The Lost Bloodline

Chapter 4 : Painful Memory

Bruce woke up to find that Brandon had already left the clinic, he wasn't surprised, when they were in elementary school, if Bruce got bullied, Brandon would stand up for him which usually led to a fight and he usually disappeared after every fight he lost, Bruce always had the job of finding him and cheering him up, it was during one of those days that he met Bruce's parents,

"Good morning ma'am, did you by any chance see my friend? I brought him here yesterday after we got bullied" Bruce asked,

"yes, he asked for directions to the school gym, poor chap probably wants to learn to defend himself not that one can blame him" The nurse replied,

"Okay, thank you ma'am, I will take my leave now" Bruce said as he bade her goodbye,

He walked across the school not minding that they were already late for class, he got to the hallway leading to the gym but went in the opposite direction which led to the cafeteria, he pushed the doors open to find a Cyan green haired teenager sitting on the floor at an isolated corner of the room,

"Did you really think making the nurse think you were going to the gym would misdirect me, come on, I have known you for like ten years" Bruce chuckled but was met with silence,

He sat behind Brandon, and turned him around so they would face each other, his eyes were swollen red from crying,

"Come on bro, you can't keep doing this, you can't keep disappearing after losing a fight, it was five against one, there was no way you could have won" Bruce said calmly,

"You wouldn't understand" Brandon said bluntly,

"How would you know if I would understand? you never tell me why you run away and cry in silent, just talk to me, I might understand more than you think" Bruce said annoyed,

"Okay, if you say so, it happened Eleven years ago, I was five years old then, I was staying at the symphony orphanage at redwood" Brandon said,

"Redwood, that's pretty far, how did you get that far away" Bruce said confused,

"Just let me explain" Brandon said,

__________ELEVEN YEARS AGO____________

The symphony orphanage was a run down orphanage, people barely adopted children form us, we usually even performed songs at town events to raise awareness, I used to play the drums while my best friend, well she was more like a sister to me, Clarissa, Clary for short, she was our lead singer. One day after we finished performing, a man in a really expensive looking suit stopped by the orphanage, he said he was a guest passing through town and that he was impressed by Clary's singing and that he would like to adopt her, we were overjoyed but a little nervous, Clary and I were basically inseparable, she begged the man to adopt me too but he said he could only afford one child and doesn't want to have a rebellious child he said pointing at my hair color, even when she said that was it's natural color, he still insisted he could only adopt one child, I told Clary not to worry, that one of us had to stay behind to help out and she could come visit when they pass by the town, I didn't know I was sending her to her doom,

A few days later, some policemen came by the orphanage with pictures of the man, we then found out he was a wanted child trafficker that had taken children from other run down orphanage across the country and he even used the girls as sex slaves, I felt my world fall apart, I sent her into the lions den, that night, I packed some clothes, my slingshot and ran away to find and rescue her, it was a stupid idea but it was my only idea, I recalled overhearing one of the man's phonecalls while he was at the orphanage when he said he would be stopping by a mansion on the west outskirts of the city, so that's where I went and as fate would have it, I was caught the guards and locked in the basement with some other children including Clary, I hugged her so tight, she now looked pale and frail, I was so heart broken, I promised I would get us out of there, the only two paths of escape were the door which was currently locked and guarded and an open window which was too high is reach and they were too weak to stack on each other,I found out they been fed enough just so they are alive but with barely enough strength to do anything, the girls hadn't been harmed yet, which i was grateful for, they were also given books and crayons, I don't know how they expected us to be able to play in that sort of situation,

Anyways, I got a crayon and a piece of paper, scribbled a detailed message and tied it to a stone with a piece my clothes that I tore, I then pulled it on my slingshot as hard as I could

and shot the stone out the window as far as I could, I prayed that someone would find it and pick it up, I waited for hours, hours turned to days, days turned to weeks and one day, just when I thought all hope was lost, we began to hear scuffles upstairs, the men came in, chained us up and marched us into vans outside, Five of us and three men were put in a van, where we were chained to the sides, the van sped off into the highway, we had driven for a couple if hours, the other kids fell asleep, they were probably stressed out, suddenly we heard police sirens behind us, the man at the passenger seat pulled out a gun and opened fire on the cops behind us to which they also retaliated with gun fire, one if their bullets hit the left front tire causing the driver to lose control of the wheel, the car went off the road towards the edge of the cliff, the three men with us just opened the double back doors and jumped out, one if them accidentally dropped the keys, we took it quickly and unchained ourselves, but we discovered that one of the other kids with us couldn't walk, his legs had gone numb, we decided to throw him out fist and we made sure he landed on a soft parch of grass, then the others followed, it was now Clary and i left to jumped, the shooter in the Passenger's seat had already jumped out, the driver seeing that his comrades had abandoned him, reached out to grab us with one hand, it seems he had decided he would rather die than get arrested bad he was planning on taking us down with him, he got a grip if Clary's wrist, she struggled and I even tried pulling his hand off her but we were too weak and it didn't do much, seeing that it didn't work I resulted to using my teeth, which caused him to loosen his grip a little but it was enough for to break free, we scrambled to the back but before we could even jump off the van swayed abruptly causing us to lose our balance and fall, we turned around to see that the driver had abandoned the steering wheel to come after us, he grabbed a hold of one of each of our legs and pulled us towards him, at this this point our instincts kicked him and we began kicking his face with our free legs, kicked his face but his grip didn't loosen, then I slammed my heel into his left eye causing him to yell in pain and lose his grip on us, we scurried forward to edge about to jump off when he grabbed me by the back of my neck and began squeezing, I yelled at Clary to jump out but she didn't listen, she managed to stand and kicked him right in the nuts causing him to fall on one knee but , he didn't let go of me, at this point, I was already losing consciousness, Clary quickly bit the man's hand and he let go this this time I fell to the ground gasping for air, Clary helped me up to the van doors but her hair was grabbed from behind, I turned around to find the drivers hand around her neck, I looked around and picked up one of the chains they used in us and whipped his right knee, it obviously hurt him more than I expected because he immediately fell to the ground, yelling and cursing us, I grabbed Clary's hand so lead her out, at this point the van was just a few meters from going over the cliff, but before we could make it out, the driver reached out to grab us, no, he reached out grab to me but, Clary saw it on time and pushed me out of the way but she wasn't so lucky, he caught her legs and pulled her down, I ran over to him and shoved my hand in his already injured eye, he yelled like a maniac, but the momentary attack was enough for Clary to get out if his clutches again, we ran to jump but yet again, that devil of a man somehow got up and grabbed Clary by the waist and pulled he into a tight forceful embrace.

The van was already at the cliff's edge but, I couldn't find the strength to leave Clary behind, so I turned towards them but before I could to anything, I found Clary's feet on my chest, I knew what she was about to do and I hated it, If only I had done the same thing when she came to help me, she would still be alive today, I looked in her eyes and saw no ounce of fear or worry, she put up a bold face a with a smile, she mouthed I love you brother and then with all the strength she could muster in her legs she kicked me out of the van and onto the rocky cliff's edge the moment it went over, the last glimpse of her face I caught was if her smiling, her eyes closed with tears flowing out if them, I knew she didn't want to die but she sacrificed herself to save me. I landed hard in my back and passed out, the police found me and the other kids, I was too broken to say anything even after being properly treated for my wounds, I vowed that I would do everything in my power never to let anyone I cared about die or het hurt instead of me ever again, they managed to get that I was an orphan and since the incident happened on the borders of Eleanor, I was brought to the orphanage close to your place and a year later, I met you"

----------------PRESENT DAY-------------------

The moment Brandon finished his story, Bruce burst into the tears, to know that his best friend, his brother had a near death experience at such a young age and also had to go through the trauma of losing someone he cared about at the same time for all this years was simply too much for him, he pulled Brandon into a tight hug and said "thank you for telling me this, but I want you to know that from now on we are two peas in a pod, what happens to one affects the other, you don't have to act strong when something is wrong at least not around me",

"And I understand, you were never sad because you lost those fights, you were sad because you felt you didn't protect me, you felt you let me down but, you didn't, if you didn't always hold those bullies back, I would never have been able to escape to call the teachers and if you hadn't done that energy blast thing we might not have even survived the encounter without permanent injuries" Bruce sobbed, but what he didn't know what that Brandon had no idea what he did but, he didn't bring it up at the time, he just sobbed in Bruce's embrace.

They sat in each other's embrace untill they suddenly heard footsteps approaching them from behind, alarmed it might be those bullies again, Brandon shoved Bruce behind him and took a fighting stance but soon relaxed seeing it was just their home room teacher Miss Silver, she had a worried expression on her face,

"You two are in so much trouble for missing homeroom" Miss Silver said furiously,

"It was my fault ma'am, I made Bruce stay with me in the cafeteria after breakfast, I was feeling too sick to go to classes today" Brandon immediately lied and got a smack at the back of the head from Bruce,

"ouch, what was that for?" Brandon asked annoyed,

"She knows about yesterday's incident" Bruce replied with folded arms,

"Oh, I apologize for trying to deceive you ma'am" Brandon hurriedly apologized,

"It's alright, anyways the boys actually reported themselves to the principal after homeroom this morning, they thought they had killed you and that your final attack was some sort of last result martial technique" Miss Silver said before bursting into a round of laughter,

"Oh so what do we do now?" Bruce asked,

"Well, take this clearance card head to the dorms, the guards there will let you pass once you show them, get cleaned up and get to class, you both look like you came straight out of a zombie movie" Miss Silver said handing them silver plated card,

"Okay ma'am, we will see you during lunch" They said as they made to leave,

"Oh and about lunch, don't bother bringing any food" Miss Silver said before walking past them,

"No food" Brandon groaned,

They left for the dorms and freshened up, change their clothes and went to their next class, which was weapons class, they stood at the door about to go in when, Brandon suddenly halted,

"Don't worry, I doubt anyone will trouble you for now" Bruce encouraged,

"It's not that, can we keep the energy blast thing you guys mentioned between us, because I don't even know how I did it and and am sure the other students will be curious about it, not to mention the fact that the 2nd and third year students will probably be back soon and am sure they will take interest If they hear about it" Brandon pleaded,

"Trust me bro, other than Miss Silver and I, the only people who know about it are-" Bruce trialed off,

"The boys that ran away, they must have already told half the class, looks like peace and quiet will be hard to come by now" Brandon sighed,

"Don't worry, we will get through this" Bruce said as he pat Brandon's shoulder to which he smiled.

They pushed the doors open and went into the class, ready to face whatever comes their way, or so they thought.