Renewal of Hope(Strength of Faith Sequel)

STANDING

The hot summer winds blew onto the four stone, unmoving heads of Mount Rushmore. Aside from that, the surrounding parkland was filled with a serene quiet.

At the top of the mountain, more stone and shrubs trailed through the landscape, and a few tents mostly belonging to holidaymakers, were sprawled amongst them.

"Big Brother"

Inside one of the tents, Rerun Van Pelt was kneeling beside his older brother Linus as he sat there, "Are you coming, big brother".

"Patience Rerun", Linus replied, as he got his shoes on.

"I know" the younger brother exhaled, "it's just not often we get to see the monument, let alone camp on top of it".

Linus nodded in agreement as they both got out of the tent, "Well, if it'll make you happy, try for that end of grade award I got. Then we'll get another rewarding trip out here.

He patted his brother on the shoulder as they got to the monument.

"Wow" Rerun marvelled at the view of the sculptures of the four president's, "I wasn't kidding. This looks amazing".

The two of them took it in.

"Do you know some of the history behind this" Linus asked him, "The presidents here were chosen for particular reasons. Washington's here for being the first president, but there's a place for Theodore Roosevelt thanks to what his…"

But Rerun wasn't listening in, still marvelling at what he was viewing. His brother nudged him on the shoulder.

"…you paying attention Rerun"

"I was"

At the new voice, Linus turned away from his brother to look at the now arriving girl who had spoken.

"Did you boys think you'd skip breakfast?" Lucy said to her brothers as she joined them.

The mention about skipping breakfast got the youngest's attention, and Rerun turned to go straight back to the campsite.

"Rerun…she never said it was ready…" Linus stopped as he realised he was too far behind them. Lucy nudged him relaxingly.

"Knowing him he'll come back" she noted, "now, as you were saying".

She continued listening to him for the next few minutes, as he spoke about the history of Theodore Roosevelt's two terms in the American presidency, and how he'd been included in the monument.

"You seem interested" her brother noted to her, and Lucy playfully gave him her own pat on the shoulder.

"Hey, you act like I don't care" she replied. Noise was heard as Rerun, by now had came running back.

And then as he got to his sister, they both saw the change in emotion, the dejection that came over Linus.

"This isn't real" he said softly.

Lucy straightened up and gazed at him, "What do you mean?"

"This" Linus gestured around them, "Rerun, we never went out here before breakfast".

Rerun now was also gazing at him, "But I don't get it, we did holiday here"

"No, you were not like this, little brother. We weren't on top of the monument"

Linus raised and pointed his finger slowly at his sister, "And you weren't here Lucy".

Lucy had not stopped gazing at him, and now a hint of a frown came on her lips.

"No" she muttered, "No I wasn't".

The gust of the air picked up suddenly, and all three siblings felt it's heat wash over them.

"…remind me why you and Rerun came here. That end of grade award, for standing…".

"Standing…up for…"

"For others?. No, you were standing against ME. ME"

Rerun looked between them both.

"You weren't here" Linus repeated, "You chose…I don't know what you chose, but it's not us"

Lucy raised both her fists, moved up, and pushed Rerun aside, who would've felt it if he didn't mysteriously fade away.

"I don't need him", she muttered, "I don't need you"

Linus wasn't moving his legs, but he was drifting backwards, about to go over the edge.

"You don't mean anything to me", he heard her say, "No one does".

And Linus saw the monument as he fell past it. Everything went black.

Rerun, once he saw nudging wasn't working, shook his older brothers side slightly. Linus opened both his eyes, and looked over from the bench of the school hallway.

"Sat down for a bit too long" he got up from the bench, disregarding the…hypothetical or something that'd come up in his mind, "Just had a… don't worry Rerun".

The two of them went down the hallway towards Rerun's classroom, Linus having told him that he would take him there today.

Once arriving at the classroom, the elder brother opened the door.

"Could've got that you know" Rerun told him.

"Okay" he explained, "I'm just trying to be a responsible…um".

"Older sibling", Rerun said what he thought would have finished the sentence.

"Yeah" Linus responded "that". After what his mind had brought up, he couldn't help but think on his own older sibling.

Meanwhile Rerun went and took a spot at the front of the class, before looking over at Linus.

"I'm fine Rerun" he said, before his brother could speak.

"Ok, so you're fine?"

"Of course" Linus said, as he almost hastily shut the door, repeating to himself. "Everything's fine".

But inside the classroom, Rerun was concerning that perhaps here, in this instance, some scepticism was warranted?.

A/N: And so it begins

I'm hoping that I'll be able to write this fic in a way that it can connect with the previous one in the series, but can also be read independently.

With that said, there's a spoiler warning for said previous fic :).

Hope you enjoy