Rising Shards

I walked through my home, feeling like it was the last time I'd ever see it. It may well have been.

I had just turned eighteen, and my home didn't give the appearance of one about to be abandoned. It was kind of a mess, frankly. Laundry unfolded, plates in the sink, and pamphlets strewn about traveling into the void.

My parents were normally loud, but the place was eerily quiet outside of the TV running.

"And tonight looks to be the biggest void storm in years, so make sure you stay tuned for our tips to stay safe after this commercial break."

Mom and Dad had only stepped out for a minute, bringing Zeta with them, who was just about to turn three. They said they were getting groceries, treating it like a normal shopping trip, but I knew better.

They didn't bother telling me any of this, but I figured out what they were planning. Tonight was the night they wanted to bring us all far into the void, never to return.

I only had a few minutes.

There was a strange device set out on the kitchen table that at first glance wouldn't look like anything of note. I had figured out that this was the means they'd use to fling us into the unknown.

A void storm was a point where the mass of dimensions Cani could visit bled over into the stable world for a bit. Cani that were born into the void were particularly susceptible to getting pulled back in during storms, and some were lost forever. With the popularity of the idea of fleeing to the void among my parents' generation, a void storm was like a holiday. The device would make sure the four of us stayed together and would launch us even further than the storm would bring us

I plopped open the binder filled with pages I'd printed at the library. While Mom had put together plenty of strange contraptions of her own design, this one she'd built from a ready made blueprint. I hadn't found the exact plans Mom used, but I found plenty about it, and now I just had to figure out how to break it.

Worst case scenario, I'd break it so we all stayed. But if Mom and Dad were really going to leave already...

I felt immense guilt for even considering it, but there was an air of desperation growing in our home. Things couldn't stay like this any longer. I didn't want to be hurled into some faraway world I didn't understand. I wanted to be home.

The device looked like a clunky air filter. It had a fan on top, and four lightbulb looking parts on the side. If my research was correct, these four parts were the key to protecting Zeta.

Four lightbulb looking parts, one for each of us. Each one charmed or set to our frequencies to beam us with this device wherever it was headed.

There wasn't anything I could immediately notice which one was for who, but I had to find out. I would have to slightly unscrew the ones for Zeta and myself. Just enough to stop them, just enough that Mom and Dad wouldn't notice. It was immensely risky. If Mom suspected anything, she'd just fix it, so I'd have to do it right before it was to happen. Thunder rumbled outside. The storm was rolling in.

The door to the apartment rattled, and I slammed my binder shut and darted to my room.

And now our home was loud once more. Dad made sure we always heard him, each footstep a stomp, each shut door a slam, his deep voice carrying through the walls. I couldn't always make out what he was saying, but for some reason the words that hurt the most came through clearly. Like he said them on purpose as knives to my heart, a reminder about how he really felt about me. And potentially how he'd soon think about Zeta. Mom was much the same, though the exact methods of her personality that she inflicted on me were a different variety.

The night proceeded as normal. Without the storm looming, Mom and Dad weren't acting like anything was amiss. I played with Zeta for a bit, as the storm spooked her, the rumble of thunder and lightning more so than her knowing what exactly was coming.

In bed that night, I tossed and turned.

This could be the last night we were all together. Or the last night we were home.

If I didn't do anything in the next few minutes, there would be no chance of returning home. For the foreseeable future, we would be stuck with our parents in some strange place, maybe never to return. The guilt told me I should just stay in bed. It wasn't my place to do anything.

But I thought about Zeta. Thought about her losing a chance for a normal life before she could even comprehend what one was. A life stuck out in the wilds of the void, with only our parents to guide us.

I couldn't stand by and let Zeta go through even a fraction of what they'd put me through.

I got out of bed.

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