Just the beginning

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

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