The Pain Of Remembrance

Chapter 11

Michael's Pov.

I never had high hopes. Not since the moment I found out my baby brother was dead. Never once had I expected anything to go smoothly for me. But for this very moment, I hoped that fate was on my side. That maybe, just maybe, the world would take mercy on me and give me this one thing. Bryan looked at my mother with a confused look. His bruised eyes passing between her to me. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Is something the matter mom?" Lizzy asked, glueing herself to Bryan's side. Ballora ran a hand threw her metal hair. Her eyes opened, revealing her blood red eyes. Just the sight of them sent shivers down my spine. "Look. I don't know how to say this.." Her voice was soft, obviously struggling to find the words. Bryan reached out and grabbed her snow white hand. "What's ever bothering you, you can tell me. Is it something I did?"

Her red eyes locked on with my yellow. A silent message passing between us. What do we say? How do we tell him? A pain began to spread in my chest. Anxiety flooding threw my veins. "Well...''...you see....." Gosh why did this have to be so hard?! "So it is something I did! Please! What did I do?" Bryan's grip on Ballora's hand seemed to increase. Mom shook her mechanical head wildly. "No! You didn't do anything! It's just.....did you know your real parents?"

The bad business owners face slowly turned even more confused. And might I say, suspicious? "No they died before I woke up from my coma. Why do you ask?" And oh you could cut the awkwardness with a knife! Ballora shifted. "Well ...um you see..." Baby latched onto Bryan's arm looking just as suspicious of our mothers words. "Your kind of...." And here we go. The cherry on top of awkward. "My son."

The room was unbearably quiet. Lizzy's mouth hung open as her eyes slowly became wider. The toy she held fell to the floor. No one moved. No one made a sound. I think the worst part of it all was how Bryan just stared. His face completely blank. No emotion. Impossible to read. "Heh." I would like to admit that I didn't jump. But the sudden noise indeed scared me. The noise began to increase in volume. And it was only now did I realize that the noise was laughter.

Bryan's body shook as scarey, loud, almost psychotic laughs escaped his betan frame. He dropped Ballora's hand, instead gripping his hair in a painfully tight hold. "T-that's a good joke! R-real funny!" He managed to rasp out. "And right when I thought maybe someone actually cared! HA!" Tears began to form in his eyes. "Let me guess. Michael told you. This was planned by Jon right?" I felt myself becoming numb. He doesn't.....

"Bryan please!" Ballora cried, falling onto her knees so she would be eye level with hm. "It's true! Your my youngest son! We thought you died!" She grabbed his hand, only for him to pull it away roughly. The laughing had stopped. I could feel the little hope I had died. "You know Ballora, I knew the others hated me, but I thought maybe you liked me." His face morphed into a bone chilling glare. "But the fact that you were in on this, well, I guess not."

More tears ran down his face. I tried to place my hand on his shoulder, only for him to flinch away. "And you Michael. Tell Jon I never want to see him again. This was cruel. Even for him." The businessman reached for the hood of his jacket, pulling it over his head and eyes. "You know you really shouldn't joke about something like that. Someone may actually believe you." With a final glance at my sister, he gripped the wheels of his chair, and rolled himself out of the tent. "It wasn't funny."