ONE WEEK CHAPTER FOUR

“Can’t even do a single thing right. How did your parents even put up with you?”, a female’s voice sounds out while hitting a young boy mercilessly with a stick. The boy cries while being hit, and tries to explain, “But I wasn’t the one who threw it away, it was your child”.

“You dare try to blame my child”, the woman responds by hitting the child harder, while the child being spoken of shrieks back with his face filled with guilt.

“Look what you have done now. You have scared my child”, the woman says while looking at the kid as if he was nothing but scum, not minding his pleas to stop the beating.

“Honey, you were the reason why I allowed this kid into the house. Now look at the kind of nuisance he is turning to, and he is even accusing our child wrongly”, she says while looking at a man in the apartment with her.

He was currently watching the tv while the drama was being performed behind him. Being called upon by his wife, he just looks at them, then says, “You can deal with him as you see fit if he can’t comply. I put him here out of pity, if he can’t do as he is told, and even go ahead to destroy things in the house, you can punish him”. After saying those words, he just turns his back on them and continues watching the tv.

The wife just snorts before facing the boy, raises the stick, and increases the frequency to which he hits the boy with the stick while saying, “You heard what he said right? You need to be disciplined. You need to be put in your place. No wonder your brother abandoned you”.

The boy was crying and screaming for help while being hit repeatedly. He remembers the time he had spent with his parents and realizes that he hasn’t been beaten this much since birth. He has always been petted and although scolded, wasn’t to the point he had to endure all this. He also remembers how he had loved it when this relative of his came to visit them. But now, everything has changed in a twinkle of an eye.

Slowly, he slips into unconsciousness not being able to endure the maltreatment anymore. The last thing he heard before fully going unconscious was, “Stupid kid. Feigning unconsciousness won’t stop me from punishing you. When you wake up, it all continues”, which seems to have come from the woman. Then the sound of the door to the house breaking.

Waking up, he realizes that he has been well taken care of, his swollen body from the beating has lessened, and probably ointment has been applied. He tries getting up, only to realize that he was in total pain, he sucks in a huge amount of air while biting his teeth down.

“Hmm”, this was all new to him. The family he has stayed with for six months won’t treat him this well. He has gone through hell and back several times he has been in the house with them. But he was still a child and had nowhere else to go to or anyone else to stay with, so he had to bear through it all with his head bowed down.

“Hmm”, he sounds out once again, he notices that this wasn’t the house he has been in for a while now. ‘Have I been kidnapped?’, that was the first thought that comes to his mind. He was scared silly by that fact. He quickly turns around and looks for a way to escape ignoring his pain.

“Hmm”, he makes the sound a third time. This didn’t seem like a place for hostages, although the house didn’t seem too good, it was nevertheless okay and this was a busy area from the way people walked past the open door.

He slowly gets up with the pain and walks towards the door, he stares outside and now he believes that this wasn’t a situation of him being kidnapped. ‘But who could have taken me in and treated me this way?’, he couldn’t help but think.

This boy has always been quick in his thinking, he was intelligent from birth and that was why his parents and even his elder brother always adored him and took perfect care of him.

This person was with no mistake the younger version of Raphael. The marks from being repeatedly hit were still obvious on his body.

“Huh. What are you doing standing already?”, a male voice comes out behind him. Although it has been six months already, there was no way he couldn’t recognize the voice before turning back. He is shocked as it has been so long since he has heard the voice and he has given up hope about being able to hear the voice again.

He pinches himself slightly to ensure that he wasn’t dreaming, then he slowly turns around with his eyes already filled with tears. The familiar face appears before him, his mouth starts shaking like someone who was shivering from the cold.

“Andy”, he cries and runs to hug him. Andrew who was holding a plate of hot food had no choice but to allow the food to be thrown on the floor while hugging his little brother.

The moment he comes to terms with the fact that this wasn’t a dream, Raphael starts hitting Andrew while saying, “Why did you suddenly leave me and go far away? Didn’t you think about how I would fare after going away for that long?”.

“I am sure you went through a lot. I am sorry”, was all Andrew said in reply. It was all quiet for a long while before Andrew says once again, “I won’t ever leave you again”.

“You promise?”, Raphael says while raising his head. “Of course I do”, Andrew says with a doting expression on his face. And since then, Andrew has never left his brother in the care of anyone. He had him registered in a school, which was better than the one he was in when their parents were alive. Always ensured he was well-fed and didn’t lack anything. There were times Raphael had cried about wanting to go along with him to his workplace during his holidays, but Andrew refused without any room for argument. That was probably the only thing he kept a secret from him. And Raphael has rarely seen Andrew eating. He always left the house early in the morning, picked him up from school, ensured that things were properly in place, then returned to work till deep in the night, most times when Raphael was already asleep.

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Now we return to the search in the house, Andrew is still nowhere to be found and Raphael is still anxiously searching for him.

“I thought you said you were never going to leave me?”, Raphael says albeit in a barely audible tone with tears already streaming down.

After searching for a long while in the house with no result, he picks up his phone and was about to call for a search to be conducted for his brother whether dead or alive, he wanted to at least know what had happened.

It was at this time that a hand drags the phone from his hands. Raphael was annoyed that he was being disturbed at this moment and with that anger was about to hit the person who dared to play such a prank on him. But on turning around to see the face of the individual, he losses all his strength and he sobs even harder.

It was the same person who they have been looking for since he came back from the hotel. He was right before his eyes all healthy with his signature smile on his face.

“Where have you been?”, Raphael screams in annoyance. He has after all been through hell and back when searching for this brother of his.

“I just thought of playing a little trick. I didn’t expect it to get this far. Can you forgive me?”, Andrew says with a smile.

“That didn’t answer my question. Where have you been?”, Raphael asks once more.

“I have been down below. In the basement”, Andrew replies with a smile.

“Huh”, Raphael goes blank first. ‘Why didn’t I think about checking there?’, he thought inwardly.

The basement Andrew was talking about was just below the house. Although Raphael did not understand why Andrew had included it in the house plans, he didn’t question him too much about it. Andrew has always called that place his workplace until now. That was where he held every online meeting about the future of his companies and whether to expand or not. That was also where he took time off to clear his head, but he wasn’t always there, as there were days he never entered the basement.

“Why did you leave such a note then? Did you know what I went through after seeing that letter?”, Raphael asks. “I didn’t expect the meeting to go on this long. I would have cleared the air a long time ago”, Andrew says still smiling.

Raphael just storms off, no longer willing to talk to this brother of his. ‘I would have to apologize to him later’, Andrew says inwardly while watching Raphael walking away.

They both didn’t see eye to eye before he went to the hotel to meet Ella. Seeing Raphael in an awful mood, Ella knits her brow and asks what happened, to which Raphael narrates everything that happened at home while he laid his head on her lap, and his head was massaged.

“I guess he was just teasing you”, Ella says with a smile on his face. “Even you?”, Raphael says while raising his head from her lap. But Ella pulls him back and then continues, “But he went too far with his joke. I know how you must have felt at that time”.

“He has probably apologized to you right?”, Ella asks with her hands all over his hair.

“No, I didn’t give him the chance to. I didn’t even let him see me while I left the house”, Raphael replies, “He made me mad this time around. I won’t talk to him for a long while”, Raphael says while behaving like a baby.

“I wished you had spoken to him though”, Ella says in a low tone, not even audible to Raphael who was close to her as her eyes dims a bit. “Hmm, what did you say?”, Raphael asks as he was not able to even pick up a single word she has said. “Ohh, it’s nothing at all. Just thought about something”, Ella replies with a smile.

“Ohh. We would probably settle tomorrow”, Raphael says without asking what she was probably thinking of. “Well, why don’t you go freshen up while I order something for you? I am sure you haven’t eaten”, Ella says.

“Yeah, order something nice though”, Raphael says while getting up to go take a bath. “I sure will, I haven’t forgotten your favorite meal until now”, Ella replies while standing up to the phone.

There is a time skip to after he has eaten the food and when both he and Ella were getting all cozy on the bed, shaking up things a bit.

“Ugh”, all of sudden, Raphael starts feeling shortness of his breath, he was barely able to breathe like he was being choked at this moment.

“What’s wrong?”, Ella says seeming all worried about the way he just stopped when they were getting to the good part now.

Raphael was not able to talk. He just starts holding his neck, like someone was trying to struggle him to death and he was not able to do anything. Even being close to death doesn’t cause a decrease in his thinking abilities one bit, as he stares at Ella and after a bit of struggle with veins popping on his head and neck he finally asks, “Why?”. To which Ella knowing she has been caught just says, “I am sorry. Hope you can forgive me?”, while caressing his face.

Raphael was not able to say anything as he falls face down on top of the bed, remaining unmoving. Ella’s eyes rims have gotten all wet as she quickly runs to the phone and calls for an emergency.

And that is how we get to the current situation where Raphael has been put in an ambulance and taken directly to the mortuary for his body to be properly cared for, and Andrew was still on the floor crying his eyes out. He didn’t expect this situation at all, while Ella comes behind and tries to console him while also crying bitterly.