2011 Submissions:
Against the Sunrise
by Diamond
Chapter One
"Tay and I are going to the movies soon. Want to join us?"
Wyatt Lackland, his closest friend for the last decade, threw open the door to Isaac's bedroom and frowned at the sight that greeted him. Isaac lay flat on his back on the unmade bed and stared at the ceiling, letting the melancholy song drift from the stereo and into his head.
I haven't moved since the call came
Since the call came, I haven't moved
I stare at the wall knowing on the other side
The storm that waits for me
"Hello? Earth to Ike?"
When he received nothing in response, Wyatt sighed and sank down onto the bed next to him.
Isaac closed his eyes and let the haunting music wash over him, willing it to carry him away to a place where people didn't fall into neverending comas, where there was no such thing as pain.
"Come on, man," Wyatt said gently, bumping shoulders with his friend. "You can't let this break you."
Isaac's eyes snapped open. "What if it already has?"
At first, Isaac wasn't sure if the words actually left his mouth or had been spoken silently inside his head. But judging from the pitying look on his best friend's face, he'd said them out loud. Another mark of weakness, of collapsing in the face of debilitating sorrow.
I have no need for a sea view
For a sea view, I have no need
I have my little pleasures
This wall being one of these
Wyatt shook his head, locks of carefully-groomed hair falling across his forehead.
"You're stronger than this," he said. "The last thing Zac would want is for you to give up on your life because of what happened to him. You know that. We all know it."
"How can any of us possibly know what Zac wants?" Isaac's tongue felt like it had been branded with fire as he turned toward his friend in anger. "We don't know what he's thinking - or if he's even capable of thinking anymore. My brother is practically dead. He's gone - do you understand that? I don't know how you and Taylor live like you do, going to the movies and having fun all the time, pretending that everything's okay. Nothing will ever..."
He gasped for air suddenly, the words stuck in his throat as if trying to choke him with their absolute truth.
"...Nothing will ever be okay again."
Isaac's eyes glossed over with tears that he wouldn't let fall, and he looked up to find his brother Taylor leaning against the doorframe. The crushed look on Taylor's face upon hearing his outburst was too much for Isaac; he stood up abruptly, pushing past him and out of the bedroom, leaving both boys motionless and bewildered in his wake.
He grabbed his jacket and his keys and climbed into his car. Slamming on the gas pedal, he paid no attention to his surroundings as he breezed past them in a desperate attempt to get away. Isaac didn't stop, didn't even blink until he reached his destination. A chill gripped his body and his heart as he got out of his car and approached the river where, three months ago, his brother had almost drowned.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Isaac's heart was beating so loudly, he could feel it in his ears. The unsteady vibration rocked through him with such force that he almost lost his footing. The wild and violent turbulence inside of him was a stark contrast to his quiet surroundings. He tried to make steady his erratic heartbeats by looking around and taking in the peaceful scene.
The mid-November air wrapped him in a chokehold as stood along the riverbank. It had been much warmer when Zac was last here. The most athletically-inclined out of all of his siblings, Zac was no stranger to the water. He'd taken to swimming in the river several times a week, maybe even more frequently than that in the long stretch of summer leading up to the accident. Yet Isaac knew that even the strongest swimmers can be conquered by the superhuman force of nature.
It was a scary and masochistic game he played, struggling to visualize the scene in which his brother almost died. Ike knew that no matter how many times he visited that river, no matter how incessantly he thought about that day, he'd never truly know what happened. Not until Zac woke up and told him; if that day ever came. God, what he wouldn't give to hear his little brother's voice again.
But that didn't stop him from trying. From wondering what it was like to start your day like any other, but then get pulled so close to the very mouth of death. From wanting to know every tiny detail about that day that changed everything.
He wasn't sure how long he stood there staring out across the water. A couple bundled up in scarves and hooded jackets walked by him, and then the world around him fell still and silent. His hands were shaking, his lips were chapped, his cheeks stung from the bitter wind, but he didn't care. The cold air chafing his lungs was oddly comforting; Isaac had grown to like the pain. He watched a lone heron as it perched on a rock in the shallow end of the river; it stretched its wings as if preparing for flight, then lowered them and dipped its head toward the ground. It looked frozen, as if having to choose between staying or going left it confused and paralyzed. It was a sad and telling sight; Isaac was reminded of his brother, a helpless prisoner in that lonely hospital bed.
The bird finally left, and Isaac followed suit. He rubbed his hands against his jeans to warm them, then gripped his car keys and unlocked the door. Just before he climbed into the driver's seat, a small object on the hood of his car caught his attention. He picked it up and touched it gingerly, as if not believing in its existence, as if it might disappear if he so much as breathed on it the wrong way.
"No fucking way," he said.
In his palm lay a thick palladium ring with an H etched into the center. When Isaac, Taylor, and Zac started their band together, they had three identical rings made as a symbol of their passion and dedication. The ring staring up at him was one of them - there was no doubt. Isaac knew that Zac had been wearing that ring on the day he nearly drowned. They never took their rings off; not when they were in the shower, or in bed, or exercising.
When Zac was rescued, the ring wasn't on his finger; the natural assumption was that it had fallen off and gotten lost in the depths of the water, never to be found again. So how in the hell had it made its way to the hood of his car three months later? Isaac shook his head and blinked to make sure he wasn't dreaming. But when he looked down again, it was still there - the band an exact replica of the one he wore on his right ring finger.
Still in disbelief, Isaac shoved the ring into his pocket and got into the car. He took several deep breaths to calm down, his entire body now shaking from something more than just the weather. Then he began asking himself a series of impossible questions that he didn't know the answers to.
Had he finally lost his mind? Was the universe playing a terrible trick on him? What, if anything, was this supposed to mean?
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