We'll Meet Again (Original Book)

|2| Hardship Hits Early

Washington DC, 1936

His entire body was sore, and he was struggling to catch his breath. It was raining heavily. Loud thunder struck from above. Lightning flashed angrily through the sky. The soil beneath him was nothing but a wet mixture of mud and excessive water. He looked down at the puddle of water beneath him. His hands were buried in it, in a desperate attempt to keep himself propped up.

He couldn't fight anymore. He had been knocked on all fours. His hair, his clothes, his entire body was soaked in rain and mud. The muscles of his arms, his legs, and his stomach throbbed in pain. He had more than a few bruises all over his body and a bleeding tooth. He swiped away the blood with his tongue and he looked down at the staff that he was supposed to use to fight. It was almost buried in the mud as well.

Tedric lifted his head up to see his father. He wasn't yielding any kind of weapon, yet he still knocked him down like this without a spec of remorse. Tedric should expect nothing less. He should have gotten used to it by now. Growing up in the Garner Family was cruel. He was just a twelve-year-old boy. How was he supposed to stand a chance against an experienced warrior like his father?

"We're not stopping for the day unless you knock me down at least once," Joseph, his father, said, waiting for his pitiful excuse of a son to get back up on his feet and launch a powerful attack.

"I..." Tedric buried his hands into the mud to pull himself back on his knees. He was only going to make things worse with what he was about to say, but he was beyond regretting it "...I don't think I can... keep fighting, father."

How could his firstborn son end up being so weak? That boy was to be the future head of the Garner Family. Tedric should start getting it together. He was his oldest son. He was the future of their family.

Joseph dropped on one knee to come face to face with the exhausted twelve-year-old, and he propped an arm on his bent knee.

"There is no limit to a Garner's energy. Get back up. Now," he wasn't going to take a no for an answer.

Tedric didn't have a choice. This was just another day in this household.

"General!"

A voice came from behind and Joseph stood back up and turned to see his butler. It was a middle-aged man in a black suit, standing beneath an umbrella that he held in one hand.

"Your wife, sir," the man said. He didn't know how to say this without infuriating the man. Joseph could be quite terrifying when angry. "Her condition has worsened," he finally delivered the bad news, and Joseph's eyes widened.

Tedric stood up quickly and he tried to rush inside to get to his mother, but Joseph grabbed his son's arm, stopping him from taking a step further.

"Where the hell are you going, boy?!"

"I'm going to see mother!" Tedric talked back with quite the confidence this time. He looked fiercely up at his father, emphasising his defiance. Nothing would stop him from seeing her. She could die any moment now.

Elmyra, his mother, had been gravely ill for the past years, but it was to be expected. The women marrying into the Garner Family were doomed to die young. It was simply some terrible curse that had befallen on their damned family.

"You're not going anywhere," Joseph motioned at four of his guards who stood around the yard to surround the boy.

Tedric picked the staff back up and he looked at the four, much taller men that surrounded him. They were members of the family. Unnaturally strong and skilled warriors.