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I remember him telling me like it was yesterday, where I was sitting on his leg looking up at him, my twin was on the other leg, we were only five, and he wasn’t going to tell me but I was begging for him to tell so he did. He started off saying that he was in a bar, a stripping bar to be exact, but then I had no idea what it was but he said it was a place people perform and he was the performer there. Whilst he was there he met a lady and I will quote ‘sexy lady’ who named herself Samantha, she was chosen to help him on stage and he began to do ‘stuff’ to her. Anyway, he said that after the show, he began to talk to her. He said that she was a rich lady, daughter of some business person. Very important girl, way out of his league, eventually he asked her the next day and they began ‘seeing’ each other often and one night they were drinking and they began to get frisky and soon clothes came off.
He paused as he got ready to say the next bit and we waited for a bit before he said that she left for another man, a more sophisticated and higher up guy than him, but he was already in love with her and had just quit his job as a performer and was searching for another job by that time. A couple of weeks later he found two babies at his doorstep, one named Alexander the other named Jacob, I’m Jacob, the younger twin. Dad figures our mom got impregnated by him but didn’t want us so she gave us to him as to not spoil her image; she’s probably off married to some other ‘sophisticated’ guy.
Our dad raised us by himself, getting a job at a factory to pay for the tiny apartment we had, my brother Alexander eventually taught himself how to hack into security and always pressured me into going into the stores and stealing stuff like food and clothes whilst he disarmed the security. We did it for a while before dad caught us, when he did, he wasn’t very happy about it. Banned us from doing it again because he wanted to live an honest life, didn’t want to become thieves to keep on living.
But Alexander didn’t want to stop; he thought it was fun to do it so he kind of bullied me into doing it all over again. I’m not sure what I think of him when I look back, I mean, he’s my twin brother, I love him to bits but he disappoints me with the bullying. But back to the history, we continued doing it in secret when they caught us. They being the police, of course. But they only caught me; Alexander escaped and lied saying he was innocent. Dad grounded me for months after that, never allowed to leave the house, and I was forced to watch everyone playing from my window, even my brother. I don’t really talk to him much now, not after that. I was betrayed, back stabbed by him. I don’t want to be near him anymore. I was around ten at the time and it was a couple of weeks later when dad brought home a girl, she was a very pretty girl and nice, very nice. She treated Alexander and I equal unlike every other adult who treated me like a criminal and Alexander was the golden fruit. But she treated us both the same, and we both loved her. I suppose that’s what brought us together again, Alexander and me.
I was eleven when it happened. It was truth or dare with Alexander’s friends; one of them was a really pretty girl. Alexander both had a crush on her and when one of the dares was for me to kiss her, and so I did. Alexander wasn’t pleased by this. He didn’t talk for the rest of the game and the next day we were playing with our stepmother when she favoured me. I don’t know why she did it, but she did. It happened for a couple of weeks and soon enough all of Alexander’s friends wanted to talk to me. I don’t know why, they just did. And the next month I found Alexander with a gun to his forehead.
I tried to stop him, I really did. I even begged him to stop, but he didn’t, he said I stole everything from him. His friends, his ‘mother’, I tried everything to stop him, even said that she wasn’t our real mother. I screamed for help but nobody came, we were alone, dad and mom were off on a date and we drugged our babysitter so she was asleep. I suppose drugging her was in Alexander’s favour. No one to stop him from shooting, other than me, but if I moved, he would shoot. So I kept on speaking, hoping that my father hurried home and saved Alexander. But he never came. The gunshot still rings in my ears. Every time I close my eyes, the blood splattering the walls comes to my mind. Haunting me. I can never get free from it; can never get free from his death.
After the funeral, my step mother did suicide, not being able to stand the knowledge that she was part of the reason the he’s dead. Father, though he didn’t say, blamed me. It was obvious. I shut myself off from the world, barely leaving my room, not feeling whole, not without him. Eventually father sent me to boarding school at the age of 13, not wanting to look at me. Because I look just like Alexander.
Boarding school was alright I suppose; I didn’t want it to be public that my brother and stepmother did suicide so I just said they were killed in a car accident. I made a couple of friends there, but not too many; I don’t want them to get harmed. Everyone around me always gets harmed in the end. But they latched onto me; there was no getting rid of these three people, Brian, Brianna and Jordan. Jordan had this sort of limp in his leg, but he could run properly, it always confused me.
I was in the classroom at recess I got a detention so I had to stay in there with my teacher, Ms. Brown. I don’t like her, she creeps me out. Anyway, I was sitting at the desk, Jordan and Brian at the door making faces, Ms. Brown doesn’t seem to notice them but that was when she began to make weird noises. I ignored thinking she was just doing this weird coughing noise but when she continued I looked up and frowned getting pretty creeped out.
I stumbled backwards when I saw her turning into some kind of monster (Dracanae), my chair clattering to the ground. Jordan and Brian ran in, Brian held a glowing bronze colored sword, though how he managed to sneak it into boarding school I don’t know. Jordan held these pipes in his hand and started blowing on them and Ms Brown swiped at Brian as vines grew around her legs, pinning her to where she stood. Brian took the chance to slit her neck and she burst into dust before I could say a thing. It was about a minute of silence before Jordan finally coughed to get my attention; I was just standing there gaping.
Ok so I admit I was a bit of a coward for what I did next but I was scared and so I ran. Now trust me, I don’t like to run from things, but when your teacher turns into a monster and your friend does some magic and the other kills it you can’t exactly do much other than running. I ran to my room, I heard Brian running after me but I locked my room before he could enter it, he yelled through the door but I ignored him. I packed my bag quickly whilst calling my father, I didn’t want to be here anymore, and I don’t want to see their faces again. I suddenly dropped the bag as a gunshot rings in my ears and I bite back tears.
“Hello? Jacob?” His voice resonates from the phone and I shook my head, shaking away the memories that were resurfacing.
Hedidn’t believe the story of the monster but he took me out of the boarding school nonetheless, I didn’t say goodbye to anyone at the boarding school. I haven’t seen them in six months. They’ve emailed and called, but I don’t answer them. I try to forget what happened that day. Try to. I was sent to a private school, when I come home I stay in my room, I have an early dinner so I don’t have to see my father. It works for him; he doesn’t really want to see me either.
I was walking home from school one day, fourteen years old, when I passed an alley and heard this faint rustling in an alley, I was curious so I went to investigate. It was this huge dog, size of a horse and foam was coming out of its mouth. When the dog saw me we just stared at each other for a minute until it growled and I ran, terrified of the dog that was chasing after me, looking as if wanted to kill me. I ran onto the road, a main street, and lots of cars. They screeched to a stop and the street was filled with beeping at me, I just ran to the other side, the dog pelting after me but unluckily for it a truck came and ran over it. I made my way home slowly after that, too shaken up by the dog. The squelching sound that came from being run over still sounded in my ears.
When I was fifteen my father left for China, to get a job, he said he was going to come back after two weeks, but he never did. They said it was a plane crash, hit the sea, he drowned before they could save him. Told you, everyone who hangs around me gets harmed in the end, even father. My father was an only child and his parents died in a train crash before I was born so I was sent to a foster care, where it was peaceful, I wasn’t attacked or anything, I was able to drift into the shadows.
Two months after my father's funeral I was at his grave, I have done this for a while, visiting the grave after school on Tuesday. To my right was the caretaker raking leaves with a bucket of water at his feet. I wouldn't have even glanced at him if he didn't drop the rake and scream at something to my left. I looked up to see a horse on fire. The horse was standing on its hind legs when the caretaker jumped infront of me bringing out reed pipes and blew a song making vines grow around the horses legs, whilst he was doing this I looked around for something to fight against the horse, I don't like to be useless. My eyes found the bucket of water and it was just common knowledge that water beat fire. I grabbed the bucket and as the horse was charging, ripping the vines apart, and I threw the water over the horse extinguishing the flames. As the horse recovered from it the caretaker had enough time to take a knife and stab it in the horses chest but the horse went onto its hinds legs at this, not dead yet, but the knife was hanging out of its chest but I guess it didn't hit any vital points or something. The caretaker tried to run but the horse brought its legs down on his back and he slammed to the ground turning into a flower. I don't even know what I should think about that. As the horse walked towards me, I stumbled backwards my hand hitting the caretakers bag and it tumbled to the floor spilling out its contents. Including another knife. I grabbed it and threw it at the horse not really thinking about it but it hit the horses neck and finally the horse burst into gold dust and I just sat there breathing hard until I ran back to the foster care place.
After a year of living at the foster care I was adopted by a woman who worked at a diner and an alcoholic father. My adopted father was an alcoholic and so he got really angry when he got drunk and if I made one simple mistake he would attack me, one time he knocked me unconscious by pushing me down the stairs but my stepmother was worse, she attacked me verbally everyday saying I should never had existed and that they only adopted me out of pity. She made me do every job in the house and if I didn't do one she would get a belt and whip me and I just curled into a ball looking forward to when it was all over. I had bruises nearly everywhere on my body and as to not raise questions I kept jumpers and long pants on to hide them even when it was over thirty degrees.
The public school I went to mostly ignored me, except for this girl that kept hanging around me, she didn’t have any friends so I guessed I was the only person she could hang out with. We barely spoke for a couple of months just sat next too each other, I guessed she was too scared to talk to me or something. Our school had a janitor guy that barely did anything just stood there in the hallway, with a mop in his hand and just stared at students, the girl mentioned once that she didn’t like him, that he ‘smelt’ weird. I didn’t bother asking for her to expand on that. Anyway a couple of weeks later, I had to do this project for school during class and I was standing near the janitor and smoke began to pour out of its nose and made a growling noise. Just like Ms. Brown. It took me a second for this to dawn at me and I didn’t need any more convincing to run.
I heard it follow me but I didn’t dare look back and that was when it went oddly silent and I heard something hit the ground and I skidded to a stop. I just stood there for a second not wanting to turn around but curiosity got the better of me and I turned around to find the girl standing there looking at me a sword in hand and it took me a minute to realise she killed the janitor. I had stepped back, about to run for it like I did at the boarding school but she shook her head and said. ‘Come with me.’ My vision went dazed when I heard her speak and I instantly followed, I had to go with her.
She took me to her car and wow I didn’t know she was rich; she had a silver Mercedes Benz, the ones that had the doors that go up. She told me to go in and so I did, she said we were going to a safe place for me and I didn’t argue. Whilst we were in the car she began to explain the gods, I didn’t know what to think about this but she said she was a child of Venus, hence why she could force me into the car, she said she used charmspeak on me, after the explanation I sat in silence not sure what to say so I ran things over in my head. And couple of hours later I arrived at camp Jupiter, seventeen years old, the girl ditched me there at camp to go do something with her friends, I haven't seen her since.
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