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A Lost Treasure
Chapter 1: A Lost Treasure

Chapter 1: A Lost Treasure

Author’s Note: Hello, this is my first story on Royal Road. For now I decided to play it safe a put out a short short story I wrote, but eventually I do plan on producing more pieces of work. Thank you and enjoy~

A Lost Treasure

Knock, Knock.

Jesse shifted in his seat, his bottom was long past the stage of being numb, but Jesse didn’t care, the game was much more important than a sore butt.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Jesse leaned in closer to the screen. His team was so close to the enemy’s core. Just a little more push and they would win. Jesse glanced up to his health bar, he was low but if he focused hard enough he could make it.

BAM, BAM, BAM!

Jesse jumped in his seat at what sounded like rhinoceros at his door. He looked up from his computer momentarily and at the moment the opposing team swopped down and finished him off.

“Shit!” Jesse exclaimed as he helplessly watched his team members try to battle on without him.

“Jesse?” shouted a voice from the other side of the door. His sister.

Jesse was pissed; a moment of lost concentration had cost him and his team members a chance to win the game. Angrily he slammed his desk and stomped over to his door. He pulled it violently open, shouting “What?”

In the hallway stood his younger sister, Laura. Her eyes were puffy and red but Jesse didn’t care.

“Um…” she said looking down. “I made dinner and I wanted to know if you would come join me.”

“I’m not hungry,” Jesse said crossly. “Where’s Dad? Can’t you eat with him?”

“Dad’s not coming home today.”

“Oh.”

Jesse and Laura stood there awkwardly for a minute. Finally Jesse said irritably, “Just invite some friends over then.”

Before Laura could respond Jesse shut his door again, running over to his computer to see how his team was faring. Just as he expected it wasn’t going well. Grumbling to himself, Jesse jumped back into the game. Within a few minutes all thoughts of his sister disappeared.

Laura stood outside his door for a minute. She had meant to say, before Jesse had closed his door, “I don’t have any friends to bring over.” Laura sighed as once again the silence of the house began to settle and found herself feeling just as depressed and helpless as she had felt before. She looked out the hallway window into a very dark and very long lonely night and for millionth time asked if she could bear it enough to see another sunrise.

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A few nights after the fight, Jesse thought he heard something topple downstairs. It was three in the morning and Jesse had been up late watching movies on Netflix.

Curious as to what would be moving around so late at night, Jesse decided to check it out. I doubt it’s my sister, he thought. She’s probably still sleeping despite all the racket. Softly Jesse crept down the stairs. He had brought with him a bat in case of it being a burglar.

The sound seemed to have come from the living room. He took a peek inside. Though it was dark, Jesse could discern the shape of a body standing there. Jesse readied his bat. On the count of three, thought Jesse, steeling himself. 1, 2, 3. With fluid motion Jesse flip the living room light switch while raising his bat to pummel whoever was standing there.

There was no burglar, just his sister, hanging limply from the chandelier.

The bat fell from his hand, hitting the floor with a loud clang. This can’t be happening, Jesse thought. Suddenly the room felt larger then ever possible, the white washed ceiling so very far away. His sister was still in her pajamas, the ones covered in hello kitty faces that their father had given her for her birthday. Her long brown hair covered her face, leaving it in shadows despite the bright light that bathed the room. Beneath his sister, laid a toppled chair, one of the ones they used in the kitchen. It was bruised from use, its paint washed out from all the times it was left outside. Somewhere in the room a clock was ticking but Jesse felt sure that time had stopped. The silence was deafening. A white q-tip lay on the living room floor, dirty with dust and hair, waiting to be picked up and thrown away. Jesse fell to his knees and began to cry.

After the funeral, Jesse stumbled back to his room and shut the door. Nothing in his room had changed or been disturbed since that night. Jesse looked at his computer, his Xbox, his TV screen. He thought about the last time he had seen his sister, eyes red from crying, asking him to just join her for dinner. He had turned her down. Turned down his sister’s simple request just to play a video game. Furiously Jesse grabbed his phone from his pocket and threw it to the grown. The glass screen shattered and cracked but did not break. Jesse slumped to the floor and started crying. Technology could be replaced and fixed but a sister, Jesse realized, was a treasure he had lost forever.

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