Thaddeus

Chapter Two

Brooklyn hadn't known when it started, but she started hearing commotion going on downstairs. However, she didn't get up to check it out. Whatever was happening, her father could handle it. A minute later, she began picking up a faint smell of smoke. Fairly immediatly, she groaned out in annoyance. Smoke usually meant her father set something on fire, and considering she could hear at least two pairs of voices, maybe an arugment had occured.

She waited on the bed for a little bit, just listening to whatever was happening. A few minutes passed before Brooklyn heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She rasied a brow, narrowing her eyes on her door that she'd left a crack open. Soon, she found her eyes being met with the yellow ones of a teenage boy. While she instantly diverted her attention to the floor, she heard the boy enter the room across from hers.

That was odd, that room had belonged to Bernard. Would Zagen really give a random boy a room in his house? No, he'd never. Curious, Brooklyn stood up, slowly making her way to the door. She pushed it open to see the teenager standing in the doorway of her brother's old room. She knew who he was, this was Alastor, her nephew. The only reason she knew was because of rare family photos Bernard sent her occasionally.

He looked so..criminal-y. Not that it bothered her, she used to dress the way he did, a baggy black jacket, white shirt, jeans. She sorta just stared at him for a little bit longer, she liked seeing her nephew, it was a nice change. However, not wanting to weird him out, Brooklyn turned and went downstairs, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she did. As she began scrolling through her contacts list, she stepped out onto the porch outside. It took a few minutes to find Bernard in her phone, the two rarely ever talked via technology. She clicked on his name, then brought the device to her ear. She listened to her phone ring impatiently, wondering what to even say to her brother.

Before she could think of anything, she heard the grating sound of Bernard's voice sigh. "Did you find him?" Bernard asked almost immediatly. Almost. He sounded as if he dreaded asking the question and Brooklyn couldn't blame him. Surely he wouldn't want to find out his son had gone to hide out with his crazy grandfather. Brooklyn opened her mouth, but bit her tounge. Yes, Alastor was here, did Bernard need to know that? No. He'd been the one too cowardly to face Zagen and retreive his son. With this in mind, Brooklyn spoke, "no, he's not here." She tried to be confident, but it failed horribly. However, based on how much Bernard didn't want Alastor to be with Zagen, he'd believe anything. Even Brooklyn's terrible attempt at a lie. "Why couldn't you come up here yourself? Now I'm stuck with Dad for the next week! ..Probably." Brooklyn complained to her brother, hissing. "I never told you to stay the night!" Bernard argued, but then Brooklyn scoffed.

"You didn't answer my question," she seethed.

"You know why." He growled.

"Oh, yeah, I know why, cause you're a coward!"

"I'm the coward? Really?"

"Yes! He's your son! Find him yourself!"

"I have another son, y'know, I can't leave him alone!"

"I have a daughter, dumbass! I'm still here. Get a babysitter for crying out loud."

Brooklyn hung up on Bernard, grumbling and muttering. Sometimes she couldn't believe how selfish her brother could be. She was still fuming as she went back inside the house, only to be met with the cold eyes of her father. And from the look on his face, she knew he was mad. "Bernard sent you here to find Alastor? And you actually did it?" He scoffed lightly. Brooklyn felt her blood boil, she glared at Zagen. "He doesn't want his son here, don't you think you should respect that? Send him on his way!?" Brooklyn snapped, something she didn't do with Zagen until she'd gotten older. "Bernard has just about zero respect for the boy, if he did, he'd be here right now instead of you. He made the poor kid put on gloves to hide his fire, he could've easily sent him to me for practice." Zagen's words made Brooklyn roll her eyes, her mouth falling open. "Your way of practice is burning people alive!" She yelled now, anger clear in her eyes.

"You know that isn't true, I never hurt anyone. God, you and your brother are the same, always making things this up. You always try to paint me out to be a horrible father when in fact I was a good one."

"A good father doesn't try and trick his kids into believing he was a saint. I know you hurt people, I remember it clear as day!"

"I am a much better father than Bernard ever was to Alastor! In the last ten minutes I've been there more for him than he ever has!"

"How would you even know!? We cut you out of our kids lives for a reason! It's the only reason I'll be staying here. You aren't going to do a thing to that kid, not on my watch." Brooklyn basically snarled, narrowing her eyes onto a boiling Zagen. "You can stay, but are you sure he'll even let you stop me? He knows he needs the training, the practice. I wouldn't hurt a hair on his head, he's my grandson! I would never." Zagen's lip curled into a sly grin, this only made Brooklyn more frustrated. She knew Zagen would end up hurting Alastor, whether it was physical or mental, he'd do it. The worst part was that Brooklyn knew she couldn't do anything about it, not for now anyway.

Brooklyn got right into Zagen's face, practically almost touching noses. "Fuck . You." She growled before marching past Zagen, bolting up the stairs, completely ignoring the fact one almost broke underneath her foot. She debated storming into what was most likely now Alastor's room, drag him out of the house and away from his madman of a grandfather. But she decided not to, maybe she could finally get her father locked away for life by having Alastor do things with her father. For now, Brooklyn would go into her room, plopping herself down onto her bed. Sighing, she heard Zagen pacing angerily around downstairs, the house was so old and creaky. She heard the floorboards groan with every footstep Zagen took. Before Brooklyn knew it, she'd fallen asleep.

(Sorry I couldn't be more descriptive and stuff like that. It's currently 2:30 in the morning at the time of finishing and I'm tired)