The Beginning

4:00 pm - Sunday 12th

"𝘞𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩

𝘞𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴"

A faint cherishing voice hummed with the song. Small scribbles in her notebook, she absentmindedly looked out the window. The rain poured, and droplets trickled down the glass each taking their time. She wished one of them would drip down faster than the rest. A quiet competition that she loved since she was a child.

Compared to weekdays the library was quieter, yet people were there, it felt more... peaceful to her. The chapter book, lying next to her phone, waited, almost wanting to be picked up and read, she fought the rising urge to pick it up, but eventually gave in. The book had a green figure, on it, rather beautiful in her opinion, the woman wore a stunning green dress, and gorgeously large jewelry framed her.

"𝘈 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸"

She chuckled to herself as her phone buzzed.

𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙟𝙖𝙝 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙮𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜...

𝙀𝙡𝙞𝙟𝙖𝙝 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖 𝙨𝙣𝙖𝙥

Opening it to see what her younger brother wanted, she almost fell off her chair. It was a picture of her, but not just any picture, it was taken recently. She had her back to the photo and she was in the library. "Eli?" She mumbled loud enough for the echo to circulate the room.

"Heyyy!" He jumped in front of her from one of the many bookshelves around her.

"What are you doing here?" She crossed her legs and motioned him to sit.

"Mom said, that you weren't actually doing homework, so I came to have a look!" He sat and pointed to her chapter book. "Guess what?" Before she could answer his question, he exclaimed, "she's right! Hah! Wait till I tell Mom!"

Within a fraction of a second that meddling middle schooler was at the main entrance while his sister frantically stuffed her things in the bag. "Elijah, if you tell Mom, I'm taking your PS4!" She shouted racing towards him.

"Nah, Mom wouldn't let you do that," he stuck his tongue out and disappeared to the right.

"Oh yes, she would," she trampled down the long stone stairs and turned to the right almost knocking into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry," the tall figure seemed to have realized and responded.

"It's okay," the male voice was genuine to her yet she felt as if she heard it elsewhere. Pushing that thought to the side quickly she got back to it and followed after him.

"Elijah, please slow down, I won't tell mom if you wait," she tried compromising, slowly catching up to her younger brother.

"Nuh-uh, you'll tell either way," he said looking back, his dark wavey hair flitted in the wind.

He clattered down the stairs and into the metro station, "Eli," she caught up to him after what felt like hours of running after him. "Something wrong?" He froze and pointed, the lights on the passing train were blinking, not the usual one twitch, and then back to normal. "It's like Stranger Things."

"Stop making it creepier than it already is Juliette," he grabbed the strap of her bag and slowly stepped back next to her.

"Oh you big baby, it's going to be alright," she patted his head and chuckled lightly.

"𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸

𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘐'𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦"

The train ride back to their station went fairly well, nothing out of place happened. The blue train seat in front of her rattled every now and then, or either that was her zoning out. Elijah mumbled to himself, then fell silent, then admired the view of the sea, which was partially covered by construction.

"Hey, sis?" He turned to face her.

"Yeah," her body shifted, she smiled and waited for him to speak.

"Do you ever wonder what it would be like if the world was quiet?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Of course, but when you look at all the movies we've watched isn't 'A Quiet Place' a good summary of how the world would look like? I mean excluding the crazy alien things." She stated, gently tucking her hair behind her right ear.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," he grinned playfully.

Before Elijah arrived at the City library he was at a Dentist, in this case, it was one of the most dangerous appointments he had ever gone to.

Last summer Elijah ended up breaking one of his front four teeth, at that time, his mom and dad were at work, his oldest brother was in college and his sister started high school. He walked all the way to the Dentist and got his tooth fixed with filling. Now the middle schooler's teeth are crooked, and regardless of how he smiles it still surprisingly makes him look like either a toddler or an elementary school kid.

"You still look like a baby," she chortled.

"I do not, Jules, I'm not a kid anymore, I'm going to middle school," he grunted trying to sound older, which failed... horribly.

"Eli, you might not be a kid anymore but at home and when you're with me you still are," Juliette ruffled his already messy chocolate-colored hair.

"Okay," he whined, attempting to stop his sister from embarrassing him in public. "Stop that," he pushed her lightly and laughed.

"God, you are such a handful," she smiled, her eyes glimmered as the train entered the bridge before their stop.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘴

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘯"

The PA rang loud and clear as the two of them got off the train and headed upstairs, to continue yet another blissful journey home.