Poignance - Red Letter of the World

[Kaisu]

Okay, so anyway I'm starting to seriously work on a story I've been wanting to write for a year(ish) now, and between researching and procrastination I've managed to write a short story regarding it.

It's going to have three main themes but most of them are only really applicable in the main storyline, while this is a bit of a side story, but one of those three themes is still present.

I want to write these to the best of my abilities, so if everyone could critique this, I would greatly appreciate it.

The perspective changing might be a bit awkward. The prologue starts out a bit omniscient, switching into a first person for most of the story. The last part is also first person, but from a different character. I have a bit of an issue with line breaks, so if there's anywhere I could really just remedy that, please point them out.

Not sure how much sense this will make without the actual main story (Which remains unwritten xP) but I hope I've done enough to set the scene.

Again, any and all criticism, really.

----

[spoiler=Prologue]Sarah lived with her family on a small country house overlooking farmland. They didn't actually own the farms, but they would often go out and see the sheep. The family was small, with the aging parents, an older boy taking care of the family and Sarah, the youngest of the family at 12.

They were happy, living by themselves but being connected enough to the outside world. They didn't know of the tensions between the nations before the war broke out.

No-one knew of those tensions, but when the guns were fired those shots resonated around the world.

Those shots were what brought the world running to the slaughter.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=1]I could feel the wind blowing in my face, a gentle breeze cut through as I swung forward. I hung in the air for a moment, thinking slowly as I fell back down, swinging in a wide arc. I was a quiet girl, obviously. There wasn't anyone to talk too. Counting sheep as I swung back and forth I lost track, but it kept me occupied.

Behind me in the living room I could hear another news report. Tensions, war, numbers. Everyone knew of the wars erupting around the world, but no-one would bother to bring it to us. We were just a small fleck in the pastures that surrounded us.

Gently slowing down I scraped my feet against the dirt underneath me before just stepping off the swings. My hair was ruffled and I brushed it aside as I walked back toward the house. My parent's didn't glance as the front door creaked open, their gaze focused on the TV. Bending over to take off my shoes I let them watch whatever it was that they were watching, going furthur into the house to find my brother.

I rapped quietly on his door, waiting outside. It was a few seconds before I could hear movement inside. Paper being moved and soft footsteps as the door opened. His gaze stared right over me before slowing moving down to meet me. It was odd, but I didn't think too much of it.

He smiled at me, holding the door open, but not saying anything. We stood there for a moment before I spoke up.

"Can I come in?" I asked. After the silence it was unnaturally loud. He nodded, moving aside to let me in. I walked into his half-cleaned room and jumped on the the bed. He lingered at the door for a while before gently closing it and walking over to me, sitting down on his desk chair.

"So, Sarah. What brings you here?" He asked. I met his gaze, trying to figure it out.

"Nothing. Mum and dad are watching some more news. The war and stuff." I huffed. He smiled, but his expression was grim.

"It's not just something you heard at the grocery store, you know." He said quietly.

I looked around his room as I talked.

"Yeah, but come on. Does it matter? It's not like it's going to come here." I said, shrugging before looking at him again. He was looking away as well, at some homework he had on the desk.

"No." He murmured. "It's not going to come here."

I smiled, jumping up.

"Come on. Let's go do something." I suggested, but he stayed serious, and he didn't respond.

I huffed, going out of his room. Something was up. As I left I heard my mother calling him.

"Emile, dinner!" She shouted. In his room he stirred again, a few steps behind me as we went out into the living room.

Dinner was a quiet affair. I got scolded for using my cutlery wrong, but otherwise it was just digging into the steak and potatoes with some polite conversation.

"So, how's school?" My mum asked me. She was concerned, seeing as we travelled out quite a way.

"Still there." I responded, but not entirely rudely. She leant back in her chair, going back to eating.

"So, when are we going into town next? I have something to do there." My brother asked.

"I don't know. With school, we can just make time, though." My father replied, pointing a fork at him, getting a scowl from my mum.

We didn't talk about the news. It was only one thing, anyway. The war.

It was never going to come here. Why bother?

Sometimes, I feel like those thoughts end up being famous last words.

--

From there nothing happened, really. School, shopping, dinner, phone calls, emails, life.

It was like that for a week or two.

Then those famous last words? Someone decided to pull something that just twisted those.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=2]I awoke to the sound of hysterical screaming. It was Saturday, and it ruined my sleep-in. Emile was waving a letter around while my dad was shouting at him, my mother muttering and spitting in the background.

I stood in the hallway for a while, just watching the scene unfold. My brother was trying to defend his actions, whatever they were, and according to my father they were dangerous.

"We never had to get involved!" My father roared at my brother.

"Never had to get involved? You think that this war will just stay past the fence?" Emile sputtered back at him.

The war? Considering the letter, the danger, his actions, getting involved. It was obvious.

It only meant one thing. And those last words sent my world shattering down around me.

"You enlisted?" I shouted, realising. My brother spun around, not knowing I had been here.

"Sarah... Please." He groaned.

"Why the bloody hell would you?" I screamed, storming towards him. My parents didn't bother reprimanding me. "We were safe here! No-one would care!"

"You think no-one would care? What about us, Sarah?" He said back, his voice loud but not shouting.

"What do you mean, what about us?" I shouted.

"If we lose this war, what would happen? We can't just stand aside!" He argued.

"Yes, we can! You don't get it!" I screamed.

"You're naive, Sarah." He snapped, glowering at me.

And I stopped in my tracks.

"Yes, I enlisted. I'm not the world's greatest patriot, but if you think I can just sit here as people die out there..." He said, slowing turning back to my father and breathing heavily. My father was in a rage, and my brother didn't notice his posture. As soon as he was facing him again, he lashed out with a hard punch. Emile cried out, stumbling to the side as my father struck him.

"You're 19. Don't even bother thinking about things like that." He said coldly, shaking his hand.

My brother rose up again, in a small bundle on the floor and clutching the side of his face and holding his nose with the other. They remained in a standoff for just a moment. My brother stood up and my father was glaring down at him when he was thrown backwards.

Emile was breathing heavy as he shoved our father. His nose was bent and blood was streaking down from his nose.

He swore, spitting at our dad. "I enlisted for a reason. You called yourself a patriot, you said you cared about the war." He said venomously.

My father was crashed on the ground, staring at Emile in shock as he walked towards me, holding me by the shoulder and bringing me back into his room. He bolted the door behind him and pushed a small bedside table in front of it. I sat down on the bed, shivering.

"You don't understand, do you?" He said softly, looking at me. My eyes could only pass over his.

"No." I admitted, hiccuping.

He sighed, holding my shoulders and looking me over.

"You're going to die!" I squealed.

"I might." He admitted.

"Why!" I shouted, jumping up.

"Do you think that matters? It's a war, Sarah. Even if I die, I would have made a difference, no matter how small it was." Emile snapped.

"No, you wouldn't!" He wasn't thinking right.

"Sarah." He called softly, picking up a small pebble and dropping it on a small set of scales - I recognised them, a Christmas present he had gotten a few years ago. As it landed, spinning and settling into one side the scales tipped.

"Are you trying to say something?" I snapped angrily.

"I can make a difference. And Sarah... Even if the war doesn't come to us, if we lose everything around us is going to disappear." He said quietly.

"And someday, I'll be on a list. A list of survivors and war heroes." He added, patting my shoulder.

I didn't say anything, just sitting on the bed and shivering. He stood up and snuck out of the room, disappearing down the corridor.

It was ridiculous.

The war didn't come to us. But he had to take us to it.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=3]I stayed there for hours, and eventually I fell asleep. It was all too shocking. Everything we had expected to stay away had come to us, a small fleck in an ocean of green.

After my brother left the house was quiet. I stayed in my room all the time and my parents fought every night. Emile leaving didn't do much good.

There was something that was bound to happen. As much as I didn't want for it to happen, there was no denying that Emile was most likely going to die.

It was a war, and he was just our brother.

It was quiet, it was sad. We were just waiting.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=3.5]There wasn't much on the news. We haven't gone out to town in a week and I've got nothing to do. I just sit at home trying not to think about Emile. We still haven't heard anything from him, and there's always a constant worry that we're going to get a letter from the army.

He was going to die.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=4]We got a letter today.

And it wasn't the one we were expecting. It was another, hand written by him and sent by the post. Obviously we were overjoyed by it arriving at our house. The postman had even bothered to come to our doorstep. Normally we had to go into town to get those.

Emile didn't have a lot to say. The government was a few steps away from drafting, so he got basic training and that was about it. He was fit and he was smart so there wasn't too much reason to hold him back.

No, there was a reason but the military didn't care. Emile didn't care.

But the letter said something different, didn't it? [i]Sorry[/i]. A simple word he used to sign off.

But even that simple word had a lot of meaning.

I remembered what he had said to me that night. He said that he would survive. He knew it was likely he would die, but he was confident. He would know how to stay away from the places were he would get shot from three directions.

Most of all? I think I can trust him.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=5]Another letter arrived today.

It was printed out from a computer, written in a formal font.

I couldn't read it until now. My parents wouldn't let me.

And now they've gone outside.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Epilogue]It didn't come as an immense surprise to Sarah, but she had hope from just a few days ago. She had faith in her brother, but even on those scales, even after they tip something can fall off. In war, it doesn't always mean that the scales tip back over, but that small pebble that made them tip was gone now.

They had lost the one connection they had to the war. The most important connection. It was a one of love and blood.

That pebble was sand. It still had weighed down the scales, but it was worn away to dust.

Sarah never told me what happened to Emile.

But in a war like this? KIA, MIA... They both mean the same thing. If you disappear in the battlefield, you're no longer a soldier fighting in the war.

But the war isn't only fought with guns. There's always a war waging in the background, a vein connecting those on the front lines to the civilians. Every life lost is a world destroyed for a family.

I don't normally get poetic.

It's cases like these that matter the most.

On the battlefield, one life might not change anything.

In someone's heart, the one life will tear it apart.[/spoiler]

I plan on adding another chapter between 4 and 5 sometime, I think. Anyway, please, tear into it and give me any criticisms, but please just don't flame xP

The chapters getting shorter was intentional, though I will admit the last ones could have been a bit longer. I may or may not rewrite the last few, but if I'm going to do that it'll probably be best to get some more ideas to rewrite it with. But yeah, they're not the longest chapters ever.

So... Yeah, really. Hello YCM, feel free.