CHAPTER 16: Fathers

“What did you do?” asked Andrea.

“He unlocked a traumatic memory. Something I had probably blocked off. I just relived it. Brandon’s dad found us playing with dolls and kicked Brandon until he bled, then threw me against a tree. I never could remember how I had broken my arm as a kid,” Brittney said while getting control of her breathing. She slowly unclenched her hands and pulled them back, allowing Andrea and Alissa to hug her.

“Wow,” said Tom.

“Yeah,” added Nick.

“I don’t understand,” said Emily. “I thought Adam didn’t have a class. How is he doing this?”

“We don’t know,” explained Tom. “We think he has a class but it is kind of broken, or his [System] use is broken. You should see him when he…”

“NO!” snapped Adam as he cut off Tom. “No talking about it in my house.”

Tom’s face paled. “Yes, boss.”

“What? No. That’s not fair,” complained Emily. “What’s going on Adam?”

“Until I know more and the group finishes what we started, I don’t want you to know.”

Emily glared at him, anger clear on her face. “That’s not good enough!”

“Too bad,” was his response.

“You’ve never acted like this to me before, Adam.”

Carlos put his hand on her shoulder. “This is all new to him, and us, too. I think he’s just trying to keep you safe,” he tried to comfort her.

“Hmph,” Emily said as she crossed her arms and turned away from them. “Is this why your tags include numbers? You are all showing 7s or 8s. I’m never seen anyone without a zero.”

“It’s all because of your brother,” said Nick.

“If you’ve figured out how to level then you need to tell me. Maybe tell everybody. That’s too exciting to keep to yourself,” demanded Emily.

“Well,” Tom started hesitantly. “Boss said not to talk about it so we can’t.”

Emily looked around at them. “What, does he control you?”

“Er, no? Um, yes?” muttered Tom, looking scared. “I don’t know how to answer that. Boss, can you tell me what to say?”

“Adam is that scary?” asked Emily. Her anger defused by growing curiosity.

“Yes,” said Nick. Everyone looked at Adam who was glared at them. Then they quickly looked down.

“No need for scary face, boss,” begged Tom.

Emily went to laugh at how everyone was acting towards her harmless brother. When she looked up at his face, she realized she was shaking. Maybe he was scary after all.

Adam turned back to the girls. Brittney was under control now but with puffy eyes and tear-streaked face. She was whispering with the other three. Once attention came back to them, they sat up and Alissa and Abbey took different seats, with Andrea still hugging Brittney.

“Well that was unexpected,” said Andrea.

“It was scary. A sudden awful memory hit me, one I didn’t know was there. I’m not sure if you would be the best therapist or the worst. I’m sure there is no middle ground there,” said Brittney. She thought for a few minutes before slowly saying, “You should try with Brandon but not like that. Just try to reassure him or something.”

“Brandon, come here,” she ordered.

Brandon mumbled petulantly, “No.”

“Brandon, please? Adam can help.”

“I’m fine,” hissed Brandon.

Tom jumped in, “You are obviously not fine. You couldn’t stop crying last night, even cuddling with my sisters.”

“I’ll be fine,” Brandon insisted.

“Get over here!” Brittney said as forcefully as she could.

Grumbling, unwilling to look at them like a child in a tantrum, Brandon sat between Adam and Brittney. He looked up at Adam. Anger, fear, and shame filled him eyes. Even Adam, who had never been very aware of others, could see the self-loathing that filled him.

Releasing a sigh, Adam spoke. “Ok, I’ll try to tell you what I see before I do anything this time.”

Adam went back into himself. Expanding the coolness, reaching out for formless space that should be Brandon, he found it and formed a tendril. The tendril reached into Brandon and explored until he found the sparks.

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Brandon’s memory area was different than Brittney’s. It was a lot more chaotic. Collisions between the memories happened everywhere. Electricity jumped between them instead of staying in its original spark.

He moved around until he found a large memory at the center. It wasn’t encased, like Brittney’s, it was just big and wild. Adam watched as memories would get pulled to it, collide, and then bounce away, with the electricity cracking around them the whole way.

“It looks like there is a big memory causing havoc inside him. Do you want me to look at it?” Adam asked out loud.

“No!” said Brandon.

“How bad does it look?” asked Brittney.

“Really bad. It’s throwing all his other memories all over the place. There is even energy from it that affects the other memories.”

“Don’t touch it!” said Brandon. He tried to hit Adam, but Brittney held his fist.

“Brandon, we need to help you,” said Brittney soothingly.

“You aren’t my mother!” he snapped.

That was the final straw. “That’s right! I’m not your mother, but I have been expected to be for years. To look out for you and protect you because your real mother wouldn’t.”

“Don’t talk about my mom like that,” Brandon shouted.

“Adam, go ahead,” said Brittney, ignoring Brandon.

Unsure if it was the right decision, he reached the tendril and touched the energy.

A hand reached out of the shadow on the wall. A knife cut through him, pain shocking his whole body. It dragged along his skin. Adam watched as the knife easily cut through his skin and muscle revealing his insides. His intestines fell out, punctured in places. Blood and goo came pouring out. It was like a waterfall of disgust that just kept pouring out, and the knife never stopped cutting. No matter how far it cut through his stomach, there was always further to go. The feeling of deathly cold spread through his body.

Adam raised his head and looked at the hand holding the knife. It wasn’t green or with a claw. Instead, it was a white, hairy hand. He followed it up to the head and saw the man from Brittney’s memory; sweaty, unshaven, and drunk. His mouth was soundlessly shouting at Adam while snarling. The image was so shocking that he jumped his consciousness back to his body.

Brandon was now quiet and pale, staring down at his stomach. He looked like he was going to vomit and wasn’t responding to Brittney and Andrea trying to talk to him. When they noticed Adam was moving, they turned their attention to him.

“What did you see? Brandon suddenly stopped moving,” said Brittney.

“I saw the moment when he was stabbed, but his memory is all messed up. The memory is only of when he was stabbed, not before. Plus, the stabbing never ends, the knife just keeps cutting. Finally, it isn’t a goblin that hurt him but his father. Its throwing his other memories out of whack too,” explained Adam.

“What can we do about it?” asked Andrea.

“I’m not sure,” said Adam. “It would take a lot of work to sort everything out and I don’t think an emotion pulse will fix it. I will try something else.”

Taking a deep breath, Adam dove back into his space. Instead of heading to the connection, he searched around until he found his own memories. He touched a few and was quickly able to find his memory of that fight. Unsure how, he willed a clip from when he saw the dagger coming at Brittney until he killed the goblins attacking them. He pulled that clip away from his own memory, making a copy of it and then dragged it through himself, to the connection, and across into Brandon’s space.

Arriving at Brandon’s central memory, Adam took his own memory and held it next to the warped one. Energy crackled between Brandon’s to Adam’s memory, trying to repulse it. Adam’s tendril held it steady until the electricity covered both, and then pulled them into contact as if they were now one memory.

After making sure they wouldn’t separate, Adam pulled back into his own space and sent a pulse of strength and determination across the connection before cutting it. Opening his eyes, he saw Brandon staring at him.

“Is that really what happened?” he asked, confusion on his face. “All my memories just feel like my father keeps stabbing me. Your memory shows me protecting Brittney for once.”

“Your father wasn’t there Brandon. He clearly has hurt you a lot. However, you are stronger now. You don’t need to let yourself be hurt. You’ve always wanted to be a hero, and this time you were. I couldn’t get there in time. All my power and it wasn’t enough. Pure strength isn’t enough to protect. It also takes opportunity. It takes determination. You were the hero that time. You took the opportunity, sacrificed, and saved Brittney. You even survived because your teammates made use of the chance to heal you. It took the whole team, and you were the hero that allowed it to happen.”

Brandon gave a curt nod. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting. I’m sorry for giving up because of it. I’m sorry for, well, for a lot of things unrelated to you guys. Thanks for not giving up on me, Adam. Thanks for always trying to protect me, Brittney. I think, uh, I think I need time to think, but then I’ll be able to move on. I’ll learn to protect myself.” He stood up and went back to his seat.

A buzzing sound drew Adam’s attention, and he looked up to see a drone recording him once more. “Alright, nailed the hero speech,” whispered Ed’s voice.

He turned and saw more seats filled with Ed, face buried in his laptop, Lucas, Elias, and Randall. Lucas had a bruised cheek, and when Adam raised his eyes questioningly, Lucas said, “My old man wasn’t happy I tore my shirt and pants. Said I didn’t respect him, or the good money he spent on me.”

Adam sighed and laid back down with his head in Abbey’s lap, feet on Andrea, and Alissa leaned against him. “I’m tired,” he said then went back to relaxing. Pizzas arrived and everyone ate well, especially him, finishing two pizzas by himself. Lamar had gotten into trouble for taking his dad’s bow, and Joseph just hadn’t shown up. Andrea had answered Adam’s questions about why everyone was there by telling him that she had set it up. It wasn’t her fault he needed to get on the group text chain.

It was a relaxing afternoon, where their comradery grew. They had been brought together just a few days before, but everyone was growing accustomed to each other and learning more about everyone.

All the boys went home after dinner and the girls were allowed to sleep over with Emily in the living room. During the night, when Adam was in bed, he felt his door open and then a body slipped into the covers beside him.

“Can I have the connection back,” asked Abbey meekly.

“How strong?” he asked.

“As strong as you can give,” she responded.

She showed no meekness the rest of the night.

***

While eating pancakes the next morning for breakfast, Adam’s mom kept glaring at him with a disapproving look. He tried to avoid looking at her, sure that he had an embarrassed look on his own face, focusing on eating as many pancakes as he could. The girls kept whispering and giggling, even Emily. Abbey kept blushing when he looked at her.

“We‘ll be having a long talk when you get back, young man,” his mom was stern, as he packed some food in a bag, while his group waited at the front door. He just nodded. There was no escaping it.

“I’ll be back later. Sorry, mom, and love you.”

Before he reached the door his dad intercepted him. Instead of saying anything he handed over five condoms and then just walked away. Adam facepalmed.

All this non-sense was taking away from what really mattered. Today would be the final day. Today he would end it. All the goblins were going to die.