Chapter Text
...She nodded. "Don't worry," she said. "You will someday." He believed her because there in the shadowy light of the stronghold everything seemed possible. Between the two of them they owned the world and no enemy, Gary Fulcher, Wanda Kay Moore, Janice Avery, Jess's own fears and insufficiencies, nor any of the foes whom Leslie imagined attacking Terabithia, could ever really defeat them.
A few days aft-
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
The light knock against the wall of her bedroom was what broke Sharon out of her reverie. The sound startled her enough to nearly cause her to drop the flashlight she was holding. "Shit." She muttered as her heart beat rapidly against her chest, prompting her to inhale deeply in an effort to steady herself, before turning off her flashlight, dropping it and the book on the bed.
She didn't need to mark her place. It hardly mattered since it was the tenth time she was reading Bridge to Terabithia.
Or was it the twelfth time?
She had lost count.
Doing her best to avoid the more squeaky floorboards, the girl quickly made her way down the darkened hall and to the door right next to her own room.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Three knocks and she entered, reassuring the person on the other side that it was her and not their mother.
"Jesus Dustin! You nearly scared me to death." Sharon hissed as she crossed the room to her younger brother's bed. The nine-year old looked up at her, appearing more then a little creepy with a flashlight shining right under his chin. His wild mop of hair and scary face didn't help.
"Then maybe you shouldn't be watching The Exorcist on your own." Dustin quipped in response, dropping the flashlight in his lap when his older sister wacked at his hands. "It was the only good thing on." She responded with an eyeroll, though she couldn't help but climb into his bed.
Since watching the movie, a slight fear had grown in her when it came to dark spaces.
Especially those under beds.
What if something reached out and grabbed her from there?
Not a part of the movie she had seen, yet her over-active imagination seemed to make it a hobby of scaring her.
Dustin made room for her, turning the flashlight away so it was aimed at the wall in front of his bed.
"Why'd you call me here?" She asked, referring to him knocking on the bedroom wall they both shared. Dustin was obsessed with secrets and morse code, and Sharon had always found it fascinating when the characters in her books would communicate using knocks and lights. Which had led to the two siblings creating their own form of communication that used mostly knocking on any surface that made noise.
A good way to get the message across whenever they had needed the other to save their skin while under the scrutinizing glare of their father.
"Did Dad really leave?"
Speaking of which.
Sharon sighed, leaning her head back against the bed. "Yeah. He's gone."
She had seen him taking the last of his things before taking off in his car just that evening. Their mother, Claudia, had been out, probably arranging for the final leg of their inevitable move. She had arrived exhausted and had only managed to eat a few mouthfuls of the grilled cheese Sharon had prepared before kissing her daughter on the cheek, checking on a supposedly sleeping Dustin and disappeared into her room.
"And we're really moving?" Her brother asked, prompting her to nod as a response. A beat of silent. "Why do we have to move?" Dustin's voice came, small and sounding every bit the nine-year-old he was. Sharon allowed her head to drop to the side, right on top of her brother's curly head.
"Because Dad lost the house." She explained once more, feeling him shuffle a little to rest his own head against her shoulder. "And he lost all the money and any savings that we had."
The news had only come to light two months ago. And it had shaken the entire Henderson family to the core.
Their mother had screamed and shouted at her husband for destroying them. And while the man had made excuses at first, Claudia wasn't having any of it.
The divorce was still in process, but their father was already living somewhere else, taking his troubles with him. The house, however, was no longer their own. And in a desperate measure to keep a roof over their heads, Claudia had decided to move her family to her parents home back in Hawkins, Indiana.
They had passed away a few years ago, and had left the house to their daughter. The deed had not fallen in Walter Henderson's hands, otherwise they would be out in the streets. "So yeah." Sharon sighed. "We have to move."
Understandably, the siblings were sad, confused, scared and angry. It was a strange mixture of emotions that bubbled in their chests. Dustin had been more focused on the sadness and the confusion part. He was still young and didn't fully understand the situation. Sharon, however, at the age of fourteen, was old enough to feel angry. Angry at her father for making so many mistakes. And scared of what was going to happen next.
Claudia had tried her best to shield her children from the damage and the trauma, but there really was no hiding what was happening so obviously. Dustin had retreated into his gadgets, tinkering and comics, while Sharon had found solace in her books and music.
"But you know we should think of this as a new adventure." She continued, wanting to do her part in reassuring whatever fears her brother was harboring despite her own festering under the surface. "The two of us are like Jess and May Belle. They're characters from this book I'm reading. They discover this new place and-"
"Wasn't Leslie the one who found Terabithia with Jess?"
Sharon glanced down at her brother, blinking in surprise. Dustin blinked up at her, before shrugging. "I read the book when you left it on the kitchen counter a few weeks back." He admitted with a grin that had his sister rolling her eyes at him. "Yeah well, then you know why I didn't say Leslie."
He nodded, a seriousness crossing his features as the two of them turned their gaze to the circle of light illuminating the many posters and drawings Dustin had taped to the wall.
"Do you think we'll find a place like Terabithia in Hawkins?" Dustin finally asked to which Sharon shrugged. "Maybe we will. And if we don't, we'll make one up. The two of us." She shifted to sit up on her knees, facing him. Dustin mirrored the position. "Leslie died and left Jess. Dad left us. We'll be like Jess and May Belle. We'll create a whole new world like Terabithia where we are the Rulers."
Dustin's face crumpled in disgust. "We can't be King and Queen. We're brother and sister." He protested, to which Sharon shrugged. "So? Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were brothers and sisters and they were Kings and Queens." But Dustin was adamant. He shook his head. "No. We can be the Protectors." He burst out with an excited grin. "Like the Knights of the Round Table."
Sharon shared her brother's enthusiasm when it came to the world of the fantastical. She nodded eagerly. "Yeah! And maybe we can find more people to help us protect the land from evil! Friends and allies." Dustin giggled, nearly jumping on the bed in his excitement. Sharon quickly shushed him, afraid to disturb their mother.
"We can fight the bad guys and make sure everyone is safe." Her brother vowed, prompting her to smile fondly at the smaller boy. "And we can protect each other." He added with a grin that had her smiling wide.
Without needing any prompting, their hands darted out completing a series of rather complicated looking gestures that ended in a handshake that had Sharon giving her brother a noogie.
Their personal handshake. One they had perfected just a year ago.
"Partners in crime," She began their years old mantra.
"Till the day we die." He completed it with as much conviction as his little body could muster.