When You're Gone

[Nicole]

Prologue

“Why do you have to go?” Annabel whined as she fiddled with the buttons on her coat. “Can’t someone else go for you?” She looked up into Jake’s ocean blue eyes, fighting back her tears.
“No Ann, it’s not as easy to get out of the war once you’ve been drafted.” Jake chuckled. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders. “I’ll be back, I promise,” he said, kissing her cheek gently. “And if something happens to me, promise me you won’t do anything rash or stupid, alright? I love you.”
“Alright I promise,” Annabel muttered, lightly kissing him back. “And I love you too...” She hoped that she would be able to keep that promise. She knew that this was hard for her, but even harder for Jake. She would have to be strong… at least for now.
Jake smiled at her and pulled a ruby-colored ring out of his pocket, placing it on her left ring finger. Annabel smiled and giggled, examining her new ‘Promise Ring’. With that, she watched as Jake made his way on the army ship, waving goodbye one last time before it finally set sail. Annabel tried to be strong, but she just couldn’t take it anymore, she slumped down and sobbed the hardest she had ever sobbed in her life.

Chapter One

It had been a little over 3 months since Jake left and Annabel hadn’t received any recent letters from him. Only the first letter that said he had safely arrived to their war destination in Turkey (lol). She was becoming anxious, filling her mind with all the possible things that could’ve happened to her boyfriend. Annabel, or called Ann by her friends, was normally an optimistic girl, but in this situation, she seemed to become more and more pessimistic.
‘It’s been so long since I’ve seen him or heard from him, what if he’s wounded?' She thought to herself. 'Or worse, what if h-he…died…?’ She shuddered at the thought of seeing Jake lying in a casket.
Ann kissed her ‘Promise Ring’; it was a precious treasure that gave her the extra boost she needed when she felt sad or lonely. Suddenly, Ann’s stopwatch started to beep, reminding her that her shift at Walmart was over and she was done for the day. As she grabbed her blue velour-jacket out of the locker room, her closest childhood friend, Christy, came over to her.
“How are you feeling Ann?” Christy questioned with a concerned tone. Ann only shrugged and continued to gather her belongings. Ever since Jake had gone to the war, Ann had always been quiet and normally unresponsive, maybe giggling from time to time, but very rarely.
“Umm…” Christy fiddled with the letter in her hand and handed it to Ann. “The postman accidentally dropped off your mail at my house again… It’s a letter from Jake.” Christy bit her quivering bottom lip, trying to fight back the hot tears welling up inside of her; she had always hated being the bearer of bad news.
Ann looked at the letter happily and grabbed it. She stuffed it into her pocket and looked at Christy; both were trying desperately to fight back their tears. Christy smiled weakly and said, “Call me if you need me Ann; you know I’ll always be there for ya.” She gave her friend a small hug, which made Ann wonder a little, and then let go. Christy couldn’t help but watch as Ann made her way out of the sliding doors.
‘Please Ann, I beg of you… Just stay strong…’ Christy thought, letting her tears flow down her flushed face. It was wrong for her to look through Ann’s mail, and she knew it! But she just couldn’t help it; she needed to know what was happening to Jake… for Ann’s sake.
Ann walked out of Walmart and down the parking lot, trying to imagine what the letter could say.
‘Maybe it says that they won the war and he’s coming home!’ She thought, squealing with delight. ‘And maybe it also says-’
A sudden screech snapped Annabel out of her daze. She looked around and blushed. She was so busy day dreaming that was almost hit by a red Volvo. She waved apologetically and mouthed the word 'sorry' to the driver. She unlocked the doors of her black convertible, hopped in, and drove out of the parking lot. She had to go home quickly and open that letter, it was driving her insane! Annabel wanted to know what it said, and fast!

((I'm kinda new to the whole writing of Giant/Tiny stories, so please give me a break ;D umm... I used an idea from Natalie+Mikachu so I them credit too...
if you have any suggestions, please feel free to post them ^^)

[LightHeart]

New meat. Yum =p

Welcome to the board,newbie!

[Nicole]

lol thanks

[Amayasama]

^^ Oh a new member! Hello dear, welcome to the family X3 So I'm getting rather curious as to how this story will go, can't wait for more~

[Nicole]

thanks for the warm welcome~ *tackle glomps* >:3

[Nicole]

Chapter Two

Parking in front of her apartment building, she rushed out of her car to the front door. She looked at the elevator, and then to the stairs. She always hated riding in elevators because they were so cramped and stuffy, but this time, she’d have to make an exception. She frantically pressed the up button and waited for the elevator doors to slide open. Once they did, she rushed in and pressed 14, listening to the elevator music to calm her nerves. Once the elevator came to a stop and its doors opened, she walked to her apartment. She unlocked the door, swinging it open with a small ‘squeak’ sound, and was greeted with the fresh scent of lavender and the excited barking of her loveable beagle, Snoozer. She patted his head and closed the door behind her. Ann was glad that she had left her Febreeze Puffs turned on; the smell had always put her in a good or better mood. As she walked over to her dining room table, she slowly pulled the letter out of her pocket, pulled up a chair, and sat down; feeling the weight of Snoozer on her lap as he curiously jumped up to see what was going on. She tore open the letter cautiously until it was fully out of its card holder. No where on this letter did it say it was from Jake, and Ann began to grow nervous. She slowly read the letter out loud:
"To Whom It May Concern;
We are proud to say that Jake A. Whither has contributed a lot to the outcome of this recent war. He proudly fought for his country and without his help, we would not have been able to win. Unfortunately, Jake A. Whither died the night of our victory after being shot by one the enemy’s bullets. We are very sorry about his death and it pains us to inform you of this.
Signed,
General Charles M. Barkley"

Annabel blinked at the letter, allowing her brain to soak up the information; even though it didn’t want to register.
‘No wonder Christy was about to cry and tried to comfort me…’ She thought as she felt tears stream down her cheeks. Snoozer rested his head on Ann’s lap, knowing that she was in need of some sort of comfort. She lightly patted the dog on top of his head; then slouched over and began to sob in her hands.
***
Ann woke up, glancing at her watch; it read 5:45pm. She had gotten home when her shift ended at about 2 or so, had she really cried herself to sleep for over 3 hours?! She looked down at her Promise Ring and to Snoozer, who was peacefully sleeping in his bed now. Was there a way she could be with her Jake ever again…? Then an idea formed in her brain. It was rash and would break her promise, but she just loved him too much to think about those things now. As she got up, Ann took a deep breath and walked to the back door. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this… What if she got sent to hell for this while Jake was in heaven?! That would totally sabotage her plan…She shook her head and opened the back door, breathing in the warm summer air. She walked further onto her back porch, looking down over the balcony; the only thing that separated her entire life from death. She started to bite her nails, a habit she had always done when she was nervous, and looked down. People were running in the streets in panic, frantically looking behind them and hiding in alleys. Ann wondered what they could possibly be running from, but at this point she didn’t care; as long as no one witnessed the death of Annabel Mary-Claire Adams, she was fine. She stepped onto the balcony, wobbling a bit as she tried to steady herself, and looked up at the sky. The sunset was absolutely beautiful! It looked as though someone had painted the sky, coloring it different shades of pink, orange, and blue.
A distant, but audible, ‘thump’ quickly brought Ann back to reality, feeling a few tremors lightly shake her body.
‘An earthquake in New York? Aren’t earthquakes uncommon in these parts?’ She thought.
She looked down one last time at her ticket to hell or heaven and after looking up at the sunset, she couldn’t do it anymore. The world was too beautiful to leave behind and suicide was NOT the answer to this matter. Jake would be more than pissed off if he knew she even thought of the idea. Ann placed a hand on her heart and a single tear found its way down her sunbathed cheek. Another loud, distant ‘thump’ rang in Annabel’s ears.
‘What is that…? Thunder?’ Ann wondered. The sudden thought of lighting made her skin crawl. Ann had always loathed lighting… and surprise parties too. She hated things that suddenly jumped out at her, not knowing where they came from and with no warning.
The third and fourth ‘thump’ was louder and sounded like it was coming… closer… and closer… until the light tremors changed to heavy quakes. The thumps resounded one after another in a constant beat and rhythm... One of these ‘thumps’ caused Ann to lose her balance; she began to tumble backwards off the balcony. She screamed, not knowing what else to do.
‘Oh My God… I did NOT expect to actually fall NOW!!!! Of all the god damned suckier times!’ Ann screamed in her mind.
Luckily for Annabel, death was not knocking on her door yet. Expecting to land on the cold, hard cement, instead she landed on a warm, leathery surface. Annabel slowly opened her eyes and looked around frantically. For some reason, her mind was screaming at her to look up, so she hesitantly looked up. Her vision blurred around and all she could see were a pair of eyes. A GIGANTIC pair of eyes looking straight down at her from maybe 100 feet, and they seemed angry too. Ann couldn’t take all these emotions swelling up inside of her: fear, anger, despair, sorrow, loneliness, relief. So… she just passed out. ;D

[Re When Youre Gone]

Chapter Three

Annabel had the strangest dream while she was passed out. She dreamt that she was calling out Jake’s name, laughing and smiling. Something warm was surrounded around her, making her feel very safe. But things looked darker than normal, almost as if a large shadow were casted on top of her. In the ‘dream’, Ann could feel herself being lifted up in the air, her stomach getting a little queasy.
“Wait… you’re not supposed to ‘feel’ in a dream are you?” Ann whispered with a look of confusion on her face. “So that means …”
Her eyes quickly snapped open and she shot straight up, gasping as she looked around. She realized that she wasn't in Time Square anymore and was at least 130 or more feet in the air! Her body grew rigid when she felt something warm and moist blow against her. It wasn’t the wind because none of the trees’ leaves were moving. Annabel slowly turned around and screamed. That same gigantic pair of eyes were staring at her, only this time, they were a few feet a way from her instead of 100 feet. She tried to get as far away as possible, but only to be stopped by something. She looked behind her.
‘What the hell?! Are those giant fingers?!’ Annabel thought as she rubbed her eyes. The fingers twitched impatiently and with anticipation, just waiting for her to make the wrong move. Then it hit her, she was sitting in a giant palm that belonged to a giant man. Annabel screamed a shrill girlish scream, hoping someone could hear and rescue her. After a minute, her screams died down to mere whimpers. “I must surely be in hell, only this kind of $%!# could happen in hell…” Ann whimpered to herself.
“Are you done screaming now?” An irritated voice grumbled from above her. It was loud to Ann, but probably a whisper to the voice that answered her.
Ann whipped her head around, not sure if she had heard right. Her eyes widened as she made out his facial features. His toned face was impatient and he almost seemed… familiar to Ann somehow. His golden, brown hair was neatly cut and accented his ocean-like, blue eyes very nicely.
Ann slowly nodded her head, trying to remember who he could’ve possibly resembled, but her mind was too foggy to remember anything at the moment.
The giant sighed, “Now, what to do with you…” He said as he rubbed his chin with his free hand. Ann noticed something that shined on his right ring finger. It was…a…ring? Annabel slapped her forehead. How could she have been so blind as to not recognize who he was?!
“J-J-Jake?” She managed to stammer out as she tried standing up on the even surface, walking a little closer to the giant, but still in the safe zone of his palm.
The giant stopped rubbing his chin and looked down at her, smiling. “Yes Annabel?” He answered. His blue eyes were soft, but still had a hint of anger in them. Hearing his voice made her fight back her tears. She was so happy, but at the same time, she was nervous...
With that, a few questions popped into Annabel’s head: How did this happen? Why did the letter say he died when it’s obvious he’s still alive? Why is he 50ft tall shorter than her 20 story apartment building? This is real life, right? Annabel covered her mouth and quickly walked backwards, bumping into the fingers once again.
“B-b-b-but how did this ha-happen?” Ann stuttered as she sat back down, trying to get a firm grasp of the situation. Jake merely shrugged and looked down at her with a frown on his face now.
‘Uh oh… I have a bad feeling about that frown…’ Ann thought as she bit her thumb nail. Whenever Jake was mad, there was no stopping him. He was like a bull that sees red on everything…
“Now Ann, you mind tellin’ me WHY you were on the balcony?” Jake questioned in an I-know-exactly-why-but-let-me-play-with-it tone. He used his free index finger to push her closer to him, which made Annabel fall stomach first.
“Umm…” Ann began, still chewing her thumb nail. “I was…umm… getting a better view of the sun?” Ann nervously laughed a please-don’t-kill-me laugh. She tried to stand back up, but Jake placed his finger on her back, causing her stay still.
Jake could feel her body stiffen under his finger, which made him chuckle a little. He picked her up, carefully, by the hood of her jacket and lifted her up until she was eye level. Ann quickly lowered her head; she didn’t want him to see her blushing, which was quite obvious at his vantage point.
“Hadn’t we made an agreement? ‘You weren’t gonna do anything RASH or STUPID if something happened to me’, right?” Jake said, trying to fight the smile forming on his lips. This was supposed to be a serious moment, but Annabel was just too cute to stay mad at for long. She lightly shrugged and giggled a little.
“I’m sorry?” She answered, still not making much eye contact. Jake let out a sigh and lowered her back into his left palm. Ann sighed a sigh of relief; she was much happier to be placed back down on his palm rather than hanging in the air.
“You don’t have to try and hide it sweetie, I already saw you blush.” Jake replied smiling, which made Ann blush even further as he used his pinky finger to lift her chin. Ann was always weak to his drop-dead gorgeous smile and always found herself smiling back. She pushed his pinky away and cleared her throat.
“Now, I wanna know something Jake,” She began, sitting down and trying to get comfortable. “What the hell happened to you during the war? And why are you so big?!” Ann raised her hands over her head, to exaggerate how large he was.
“Did you ever wonder if maybe you got…smaller?” Jake chuckled, lightly ruffling her hair with his finger. Annabel pouted, crossed her arms, and huffed.
“Ha ha very funny,” Ann replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes, “now tell me the REAL story.”

[Nicole]

Chapter Four

3 months ago…
‘Hey, Jake, what was your life like before you came to this war?’ Thomas, one of my fellow comrades/friends, questioned. Thomas was a young man, maybe a year younger than me, and was always nosing into people’s private affairs. We, and another comrade named Derek, were sitting on the bunks, chatting about our lifestyle.
‘Well,’ I began, looking up at the ceiling, ‘I have a girlfriend back at home, who’s probably nervous as hell right now, thinking I might die.’
I had chuckled just thinking about you, running frantically to your apartment door when I come home. You’d start to cry and I’d have to console you, tell you ‘it’s alright’ and ‘I’m back’…
‘But I love her with all my heart. If something were to happen to me, I’d still love her…’ I stopped and covered my face with my hands. Derek began laughing I as started to blush profusely, realizing the embarrassing thing had just escaped my mouth.
‘Wow, she sounds like a keeper!” Thomas yelled, elbowing me in my side. ‘I’d imagine you two would be able to make it through anything!’

Next Morning on the Battlefield
It was the last time we’d be on the battlefield of Turkey. Our general, Charles, thought of a sure-fire way to make our enemies either; surrender or retreat. Derek, Thomas, and I were to infiltrate their borders, dodge incoming bullets, and take out their commander. It was a dangerous and life-threatening job, but I knew if I completed this task, I would hopefully be at home with you. As we made my way over to the borders, it was much easier than I thought; it seemed as though none of the soldiers noticed our existence, so we kept going. As we made it near the commander, I felt myself get shot. But not with a bullet, it felt more like a needle of some-sort. Apparently the same thing had happened to Derek and Thomas, but we all seemed to be unharmed. So, we finally took out the captain. When we got back to border, we had collapsed and needed to be taken to the infirmary. It felt like I had food poisoning of some sort and thought it would pass.
When Derek, Thomas, and I woke up the next morning, we found out our bodies and muscles had enlarged. In other words, we’d turned into giants! The doctors and scientists wanted to run some tests and experiment with our bodies, but luckily we were able to get away from Turkey with the help of General Charles. We had escaped about a month ago and we were all hiding in cramped caves, trying to figure out what we were gonna do. So, I…umm…we… decided to come here, where there was open space and fresh air.
End of flashback
*****
“So that’s how I ended up here…” Jake finished with a nod of his head. He was sitting down now, his legs crossed, and Ann was sitting on his knee. He looked down at Ann, who was slowly nodding her head, soaking up all the information. Jake bit his bottom lip; apparently she hadn’t quite caught on to the part where Jake said ‘WE decided to come here.’
*****
‘So let me get this straight…’ Annabel thought to herself as she closed her eyes, recalling all the information Jake had just told her. ‘Jake and 2 other guys were shot with something that caused you to apparently grow, and now they decided to come here and…wait…’
Ann’s eyes sfluttered open and got so wide that they could fall out of the sockets at any given moment. “W-w-w-we?” She stuttered, placing a hand on her forehead. “So you mean… th-th-they are here n-n-now?” Annabel looked up at Jake, who refused to make eye contact with her. He knew that she could get use to his size because they know and love each other, but a couple of strangers? That would take more time, a lot more time since they’re gigantic!
Ann started to chew her fingernails again. She didn’t want to meet others…but at the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder. “So uh…did you bring them here with you, now?”
Jake slowly nodded his head as his eyes finally locked with hers. Ann looked down and sighed, maybe she could somehow get use them; all she would have to do is get it a try.
“Alright, go get ‘em Jake…” Ann replied softly, but audible enough for Jake to hear. She smiled weakly to assure him the she was okay with this.
Jake nodded once again, scooped her up, and set her down on the grass. When he stood up, Annabel couldn’t help but cringe at his sheer size. He was maybe around 150ft; if she looked at him from her balcony on the 14th floor, she’d still have to look up! She shuddered at the possibility of him stepping on her accidentally, but she knew Jake wasn’t that careless, so she pushed the thought out of her mind. Once Jake was behind the neck-length trees of the clearing, two other heads emerged. Ann gasped as they slowly walked back to where she was. One of the giants was maybe, to them, and inch or two taller than Jake and the other was 3 inches shorter; they were still gigantic though!
“Maybe I can’t go through with this,” Ann said to herself as she stood up, ready to run behind the nearest tree. As the three of them came closer to the clearing, Ann ran. She ran really fast, judging that the tree was roughly 10 feet away from her. She caught her breath as she hid behind the tree, waiting to hear the sound of their footsteps come to a stop. As soon as she heard silence, she slowly stuck her head out, only to see they were lying down on their stomachs and staring at her. They were really close to the tree she was hiding behind; all they had to do was reach their hand out and grab her from behind. Ann squealed and ducked back behind the tree, shaking with fright.
“Come on sweetheart, we won’t hurt ya.” One of the giants cooed.
Before Annabel even got a chance to stick her head from behind the tree again, one of the giants scooped her up in his hands, and then closed them loosely. Ann screamed as loud as she could, as she felt herself being pulled in closer to the giants until she was back to where she was before when she was sitting with Jake. She started to kick and punch at the walls of warm flesh.
“Calm down, it’s me!” Jake replied, opening his hands so she could see. Ann looked up and glared at him.
“YOU COULD HAVE FRICKIN' TOLD ME BEFORE YOU JUST GRABBED ME LIKE THAT!!!” She yelled, crossing her arms and turning her head away from him.
“You wouldn’t have come out even if I asked you to,” Jake pointed out. “Remember, YOU’RE the one who said you were ready to go through with this.”
Ann opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Jake was right… She huffed once again and looked up at the sky, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. Finally, after a few minutes, an unstoppable laughing fit broke through the silence. Both Ann and Jake turned their heads at the same time and looked at the other two like they were crazy.
“Ah that was rich!” one of the giants said, wiping away a tear from his eye. “I like her! She’s got some spunk, even though she’s a lot smaller than us.” He smiled down at Ann, which made her flinch a little.
“I don’t believe we’ve properly introduced ourselves,” the other spoke up, “my name’s Derek and that there is Thomas,” he said, pointing to the one next to Jake, “and what might your name be, little miss?”
Now all eyes were on Ann as they waited for her to answer. Ann looked back and forth between Jake and the other two. She finally gave in.
“M-m-m-my name’s A-A-Annabel,” she said, hesitantly holding her hand out for a hand shake. “But my friends call me A-Ann.” Ann smiled and looked up at them, glad that she finally lost the stuttering in her voice.
‘This was much easier than I thought,’ she thought as she gave each one a finger-shake. “So um… now what?” She asked. Right when she looked at her watch, a faint growl came from her stomach, making all 3 giants…err…young men, laugh.
“Guess someone’s a bit hungry,” Jake said, poking her stomach. “I think it’d be best if I took you back home. You two stay here, it won’t take very long.”
“Won’t it be a bad idea since a lot of people are out in the city in this kind of weather?” Ann squeaked from his palm.
“Nah, I doubt anyone will really see me,” he replied. “Why, you worried?” He looked down at her and smirked.
“Pfft…yeah right…” Ann scoffed, waving her hand in an I-don’t-care way. Then, she looked down at her palms and twiddled her thumbs. “Okay…maybe I am. Maybe it’d be best if I spent the night where you guys are staying; until morning that is.” She looked up at Derek, Thomas, and Jake. They each exchanged worried and surprised glances, wondering how they should respond. A whole lot of things could happen if she were to stay with them...

[Amayasama]

^0^ Yay! A cuddler! X3 *glomps back* ^3^ I'm lovin' this story, adorable between these two! But don't feel a rush to update ;D That way when you hit a writer's block it's not a week's break between updates x3

[Nicole]

yes, and a strong one at that >:3 feel that glompiness! *glomps* oh, and I was just uploading all the chapters I had on my computer, and to tell you the truth... I've actually hit a small writers' block...^^;

[ycsdramagurl]

Y hallo thar, new person ;D You know, I first started reading this story because it had the name of one of my favorite songs, but I gotta say I'm really enjoying it so far! I can't wait to read more, dear! ^_^

[Nicole]

thanks, and who sung the song "When You're Gone"? I'd like to here it ^///^

[Satal]

Like You're Never Alone is a song. Lol. You move here WITH an update! Wowness! I am loving your characters!

[ycsdramagurl]

No problem! Oh, and Avril Lavigne sings it ;D

[Nicole]

Satal - Glad that you like the characters!

[Neon]

Aww, it's all cutesy mushy-gushy. X3
I kind of lol'd when he asked what she was doing on the balcony ... for some reason it's really funny to me when people "pretend" not to know the answer.
Welcome to the board, dear, I'll definitely keep an eye on your story (stories? muahaha).

[emily13]

Squeeee! Loooove it! Can't wait for more! For some reason I already love Thomas X3 *glomps his thumb*