Forget Part 4 (A Friendly Foe)

What happens after the shocking revelation? Will Alex come clean? Or will he continue his lying game?

     Alex fell to his knees as he said the words. All of his emotions rushed back to him at once. He had been trying so hard to not think of his brother as it was the only way he could have pretended not to know him, not to mourn his passing. For the past two years he had been pretending to not know his brother and the weekly phone call was never enough. But pretending to not know each other was just one among the many lies that they orchestrated for the sake of their safety.

     A small teardrop glided down his left cheek like a ship sinking to the sand. He quickly wiped it away and cursed his eyes to dry. Fighting tears was the only thing he was ever good at. She considerately gave him a moment of silence while also embracing the silence to make sense of the situation, but it wasn’t long before her logic escaped its impotent chains and she started spitting questions out like poison.
“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t believe you. William never told me he had a brother.” she babbled.

“We couldn’t let anyone know. We had our reasons.” he replied.

“He trusted me enough!” she yelled.

“Please, you don’t even know his real name.” he wished he hadn’t said those words from the moment that they were spoken. A rhythm of fear gyrated around his heart as he came to the realization that his brother obviously didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth, or else she would have already known. He probably had a reason for not trusting her. It was time for yet another lie.

     She was looking at him with eyes wide open, waiting for him to continue. “William was his middle name. His first name is Josh.” he thought of that lie quickly although his heart was palpitating. William’s real name wasn’t actually Josh, but Chris.

“I knew that.” she lied to hide the shame of ignorance but was caught red-handed. “So why can’t anyone know that the two of you are related?” she asked.

“We ran away from home. It was too much. We couldn’t take it anymore. We were abused. Things just got from bad to worst and we left. We were really young.” he said.

“What kind of abuse?” she asked.

“Physical! Sexual! Verbal! Pick one.” he snapped, obviously in inner agony. “Anyway, we got bounced around a lot, in all kinds of crappy situations until the yellow brick road finally led us here.” he lied again. But they weren’t complete lies. Yes, they were abused but that wasn’t the entire reason why they fled.

“But why pretend not to know each other? You guys should have stuck together and be each other’s rocks.”

 “To be completely honest, I say that we kept apart for our own safety, but really we just drifted apart. He was the only other person who knew what we went through. And I wished that no one knew at all. I guess it was just easier to be alone.” he said. And like before, he wasn’t completely lying. He was good at lying because he believed that the best lies had a fraction of the truth in them that made them easier to sell.

“What about the man who killed William and attacked you? Where does he fit into all of this?” she asked.

“Like I said, we got bounced around a lot, and we made a lot of enemies.” he said.

“So what’s your real name?” she asked.

“John.” Another lie, his real name was actually Kristan.

     He realized that he had to stay a little longer. Just long enough to be sure that she bought his story.

     He avoided her most of the time but spoke with regular enough so that she wouldn’t have thought that he was avoiding her. It was so easy to pretend that everything was fine.

     As the days went by his trust for her became effervescent, weathering away into concentrated waters of paranoia. He thought of his brother every second of the day and dearly wished he hadn’t pushed him away. Regret and remorse were ingredients to such a bitter pill, too big to swallow. He could hear Chris’ words of wisdom in his head, telling him to leave. But another reason for him staying was that he could feel his brother’s presence around him and was afraid he would have left that behind.

     One day he was awoken by a knock on the door. He was so tired that he forgot to take a quick peek before opening it as he usually did. As the light of the sailing sun caressed his face, pouring white glare into his eyes, he was hit over the head with a solid baseball bat. Still in the twilight of wake and unconsciousness, he could feel himself being dragged across the wooden floor. Then he was slowly, but surely, dragged to the solitary land of dreams. But not before he saw the face of his cowardly attacker. Aurora.

 

 

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Ilerah]

Love it as much as the first 3 as the story gets further along, really love the plot, and the characters.

[Kristan A. Mohammed]

Thhanks a lot. I actually wanted to ask if there's anything or any element you would like to see in the next one. Just so that I can make the story better for the readers. Anything you think I should or shouldn't do.

[Ilerah]

I dont know really, it had a good mysterious feel to it, you should continue with that. Just continue to build the character, so that we, the readers, will find out who he truly is.

[Jennie Baron]

You're creating a fascinating web of lies and deceit here, and your writing style truly brings out the emotions. I don't have any particular criticism. Great work; can't wait to see what comes next.

[Kristan A. Mohammed]

Thank you so much. If there's anything in particular that you'd like to see in the next one you can tell me and I'll make it happen.

[Jennie Baron]

Nothing especially comes to mind at the moment. Plus, I like surprises.