Sudden Bloodshed

Chapter 20

America's POV
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I sat in the corner of the room I was thrown into.

After we boarded the ships, our groups were put into different rooms. Which was very crowded.

I just made my way to the nearest corner and curled up.

There was a row of beds, I counted 10, and a nightstand at the ends of the row. The room smelled very dusty and unclean. There was a lot of humidity as well.

Most of the other teenagers sat or lied down on the beds, while the rest of us got the floor. Lucky, I know.

It was quiet. Not too many of us talked but there was still whispered and murmuring. A group of girls were the loudest, they were talking and sobbing to each other.

I saw Ethan on one of the beds. He was removing the ropes off of a boy. The boy looked younger than he did, but they some how they appeared similar.

They had the same hair, the same eyes, same freckles, same skin tone, nearly everything.

All except the scar Ethan had.
I assumed that they were brothers or something.

He looked up from the boy and looked at me. He smiled.

I stared for a second before returning the smile. He gestured me other with a nodded of his head.

I hesitated but then stood up. I was shaking. It was freezing and my clothes and hair were still wet from the rain.
I walked over and lightly sat down on the bed.

It was warm and I felt bad for getting water on it. Ethan and his brother were probably gonna sleep here and now it had water on it.

I shrugged. He was still pretty soaked too. We all were.

"Nice seeing you again, America." He greeted. His voice was croaky and dry.
He set the ropes on the floor and began to run his fingers through the boys hair.

"Yeah, it's nice seeing you too." I put my hand over my mouth. My voice was cracky too.

I was so dehydrated.

I looked at the boy. Now that I was closer to him I could tell that he was a lot younger than I thought. He looked about five years old. This must be Ethan's really little brother.

The boy looked up at me. "Mommy?" He squeaked.

I smiled and frowned a bit."Mommy? N-No I'm not mommy."

He looked up at Ethan while he pointed at me."That's my mommy?"

Ethan shook his head."No, that's not mommy. Mommy is..." He paused and looked away for a second. He glanced back. "Mommy is in heaven, remember?" He whispered the last part.

The boy looked down at his lap. "Oh, yeah."

I looked down at my lap too. That was so awful. Their mother was dead and even though he was young he still knew it. How terrible. I wonder if she died giving birth? Or maybe she died during the attack? I tired not to think about it.

Then I thought, how did the boy think that I was his mother?

"Do I look like your guys mother?" I asked Ethan.

He looked at me with some sort of annoyance, then he relaxed. "She wasn't my mother. She was Alex's mother." He gestured down at the boy.

"That's his name?" I questioned. Ethan nodded.

Alex looked at me. "You look like mommy. You have the same red hair that she did."

I ran my fingers through my hair. "Oh." Was all I said.

I looked at the two boys. Ethan was still grooming Alex's hair.

This drove me up a wall. I had to find out. How were these two not related? They looked so much alike! How could they not be brothers? I was afraid to ask another question in fear that it would bring up another sad story, but I really wanted to know.

"So...you two look a lot alike."I started. "Are you related somehow or..." I let my voice trail off when Ethan looked at me.

He took a deep breath. "Alex is..."He paused again, taking his hand out from Alex's hair.

"I don't tell most people this, so promise you won't tell anyone."

I nodded my head." I won't tell."

Alex giggled and glanced at Ethan before looking at me." That's my daddy."

I frowned and looked at Ethan. "He's your..."

"Son." He finished for me.

I didn't know what to say.
"B-but your...you're how old?"I stuttered.

"I'm seventeen."

I covered my face with my hands. Well at least I guessed one thing right.

"And I'm guessing that he's five?" I whined.

Ethan's eyes widened. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
I groaned. Then my head perked up.
"Wait." I put my hands out in front of me. "If your seventeen, and he's five, then..." I did the math." You had him when you were only twelve?"

Ethan looked ashamed at first but then he looked at Alex and smiled.
"Yeah. I did."

"Did you really want kids at that time?"

Ethan hesitated to answer. "It doesn't matter about what I wanted back then anymore. Things happened in life that were bad and I try not to look back at them. People were hurt and taken away from me. A blessing I got from all the darkness was Alex. I would and will never regret having him."

At first he seemed to be picking his words out slowly, but then he became more confident.
"And yes, you look just like her." He smiled.

I gave him a quick smile but it quickly disappeared. "So we she your girlfriend or were you married too? Or.." I'm not sure why I asked.

Ethan frowned and began smoothing Alex's hair over again. "I'd rather not talk about it."

I nodded in understanding. I was still very curious about these boy's past, but it seemed too painful to asked for more.
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We all remained in the bed until the other teens fell asleep. Once the room was filled with snores and sleep talk, I stood up and stretched my legs.

Ethan looked up at me. Alex had fallen asleep in his arms and was curled up against his chest.

"Where are you going?"he asked.

I pointed to my little corner. "I'm gonna go to sleep now. It's been a very long and tiring day. I'm very tired."

"You can have the bed. Me and Alex can sleep on the floor, we won't mind. Plus he's already asleep."

My clothes had dried by now and my hair was damp. So the bed wasn't as soaked as it was earlier. I yawned and stared at the bed. I hadn't slept in one for two nights and was starting to miss it. Me and Ethan made eye contact.

"Just sleep on the bed." He offered again.

I let out a sigh and crawled back into the bed. Ethan smiled and stood up, Alex was still asleep.

They laid down on the floor next to me. I closed my eyes and soon I fell asleep.