Forever Always
This notebook was the reason the men were coming.
"Be brave, my warrior," my mother murmured, pulling me into a fierce, suffocating hug. "Protect your brother. Don't you freeze on me."
The pressure of her expectation was a crushing weight. I looked at Kian, sleeping peacefully, and whispered, "I won't. I promise." I slid the notebook into the waistband of my trousers, tucked tight against my skin.
Then, the world ended.
A sound, not of the neighborhood, but of metal shearing metal — the violent, sickening noise of our front gate being ripped from its hinges.
Bab Populer