It All Started At 6 a.m.

Chapter 28

Ethan

Bending down onto my knees, I started shoveling out the soil from the flower pot that was placed beside the door, as we used to keep the spare key hidden in there. I heard the clicking of metals as the key came to sight. Picking it up, I tried opening the lock but it wouldn't open. Probably because no one has come here after we had left the place, so the door might have gotten jam.

Finally, after several attempts, the door swung open and the dust from above the doorway caused me to cough. The house was still the same, except for the white walls that had turned grey due to the dust. There wasn't much furniture as we took most of it with us to our new house.

"Welcome to my past, Leah," I said and walked inside the house, trailing my hand across the wall to locate the switch as the gloominess from outside caused darkness inside the house. The single bulb that we had left, lit up dimly but it was enough to figure out what was what. 

A wave of nostalgia took over as I was suddenly transported back to my childhood. I could see a little boy with a brown flop on his head running around the house, chasing after a similar-looking elder boy. 

Suddenly, the scene changed to a younger boy holding a baby in his arms whereas the elder one was singing the other baby to sleep.

I could hear the chatter coming from the dining room as all the members of the family sat together for dinner.

"Ethan, " Leah started, resting a hand on my shoulder, "you don't hav-"

"No, Leah, I have to. Maybe this is what I need to do to fully let go of Nathan, to accept his absence." I didn't bother to wipe the tear that had rolled down my cheek. There was no need to hide it from her. There was no need for pretension. "I need to do it," I whispered and squeezed my eyes shut.

"You are not alone, Ethan." Her hand found mine and laced our fingers together. "We'll do it together." I couldn't even describe how good it felt to hear those words coming from her. Her being present with me while I relive all those years was enough to keep me sane. 

I took the stairs and Leah followed behind, not once leaving my hand. The doors to all the rooms were left open. The first room on my right was mom and dad's.

"Where mom always picked my side, Nathan was always dad's favourite." A memory of dad's proud face whenever Nathan won a football game came in view.

We walked towards the twins' room. Mom was getting them ready for their first day of kindergarten and Nathan was standing in the doorway with their bags.

"Nathan was always this protective brother, for all of us." I chuckled at one of the memories from school. "There was a boy in my school, a year older than me. I was a quiet kid back then. Fighting was like a sin for a ten-year-old me." I laughed at how naive I was. "So this boy had tripped me during the lunch break and he and his eleven-year-old cronies started laughing at me whereas I just sat there staring at those boys. Out of nowhere, Nathan stood in front of me, and let's say that bully-boy wasn't fast enough to run away from the scene and received a black eye from my brother. Because no one messes with Nathan Adams' siblings." It felt as if all this happened just the day before. 

"From that day onwards he would take me to self-defense training. You know why I always workout at six in the morning that too with loud music?" I asked looking at her.

"Because you like to annoy me?" She smiled trying to lighten up the mood and I smiled back at her.

"Good try." I chuckled before continuing, "That and the fact that Nathan used to do that and I'd tag along with him in the basement where his speakers used to blast with different genres of music. He would laugh and say that I was too young for workouts, so he would just ask me to do jumping jacks."