December 20th 2022 7:30 A.M.

I watched as we fell through the Portal and into the same room.  The portal was an instantaneous form of transportation.  There was one difference to the room though.  Instead of being dark it was super bright.  It was the morning of the same day.  We had gone back in time.  There was still time left over to save my sisters from their untimely and meaningless death.

Marcia grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the door yelling, “We can still save them!  Come on Tarik!  We can still save your sisters!”

Jenna grabbed my hand and we all ran out the door together, Joan beside us, towards my house, towards my sisters.  I ran so fast that when I reached the house I couldn’t catch my breath so I let Marcia and Jenna in before me.  They took forever to get in so I waited impatiently, hoping that they had not left yet.  I hope so much so that they would not die yet again but if they had already left then there was nothing that I could do for them at that point.  As we waited, Jenna and I started talking.

“I hope they haven’t left yet.” Jenna said in a worried voice. “If they have, then there may be no way to save them.”

“I’m sure they haven’t.  It’s too early for that.” I laughed softly. “At this point, they may have not even woken up yet.  They usually get up way too late and are almost late to school every single day!”

“Really?” Jenna asked skeptically. “I would never have thought that your sisters of all people would be unorganized.”

“Yeah.” I replied to her. “It’s kind of the opposite of what most people expect but that is how it goes around here.”

“Well then, we need to make sure that none of them go to the school at all today.” Jenna told me.

“I know.  I don’t want to lose them for a second time.” I replied. “I wouldn’t be able to deal with that pain.”

“I know.” Jenna said. “When I was a few years younger, my brother died in a car crash, he was eighteen.  He died way too young and it still hurts me that I could do nothing to save him.”

“There is nothing you could have done.” I said sadly.

“I know.  It just made me feel so guilty, that’s all.” Jenna said.

As we walked into the house my mom walked around with Tasha and I was so happy to see her.  My sisters annoyed me so much but I loved them with all of my heart.  I couldn’t live without them so I had to stop this all from happening, no matter the cost.  I would willingly give myself up to save my sisters lives and not have to deal with that pain again of having lost all of my sisters.  I could never go through that again.

“Oh!” My mother said in surprise whenever she saw us, “What are you doing here Jenna?  Is there something wrong?  Why do you all look like you have just seen a ghost?  Is something happening?”

“Hey, we need you to stay away from the school.” Jenna said, “Bad things are going on there today.  You guys all need to stay here.  If you are to stay safe then you all need to stay here and far away from the school.”

“If you don’t stay back you may lose things that you love most.” Joan said.  “You could lose all of your children!”

“How do you know that?” My mother asked.  I glanced up at her, shocked.  Did she have something to do with the death of my sisters?  What was going on?  Was she the one secretly behind all of this?  Did she know what was happening because she was the root of the problem?  Or was I just going insane?

“Mother, what do you mean?” I asked. “How do you know something is happening mother?”

“What I mean, Tarik, is how do you know that?” said my mother.  “Why do you run in here like the devil is chasing you and expect me to not ask how you know that?”

“Mother, how do you know that something is going on?  Actually, that is a fair point.” I asked, bracing myself for the horrible answer.  I just knew what she was going to say before she said it, but to my surprise she said something completely different from what I thought that she was going to say to us all.  I thought she was going to say that she was behind all of it but she said the exact opposite of that to us.

She looked at me weirdly, “Something is obviously wrong.  You all run in here, tense as can be and you tell me bad things are happening.  So I was wondering how you know.  Did something happen already?  Is there a rumor?  Or what?  If you want me to listen to you it would be in your best interests to tell me now.”

“Tasha, please come here one minute.” I said to my thirteen year old sister.

“You seem so upset.  What’s the matter?  Is everything okay?  What happened?  Please, tell me.” She spoke as she reached me. “Did something really bad happen?”

I hugged her hard as I told everyone, “Tasha, Maya, and Victoria all died.” My mother gasped and Tasha looked up at me.  “I cannot explain how I know this as you would not believe me, but I can tell you that there were not very many survivors.  If any at all other than us.”

“You have to keep them home.  You don’t have a choice.” Marcia said. “They could die!”

My mother stood super still.  She was mouthing the same words over and over again,  “Not my daughters.”

“Mother, if you keep everyone home from school today, they will be safe, please, I don’t want to lose them again.  Mother, please!  Keep them home!” I said as Tasha wrapped her arms around me and hugged me as I started shaking.  Mother just stood there until Jenna reached out and touched her shoulder.

“Please keep them home.” she said. “I don’t think that any of us can live without them.  We all need them here.”

“They will be kept home.  I don’t know why but we will figure this out.  I don’t need to lose my daughters.” my mother said. “None of us need to lose them.” She added as an afterthought.

“Thank you mother.  Thank you.” I said to my mother.  Then I whispered in Tasha’s ear, “I love you so much.  I love you so much.”

“I love you too Tarik.  Thank you for saving us.  I have no idea what happened but thank you.” Tasha said. “I don’t want to die yet.”

“Thank Jenna.  She is the one that turned back time!” I said. “You guys would all not be here if it wasn’t for her.”

“Thanks, Jenna.” Tasha said.

Tasha is always the one with super good manners.  She is the perfect little angel and she didn’t deserve what happened to her.  I had to do something so Jenna took matters into her own hands.  She made a Portal for me to go back in time to save my sisters.  I will never forget that.  I will never ever forget that.

“Of course.  Anything for Tarik here.” she replied. “We will be back at some point.  See you all soon.  Stay here and don’t go anywhere near the school.”

“Be safe.  Come back safely.” My mother said. “Of course, be safe!  I can’t lose you all either.”

I looked at Jenna, her face was a mask but I could see the excitement in her threatening to be released.  I wondered why.  We exited the house and started moving towards the school.

“How are we supposed to help?” Joan asked. “There isn’t anything to do.”

“We just find whoever needs to be helped and get them whatever they need.” Jenna said quickly. “Do as much to help as you can but still hurry because there are many people inside of that school.”

“Yeah.  I know.” Joan said. “But what if one of us gets injured?”

“What if someone asks about someone we know that didn’t survive?” I asked.

“Tell them the only thing you can.” Jenna responded as she tucked her long hair behind her ears, “The truth.  If someone gets injured then just bring them to me.  I will be able to help them.”

As we walked towards the school we saw the smoke coming out from within the windows.  We started running towards the school and saw Mr. Edwards running towards us as fast as he could with a boy in his arms.  He stopped whenever he saw me and almost dropped the boy.  We looked at the boy and saw…me?  Wait no!  It was my younger brother Monte.  He set him at our feet, turned, and without another word sprinted back towards the school.  Marcia, Joan, and I went to follow but hesitated as we looked towards Monte.  He looked so dead that I was worried he might not make it.  I couldn’t lose my younger brother too!

A Few Minutes Before

“Ahhhhh!” Mrs. Hunt, the History teacher yelled.  “Rufus!  Get over here!  I found a hurt student!”

“Are you alright?” Mr. Edwards asked as he came up from behind her.

“I am fine but this student is not.  Get him some help, Rufus!” Mrs. Hunt said.

Mr. Edwards got down next to the boy and then gasped, “It’s Monte!  It’s my son!”

“He needs help.  Who can we go to for help?” Mrs. Hunt asked him.  Then she realized, “Jenna.  We can take him to Jenna.  He needs medical attention right away.  Get him there as soon as possible, Rufus.”

“Yes, we can.” Mr. Edwards responded, “But it may be hard for her to help him in this situation, my friend.  Yet, we must try.  I cannot lose my son this way.  He is dying and I can’t lose him.  I can’t.”

“Just take him to her and I will try to find any other people that may need help.  Good luck, my friend.  Good luck.” Mrs. Hunt said before getting up and rushing out.

Mr. Edwards looked down in concern; Jenna was going to need a lot of luck and time to help Monte live through it this time.  This time, he might not make it.  He tried to pick up Monte and run out but he soon realized that almost every exit was blocked.  The only thing he could do was attempt to move the debris so that they could leave.

He set Monte down to move a huge rock.  He shoved the huge rock out of the way and discovered a weird cloth.  It changed color and blended in with its surroundings.  At that point he instantly knew that they were all still in considerable danger.  When the Midnight Elves arrived they would never leave without their revenge.

Present Time

“It will be okay.  Go.  Go!  I will get him back to your mother now GO!” Jenna shooed us away.  “Save the others!”

We ran towards the burning school and ran inside it.  There were only a few people left inside of it.  In the first room there was no one.  Same for all the other rooms and halls in the school.  We got into the last room and saw the kid who bullied me every single day.  Betereli Ilisini.

We looked in the room and I crept in because I wanted to see why he was still in the school.  There was a young boy on the ground.  The youngest kid in high school was fourteen.  This boy looked to be twelve.  His face was covered in blood and he was on the ground shaking.  Betereli just kept punching him until eventually we could no longer hear the kid scream.  There were pipes attached to beams in this room because it was a Chemistry classroom.  One of the beams above them was shaking.  It was going to fall on them in just a few seconds.  I ran to the young boy and dragged him out of the way.  Marcia ran towards Betereli and pushed him out of the way as the beam fell.  Betereli was safe.  Marcia was not.  The beam fell on top of Marcia and Betereli gasped.  He ran towards Marcia and dragged the beam off of her chest and then off of her body.  I ran over with Joan and tried to see if she was okay.  I saw Betereli’s face and just prepared myself for the horrible news.

“She will probably not make it, guys.  I’m sorry.” Betereli said.  “We have to get this off of her though.”

“That’s it!  You are sorry?!  She is dying and all you can manage to say is I'M SORRY?!?!” I yelled at him.

“Tarik” Joan was struggling, “It’s not worth yelling at him over.  We have to get out of here now!”

Betereli didn’t answer me, “We need to get them out of this school.  It will kill us all if we don’t get out of here now.”

“Then to Jenna.” I said.

He looked at me with a newfound respect, “Yes, and then to Jenna.  She can help.”

I grabbed the boy and carried him out of the school before gently setting him down and then I fell over and couldn’t get up.  I tried but it was too hard to get up whenever I couldn’t even breathe right.  Betereli knelt down next to me and tried to tell if I was breathing or not.  He couldn’t find a pulse in my wrist but he found one in my neck.  My heart was fine but I couldn’t breathe right.  I managed to gasp out, “Help…Marcia…please…Betereli.”

I started to black out but before I did Betereli said, “It will be okay.  I promise.  It will be okay.”  I blacked out after that, “Tarik?  Tarik?!” Betereli asked loudly.

Marcia edged herself over and laid her head on my chest.  She listened.  Betereli quieted so she could hear whether I was breathing or not.  She listened for a minute before managing to say, “He still breathes.”

Betereli’s face colored.  Marcia noticed and smiled.  “You know, it is normal to help someone like this whenever they are in danger.  You did the right thing Betereli.  Thank you for saving us.  Now get us to Jenna already!” she almost passed out with the effort it took for her to speak.  The young boy awoke.  He got up and faced Betereli before realizing that he was safe.  He still watched Betereli to make sure he wouldn’t try anything.

“I will help with Tarik, Mr. Ilisini.” The boy said.

“Thank you Finn.” Betereli said.  “I really appreciate it.”

“I can help you, Finn.  Just let me breathe for a minute.” Joan tried to laugh. “I can’t carry him like this so just give me a minute.”

They all waited for Joan to get better.  As they waited Finn asked, “Why did this happen?  What did we do to deserve this?”

“I don’t know.” Joan looked at the ground, “I can’t understand it either.  People just do what people want to do I guess.  We did nothing at all to deserve this and yet, it happened.”

“Yeah.  They just do what they want with no regard for anyone else.” Betereli said.

Joan nodded, “I am ready.  Let’s hurry to Jenna’s house.  We all need to get help.”

The others all nodded as they started to walk towards Marcia’s house and Jenna.  Finn stumbled and Betereli asked if he was fine and he said yes.  So they continued.

Joan looked around and noticed someone hiding across the street.  It seemed as though it was a boy of their age but she couldn’t tell who it was.  She took a closer look but whatever it was had disappeared.  She looked again, closer this time, but still found nothing.  So they continued on.

“I’m sorry that this happened to all of you.  This is all my fault.” Betereli said, “I should never have stayed inside of that school because I knew you all would end up trying to help people.  I should have left much earlier and for that I am extremely sorry.  What I did was wrong.”

“You did nothing wrong, Betereli.” Marcia managed to speak. “We all can do better sometimes but that does not mean we have done wrong.”

“Marcia has a point you know.” Joan said. “Everyone makes mistakes whether they like it or not.  Things happen.”

“I guess.” Betereli mumbled.

They reached the house and Finn yelled at the top of his lungs, “JENNA!  PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!”

They could hear Jenna running to the door.  When she had opened it she stared in horror at the mismatched and hurting group.  “What happened?!” she screamed as she reached for me.  “Betereli, please bring Marcia in” Jenna came back and said, “Joan, help me with Tarik please.”

Finn stood there not wanting to intrude but still needing medical attention.  Betereli reached out and directed him inside.  “You need medical attention, Finn.  Come inside.  Jenna will have you as good as new in half an hour at the most.”

As Jenna got to work on Marcia she was muttering, “My goodness.  Why is it always my daughter? She always gets in such messes.  Like that one time she pushed Tarik and ended up falling backward into the lake, or the other time she tried to help the cat and almost died falling out of our tree, or the other time where she was stopping someone from attacking Tarik and almost got herself killed in the process.  She has such a kind heart and that, in this case, is a really big problem.  She may have gotten herself killed this time.  At this point, only time will tell.”