Not Your Hero

Run Ins and Out Runs

Griffin stares at the angry eyes in front of him, searching for any kind of answer.
"Dad was never around, Grif. Mom took care of us the best she could as a single mother." 
Once again, the man was stunned into silence.

"What are you talking about? She was never a single mother when I was around. She would cook for us nightly and dad would take us hunting, fishing and fighting almost every weekend."

Axel shakes his head violently while Griffin takes another step toward the shorter man.

"Who do you think taught you to fight the way you can? Did she teach you how to do that?"

"That's not our father. That may be mom's friend that agreed to step up to take his place, but that's no father."

Griffin lets out a bitter laugh "Is that what she told you?"

"Yes, and I would believe her over anyone."

He rolls his eyes as his brother keeps monologuing.

"Unlike you, dad and just about everyone else in the village, she hasn't left me."

Scoffing, Griffin walks past his brother, shoving him by the shoulder as he makes his way for the door instead.

"Just like she said you would, you're walking out on me again."

The reality of what was said hit him hard. Griffin had seen this situation unravel before. He had seen the way the truth could be twisted.
He heard the same foolish words that his brother was spouting, time and time again, just from different lips.

Griffin couldn't tell anyone the last time he heard something that his mother said from her own lips. He could remember what was said, every wound that was inflicted, every pained expression that passed the faces of the people around them.
Every time his mother said something about him that he heard, it was that Griffin, her own son, was nothing more than a vile beast. Without fail, she would follow it up with every accident he could have ever possibly made, blown out of proportion.

Shaking himself out of the memory, he glares up to Axel.

"You truly must be more naive than you look. I pray to whatever you might believe in that you receive mercy in place of the brains that you weren't blessed with."

    Blind rage overtakes the smaller man as he throws his weight into Griffin's chest. The taller man didn't budge very much, but there was too much pain in his heart to truly care in the moment. Pounding his fist into his brother's abdomen angrily, he growled out.

"You don't know a single thing about me! You left before you could ever take the title of my brother! Who told you that you could just come back here, help me out on one thing, and then lecture me on a family tree that you were barely a part of?!"

With no real struggle, Griffin turned and aimed his fist to the bridge of Axel's nose. Tears sprout in the corners of his eyes. Blood dripped to the floor and stained the taller man's shoes. Another punch. Then another.
A sickening crack. Both men take steps back, panting heavily and trying to collect themselves. Griffin keeps himself to the left wall, and Axel to the right, holding his nose and letting his eyes water freely. Griffin drops his head and shakes it.

"I can tell you every single thing our father did for us and you're going to sit there, stare at me and say it was someone else? I can tell you for the ten years that I was a part of the family what we did and where we started to fall apart, WHY we started to fall apart, and you want to believe that she is the patron saint that saved you?"

Axel slides down the wall and sighs heavily, defeat clear across his face.
"Go ahead then. Tell me. Please, tell me the truth."

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"You look unwell." Obsidian eyes trail up and down the body in front of the oppressor.
"No thanks to you, my love."
A heavy sigh echoes through the room.
"You are in no state to voice your frustrations with me. You are the one who let my sons get away alive. Do not disappoint me again."
The woman's voice held no sympathy, which came as no surprise to the man in front of her. The man takes off his mask tainted with a smile as he nods.
"As you wish, Ximena."