The Shadows Within Us | Grethan

9

grayson's point of view

Her words felt like another bucket of ice water was tossed over me. My fault? What did she mean by that? What could I have done to kill my own brother? It wasn't me who killed him! He was murdered! I was a damn sleepover when my parents told me he had gone missing. How could I have left there and killed him? In fact, why the fuck would I kill him in the first place?! He was my older brother! The one I looked up to, the one I still look up to. He meant so much to me. Everything I did, I had done for him. Why would I kill the person who meant so much to me?

"W-What do y-you mean I-I killed him?" I stuttered. My mother sneered, rolling her eyes. "You were always the weak one, Grayson. Still, to this day, you could never ever compare to Alex. It's a damn shame he had to take your place." My brain fired with question marks. What the fuck happened to my brother? At the point when the police had come to tell us he was dead, I was in such a state of shock that I didn't even hear half the story. I just knew he was killed, presumed to be murdered, and found in the middle of the woods in Wyoming, hours away from our home in Montana.

Was there more to the story? "I don't understand. What happened to Alex! I didn't kill him! I wouldn't forgive myself if I did!" I screamed, pulling on the rope that held me to the chair. I wanted to get up and hit something. Nothing was making sense, and my mother was still giving me no information. "You didn't kill him physically, no. But it's your fault he's dead." She answered. "Still, I don't understand! How the fuck is it my fault that my older brother is dead!" I yelled, the tears now starting to stream down my face. If anything, I was frustrated beyond belief and my mother was not helping the situation whatsoever. Did she want me to get angry and scream at her?

"The night Alex was taken, you were supposed to be in his place. However, unbeknownst to your father and I, you were out someplace, and Alex was sleeping in your bed. Our co-workers, the ones who drugged you and drove you here to our facility in Wyoming, had made the terrible decision of taking Alex instead of you." The evidence of surprise was on my face. My brother was...kidnapped? I was supposed to be kidnapped? My mother and father planned this? Ethan and I were drugged? Wait, that I knew. "The plan was for you to be taken here, and given the mutation. You were supposed to be our first host."

Host? Didn't that mean I was going to be carrying something? Like a disease or an illness? "What do mean by host?" I inquired. My mother stopped walking around the small cement room. She looked directly at me as she spoke, "The host for your father and I's creation. The Warpvine. A killing machine that can destroy any and everything. It is supposed to be used for military purposes, but since this dumbass country said fucking no to our brilliant idea, your father and I took it into our hands." My stomach was in my mouth, and I felt like I was choking on it. I turned from my mother's cold glare and stared at the floor.

I knew that both my mother and father served our country, way before Alex or I was born. They had resumé so damn thick, that it would take hours to read. They had set records and went on highly classified missions. However, I had no idea that they were...making this killing machine for our military. "This machine, as I'd like to call it, was something your father, me, and a few other trusted agents knew about. Our general had appointed this to us 2 years before our service ended. We signed NDAs and had to keep quiet about it. If you even tried to bring it up, you were shot dead. It was highly classified, and in the end, only your father and I were left.

"When the time of our service was coming to an end, we tried to present the project to the higher ups, but they shot down the idea before even hearing it. Saying that "We don't need that type of power." and that "Guns and tanks are enough." Your father and I knew it was the worst mistake they could have ever made in their lifetime. He and I promised each other to finish what we started, and that we would be the ones everyone was bowing down to. However, that plan failed when our son was killed. The grief of losing Alex took a hold of us and we took sometime off, leaving Patricia and Karl to take over for us.

"Somehow, they got me and your father back with a plan to find you and bring you here to finish what we started. And now that you're here, I can't fucking wait to kill you." She curled her lip at the end of her rant as she looked at me, and that's when I knew for a fact that she was indeed going to kill me. If she did it giving me the mutation for this machine/creature she and my father had created. Or just sticking a knife into my heart. She would be happy. I prayed for the former though. But I knew in the back of my head that she'd want me tortured. Even if I was her son, she wanted to blame someone but herself for my brother's death.

She turned to leave, but before she go, I yelled, "What happened to Alex? Did the mutation kill him?" It was plausible that the mutation was deadly enough to kill the host from the inside out, but if my mother and father were smart enough to be put on this project, I assumed that was not the case. "No. He was killed by another Warpvine that had went insane. Your father had been able to change the brain of the host so we could control it. However, it didn't work on this host and it went mad. Your brother had been able to take the mutation and when put into battle with the other rogue Warpvine, was killed. When he was found in the woods, he was in his human form.

"When the police had found him, he had scratches all over him, and a broken claw from the other Warpvine in his back. Because we have connections with the police, your father and I were able to keep the shit quiet so no one thought anything of it. We told them to say murder and act like he was part of case of a serial killer going around Northern Wyoming that had been murdering young boys. Your brother fit the profile and it was swept under the rug the next day." She finished. I still couldn't understand the whole story, and possibly never would, but I was more sad than angry. My brother had went through so much pain and in the end, died because of it.

"The story is not done yet, Grayson." Her sharp words pulled me out of my thoughts. "Your father and I wanted revenge. It was either killing the other Warpvine, which we did anyway, or try to bring back your brother to go and find you and bring you back here and finish the job. When you had run away after the police broke up your little party in the woods, your brother, in his Warpvine form, was able to track you down. Since we were able to control his brain, we tried to bring you to the facility in Wyoming. But because the connection was weak and your brother was still in his right mind, he wondered that if dragging you to Washington would take you away from us. He was very wrong, and is now being punished."

What the actual FUCK. Alex was the thing who dragged me through the woods? He tried to save me from my parent's wrath? He's being punished? Ethan and I killed him...right? Wait...

He's alive?!