A soft yet stern voice cuts the silence on a cold Monday morning.

"Xavier!!! Ben!!! GET UPPP!! ITS 6 am ALREADY!!" 

"huh? Mom? *blinks* 6 am? *winks* 6… a...m? - *opens eyes* 6 AM? HOLY SHIT, IM GONNA BE LATE!!

A long, slender boy, no older than 18, sits up in bed with messy black hair that falls into his line of sight.

A voice from downstairs bellows, "Language!!" 

"Sorry, Dad! Hey X, get up, little man, we're already late, bud!"

Ben jumps down from the top of their bunk bed. He stumbles around the dark for just a moment before flipping on the lights. Across, the room lying in the bottom bunk is a small boy. He looks like the miniature version of Ben. As Ben shuts the bedroom door, his tone of voice shifts to a serious one.

"Get up X, don't make me tell you again."  

X rolls over in bed to stare Ben in the eyes as if to say, "Do it. I dare ya." 

Ben switches his body language to that of a queen, sticking his nose up at the ceiling, straitening his back up and looking down on his younger brother. Ben had also taken up a more regal tone now. 

"So, you're choosing to defy me? Your own older brother."

A smirk flashed across X's face. 

"That's it!!"

Ben lunges at X.

"AH! DON'T DO THIS! PLEASE!! HEEELLLP MEEEEE!!!!!"

X's young, innocent voice filled the entire house. 

Their parents' just downstairs in the kitchen, had no choice but to spring into action at the first thought of their precious boy getting injured or even worse.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!" Yelled their father.

"WE'RE COMING, HONEY!!" Assured their mother.

The two sprint up the steps as fast as they can. They arrived at the bedroom door in no time. Their father kicked the door off the hinges, sending the door across the bedroom, smashing into the wall. Their parents never could've prepared for what they were about to see. Peering in the room after having some time to realize what they were looking at, it stuns both parents into silence. Ben had flipped X onto his belly, and sat down onto X's butt, grabbed his left ankle with his left hand, and had his right hand posed and ready to tickle. Ben and X are now staring into the doorless doorway at their parents. Their mother's name is Emma. She is a short beautiful woman, about 4'5". She has short, brown hair in a bob fashion. She's wearing a pink nightgown with little white flowers on it. Compared to any other 30-year-old woman, she looks very young. Paul, the father, was an immense man. 6'2", very muscular, short, black hair. He was wearing white socks, black sweats, and a white tank-top.

"I didn't lock the door, you know." was the only thing Ben mustered. 

X began tearing up with a silly grin in his face. 

"Thank god you're here. I couldn't stop him. I was so scared."

Emma couldn't help but chuckle.  

"Stop goofing off you're gonna be late for school. Get dressed, and let's go." Paul demanded. 

Paul and Emma began walking away back downstairs. The two brothers laugh together in unison.

"And fix that door tonight!" Paul added. 

Back in the kitchen, Emma consoles Paul as he cries his eyes out.

"I was so scared that something could have happened to our boys!"

"It's okay, honey. Boys will be boys. You know that." She rubs his back in reassurance. 

In the bedroom, the boys get dressed. 

"Big day for you today, huh big guy?!" Ben asks X

"Yea! Are you going to make it to my soccer game after school today?"

"That's the plan, little man!"

X gets excited at the thought of his older brother coming to see his first soccer game. He didn't want to let him down. 

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I'm gonna do my best, so make sure yo- Bens' phone vibrates suddenly cutting X off. It's a text.

"One sec X." Ben looks at his phone, with a bit of a stern look, like what he was reading was hard for him to read, which is strange because Ben is the top of his senior class. He then puts the phone back in his pocket, grabbed his sweater, and headed for the door.

"Hurry it up, X; we got to go." 

A bit disappointed, X grabbed his coat and trudged downstairs. During the car ride to school, X couldn't help but think Ben has been acting strangely after he got that text. 

"You're quiet today, son." Emma speculated.  

"So mom notices too?" X thought.

"Is something the matter?" she persisted.

"I'm fine, Mom, I just have nothing to say," Ben said slowly.

Emma drops Ben off at his school first; then she takes X to his school, then she goes back home. In X's class, his classmates and teacher notice he's disassociative. X has continuously lost in thought ever since Ben brushed him off.

"He's never been cold to me like that before. What did that text say? Am I overthinking this?" A loud ringing cuts off X's train of thought. The first period of school is over. Walking to the cafeteria to rest between classes, X feels a pat on his back.

"Hey, X! What's up?" A thin, delicate girl in a black dress with stockings and boots greets X.

"Hey, Diane. Nothing much." X mutters. 

"What's the matter with you? You've been acting gloomy since this morning!" whined Diane. X turns his head to look at her. Her pouty face makes X chuckle. When X chuckles, Diane's face lights up. Diane has stunning sky blue eyes and wavy brown hair down to her shoulders. X couldn't help but notice how cute she is. Since they have been friends since they were little, X never looked at her that way, but now that they are older, it's easy to see Diane is a cute girl. X blushes and quickly turns away. However, he feels as though he can tell Diane anything.

"It's my brother. He's acting weird today." 

"Ben? Isn't he graduating this weekend?" Diane asked.

"Yea, why?" X questioned.

"Well, graduating from high school is a big deal! He has to think of his future now. Soon he'll be on his own in the world. That's a scary thought if you ask me." Diane explained

"Yea, maybe you're right. I'm thinking into this way too much." X tries to assure himself. 

"Diane's right I'm paranoid, I can't begin to feel how Ben is feeling about graduating." The two sit down at a table in the cafeteria and eat their breakfast. The rest of the school day is a blur. When the final bell rings, X runs over to the bus stop hoping his older brother is back to his usual self. 

"Where is he? He's gonna miss the bus at this rate." X began to worry. Ben wasn't going to make it. X had no choice but to board the bus without his older brother. He chose a seat at the back by himself. The whole bus ride home X was worried about his older brother. 

Is he okay? Is he in trouble? What if he just ditched? No, he has never ditched a day of school in his life. Today sucked. 

When X got home from school, he saw both his parents' cars in the driveway, which is suspicious because they should both be at work at this time. X enters the house to find Ben is already home. X lets out a sigh of relief. Ben was sitting on the sofa in the living room facing the t.v. Suddenly spins around to see who just opened the door.

"Hey! sorry, I wasn't there to meet you at the bus today bud, I got suspended." Ben had a silly look on his face and gave him a little shoulder shrug. 

"What? Seriously? What did you do?!" X curiously exclaimed.

"Don't idolize him, Xavier, your older brother, wasted mine, and your father's time with his childish behavior!" Emma proclaimed from the kitchen.

Ben glares at his mother. X can't help but notice that it's uncharacteristic of him to do that. 

"Go on, Ben, tell him what you did." Emma dared. Ben looks to X. 

"Okay. X, I wrote a note to the teacher that I had a bomb in a backpack." Ben said coldly. X can't bring himself to say anything. He's never disagreed with his brother so strongly on something before. Ben burst out into laughter. 

"BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! LOOK AT YOUR FACE!" Ben yelled out. His demeanor then suddenly phases over to cool and calm. "You're such a kid X. Lighten up, it's not like I had a bomb, it was just a joke, no big deal." Ben shrugs. 

"NO BIG DEAL!? WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!!" X screams out. Ben is astonished, as is Emma. They've never heard X yell like that. X storms upstairs into their room and lay on the bottom bunk. 

"Despite my not having done much today, I'm still super tired. I even skipped my soccer game today without realizing it. I'm going to get an earful from everyone tomorrow. I'm so embarrassed, I can't believe I yelled like that, but I also can't believe the way Ben is acting. He's been weird all day. Oh well, ill sleep it off. Everything will be okay in the morning. It'll be like waking up from a nightmare.

"Honey, honey, wake up." Emma was shaking X awake. 

"Mom? What time is it? I didn't hear my alarm?" 

"It's 2 am hun, it's your brother," Emma spoke anxiously, and that worried X.

"What? What's the matter?" Come to think of it X never noticed Ben come in the room for bed.

"He's gone. He took my car and left. We have no idea where he is. Your father is out looking for him now." Emma started to cry. X tried his best to console his mother. 

" Don't worry, mom he's just burning some steam. I'm sure he's fine." Emma kept crying all night. X fell back asleep, consoling his mother.

In the morning, X sits up in bed and checks his phone to look at the time. 2:15 pm. X looks up to the top bunk but is disappointed at the sight of the bare bed sheets. He gets dressed and goes down to the living room. Upon entry into the living room, X is taken aback by all the strangers in his house. Based on their navy blue uniforms, these people are police officers. They all look at X as he came into view from upstairs.

"Honey, let's talk in the kitchen." Emma leads X into the kitchen away from the men in the living room.

"What's going on out there, mom?" X Demands

"It's Ben; your father couldn't find him, so we called the police. They found our car in the middle of a field. X, Ben has been declared missing..." Emma's voice faded in X's head. Nothing mattered to X anymore. It was as if all the color in the world had forsaken him. He was numb. 

"My brother is missing, and there's not a thing I can do."