FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Written by brazy "birb" seeker

Inspired by K.A. Applegate's "Animorphs"

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CHAPTER 4

Mikey got the news the next day after school. His mom tried to break it to him easy, but there's no easy way to explain to someone that their father had been half vaporized by an alien energy weapon. I held Mikey for a long while, but there wasn't much I could do. I felt worthless, I felt terrified for him, and I felt mad at the world. Mikey didn't deserve it. Why him? What did he ever do to deserve something so awful? I wish I could rewind time and drive to the other side of the country to save his dad. It should have happened to me, I was the bad kid. I was the one always breaking the rules. Mikey would do it with me and even encourage it sometimes, but he was the one with the goals, the aspirations. He had a life laid out for him, this was just some childhood playing, you know, living fast and hard while he still can. What did I have? I had no goals, I just wandered. I had no home real place I would call home, no one who wanted me. I just figured the world would catch up with me eventually and I'd have to work it all out. I wanted to cry and scream and tear the world to shreds all at the same time. Who the hell did those aliens think they were? Across the country half of a city is destroyed because of them. I hear they're all gone, kicked off the planet with their tails between their legs, but that's not enough. I hope they all burn in hell. For Mikey.

We didn't stay around long downstairs after his mom told what happened. Mikey never really had a great relationship with his mom. His parents got married when they were in college together, but soon after his dad shifted from his major in engineering to wanting to pursue a life in the U.S. Army and dropped out, which his mom hated. I heard she was fighting a lot with his dad over that, even throwing around divorce words. Mikey always had a thing for the military stuff I noticed, so I figure that made him lose a lot of respect for her. He never really liked to talk about that side of things much to anyone.

We talked for a couple hours, though more accurately I consoled him as he cried, then I cried with him. He was too broken up to walk all the way to the hideout, so we just sat in his room on his bed. I can't imagine what he must be going through. In all the time I've known him I never had seen him like this. He looked completely broken. The shine in his eyes, it was gone.

"It's not fair..." Mikey finally said after almost an hour of silence "It's not fair. It's not fair, It's not fair, IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!" He leaped up suddenly from his bed with a fire in his eyes, the eyes of someone who had nothing left to lose. I knew that feeling well.

"Why did it have to be him?!" Mikey bellowed and grabbed a shelf attached to his wall, it was covered in pendants and medals from his dad and tore it clean off the wall, throwing it across the room so hard it put a hole in the opposite wall. "AGHHHHH!" He yelled again, running across the perfectly kept room and tipping over his dresser which was covered with even more military memorabilia.

I didn't move, I couldn't, what was I going to do, try to stop him? He needed to let out the anger, the pain. I had to be there for him when he falls, I would be. He was the only person who meant anything to me. I had no one else left, and now neither did he. I knew his pain, I could feel it flow through me as if the same were happening to me.

"Look, I just don't get it," Mikey said, "Why can some people go their whole lives with nothing more than some family dying from old age and maybe a few breakups, and then I have to deal with this."

I looked over to Mikey and spoke finally. "I guess... I mean... It's not fair by design, you know, life? Maybe this shit happens just to keep things interesting. I guess life would be pretty lame if it were super easy. How do you know the meaning of bliss if you don't know pain?"

Mikey let out a soft snort. "I mean, I guess you're technically right. It's still stupid though."

"Yeah, it is," I responded, "But I think of life more like a game these days."

I looked down at my lap, worried a bit about how he would respond to that. It's not something I tell many people. Instead of reacting badly though, he didn't really reply. He bent down, pushing over the dresser and plucking up a crushed and broken up picture frame. He pulled the photo out of the glass with his bare hands, slicing them up some as he did. It was a photo of his dad, he was in civilian clothes, holding a baby. Before Mikey even said anything I knew it was his dad holding him.

"God," Mikey spoke softly "I'm glad I let my mom talk me into keeping this cheesy photo..."

He seemed more burnt out now, it broke me out of my daze and I finally spoke. "Yeah, I Uhm... I'm glad you kept it too..."

Mikey looked over at me, that same broken look in his eyes, and walked over in a slouch. "You know this... This doesn't make me crazy, right?

We both looked over his now destroyed room and I felt a sense of calm come over us.

"No, not at all. It just makes you human. It just means you're scared..." I looked down and he sat back down next to me. "I'll be scared with you, okay?"

Mikey nodded softly in agreement, offering a half-hearted punch to my shoulder. "You know that sounds super gay, right?"

I chuckled and grinned big. It never took much for Mikey to bounce back, but he still looked hurt. His voice didn't have the usual characteristic chipper to it. I knew it wouldn't go away that easy, but there was still a little bit of him left in there, and that made me happy. "Heh. Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty gay, doesn't it." I rubbed his shoulder softly and sighed. "Hey, you want to go to McDonald's? Maybe it will help take your mind off all this, at least get you out of the house."

I finally saw Mikey smile a little. "Sure, what do you want to do, buy me a happy meal?"

I thought for a moment. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.