Out of the Dark → Transformers

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"Well, I was just thinking about how much my life has changed. In a few days my junior year will be over, and I've missed the last three months of it. Not to mention the beach trip my friends and our families take every year is probably not going to happen, unless my friends have just decided to continue the tradition without my family and I," I started.

"I will agree with you that your life has changed incredibly within these past few months, but the fault is not yours; you can not help what happened to you. Also, I highly doubt that your friends and their families would continue the tradition without you. You all seemed very close from what I remember," he responded softly. I was about to question him about his final sentence, but then I remembered that he was assigned to protect me far before I even knew about my ability.

"I know, I know. And I guess you're right. I just can't help but think about it." I now knew that I was definitely not going to tell him that I was thinking about him as well. It would just be weird, especially since we were talking about this specific subject at the moment.

"Overthinking isn't good for you, Brenna."

I sighed and fell onto the seat. If we weren't having a conversation I could probably fall asleep right now. "Tell me something I don't know," I finally replied.

It was silent for a moment before he finally spoke. "Hm, well, we're now parked in front of your house."

I shot up almost immediately and looked out of the window. Optimus was right. The large, two-story house sat directly in front of my face, and I found myself struggling to hold back the tears. It was just the same as I remembered it being when I left, only it was vacant. I could only assume the military and the police had something to do with that.

I let out a breath and looked back at Optimus. He gave me a reassuring nod before opening the passenger's side door for me. Without even thinking about it I hopped out and slowly headed up the walkway to my front door. I knew Epps and Lennox were following me, but I couldn't worry about them at the moment. I was far too focused on the house in front of me.

The heel of my boots sounded as I walked up the stairs to the front door. It was so quiet the sound echoed several times, and I did not like that at all. This house was always so loud, so full of life. Now it was just...empty.

With a slow breath, I placed my hand onto the door knob and turned it, pushing it open and stepping over the threshold. Somehow the faint smell of cinnamon and syrup still lingered inside the house. An outsider--like Epps and Lennox--probably would not be able to make out the smell, but because it was so familiar to me it was kind of hard to miss. Just the smell alone caused a tear to fall out of my eye, but I quickly wiped it away and continued on into the house. I stopped, though, when I came upon a picture frame sitting in the living room. I removed it from its place on the table and studied it. It was a picture of all of us that we had taken at the beach last year. Brandon had just gotten a new phone and insisted that the first picture on it be one of all of us. Mom loved the picture so much that she had it developed and framed.

"Brenna," Lennox's voice called, removing my focus from the picture frame to him. He, Epps, and a few other soldiers were wondering around the house trying to see if they could find something they might have missed last time, but little did they know that they would find nothing, especially down here in the living room.

"Yeah?"

"We're gonna look around for a bit to see if we've missed anything. You just keep searching, okay?" he said to me.