My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: The Coming of the Heroes

(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety)

**Isabelle**

After Dad came home and we had supper, my muscles squeezed tight at the bloody red sunset. Bedtime would come soon, and then I'd have to sleep, and then I'd wake up for three hours, adrenaline coursing through me at every sight and sound and sensation that my fear deemed dangerous, which was all of them. And Lotus had warned me something would happen before this day ended. Perhaps a demon attack was what they had meant?

I ran upstairs to Ranya's room. It was a happy place. Plants were shoved into every corner, on wall shelves and windowsills and more shelves springing up from the carpet in the center of her room. Flowers of more colors than the rainbow bloomed bright, stalks of various green shades climbed high, and leaves of varying patterns spread full. Some sat under silver grow lights away from the windows, and some were fake, but I could never remember or tell which ones. The room smelled like so many flowers and other plants.

The blankets on Ranya's bed were even forest-patterned, and her dresser, desk, and pencil holder on her desk looked like they had been carved from a huge tree. The room was woods. The LGBTQ+ flag, the most updated one according to Ranya, above her pillow fit in nicely with all the colorful flowers and other plants.

Ranya sat hunched over at her laptop. I sat next to her.

"Are you certain you can't tell me what's happening?" I asked, my chest tight.

She looked up from her laptop. Her thin brown hair hung loose like rope around her bisque oval face and its large, strong features, kind of reminding me of knots on a tree. Mom said Ranya and I had the same body type, but most of my facial features were smaller.

"Isabelle, you'll... find out soon," Ranya said. I couldn't read the expression on her face. "I don't suppose singing my lullaby would help, would it?

"Lullay sweet sister

Go softly to sleep."

She hadn't sung me that in years. I shook my head. "I'm too old for that."

"Yeah, I guess you are."

That was when the room grew strangely cold. The chill bit my skin all over, even under my clothes. My breath formed puffs.

Ranya and I turned toward the window above her bed. Were we both expecting to see snowflakes?

"Maybe something's up with the thermostat," Ranya said. Her movements were strangely controlled, like even they could expose an important secret, as she crouched and began to crawl. I followed her. We traveled down the hallway and stairs to the living room. The black and white furniture in the living room was supposedly fashionable, yet, in that moment, I returned to my young childhood and found it off-putting.

Dad already stood in front of the thermostat, his jaw clenched. His black hair was cut short, and his green eyes narrowed from his warm ivory face. His head was square and mature, and had extra weight like Zachary's. "Another broken Windshallow appliance." Dad stabbed the buttons on the white contraption with his finger. "It's set to the right temperature, but it's not working."

"It's too cold!" Zachary ran into the room and squeezed my legs with small freezing hands. I shivered and pried him off gently. I would've smiled if I'd been in a better mood. "Do you think it's an ice monster, Isabelle?"

"Monsters aren't cool, Zachary," I said sternly, as if that would convince him.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Dad gave me a reassuring smile. "I'll check the basement." He opened the door and marched down the stairs.

I caught something strange out of the corner of my eye and turned.

Clear, sparkling ice in intricate patterns like silver filigree crawled across the living room window. The frost inched forward in spirals and lines as if strokes from an artist's hand.

Ranya gripped my shoulder. "The Guardians," she breathed. A smile grew across her face. She looked to me, and I began smiling, too. Jack Frost created ice like that. The Guardians would protect me from Pitch! I let out a shaky breath and dropped my shoulders. My heart pounded, ever wary, but it had to be the Guardians. It had to be. I repeated this to myself over and over. It wasn't a dangerous supernatural being. It wasn't a ghost. It wasn't a demon. It wasn't Pitch.

A knock thumped on the front door. Ranya released me and nearly ran toward it. She fell with a crash. I stayed put, too wary to get that close.

Mom beat her to the door.

"What's going on?" Zachary said. He gasped. "Is it monsters?"

"No, not monsters," I said, more to reassure my own heart.

Mom opened the door, and immediately, all my fears calmed.

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