Aftermath

“Finally 18 years old! Now I can just FEEL the end of my torture just around the corner!” I sighed, with my eyes still firmly shut due to how tired I still was. “The torture of having an annoying little brother... I can’t believe that I was actually excited when Mom told me that I was going to be a big sister! And it’s weird how I seem to be the only one who finds him annoying... Even my friends Ronnie, Ansel and Clover always tell me how lucky I am to have such an “adorable” little brother who never forgets my birthday and does this and that for me all the time. But honestly, I wish he would just mind his own business and leave me alone, it gets annoying, and as for my birthday I wish he would forget it.” This thought was closely followed by an unladylike grunt escaping my lips as I turned over and tangled myself even more in my blankets, which resulted in me resembling even more like a burrito then I did before if that was even possible.

However, I didn’t get the pleasure of enjoying the confines of my comfy burrito for long. With a bang loud enough wake up the dead, a.k.a me in the morning, my brother Ethan barged into my room with his usual jolly attitude and cheery voice which makes me dizzy on a daily basis.

“Rin! Rin! Zephrine!! Get up!! Get up, Queen of Sleep! Why are you still in bed? There’s an emergency! A MEGA EMERGENCY!!”

“Ugh...why? What time is it?” I whined as I rolled over to look at my clock that was on my nightstand. “It’s 7:45 on one of my days off! Of course, I’m still in bed!! Tell me what you want and then get out! Please!” I groaned, rolling onto my back and staring at the ceiling as if it could give me moral support.

“Oh come on Sis! Just come downstairs and I’ll show you! Quickly! I’ll be waiting!” He said, before skipping out of my room and running down the stairs.

I knew that when he was like this if I didn’t get up now he would be back in a minute to jump on my bed and force me to get up, so I got up before I got attacked. I slowly got off my bed with my blanket around my shoulders and on my head, which probably made me look like a mix of Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars and No Face from Spirited Away, with a human face of course, though my face does tend to look puffy in the morning so I may have looked more like Jabba the Hutt then I care to admit... Anyway! I digress! I headed to my closest, picked some clothes to wear, got dressed and walked downstairs to meet Ethan, all the while putting my hair up in a ponytail. He was waiting for me right by the kitchen table and as soon as I was in arms reach from him he took my hand and guided me outside to the beach which was a few steps away from our house. Once we were right by the water, he stopped and turned to look up at me with a ginormous smile.

“Happy Birthday!!” He cheered. Though I had sort of been plotting how to get back at him for waking me up for the past few minutes, I couldn’t help but see how cute he was with that grin, and he was just trying to make me happy after all, right?

“So I know that you don’t like waking up early and I’m sorry for waking you up, but yesterday I heard on the radio that there would one of the nicest sunrises ever in our area due to the weather and stuff...I don’t quite remember the details.” He chuckled. “So I thought that this would make for a great birthday present... So here it is the sunrise over the ocean!!” He cheered and pointed towards the seemingly endless water. I looked towards the sunrise and ocean; it was truly beautiful, so much so that I wasn’t even the slightest bit mad at Ethan anymore. The colours were so vibrant! The sky was lit up by the rising ball of fire in the horizon which caused colours like red, gold, orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue to cover the sky like paint on a canvas. The ocean seemed to mix with the sky creating a thick purple line where they seemed to meet, it was spectacular! Lost in thought, I barely noticed my brother who had started to speak again.

“I almost forgot! Mom helped me get you this too.” He said, handing me a necklace with a moon locket and an electric blue gem pendant.

“Also with mom’s help, I wrote you some messages in the locket, so it should be understandable since it’s not my messy handwriting, but mom’s writing instead

“Also with mom’s help, I wrote you some messages in the locket, so it should be understandable since it’s not my messy handwriting, but mom’s writing instead. Read it when you have the chance, but not now! Oh! And it’s cool; the locket is separated into four sections! So I was able to write three messages and put a picture of me and Mom in it!” He cheered, and what he said explained why the locket was bigger than an average locket. “Oh and this locket also seals itself when you close it, so you don’t have to worry about it when you go swimming! Mom made me cover the messages and pictures with a waterproof glue type thing anyway, just in case the seal breaks from the amount of time you spend in the water! Because we all know how much time you-” I cut him off as nicely as I could because he was actually pleasant to be around for once and I didn’t want it to end just yet. I thanked him for the gifts as I put on and he looked ecstatic, he was acting cute again, so even if I wanted to be mad I couldn’t...

After I thanked him, we just continued walking on the shore, watching the sun rise and the small waves crashing on the sand by our feet. It was so calm and relaxing; we could only hear the soft wind dancing with palm trees and the little waves on the shore. I never would have guessed that the saying “the calm before the storm” was this literal. Time seemed to slow, the sound of a million wings filled the air, breaking the silence, and every bird imaginable took to the skies and left the soil to its fate. Our peaceful world had ended and was to be turned to rubble...literally.