A NEW CINDERELLA STORY

What Happened to Big Ben

Benjamin, he was the big brother I never had, hence, "Big Ben". I have always been in the Air Force. I have always had the knack for being in a plane, whether it was flying, fighting, shooting, or mechanics, I was good at it all. Benjamin was always the perfect soldier, and friend. I remember that day like it was yesterday...

"You ready for the daily rounds?" Big Ben said as he always did, he always came to check on me, I had some rough nights, he was there to comfort me, even when he didn't know me. He was always my big brother. We got connected that way. It helps to have someone who cares, especially when you are the only twelve-year-old, and the youngest of everyone there.

"Yeah! I just hope we don't have to shoot off any heads," I answered, shrugging my coat over my uniform. It always got pretty cold being thousands of feet in the air, sometimes we go low, to about 500 feet up, sometimes less, but it's still cold, so we are all allotted one jacket.

"Let's go hit some action!" Big Ben laughed at that, we never got action, we only fought in the air, it was never messy, we only hit planes, pieces of machinery, I try not to think of the people. It gets hard when I think about the people. We headed to the platform, Big Ben grabbed my hand and helped me up onto the plane. I always freaked out a little every time we took off, I forced a smile. Big Ben seemed off, twitchy.

"Hey, Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"Are Okay?" I could tell he knew that I knew something was off.

"Yeah, I just, sort of had a letter, with some pretty devastating news. But I'm fine!" Big Ben stutters. I nodded.

2 hours later

We have touched ground, we searched and tried to defend above, but they needed our help. Josh told us to split up in pairs. I guess he knew how close and how well Ben and I worked together. Ben and I were scouting some abandoned buildings. My gut was screaming at me to turn around. A boy, who looked like he was about twelve, my age at the time, came out of the abandoned building. We heard his shoes before we saw him. Smack, smack, smack, smack. That's the song that was made when his shoes touched concrete.

"Hey, you!" Big Ben, I don't know did it, he ran after that boy, the boy ran into an alley. Between an old shop and the abandoned building. Of course, I ran after Benjamin. Only seconds behind him. I come out of the alley to find the General, Benjamin, the entire Airforce team, and half of the army troop, held at gunpoint, I immediately stepped back into the shadows, I was unnoticed. We had been led into a big circle, with and alley on each side. I pulled out my gun, I held it up to who looked like the oldest person in the group. The twelve-year-old boy came out of the shadows, he had a group of boys his age with him. I started slowly moving into the opening. I killed two people with my gun that night. I got my gun out of my hand. And I was thrown against the wall, shot in the stomach. One of the boys, my age, looked me straight in the eyes, he gave me a resentful smirk, and a smiled.

"Fire!" He yelled, he looked me in the eyes and smiled. There were only three people left after that. Big Ben, me, and Jace, he was part of the army troop stationed here. I was against the wall, bleeding to death, Big Ben was in front of me, with his gun, and Jace was crying in the alley where I came from. The boy that led me and Big Ben here, he had his gun pointed at Big Ben. I scrambled to grab a gun from a soldier's, from my own team, corpse. I pointed it at the boy, I tried so hard to pull the trigger.

"Izy, pull it, shoot him!" Benjamin yelled, but, I couldn't. The boy looked me in eyes, and he smiled, before shooting Big Ben and running off. I started shooting crazily, hitting the walls, I don't know if I even hit anyone, but everyone ran every British person in the circle opening after that. I pulled myself towards Big Ben, his head was on my lap.

"I'm so sorry Ben, Big Ben," I cried so hard, he stroked my face for half a second, "Did I disappoint you?" Maybe I imagined it, but I think he answered.

"No, you didn't disappoint your giant clock." I thought I heard him whisper that. Jace walked over to me, I pulled back against the wall, Big Ben's head still in my lap, I stroked his head with one arm, and tried to comfort Jace with the other. I passed out with his head in my lap.

I woke two days later; Big Ben was dead. That was the day, that every man my age lost my trust, not including Jace, though I never quite relied on him for anything. So, technically, it's Big Ben's fault that I don't trust guys my age. All because of what happened to Big Ben.