[offtopic]UPDATED: OCTOBER/NOVEMBER '19.
Any errors, please mention.[/offtopic]
:Chapter one: You can’t cheat death.
As the hours passed, the weather quickly deteriorated. Eventually, it turned the small streams nearby rivers into deadly and unforgiving ones-that roared with anger. They had now, long since burst their banks-leaving the water levels to grow increasingly higher. The endless rain had caused this to happen, and had already managed to overflow the drains in the roads.
The deadliest part though, was the combination of the fierce winds, and unrelenting lightning. Many lines had already been knocked over or damaged by falling trees, which had left many without power-or the ability to call anyone. News and weather reports during the day had advised people to stay in their homes because of the many dangers, and had mentioned that many of the roads were blocked due to all the debris.
Regardless, several families were determined to get to where they needed to be. Some had been out before the storm had worsened, and hadn’t realised just how bad it would get. Others just wanted to check on loved ones, to make sure that everyone they cared about were safe. One small trio summed up their risky journey on the road under both categories.
Justin was driving carefully though the rain, as he couldn’t see properly through the window. A mixture of condensation and the rain had meant that it was getting and more dangerous to continue, but he was anxious to try and get home none-the-less.
Gregg-his teenage son, who was sitting in the back seat behind him, had been a little unsure of whether to travel in the car to begin with. Whilst he had been waiting for his parents to get ready, he had been watching the reports and knew that the storm would be approaching at some point during their journey.
His brilliant green eyes, just like his fathers, were mostly hidden under his light brown hair. He had tried to hide how uneasy he was feeling, by hiding his face as much as he could-especially as he didn’t want to hold them up further.
His mother, Leia, had been able to tell however. And had wrapped her arms around him protectively before they departed that morning, lightly placing a kiss on his cheek as she did so. When Gregg bit his lip gently and turned to look at her, she then spoke so that only he would be able to hear.
“Andi will be waiting,” she had said as softly, as she mentioned Gregg’s non-identical twin. “Try not to think about it to much, we’ll be home before you know it.”
She glanced nervously over at Justin-who was beside her in the car, and then at Gregg, before taking a deep breath. Her long, soft brown hair was tied neatly in a ponytail, which she ran her fingers through. She knew that it was only a matter of time before they were home now, and so she decided to break the uneasy silence by talking to them both about something that had been on her mind.
“Me and your father are a little worried about you Gregg,” she said as she tried to raise her voice over the rain.
“Why?” Gregg asked curiously.
Leia thought for a moment before replying, she didn’t want to mention that Andi had gone against his brothers wishes.
He had been adamant that he didn’t want Gregg to know that he had said anything, which had worried her more than she wanted to let on. How long had he known there was a problem? And how had she not picked up on it until it was brought up in conversation?
“We know you haven’t been sleeping very well at the moment,” Leia said thoughtfully. She was trying to divert the topic away from how she had found out, but somehow knew that Gregg had realised. It was only a matter of time now before he asked about it.
“Gregg sighed and took a sip of water out of the bottle beside him. There it was, the little secret he had tried to keep to himself, out in the open.
-
Leia shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat, watching the windscreen wipers as they tried to push the rain away. She knew she had to break the awkward pause that had occurred with a different topic, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead she just simply waited, listening to the heavy pounding on their small car.
The silence continued for another few minutes before Gregg finally spoke once more, although it was clear that he was still uncomfortable doing so.
“So, what do you want to know?” he asked.
Leia gently smiled with relief for a brief second, then turned around to face him so that they would be able to hear each other a little better.
“How long have you had a problem sleeping?”
“A while,” Gregg admitted. He then paused to think for a moment, leaving Leia waiting patiently. After a short while, he then continued, knowing that if he didn’t mention the small details, that she would only end up asking for them anyway. “I started having problems sleeping around the beginning of June, I thought it was down to all the school work at the time so I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”
“June!” Leia exclaimed. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because it wasn’t a big deal,” Gregg replied nervously. “I thought it was just a faze or something, and that it would pass over the holidays-but it’s been getting gradually worse.”
“If you had told us, we could have taken you to see a doctor Gregg. He could have given you some sleeping pills or something to take or something. What are we supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know!” Gregg cried out desperately. He hung his head in the dark, feeling the weight of his secret growing heavier on his shoulders as he did so.
-
He had always hated being the one that asked for help, preferring to sort little problems out by himself so that others wouldn’t have to. Lately he was struggling though, and he was realising this more and more as the days went by.
“Gregg, please-” Justin began. “-You may be uncomfortable talking about this, but we do need to.”
“But why? Why now?” Gregg asked desperately.
“Because we have been looking into places that may be able to help you, if you stay with them for al little while,” Leia said firmly. “Your father is right, this is something that we need to discuss.”
Gregg didn’t know how to respond, so he instead folded his arms out in front of his face as he tried to find a better way to hide his emotions.
“Gregg, we love you so much,” Leia said calmly. “We wouldn’t send you away unless we thought we really needed to.”
“I can sort this out though” Gregg cried. “I can start sleeping better, but only at home. Please-just don’t send me away.”
Leia and Justin then looked at each other for a moment, just long enough to mutually agree with what their son was asking them. Although they never said a word aloud, they both understood that giving Gregg time was the best thing to do.
To give her son a little comfort, Leia then reached over, and lightly squeezed his arm-smiling gently when he looked at her.
“Okay, we won’t send you away,” she smiled reassuringly.
-
Gregg relaxed a little, but it was only for a few moments. The road they were on had become more perilous, and Justin was finding it hard to control the car. Taking a deep breath, he lowered his head once more into the comfort of his arms, and tried to steady himself. Usually he enjoyed the quiet periods when he travelled as it gave him an opportunity to think, but today was different. Now he just wanted to escape it all; the loud pounding of the rain, the awkwardness of the conversation that still lingered and the whole idea of being sent away.
So many thoughts were running through his head, each one left trails of questions that he doubted would ever get answered.
How had his parents found about his sleeping troubles? He had made sure to be so careful and not wake them. The only other person that had known before hand was Andi, and he had made him promise not to tell them. Would he really go against his brothers wishes? And what places had his parents found that they reckoned would help? Sighing, he glanced up to see that his mother had turned around, and was holding both of her arms in front of her face. Was she copying what he had been doing?
He looked carefully at her reflection in the mirror-no she wasn’t. Her eyes and mouth were wide open with terror, and she was staring straight ahead. This wasn’t right, something was seriously wrong.
Gregg opened his mouth and tried to speak, to see if he could find out what was going on, but found that he couldn’t hear anything. The noise of the rain had stopped- so had everything else as well. And-even though it had only been a few moments beforehand when he wished to escape the confines of the car, he now regretted it. He found that he needed to listen to what was going on, at least to get some clarification to what was happening.
He felt the car lurch suddenly, and then swerve as Justin tried to avoid the debris. The sudden movement shocked Gregg’s brain into finally registering everything around him, and he was able to hear once more.
He heard his mother’s ear piercing scream. His father crying out, and the grating of the front of the car being crushed by the large tree blocking the road.
-
Gregg opened his eyes slowly and carefully, and felt his whole body ache with a dull pain. The weather was unrelenting and angry, and he cried out with intense hatred towards it. The storm, the same one that he had warned his parents about, had caused this crash to happen.
He gingerly unfolded his arms and unclasped the seatbelt clutch from the holder. It sprung back quickly, leaving him to wince a little with pain as it caught his hand.
“Mum, dad are you okay?” he asked quietly.
When they didn’t reply, he quickly looked up and cried out once more-this time loud enough that they would be able to hear him.
“Mum, dad!”
“Leia?” Justin croaked. “Leia, please say something-”
“-Dad are you okay?” Gregg asked loudly. Then, bracing himself slightly, he moved so that he was between the two front seats.
Reaching out, he touched his mothers arm and quickly let go. Her head was leaning on the window, and as Gregg had tried to see if she was okay, he had seen the blood starting to trickle down her face.
“Gregg-you need to go and get some help,” Justin said with a quiver in his voice.
“No, no-I’m not leaving you two here!”
“Gregg, please-your mum needs help, she needs to go to the hospital. I need you to go.”
Gregg then managed to shift his position to speak to his father a little better, and saw that he was looking directly at him.
“But-”
“Gregg, just go. Please,” Justin asked firmly.
Unable to argue with his fathers wishes any further, he nodded and turned away. As soon as he had pulled the car door open though, tears filled his eyes and threatened to fall, and he realised that he had been able to hold back from crying until that moment.
He clambered out of the car and stood up, feeling the small amount of layers that he was wearing getting heavy and damp as his body froze on the spot. Within a few seconds though, the shock of what had just happened hit his body. He felt his legs give way, and painfully cried as he collapsed on the road.
“Gregg!” Justin cried out. He had opened his car door just in time to see him falling to his knees, but knew that he couldn’t help him. Instead of trying to get out of the car, he tried to use the energy to call out to him, to make sure that his son was okay.
“What just-” Gregg mumbled quietly. Groaning quietly, he then painfully stood up once more, and stumbled away to the nearest house that he could see.
-
There were many houses down the street, but only a couple still had their lights on. Gregg rang the doorbells of three houses, banging as he did so to try and attract as much attention as he could. One of the buildings he tried had almost every window illuminated in the darkness, but nobody answered at all.
The second and third houses he tried had no signs of life whatsoever. Were they all asleep? Trying to protect themselves from getting wet or maybe even hurt?
He then tried to think of other tactics, other ideas to get people to answer their doors and help.
“Please! Please help!” he cried out.
He was knocking on the fourth door that he had managed to painfully reach, when he finally heard some movement.
“I’m coming,” Gregg heard a man’s voice grumble from the other side. He watched as several lights were turned on, including the porch one, before the security latch was pulled back.
A middle-aged man stared at Gregg for just a moment before reaching for the phone. When he returned, he tried to motion for him to come inside, but Gregg quickly refused.
“No, no I can’t,” he replied as he shook his head. “It’s my mum and dad-” he began.
“-There’s ben a crash?”
“Yes,” Gregg cried.
“I was wondering what that loud noise was just now,” the man replied quietly and sympathetically. He ran his hands through his receding blonde hairline and quickly keyed the emergency number into the phone. “I warned my neighbours they needed to do something about that tree,” he continued, grumbling to himself.
“You need to phone-”
“I’m already doing it son, are you sure you don’t want to come in and get warm?” he replied.
“I need to go, my dad just told me to get some help-”
“Well I’ll make sure that it’s on the way,” he said firmly. “I’ll be out with you in a minute or two once I know they’re coming.”
Gregg then nodded weakly in acknowledgement and spun around, and started to make his way towards the car once more.
-
He saw his dad leaning out of the drivers side as he approached, and quickly limped over. The moment he was beside him, he collapsed on by the open door, and knelt down on the damp road.
“Did you manage to find anyone?” Justin asked him. Gregg looked at him, then to his mother who had been moved recently and nodded. Leia was now leaning across the drivers side, and her head was resting on his father’s left shoulder.
As Gregg looked at her, he noticed that her eyes were closed, and that she wasn’t moving at all.
“Dad, is she-” he began. Unable to finish the question though, he simply turned his attention to his father- who was slowly nodding.
“Yes,” he replied quietly.
“Dad-”
“-Gregg, it’s okay, she won’t be alone for long.”
“Wait-what are you saying?” Gregg asked as tears threatened to fall once more. “I found someone that said he was phoning the ambulance service now, you’re going to be okay.”
“Gregg, please-”
“-No dad, just no! You are not leaving me!”
“Do you
really think that I want to?” Justin snapped. Gregg recoiled away from him slightly, unsure of what to say next. As he did so, he took in the full extent of his fathers injuries.
The dashboard was sitting on top of his fathers legs, pinning him down into his seat as a result. There was no way that he was going to be able to get out of the card, without being cut out from it first, and the urgency was taken even further when Gregg spotted blood dripping onto the floor of the car.
Shards of glass were covering his chest and arms, some had even managed to bury their way into his skin, and were shining-almost mockingly, in the light from the car door being open. The ones that had broken through, had caused tiny red rivers to form. Although they weren’t flowing any longer, it was clear that the pain was more than enough to handle.
“I am trying to hold on,” Justin weakly sighed. Gregg took a deep breath and regained his composure slightly, and he was able to kneel next to his father once more.
His whole body ached from the bruises from the accident, and he could feel the injuries from when he had fell, starting to take their toll as well. Only one thing was on his mind though, making sure that his dad was okay.
He braced himself mentally, telling himself that he could do this. That he would be the one to sort this whole thing out, knowing as he did so that he wouldn’t be able to. Sighing gently, Gregg then edged closer and undid the zip of his jumper. Justin watched in confusion, staying silent as they looked at each other once more.
Gregg’s light brown hair had become much darker due to being wet, and he moved it slightly out of the way so that he could see a little better. He had taken a lot of facial features from his father, including his kind and sensitive eyes, but had strangely pushed away the idea of being closer to him than his mum. Now, in this moment though, it had all changed.
Gregg bit his lip gently, and tried-in vain, to remove some of the glass that was covering his dad. Most of the shards were brushed off easily, and fell without a problem. They landed gently and quietly off his clothes and skin, and were forgotten about. Others though, were a little more stubborn and tricky to remove. After failing to remove several of the larger ones, he tried desperately to pick them out with his fingers instead.
“It’s okay-” Justin began.
“-Can you
stop saying that it’s okay!” Gregg snapped. “It
isn’t okay, none of it is. I told you about the storm,” he cried out. “I told you we should have stayed put. You should have listened-”
“-Gregg,” his dad spoke firmly, but held a small quiver. Gregg took a deep breath and looked into his eyes once more, instantly feeling the full weight of the situation in front of him.
Justin then, carefully slid Leia off his shoulder, so that she was resting against the opposite car window once more, and turned to his son.
“I need you to listen to me.”
“I’m listening,” Gregg replied weakly.
“I mean-”
“Dad, there is no way that I’m leaving you right now. I’m not going anywhere, say what you need to say. You have my full and complete attention.”
Justin smiled weakly, and held his arms open, to which Gregg rushed to clamber into. He heard his dad wince in pain, and was about to back away slightly-when he felt his dad squeeze him tighter.
“It’s been a while since I gave you one of my old proper hugs hasn’t it?” Justin whispered. Gregg stayed silent, finding that he couldn’t find the words to say anything in that moment. “I need you to do something for me,” his dad continued.
Gregg pulled away then for a moment, but didn’t fully let go. Tears were freely falling down his face, and his dad smiled gently as he wiped them away-but left his own to continue making the neck of his t-shirt damp.
Justin then slid something into the pocket of Gregg’s wet jumper, but shook his head when he began to reach for it.
“Later,” he chuckled gently. “I just need you to look after that for me, can you do that?”
“Of course I can,” Gregg replied quietly.
Justin then pulled his son into a hug once more, and squeezed him gently one last time. The pain from the pressure in his legs and injuries hurt him more than he was letting on, but knew that Gregg couldn’t see that-or know how much. Right now, being here with his son was the most important thing to him, so he found himself blocking out the increasing level of pain he was in and focusing on that instead.
“I am so proud of you, do you know that?” Justin spoke once more, his voice breaking as more tears fell. “I was so worried that I wouldn’t be a good father to you three, that I would do something wrong-”
“-You were always my hero dad, and nothing will ever change that,” Gregg whispered into his ear.
Silence followed shortly after, as they both relished and savoured each second with each other. They had both been independent, preferring to sort their own problems and do things on their own. Although it was useful, it also mean that spending time with family was missed out on many occasions, especially as the tasks took longer to complete.
“Gregg,” Justin quietly spoke once more.
“Yes? I’m still listening dad,” Gregg replied quietly.
“I need you to look out for your brother for me. You two need to stay together, you were always a team from the start. Without us around, and Adalyn abroad, I’m really afraid of what will happen to you both.”
“I promise,” he whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to Andi.”
Justin quickly squeezed his son once more, realising as he did so that the energy he had at the start was quickly draining. Taking a deep breath, he then whispered five more words-knowing as he did so that they would be his last.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Gregg cried back quietly.
Moments, that was all it took. Mere seconds after Gregg replied, Justin smiled once more and closed his eyes. He remembered the day at the hospital where he had first held his daughter, and then again when his two sons were born. He wondered often what kind of father he would be, and only hoped that he had done and taught them all enough.
His mind raced through so many memories, all in short bursts, and he peacefully watched everyone in turn.
When Gregg had been ill on holiday that one year. When Andi had dressed up as a pirate for a school play. When Adalyn had attended her end of school prom, and had showed off her dress with a beaming smile upon her face. So many memories, all filled with joy, laughter and-most important; love.
The last image that he saw, and the one he focused his mind on, was one of Leia.
“
I’ll be with you soon my love,” he thought smiling, as he took his last breath.
EDIT: 17th Sept
So, I just spotted that the version I initially posted on this thread wasn't the most updated. 
Um... My bad.
Now it is the most recent version from my NaNo file, and has been updated to include more important information and fillers which I initially missed out. 
Topic: Foundation: -Introduction (Read 2208 times)