Opposing Sides

Chapter 21: History of a Battle

Yesterday, Vlam and Cine left June on a dirt floor assuming that he had died or was in a deep sleep and no longer a threat to them. Sadly, that is not the case. June has been following them for a while. When they went inside houses he would follow them and try to not be seen by them while collecting objects they overlooked or did not see. Many times he was almost caught by Cine since she was standing around or roaming while Vlam foraged. Vlam decided that it was best to not leave her behind. The kidnapping and her life being threatened, by June, a desperate enemy in Vlam’s eyes helped him to make this decision.

 June is still bothered by Vlam‘s attack and has been looking for weak points and ways to defeat him. He hopes that the defeat will push Vlam and Cine to work with him. June has powers that he acquired through getting the shots that everyone on Ganjo had to get to be a citizen there, but he does not like using them. His brother is different from him in this way. Lorent loves his powers and uses it to fuel his thirst. Also, he looks down upon individuals who are weaker than him. June knows this because when they were younger they had tutors that would teach them different subjects.

There were six different subjects with varying difficulty levels. The names of the subjects were: arithmetic, physical combat, biology, leadership, economics, and the history of Ganjo. All of the classes relied heavily on the notes Doctor Ganashbe left behind. The doctor had an ample amount of notes because he documented every experiment and theory he had in a very detailed manner. June is younger than Lorent but he learned things fast and in a few months he was on the same level as his brother. Lorent did not like that. So, Lorent cheated in almost every subject. June noticed what his brother was doing and offered to help him study for tests. He only offered Lorent help once and Lorent gave him a scary glare then stomped away. Swiftly, the night of that day came and June was jolted out of his sleep because a pillow was slammed against his face. It was held down with a good amount of force. He kicked and pushed but it did not stop or slow the assault. One of the tutors threw a body to the wall and the pillow dropped.

 June looked around the room as he caught his breath. The tutor began to ask him about what he was feeling and his health but the questions seemed to melt in to one jumbled murmur when he saw that the assailant was his brother, Lorent. He did not understand why he did it but he did not think too much of it. Until the next day came, in the kindest way possible, Lorent told Hearth to kill the tutor that saved June before June’s eyes. June chuckled because he thought he knew his father. He thought that he would tell Lorent the idea was absurd and walk away, but Hearth punched the tutor until death saved the guy from the pain that he was dealing with and his body was left in a bloody heap. A good amount of bones were broken. June’s father was granted the power of abnormal physical strength. He used his strength to kill an innocent tutor.

 After witnessing that he lost the desire to learn. He did not want to be like his father or brother. He did not want to be vicious and he did not know if using the powers that they were given made them this way or amplified their mean actions. So, he decided that he would not use his abnormal strength to harm others, although his decision may have been strongly influenced by the fear he obtained after watching that horrific scene. He always wonders if he is capable of killing someone every time he thinks about Ganjo or his family. He fears the thought of causing another person’s death with his strength like his father did because he knows himself. He knows that he is not mean spirited and he would most likely go insane if he ever did such a thing. When his father disappeared after the brief war they had against humans, Lorent ordered royal guards to isolate June in a place where he would not improve.

They put him in a laboratory and forced him to assist the scientists with their experiments. He was not able to talk to Lorent or see him. As he got older he began to feel sad for all the victims of the experiments. He witnessed too much deaths there and he felt his sanity drain away as he assisted the scientists in such cruel, sometimes; gruesome experiments. Sometimes he would find himself running out of the room a bit dizzy and vomiting the little food he did receive into the incinerator or the garbage chute. When he was sixteen, he had enough of being in the lab and he befriended a couple that wanted to leave Ganjo to “explore more options and be a bit more comfortable.” He left a note that was written to his brother giving him an excuse that he thought was sufficient explaining his departure. He hoped that it would not infuriate his brother and not motivate him to find him.