• Chapter 3: The Finding
    And this is where we left off on the first chapter (of course we must not forget about our friend Justin). Justin sat in the couch and sucked on a small popsicle, nervously. It was rich with vanilla flavor, making small streaks of vanilla slowly dripped down from his mouth and onto the cushions. Robin sat on a couch on the opposite side of the room, putting her hands in between her legs and shifting left and right nervously. The room was completely silent, so quiet that you could hear the frantic Tick-Tocks of the clock. Justin’s heart was beating fiercely, and he could barely let out a word. He would occasionally try to start a conversation, but he would always fail to complete his sentence. After a long moment of silence, Justin finally spoke up. “So why are you here? I mean I don’t mean to be rude, but you have been gone for quite some time and-’’ He was then suddenly cut off. To his surprise, his sister had gone out of her couch and, swiftly, hug tackled Justin, squeezing him tightly. Justin blushed and, as tight as her, wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so glad to see you Justin; you don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve heard your voice.” she said, digging her face into his chest. Justin gave her soft a pat on the head and held her even tighter. They were obviously greatly intertwined with each other. After a brief moment of silence, Robin finally got up from his chest, and slowly picked herself up. “Err, sorry, I just haven’t seen you in so long and………” Justin shook his head to the left, and then to the right. “No, its okay, I mean, I actually wanted to do the same thing you just did when you first came to the door” he replied, scratching his scalp with a chuckle. Robin let out a brief giggle and then turned her eyes toward Justin. Her vivid blue eyes drowned in the far darker blue eyes which belonged to Justin. “Justin, I didn’t only come here to meet you” she mumbled lowly, peering down onto the carpet. Even Justin could tell that by the low mumble that something grave must had happened. Justin peered down at her hands and noticed they where clenched tightly. He then peered up and saw that she was biting her lower lip. Justin then peered back at her eyes. “What is it Robin?” Justin asked after a moment of quivering silence. Robin slowly peered up and then let out a long sigh. “Dad is…..he’s……..he’s dead Justin” She stuttered lowly. It was so low, that Justin first mistaken her soft voice to a low gust of wind whistling among the room. “What?” he said sarcastically, trying to make it sound as if she was joking. “You’ve got to be pulling my leg. I mean, you can’t be serious cant you?” Robin responded by quickly turning her head away. Justin’s heart suddenly sank dramatically. But…but how could he….he just dies like that out of nowhere…….Justin thought to himself. The stress was overwhelming, so Justin closed his eyes and took a deep breath of air. There was an incredibly long haunting silence among the room. “The people dad was working for….they wanted me to give you this note” Robin finally said softly, digging into her pocket. Justin waited patiently, tapping his feet amongst the carpet by the beat of the clock’s ticks. After a brief moment of anxious time for Justin, Robin finally pulled out a pale white sheet of paper, and let it lay upon her lap. His eyes glittered as she slowly handed the paper toward him. He then slowly reached out and retrieved the paper with his left hand. As he immediately brought the paper up to eye level, he scanned every word carefully. It read: It is quite unfortunate that your father has died, but we do need a new boss for our company. It would be highly appreciative if you would work for our Durbin Exlir Company, being that you are the oldest in the family. Your dear old father would be greatly disappointed if he figured out that his own son wouldn’t carry on the family business, so please, don’t let his death be in vain. The payment is reasonable and we won’t work you to death. We will treat you as if you where your father. Please consider this special offer.
    Sincerely,
    Exlir Inc.
    During the whole time he was reading the loose paper, he tried his best not to drop a tear, but unfortunately, a small tear drop creased down his cheek, and onto the ground, making a small “pat” noise. Robin peered at him with concerned eyes. Justin tighten his teeth and squeezed his hands tightly. Working for a company? After all this they want me to work for them?! Justin thought to himself. He then peered over to Robin with bloodshot eyes. He took a deep sigh and then scanned the letter one more time. He scanned the letter so many times, that he practically could memorize it all, frontwards and backwards. After a seemingly long period of time, Justin got his eyes away from the note and peered back at Robin. “So they want me……….to work for them?” he spoke softly, making every word seem dreary. Robin slowly turned her head away from his and did a slight nod. “Yes Justin…..they want you to work for the Durbin Exlir Company…….” she said softly, just a tad bit softer than he was. Robin squeezed her hand tightly. Her finger nails laid deep within her skin. Yet again, came a seemingly long period of nothing but petrifying silence. Suddenly, a thought came into his head and he thought out loud. “Hey! Why couldn’t you take over? I mean technically I’m not even his son anymore” yelled Justin furiously. Robin turned her head away swiftly. She obviously had already known that. There must be something she’s hiding Justin thought to himself. He was about to ask her what she was hiding, but then, without warning, she said “Justin…..if I would’ve accepted that job……they would’ve token me out of school” She spoke so soft that even the smallest gust of wind would be louder than her. Justin gasped, and then peered back down at his shoes. “Listen Justin” she continued. “I don’t want to be making exlirs my whole life. I want to get a real job, but I won’t be getting one if I quit school. Justin can’t you see that you’re my only hope?” Justin responded with a slight nod. He understood why he had to take over now. He just wished it would’ve been in a more appropriate time, being that his mother had a terrible illness. Suddenly and swiftly, a quick thought formed into his head. “Do they allow free samples of the Exlir if you work there?” he asked loudly with a little excitement in his voice. Robin gave a slow nod. It was the type of awkwardly slow nod, the one that’s like ‘Yeah…..sure…….’. Justin grinned with a tremendous amount of glee. There was still hope for his mom, and that hope was all whelmed up inside of him. After much less consideration than expected, Justin finally let out a swift nod. “Yes! I sure will!” he said with enthusiasm and adrenaline welled up in his voice. Robin suddenly yelped with an emission of glee. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said multiple times in a row. Before, Justin wasn’t quite sure of his answer, but after seeing her riveting response, he slowly formed a light grin upon his face. And then came what was already expected. Robin ran up to him, and grappled him off the couch and onto the ground. “Thank you big brother, you’re the best!” she said with a grin, while still on top of him. Justin blushed and gave the ‘It’s nothing’ hand gesture to her.
    Justin sat down by his mother’s with a grief expression formed on his face. She was positively sweaty and her bumps and blemishes where growing by the minute. Justin bit his lip and clutched his fist. She had been crying in her sleep that night, like usual. She had been sleeping all day, and Robin, who was at the corner of his eye, laid fast asleep among the extremely rough couch. A floral blanket laid across her torso, and her eyes laid shut. This made Justin feel extremely better, so he smiled slightly. He let out a deep sigh and slowly got up from among his mother’s bed. He let out a brief yawn and put his hand over his chapped lips. He then slowly crept over to his sister, who was now in-fact right in front of him. She was snoring, but softly so not even the wind would be moved by her small mouth motions. Justin was amazed that his sister could sleep on such a rugged couch, with its various smells and odors. Justin just let out a brief sigh and then knelt down by the couch. He was use to the smells, so it did not bother him at all. Justin put his hand onto Robin’s stomach, and closed his eyes. Suddenly, Justin felt a slight cold, wet feeling among his thumb. Justin just thought it was a small amount of tears drifting from his eyes, but he then suddenly looked down and what he saw amazed him in multiple ways. Sitting down by him, was of course the beautiful red headed girl Robin. No surprise there right? But what really surprised him was that she was clutching his hand and bearing her lips on his thumb! Justin suddenly slipped his thumb out of her mouth, but being in between her teeth, her teeth scratched an unfortunate piece of skin on his thumb. “Ow!” he yelped, holding his finger. But with that yelp came a reaction and a consequence, because right when he slipped that unfortunate thumb out of her mouth, she clutched Justin right arm and pulled him close to her. By then Justin just plain stopped trying to resist and let her clutch his arm, not of course without a little bit resistance at first. Justin did manage to get some sleep that night though, don’t worry about that reader. He just happened to fall asleep while sitting down on the floor, with his right arm up.
    That night, Justin had a dream. It wasn’t any normal dream though; it was like a faint dream, a dream as if reality, as if he actually was in that dream. Justin was lying on a dark stony ground, shivering. His body fragile as ever, he slowly pulled himself up. He scanned his environment with his eyes. He was in a dark, dreary place, with crumbled buildings and giant wings among the ground, stained with blood. There were many creatures at the place where he was at. There were creatures that sat on their hind legs with blood drifting out their teeth and squinted red eyes. They were covered with dark black and bloody red and had dreadfully red and black wings. And there were the creatures with wormlike things on top of their heads with wings and fierce talons. This place, too Justin, looked like Armageddon itself. The smell of drenched blood and fire and ash where all mixed together, making a dreadful smell. Black butterflies slowly drifted pass his head, swirling left and right. Out of all this dreadful sight, he noticed a bright blue light, drifting in the middle of the sea of darkness which he laid in. It was a bright light, almost blinding enough to cut Justin’s vision completely. He put his arm over his eyes, swiftly of course. “Wha-what is that?” he asked himself, clutching his fist. Suddenly, his legs and feet started to burn and they throbbed, with every throb a violent burst of pain entering his body. Then, without warning, Justin suddenly ran with a burst of speed without even having the will to move back. The closer he got to the blue light, the more his eyes burned by the blinding light. He felt faint, yet tense. He had never ran this fast in his life, but yet he felt as if he was walking on air. Suddenly his feet made a fortunate stop, and the unbearable pain in his feet had stop, as if a thorn had been pull out of his side. The light, by now, was so close to him, he could practically touch it. Suddenly, in a fit and a fix, the blue light shrouded out two parallel wings which where pure white, and as they appeared small particles of crystal like white dust fluttered swiftly past Justin’s tan skin. As some of the white dust brushed among his skin a sweet sensation entered his body as if he had just gotten out of a refreshing bath. The creatures wings hid itself, in a folded feudal position. It then slowly rose up and started flapping it’s wings, and glided toward the twinkling stars. Even though it’s wings where now unfolded, the only thing he could see A feather slowly inched off from his wing and drifted down toward Justin’s eyes. As the feather drifted down, the ground started to shake forcefully. Then suddenly, a screeching sound formed into Justin’s fragile ears. Justin reacted like any human being would’ve reacted. He stretched his hand and clamped his hands amongst his ears, but the more he squeezed obliterate the noise, the louder it would get. Soon it became so loud that his ears started to bleed any he crept down among the hard concrete, on his knees, and wept loudly. Suddenly, the screech got tremendously louder and then, in Justin’s surprise, a crack formed among the street and split down till it reached Justin’s knees. Justin gasped in surprise, but not only because of the crack in the street, but also because that infernal screaming had ceased. A brief moment of silence then drifted amongst the barren land. “Wha-what the hell was that?” he asked himself, slowly getting up from his knees. Then, suddenly, the grounded started shaking again and the crack widened. Then, something so menacing peered out of the crack, that Justin nearly lost his breath. A hand reached out from amongst the ground, but this was no ordinary hand. It was large, and it was covered with dark ash and flaming fire circled around the cracks of its fingers. It looked as if beaten, and if you did glance at it twice, you would probably mistake it for a burning tree. Suddenly there was a strand of light that slowly drifted toward the demonic hand. Justin, ears still bleeding from the violent screeching, squinted his eyes toward the seemingly only strand of light that could be seen in his dark surroundings. The little strand of light was, to his surprise, a pure white feather, drifting miraculously close to the burning flames. To Justin’s surprise, the feather did not shrivel up by the intense heat, but just kept gliding toward the burning flames. As it drifted closer toward the demonic hand, Justin’s eyes widened in amazement, for what happened next happened so fast, that it took Justin’s breath away. As the feather slowly glided toward the burning hand, the light started to get bigger, and then, with a giant shake on the terrain, the feather collided with the hand and at the same moment, the hand instantly turned into a rushing bank of water. The water creased down to Justin’s feet, but as it collided, his feet did not get wet at all. Justin just stared blankly at his feet, wondering how his feet where not wet. Then, suddenly, a flower bloomed from the middle of his legs. Justin gasped in amazement as the whole scenery turned into a bliss of flower and other beautiful things. Justin nearly would’ve had a heart attack if this whole transformation of environments went any faster. And then, slowly at first, a beam of bright light creased through the clouds and showed down at Justin. And in the mist of the clouds came the non forgotten angelic being. It had its wings spread wide and its arms as well. Its feet where straight together as if having to go to the bathroom. As it drifted down, Justin’s eyes just stared in amazement. It was so near the ground by now that he could basically touch its feet. When it finally stood in front of Justin, he had to squint his eyes just to look at this glorious sight. And then what happened next almost made Justin pass out. The angel slowly opened its mouth and said, as soft as a feather drifting through the sky “I am light”