Behind the Tears of War

Chapter 20

Once I had reached the ground, I threw my dad's jacket on, stuffing the small letter into my pocket, I then swung the large backpack of clothes and other necessities over my shoulder. Everything seemed like a blur as I walked through the woods by myself, tears threatened my eyes. I did this though, it was all my fault, for If I had forgiven Matt everything would've been fine, so I wouldn't allow those tears to fall. Solitude may have been what I needed. To be by myself so that I could make sense of everything happening around me.
Then I heard a snap somewhere in the shrubbery to my left; if the forest was alive and loud with singing birds and jumping squirrels, then I wouldn't have freaked out but, it wasn't so I whipped around, only to greet a pair of light blue eyes, they looked just like mine. "Are you okay?"

His voice was deep but soft. I may have mistaken him for an Oddity because of his attitude, but he stepped closer. I noticed the dark green uniform he wore and instantly backed away, my eyes widening in shock, my body stiffening in fear. I realized that I'd used my blade yesterday and never gotten it back afterward; therefore leaving me without a weapon. "I'm not here to hurt you calm down." The boy's voice was rushed.

"Why else would you be?" I huffed running my hands nervously through my tangled hair.

"I wanted to explain some things to you, alone." He stepped forward, and looked around cautiously. "First off, my name is Ash Tarenal." He paused, trying to see if I'd believe him. "I know all of this is probably going to sound crazy, but what I'm telling you is the truth." Once again he paused. He seemed sincere, like he was going to mean every word he said. "I-I'm your brother. Before you freak just hear me out.-"

"My brother is Maliki McCarderson you dimwit." I couldn't believe this, someone had really gone that low. General Tarenal was the leading Pendomite soldier in this war, there was no possible way that Ash and I could be related. My mom only had three children, Maliki, me, and then Katrina. My parents were completely in love too, it wasn't like my dad or mom could have had an affair. It didn't sound crazy no, it sounded idiotic, how could someone say anything like that. "You have the wrong person."

The Boy grabbed my wrist and shoved me back. I gasped and kicked him in such an area that he immediately let go of me, groaning in pain as he reached for his privates. He looked angry but recollected his calm. "No I don't, you're Destiny Lee McCarderson, and you're my sister. I actually can't believe you don't remember me, it's not like you haven't meet me before. In fact we've met more than twice."

I laughed awkwardly, sure Ash looked familiar, even his name sounded so, but I couldn't have known him. It couldn't have been true. "I-I lost some memory after the Town Hall." I whispered apologetically in case he had actually been telling the truth after all, which I highly doubted.

"Leave me alone, come back to me when you find some proof." I mutter walking away from the medium sized boy with wavy light brown hair and a rather pale, yet tan reflection. He did look like me, but I didn't want to admit it, Katrina and Maliki looked just as much alike, if not more than this boy looked like me.

"Wait!" Ash called after me. "That's actually what we're trying to find, we- we think that Allen may be hiding it." It felt weird hearing someone calling my dad by a name other than his last one. "We need to find it, if- if someone else finds your blood test results, you're dead." His voice was stiff and he seemed as if he genuinely cared this much.

"I'm not an idiot!" I growled harshly whipping around to meet his eyes.

"You're a pendomite, I'm an oddity, there's no way this is possible." I huffed and wrapped my arms around my chest glaring at him as he tried to find an answer.

"Please, just hear me out-"

"It's not possible and you know that!" I was frustrated, angry and my head felt twice the size it actually was. "It's illegale, my mom would never mess around with your dad, that's just crazy." I hissed pulling at my hair.