BLOOD BROTHERS.

CHAPTER: 1.

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Slowly walking on the pavement with both hands tucked neatly into his side pants pocket, he heaved a long dragged out sigh blowing out steam from his open mouth, his eyes searched his surroundings but all that was in sight were blades of grass and empty benches waiting to be sat on, only he was the only one walking around that late at night, with heart heavy and eyes wet with unshed tears. Having walked enough he decided to lie on the grass and once he's done that he found out he was alone in the thick blanket of darkness called night.

He soon shut his eyes and tried to breathe as much as he could.

******

Sincity, his city, he was born and raised here just like every other citizen of this cursed land, he knew the place was cursed from the day he saw them throw his mother into the Pits Of Outcast. Why punish her even when they knew her husband had abandoned her with two children, the city is indeed rich and there is not a single poor person in the city so even though her husband left her, she had money coming in to care for herself and her children, they had more than enough but she was a woman after all and she needed the touch of a man and since her husband had left her, she sorts her solace in the arms of another man. But, that didn't last long as she got told on. That is what everyone ever did in this city, poke their dirty noses into other people's lives and then run to the D.A to report and get rewarded for doing so. Her own neighbor told on her, she was a friend of the family, both they and their mother trusted her but she betrayed their mother.

Everyone blamed her for having an affair with another man and they sent her to her death simply because she had found happiness in the arms of a man who supported and loved her and her children. Two weeks after her death, their wicked father surfaced like blight and claimed his two sons as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't abandoned them the last two and a half years, both boys couldn't have been left alone at the time and so they had stayed with their father, who according to the law was entitled to marry someone else.

Their stepmother came into the house like the devil, her facial expressions convinced the six and four-year-olds that she was truly the devil in disguise and just as they had imagined it, she took the form and tormented the life out of them.

They lived in fear, they trusted no one both each other and clung to each other for support, strength, and love.

Their father wouldn't believe the little boy when he had told him in tears how much they suffer at the hands of the woman whom they called mother instead, he had taken the evil witch's side and had punished both boys until they swore never to utter such words about the woman.

They kept to their promises, they didn't complain to anyone anymore, Sincity was one if not the richest city amongst many, and yet the evil woman had starved and beaten them so much that the eight years old was forced to go into the streets in order to find food and money to take care of his little weak brother.

"Your mother was a sinner and she deserved the death that she got and I will make sure you and your brother are met with the same fate as your sinful mother."

Her words are a lingering reminder of the torturous childhood they both had.

She was peeved when she learned the eight years old had taken upon himself the responsibilities of a father and a mother for the sake of his brother and much worse, he was brave enough to go out into the streets doing only God knows what to be able to tend to his needs as well as his brother's and soon she colluded with her husband, their father, and they had the older son signed off as a Dark Agent. The ten years old at the time were taken away from his beloved brother, he was going to be left all alone in that house without anyone to care for him.

To protect him.

To look after him.

The ten years old was going to die that day, he didn't think he would ever live without his baby brother but they forcefully separated them and there was nothing either of them could have done.

Eleven years later, he returned home for the first time, his brother held him to blame for leaving him all those years, he yelled at him, cursed at him, and uttered the painful word.

"I. Hate. You."

"I hate you for not taking me with you."

"I hate you for going with them."

"I hate you for leaving me with these people and I hate you for everything they did to me."

A strangled cry escaped the young man as his brain visited memory lane once again.

He hated himself for leaving but what could he have possibly done considering the circumstances that bond them at the time.

He couldn't have taken the boy even if he wanted to and God knows he did want to take him. He also tried to visit him but they wouldn't permit him to leave until after his eleventh year in service as was the deal with the contract his father and stepmother signed and when it was time to come home, he did it with eagerness and with intense happiness which filled his heart and soul just at the thought of going to see his brother after so many years. He didn't know what to expect since the boy in question would have grown into a fine man but the older boy knew that in all of Sincity, there is only one born with white hair, and with that, he would recognize him no matter what. But, when the nineteen-year-old saw him, he didn't even give him a simple hug rather, he had cursed at his older brother for abandoning him just as their father did their mother.

"Even father left mother for two years and six months but you, you left me for eleven years. I thought you had died and it would have been better if you were dead."

********

A soft whimper escaped him once again causing him to crawl into a ball and tears flowed freely from his eyes.

Now all this was a year ago but it still hurts seeing that his brother has not yet forgiven him and tonight he had just returned from having gone to plead with the now twenty years old and once again, he had shut the door behind him and had left him all alone in the dark.

Silence prevailed as the man cried alone.

Even at the age of ten, he had agreed to sign a contract stating that all the money he gets paid as the Dark Agent be given to his baby brother, and whether the boy got it or not, he had absolutely no idea, and since he hasn't forgiven him for them to have such conversation he was left in the dark but he hoped the boy got all the money he worked eleven years for.

This worried him a lot since the boy still lived with their aged parents whereas the two daughters born by their stepmother had both been married with kids.

Why then does he still live with them?

Why wouldn't he leave that cursed place?

"I hate you for everything they did to me?"

What have they done to him?

No, he can't stay and let him suffer alone in silence, not anymore, not now that he was old enough and had enough money to protect them both since it was obvious they can't leave Sincity.

At the first anxious increase of his heartbeat, he sat up on the grass and furiously wiped his eyes clean.

"Lover?" He heard someone call and his head spun around to find his baby brother a few feet away from him.

He wore an all-white outfit but even in the clothing he wore he could still tell how lean he looked, his face pale, eyes red and puffed indicating he has been crying.

"I knew I would find you here." The newly arrived whispered as he stood there staring at his big brother. This was their favorite place to go to when their mother was alive, they only stopped coming after she died and the witch wouldn't let them out of her sight.

The older boy quickly shot up on his feet and ran to hug the tender boy in his embrace, they both fell into the grass, and yet he gripped onto him tightly and wouldn't let go and it doesn't matter whether he held him too tightly that it hurt or not, they both were happy that they were finally in each other's arms.

At that very moment, the world could burn and they wouldn't care.

"Thank you." He whispered after they've cried for a long period.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said those words!" The boy started but he wouldn't let him speak any further.

"Shh..." he whispered while giving his white hair a gentle caress. "You don't have to say anything, you have every right to be upset with me, I shouldn't have left you with them, I'm sorry." He cried.

"They sold my body to men for money, they forced me to do it and when I refused, they beat me to the point of death and denied me food for days until I gave in to their request." The younger man cried as shame filled his face so much that he wouldn't look his brother in the eyes.

"I signed for all my money to be given to you. Did you get them?"

"No." The younger boy replied with tears in his eyes. "I didn't know you did that for me." He felt ashamed for having not forgiven his brother although he had his reasons for doing so.

Anger flared in the older's eyes and he was filled with an unquenchable thirst for revenge on those that had dared hurt his beloved little brother. They said no Sin in Sincity and yet the evilest of sins are committed every single day, while they filled their hearts with fear as they wrongfully punish the innocent, whereas the most wicked run free and are respected and seen as the most righteous.

If his years in the Academy and of course the many he served as Dark Agent of which he still belongs had taught him anything it is the bitter truth of what is hidden behind the laws that govern Sincity. But, they swore an oath of secrecy, to never let what happens amongst Dark Agents out in public, the penalty for any who defies the oath dies.

"How could they do such a thing to you?" He yelled out his frustration.

"It was as if they were waiting until you left the house."

"I shouldn't have gone with them that night."

"There was nothing we could have done, we were so little, you were my protector and then you left and I was thrown into the mouth of the beast."

"I'm sorry."

"Fear made me send you away, again and again, I was ashamed of what you would think of me if you learned the things they made me do if you discovered how filthy I am."

"You are none of those things, you're my innocent little brother, whom I would kill the entire world for if I could. I feel ashamed that I couldn't protect you from them."

"I am strong, I withstood all and here I am today."

"I won't let them get away with this."

"I-I" the younger boy stuttered in fear.

His older brother gripped his hands tightly when he saw him tremble uncontrollably.

"It's ok, it's alright, I'm right here, I promise, I will never leave you again." He cooed and hugged him.

"I killed them both." He whispered, his voice so low that he wouldn't have heard him if they weren't so close already.

"Oh, Snow." He called out quietly as he gently pushed him away so he could see his face. "You should have let me do it myself."

"They threatened that the day I left with you would be the day they give my videos, the ones they made while those men molested me, they said they would give them to the D.A and have me killed, that is why I couldn't go with you, why I said all those things to you so you wouldn't come back, but you kept coming back and I just knew that you love me still maybe not love me for who I have become but you love me for being your little brother and for that, I had to do something, I had to get out of there, I needed a sign, and when you showed up again tonight, I just knew I had it." Snow cried as he tried to justify his actions.

"You did what you had to do. I would have done the same." The older boy kissed his forehead and smiled into his hazel eyes.

"Y-You do not hate me?" He asked.

"Far from that, I could never hate my own flesh and blood."

"I love you." Snow cried and fell into his arms once again.

"I love you." The older boy replied. "What about the videos?" He asked seriously.

"Burnt them, all of them." Snow stood up and pulled his brother along. "Let me show you." Quietly he led his brother to the small bridge that leads to their house and when the older looked a bit farther, he saw firefighters and their trucks parked as they tried to put out the fire that furiously consumed their once used to be home. "I burnt them all, Lover." Snow smiled. Both parents were in the burning house along with all the dirty secrets. "Now, we are free." He whispered as his brother hugged his waist and nestled his head on his shoulder.

Together they both enjoyed the view as it played out before them.

Nothing would be saved from that house.