Detroit?

Time to say your goodbyes

(Warning!
Mostly to people that enjoy this book for its "loveliness", I am not a fan of happy endings and I might continue on this story. I have ideas but I've never been very good at making full fleshed out books so this short story was a way to stray from the norm. This is an optional chapter meant for people who would enjoy the potential sequel of this short story. ((It would be longer then this, as there is a lot more that happens)) don't put yourself through reading it if you enjoy happy endings! I won't be mad! With that said, onward!)

Fourth Week
I was in bed when I heard it. Markus and my father had left for one of their 'parties', leaving me alone in a bed while I looked for a job. Musicians tended to be... scarce around here. In fact, when the animated voice of the doorway piped up I almost missed it. I had been staring so intently at an ad for a waitress at a coffee shop that the noise had almost gone unnoticed.

"Welcome home, Leo Manfred." The word's were hard to hear from my room all the way upstairs. My brain took a moment to comprehend what had happened, what had been said, before my entire body tensed. Leo? My brother? There was no way he was here. Last time father had spoken of him he had dropped the 'red ice' bomb on all of us. My loving brother was now an avid drug user. That didn't set well with any of us, even Markus had gotten anxious when father spoke of it.

If Leo really was downstairs, well, you could say I was rather screwed. With a leg having to be elevated off the bed from the wound Markus had patched up only a day before I could barely walk. Red ice users also tended to be stronger than most, meaning my super-strength brother would be able to crush me like a light. Not that he hadn't been able to do that before...

So fighting was off of the table. I had no choice in this situation. If I was found, I was dead. My breathing starting to pick up with panic as I slowly close my computer. The small click it made as the two surfaces touched made me wince. Why couldn't they make silent computers?

I slowly pick up the metal slab on my lap and set it to the side. My hands were shaky and unstable as I did so, but they did their jobs. The computer was set down nicely and silently against the covers of the bed. With the computer taken care of my attention quickly went to the lamp. Light could be seen from all the way down the hallway. If my brother was aware of my presence in Detroit he would surely at least glance up the stairs. If he was suspicious he would do more.

So, with as silent a hand as I could manage, I bent my body slowly towards the lamp. The string I was going for hung down just enough for me to see it. Of could the voice activation was only a few inches to the side, but that didn't seem like a good option at the moment. Almost as soon as my fingers were wrapped around the metal string I tugged on it hard. Another clicking sound filled he room before darkness enveloped my father's guest bedroom. This had once been my own, but as he lost hope in my return he transformed this room into something else.

From below me I head the mechanical sliding of the studio door. It was smooth yet far from silent, as my father had made it so. For a moment I send a silent thank you to whatever god was watching. But, what could Leo be doing in the studio? Sure he was a weirdo but he had no interest in painting...

'None of them care about the paintings! All they care about is all the money they will make from them.'

Of course, my father's favorite words. In the month I had been with the two he had thrown those words around like candy. Markus had even repeated them one time, to which I had cackled my head off about. Imagine the looks Markus had given me for that...