The Family Business

1 || ONE

I had always been different. Special, if you will. My society had been split in two. Those with the power to help and those with the power to destroy. I had been given the power to do both. I was only the second one to be given this blessing. Even though it feels like a curse. About ten thousand years ago, someone like me, The Great One they call him, was born. His only purpose was to fight in a war. It was the first and last civil war between my people. He brought peace between the destroyers and the helpers. Ever since then, we haven't had another war as far as I know. The legend goes that the next Great One will only come when the world needs them. That would be me. Although I still haven't figured out why I'm here but I have never truly cared. I haven't exactly been parading around that I'm the next great one. 

There are only a few people who know. That would be my brother, Zander, and his two friends, Alex and Ryan. We became a group in high school since they were only just about a year older than me. Though we had always been close as my brother met both of them in elementary school. But we had officially become a group in my freshmen year of high school. We needed each other back then. Anyways, we've been tight since my freshmen year and that seemed as if it could never change. We trusted each other with our lives every single day and treated each other as family. You see, we were a vigilante group. We took the law into our own hands. The Black Clover has existed in me and Zander's family for generations. Zander was hesitant to start the group up again after what had happened to mom and dad because of Black Clover but, I convinced him. And so that's how I got caught in a foot chase with a guy we've been trying to track and catch for so many years. He was the reason we started the group again.

"Zander, Alex keep up! We're so close to getting him and I'm not letting him get away again," I yelled over my shoulder. It was muffled by my mask but the boys understood me and ran faster.

"I don't think we're gonna get him this time Ev. He's running into the city," Ryan yelled when I was jumping over a fallen trash can.

"Don't 'Ev' me Ryan," I started, still running. "This is the closest we've ever gotten to catching him. He's been number one on our list since we started. I can't just let him get away." Tears welled in my eyes. I turned my head so Ryan couldn't see. I kept running. The cold, night air, filled my lungs as I breathed. Running had been my escape ever since I was little. I focused on the enemy ahead of me and the whole world just seemed to melt away. I just ran and ran. 

I was jolted out of my running trance as I was suddenly stopped. A car sped by, inches from my body. There was a hand squeezing my shoulder, holding on for dear life. I turned around and it was Zander's hand. His face was somber. I turned my head back in front of me. The man we had been trying to catch, Oliver Hayes, was still running. He wasn't far. 

"Zander let go, he's right there," I demanded. I admit I was quite upset. I tried to wiggle out of his grasp and push his hand away. 

"Evelyn quit. He's already in the city. It's not worth it," he said, both upset and serious. His voice had a slight shake to it. 

"Zander Elijah Blake, let me go. We have been after him for years and he is right there. Don't you want revenge?" I half yelled, looking him dead in the eyes.

"You know the rules. We all promised we wouldn't go into the city during work." The other two caught up by then. Zander took his hand off me. Oliver had finally dispersed from view. 

"Damn it," Alex said, in between breaths. "Shit, I'm sorry. I fell back a couple of feet. We could've gotten him." 

"It's fine, whatever. We'll run into him again. Let's just head back to base." I walked off back in the direction that we had come from. The other three followed and we made our way back. 

It was an old run-down warehouse that my parents had fixed up a while back. I remember being young and not knowing why we went there but still loving it anyways. It had always felt like home. Always had and always will. Me and Ryan had taken out some of the old stuff that was there and replaced it with newer, better things. Mostly some computers and such. 

The front room was just like a regular living room in a house. In fact, after spending months getting it cleaned up and fixed from not using it in years, most of it was like a house. There was a kitchen, a couple of bedrooms, and some bathrooms. It still had some of that warehouse feel to it, but it was more or less a residential home. Although, in the back was where all of our 'work' stuff was. The things we used while out and such. That was the only part that wasn't home. It was strictly for business. 

I walked into Eagle Nest- my mother was the one to name it and me and Zander refused to change the name- and went straight for the back room. I took off my hood and finally took my hair out of the headache-causing ponytail it had been in all day. It was dyed a light blue, lost a bet with Alex, except for a strand in the left front side. As if the Stars and Fate thought I wasn't special enough, I have a clump of white hair. Dyes won't stick to it. I've had people compare me to a ginger girl in this movie franchise with annoyingly catchy songs and an older sister who's a bit of a dick but it's kinda justified. 

I sat on the bench next to my locker wall and untied my boots. I had gotten them to be a bit smaller than I needed so that there was no way that they would fall off, yet every time I had to take them off I regretted it. I struggled to pull my boots off as the boys made their way to the back room. 

"You need help getting your boots off, tiny?" Alex asked, giggling. 

"Call me 'tiny' again and I will strangle you with these shoelaces and make it look like a suicide," I threatened. I finally got my left boot off and started working on my right one. 

"I should've left you behind Alex, " Ryan grumbled, only half joking. 

"Ryan shut the fuck up. We are not playing the blame game again. If anything, I should have pulled out my gun. But we are not playing 'what-ifs' again," I mumbled, pulling my right boot off. I stood up and walked to my locker. Ryan huffed, still pissed off. If we fight every time we fail, we'll fall apart, I thought as I threw off my hoodie and put on a gray tee shirt. 

"So," Zander started, trying to break the silence, "what's everyone's plans for tonight?"

"Sleep," Ryan and Alex said in unison. 

"Damn, lucky. I have to work the early morning shift." I checked my watch. 1:38 AM. "If I'm lucky I'll get a couple of hours of sleep." I put up my other bag and grabbed my backpack. I accidentally closed my locker a little too hard. I was still pissed about Oliver. To be fair though, my anger for him was always there no matter how hard I tried to push it down. "What about you, Zan?"

"Same shit I always do, Bug." That nickname still stings. I would never tell Zander that of course. But, it always hurt. Dad had called me that a lot growing up because I had a huge insect phase. He had a lot of nicknames for me. I used to be so embarrassed when he would call me nicknames in public, but I missed it. Even if I was 22 and not 12 anymore. 

"I'm gonna head out. You boys behave," I said walking out. 

"Bye tiny!" Alex yelled. I thought about going back and decking him in the face. I didn't though. He wasn't worth it. I walked out of Eagle Nest and headed down Main Street, toward home. The city, still sleeping. It wouldn't get busy for another couple of hours. 

There were some people out and about. A woman and her baby at the park entrance. An old man in a suit hurrying off somewhere. Some teenagers running around being kids in an alley. I made the fifteen-minute walk home without making eye contact with anyone. I walked into the house, threw my bag down near the door, and fell asleep on the couch.