When We Were Young Book Novels & Stories

“If a book can break your nose, then you deserve it.” I stuck my tongue out at her and opened the book, flipping through the dusty pages. The paper made noises under my fingers as it was filled with messy handwriting, childish drawings, and promises from a naive girl who thought everything in life was either good or bad, but never the messy grey in between. “Do you remember the day we penned those pictures down?” Elaris asked as she flopped onto the long-armed chair beside me. She curled her legs under her, just as she used to when we were younger.

She said, "20 years ago, this was my home. If I hadn't been taken away, you never would've set foot here." My breath caught as I realized the root of the problem was this house itself. Phoebe glanced at me and burst into triumphant laughter like a successful prankster. "You didn't find anyone, did you? Did you think you could escape just by breaking whatever was on Maisie?" Her maniacal behavior really did not seem like that of a child, so I could not help asking again, "Who exactly are you?" The moment I asked the question, Phoebe laughed hysterically.

*** “I guess it all started with that damn House, but I don't wanna talk about that right now. If you're really going to write a book about us, not just about what happened, but about us, then I should talk about how we were before. We were beautiful, you know, young, rich and without a care in the world. Some of us were going to go off to college when that last summer ended, some of us had jobs waiting with Mommy or Daddy's company, and some of us, like me, were content to just drift around, enjoying life until something made us stop, made us pay attention to the world beyond ourselves. Well, I guess that happened...

As the years slowly moved on, we settled into our new lives and began enjoying the success of our businesses in Radcliffe. I continued to experience moments like the one with the song in the backyard back in Huntsville. They were sporadic, but every time I thought I'd had my last, it'd happen again. Certain things seemed to set them off, only there wasn't much rhyme or reason other than they'd happen whenever something inadvertently awakened a vivid memory of Madeline.

You still look like a movie You still sound like a song My God, this reminds me Of when we were young Let me photograph you in this light In case it is the last time That we might be exactly like we were Before we realized We were sad of getting old It made us restless It was just like a movie It was just like a song When we were young When we were young When we were young When we were young We used to sing together, we had voices that sounded so good when combined. Our parents thought us to sing when we're locked inside the house, mainly, when there was a war between other families. Her mother, she's good at instruments, while mom, she's good at singing.

Eva was a bit surprised when I used the term ‘we’. “Yes, Eva…. I said ‘we’. I want to protect my baby but I can’t neglect others either. But, for now, please eat your breakfast. I will search for the book.” I reassure her as I trotted up the stairs. I didn’t want to give her a chance to refuse. I found the book on the broken table. Turning the pages carefully, I realized that it was a very ancient book. Even the pages seemed to be made of some other material. Eventually, I reached the page that was torn. It wasn’t a neat tear. It looked as if someone had torn it hastily or maybe accidentally.

"T H e y... w e r e... k n o w n... a s ... t h e... d e v i l... t r i o. I f... t h e y... a r e... t o g e t h e r.... n o... o n e... c a n... b e ... s a v e d... f r o m... t h e i r... b u l l y i n g." Veer explained to her making her nod. "And that book?" "I think, they write their experience in a book. Nearly everyone . So it may help to others." Giselle remembered the book that Zayn had. He also kept putting all the information that he find out each day. So, it was like a personal diary to them. Now, she needed to find out what that book was about but first, she needed to settle on the table with Hyun. "Let's go." She aksed Veer who reluctantly got up. He was still very gloomy.

Rowan asked. "When you're older. Much older." "Why?" "Because it has grown-up topics. Things you're not ready for yet." "Like what?" "Like how hard life was before you were born. How Daddy made mistakes. How we fixed them." "So we CAN read it someday?" "Yes. When you're ready. And when you do, you'll understand why we fought so hard to give you a better life." Nova looked thoughtful. "People won’t know who we really are from the book… Right?"

I swear, time flew so fast. One minute we were children playing tag in the gardens with Matteo stealing my dessert at dinner and being annoying, trying to fix my braids, and the next second we’re all grown, teenagers trying to figure our way around life. But before that shift, there were years that belonged to just us—little fragments I still kept like pressed flowers between pages.