Hide and Seek

Let Go

8 years ago

The puffy white clouds that littered the sky had transformed into an ominous blanket of dark grey outside the airport window. Jayce, the pack's beta's 15 year old son, had taken the car ride to the airport with his best friend, chosen brother, and futer Alpha, Corinthian. The boys had been escorted to the airport by two of the pack's top warriors to welcome home Corinthian's parents. It had been two weeks since Corinthian had sent them away on a surprise vacation for their anniversary.

Having lived in the same house all of their lives, and having a very strong bond between the families, Jayce was almost as excited about the Alpha and Luna's return home as Corinthian was. Almost. As the time neared that the private plain should have reached the visable sky outside the airport window, the boys excitement slowly turned into worry.

"Do you see anything yet? where are they?" Corinthian asked. "I don't know Cor, maybe the pilot decided to go the long way around the clouds or something." Jayce told his friend, trying to ease Corinthian's worries and hide the worries of his own. As the time approached that the plain should have reached down to the landing strip, still there was no sign of the plain in site.

In the reflection of the window, Jayce noticed a commotion on the far end of the airport. He turned away from the window and watched as a bunch of airport personal all quickly shuffled into a room and close the door that he was pretty sure was the airports control center. "Cor," Jayce spoke,not looking away from the direction of the room "I think something is going on."

"What do you mean?" Corinthian replied, still searching the sky for any sign of his parents. When he didnt get a response, Corinthian turned and looked at his friend, and then turned to look in the direction that Jayce seemed to be hyperfocused on. Inside the room, through the large glass windows, the boys could see men and woman in different uniforms. All of the people were heavy coats of stress, anxiousness, fear and saddness in their body language. A sence of dread washed over the boys.

The two pack worriers who had accompanied the boys to the airport had been sitting in a row of seats near where the boys were watching out the window, suddenly raised to there feet. Jayce and Corinthian turned to look at them just as both men grabbed their chests. A look of pain and sadness taking over faces and they dropped to their knees. Tears forming in both of the mens eyes.

"No! No, no no! Please No!" Corinthian cried out. Jayce's breath felt as of it had been forced into his lungs and frozen there, as he tried desperately to remember how to exhail. Neither of the boys wolves had awaken in them yet, as they were both to young, they couldn't feel the packs bond to their Alpha snap and dissapear, but having learned about the effects of a pack losing their bond with their Alpha, in school, only a few short months ago, the boys had known in a instant what had happened.

Jayce fought with his lungs until he saw this best friend begin to crumble beside him. he pushed his breath back out hard as he reached out catching Corinthian be for he hit the floor.

Seeing their next Alpha faulter, The two worriers pushed themselves off the ground and quickly rushed over to where the Jayce held Corinthian's limp body in his arms. The larger of the two men, quickly but gently took Corinthian out of Jayces hold and cradled him in his arms like a sleeping toddler, turned around and headed toward the exit. The other wrapped his large arm around Jayces shoulder, pulled him snuggley to his side, as they quickly followed behind.

Walking out the door and across the parking lot was a blur to Jayce. The only part of the ride home he could remember was that he was holding onto his unconscious best friend, whose head rested on his chest. He hadn't realized that they had crossed the boarder onto their pack's land, until he heard his father's voice tell him, "Son, you can let go now."

Jayce looked over at his father, whose eyes were still puffy and wet with tears, whose face was still splotchy with redness.

"Dad?" Jayce spoke. "I'm hear son, let go. The guys will bring him upstairs to his room. The doctor is already up there. let them taken him to get checked out." It took a few moments for Jayce to register what was being said to him, he hadn't realized that the worriers were currently trying to pry his arms from around Corinthain's shoulders.

finally his father's words broke through his haze, and he let go of his friend. He let go completely, as he broke down, tears flooded from his eyes. "Dad!" he cried out. His father grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled him out of the truck, wrapping his arms around Jayce on a bear hug. His father stood holding him tightly until all of his emotions had drained out.

Once Jayce had no more tears left to cry, his father walked him into the house. Jayce's mother and his younger brother, Johnny, were snuggled up on the couch, both still crying. Jayce walked over and knelt down in front of them. He took a few moments to hug them both. He kissed his mother in her forhead, got up and headed toward the stairs.

When he reached the third floor, where Corinthians bedroom was, the doctor was just exiting the room. "How is he, doc?" Jayce ask. "He will be just fine, his vitals all came back perfect. His emotions were just to much all it once. It caused him to shut down. I am sure he will wake up soon enough." Jayce nodded and thanked the doctor befor heading into Corinthian's room.

For a while, Jayce sat in a desk chair, watching over his best friend, waiting for him to wake up. a few hours had gone by when the days exsaution caught up with him. After a yawn and a stretch, Jayce got up and left the room. He walked out to the hallway closet where the extra pillows and blankets were kept. Grabbing a few of each, he returned to the room.

After folding the thicker fluffier blanket in thirds and laying it out next to Corinthains bed, he set down his pillows, layed down, and covered himself up with the other blanket. No longer after he had settled in, Jayce fell into a hard sleep.

Somewhere around midnight, Jayce was woken up by the sudden pressure of being stepped on. "s**t, sorry man, I didn't know You were there!" Corinthian explained. "Oh. nah, it's cool. I actually did that one purpose. I didn't want you to wake up and be alone. And I knew you wasn't gunna wake me up." Jayce replied. Corinthain took a slow, shakey, deep breath. "It wasn't just a bad dream, was it Jayce?" He asked. Jayce took a deep breath of his own. "No brother, I am sorry to say, it wasn't a dream."

"They are really gone! They are gone, and I will never see them again, and it's all my fault!" Corinthian cried out. "What do you mean? We don't even know what happened yet, How can it be your fault?" Jayce asked. "I bought them the tickets! I sent them away! If they never left home, then they would still be here!" Corinthian explained as tears formed in his eyes, his guilt weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Jayce got up off the floor and stood in front of Corinthian. "You can go on ahead and get that nonsence right out of that thick head of yours! Aint none of this your fault! You couldn't have predicting something awful would happen! And more so, it don't matter if you're here or there, when the Moon Goddess wants you home, she calls you home, and when she calls you home, you go home! Last I checked, you aint the Moon Goddess, so aint none of it was your doing our your fault!" Jayce reprimanded.

Although Jayce had some vailid points, and it did make Corinthian feel a bit less guilty, he couldn't completely wash away all of the guilt he had felt. After the boys took turns using the bathroom, and Jayce took a trip down the the kitchen to get them both bottles of water, the boys layed back down. Corinthian in his bed, Jayce on the floor. They layed awake, telling each other some of their favorite memories of Corinthian's father and mother. As the morning sun reached the bedroom window, both boys had finally drifted back off to sleep.