Hiraeth {Book 3 in The Emerald of Annihilation trilogy}

(26). Rewind Flashes

Lily's POV. 

I woke up in a dank, dusty, dark room. A lone lightbulb swung from the ceiling on a thin strand of cable. I winced as the throbbing in my head returned. The recollection of yesterday flooded back into my mind like a tsunami. 

I attempted to lift my hand to my aching head only to find out I couldn't.  My eyes shot open and I looked down to see I was sitting in a splintery wooden chair. My wrists were tied down to the armrests. 

My heart pounded as I began to panic. I tried pulling and pulling but my binds held me fast. The steel door slid open to reveal the steely face of my brother, Buck. Had he always had that little stubble under his chin? When had he grown so tall? 

I watched as he walked into the room and closed the door behind him, not turning around to do it. His eyes fixed on mine. He seemed to glare into my soul. "B-Buck..." I stuttered, not being able to form a proper sentence. 

"Save it." He snapped. His glower becoming darker (If that was even possible). "Marcus was right about everything." I creased my eyebrows, not understanding. But one thing was for sure. "Buck! Marcus is a psychotic bastard! Don't trust him!"   

I strained against the ropes that held me fast. My own brother had betrayed me. And for what? Fame? Power? Money? Glory? 

"Funny." He glared at me. His hand resting on his pistol. "That's exactly what he said about you. Although he used another colourful word to describe you." He smirked. I froze. I couldn't believe it. My brother. Who had known me all his life, chose a stranger's warning not to trust over my own? Hot tears formed in my eyes. Tears not only of sadness but of anger. 

"I'm your family, Buck!" I shouted. "How could you believe Marcus over me?! How could you chose him over family?" I felt tears streaming down my face as I shouted out all my anger and sorrow. Buck glared at me, my tears having no effect on his hardened heart. "Family? Is that what you think we are?" He snarled.

"You have no clue, do you?! You never did." His hand tightening around the gun on his waist. "I was always last in the family." The last child, the in line for any inheritance. My efforts to get noticed or praised were always dashed. No one gave me any attention. I was always taken for granted."

Buck's voice cracked with emotion. Lily saw him now as the petrified 17-year-old he was. Keyword; 'Was.' "But you," Buck continued. "You were always the golden child. The one mom and dad loved the most. Praised even in your worst mistakes. When you rejected mom's offer for the position at the XForce organization, she didn't even think of offering the job to me. Instead, she ran after you like a lost puppy."

"You didn't have experience in the field, Buck! Or with the job!" I countered. "You also had no maturity! You were a scraggly kid who hung with the wrong crowd trying to get popular and attention." 

That went too far. buck took a step back and swung his leg forward. His boot connecting with my jaw. Stars spun in my vision and I tasted blood. "Marcus Houston gave me the family I never had," Buck spoke with such admiration of Marcus, it made my stomach churn. His next words making my blood boil and made me feel like vomiting. 

"Viper is my family."

I stared at him with hooded, blurry vision. My head throbbed. Blood flowed unopposed from my bottom lip. "And you'd do anything Marcus tells you to do?" I asked, almost terrified of hearing his response. "Even kill your own family?" 

Buck's lips curled upwards into a cruel smirk. He freed his gun of its holster and pressed the barrel to my forehead. "Without hesitation." 

 Do you remember a while back when I said that they say, that just before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes? Well, this is when the flashbacks started. 

They started off pretty normal. How I imagined flashbacks would begin. With birth. But not of my birth. The birth of my brother. I was pressed against my father's knee. His arm like a firm wall, keeping me from dashing to my mother. Not that I could see above the hospital bed. A bundle of odd rolled lumps of skin lay squalling in her arms. 

I remember thinking, "Did I ever look like washed up mud?" When I calmed down and stopped squirming, dad lifted me up onto his knee. Mom looked over at me with a tired smile. "Meet your new little brother, Lily." She whispered. "Buck Harrison Knight." I gazed with wide eyes at the ugly blurp in my mother's tender arms and grinned.

The flashback changed and there I was again, but a bit older. 17 I think. There was Buck. Serup on his shirt and a wack grin on his 15-year-old grin. Then it changed again. But time flew backwards this time. There I was. About nine or ten. Buck was in front of me, begging me to stay and play with him. A beaten-up soccer ball in his stubby hands. 

I turned my head to see my friends, Mark, Henry, Amber, and Henry waving at me to join them on a trip to the local arcade. I looked from them to my brother's nearly tear-filled eyes. I then turned, left him, and ran to my friends instead. 

The flashbacks ended and I opened my eyes. I didn't even bother trying to blink back the tears that flowed freely down my cheeks. I looked up to see Buck's confused yet still enraged face. "I'm sorry Buck." I croaked. "I didn't mean to cause you such pain..." He glared and cocked his pistol. "It's too late for apologies, Lily." He spat, pressing the barrel harder against my head. "I know it is." I said. "I was wrong for ignoring you all my childhood. It's my fault you found bad company and are now with the worse person you could ever be with." 

I was the reason he was like this. And now, I didn't know if there was any I could ever do to fix it.

Hayloooo!!!!! Hope you guys enjoy my new chapter! Tell me what you think in the comments below, and please don't forget to vote! Love you guys! Anticipate the next chapter!!! 

~Keziah