The air is cold everything it touches freezes over, not even the flame of a torch could melt it .

A man comes from the mist , covered in black and red. The mysterious man also held a round object about the size of a child ready at hand with a shovel .

Through all the cold weather there was one place the cold could never reach , the tree of the Unknown . A sacred tree never meant to be found

yet the man found it , the tree was unknown to the world, but rumors started and it is said that if you found it, it would grant one wish but at a cost. What

that cost is , is unknown.

It was october 9th, 2001. On the cold streets of queens New York a child and his father started to decorate for a party. “Hey dad, what do you think Sage will do when he finds out that we are celebrating his birthday? “

The dad responds “ I don’t know it's been a whole year since your mother died. I only hope he can move past it“ .

With everything prepared they check the time and ready the hats and balloons “quick hide before he comes”

“wait is he already home man I wanted to do something man i hate his job schedule“. The lights are out and the room goes pitch black they could hear the slightest sound of the brakes of an old car needing repairs .

The car's lights go off and you can see a man with a black suit and a black hat almost as if he was in the mafia . The man slowly walks towards the house and opens the door Then Boom! , the sound of horns and balloons flying to the ceiling goes off as the man enters the room .

Trying to hide his displeasure . Though the father knows , he looks at Josh and see’s what he wished he would see in Sage . But deep in his heart he knows that will never happen, not after what happened with his mother ,

“ Happy birthday Sage i know you don’t like to celebrate it but you never get a break so here my present from me to you Sage “ . Josh hands Sage the poorly wrapped bag and puts behind him on the floor .” Josh it's fine you didn’t need to do this for me besides you need to focus on school not something as foolish as my birthday

“ Josh puffs up his face and crosses his arms “I know I don’t have to but I wanted to ,I wanted you to know that we care about you as much as you care about us “.

Sage astonished looks at his father then looks back to Josh “ok , I really appreciate what you did but it’s late so have some cake and tea then straight to bed ok josh you still have school''okay ``.

After Josh went to bed Sage looked at his father and started to speak “so why did you do it ? “ “what do you mean ?” “You know what I mean Tom …. Sorry dad , why did you convince josh to throw this party when I clearly said not to”

Tom looked rather hurt but still kept his face “well believe it or not it was josh’s idea not mine all I did was help …. you know he really cares about you Sage , if I were to die you will be the only person he has left so please don’t abandon him like you did back then

“ Sage started to cry but held it back “ you know I had too there was no way I couldn’t it would have been too dangerous and I .. I “ Tom stops him before Sage finishes his sentence “ I know Sage all I ask is to take care of him , I know I won’t be on this earth for much longer and it’s better if someone was there to take care of the josh you know”.

Sage looks at Toms eyes which were filled with regret and fear “ you look tired dad get some sleep “ alright don’t stay up to late Sage you’ve got work “ Tom starts to head up stairs and looks back to see Sage on the couch eyes closed and head looking up “I guess even someone like him can get tired, good night Sage”.

Next morning Sage was gone. Josh was afraid this would happen but he had to keep face and go to school. Josh was in middle school and hated to wake up but today was different he felt alive . Tom as always likes to sleep in so he doesn’t wake up until later in the day .

After arriving at school Josh notices that everyone is gone, not one soul was there, not even the teachers. Josh ventures outside to see the skies no longer bright blue but a dark black and a blood red moon, josh begins to fear for his life “HELLO!? , IS ANYONE THERE!?

“ Josh starts to panic as he is surrounded by darkness as temperature starts to drop , Josh closes his eyes and hears his name in the distance and starts to run and run towards the noise and starts to see a small light and starts to run faster and faster as the light engulfed him .

Josh opens his eyes to see a blurry figure and tries to focus on the figure and the blurry figure turns out to be Sage and next to him was a bright red puddle but it wasn’t Josh's blood it was Sage’s .

“What happened? Where did you go? , why are you bleeding?, why am I on the floor what happened to me ?” Sage silently looks at Josh and points to Josh's left side , turning his head he sees his house on fire and no sight of his father he turns to Sage and asks weakly “where is dad Sage where is he?”

Sage closes his eyes and sighs “he’s gone josh … he’s gone “ Sage opens his eyes to see a weak little child crying like he was just born , Sage stood there looking at the fire as it sets a blaze on what was once their house

The fire of what was once their home burns bright Sage and Josh sit in place watching as the sound of sirens are tuned out slowly blending in with the sound of the rain and tears falling from the boys faces as they mourn the last member of their family.

Sage and Josh are brought to a hospital, while being treated the town sheriff shows up to their room to ask them some questions, “I understand you boys have been through a lot but I need to ask you some questions about the fire”. “I’ll answer your questions sheriff , josh has been through enough” the sheriff looks at josh and then to Sage “alright fair enough , first things first what happened ?” Sage looks at the sheriff with a confused look “ what do you mean isn’t it obvious there was a fire that burned down our house and killed our father WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WHAT HAPPENED!!?”

The sheriff looked startled but he understood why “alright calm down I’m just trying to get the gist of the situation , do you know anyone who would do this ? “After realizing his outburst he drew back calming down . “S..sorry, No that I know of our father never really had any enemies '' , the sheriff looked curious “ hmm….do you know that this wasn’t just any fire. The fire wasn’t normal it burned but never left any ashes do you know anything about this ?”

Sage made no reaction and only said “ no '' Josh looked at Sage and knew he was hiding something. After the sheriff left josh quickly shifted his attention to his brother who had his head in a book “ Hey Sage '' Sage looks up “ yea what’s up”, “why did you lie to the sheriff you know he was just trying to help right” Sage sighs “ Yea I know but it's better that he knows less it will keep him safe.

Josh listen here our last remaining relative just died in front of our eyes and i know i haven’t been the best brother to you but I need you to stay strong okay ?” Josh looking somewhat confused understood what Sage was trying to say and nodded .

The next day was rather stressful as the two had nowhere to go. Josh tries to remember what happened before the fire but all he remembers was a red moon and the freezing wind, thinking back he realized that he was asleep and never actually went to school but it was so realistic he thought . “ was it real or was it just a dream ? ``Josh wondered but moved on and gave it little thought . “Josh, are you ready to leave yet ?” looking up from his bag “ almost just need to fit this shirt in the bag

“ confused Sage stops what he’s doing to look at what Josh’s and finds that josh’s small bag was filled to the brim. sighing and placing his hand on his face walks over to him and asked “ what did you bring ?, i mean you don’t even have enough things to fill that small bag plus I’m pretty sure I said to pack light”

after the packing was finished it was time for two brother’s to head out and travel to Washington. A few hours after being cleared to leave the hospital

Sage had to find a place for them to stay so he had a few favors to call in and manage to get in touch with an old friend who lived in washington and told Sage She had a few rooms available. So After a long drive they finally arrived in washington. Parked near a hotel Sage asked Josh “ hey can you wait in the car for a moment, I need to do something very quick there is chips and water the back if you get hungry ok?”

Josh looks up and shakes his head “Alright” Sage look away and started to walking towards the hotel door. Looking through the car window Josh watched as Sage slowly disappeared from his sight,tired from the trip he lays back on the car seat and drifts into a space of darkness.

Opening his eyes ,he realized this is where his last dream left off. In front of the school with dark skies and a blood red moon Josh quickly checks around and spots frost covering the whole school; he then feels like someone is breathing behind him and turns around to see Sage holding a big ragged bag dripping with blood from the bottom of the bag.

He tries to speak but when he opens his mouth Sage disappears. He turns around in confusion to see the school. Feeling almost astonished by the sight of the completely frozen building, after a few minutes he starts hearing his name he turns around and a flash of light and wakes to see Sage with a stranger next to him. Josh looks around and sees that he is outside the car with burn marks around him.

Burn marks everywhere sirens are blaring in the background everything is blurry, its cold “why is it cold where am I?”. The world goes dark and a figure appears in front of me, it’s so tall. “Mom?”

the figure shakes its head “it’s not time for you yet go back” shocked, overwhelmed “wait who are you?” all the figure did was open its mouth and tried to speak but only noise came out.

Almost in pain I shake my head “argh MY HEAD!!!” everythings goes white and i see to blurry figures holding me. My vision is coming back to me “Sage is that you?” “Yea buddy I’m here now” there was this woman behind Sage she was rather tall and she was so pretty, she had hair that was a pure white and had ruby’s for eyes.

I tried getting up but everything hurts and I flinched back down. I looked up at Sage “what happened to me?” sighing in relief “Don’t worry about just a little accident” I nod and I started to close my eyes but snap awake by the sharp pain and it was the woman

she pinched me and take a look around me and I’m in a room I’ve never seen before. “Hey sleepy head you awake?” looking up “Yea a bit confused so…. Who are you?” she begins to open her mouth but is interrupted by a door opening “don’t worry I’ll explain everything”.

This big bulky man wakes in and behind him comes Sage “Josh this is Vivian and kenneth, there here tohelp and they are friends so if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask them”. After I got treated for my wounds everyone left except for Vivian “she seemed so familiar I feel like she’s someone that was close to me” I shake my head , “so your name’s Josh, how old are you now?”

“I’m 10 about to be 11 why?” she chuckles “I’m just trying to make small talk but I need to ask you something if you don’t mind?”. “Yea sure what’s up?”

Her face starts turn more serious and tenses up “how much do you know about your family history?”

I gave her a very confused look “I guess not that much even when i was younger I was told most of my relatives had passed away” her face starts to loosen “Never mind then. Welp I gotta get going or your big brother might come and scold me for keeping you too long” she gets up and starts to head towards the door “oh I almost forgot, your brother really cares about you, see ya”.

After she left I decided to try and find Sage. If there was one thing I hated about Sage was that he was impossible to find when you want to find him. I looked everywhere from top to bottom. Just as I was about to give up I hear his voice coming from a room close by I press the side of my head against the door “So what are you going to do?” it sounded like Vivian but I can barely hear it

“what do you mean?” “well you made this far without telling him, so are you going to at some point or is he going to be in the shadows about who he really is.

Listen Sage I understand that you made a promise to his parents but you can’t keep him in the shadows forever he is going to eventually find out who he really is, and when he does we won’t be able to control him he could kill millions”

“look I don’t want to talk about this right now”. Then suddenly the door opens on me and knocks me back and now I’m looking at my brother eye to eye. I get up as quickly as I can “so what’s this about people dying?” Sage let’s out a sigh “don’t worry about that, what are you doing out here?” I got embarrassed and shook my head and bolted back to my room.

I quickly close my door and lie down on the king sized bed and cover my head in sheets. I wonder if I was the one they were talking about but I quickly shake the thought of it away. But what was this promise they were talking about I shurg and slowly drifted back to sleep.