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[/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_blurb admin_label=”Spoiler Warning” title=”Spoiler Warning” url_new_window=”off” use_icon=”on” font_icon=”%%81%%” icon_color=”#b6aabe” use_circle=”off” circle_color=”#b6aabe” use_circle_border=”off” circle_border_color=”#b6aabe” icon_placement=”left” animation=”top” background_layout=”dark” text_orientation=”left” use_icon_font_size=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” icon_font_size=”120px” header_font_size=”40″ body_font=”Open Sans Condensed||||” body_font_size=”18″ saved_tabs=”all”]
Read after Black Sun 025.
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Point of View: Narrator
Featured Characters: Leo Lanier, Michael Hightower
Word Count: 410
A flashback to Michael and Leo’s childhood, taken directly from Black Sun 025.
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Two small boys sat amidst a pile of wooden blocks. The one with a wide smile and bright blue eyes was showing great enthusiasm and care in constructing what looked almost like some rudimentary form of ziggurat or pyramid- something fairly advanced for someone who couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.
The other boy sat silently beside him, knees pulled up to his chest and dark eyes watching from a particularly solemn face. He didn’t touch the toys, nor show much interest in the ones that his companion didn’t handle. There was a pad and piece of charcoal lying beside him, unattended and blank.
“One day I’m going to make a real house,” the blue-eyed boy told the silent one with a gap-toothed grin. “Just like the ones you like to draw. And you and me are going to live there and my dumb sister can’t come.”
“Just you and me?” the quiet boy whispered. It was a strange whisper, though, almost as if he didn’t know how to speak any louder.
“You and me and Georgie and Violet!” the first boy answered. “We’ll all run away and live there where there aren’t any parents or rules.”
The somber boy’s expression darkened.
“I don’t like Violet,” he said, in that same half-hushed tone. His eyes slid to the side.
Blue eyes blinked. “She’s a girl, but she’s okay. You like Georgie and she’s a girl.”
“I don’t like Violet.”
“But-”
“I don’t like Violet!” the boy screamed, suddenly at full volume and lurching to his feet. He kicked his foot in a direct line for his playmate’s structure of blocks; they toppled and scattered and bounced across the wooden floor. “No, no, no!”
“Mi-”
“No!” He tossed himself down on the ground, thrashing and striking out with his fists. The other boy scrambled back out of range. It did nothing to stop the fit; if anything, it grew more pronounced. Tears and screams echoed in the small room. “Leo! Leo! Leo, my Leo, mine, no!”
It only ended when the blue-eyed boy threw himself on top of his friend, pinning his arms and sitting on him until the screams turned garbled and incoherent before finally quieting.
“Shh, shh,” hissed Leo, eyes wide as he stared down at the boy on the floor. “It’s okay. It’s okay! He can’t get you, I won’t let him, I’m not going to leave you alone!”
Michael’s empty gaze never changed.
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[/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”1880s Tales” saved_tabs=”all” global_module=”1114″ background_layout=”dark” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]
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