To Vernon it was as if closing and opening his eyes, he didn't remember falling asleep yet only remembered waking to silence. The silence wasn't a gentle one, it felt oppressing the kind that feels like someone is watching you.
He rolled out of bed, rubbing his eyes. Bruce still snoring, asleep and enjoying his own dreamscape with one arm dangling of the mattress. so everything was as usual... Yet something felt off.
The house felt wrong. too still, too cold, too awake. After Vernon slid out of bed he padded it down while making it look neat, and eventually made his way downstairs towards the hallway.
From the hallway you could see Derek, Dressed in a traveling coat with both of his swords strapped to his back with two duffle like bags on the floor by the kitchen counter. Vernon looking at his fathers back felt that something was off, his back never looked as sad as it did right now.
Derek's voice echoed softly through the hallway,
"Vernon, could you come to me for just a second?"
He turned around, Face pale, hands fidgeting, seeming really puzzled.
Vernon treaded towards Derek with his short legs before hugging Derek tightly.
Vernon slightly froze before asking about what is going on. Instead of answering, Derek knelt placing his hand on Vernon's shoulder. "Could you wake Bruce for me? Keep him calm. There may be sounds that you will hear but you have to ignore them okay?"
Vernon nodded slowly, fear blooming in his stomach like ice.
Derek's eyes softened as he reached into his coat pocket pulling a small leather satchel that felt heavier than it looked, pressing it into Vernon's small hands.
Derek: "This is your mothers work," he said softly. "will you protect it for me?"
Vernon nodded while clutching onto the satchel with confusion.
Vernon: "um.. Where is mom?"
Derek inhaled sharply, a bit too sharply enough to make Vernon suspicious.
"She's preparing the wards."
That was a lie. Vernon knew it.
but he didn't ask more.
He went back to their room and woke Bruce as gently as he could, whispering his name until his little brother blinked at him in confusion mumbling to let him sleep for just 5 more minutes.
"What time is it?" Bruce muttered.
Vernon responded softly "its around 7am."
Vernon explained that they were going with their dad to some place soon. Bruce excitedly jumped out of bed and dressed up in his favourite outing clothes a dark green shirt his black sweater that was hand sown by Alice and his favourite pants that he made him self with the help of his mom! Vernon got ready too changing into something that would keep him a bit more warm since the winds around this time were a bit stronger than they would seem while in a building.
Once they were both ready they had taken a step into the hallway they both heard a low distant low rumbling like thunder trapped underground.
The walls trembling. Dust drifting from the ceiling.
Bruce grabbed Vernon's sleeve.
"Vernon what was that?!" such a sound induced fear into Bruce since ever since he was a baby he was immensely scared of lightning and storms in general.
*Vernon*
"It was-.." before Vernon managed to finish what he was saying Derek hurried them to come with him to the back of the house, where a small staircase led to the balcony. But half way there, Alice appeared from around the corner.
Her hair unbound, Her breath uneven, and her hands glowing faintly from mana residue, and her hands glowed faintly with runes that flickered like dying stars.
"Alice.." Derek began.
"They've surrounded the house," she said voice trembling. "I've activated every array we have, but.. Derek, they came prepared."
Bruce ran to her, hugging her waist tightly.
"Mom! What is going on?!"
She knelt, cupping his cheeks with both hands. "Listen, my sweet little flower... I need you to be brave tonight."
Vernon stepped forward, voice nearly breaking as he tried to word something.
Her eyes lingered on him too long, as if memorizing him.
Before she could speak, the ground shook violently.
A shockwave ripped through the floorboards. Lanterns shattered. The windows burst inward. Books and glass exploded into the air.
Bruce screamed.
Vernon was frozen in fear.
Then..
A blinding flash.
A roar of white fire.
And the front half of the house disintegrated.
Smoke filled the hall.
Flames curled across the ceiling.
Something snarled, a guttural, unnatural sound.
Alice put up a barrier in time to negate anything that could have happened but it left a visible shock.
Alice grabbed the boys, shoving them towards Derek.
"Take them! Go!"
Derek caught Vernon and Bruce in his arms, dragging them toward the balcony exit. soon making it about 70 meters away from the house because of Derek's incredible movement arts
While being dragged Vernon twisted around in time to see his mother raise both hands, runes blazing on her skin like molten stars. She stood at the collapsed doorway, Facing the darkness beyond it.
She didn't hesitate.
She activated every Explosion Array at once.
The house ignited in a chain of blinding detonations.
White-Black fire swallowed her whole almost as if swallowing all the colour out of the world along with it.
Bruce's scream tore through the soul of Derek and Vernon.
"MOOOOOMMMM!!!"
A scream of a child who has barely known of his mothers love for him, a breaking voice bonding with the world responding with silence.. a heart breaking silence.
Derek forced his sons behind his back, Shielding them from the multiple shockwaves that blasted across the fields,
ripping tiles from the roof and shaking the world.
Vernon felt the heat.
He felt the world lurch.
He felt Bruce tremble violently in his arms.
But he didn't feel his mother's Prescence anymore.
Not even faintly.
Derek didn't stop running until the the forest swallowed them.
Bruce's breaths were short, sharp, panicked sobs. His tiny heads clutched Vernon's shirt desperately.
"It's okay... You're okay... I'm here... I'm here..."
But his own voice trembled.
His own chest hurt.
The satchel that he promised to protect felt as though he was holding the world against his ribs.
Derek stumbled, dropping to one knee. For a moment he couldn't speak.
"They won't... be able to follow us far," he gasped. "Your mother gave us time."
Winter stared at him, voice barely held together.
"...We won't see her again, will we?"
Derek closed his eyes.
Winter's throat tightened.
"WAS THIS THE ONLY WAY?!" he screamed, grabbing fistfuls of his father's coat. "Did she have to- did she-!"
His voice cracked apart piece by piece, like glass shattering in slow motion.
Derek pulled him close, shaking, unable to answer.
Behind them, in the burning ruins of the home they'd loved, masked figures dragged Alice's motionless body from the debris - her hair still glowing faintly with dying runes.
Vernon didn't see it.
Bruce didn't see it.
But something inside Vernon understood.
Something cold.
Something final.
The stars above them flickered.
The forest closed around them.
And the world they knew ended.