Earth: Criminal Rehab

Chapter Six

Gerard

I sat around a fire with my brother, my other half, my Mikey. Gone were the days of hiding and isolation. It was just as everybody was saying. We. Are. Free.

Even though they freed us, I held a strong hate for the Legacy. They placed my brother in danger once again, and it was only for their own personal gain. It was one thing to risk my life, but watching him go a second time was something I don't think I could bear.

"Look," Mikey said and waved a stick around in the air. The tip of it was flaming. He taunted me with it. He swayed it back and forth in front of me. I laughed and swatted it away.

"Be careful, you're gonna burn something with that," I warn him, but cannot keep from laughing. I've never seen this side of him before. Mikey was forced to mature faster than the boys his age. He never got the chance to break off and have some fun. It wasn't his fault. Once again, the only people we could blame were the corrupted Legacy counsel.

I hadn't realized how far off I had been until a hand clasped my shoulder.

Mikey looked into my eyes, "Hey, are you okay?"

I immediately snapped my smile back on, "Of course I'm okay. Why?"

Mikey looked at the people around him and got up. He took my arm and walked me through the maze of sleeping bodies on the grass. We walked deeper into the trees where we could talk alone. He shook his head and frowned, "Gerard...You're my brother. I know when something's up."

He never stopped worrying. I shook my head and laughed, "Mikey listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. I am okay. We're all a little shocked at the moment, but we are all going to be fine. This is our world. We get another chance to live; another chance to be together without fear of being caught! I am more than okay."

He hugged me tightly and hung his chin over my shoulder. "You know..." he began, "You don't have to be the parent anymore."

His words cut like knives and stung like a slap on the face. I was the parent.

Our mother was not the slut everybody made her out to be. She did not sleep around with the men. She did what she had to do. No. She did what she was forced to do and was blamed heavily for the consequences. Our mother was happily married to a man and had me. We were a good family. We followed the rules. We did as we were told.

One night, she came home in a panicked frenzy. Our father tried to comfort her, but she was too shaken up. Someone had raped her. As soon as our father had been given the news, he abandoned her. He abandoned us. I was three years old. I remembered what he looked like, but he was never a significant part of my life. He was simply the guy who put a bowl of stale cereal in front of me every morning. Once he had left, our mother never slept through the night again.

After a month or two, she was especially upset and I slept in her bed with her. She gave me news that she was pregnant. Again, I was three years old. I didn't know any better. I helped try to convince her to keep the baby. I wanted a baby brother. It was against the laws and we knew it. Nobody on the ship had a brother or sister. Nobody even knew what the word meant anymore. The problem was that the ship was running out of space and families could not afford to have more than one children.

When Mikey was born, I helped hide our mother under the floor boards in a room originally made for storing food. I held her hand while she gave birth. I was traumatized and scared shitless, but I had a lot of faith. I was going to have a brother.

As soon as I looked into those tiny, beady baby eyes and held his frail, fragile body, I fell in love. No matter what, I would be there for him and he would be the main source of my happiness.