Chapter 1 - Max and Friends

“No” I said, and that was my final answer. This was my only opportunity to make a choice in this group, and I wasn’t about to let it slip through the cracks. “Dude, that’s your worst suggestion yet!” “Yea!”. It seems they both were against me but I didn’t care, they both have had their chances in the past. It wouldn’t seem fair for me not to get my turn. “I don’t care!” I yelled, “These eggs will be scrambled!”. They both exchanged a look and, knowing that I can’t be swayed, they returned to the garden outside the kitchen.
If you haven’t figured out what this whole thing is about, maybe it’s because haven’t told you. But, patience is key, and you’ll know in due time………okay, my name’s Max and I’m thirteen years old. Me and my two friends Jeffrey and Nick (Jeffrey is thirteen and Nick is twelve) stay here in the Temple of Sacred Light where we learn the ancient mystical arts of fighting from our masters, Jackie and Lindsey.
I think Nick has a crush on Lindsey, but he hasn’t said it himself, Nick’s not the kind of person to open up about his emotions.
Jeffrey’s more outgoing, he likes to rush into things which gets him (and me) into trouble a lot of times. I’m trying to work out that problem with him, but I’m having no progress what so ever. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember, the last thing I remember was winding up at the temple doors one day. I don’t know who my parents are, never got to know them. I'm not sure whether Nick and Jeffrey know who their parents are, we don’t really talk about subjects like that.
As the eggs were being made, I watched my friends outside from the kitchen window. From the looks of it, they were playing a game of tag. It was all so calming, I don’t know whether you’ve sat outside or in your room while the sun was out and it was just, ya know, calm? Well it felt that way now. It was so peaceful here, like no dramas or altercations from the world outside couldn’t reach us here. I looked over to the counter and they eggs were done I called them in to eat.
Suddenly, Nick stopped eating enough to ask “Where’s Lindsey?” Jeffrey, in response, said, “Man, what is up with you and that woman? When she’s here you can’t take your eyes off her, and when she’s not here she’s all you think about. Is there something you would like to tell us Nick?”
Nick said nothing and continued to eat in silence, his face going red. I felt bad for him, always being subjected to Jeffrey's constant teasing. “Calm down, Jeffrey” I said, “you’re not the one to talk, I see the way you look at Rachel.”. Rachel was the temple cleaner, Jeffrey has something for her, I know, but he tries his best not to show it. He probably thinks tht stuff like that isn’t “manly”.
“Well-, you-, a-….” Jeffrey mumbled, and, not being able to verbalize, continued to eat. “Thanks.” Said nick, I smiled at him, “No problem, but you did bring up a good question, though. Where IS she? I’ll go ask Jackie after breakfast.” So, we finished our meals and I headed toward the Main Hall.
Jackie was in Lotus Position, deep in meditation. I didn’t really want to disturb him so I talked to him via telepathy. “Sorry to disturb you Jackie, but we have a concern”
“What is it Max?” he replied. “We’re concerned about the whereabouts of Lindsey”
“Hmm… come to think of it, I haven’t seen her for sometime myself. Ill check it out.” “Thanks”. I replied. And with that, I headed back to the boys, they were talking about something, but I was too far away to hear anything. But, as soon as the saw me coming, they stopped the conversation immediately, so im guessing it was something important.
“Hey man,” Nick said, “What's up with Lindsey?”
“Jackie doesn’t know where she is either, but he’s going to look for her.” I don’t get how Lindsey just disappeared without anyone seeing her leave. “Cool.” A few hours passed and we all were becoming really worried about Lindsey. “I hope she’s ok, wherever she is…” Nick uttered, breaking the silence. I know he’s the one that’s taking this harder than anyone else. I put my arm around him and he broke down, tears began to roll down his cheeks. Then he started to say in between sobs “I can’t live without her, she’s like a mother to me!” I think that answered my question about whether Jeffrey or Nick have known their parents or not. Nick said that Lindsey is like a mother to him, that means he hasn’t really had a real mother to be with. I relate to his pain, but in this current situation his is much worse than mine. “ I can’t lose her, I just can’t!” Nick continued crying. I looked up to Jeffrey, so much empathy in his eyes as he watched Nick, it looked like he was about to cry as well. His eyes met mine, and said “It might not seem like it, but I really do care about her, and it hurts me too that she’s not here”
“I understand.” Jeffrey got up from his seat to comfort Nick. He went on the opposite side of where I was and rubbed Nicks back “I’m sure she’s fine bro.” Nicks crying winded down after a few minutes and then he was ok.
Jackie came through the front door with a solemn look on his face, I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I got up to go see what the deal was and Jeffrey was immediately by my side. “Where's Lindsey?” Jeffrey demanded. There was a silent moment before Jackie spoke, he took a deep breath and said “She was attacked by Spirit Demons, I drove them away but…”
“But what?” I asked, “I-I couldn’t save her..” He turned towards the door, two men walked in carrying a bed-like object with a body resting on it. My heart sank; it felt like someone was squeezing it with no intention of letting up. Then, I remembered, Nick, was he ok? I turned towards him but I didn’t expect what I saw. His eyes where big and watery, His lips trembled as if to say something but nothing came out. He fell to the floor, gasping for breath, clutching his chest, Rocking back and forth. I could not begin to imagine what’s going through his head right now. Jeffrey, almost to tears, got down on the floor next to him. But, when he went to touch him, Nick pushed him with Mystic Energy and Jeffrey flew to the back wall.
“Geez!! You don’t have to take it out on me! I was just trying to help!” I expected a response from Nick, but as I looked down towards him, he had a blank look to his face, completely apathetic. He got up and ran to his room and slammed the door.
I took one step to follow Nick but I was restricted by Jackie’s hand. “He needs to be alone right now.” But I didn’t want him to be alone, I wanted to help him, but, I obeyed Jackie’s words and stayed where I was.
“we will have the burial ceremony tomorrow.” Jackie said, “you guys go get some sleep.” To get to our rooms we had to pass Nick’s, and as we did, we heard his sobbing. He was so hurt, I hated seeing him like this. I placed my palm on his door and took a deep breath, then headed towards my own room.
We got up earlier than usual the next morning. We got ready for the ceremony and headed out. As we walked, Jeffrey was rambling on and on about a new skill he had learned. I was still worried about nick; he hasn’t spoken to anyone since last night. He kept his head lowered as we walked. A few minutes later, over the horizon, Jackie pointed “There.” The burial site wasn’t far from the temple about five minutes of walking.
I would say that the place Jackie chose for Lindsey was a very good final resting place for her. Flowers, animal life, and just the overall look of it was perfect. We took our places on the grass as lindsey’s body was carried to the grave. We all chanted the rites as her body was put into the ground.
Nick didn’t say anything other than what he was required to say. I would have to talk to him after this was all over. The last rites where chanted over the grave, and we all got up to head back home. When we got there, Nick had hesitation to go straight to his room. I followed, I needed to get to the bottom of this.
“Hey.”
“Get out.”
“No, we need to talk to you.” I said we because Jeffrey had just walked in the room.
“I have nothing to talk to you guys about.” Jeffrey had enough of his attitude at this point.
“Look, I’m tired of seeing you slump around here like a ghost. I know u and Lindsey were close and I understand that you can’t live without her, but her death doesn’t mean that you should be a mute bastard! We’re trying to help you out and you give us the cold shoulder, what’s happening to you?!”
“Listen, I don’t need your bull crap right now, Jeffrey.”
“Then talk to me.” I prompted. Nick turned to me, his eyes cold and said. “All my life nothing but bad things happen to me, I don’t know why. I mean, I’ve never done anything wrong, so why does all this crap happen to ME?! Everyone in my life has been taken from me, my parents, my sisters and brothers, and now Lindsey. I’m pretty sure that you guys are next.”
Jeffrey and I exchanged a glance. The look in both of our eyes was somewhat of a “wow.”
“ I have no heart now.” Nick said almost silently. I sat down next to him on his bed.
“Yes you do, it’s just in a state of shock right now, it’ll bounce back.”
“I’m not so sure about that..” . He got up when headed for the door, a few moments later I heard the front door open and close. We decided not to go after him, it wouldn’t change anything. A few hours later, and no sign of Nick, we decided to go look for Nick. We looked for hours and we finally found him in Demon Forest. He was just standing there shouting something that we couldn’t pick up. As we got closer we heard,
“Come on out! You took Lindsey, take me!!”. Our eyes widened at the sight of this, this was so unlike Nick. “What the hell are you doing Nick!?” I yelled, “Get out of there!” Nick payed no attention to us, and in response, we ran toward him. He turned around, anger covering his face.
“Why can’t you just leave me alone?!” Jeffrey got behind him and grabbed hold of him, pulling him back, out of the forest. Nick struggled and broke free, and when he did he punched Jeffrey square in the jaw, knocking him out. A demon approached from the shadows. I couldn’t stand here any longer. I ran towards him and attempted to do the same thing Jeffrey did. Nick then elbowed me in the stomach and I fell backwards. The demon was now aware of our presence and started towards us. Nick turned his back to me and beckoned to the demon.
“Take me!” the monster came ever closer and stretched out it’s hand. I couldn’t take anymore losses this week. “No!!” I screamed, and jumped in between Nick and the demon. A sharp pain flew through my body. I couldn’t hear, see or feel anything. Everything went black. The last thing I heard was Nick’s scream….
My eyes opened to my bedroom wall. It took me a few seconds to take all this in. I turned over to the other side and suddenly a sharp pain ran through my body again. “AH!” I quickly turned back to my original position. A hand touched my shoulder and the person it belonged to began to speak. “I-I-I’m sorry Max….” It was Nick, he was ok. My heart lifted a little and the pain didn’t seem so bad then. “It ok buddy. You didn’t know what you were doing, you acted out of grief.”
“No, it’s my fault that you got hurt. I’m so sorry I did this to you. I was so focused on Lindsey’s death that I put your lives in danger.”
“People act out of anger, grief, depression, and other things all the time, the good thing is your ability to get over them. You could’ve proceeded to kill yourself out there, but you didn’t, so I forgive you, because you’ve showed us that you can recover.” Nick showed a slight smile then and everything got warmer. Everything was ok now.
“So what happened to me back there?”
“You were hit by the demon’s poison claw. The strike could’ve killed you if I didn’t arrive there just in time.” It was Jackie, he was ok as well.
“Thanks Jackie, but where’s-?”
“Did someone say my name??” Jeffrey called, a big warm smile engulfing his face. “You’re ok too!” I was ecstatic everyone was all right. Everyone gathered around my bed and attempted to group hug. I of course couldn’t get up because of my current state. So, we hugged and I eventually got better and so did Nick. A few months later I found out that Jeffrey never knew his parents either. I guess we would fill that emptiness with each other’s friendships. We’re still with each other today, exploring the world. If you would like to meet us, I would like to see you try and find us hahaha.

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