BROTHERS TOGETHER: US AGAINST DOOM

Two Friends Struck By Lightning

It was a dark and stormy night and lightning flashed overhead in the night sky, sending loud peals of thunder rumbling across the firmament.

Heavy rain fell incessantly, and powerful gales gusted throughout the desolate wilderness.

The weather was extremely terrible...

In such a horrific storm, two shadows flitted through the night, with one running ahead and another chasing from behind. The powerful wind blew against the shadow's bodies, causing their journey to be difficult and strained, and the heavy rain hit like rocks on a pavement that pelted the two shadows.

There was a flash of lightning, and the dark night brightened for a brief moment. At this moment, the figures of the two shadows came into full view and their faces could be seen clearly.

As it turns out, the two shadows belonged to two young teenage boys no older than sixteen. They were very handsome looking, but against the beating of the rain, their faces were scrunched up in tight frowns, giving them an ugly mask of pain.

The two of them strained themselves in the heavy rain as they ran forward, but neither of them sought shelter from the rain. Currently, the boys were on a beach, and due to the heavy rain; the tide was coming in powerfully, hoping to sweep both of them into the depths of the ocean.

While running, the boy at the back called out frantically at the top of his lungs despite the heavy rain. He called out to the boy in front of him who he was chasing, but his calls were drowned out occasionally by the rumbles of thunder and the sound of the ocean hitting the shore.

Still, every now and then, the young teen's voice could travel the distance of space between himself and the one in front to reach his ears.

The young teen shouted in a loud voice to his friend, saying, "Come on Baron, please let us go back. The storm is too strong and we shouldn't be out here in case something terrible happens."

At this moment, the words of the teen at the back reached his friend, Baron, who was in front.

Baron turned to look behind him at his pursuer and shouted back to him, "You go back and tell my asshole father that I am never coming back, Constantine!"

"Tell him he can go rot in hell!"

Baron cursed vehemently at the top of his lungs before turning back once more to push ahead of the storm.

Constantine hesitated for a moment. He was cursing at the madness of the current situation. He who has always tried to stay away from trouble was both anxious and angry at his friend for putting him in this situation.

This storm had come so suddenly that nobody had expected it until it hit. At that time, Constantine had left his home in downtown Boston to come to one of the islands away from the coast to look for his friend at the request of his father.

The boy in front of him, Baron, had been his long-time friend. They had been together ever since they had been born.

Constantine's father worked for Baron's Father, and he was his assistant. As the assistant of one of the wealthiest men in Boston for tens of years, it was natural that the two families would be very close together. Baron, who was only a few months older than Constantine, had taken him as his little brother and they had been best of friends ever since.

But lately, things had started to change for the two of them and it had started ever since the kidnapping five years ago. Ever since that fateful day, Baron had changed, and he started to become estranged from everybody else.

The once beautiful friendship had now become so strained that the two boys were almost like strangers who did not know anybody.

Tonight, Baron had gone off with his father's boat to hang out on one of the islands off the coast of Boston to hang out with some of his new friends who were shady and unsavory, leaving Constantine to cover for him.

Unfortunately, Constantine had not been able to prevent Baron's father from discovering this. In the end, his father had immediately frozen Baron's accounts while sending Constantine to pick him up.

This was not the first time something like this had happened. Constantine initially thought that things would end like they always did in the past. With Baron cursing his father and also blaming Constantine for not keeping his secret, which would lead to their friendship become even more strained than before.

But for some reason, this time, Baron was adamant in refusing to return to his father's home, saying he would never return. He had run away from the party where Baron and his so-called friends did drugs and drank themselves to a stupor. Constantine followed in order to make sure that nothing happened to him and convince him to return. That was when the storm struck, leading to their current situation.

Seeing Baron getting further and further away from him, Constantine hesitated on whether to follow him or not. The storm was showing no signs of receding and it even became stronger as time passed. Constantine was afraid that something bad would happen if he continued staying out in the storm, so he wanted to turn back. As for Baron, it was clear that he was not in the right state of mind to listen to him so Constantine felt it would be better to wait until he had calmed down and the storm had stopped before looking for him once again and convincing him to return.

Still, although Constantine thought of this, he could not bring himself to leave baron alone in the storm.

Looking at Baron's figure disappearing into the storm, Constantine feared that if he left him now, he might never see him again.

This feeling suddenly assaulted Constantine, making his heart beat frantically in panic. Before he knew it, Constantine found himself rushing forward once more after Baron. It was as if his legs had a mind of their own and they pushed themselves to catch up with Baron.

Looking up, the sky constantly flashed with bolts of lightning bearing two distinct colors which were followed by thunder. It was as if two angry gods were fighting in the sky above.

Watching the flashes of lightning that struck in the sky, Constantine felt himself surge with emotion and his anger towards baron which he had repressed for a long time suddenly burst out and he felt a power surge in his body filling him with strength.

With newfound strength, Constantine made a beeline for Baron pushing against the wind and reaching him shortly after, and he tackled him to the ground.

Baron and Constantine tumbled onto the soft wet sand of the beach. Both of them fought in the sand and Baron tried to untangle himself from Constantine. but he wouldn't let go no matter what.

The two of them punched and screamed at each other in anger until finally, Constantine pinned baron below him, preventing him from moving.

After a minute of baron frantically struggling to free himself from Constantine's hold, he finally calmed down a little. Breathing heavily, Constantine looked down at Baron that had given up struggling.

Feeling a well of emotions breaking loose from inside his chest, Constantine started shouting at baron as he demanded.

"Why? Why? Why are you doing this?"

"What do you hope to achieve by rebelling like this? Don't you know how many people you are hurting by doing this... how many people you pushed away? Do you think doing this is going to make up for what happened to you five years ago? Do you think hurting yourself is going to hurt your father?"

"It wasn't any of uncle's fault what happened to you back then. I know how much you suffered. I was there, remember? Both of us went through those dark times together so I can understand if you want to blame somebody and you want to vent. but this is not the way to do it!"

"Stop this Baron, I am your friend. The two of us have been together for a long time and I can't see my life without you in it, so don't push me away. Don't push us all away. We are all here for you, me, your mother, Ezra, and Fan... all of us are here for you so come back to us... please!"

Constantine shouted his feelings to Baron and vented all the pent-up frustrations he had with him.

Baron, who was on the ground facing the sky, simply laid down on the ground and faced the sky, letting the rain fall heavily on his face.

There was a lifeless but painful look in his eyes as he remembered the incident five years ago that had traumatized him for the rest of his life.

After Constantine was done venting his feelings, Baron looked at him with the same lifeless eyes and said to him, "You will never understand... even if you were there with me, you will never know how I felt at that time... none of you will!"

"It doesn't matter what you say to me. That old man was the cause of everything and I will make him pay. Go ahead and take me back to him. I don't care. But if you do, I will hate you as much as I hate the old man. So go on, I will not resist."

After speaking, Baron fell silent, and he continued looking up at the sky that was bathed in the resplendent flashes of lightning.

Looking at Baron's lifeless eyes, Constantine felt pained. He knew that baron spoke the truth and that if he really took him back to his home, he would really hate him as much as he hated his father.

Still, despite how pained he was, Constantine decided to do the right thing and bring him back to his family. Even if it meant he would lose his best friend, Constantine had already resolved himself to bear all that hate. As long as he could help his friend, Constantine would do anything.

But just as Constantine picked Baron up and was about to take him back to his family, the heavens suddenly opened up and two distinct streaks of lightning... one blue and the other black... shot down from above and landed on the two boys striking them.