April Fotosintesi

“April?” my husband, Matthew, called out to me from the basement.

I rushed down the stairs, trying not to wake the kids.

“What is it?”

“Justine just called us in. Morte is plotting an attack on the village.” He took my hand, a look in his eye that I’d never seen before. “I think you should stay with the kids. Protect them. If something happens to me, they’d still have you.”

“But they need you too. They need both of us. So let’s both stay. We can look after the kids here.”

“April, you know we can’t abandon the village.”

My heart pounded with my inner turmoil. “I know, but what do we—” I was cut off by a muffled explosion.

We looked out the window just in time to see the protection spells around the village shatter.

I thought I heard screams.

“Get Charlie. I’ll get the girls,” he rushed to say, hurrying to Marian’s bedroom.

I raced upstairs, opening our son’s door.

“Mom? What was that?” he asked. He was sitting up in bed, staring at me with terrified eyes.

“Come with me, quickly. We don’t have a lot of time.” I took his hand, leading him downstairs to the hiding place in the bathroom. The girls and Matthew were already there, clustered together when Charlie and I quickly joined them.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Marian asked frantically.

“It’s going to be okay. You three need to stay here, okay?”

They nodded.

“Mommy, Daddy, can you stay too?” Our three-year-old, Jane, looked up at me with puffy red eyes.

“I wish, my love, but you all won’t be safe unless we go,” Matthew whispered gently.

Tears streamed down her face, and I saw Marian wiping her eyes.

“It’ll be okay. Morte’s not going to find you here,” I murmured soothingly.

“But, if you—” Charlie started, but another explosion cut him off.

Matthew and I quickly folded them into our arms. He looked at me, pain in his eyes. “We really have to go.”

I nodded, taking in our children huddled together before I closed the secret door, concealing them.

He took my hand, and we raced out of the house, out of our neighborhood, and out of the village, directly in the frontlines.

We conjured our staves, and immediately Fantasmi floated towards us. We sent spell after spell at them, and they disintegrated on the spot.

“You’re doing great,” Matthew whispered.

“You too.”

We put our backs against each other’s, looking for more assailants. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when they would come.

Then we were surrounded.

I couldn’t see any land past the swarm of gray and black ghosts. I tried to form a protection spell, but Fantasmi would be trapped with us!

Then they were gone in a cloud of smoke.

“April, don’t breathe!” His voice was raspy as he talked. He collapsed onto the ground.

“No!”

I wrapped my arms around his chest, trying to pull him out of their smoke, which I realized, too late, was poisonous.

My body started to go limp. I crumpled next to him on the ground.

“Not you too,” he croaked weakly.

“We need to move,” I mumbled, but my body felt like lead. It was too heavy for me now.

“April.”

I hadn’t seen Matthew cry in years, but tears streaked freely down his face as we managed to wrap our arms around each other.

“Matthew, I love you. I’m so sorry.” I started crying too.

“I love you too, and none of this is your fault.”

Green dust flowed from our fingers. A dream spell for the kids.

My breathing and heart slowed to an irregular rate.

“I love you… April…” His voice grew fainter as he closed his eyes.

“I love… you, Matthew…”

As my lids drifted closed for what I knew would be forever, the comfort I took before I died was that we would all see each other in Heaven again, and, up there, Matthew and I had more than enough time to wait.

Charlie Fotosintesi

Mom and Dad hug me tightly. I can’t read the expressions on their faces when they pull away.

“Charlie, I’m so sorry,” Mom says as tears brim in her eyes.

“I’m sorry too.” Dad’s voice chokes as he talks.

“Are you guys okay?” I hear myself ask.

They look at each other, then at me. They both take my hands in theirs.

“We don’t have much time. We just wanted to tell you how much we love you. Just promise us something.”

Mom is crying now, and I see Dad rub his eyes the way I do when I feel tears form.

“What?” I will not break down. I refuse.

“Be strong. Take care of your sisters, and take care of yourself. Promise us, Charlie.”

I swallow painfully. “I– I will.”

“We love you, Charlie. More than you can imagine,” they both whisper, bringing me into another hug.

“I love you too, but—”

Then they’re gone.

~~~

I woke up, my arms still around Marian and Jane. But I didn’t want to wake up. I didn’t want to allow myself to open my eyes into this new world, this new life. If I stayed asleep, I could still live under the illusion that I had parents.

But I knew better.

They had sent the dream to me as a final goodbye. They were never coming back.

They were—

My heart turned to lead as I felt Marian and Jane stir. I longed to tell them to go back to sleep, that whatever they had dreamt about wasn’t real, that we were okay. I wanted to shield them from this new horror that was reality. But there were so many things an older brother could do. This was not one of them.

“Charlie?” Marian looked at me, tears already cascading down her face. She wasn’t even a teenager yet. This couldn’t happen to her. And Jane. Would she even remember our parents a few years from now?

“Bwother?” Jane asked, her little eyes, the same as Mom’s, turned up in my direction.

“Did they…” Marian trailed off. I nodded.

“No. No! No! No!”

I held my sisters close as I vaguely heard their cries, but it was as though they were from a distance. I closed my eyes, picturing my mom’s face, my dad’s laugh, and straining to hold onto those memories, but they already seemed to be slipping away slowly, like a dream when first waking.

Moisture clouded my vision.

Be strong.

Both of their final words echoed in my head. But what did strength mean? How was I supposed to be strong in a moment of weakness? I didn’t know, so I hugged my sisters tighter to me like they were all I had. Ironic. In most ways, they were.