Family ~ Creative Writing

“C’mon!”

“No.”

Briar-Rose, or as she was known for short, Briar, huffed a breath and looked back at her twin brother in dismay. “The letter said that we had to go to the train tracks.” She waved the crisp, cream envelope in front of Tremayne’s face.

Must have patience…thought Tremayne, definitely the more cautious of the two. “I know that Briar, and the letter also…oh, I don’t know, popped out of thin air.”

Blowing a dark strand of hair out of her face, Briar’s shoulders dropped. “Don’t you want to find out who we are? Where we come from? I’m tired of going from foster-house to foster-house, only to be slammed back into the system. And always having to worry about whether or not they’ll keep us together.”

“I would never let them take you from me Briar,” stated Tremayne in extreme seriousness, his fists clenched tightly at the thought of someone separating him and his baby sister.

“But what if you couldn’t stop it?”

“I WOULD NOT LET THAT HAPPEN!” shouted Tremayne, gold sparks flying out from his clenched hands.

Briar wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “I know Tre,” she whispered softly, head laid down on his shoulder, “but don’t you want to know? Are you not at least curious why we are like this? Why we have this…this…magic? When no one else does?” She sighed heavily.

“I do want to know Briar. It’s just…” Tremayne let out a breath, dark eyes briefly closing shut, “What if this is a trick? What if someone is trying to-to,” he shook his head, “I don’t want someone to hurt you Briar. You’re all I have. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

“But you’re not going to lose me Tre,” replied Briar, giving him a sincere smile.

“You always were the positive one,” teased Tremayne in a melancholy way. He ruffled her dark locks, causing Briar to swat his hand away. Suddenly, his expression grew more serious. “Are you sure you want to do this Briar? We can still go back, it’s not too late.”

Briar frowned. “Go back to what Tre? Disorder, chaos, yelling? I don’t want to go back to that. I’m tired of always being tossed around. I want a family.”

“Well, you have me.” He gave her a cheeky grin.

“Smarty-pants,” stated Briar, a loving annoyance to her tone, “and yeah, we do have each other, but don’t you want a whole family? A mother, father? Grandparents?”

 Tremayne nodded.

“So, this could be our chance Tremayne,” pleaded Briar, “and really, what do we have to lose? Ms. McLaine with her overly high-pitched voice and hatred for the older kids? Another holiday with no one to celebrate?”

“Alright, alright,” mumbled her twin brother, throwing his hands up in the air, “you’ve made your point little sis – ”

“Hey!”

“If you really want to do this, we’ll go. But,” Tremayne added, seeing her expression light up at his first statement, “the instant we sense or see any danger, we’re leaving. Got it?”

Seeing that this was going to be the only way to get her twin in agreement, Briar-Rose nodded. “Fine Tre, but you have to give this a chance too, ok?”

“I will, I will,” agreed Tremayne, then fixing his sister with a stern expression, “and you, young lady, need to be careful.”

At that, Briar instantly started to protest. “I am careful!”

“So you were careful the time you fell out of a tree and broke your ankle?”

“I was six!”

“And what about recently, when you tried to tame a baby bear?”

“It was cute!”

“And wild.”

Briar pouted. “That baby loved me!”

“Sure, Briar,” stated Tremayne sarcastically, “and if it had not been for me, you would have been having a lovely conversation with that baby bear’s mother. So when I say to be careful, please listen to me.”

That baby bear really did love me! And it was so adorable…thought Briar-Rose with a sigh. She loved animals – especially baby animals.

“Briar…”

“Of course I’m going to be careful, Tre! I’m not stupid!”

“I never said you were stupid, but you do happen to have a very compassionate, giving heart and that can get you into dangerous situations. Just be careful, ok?”

“I will, I will,” repeated Briar-Rose, shaking her head at her brother’s over-protectiveness and worry. They would be fine! He’s worrying for nothing…I just know it. This is our chance to find out about our past, and I am not going to miss that opportunity! thought Briar decidedly. “Let’s go, I don’t want to mess this up!”

And with that exclamation, Briar darted off into the wooded area. Her locks, which had been tossed into a messy bun, were quickly beginning to scatter out – with the entire hairstyle beginning to unravel.

“Briar-Rose Gold!” yelled Tremayne, taking off after his rambunctious sister. Why does she always do this?

He ran after her for a while longer, before he saw her come to a halt. She collapsed onto the railroad train tracks – out of breathe from her excursion.

“Don’t ever do that again Briar!”

Briar-Rose, however, had a perfectly happy expression on her face – the complete opposite of what her brother’s was. Quickly, she yanked out the cream envelope and read through the letter again. “Yes! We’re not late! Just on time!” she exclaimed joyfully, much to her twin’s chagrin.

“Briar. Do you know what could have happened if – ”

But any effort on Tremayne’s part to capture his sister’s attention was a complete failure, for she was completely transfixed on two figures that had suddenly appeared.

One, was an older man – perhaps in his forties. He had hazel eyes and matching brown hair. The second figure, was a woman. She appeared to be younger than the man by several years, and with her flowing golden locks and ocean blue eyes, had a youthful appearance.

The twins were completely still, though Tremayne had come to his sister’s side in a protective stance.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

The woman’s eyes filled with tears, much to the surprise of the teenagers. “I-I’m Wendy,” she managed to say, hand clenching the man’s tightly.

“And I’m Gideon Gold,” answered the man, tone smooth and gentle.

Briar-Rose had stood up to go introduce herself, however, Tremayne was having none of that. He kept a hand on his sister’s arm, shaking his head slightly.

“Why did you call us here?”

The couple exchanged glances, before Wendy decided to speak. “We-we’re your parents.” Her voice was full of emotion and regret, a few tears still trickling down her cheeks.

Seeing the disbelief and doubt on their faces, Gideon added, “We would have come sooner, but there was an extremely dangerous person we had to subdue first. They would have stopped at nothing to take you both from us.”

And somehow, despite how insane and crazy it sounded, the twins believed them.

“You’re-you’re our parents?” whispered Briar-Rose, eyes wide as she looked from Gideon to Wendy and back again.

They nodded, and the twins ran to embrace their parents as a family…a whole, complete family.

Author Note: If you watch Once Upon A Time, you may have caught the reference to Wendy Darling and Gideon Gold 😉 I’m not very happy with the fact that Adam and Eddy had the Black Fairy kidnap Gideon and corrupt him, so I wrote this little thing to satisfy my belief that he will come back as a hero.