reached the bus stop that she finally found Jess. He had large bags under his eyes, and his clothes were disheveled.

"What happened to you? You look terrible! Here, let me get the sticks and leaves out of your hair. What did you do, sleep out in the woods?" Maybelle asked jokingly as she pulled the leaves out of her brother's hair, but her grin faded when she saw that he was nodding.

"WHAT? Why the heck did you sleep outside?"

"Umm…well, I didn't really want to go into the castle, so I found a small clearing in the woods and fell asleep," Jess answered her.

"Why didn't you just come inside and do the smart thing?"

"Umm…well, dad wouldn't let me in the house. He said I had to learn a lesson."

"FOR BEING TWO MINUTES LATE?" Maybelle practically yelled.

"Not only that. There were some other things as well," Jess replied hesitantly.

"You're not going to tell me, are you? Well, it doesn't matter. Just, next time, tell sneak in through our window. It's not like dad ACTUALLY meant that you couldn't sleep inside. Why would he do that to his own flesh and blood?"

The question was rhetorical, but Jess answered anyways.

"He wouldn't. But I'm not his flesh and blood. Mom kinda had an affair with some guy she met in a restaurant that she went to right after she had a huge fight with dad and they were thinking about divorcement. So I'm technically your half-brother, not your full brother."

Maybelle was about to comment on this when the bus pulled up. She ran after him, and seeing how the back of his shirt was dirty, she attempted at wiping it off for him.

She was startled when he reacted to her touch and jerked away, a flash of pain flickering across his face.

Maybelle knew not to question Jess, but something was seriously wrong here.

'It's strange,' she reflected. 'With all of the bad stuff going on in Terabithia, I would've thought that things would at least be going right here in our world. I mean, I do need somewhere peaceful to turn to. Well, at least life isn't too bad here yet. Maybe I'll wait for a few days to pass and then question Jess on this strange behavior.'

If she had known that she might not ever get that chance, Maybelle would've sorted everything out right then and there. But as it is, neither she nor Jess could predict what the next few days had in store for them.