The Past Is Never Past

A bright flash of light and a sound like thunder in her ears forced her to close her eyes shut, clenching her teeth in anticipation of the pain to come.

But it never came.

The horror before her eyes shocked tears to her eyes and sent them tumbling down her cheeks. A silent scream scratched it way up Caleb’s throat as his body plummeted to the ground with an earth shattering thud.

His bright green eyes slowly dimmed, the color fading into a sickly shade of grey. Crimson pooled beneath his form and caused the air to be pilfered from Katlyn’s lungs at the frightening sight.

“Caleb!” She called her brother’s name and ran towards him, reaching forth her hands for him to grab. With every step she took however, he drifted farther away into a darkening red sky.

Her tears became thicker and her calls more desperate as he continued to fade until he had fully slipped away from sight, into the red abyss.

“CALEB!”

—-

The sweat clung to her face and mingled with the tears resting on her still damp cheeks, her breath escaping from her lungs in ragged and hurried breaths.

Katlyn clutched her now soaked pajama shirt in her fist until her knuckles turned white from the pressure.

She whipped her head around her room, searching for signs of normality and once they were confirmed she threw the covers off herself and bolted through her door, making her way down the hall.

“Caleb! Where are,” the words died on her lips as she gazed around the room that had once been filled with furniture and laughter and... life. Now, cardboard boxes littered the room and lifeless nails hung to the faded green walls.

She numbly walked into the room, picking up a framed picture upon one of the open boxes. Green eyes smiled back at her, underneath a mop of blonde hair and a black motorboats hat, the silver and blue tassel being held back from a smart and handsome looking face.

Katlyn clutched the picture to her chest as the tears began anew. What she had dreamt wasn’t just a dream.

Caleb was dead.

Gone.

The nausea crept up her throat from the pit of her stomach; the realization that yesterday was real.

Caleb wasn’t coming back.