The Fallen | Risen Book II

Chapter Eighty Seven

A Better Idea
Ryder Slade

A woke up with a punch across the face.

"Why do you insist on hurting me Jeff?" I asked still feeling groggy.

I knew where I was, they had me tied up in the woods somewhere to a old wooden chair, likely on the east side of the Fallen Dimension in the woods that use to belong to the Travelling Hunters.

"Ryder, you did unspeakable things to not only me, but to your own friends and family, of course I'm hurting you" Jeff spoke.

"That wasn't me" I uselessly repeated to him.

He punched me across the face again.

"Stop lying!" he barked to me.

A moment of silence past, I looked around and noticed that Carter, Jorge and Dion were among the crowd of Pirates.

"Where's Jayce?" I asked, I saw Jeff order them to take Jayce away. I was prepared to die by this maniac, but I wasn't ready for my brother to face the punishment as well.

"He's safe" Jeff spoke calmly, I actually believed him. "We returned him to the Sandlock unit, I have no interest in killing the leader of the Rebellion, I only want you" Jeff explained.

I rolled my eyes, god if this guys starts confessing his love to me I'm gonna loose it.

"Why do you want me dead? I know I betrayed you, but that can't be it, there must be more" I spoke hoping to just keep him talking, hoping that someone was coming for me, and if not, maybe I could get him talking, keep him talking, and change his mind about this crazy plan of his.

"When I came to the Fallen Dimension, I felt lost." Jeff started, backing off from me and beginning to pace around the chair that I was tied too.

"I was under control by yet another horrible, greedy, murderer. This time it was the Captain. My entire life I've been placed under someone elses thumb, not sharing there beliefs or opinions but just hiding behind them because that's what I was" Jeff started.

"I was a follower" 

"First it was my Dad, he was a drunk, and always angry, so angry in fact that he would beat the shit out of both my mother and I. But mother never did anything to stop him. She'd always just tell me to stay out of my fathers way, that he was just "blowing off steam". I was young, but I knew it was bullshit. I was a only child, and I tried to protect my mother and myself from my crazed father, but it was useless"

Jeff pulled up a chair and sat across from me. I could tell I was about to get a life story.

"As a only child, I had nobody to talk to about these things, nobody wanted to hang out with the kid who showed up to school everyday with bruises. The worst part was when I called the cops they did nothing, they said that I was just a attention craving little kid, they called me a little cocky bitch to be exact"

Jeff pulled his golden compass from his belt and starred at the dial.

"I learned later on that my father had paid off the cops to say those things and turn the other cheek. See my father was also a drug dealer, and those dirty scumbags were under his thumb. When I could, I left the house for the only thing I knew, War"

Jeff then pulled his eyepatch up, showing me the hole and the scarred thing that was his eyeball. It wasn't a empty socket, there was still a eye, but it was fractured and broken like a piece of glass. Pieces of white and red filled what was his eye socket.

"I joined the Military, my commander was another prick, and I followed his every stupid command because I thought that was what was right. When the world started to go to shit, I was sent with Carter and a few others to secure a small town. The town was quickly overwhelmed with fear and the undead. Carter and I found ourselves with a man named Ace, who brought us to the Church. The story goes on" Jeff explained placing the eye patch back over his eye.