Everett remembered the night it happened, the night his little brother died. He had only been in sixth grade, only last year. He dreamed about it sometimes, not often by any means. He didn't like dreaming about it, but he didn't know how to control his own dreams. This night was one of those nights. He was back on the sidelines of the war of humans and monsters. Every so often, Unheimlich would send out more monsters, and quickly so he could over power humanity, and rule over both realms. He was just fun like that. He, May, May's twin brother, Daniel, Ethan, and his little brother Luke, had taken a break from fighting, just a minute to grab water and a snack. A pigeon flew overhead, carrying something in its mouth. "Look, its a messenger pigeon, " Ethan said laughing slightly. "I didn't know monsters are Amish." Dan laughed, "My granddad was Amish, then he ran away when he was eighteen." The pigeon dropped the letter on Everett's head, he opened it up and began to read: "Dear the opposing army," Everett laughed. He sure didn't consider this group an army. He continued reading, "I would like to have a peaceful negotiation, please send three of your members, and I will send three of my monsters. Be there soon!" May raised her hand. "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Everett shrugged, "I'll come too." Luke jumped around, excitedly, like the crazy ten year old he was. "If Everett is going then I want to go to!" "Alright you crazy come on!" Everett laughed. And so they walked off, towards a large white flag, no too far away. Once they had arrived, Everett recognized one of the monsters Unheimlich had sent: a humanoid bird like creature he, Luke and another kid about Luke's age named Jackson Tenedor, had unofficially named Bertha. The other two he did not recognize, a seven foot tall blue troll that carried a club, and the other one was just as tall, but was completely black and had hollowed out, pure white eyes, . The monsters had set up a table, six seats, the monsters had taken three of the seats, so Everett and co. had to sit directly across from them. Everett was across from the troll, May across from the shadows demon, and Luke in the middle, across from Bertha. Bertha spoke first, "Thank you all for coming. Didn't expect anyone to actually show up." Luke crossed his arms. "You're welcome." Bertha smiled evilly. "Our master, wanted us to ask you to join us." Join them? That's what this all all about? "You would be a valuable asset to our cause. If you join us, you will be granted immortality upon first arrival." She continued talking but Everett wasn't interested. He wanted to stay with his friends. He wanted to grow up with his brothers and be a normal kid. He didn't want to be a monster.
"Sorry, but we're going to pass." Bertha's painted on smile fell. "I'll tell you what." Luke piped up, "I'll join you when my watch charges to one hundred and one percent. I'll join you when Ethan stops snoring. I'll join you when Everett gets straight A's." Luke laughed as if to say 'Ev's always gonna be stupid.' Bertha screeched with rage and threw one of her feathers straight into Luke's head. Everett did something he swore not to do a long time ago. He boiled the monsters blood. He didn't like telling people he could do it, a very small portion of the campers could control certain elements, but the more you do it, the more the nature spirits could control you. So if he ever found a water spirit, he'd be fried. In a way, they're like moms on Christmas: they give you a gift, then get mad at you for using it too much. The monsters exploded in different color powder, to his horror, Bertha's was yellow. Luke was the ninth. He ran to his brother. May was desperately checking for a pulse. She looked up at him ad shook her head. Everett collapsed, sobbing. He looked at his brother, his eyes were glassy, and staring off into space. Everett wished he hadn't let Luke come with them. He failed Luke. May hugged him, he didn't know how long he cried for, but it felt like a lifetime. "Ev, we need to go back and tell the others." "We can't leave Luke here, we can't abandon him." "Ev, I know, I was going to ask you if you want to carry him back or of you want me to." "I - I can do it." May nodded, and stood up. Everett walked a couple feet to where Luke was. He scooped him up, Luke had always been pretty light so it wasn't too difficult for Everett to carry him. Less than thirty minutes ago, they had been laughing about Dan and May's Amish grandpa. He didn't know how to tell Ethan what happened. They walked silently back to the others. His hands shook and it was hard to breathe. Every few minutes he stopped and checked to see if Luke was actually really dead. The results didn't change. May shook him awake "Ev, what are you doing? You're teaching in 10 minutes!" "What? " He said sleepily, trying to get the nightmare out of his mind. "Why were you sleeping? " "Because Ethan thought it would be funny to give me hot chocolate mixed with coffee at 8pm so I wouldn't be able to sleep until 3am and now I'm tired and I didn't want to dream about it just now but-" "Ev take a breath. What did you dream about?" "Stuff." "What kind of stuff?" "Things." "What kind of things?" "Stuff things." "Was it about Luke?" Everett didn't respond, but May knew the answer. "Do you want to talk about it?" "No." "Okay, but you do need to come, you need to be there a bit early. " Everett nodded, grabbed something from his backpack, and rolled out of bed.
