Chapter 18

"Who's Kayden?" Ryn asked me again placing the plate of food on my desk.

I remained silent as I stood up from the floor. He came over to me placing his hands on my shoulder and repeated his question.

"Who is Kayden, Wick? You need to answer me," I stared at him, his eyes searching mine, he wanted an answer but I couldn't give it to him. I can't reveal the secret that I've kept for three years.

"Please tell me that it's not what I think it is, that something happened causing this Kayden who is stopping you from getting involved," he pleaded his gaze still locked on mine, I ducked my head trying to avoid his gaze.

"This happened three years ago?" He asked me quietly, I nodded at his question.

"I'm going to kill that b*****d," he snarled, my head snapped up in surprise.

"No it was my fault, I wasn't careful..." I started to say but he cut me off.

"It's not your fault Wick, you were wronged, violated, don't blame yourself," he told me pulling into a hug.

I pushed back confused by what he said then it dawned on me.

"No Ryn, I wasn't... Nuca didn't rape me. I'm very much intact," I told him.

"Then who's Kayden?" He asked confused.

I sighed, my shoulders dropping as I sat on my bed, "Kayden's my brother, my twin actually," I told him.

"How? I knew you from very young, there was no Kayden," he stated sitting next to me.

"You moved next door to Rae when you were eight, two years after we lost Kayden well we thought we did," I told him.

"We were six when we were kidnapped, someone had a vendetta against Rae's dad and mine, someone from their past, so they hired the Hunters to kidnap us, Rae, Kayden and I. We knew that something was wrong and Rae being very stubborn tried to verbally fight the people that took us, she got one hard slap on her face. Kayden got upset at this that he rushed the man when he was distracted and grabbed his gun. Knowing Rae's dad and our granddad, we knew how to shoot a gun, so he shot him in the arm," I paused as I smiled sadly at that memory.

"He always said that he would protect even if it took his last breath, he would protect. And it did, the other guy that took us cane in, grabbed Kayden and took him to their boss. We don't know what happened but they locked us in there. We stayed there for a week, then the worst happened, there was an incident in one of their labs since we were in of their bases, so a fire broke out. We thought that we were gonna die. We screamed for help but no one came, it smoke started to come through the door, Rae and I huddled in the corner together, hoping that someone would come," I closed my eyes tightly trying to remove the memories racing across my mind, I felt a hand on my shoulder, opening my eyes I glanced up to see Ryn with a sad smile.

"You don't have to finish," He told me, wiping the tears from my eyes.

I smiled at him but shook my head, "I need to." I told him before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"The room was consumed with smoke, we were coughing and on the verge of passing out, Rae's head was on my lap, her eyes struggling to stay open. I begged her to hang on a bit longer but she couldn't. I felt myself losing consciousness, then shouts were heard, trying to fight it off, I shouted for help but my voice was soft, my throat hoarse from my previous shouts," I stood up.

"I knew that I need to get their attention, so I looked around the room and saw a discarded metal pipe. I placed Rae's head on my the ground and crawled over to the pipe. The door was also metal, so finding the strength in my weak body, I got off the ground and made my way to the door. When I got there, I struck the pipe against the door, hoping that the clanging sound would be heard. I don't know how long I did it for but my body couldn't handle my weight and I collapsed on the ground, dropping the pipe," I turned around to look at the door, I thought I heard footsteps.

You never know how precious life is until you lose someone or come close to losing life yourself.

"I heard footsteps coming closer, I didn't care if it was friend or foe, Rae and I needed to get out of here, the darkness finally took over when they opened the door and the next time I came to I was in the hospital, Rae was in the room next to mine.

My family was happy to have us back but something was off, there was sadness in my mother's eyes, my dad couldn't even look at me for a few days without stepping out of the room in anger. When I was strong enough to talk, I questioned why they were acting like this. The tried to avoid my question but I was stubborn," chuckling bitterly at this I folded my arms.

"They finally found the strength to tell me that Kayden died in the fire. Since he was taken from the room they didn't know where he was held, they searched through the rubble and found a child's body. I didn't want to believe it, I couldn't believe it. I would have known if Kay really did die, I would have felt it," I told Ryn.

"Even my father didn't believe it since the body was burnt really badly but the examiner assured us that it was Kayden. I was so devastated that my parents decided to move to the Caribbean, to help us cope and try to move on. It helped a bit but it was hard to live without Kayden around. After five years we moved back home and I started middle school, then it was one more year till I started high school when I found out that my mom was pregnant with Teague. Teague was a blessing, his birth helped a lot with coping with the loss of Kayden, a bit of our normal life was restored," I finished with a sad smile.

I was really angry at my parents at first but then I began to accept the truth of Teague. I thought that this way their way of replacing Kayden, that they had forgotten about him and didn't love him anymore. I hated them for this, I didn't want another brother, I wanted Kayden back but I couldn't get him back, he was gone. This anger led me to make rash decisions, I started to date Nuca, hang with his friends, got into trouble at school.

Raiden was the only one that got me to think straight, he showed me that I was hurting my parents, that I was being selfish. We fought that day but his words had struck me hard and I contemplated over his words and they were true. So I reduced my rebellious behaviour, but I still hated the fact that she was pregnant. It's only when Teague was born and I had to take care of him one night did I realize that I was foolish, so I apologized to him and my parents and swore to protect him no matter what.

"So then why is Kayden stopping you from getting involved?" Ryn asked a bit confused, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"As I said we thought he died in the fire 13 years ago but he didn't, he's alive. I can't get involved because he will die if I do and I can't lose him again," I told him opening the door, I heard a whimper come from it and I saw Rae on the other side, tears streaming down her face.

"Don't lie to me Wick, what the hell is going on and what do you mean by Kayden is alive cause we both saw the body, we saw the it get incinerated, we heard his skull pop really bloody hard that I got nightmares for a whole freaking year, so please don't mess with me right now," she sobbed.

I stared at her broken state, Kayden was a brother to her too and her best friend. I sighed before pulling her through the door and putting her into Ryn's arms.

"It happened three years ago...."

Author's Note

What do you think of the plot, writing style, characters? Point out grammatical errors or places where I need to show instead of telling, please and thanks. Anything that seems that needs to fix please let me know, I'm open to feedback and criticism.