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rowanstories-blog · 7 years

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The Roles We Play

"Time to get us some grub! Now remember kids, play smart, play safe, and don't go into my office!"

The trio of kids mouthed the words as their father said them. After hearing him say the exact same words more times than they could count, which was not just because they hadn't learned numbers above 50, they could hear it in their minds and parrot it back with no effort whatsoever.

To any other children, the addition of "don't go into my office" would inevitably lead to just that. The Morrison children were no different. The third time they heard that phrase, curiosity overwhelmed them and led to a clumsy romp through the forbidden space. It was then that they found... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Papers here and folders there, but none of the secret pet dragons or superhero supplies that they expected with all of their naive hearts. They went in a few times more, just in case, but after several journeys into the room proved to be a waste of time, the three gave up entirely. They could not tell their father that they had absolutely no interest in the boring room, however, because then he'd know they had seen it and found it boring, so they instead gave bored glances at one another as their father went down the hall and vanished out the front door.

"What now?" asked Marco, with the confidence and leadership that he gathered in his twelve lived years.

"We could play Princess Criminal," Maria offered, testing the waters with her brother, knowing the two year age gap between them could lead to her ideas being veto'd for no other reason besides her comparative youth.

"Ugh, I don't wanna," Max groaned back, accepting that, at age seven, his ideas would never be listened to, so all of his power went into complaining about the current options his two older siblings debated.

Marco nodded. "Princess Criminal is for ten year olds," he explained to the ten-year-old Maria. "We've got to go on more mature adventures than that!"

"Mature?" Maria asked. "Do you even know what that means?"

"I do! It means there's guns and swears and stuff! I saw it on the back of Dad's videogame," Max shouted, beaming with the pride of sharing knowledge.

"We could go into Dad's office again," Marco wondered aloud.

Maria and Max groaned continuously, leaning closer to Marco and getting louder until he got the point.

The three ended up collapsed on the couch, all watching whatever Marco, as the Remote Overlord, wanted to watch. The past few months led to this exact scenario playing out on repeat. Their mother's later hours at work and their father's chores after he came from his job left an hour gap where neither parent ruled the household. At first the sudden freedom filled them with unbridled joy, but after a few weeks the freedom became normalcy, the desire for adventure fading away in routine.

Just before Max could complain for the eighteenth time about the show Marco chose, the front door creaked open. They heard the familiar sound of high heels dropping onto the floor. The force that the heels hit the ground always gave them an idea of just how much nonsense their mother had dealt with that day. Judging by the harsh clack followed by a bit of clatter, her day had been exceptionally annoying.

"What a day," their mother sighed as she made her way to the living room. "How're my kids doing? Are they behaving over here?"

"Marco's making us watch turd," Max whined.

"That's not how you use that word!" Maria complained.

"This show is good and he's just trying to annoy me!" Marco shouted.

"Never change, kids," their mom said with a laugh.

When their father returned minutes later, the five of them sat down for the dinner he had bravely ventured out to get: pizza and pasta. Their dad monitored the boxes and take-out bowls as they piled food onto their plates, reminding them to come back for seconds instead of taking too much and letting it go to waste. Their mom sat at the table with a single slice of cheese pizza, eyes unfocused.

"I'm sorry," their dad said, seemingly unprompted. "I planned to cook the hamburgers tonight, but-"

"It's not that," their mother said, looking up and returning to reality. "It's just... work stuff." She said the second part after a hesitated look at the children around her, all only listening to the sound of their own chewing on the cheesy carbs around them.

Their father took his seat next to his wife, with only pasta on his plate. The kids never understood how a man could not like pizza, and at one point doubted whether he really could be their dad because of it. Once their mother commented that his dislike meant they could have more pizza to themselves, they quickly dropped the subject, allowing him to enjoy pasta in peace once more. "More rude support tickets again?"

"That's a given, sweetie," their mom said with a muffled laugh. "No, it was Ian again."

Their dad put down his fork with a furrowed brow. "What happened this time? Is HR involved?"

"He snuck a book into my purse when I wasn't looking." She sighed. "He didn't sign it though, so I can't prove it was him. But he did it, I know it. He's always trying to give me gifts like he's some kind of sugar daddy!"

"Is Dad a sugar daddy?" Max asked through a mouthful of pizza.

"Does that mean he's made of sugar?" Maria asked, eyes wide.

"No kids," their father said, trying to hide a wide smile. "A sugar daddy isn't made of sugar, it's like... a guy who gives you gifts."

"Like Santa!" Marco proudly concluded.

The two parents tried hard to stifle their laughs as they told the kids to forget the whole thing. At first their young minds refused to let it go, but after a quick bribery to the tune of a whole extra cookie after dinner each, the three ate their cheese and bread products in relative silence.

---

Just before bed, Maria skipped her way toward the shared bathroom, looking forward to playing with her new singing toothbrush. Between her room and the bathroom were many doors, but only one was partially ajar: the parent room.

"Let's just throw it away," she heard her mother say.

"But what something more happens?" her father asked. "It could be evidence."

"I can't prove it was him, though."

"Maybe we should take pictures at least?"

Maria loved pictures. She especially loved pictures of her, all dressed up in the fashion of the kid world. Tonight she donned a horse-pattern nightgown, one of her favorites ever since her aunt remarked that it made her look even cuter. She bounded into the room with a huge smile. "I want a picture!" she declared, ready to model.

"Oh sweetie," her mom said from her seat on the bed, wiping her sleeve across her puffy eyes. "We weren't talking about that kind of picture."

"But we can take some pictures of you tomorrow, if you want," her dad added.

Maria turned to face him and agree to his proposal, which is exactly when she noticed something in his hand. A small book, with painted vines along the spine. Between his fingers she could make out the image on the cover being some sort of wizard stand-off, with one of the characters standing next to a beast she couldn't identify. "A book!" she declared as soon as her brain worked out what she saw. "I want to see!"

Her parents shared a concerned glance. During that moment of distraction, Maria ran up to her dad and tried to grab the book from his hands. Pulling it down, she could see the cover clearly: two characters, a knight and a wizard, fighting against another wizard next to a huge beast, the colors of the characters bright and vibrant, standing out clearly from the dull, aged material of the cover.

Her dad quickly pulled it away and held it up, out of her reach. "Woah now, this book is your mother's," he said.

She turned to face her mom. "Mom, can I see the book?"

"You want to read it?" her mom asked with surprise. None of her children showed any sort of interest in reading before.

"Does it have magic in it?" Maria asked, ignoring the question entirely.

Her dad brought the cover down to face level, investigating it. "I... guess?" he answered, with all the certainty of a student who hadn't studied at all for a test.

From Maria's point of view below him, she could only see the back cover, which, instead of English, had a blurb area filled with little nonsense symbols. Whatever the language was, it was clear that her dad couldn't read it either. The mystery only increased her interest and excitement. "I want it!" she began to chant, a trick she saw her friend use in a supermarket to get a candy bar once.

"Is it even appropriate?" her mom asked over her chant.

"I don't know, the back's not in English. Must be a misprint or something." her dad shrugged.

"We can't just give it to her, what if it's all blood and gore?"

"Blood and gore!" Maria chanted even louder than before.

"Maria, Maria, honey," her dad said as he got down on his knees, now on eye level with her. She quieted down. "How about... I read it first? And then we'll give it to you. Just to make sure it won't bore you, okay?"

Maria considered his idea. "Okay," she decided after minutes of internal deliberation.

"Perfect!" He got up, placing the book on the top of a shelf drawer above her reach. "Now how about you get to bed?"

She complied, mind swimming with ideas about wizards and beasts battling it out on the pages of the book.

"Are you really going to read that?" she heard her mom ask as she exited the room.

"Yeah, why not? It's ours now, might as well. You can tell Ian that your husband is loving his gifts!"

Maria heard a groan from their room as she closed the bathroom door. Moments later, her toothbrush brought the tunes of Miley Cyrus directly into her skull, driving out all thought of the book.

---

The weekend came and went as it always did for the Morrisons. Their mother, off work for a blessed two days, would take the kids, unencumbered by the demands of the educational behemoth, out on trips to the movie theatre, or the park, or the mall, or anywhere else they could imagine and reach in their decade-old minivan. Their father locked his office and went to work, emerging only for bathroom breaks and to grab a bit of whatever their mother left out for him. The kids understood that their dad didn't have a weekend like they or their mom did, so they did their best to find other places to be so he could have the house to himself as he worked on things they didn't entirely understand.

They returned from school on Monday to find that, instead of being out to greet them in the living room as usual, their dad was nowhere to be found. After a quick look through the house, they determined one place that he could be which they had not yet checked.

Marco hesitated, but gave the office door a knock. "Dad?" he called out, two siblings hiding behind him, too scared to speak, but too curious to leave.

"What?" a voice barked out. The difference of tone between this voice and their dad's usual speaking voice made them instinctively back up and huddle closer together.

"Dad, we're home," Marco said. "Are you still working?"

No response.

"Dad, what's for dinner?" Max yelled, his fear outmatched by his short attention span.

A few seconds passed in silence. Suddenly the door swung open, their father barging out, his clothes hanging loose on his body and covered in stains. His eyes, bloodshot and with deep bags under them, stared down at the trio of kids, now shoved up as close as possible to each other. "Food, food, I'll get the damn food," he mumbled as he walked around them, put on his shoes, and went out the front door.

It took several minutes before the kids felt safe enough to release their protective huddle on one another.

"Why is Dad mad?" Max said through tears.

"Maybe his work is bad," Marco pondered aloud. "Or someone messed with his computer stuff again, he hates that."

"Maybe he doesn't like the book," Maria added.

The two brothers looked at her. "Book?"

"He's reading a book for me," she said, a hint of pride showing through her voice. "He's making sure it'll be good before I see it!"

The brothers glanced at each other. Why didn't they get a book?

"Well if it made Dad so mad it must be awful," Max sneered, trying to bring Maria down a notch.

"Is not!" Maria declared, feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Is too!" Max said, accepting her challenge.

Before the war could begin, Marco put a hand up between them. "Guys. Guess what?" he said.

The two couldn't resist the allure of the age old question. "What?" they said in unison.

"Dad didn't say not to go into his office this time."

The three stood in silence for a moment, all looking at one another. Previously, their dad always said not to go into his office, and when they went it was boring. This time, he didn't say not to go, which is the opposite of the usual. Following that logic, the second statement, the status of the office, would also be an opposite. The three reached the same conclusion at the same time. Clearly something cool was in the office.

The siblings forgot their previous fear of their dad's strange behavior as they rushed into the office.

"We're not going to find a dinosaur," Marco said as he turned on the lights, trying to prevent hopes from getting too high.

"You don't know that!" Max yelled from near the bookcase, unwilling to change his expectations.

Maria hopped onto the chair behind the desk to get a good view of its contents. "My book!" she yelled. The others ran over to it as she picked it up from its place in the middle of the desk, losing track of which page her dad left it open on.

"What's it about?" Marco asked, entranced by the action-packed cover. A wizard and a knight fighting against a snarling beast and a... ghost? Marco couldn't really tell what the faded character next to the beast was supposed to be. Unlike the other characters, the one next to the beast had faded somewhat, making its features hard to identify.

"I don't know, but Dad says there's magic in it!" Maria said with a huge smile.

"Well then, I wanna read it," Marco shouted, reaching out for the book.

"No way, it's mine," Maria refuted, using her added height on the desk chair to keep it out of his reach.

Max lost interest and walked away, continuing his search for dinosaurs, or at least their eggs. Even a footprint would be better than nothing, and it certainly would be better than reading. He did enough of that in school.

Marco groaned, realizing Maria had height advantage, which trumped his age advantage. "Can we read it together?" he asked.

Maria hmmed and hawed for a bit, making Marco squirm as she dramatized the act of thinking. "Yeah okay," she agreed. "But I get to turn the pages!"

Marco reluctantly agreed, and she dropped down off the chair and took a seat on the floor. Marco sat beside her as she opened the book and the two began to read.

---

Marco blinked and found himself outside, in the middle of a dirt path. People bustled around him, mostly walking, but some on wooden carts pulled by strange creatures. The building around him were made from stone with straw rooftops, and each one had a tent with various products underneath, such as food or pots. As he looked around him, mind still adapting to the sudden change of scenery, he felt someone pull him to the side.

"Marco!" Maria yelled from beside him, forcibly turning him to face her. He immediately noticed her clothes, before a simple t-shirt and skirt, but now a colorful robe.

"Maria!" he replied. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," she said with worry. She started speaking again, but instead yelped and hid her face in his chest. He looked over to where she had been looking and noticed one of the large lizard-like creatures pulling a cart nearby.

"Wait," he said, suddenly struck by a realization and pushing her away to see her face. "Those things were on the book! On the cover!"

She made herself look over the shoulder at one, but only for a moment.

"We're in the book!" he concluded confidently.

She looked at him blankly. "That's stupid."

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's check it out."

Maria pushed herself closer to the wall between the two fruit stands around them. "Why?" she asked.

"Well," he thought out loud, "we don't have to sit around and watch TV today because we're here. It's like vacation, and with no one telling us what to do. And Max is home in case Mom and Dad come back, and he can cover for us."

Maria nodded, won over by this perfect logic. "Okay, but I don't like the lizards."

"You're gonna touch a lizard."

"No."

"I'll make you!"

"No!"

"Hey!" The two siblings jumped at the gruff voice of a large man hanging over the side of the stall beside them. "What're you kids doing over here?"

Marco's eyes darted around the stall the man leaned out from. "We were... deciding whether we wanted an apple or banana." Maria nodded, catching on.

The man chuckled. "Well you can do that from over here," he said, gesturing them to the front of the stall. They obliged, choosing one of each. In truth they didn't like either, but the stall had no chocolate items, or any sweets at all.

"That's 12 zel," the man said, picking up the fruits from their respective boxes.

Marco chuckled nervously. He didn't have any dollars, let alone whatever a zel was.

"Will this do?" Maria asked. Marco and the man looked over to see her holding a large golden coin.

The man nearly choked upon seeing it. "Yes, yes, that'll do quite nicely!"

"Where'd you get that?" Marco asked her quietly.

Maria shrugged. "My pockets are full of them."

---

Marco and Maria quickly learned the value of a dollar, or in this case, a zel. The coins in their pockets made everyone they met treat them like royalty, which the two were sure to take absolute advantage of.

"We wanna go on an adventure," Marco declared as he and Maria played with the swords of the guards in a tavern. "Who can we fight?"

"There is a pickpocket running loose in town that you could hunt down," one of the guards remarked.

"No, not a person!" Marco complained. "A monster!"

"Or someone evil!" Maria added.

"Perhaps Ryoth, the cave beast master. He loves the darkness and meat, just like the cave beasts he raises. He's been quite a bother for the kingdom."

"Is he the one on the cover?" Maria asked.

"I have no idea what that means," the guard shrugged. "Besides, I'm not sure if that's a quest for two eight-year-olds."

"I'm twelve!" Marco said, blatantly offended.

"And I'm ten," Maria said in a proud stance.

"And we'd pay for an army," Marco said, jingling the coins in his pockets. The metal loops of his chain-mail shirt clanked along with them.

The guard sighed, but gave up his corrections. The money these children threw around clearly indicated royalty, and their clothes matched those of nobility learning the ways of the sword and magical crafts. Since their king couldn't remember which of the neighboring kingdoms had royal kids, it was best to treat them well until a messenger came looking for them.

That night, the two collapsed on the beds of the tavern, exhausted from their playing through the town.

"This is a good vacation," Maria said.

"We need something to fight!" Marco said, swinging an imaginary sword in the air with what little energy he still had in his arms.

"Tomorrow," Maria said, turning away from him in bed.

"Tomorrow," Marco mumbled back, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

---

"Guys! Guys! Guys!"

Marco and Maria opened their eyes and found themselves staring at Max. His face was inches away from theirs, shouting at full volume.

Marco shoved Max away, sending him tumbling backwards.

"Guys," Max repeated, now starting to cry, "that was so mean, you're both mean!"

"Then don't shout at us," Maria scoffed.

"I'm gonna tell Dad you were hiding from me in the office," Max threatened, forcing back tears.

"Hiding?" Marco put a hand in front of Maria's face to interrupt her next verbal jab. "Why do you think we were hiding?"

Max sniffled. "I was looking around, and you were reading, and I turned around, and I looked back, and you were gone," he said, each 'and' making him talk faster and louder, "and I was looking for you, and I couldn't find you, and I was yelling and looking all over the house, and, and, and that was mean, that was so mean!" At the final word he began bawling.

Maria and Marco looked at each other, then at Max, then at the book. Before he could act, Maria ran over to Max and towered over him. "We weren't hiding, dummy, we were in a book."

"I'm not a dummy," Max complained, "and you're a liar."

"Am not!" Maria protested.

"Am too!" Max yelled, still crying.

The two continued their stand off, so Marco took that moment of distraction to snatch the book off of the floor and investigate it further. The knight and wizard on the cover looked oddly dull compared to the vibrancy of the dog-beast and surrounding vines. He turned it over and tried to read the back cover, but the random symbols made no sense at all.

A door slammed shut.

The three jumped, jolted from their respective thoughts, and shared a glance. Simultaneously, they threw the book back on the desk, moved things back to generally where they were before, and bolted out of the office.

---

As the days went by, the Morrison children's father chose to work from his office full-time, keeping the door locked shut for almost every hour. "I can't have any more intrusions," he said to the kids after a hefty scolding the night they found the book. After that he stopped getting the dinner food entirely, and about a week in began sleeping in the office instead of upstairs with their mother. Nothing their mother said changed a thing, and the three could only watch as their mom became bitter and drained from the ordeal.

Two weeks later, their father had an announcement. "I'm going to be a dog breeder." Their mother protested, but in the new family dynamic, his word was law. Not two days passed before he had several dogs locked up in the office, walking them in the dead of night. At first the children loved the idea of having dogs, but the dogs only barked and snarled whenever they saw them. The children quickly became afraid of the dogs, thankful that their dad seemed to want them all to himself.

As each day felt more strained and tense than the last, Marco and Maria found themselves craving the world of the book. They stayed up after bedtime to tell Max about what they saw, telling him about all of the adventures that awaited if he went into it too. He agreed to go with them, but the three never got the chance; their father never left the office door unlocked, and even if he did, the snarling dogs kept them at bay. To try and keep their minds at ease, they both pursued new after school activities; Marco chose to try karate, and Maria opted for learning magic tricks to show at the next school talent show.

After a month of changes, the children awoke from their sleep to a clamor downstairs. They heard frantic barking, starting loud but becoming softer and softer. As the barking faded, the shouting began. The three kids met up in the hallway and slipped their way down the stairs. The living room lights were still on, the TV still droned on without an audience, and the fireplace's flames crackled away on scorched wood. They directed their attention to the kitchen door, where they heard the voices.

"You have to get them back," their dad's voice shouted, the rattle of pots and pans following closely after. "If any of those dogs are hurt, by God, you'll be paying for it!"

"Those dogs are better off in the shelter than with you," their mother's voice replied, breaking. "I can't believe what you've become! What happened to my husband?"

The trio approached the kitchen door, leaning closer to hear the conversation.

"Damn it, am I not allowed to have dreams? Ambitions?" their dad said.

"Hurting dogs and locking them in an office is not a dream, it's a nightmare," their mom said. "And it's not one that I'll be exposing the kids to any longer."

The three kids visibly winced as the argument continued, their mom talking about living at Grandma's and their father screaming obscenities and insults too personal to re-tell.

Max, ready to cry, moved away from the door. "I don't want to live with Grandma," he said through sniffles. "She smells, and her cats are mean."

Maria patted his back. "It'll be okay," she said in her best reassuring voice, trying to hide her own tears.

Marco noticed something around them. "Guys," he whispered, "what if we lived in the book?"

Max and Maria stared at him as he pointed to something nearby. Their eyes followed, all three seeing the office door fully open, the doorknob hanging loosely from the wood.

"We'd be rich and have adventures forever," Maria said, the realization making her smile despite her tears.

"What about Mom?" Max asked.

"She can't come, she'd bring Dad too. She can live with Grandma," Maria said.

"We can't just leave Mom!" Max protested.

"Stop being a dummy," Maria replied.

Marco held his hands up, stopping his siblings. "We'll figure it out when we're in the book. But we need to get it now. Before Dad sees."

The three nodded in agreement and quickly slipped into the office, the arguing voices of the parents becoming loud but unintelligible background noise. They clicked the lights on to find the office in near ruins. All of the lamps laid across the floor, most of them with cracked, unlit bulbs. In the dim lighting from the remaining lights, they saw the damage. The bookcases and desks sat in piles of wood and paper, covered in bite marks. The rug reeked of dirty dog smell, and the papers from the desk laid across the floor like bedding. A large heap of tattered fabrics and book remains covered one corner of the room, with a person-sized indent across the middle of it.

"Did the dogs do this?" Maria asked.

"Did Dad do this?" Max asked.

"I think they both did," Marco answered, voice shaking.

They all forced themselves to touch the dirty, stinking papers and fabrics around what once was the center desk, digging through uncomfortably damp materials for anything that looked like the book.

"What if Dad or the dogs destroyed it?" Max asked.

Marco and Maria shared a glance. "Maybe," Marco said, "but we've got to look anyway."

Maria pulled up one of the fabrics on the corner pile and yelped in surprise. "It's here! The book, it's okay!"

The others quickly swarmed to her. They stared at the cover, once again entranced by the action. The knight and wizard remained clear to see, but the beast and the character next to it were faded significantly, barely visible against the coloring of the cover.

"Are you ready?" Marco asked. Maria nodded. Max whimpered. "Okay, then let's go." He opened the cover.

As Marco opened the book, Max couldn't stop thinking about leaving his mom behind with their mean dad and all of the angry dogs. He imagined her sitting on their beds crying, wondering where they went. He'd rather live with Grandma and the smelly cats than leave her behind and make her cry. Max closed his eyes and kept them shut, overwhelmed with the thought.

He heard a thud next to him. When he opened his eyes, his siblings were gone, leaving only the book behind. He picked it up, investigating the faded characters on the cover.

"Hey!"

Max jumped up to see his father towering in the doorway, face contorted in fury, the shadows on his face stretched and intensified by the dim lighting from below. His heart stopped, and he held the book firmly to his chest.

"That's mine," his father growled, stepping closer to him.

Max's feet worked before his brain caught up, and he found himself sprinting across the room, dodging his father's hands and escaping the office. Once out, he saw his mom, face in her hands, standing by the fireplace. He immediately ran up to her, stuffing his face into her leg and sobbing. He tried to explain what was happening, but his words became garbled and lost through his tears and snot-filled nose.

His mom pulled him close, staring up at his father. "What is wrong with you?" she shouted, moving the two of them away from his father's hulking figure.

"Give it back," his father snarled.

"Give what-" his mom started, then paused, noticing the book held between her and Max through the force of his hug. She grabbed it and pulled it up, holding it in one hand and keeping Max close with the other. Her eyes skimmed the cover, noticing how dull it looked in the firelight, then raised them to look his father in the eye. "Is this where all of this is coming from?" she asked, her breath heavy with repressed anger.

"Give it back," his father repeated.

"He's been hiding it," Max managed to say. He tried to tell his mom more about the book, but his sniffles and quick breaths kept interrupting him.

"Is this what this is all about? Ian's stupid gift?" She scoffed. "What is this, some messed-up expression of jealousy?"

"Give it back."

"Do you think I wanted him to give me things? To get so obsessed with me? I can't help what he does! You know I love you, I-"

"I don't care about that," his father barked. "He can fuck you for all I care!"

His mom stopped, then slowly nodded. "I see." Staring directly at his father, his mom flicked her wrist, tossing the book directly into the flames beside her.

Max's heart froze. For a second, both he and his father didn't respond, couldn't respond. That second, seeing the book that contained his siblings, felt like eternity. After that eternal moment, time resumed.

"No!" he heard his father scream, heavy footsteps getting closer to him and his mother.

Max shoved himself away from his mother, sending her to the floor, and grabbed the side of the book. His fingers burned, but he kept his grip and pulled it out of the flames, swinging it back. The flames of the book followed and lit the room, making his father stop running and step back, blocking his eyes with a growl. He hit the book against the rug in an attempt to put it out. The rug ignited, but the book's flame fizzled and died, leaving the rest of the book intact.

"Give it back," his father hollered, blocking the increasing light of the flames with his arm.

Max's feet once again responded before his thoughts, and before he could acknowledge the danger of the situation around him, he found himself outside in the darkness, sprinting into the woods behind their house, away from the increasing smoke emerging from what used to be his home.

---

Maria and Marco opened their eyes and found themselves back on the dirt road, surrounded by the bustling activity of the old village.

"We did it," Maria cheered, "we're back!"

"Where's Max?" Marco asked.

The two looked around, seeing no signs of their little brother anywhere.

"He must have chickened out," Maria scoffed.

"Then we have to go back," Marco said.

Maria rolled her eyes, but nodded. They walked up to the guards, as they did in their last quest. "We need you to lead us to the inn so we can sleep," she said proudly, remembering their treatment before.

The guard didn't move. "Are your parents at the inn?"

"No, but we have-" Maria stopped mid-sentence. She patted her pockets, but found them completely empty. Looking down, she realized her clothes were not the flowing robe she remembered, but a dirty fabric tied with rope. Her eyes widened, and she looked to Marco for help.

Marco felt his pockets but found they, too, were empty. His clothes, too, were changed, from chain-mail and metal pads to the same dirty fabric Maria wore.

"Run along, kids," the guard said, gesturing them away. "Go find some merchants to beg from or something."

The two obeyed, unsure of what else to do. An hour later, they managed to find a nearby field to lie in without any disturbances.

"We'll sleep here," Marco said, "and return to Max, so he can come with us."

"But we don't have the money," Maria said with a huge frown.

"Maybe we'll have it next time," Marco reasoned.

The two closed their eyes. It took several hours, but they managed to drift off to sleep. They later awoke to see the darkening sky, stalks of corn blowing in the breeze all around them.

Maria jolted up. "We're still here. Marco, why didn't we go back?" she asked, eyes watering.

"I don't know," he said, voice barely above a whisper.

"What do we do?" Maria asked, staring at him.

He held onto her arm, pulling her close. "I don't know."

The two stayed huddled together in the cornfield as night fell, holding each other close as they cried in silence, their hearts falling and falling with no end in sight.

---

After running for longer than he ever had, he stopped in a small cave down a rocky ravine, catching his breath. He couldn't go back. His father wanted the book, and his mom wanted to destroy it. He couldn't let either of those things happen, not with Marco and Maria inside of it. He looked at the book, checking the damages in the moonlight. The cover took most of the damage, with the wizard and knight characters barely recognizable through the scorch marks. Some of the pages were equally unrecognizable.

Cold, tired, and alone, Max finally gave in to the idea of entering the book world too. Their father and mom would never find it in the woods, and it would stay safe in the little cave. He took a deep breath and opened the book, reading the text in the dull moonlight.

One page passed and he still sat in the cave. He turned to page two and experienced the same. As he kept reading, he remained painfully in reality, and learned what, and who, the story was about. He tried to cry, but found he had no tears left in his body. His nose ran and his breath jolted with sobs as he read, but his eyes stayed painfully dry. His fingers burned, his eyes burned, but most painful of all was the burning in his chest, as he realized in those moments just how alone he truly was.

#short story #horror #anthology #writing

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