Touched By A Dragon

Chapter 26: The Way It Is

“Why, what do you mean why?” Stryker screamed in outrage.
“Brother I don’t understand, we were inseparable, I loved you!” Mike choked, tears riming his eyes. “Why would you do this to me, to them, please just help me find Destany and Sprit, this is your home, you can manipulate it, please brother! Help me.”
Stryker dropped Mike like an expired piece of meat and stared at him in disgust.
“Are you even listening to yourself? That’s all you talk about, all you think about, yourself! When you left you didn’t even say two words to me, you just left! All this time you haven’t mentioned that you missed me or that you were searching for me! You couldn’t even take five minutes out of looking for your precious Princess to think about me! I left because I couldn’t bear the thought of living without you by my side; I left because I was looking for you! Did it ever occur to you that maybe there was someone who loved you other than yourself? That maybe you’re not alone or maybe you had someone that would be there no matter what? I ran away from home with nothing apart from the cloths on my back because I couldn’t live another moment thinking that you were alone and scared.” Stryker yelled, tears now brimming his eyes like his brother. “Now I don’t want anything to do with you! You don’t even want me in your world; you said that this was my home, you are right; this is my home, the only place I am wanted by the only thing that wants me, the darkness. The first words you said to me, after all these years was ‘who are you’. You didn’t even recognise me?”
“Well, brother, you changed everything that makes you, you, you’ve changed your blond hair black, your blue eyes red and your tanned skin chalky white,” Mike muttered, taken back.
Stryker sank to his knees, his head in his hands, the storm getting louder and louder, swirling around him and shrouding him in the eye if it. Mike shook his head, reality hitting him as he realised that he had turned the most important person in his life, Stryker, his little twin brother, into a monster that was capable of doing this, capable of ruining people’s lives and killing many others. Not even thinking, Mike stood up and walked right into the storm, unaffected he kept walking, looking straight ahead, all he could think about was his brother, how he had let his brother down. He didn’t notice that the wind and thunder parted for him or that whenever he came close the storm around him froze altogether, all he noticed was his brother. Now that Stryker had stopped focussing on changing how he looked, he had shoulder length sandy blond hair, grey-blue eyes and naturally light skin, he was sobbing into his hands, the storm swirling around him, on his knees, his hands in his lap. Suddenly the storm changed to one of Mike’s memories, the area around him pixelated, just like before, but Mike knew he was in control. The scene round them was their home, in Stryker’s old room, the bed was creaky, the roof was leaking, dust caked the window seal, moved into the air by the draft. In this memory Mike and Stryker where little and they were poor, but they were happy. Stryker was on the bed, in the same position he was in before, he was the same age and so was Mike, he was standing exactly the same was he was before, only the scene around them had changed. Mike thought back on when this happened the first time. Stryker was crying because he was afraid of the monsters under his bed, he was about five and terrified out of his mind. Mike was also five but he wasn’t scared, he was only a few minutes older than his brother but he cared the world for him. Mike had come into the room and saw his brother crying, he just wanted to help him so he went under the bed and he slept there all night. But Mike didn’t know what it had to do with this situation he was in now. So he just stood there, looking at his brother cry, knowing that he was the monster, that he was the reason that his brother was crying. Mike took a breath and let it out, steading himself. He walked up to his brother and sat on the bed which creaked in protest. 
“Stryker, I-I’m so sorry, I thought that…” He started.
“No Mike, you should go.” Stryker gasped in between tears, with no emotion in his voice.
Then he waved his hand and everything vanished, Mike was left standing, surrounded by darkness with Peter and two shimmering ghosts, one was a dragon and the other was a girl. Mike did not notice this though; he was staring straight ahead, beyond the horizon. His eyes filled with tears. Mike jumped when Peter, now fully conscious, placed a hand on his shoulder and groaned.
“I don’t know what I missed or how you did it and, quite frankly, I don’t want to know. But you got them. So I am finally going to get out of this weird place.” He smiled, but his smile faded as Mike turned around and Peter saw his tears. 
“Mike, you ok?”
Mike raised a hand, touched a tear and looked a little bit surprised. Then and wiped his eyes and face. 
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll help you get back. I’m not going anywhere until brother wants me too anyway.” He replied, forcing a smile and leading Peter away. 
Mike stood and watched as Peter disappeared into the lightning. When Peter was gone, he raised a hand to his face and touched a tear forming near his eye, he brought his finger holding the tear in front of his face, a smiled a sad smile.
“After all this time, I still have tears left to cry. Does this mean that maybe after all, there is still a chance of hope?” He said to himself, before taking a breath and walking away from where he needed to be.