Changed

Two years its been.
Two years since I left the town I grew up in and everything I had. So many problems drove me to insanity and I left. I had just turned 21 and now I was going back to get something, or someone for that matter.
The world passed by in a haze as I stared out the window of the bus. I couldn’t take my mind of anything. It had been two years since I left him hanging without so much as a good bye. My little brother, Matt. He looked up to me a lot and loved me more then anything, but I couldn’t deal with the problems my family gave me, the friends I had, everything was overwhelming here…so I left.
I had at least stayed in touch with Matt for those two years, but he was getting older and was starting to detach from me. I knew it was happening because he wasn’t the same little brother on the phone that I remembered from two years earlier. He wasn’t as open about things, and I didn’t see many pictures of him, even though I asked him a lot for them.
I missed him so I thought that I would come back and see how he was doing. Even ask him if he wanted to come live with me. Though, not knowing where his life went, I’m not sure if he would do that. Old familiar sights filled my eyes and I knew we were there. Back to the one place I dreaded being years ago, and now tears filled my eyes in joy. The bus parked at a local gas station and I stepped off. No one knew I was coming back so there wasn’t a welcoming party. Looks like I have to walk now, I thought.
It was chilly outside, but very little snow covered the ground. I was on one side of town and I had to walk to the other. I started my walk, slow at first, but then sped up trying to keep my body warm. People I passed didn’t recognize me and I didn’t know them. So much has changed, but I knew he was still in the same place. I took a good half an hour to walk to his house, but I didn’t go up to the door and knock. Instead I stood across the street and called him.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang, still no answer. That’s weird. He always answers. I tried a couple more times and nothing. I walked to the door, heart racing, hands shaking, and knocked. His mom answered, even she didn’t recognize me.
“Is Matt home?”
“Yes. Does he know you?” she asked.
“Sure does. As do you. It’s me. Jon.”
“Oh my….Jon! Is that really you!!!! Oh you’ve changed so much! Come in, come in,” she flung open the door and pulled me inside. “I thought you were one of his disgusting friends he bums around with. MATT GET OUT HERE YOU GOT A VISITOR!!” She screamed to his door. On the other side I could hear music pounding, heavy death metal music. When the door opened up I was facing the window so he couldn’t see who it was, but something caught me off…sulfur.
I could smell sulfur and smoke in the air. It wasn’t there before but It was now. Something was horribly wrong. My gut started to wrench and I thought I was going to pass out. I knew something wasn’t right, but I was scared to find out what.
“Who is it?” he asked in an aggravated tone.
I slowly turned around, hoping I would be wrong. I managed to hold my stomach back the whole time, until our eyes met. Who I saw wasn’t my little brother, but I could see him in his eyes, that was all though. His beautiful blue eyes, surrounded by something completely evil and unknown to me. Pitch black hair fell over his face. Baggy, ragged clothes covered his skin. Chains hung from anything and everything. His nose, lip, ears, eyebrows, were all pierces and glinting with metal studs. His finger nails were painted black and he wore cut off gloves. When he realized who it was, his eyes lit up and he yelled, “OH MY GOD ITS JON!!!” The thing I thought was my brother ran after me and jumped on me. He was only slightly taller then me, but still smaller and weaker. That was an action I knew my brother would do…but I still couldn’t get myself to hug this thing in front of me. I didn’t know who it was.
He looked me in the eyes and spoke, “Don’t want to hug me?”
I couldn’t speak. I had nothing to say. Matt got off me and walked back to his room.
“Jon? What’s wrong?” his mom asked.
“Wha….what happened to him?” I muttered.
“Well, after you left, everything went down hill. He thought you wanted nothing to do with him or his life so he found an exit. Started hiding things from us more. Depression took over his mind and he just wandered around. Eventually it started turning to anger and he got with the wrong crowd. Found his way into weed, cocaine, and any other drug he could get his hands on. When I saw there was no stopping him and I couldn’t control him, I learned to deal with it. Here he stands, excited to see you, but you aren’t sure who he is,” she said in hushed tones.
“All because of me. Because I left. He knew I was going to leave and I knew he wanted to go with but I didn’t want to take him from his life here. Yet, he needed me in his life to keep the life.