Olivia's Point of View

We all sat around a rectangular table in my largest meeting room. The table was quite empty considering it was made for more than five people. In fact, it was manufactured to have about fifty-plus generals and other important personnel. There were chiseled frozen-ice blocks dancing across the walls and ceiling as decor, leaving one side a patterned window. The window was currently lying behind me and the other members were sitting next to me, all but quiet.

The silence was deathly akward among the four, considering the fact that they hadn't been able to bring back the two members that have been missing for a few days now. Their thoughts were easily etched on their expressions but they were all having so many conflicted thoughts that it was too hard to read what they were all thinking. Still, I could practically feel each of them thinking about how they all hadn't been able to fufill what they wished.

I sighed softly to gain their attention, and thus, the dreaded conversation began.

"It doesn't seem that any of you have made any headway...." I murmured quietly, surpressing the build of emotions inside me. I was trying my hardest, ever since they came back without the two, to keep my emotions in check and making sure none of it converted to blamed anger.

Several of the members were opening their mouths to say something, but closed them again as if re-thinking everything they were going to say. It was quite bothering to me because none would speak their minds unless it was well-thought out. As some would say, they're trying to figure out how to say horrible news by 'beating around the bush'. More easily translated as hinting at the unbashful information and hope that I catch on.

For me, in this state of emotions (which I really need to learn to get control of), it just simply won't do.

"Can someone please directly tell me what you've all done out in the field?" I asked calmly but I could feel their terrified skin prickling because of how easily I seem to be taking this. They all knew, of course, that I was just trying to supress myself from murdering them all for something they couldn't do.

It was all just too frustrating.

Finally, Ian was the one with the guts to speak first. "Olivia, we searched everywhere. Even into the depths of that dreaded forest to the suffocating bottom of the sea." His eyes were sorrowful and unable to meet my gaze. "There was no where else we could have looked."

Jerome was looking away from me, but something seemed different about his attitude compared to the others. I'll make sure to ask him later. Although Quentin and Jason looked to be holding an equal amount of gloom as Ian. A thought in the back of my mind was just questioning why they seemed to care so much for her, despite the fact none of them even knew her. Then again, I'm not one to judge, considering the fact that I didn't know her myself. She just resembled someone so incredibly important to me, and when I lost Aiden, it was like I was re-living the whole thing over again.

I then realized that the table had wet droplets on it. I quickly wiped my eyes in hope of ridding their stupid existence along with the guilt and misery that came along with it. Unfortunately, they had all noticed it dripping down from my face.

I tried furiously to wipe them away at the same time, trying to hold them back from spilling. Through my blurry sight, I could see them getting up to comfort me. Of course, they knew why I was this upset. But they don't understand. How could they understand losing all your loved ones, and you knew that you could've done something about it, but chose not to?

I stood up much too quickly for my taste. I could feel a headache coming on as well as the memories flowing back into my mind. I never wanted someone, especially the team, to witness me in such a state; one so powerless and weak. I was supposed to be strong; I'm not supposed to fall to my emotions so easily, but I just can't seem to get over this memory.

"No!" I shouted, my voice cracking a little bit. "Just get out of the room. I need some time alone." I tried to keep my voice on a monotonous level but I couldn't help but sound squeaky. I was facing away from all of them but I could tell they were all just standing there, contemplating if they should push on or listen and leave.

"Get out!" I screamed at them and they left in a hurry, knowing now that it was best to listen.

My back was leaning against the door they'd all just exited; I slid down in sync with my tears as I handed myself over to my anguish. I curled into a fetal position as I racked and sobbed uncontrollably, forgetting about anyone and everyone who could hear me. Right now, I was to caught up in my guilt to really care anymore. I just need some more time to shed the same tears I've been shedding ever since that fateful day.

~*~

Flashback to when I was six years old

I giggled happily as I ran to my mother, who'd just came back home after being five months away in a row because she was an army general leader. She grinned at me with open arms, which I jumped into. She picked me up and swung me around as I laughed into her comforting embrace.

When she put me back down, my dad came to hug her from behind. I quickly ran to grab a gift I had fixed up for her, which I've been holding for five months now, but that's okay. I was happy she came home after such a long time, because I've missed her so much, as well as dad.

When I came back, my parents were talking animatedly with each other. My gift, which would be a surprise, I'm sure of it, was hidden behind my back as I ambled over to my mom, who was taking in hugs from my sister, Olive, and my brother, Adam.

"Hey, Mommy!" I clamored and she paused from her welcomed conversations to reply. "Yes, my sweet Olivia?"

"Lookie what I got here! I've got you a present!" I said as I ran up to her, my siblings looking curiously at what I was holding in my hands. She glanced at it and smiled her warm grin.

In my hands was a small figure of our whole family made out of snow because we lived in a snow biome. It was intricately detailed down to the very hair. I was so happy she liked because I spent the whole five months working on it every day.

"I'll keep this with me, okay?" She said as she took the figure out of my hands, gently laying it no the counter conveniently sitting beside her. Then she went back to talking with dad.

Adam tapped me on the shoulder and I looked to him. He was only a few months older than me, but he always acted like he was several years older instead. He pointed to the window and we both realized that it was snowing gently outside and our neighbors-believe it or not, we had quite a large community living in the snow biome-were playing in the newly-laid snow.

"You wanna go outside?" He asked and I agreed in quick sucession. We grinned happily at each other before asking if Olive wanted to come and join us outside too, which she obviously agreed with.

We all scrambled to get into our thick clothing, so we wouldn't freeze outside, and ran to find our snow boots. As we were running around the house in search of our stuff, something shiny caught my eye.

Mom and dad had gone upstairs to talk with each other and catch up on things, so they weren't standing by the counter anymore. But beside where they once were on the counter was something that peaked my interest.

My curious thoughts would not die down, and I knew that I just had to know what that shining object was. The counter was pretty high though, compared to my six-year-old height but I climbed the counter chairs, and soon enough, I had reached the area.

There, sitting by my small snow figure, was a beautiful purple gem framed with a thick golden casing, which was what had been shining. As I stared at the beautiful thing beholding in front of me, I realized that there was a slit in the golden casing, implying that the amulet was more of a locket that could be opened.

I have to show this to Adam and Olive, I thought triumphantly, thinking of this new amulet/locket as a treasure that I'd just found. Had I just been warned that this had been anything but a treasure to be wanted, the next event would have never've happened.

I swiftly swung the amulet/locket over my head and left it to lie around my neck. Next, I went to search for my snow gear and join my siblings out in the snow where I would show them what I found.

There were people bustling around in the snow, but the fall wasn't that thick, nor that much snow anyway. Still, it was fun to wade and play around in. But at the moment, playing in the snow could wait until I found out what's in this amulet/locket. I just didn't want to open it by myself, because this item was too cool to look at by myself.

"Hey guys!" I rushed over to them with glee etched across my expression. "Lookie here, I got something really cool!" My hand unconsciously went to the amulet/locket hanging around my neck. I couldn't really tell if it was just my imagination or not, but the item seemed to be warm to the touch.

My siiblings speedily rushed over to my side, their minds wondering what I was blabbering about. Well, I'm about to show them something that'd blow their minds.

"Ta-da!" I took the necklace-like item off from around my neck and showed it to their suddenly glorified faces. I had a smug look as they glanced at it from different angles; their minds were obviously blown by the beautiful object.

Olive was the first one to ask what it was: "What is it?"

"It's so pretty..." Adam said as his hand unconsciously kept moving towards it in hope of touching the peculiar object. He seemed to be indecisive though because he would realize he's trying to get it, and would pull his hand back again.

My younger sister looked to almost grab it, and I pulled it away defensively, but she just wanted to point at the gem. "It's purple in the middle; my favorite color!" She exclaimed happily and I relaxed and went back to holding it in front of the two, but making sure to keep it from grabbing distance.

Adam seemed to be drooling at the sight of it now and it took a few tries of waving my hand in front of his face before he realized he was daydreaming. "Hey! Hello? Adam, are you there?" 

He shook his head and answered, "Oh, sorry. The thing around the purple gem just reminds me a lot of butter, which made me think of mom's butter-pancakes." He began to drool again but Olive shook his arm to snap him out of it.

"You dream of food too much." Olive gave him a you-know-what-I-mean kind of look. He returned a grin and replied happily, "You can't blame me, 'cause mom makes the best butter-pancakes known in the world!" He threw his hands in the air to show his passion for the overly-sweeted breakfast.

"Hey, big sis!" Olive said to me and I glanced at her in response. "Can I look at it up close?" 

I held it right in front of her face and she frowned up at me. "You know what I mean." She didn't look to happy that she couldn't hold it at the moment. "Can I hold it?" She questioned and I pulled it away.

"I found it, though," I told her irritably. This was my shiny and pretty object. I didn't want to share it with someone else, much less my theiving siblings. Although I love the two, they were practically notorious for breaking precious items that you give them.

"That's not fair, Olivia." Adam glared at me and I stuck my tongue out at him in sucession. Despite being older than me, this pretty thing was mine and I had no such intentions of sharing it. 

Next thing I knew, Olive had dived to grab it out of my wavering hands while I was distracted by Adam. Luckily enough, I'd been able to pull it out of her grasp, but as a result, I'd lost my grip on the chain and it landed somewhere in the newly-laid snow. 

"No!" I shouted as Olive and I struggled to crawl over to where we anticipated it to land but Adam had beat us there because he had dived into the snow pile where it landed. The two of us jumped on him and furiously kicked, hit, punched and gnawed at each other while trying to get the object for ourselves.

Soon enough, we found all three of us coughing and huffing as we all held onto the item because the chain had snapped off and lost somewhere in the snow. We each gave it all our energy and effort to pull the small, circular object from each other.

I soon realized that the latch that was keeping the amulet/locket closed was at its breaking point. I looked at it overall in our tangle of hands and my hands were slipping because mine  were mostly clenching onto a snow-covered area of the thing, while Adam's grip was also slipping because he was barely hanging onto the golden area of the object. Olive had the greatest grip on it because her hands were on the purple gem area but her pull was almost little-to-nothing compared to her older siblings' strength.

A loud shout resounded from behind us and the three of us realized it was mom and dad calling our names. At that sound, we all began to pull with even more strength in an effort to get the object to ourselves before our parents arrived to realize we were all fighting amongst ourselves. 

A snap clapped in the air and the next thing we knew, we were staring at our parents stricken faces before the wind suddenly started whipping around us and flashes of light were flickering in our eyesight. Our parents were calling for us in sorrow because they knew something horrible was about to happen.

Before our eyes, everything seemed to be dissapearing into code. First was the area around us, which was quickly dissapearing one block after the other. By now, I realized that my siblings were crying waves of tears, as well as myself. 

That was because right there in plain sight, our parents were dissapearing into code. "No!" We all screamed as we struggled together to reach our mom and dad, but we were unable to move at all. It was as if we were forced to freeze in our footsteps and watch our parents say their last goodbyes to us. Forever.

Tears were streaming down my face as I realized my sister was screaming and sobbing at the same time. Her screeching pierced my ears as I watched her, too, dissapear into code. The last thing I saw of her were her eyes that'd gone red from crying. The pain was etched all across her saddened expression and I pulled my eyes from the horrid sight. I screamed my apology to her but when I looked back, she was gone.

The air was frigid and freezing and I'm pretty sure my cheeks were red from the whipping cold. Stil, I managed to look at Adam. His face was a look of horror as I realized the amulet/locket item-which was open with the code flowing into it and shining a bright light out of it-was slowing making its way towards him.

The chain rose from the ground and put magically hung itself around Adam's neck, not enough to suffocate him, but enough to keep him from taking it off. The last I saw from him was is scared and sobbing eyes as he looked at me once more, but not with hate, but more of a longing to hug each other as we welcomed what seemed to be our death.

I stretched my hand out towards him, only to realize that I'd been dissolving into code too. I screamed as I watched myself slowly dissapear into nothing. Soon enough, half my body was gone and I couldn't feel anything halfway down. I was crying my eyes out with my hands to my face, but pretty soon, those were gone too.

I looked back up to Adam who'd been staring at me, stricken with the sight before him. I managed to mouth I'm sorry to him before I looked away, ashamed of what I brought upon my family and I.

I'm so sorry, I thought with an aching pain in my heart, even though I didn't have one anymore. My last sight of that frightful day was Adam forcing the open amulet/locket closed. As I watched, I noted that it had attached itself to the chain around his neck.

Then I blacked out.

~*~

In reality, I had just fallen asleep because of a massive migraine I'd gained from crying for the amount of time I have. As my sobbing switched to soft crying, I fell asleep just like that, laying against the door to the most massive meeting room I have in my castle.

Sweet dreams, I wished myself.

But of course, I knew that anything but that would occur in my dreams tonight.

~*~*~*~

OMFG, I DID IT!!! LOL, YEAH I KNOW I"M DOING THIS TO KEEP YOU FROM WHAT HAPPENED TO MITCH AND AIDEN. >.< BUT I"M PRETTY SURE THAT"S WHAT IMMA DO NEXT CHAPPIE. NO PROMISES THO!