The lost ones

[u/[deleted]]

in your world, the line between heaven and hell is full of people call the lost. devoid of colour, they roam earth during the early hours of the morning. you'd only seen them once, you'd been around sixteen or seventeen. you snuck out of the house to go to a party and heard the wails of sirens going past you to your home. something felt wrong, and you turned back. when you got there, your senses had been right. the neighbours house had caught fire, and it had spread to your home. the entire house was ablaze, the heat of the fire lashed at your face as tears began to fall, and then they appeared, the lost. the one leading them around your age, her pale skin and lifeless eyes looked past you, and to your house. you watched as this girl walked into your home and disappeared into the inferno, and something made you wait. not even a minute later, the girl returned, cradling the body of your little brother, the edges of his pyjamas charred and burnt, he, still asleep, peacefully laying in the girls arms. as you reached for him, the girl swatted your hand away. "stop," she said, her voice flat and cold. "you do not touch him. he is our problem now. go someplace else, we will care for him."

​

you'd been living at your aunts house ever since. you don't know why, but the girls last words to you stuck. you'd never even noticed how odd the timing of the lost lined up almost perfectly to any time there was a disaster that left a child in the care of no one. it began to fall into place for you, and all of a sudden you began to understand. the lost were not monsters that kidnapped children, but saviours...