13

Chapter 2

Kevin sat silently holding the sleeping Aaron's head resting on his lap stroking his thumb over Aaron's cheek soothingly as Aaron slept peacefully beside him. Kevin looked at Aaron's unconscious form with concern and confusion.

It had been several days since Kevin came to see Aaron. Aaron hasn't woken up from his coma since he passed out the day after being beaten by Xerope.

Xerope had come by to see Aaron a few times but was refused entry whenever he did. He hadn't asked again though so Kevin assumed he forgot why he couldn't enter. Kevin had tried talking to Aaron but every time he attempted to do so his mind would flash back to all of those memories, all of the things he had done which were unforgivable and horrible in his opinion and all he would remember is the pain he suffered during that time; Kevin would always shut his eyes tightly as memories flashed rapidly before him as tears ran down his cheeks. Every single memory he saw made him feel as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest and crushed under his feet. It was painful beyond words and it hurt more than anything else in his life.

But the thing was, what Xerope had said about him wasn't completely wrong. Kevin hadn't known what exactly happened. All he remembered was Aaron going missing and then coming back with his arm mangled and his face twisted in pain.

That wasn't the only thing though, Kevin didn't even know how Aaron ended up injured, or how he got that wound in the first place. But the important thing was he was now aware of what had really happened and he wasn't happy about it at all. Aaron had gotten into trouble for something he didn't even, Kevin remembered Xerope's words, no one kills a member of the community unless it is necessary or because they are threatened. They're not allowed to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve to be hurt.

Kevin remembers the incident where Aaron killed his brother, he remembers Aaron screaming in anguish, and he remembers the fear in Aaron's eyes as he turned his gun around and shot his own brother multiple times in order to escape, he remembers the fear that he felt as he watched Aaron run away without so much as a glance backward; Kevin remembers all of the horrible feelings he has felt over the years, and the memories just kept flooding in.

Kevin was finally forced out of his thoughts when he heard a soft cough coming from Aaron.

Aaron slowly began to open his eyes and stare upwards, his face was pale and red with dried blood on both his hands and face, but he still seemed to be somewhat awake. Aaron's eye lids fluttered open and he stared blankly ahead staring straight ahead. Kevin looked at Aaron worriedly, wondering if he was alright.

"What did we tell you about talking too much, Aaron?" Kevin asks as he wipes off the dried blood from Aaron's face with a tissue.

Aaron's eyes widen in confusion. He doesn't seem to notice where he is or what he is wearing.

He stares at Kevin and then focuses on his hands. Aaron quickly tries to stand up but falls back onto the couch, his muscles still haven't fully healed yet. Kevin helps Aaron up and sits him on the couch. Aaron looks at himself in the mirror and notices his face is covered with cuts and bruises, there's also some fresh blood smeared on his clothes.

"Who did this to you?" Kevin asks sternly as he grabs the hem of Aaron's shirt and pulls it up slightly revealing the large wounds on the side of Aaron's torso. Aaron's stomach and sides are covered in deep purple bruises and cuts. There's also blood on his hands that is also dried blood that is now beginning to turn black due to all of the dirt and the blood stains. Kevin continues staring at the cuts and bruises on Aaron's torso for a minute before he speaks.

"I broke the rules." Aaron whispers as Kevin stares at him confused.

"I did something terrible, and they beat me to a pulp...but I deserved it, Kevin. I deserve to die..." Aaron says with a broken voice, and Kevin suddenly remembers what Xerope said, '

,' and the guilt starts eating him up inside. This was his fault, if only he hadn't gone to see Aaron.

"...Aaron, none of this is your fault." Kevin says firmly.

Aaron frowns and rolls his eyes,"You don't know that Kevin! I killed my family!"

Kevin winces at Aaron's words and clenches his fist angrily as his anger grew. "No you didn't Aaron, you were scared, you were hurting, and you wanted to protect yourself, that's not your fault. You have nothing to be guilty about, and neither does Aaron. Do you get me? No one blames you for what you did Aaron, and it shouldn't be either one of our faults either." Kevin says sternly as he gives Aaron's hand a gentle squeeze.

"How could it not be our fault, Kev? How could we not blame ourselves?" Aaron asks, his voice cracking as a tear falls from the corner of his eye, his voice becoming more and more emotional as time passes.

"Because, Aaron, this isn't what your father wanted for you. This is what you need to stop blaming yourself for Aaron." Kevin says quietly as he continues to hold onto Aaron's hand and continues stroking it.

Aaron continues to cry and cries until he falls asleep. When Kevin woke up an hour later the house was silent apart from Aaron's light snores and he sighed and rubbed his eyes as he gets up and grabs his cell phone and walks towards the living room. He walks over to the sofa and turns off the television as he grabs a towel from under a chair in the kitchen area and puts the towel underneath Aaron's head and places another beneath his shoulders and arms to protect them from falling asleep. Kevin moves away and sighs.

It's true, he thinks as he walks outside into the hallway. The truth is his father never wanted him, his mother and sister died long ago and he was abandoned, Aaron is a part of the reason his father has become like the monster he is. His father never knew what love truly meant, he never cared what his child needed, and instead chose to use them as his pawns in whatever he sees fit.

There's also the fact that he has never forgiven Xerome for what he did to him. Xerome had humiliated him in front of everyone and made him suffer. If Kevin was a better person he'd probably kill Xerome right now. But the thing is, Kevin can't find it in himself to hate Xerome anymore. Xerome's actions were justified in his mind, even though he didn't mean any harm. If Xerome wants to play games then Kevin will gladly give him a game to play.

After that he went to the bathroom, grabbed a couple of tissues and proceeded to wipe the sweat away from Aaron's face and neck, but Aaron's hair stuck to his forehead and made him look like a zombie and Kevin couldn't help but laugh slightly. Kevin decided not to wake Aaron up, but rather move him upstairs and put him in his bed where he could recover easier and Kevin took the opportunity to wash up and change his dirty clothes and clean the blood off his face and hands.

He returned back downstairs carrying his clothes and found Aaron sleeping soundly on the couch. He was sitting upright hugging his knees tight to his chest as if trying to contain the warmth within his body. Kevin smiles at the sight of Aaron, but then stops smiling when he notices that Aaron isn't breathing.

"Aaron!" Kevin yells, and he panics thinking that Aaron may have overdosed and died again. Kevin shakes Aaron violently and shouts at him continuously as he tries desperately to wake him up. Kevin keeps shaking Aaron and he hears Aaron muttering incoherent sentences while occasionally shifting.

"Please wake up Aaron." Kevin pleads as his hands start to shake and he feels the tears pooling in his eyes again. Kevin's crying, he feels his vision blur and he can't stop crying.

"I'm sorry." Aaron whispers as he raises his head slightly, causing Kevin to let go of him. Aaron looks at him and his eyes were half open still blurry from sleep. "Why am I sorry?" he asks confused as he closes his eyes once more and lets out a weak chuckle before falling asleep again.

Kevin stands next to Aaron who's still lying on the floor and stares at Aaron's face which was still contorted with pain even with his eyes, Kevin ja arrive, I will run away together with Aaron from this community thought Kevin, Kevin packed his things is picked up and lifted Aaron and put on his back is decided to flee the community and make sure Aaron is safe.

As soon as he finished putting the last box in the car and closed the trunk with a loud bang, Kevin heard someone call out behind him, but he paid it no attention and continued driving down the driveway.

The car ride was silent except for the engine rumbling and the hum of the radio as Kevin, but kevin spots in the middle of the road cars and trucks and 100 men in front is next to them Xerope ona in front of everyone looking at kevin and laughing. Kevin quickly drove past Xerope and drove away from the scene hoping that Xerome would just leave them alone.

Kevin continued driving down the road, the streets were empty of people, except for him and the two other vehicles. Kevin didn't really care, he was in complete disbelief after seeing what happened with Aaron. Kevin drove past, it's just that a Xerope car crashes into Kevin's car, knocking the air out of him and sending everything flying into the air, luckily Kevin was able to grab on to the steering wheel with enough force so he wouldn't fall off the vehicle.

Kevin quickly pulled over and sat on the seat as he tried to catch his breath, and started gasping for air, it hurt to breathe because everything hurts,two big and strong syrup henchmen get out of the car it's going to Kevin, it's taking Kevin out of the car by force it's throwing Kevin to the ground it's starting to jute him with ropes and tie him up, Kevin struggles against the ropes as the henchmen pull him further away from the vehicle as the sun is setting.

Kevin tries to break free from the ropes tying him to the wheel but he's unable to move anything, the ropes holding him in place seem to grow tighter around his neck.

Suddenly he begins to feel suffocated he starts screaming and shouting for help he doesn't want to die he doesn't want to die please someone help him please no no please no please

the henchmen begin tying Kevin's wrists and ankles together, he tries to struggle but fails as he struggles with all his strength, he hears the car door being opened behind him Xerope stop in front of Kevin and kneel down and stares into his face, it's cold and dark eyes with no emotion in them and he looks angry, very angry, almost insane Kevin thinks as Xerope smirks before speaking.

"You're very strong." Xerope states matter of factly. "I admire that about you." Xerope continues, "Do you, Xerope says but Kevin you disobeyed one of the rules which was to flee our community along with Aaron that a murderer who killed a person in our community safe, you're going to have to learn that consequences are consequences." Xerope says mockingly.

Kevin tries again to escape but the ropes binding his hands are too tight and it won't budge and his legs are too tied up, there's no way that he'll be able to walk away safely.

Sherope kick Kevin's face, is Kevin falling to the ground almost losing consciousness, Xerope look at his henchman and says take Kevin and Aaron to the suicide forest, Kevin look at Xerope getting out of Kevin's way but the henchman kick Kevin in the face is Kevin pass out.

Xerome looks at Kevin and smiles, he's happy that Kevin disobeyed the rule, and not only did he do that, he managed to survive the attempt on his life, Xerome takes a deep breath as he picks up Kevin's limp body and throws him over his shoulder.

"Let's bring him to the forest."

Kevin wakes up tied up along with Aaron in a tree and sees 500 honesns and female henchmen of syrup in front of him and Aaron staring at him, the same smile plastered to his face. Kevin looks at Aaron and sees him breathing heavily and his shirt and shorts covered in dirt and dried vomit.

Kevin tries to speak but he feels his throat dry up and he coughs and splutters a couple times and the henchmen continue staring at him.Sherope appears in front of Kevin wearing a skull mask and Kevin sees several syringe filled with a purple liquid in his hand. Kevin feels fear and confusion take hold of him, he knows exactly what those are and he immediately thinks it's poison, the syringes are filled with lethal poison, but how? Why? Who put these syringes in their hands?

"Good morning Kev."

Xerope says know why the forest we are call suicidal because that disobey nosss rules in our community means that suicide means you don't care about yourself, you don't want to live, you wish that you were dead, that you'd die like everybody else. Xerome tells him.

Kevin struggles to get out of his binds and manages to turn around towards Aaron, Kevin watches as Aaron watches him, they both have different thoughts on what is happening at the moment. Kevin wants to tell Aaron what's going to happen to him but the words got caught in his throat because his vocal chords ached and burned due to the lack of oxygen that's coming through his throat.

Aaron looks like he's struggling to keep his sanity together. He feels like he has no control over anything in his body.

Xerope says and this flroesta has more people who made the same mistake as you Kevin is ended up being killed by me for his disobedience Kevin's eyes widened in horror and terror. Kevin knew he should've never gotten involved in this community. Kevin felt hopeless and lost as he saw Aaron's eyes beginning to close, he couldn't believe that he had caused Aaron so much harm but Kevin was too afraid to say anything or to try and save Aaron so he stood paralyzed in his place waiting, Xerope pick up her sirirca and will start sticking Kevin, when he hears a gunshot, Xerope look back two henchmen die, she drops the syringes and turns around in surprise at the sudden attack.

then Ben is Kiko and 200 more people come out and start shooting at Xerope's henchmen as a few of Kevin's men came out of the forest, they are attacking the henchmen who are still fighting, Xerope screams as her henchmen fell one by one.

Kevin watched as Aaron gets thrown off from his position in the tree, Kevin runs over to where Aaron fell and he sees that Aaron's lying next to an unconscious man, Kevin rushes over to him and places a comforting hand on his side.

Kevin suddenly feels something wet running down his arm, he looks down to see Aaron's red stained shirt.

"No..no no..." Kevin mumbled panicky, he lifts Aaron's shirt to check if he is bleeding and he feels relief wash over him when he notices that he isn't bleeding but there's blood oozing out from Aaron's wound.

"It's okay" Kevin speaks shakily. "We have to carry him home we need to get him to a hospital, Kevin grabs Aaron's arm to help him stand up then carries him piggy back style towards the car. Once, Ben is Kiko go until Kevin is help get Aaron to their car and get him inside the car, Kevin and Kevin carry Aaron to the car and Kevin sits next to him and lays the man head on his lap then place the other on the passenger seat of the car, Kevin carefully placed his arms around Aaron protectively, Ben is Kiko sitting in the front seat is Kiko starts driving out of the woods.

Kevin looked at the blood that stains Aaron's shirt, he can smell death and decay coming from Aaron, the stench making Kevin gag, Kevin wipes his mouth trying to remove the scent but he could still smell it.

He closes his eyes for a brief second trying to clear his head, Kevin was confused about what's going on, vanos back to our community Kevin there has Hospital says Kiko drive us to the hospital.

Kiko and the rest of the group pull into a parking lot and parks the car in the closest space that they could find, everyone got out of the car and followed closely behind.

They walk up to the automatic doors of the Emergency Center of the hospital, they waited outside while they waited for Aaron to be admitted to the hospital.

As they wait, Kevin couldn't calm himself down knowing that this situation could go horribly wrong, what if the paramedics arrive too late, what if Aaron dies, what if Kevin kills him, oh god please no Kevin doesn't want that I don't want that I don't wan--

"There you are, you're finally here!" A nurse exclaims as she walks out of the emergency room, she stops in her tracks when she sees Kevin and the others standing there, she looks at Kevin and asks "Are you Kevin?"

Kevin nods his head yes.

The nurse sighs in relief and says "Thank goodness you're here, your friend Aaron had a severe asthma attack earlier and they needed to send him to the hospital but we didn't really expect you guys to make it here before he died...so, follow me we will go to the recovery area, you can wait here if you'd like."

Kevin and the others follow the nurse into the recovery area. As soon as they enter Kevin could tell that Aaron was already dying, the nurses said theres something called pneumonia and Kevin can see his chest rising up and down slowly but surely, he knows Aaron is close to passing out.

"Your brother Aaron will most likely die within 10 days from the damage done to his lungs." The nurse informed the group. "We've managed to stop the bleeding but it might be a long road of healing."

Kevin and the others nod their heads solemnly, they all stay silent for some ttim.

Kevin leaves the room is I left the hospital wanting to get some air, Ben goes up Kevin is sitting next to you, Ben says sorry I took you to that community Kevin replies in response to Ben, it was my fault that you ended up here and now we might be stuck here forever.

I promise that everything will be fine,Ben reassures Kevin, and I promise that I won't let anything happen to you Kevin says, thank you Ben

Ben and Kevin sit next to each other in the room.