The Guardians

Until yesterday, I had never heard of a gremlin. Then again, until yesterday, I had never known that my family was supposed to spend their entire life fighting these creatures. My apologies, I know I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me rewind just a bit.

    Hello, my name is Jacob Wethers and I am completely normal, and boring. I love to write, especially after the creative writing class I took in 7th grade but that’s about it. I used to write short stories for my dad to read, but then he disappeared.

      I have only two best friends. Esther Wildes, a nerdy girl with big glasses and a strange obsession with Nerf guns. Esther and I have been best friends since first grade, after she didn’t laugh at me when I peed my pants the first day of school. In my defense I had a lot of water that day and was nervous. 

    And Skip Buckingham, a scrawny boy who tries to get a girlfriend all the time, but of course has had no such luck. Skip became my best friend after we were put as science partners last year and learned we both had a love for comic books.

      We were a trio of dorks. The kind who gets shoved into a locker and gives people answers in class. Skip even wears suspenders and a bow tie to school everyday. We didn’t fit in. It didn’t matter though. We always had each other.

     “Hey Jacob!” A voice from behind me yells as I get out my history book. I turned around to see Skip and Esther walking toward me. Esther’s pigtails bouncing up and down.

     I wave to them. A bounce in Skips steps and his huge smile made me know something is up. “What’s with you?” I asked. He just giggled in response.

    Esther rolled her eyes,“Skip is going to be partners with Violet Louis in Chemistry and thinks he has a chance with her.” Skip nodded and I sighed.

    “You do know that just because your partners with someone in school doesn’t mean they’ll date you right? I mean I certainly didn’t date you when we became partners,” I said and Esther giggled. 

    Skip just scoffed and said, “whatever.”

     I looked at the clock that hung on the wall, 7:55 a.m. “ I gotta head to class,” I told them and left them standing at my locker.

   As I was rushing to class I somehow managed to run right into someone. Perhaps it was because I was looking at my feet.

   We both fell on the floor with an oof! “Sorry,” I muttered and picked up my papers that had slipped out of my book.

    I wasn’t used to people being even remotely kind to me or having any manners at all so I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when the person I had ran into says, “oh sorry, that was my bad.”

     I look up and see a girl kneeling on the ground picking up scattered papers. I rush to help her. When we collected all the papers I stood up and held out my hand. “Thanks,” she says and takes it.

    I stare at her. She was beautiful, with her brown hair and dark tan skin. When she smiled dipples popped out. “M-my name is J-Jacob,” I stuttered. 

    “Charlotte,” she replies, her voice silky and smooth. 

    Charlotte, I repeat in my head. “I like it.”

     “You like what?” She asks. Oops, I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

    “Uh nevermind,” I mumble. She giggles and I felt my face heat up. “So um,” I try to change the subject, “Are you new here? I haven’t seen you around before?”

      “Yeah I just moved here from California,” I nod. I wonder why she moved from a place like California to a small town like Fortsville, Oregon?

      Before I could ask though I was cut off by the warning bell. “What class do you have?” I ask. 

     “History,” she groans, “I can’t even find it!” I couldn’t help but smile. 

     “I have history too, I can show you,” I say. Her face lights up and she nods. Together we rush down the halls. Past noisy classrooms and past teachers grumbling about how kids have no respect these days. Which is true, of course.

    Finally we made it to class exactly when the bell rings. Everyone looks at us and the teacher, Mrs.Benson, rolls her eyes. “Please take a seat Mr.Wethers and Ms,” she checks her clipboard, “Browne”. 

    We take a seat in the very back. Both our faces were a crimson color and we were breathing heavily. Giggles passed through the students. 

    “Okay now that everyone is here,” she gives us a pointed look, “we can begin the lesson.”

    Don’t worry I won’t tell you about the boring lesson she had us do. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love history! Except some lessons are just too boring for a guy to take.

      I was staring out the window when a folded piece of paper appeared on my desk. I looked at Charlotte and she gestured for me to open it. I unfolded it and read it. It was a hilarious comic about Mrs.Benson being chased by a giraffe. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Mrs.Benson stopped her lesson and looked at me. I quickly hid the paper. “Something funny Mr.Wethers?” She asked and I shook my head.

     “No Ma'am,” I mumble. All eyes were on me. Mrs.Benson shook her head and muttered something about how kids were so rude and then continued her lesson. I sighed in relief.

     “Sorry I got you in trouble,” Charlotte says as we walked out of school.

     I just shrug, “no problem, the comic was hilarious”. We both smile at each other and I got a warm tingling feeling in my stomach.

    The day was finally over and I couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy. I was walking home with Charlotte,Esther, and Skip. We all agreed to come to my house to play, to Esther’s absolute delight, Nerf guns. The day was warm and bright, and birds sung from the branches of big trees. All was perfect. So of course, like everything else in life, perfection was soon replaced by fear as I got a text from my mom. 

      Ding! I fished out my phone from my pocket. Skip looks over my shoulder. “Is it a girl Jakey-Jake?” He put his hand over his heart. “Does Jakey have a girlfriend?” he asked in a sing-songy voice and Charlotte looks over at me. My face flushes and I push his face away. 

      “It’s my mom you perv,” I reply and Skip laughs. I opened my phone and check the text. Where are you? Come home now! I scroll down the screen. Nevermind don’t come home! Jacob don’t come home!

     I call my mom. A cold wave of fear runs through my body as it goes straight to voicemail. “Mom pick up the phone!” I shout and dial her number again. Voicemail.

     “What’s wrong Jacob?” Esther ask and gives me a worried glance. I show them the texts.

    “I gotta get home,” I tell them. “My mom could be in big danger.”

    “Maybe we should call the police,” Charlotte suggest but I shake my head.

     “We don’t know what kind of danger it is though or if she actually is in danger, look I’m going home you guys should go home to,” I say and start to walk away. They follow me. Their faces a mixture of determination and fear. “Guys seriously it could be dangerous.”

     “We’re not going to let you go by yourself, we're a team!” Skip threw an arm across my shoulder. I shrugged it off and scoffed, but my mouth quirked up into a tiny smile though as much as I tried not too.

       Look I know everyone always thinks that you need a lot of friends to be happy, even I sometimes think that, but the truth is you only need a few good friends that you know will have your back.

      “Okay let’s go then!” And just like that we ventured off. Down the streets, pass stores, and bus stops, and houses with dogs barking at us from their yards. One of the dogs, being a chihuahua, seemed very vicious. 

    We turned the corner and arrived on Mullin Street. My house stood on the large hill. Perched like a bird ready to take flight. We walked up to the door and I put my hand on the doorknob. And then, with a moment of hesitation, swung the door open.

     I expected to see blood everywhere. Or at least my mom standing in the living room surrounded by a bunch of ninjas. But at last, there was no ninjas or blood. Just a dark, gloomy house. 

    I stepped in farther through the room. The only source of light was the sun streaming through the windows. “Mom?” My voice echoes off the walls with no answer. “Mom?” I repeat. I walked toward the kitchen and searched it. Nothing. I was about to go check the bedrooms when Skip’s voice filled the air.

     “Why are there matches on the ground?” He asks. I turn around and look to where he is pointing and sure enough there were a bunch of matches scattered across the floor. I walk toward the mess. 

     “This is weird, and where is my mom?” I wonder. Just then a crash comes from upstairs. A loud Clang! as something metal hits the floor. We all look at each other before running up the stairs. 

    “I think the sound came from that room,” Esther says pointing at mom’s bedroom door. I brace myself for whatever’s in there and then swing open the door. What I saw standing in front of me was something truly horrible. 

     A stumpy creature stood in the room. It was brown, and slimy with a face of what I suppose a troll would look like but with slothish features. Warts covered its back. It seemed to be about three feet tall with long, pointy ears. And boy was it hideous!

    It must have heard our shrieks of fear because it turned around. There was an awkward moment of silence as we all stared at one another. I momentarily wondered if the beast was going to bite my face off, but instead of charging at me the creature made a weird, gurgle noise from its mouth, which I’m assuming was either a laugh or how he communicates.

     “I have been waiting for you,” So it speaks. I furrowed my eyebrows. Was I dreaming? I pinched myself on the arm. Ow! Definitely not dreaming.

    “W-who are you?” Skip stuttered out. The creature laughed, I’m pretty sure it was a laugh, and stepped closer to us. 

     “Who am I? Haha who am I?” It was walking closer now. “I am the one and only, Broth!” It declared.

        Now I know that this thing could probably be very dangerous and making fun of it would be very dangerous, but that didn’t stop us from falling into a fit of laughter. I mean how could you not laugh when some little troll-sloth baby announces that his name is Broth!

     Anyways apparently Broth didn’t like us making fun of his name because he pounded his chest and curled his fist. “Do not laugh at me,” he roared, “I am the king of the gremlins and you should bow down to me!” I saw Esther grab Skip’s arm and stand behind him. 

    “What is a gremlin?” Charlotte trembled. The gremlin laughed again. I guess he found our fear very amusing.

     I expected an answer other than, “ask your mother Jacob,” but that’s exactly what I got. And before I couldn’t even ask any questions Broth decided at that moment to begin his attack. He charged at us and Skip screamed.

    We ran out the door, down the stairs, and to the front door. I thought we were going to make it, but the gremlin, whatever that is, jumped in front of us. We backed away from him and ran to the kitchen.

    “Ow!” I howled. My foot had stepped on some of  the matches. Wait, the matches!

     I picked one up and tried to light it but with no such luck. I tried more matches but none of them lit. I searched the drawer for any more matches. Nothing.

    Bothe stepped closer to us. My heart was pounding and my breathing was uneven. He was closer now and I was sure we were going to die. I saw one last match and took a chance. I stroked the match and by some miracle a little fire lit up.  

    “Stand back or I’ll burn you!” I threatened. I expected Broth to be a little scared. Or at the very least stop rushing at us. I did not however expect for the gremlin to scream and fall on his hands and knees, begging me to put the fire out. 

    “I should burn you,” I said, drawing the match closer to him. Broth cried and put his head in his hands.

     “I’ll tell you anything! Anything! Just please don’t burn me with your horrible fire!” He begged. I smiled a little. I don’t usually threaten people for answers but I usually don’t have too. Besides, I’m not actually going to burn him.

    “Okay I won’t hurt you as long as you tell me everything you know,” I tell him. He nods vigorously and slowly gets off his knees. 

     “Okay first question,” I say as we sit down at the kitchen table. Broth on the other side of the table of us. “What is a gremlin?”

     Broth hesitates before answering, “a gremlin is a creature created by the great and mighty ispolins to fight against the dragons who fought in harmony with the humans”. There was a moment of silence as I tried to process this. I shouldn’t have been surprised though, if a gremlin existed, then of course dragons would too. 

     “What is a ispolin?” Charlotte asked.

    Broth squared his shoulders and declared dramatically, “An ispolin is a giant who lives in Hungary. They fight the dragons and all their evilness.”

    “Why would you want to fight dragons? They work with the humans don't they?” Esther questioned.

    Broth chuckled, “because humans are gross, they should be slaves and yet the dragons don’t believe that,” he says. “No offence” he adds as an afterthought. I couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of offense. The fact that this thing thought we should be slaves was completely unimaginable. 

    “Do the dragons still exist?” Skip asks. The gremlin smiles a sinister smile.

    “No they are all gone now,” he says and I shudder. Broth looks at me ominously. “Now we just have to worry about the Guardians”. Guardians?  

    “What are the Guardians?” Charlotte asks. Broth doesn’t look at her though. His full attention is now set on me. I tremble under his gaze.

    “After the dragons disappeared and no one was there to defend the humans the ispolin started to capture humans and enslave them, and they would’ve still been slaves if it weren’t for a idiotic human who decided to rebel against the ispolin, his name was Henry,” he gave me a glare, “Wethers”. 

    Wethers? I knit my eyebrows together. I always knew my family had a history. I mean we did live in a house that was passed down from generations and my father used to tell me stories about how his family was in a war before he went missing two years ago. I never knew this was the war he was talking about though. A war between dragons and such creatures called ispolins. 

     “So a family member of mine named Henry, h-he’s a guardian?” I asks. To say I was confused was an understatement. I was completely bewildered!

      “Yes he’s a guardian and so are you,” Broth stated. 

      As I’m looking back on the events that played yesterday, I remember the feeling I got when the king of the gremlin said that. It was that realisation that this was my destiny. That feeling didn’t disappear as we talked to Broth. It didn’t disappear as he told us that my whole family had been guardians. 

     The feeling only had disappeared after Broth had told me that the isopolins took my mom and they have my dad. My heart dropped in my stomach. 

     That night I had packed and planned for a way to get to where the Isopolins lived. Which was in Hungary. And even though I told Charlotte and them not to come, all Skip said was, “we’re in this together!” And that was that. 

       As I shut the door and locked it a cold breeze nips my nose. A flock of birds fly south. Their wings making a loud flapping noise and their formation in a perfect V, as if they rehearsed it. I called a taxi and we all piled in. Broth wearing a big floppy hat, sunglasses, and a large coat that I found in my mother’s closet, to make him seem human. The driver gives us a strange look but says nothing. We are paying him after all. The taxi is warm and toasty and we began our drive. The cab will only take us to a bus stop but it’s a start.

    A group of losers we were but we were the only ones who could save my mother and keep the human race from being enslaved by Isopolins.

     “I guess now I won’t get to ask out Violet,” Skip says and we all chuckle. And just like that we began our journey and the future for humanity.