Do they know that their dad is dead? Could it be their mom is dead as well? Wait no, she had red hair, and they were capturing women with red hair, right?
“Brandon, when you came to this world, did the soldiers also capture women with red hair as well?” I ask practically ruining Athena’s celebration
Brandon looks at me, “So you noticed that too, huh,” he says. “Well, I don’t know much about it, but I do know they are capturing red-haired women for some reason or another,” he says
“Any idea why?” I ask “
No not really, but why do you ask?”
“Well, our friend’s mom has red hair, so she could have been captured. Do you know if they’re okay?” I ask
“Sorry, I don’t” Brandon shakes his head.
Damn, that's rough, but at least now we know that she probably wasn’t killed by the soldiers.
“Wait, can we go to Birin; You have connections to the vampires right!?” Athena interjects. Wait, that's a good point, we can meet up with Catie and Liam at Birin.
Brandon rubs his chin at the suggestion and frowns “I can’t in good conscience send you to Birin” Brandon says shattering Athena and my hopes
“Why not!? We know where they are!” Athena says understandably upset
“Gael seems to know a bit about the novel we’re in, has he told you anything about vampires?” Brandon asks
“He said that vampires don’t have morals- yeah okay I see where you’re coming from” Athena quickly changes her tune, to which Brandon nods with an awkward smile.
“Yeahhhhh, we stay out of each other’s business, but it’s not like they haven't asked- to well, experiment on a few villagers,” Brandon says, “and myself” he mumbles under his breath with exasperated eyes.
Damn, those vampires really are unhinged.
But that just means we can't let Catie and Liam stay there for too long.
“Can't you come with us then?” Athena pleads. Brandon rubs his chin “I don’t know about that, I’m sort of seen as the leader of our village, even though I don’t really see myself that way. But because of it, I can’t just leave.” Brandon says, “Hmmm, you can go if you can convince Andre to convince him to go with you” Brandon decides causing me to cringe
I get that we really need to get Catie and Liam out of there before they get turned into lab rats... But, why- WHY OUT OF ALL PEOPLE DO WE NEED HIS BLESSING!? I groan
“Don’t make that face Andre is not that bad of a guy, he’s just… misunderstood,” Brandon says
I narrow my eyes at the man when Athena smacks me over the head causing me to hold my head in pain. “OW! WHAT THE HELL!” I yelp in pain.
“Stop being so judgmental you’ve had like two conversations with the man,” Athena says
"Sometimes two conversations are enough” I pout
“I’ll smack you again” Athena threatens.
“Stop I've already faced a lifetime supply of head injuries” I back away waving my sporadically in an attempt to keep Athena away.
“Sometimes one is not enough,” Athena says, as she throws a slap at my head, but I grab her hands bringing us into a contest of strength; one of which I had literally no chance of winning.
As I struggle to survive against the ravenous beast known as Athena I hear Brandon laughing from the sidelines. He was laughing at my struggle; the bastard I grit my teeth. he notices indignation at his lighthearted take on my battle. “Oh sorry it’s just having siblings must be nice huh,” he says clearly unaware of the struggle for my life occurring before his very eyes.
“Nah,” we both say simultaneously with different intensities; Athena’s sounded relaxed and calm, while I sounded as if I was trying to lift a car.
This contrast seemed to be humorous to Brandon because it made him laugh even harder to the point where the bastard slapped his knee.
Athena started putting slightly more pressure on my hands bringing me to one knee and making me groan in pain. The salt in my wound was still Brandon laughing at my struggle. This man is laughing at the domestic violence occurring right before his very eyes I indignantly state within my own mind.
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Athena seemed to get bored of these shenanigans because she put one last burst of strength into pushing my hands back causing me to yelp in pain “Mercy! mercy! mercy!” I concede trying to shake the pain off my hands after Athena lets go.
“So, you done?” she looks at me to detect any sass
“Yes ma’am” I try not to agitate the silverback.
“Good” Athena spits and looks back to the scene before her
“Oh… yeah, we still need to find Mom and Dad,” Athena says remembering where we are.
So she remembered huh, it’s good that we were able to get her mind off of it for a while though. She really needed it.
Brandon seemed to stop laughing when he noticed Athena got back to realizing she was in the heart of a massacre.
Athena looks back at us with her stoic expressionless eyes back on her making me frown.
“So, we know that Liam and Catie are safe, and Mr. Hart is dead, and Mrs. Hart is captured, so our main priority right now is to find our parents! We’ll leave if we can find them, or before it gets too dark!” She speaks as if she's a military commander.
“We’ll continue looking now, so get up!” She orders me to my feet, and I oblige
“Alright let's go. you search there; I’ll search there. We’ll meet in the middle.” She points at opposing sides of the massacre.
“Yes ma’am” I salute
“Brandon, can I ask you to take a lookout in case anything attacks us or if Ruthel comes by again?” she asks Brandon with more respect than me
“Of course” Brandon agrees politely
We went to our assigned tasks, but even after looking and double-looking through the battlefield after what felt like a dozen or so times, we had yet to find any sign of our parents. Neither of us could tell if this was a blessing or a curse; it had already gotten rather dark the only thing illuminating our surroundings was the three moons in the sky.
“Athena let's just go back to the village, we haven’t found anything in hours my feet are killing me” I whine “Let's just look one more time,” Athena says “Athena it’s practically nighttime now; the sun is going down. I can’t see as well as you can in the dark” I plead “Oh yeah… you can’t” Athena says slowly.
Did she forget she's superhuman?
“So can we go back to the village?” I ask “Let’s… let’s just look one more time, maybe we didn’t look thoroughly enough,” she says “Athena please I can practically make a list of everyone who has died here already,” I complain “yeah… so can I,” she says “but… we have to find them” Athena was wobbling “Athena? Are you okay?” I ask “Yeah, I'll be f-” Athena falls to the floor amongst the other corpses. The scene had brought chills that swept through my entire body.
Huh?
"Athena?" I cautiously speak
But there was no response. Athena remained lifeless amongst the dead as if it were natural.
That thought scared me.
“ATHENA!” I screamed running to her. Brandon seemingly teleported to her when he heard me scream “IS SHE OKAY!?” I interrogate the man
“Yeah, she’s just sleeping; it’s just exhaustion” he confirms
“EXHAUSTION! WHAT DO YOU MEAN EXHAUSTION!?” I ask bewildered about how exhaustion could cause Athena to pass out so easily.
“She hasn’t slept in a while” he explains calmly almost apathetic.
“YOU REALIZE SHE’S PRACTICALLY SUPERHUMAN WHERE I’M FROM A BAD NIGHT’S SLEEP WOULDN’T CAUSE HER TO FAINT!” I yell at the man
“Do you know when she last went to sleep?” he asks
“YEAH; LAST NIGHT!” I answer angrily.
“Did you see her sleep?” he asks
“YE-” I pause
Wait no I didn’t. When was the last time I saw her sleep? Did she not sleep last night? She put down a sheet on the floor yesterday did she not?
“She put a blanket on the floor beside my bed yesterday; she probably slept then,” I say cautiously to which Brandon shakes his head
“I can tell you she didn’t sleep yesterday. She was sitting next to your bed watching the door presumably in case I decided to kill you” Brandon says leaving me dumbfounded. “Then the day before!” I answer, but Brandon only shakes his head.
“She was too anxious when you were lost in the forest,” he says causing me to sweat.
“Please, don’t tell me she-” Brandon continues “Yeah, as you can guess, she was also keeping watch when you were sleeping in the cave, or so I was told.” Brandon says shaking his head
So if you consider the day before we were teleported Athena had been awake for four days straight.
I fall on my ass.
Am I that worthless? Am I that much of a burden on Athena? Am I so unreliable that Athena would have to watch over me for days at a time without sleep? What have I ever done for Athena other than being a bitch and a burden?
It would been so much easier for Athena if I had just died in the massacre
My eyes start to flood.
OH, DON'T YOU DARE! DON’T YOU DARE CRY- DON’T CRY YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT, YOU DON’T DESERVE THAT LUXURY; ALL YOU CAN DO IS CRY!
I start sniffling.
YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF GARBAGE LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE LOOK AT WHO YOU’VE HURT, YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A DISGRACE!
My lips start to quiver.
YOU’RE JUST A FUCKING PARASITE THAT CAN ONLY LIVE OFF THE EFFORTS OF YOU’RE LOVED ONES!
I try my hardest to stop myself from crying, but I inevitably fall into a sob.
I wish I was dead.
Pathetic, utterly pathetic; you hurt the most important person in your life and YOU have the nerve to cry about it?
You’re Irredeemable.
After that, for the past 5 minutes, all I could do was sob in my own worthless self-pity. Brandon didn’t even try to console me, he just stood there in silence. While it may have seemed cruel, I appreciated the gesture; if someone had consoled me after all that I had done I might’ve actually lost it.