Blueprint: - 'Brother Of An Angel' [11] - (1)

[Phoenix]

.The beginning of 'Phoenix Chronicles [Blueprint: -Slander]' starts here.  'Will I Ever See You Again'

this story is changing to first person…the later chapters are better [from 6 or so onwards] trust me

The first draft of BOAA. planned BEFORE the rest of PC.

Read before this first, then start on the others.

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Main characters: - Connor and Brendan
Outcast/popular: - Popular
Start date: - 25/11/05
End date: - *some time in July the next year*

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*Brendan*

I knew that life wasn’t simple, I knew that everything, everyday was a new challenge waiting to happen. But that didn’t prepare me for my dad dying. After that I grew closer to my brother then I ever had before, I couldn’t put my feelings into words however much I tried.

How could I have known what would happen that day? If there was a way for me to turn back the time, doesn’t my mum think I would? I couldn’t let ‘him’ get away with it.
I had to seek revenge.

*Connor*

Ohh, I wish I could tell him the truth, he’s my best friend as well as a brother. A bond so close I couldn’t expect for it to ever break. It still has yet to even after that day.

I knew secrets that he didn’t though, and I also knew he had to find them out before anything else could happen…but how?

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*Contents*

Forward – [currently unnamed]
Chapter 1 - The beginning
Chapter 2 - Silent Sufferer]
Chapter 3 - Misunderstood
Chapter 4 - Brother's Of An Angel

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[Phoenix]

   Brendan Reace walked through an alley, it was cold and damp and there was something eerie about the alley that he didn’t like. He crossed all doubts off his mind however, and walked on. Feeling that horrible feeling that he was being watched and judged from people he didn’t know.
   He stopped half way and stared at the two words on the wall, ‘Murder’ and ‘Re-birth’ this was why he didn’t like this alley. He would have gone a different way home, but that way was filled with police investigating a crime scene and the whole road was blocked off.
   Two years before, a girl no younger than himself was walking through here. Walking to her house only 200 yards from where he stood. The next thing that Brendan knew, the Alley was blocked off and when the police had lifted the tape saying ‘crime scene, do not enter’ one person in the middle of the night spray-painted the two words that Brendan was still staring at.
   He remembered that girl; she was called Katie and sat next to him in school sometimes. He said a silent prayer for her then walked on, after all nothing could bring back the past.
   “Brendan!” A girl called,
   “Yeah,” Brendan waited mid-step for the girl to catch up to him,
   “Need…to…tell…you…something…” She said, panting between each word, Brendan held out a drink bottle and she took it gratefully. After she opened it and drunk a couple of gulps, she handed it back to him and said, “I just dumped Will…”
   “That’s good…” Brendan said,
   “Yeah, but there’s a slight problem…” Melissa, the girl said. She waited for a response but never got one, “I’m moving…” She paused, this time not waiting for Brendan to say something, this time she was waiting for the new news to sink in, “To America…”
   “For good?” Brendan asked, Melissa nodded.
   “MELISSA!” A person called from the distance,
   “He followed you?” Brendan asked her quietly,
   “I didn’t know he was…” Melissa answered, “…But do one thing for me…quickly…” She said rushed,
   “What?” Brendan asked,
   “Go out with me…please…” Melissa replied, Brendan held his eyes wide for a few seconds, but before he could react, Will grabbed hold of him and pushed him to the floor.
   “Think it’s funny…going out with my girlfriend?”
   “I’m not your girlfriend anymore remember?” Melissa squeaked, “Just get off him!”
   “No!” Will shouted, punching Brendan in the face and backing away a few centimetres. He let Brendan get up slowly before he punched him again, this time not letting him get up. After, that he got up and kicked him and punched him some more. Melissa was leaning against a wall, her insides had melted and she felt too weak to even stand. Just before she fainted however, Connor, Brendan’s identical twin caught her and carefully sat her down.
   Will stopped kicking Brendan then and turned around, he was about to hit Connor but seemed to remember something and so backed away. Leaving Brendan on the floor and Connor leaning over him.
   Brendan turned over every few seconds but Connor didn’t seem to notice, Brendan was having a nightmare from what happened two years before.

[Saint]

Ouch! That was fast-paced... and violent!

I like violence, but not against Brendan :'(

[Phoenix]

i has a first reader?

*cheers*


chapter 1's being posted soon

[Phoenix]

   Brendan was sleeping in his bed at home, his window was open and his door was half open showing the light coming in from the landing. It is Friday 25th November when this story starts, it is early morning and the birds have yet to start their usual chorus of songs. Brendan still sleeps on, his alarm goes off in 5 minutes yet he is fast asleep, tossing and turning from the nightmare he is still dreaming. Can anything wake him up?
   Brendan eventually wakes himself off and stares at his covers that are now screwed up on his bed; he is never at his best this early in the morning. He slowly rubs his head letting his hair fall in front of his eyes; his alarm has yet to make the irritating sound he despises most of all, so while he waits for the cry he kicks his blankets off the bed and sits up. Letting himself remember the pain that he went through was something he didn’t want to remember, but saying ‘Yes’ to Melissa was something he did.
   He bangs his alarm to shut the alarm up as soon as it cries, yet he makes the sound louder and hurts his hand in the process; annoyed he picks it up and throws it against the other side of the wall. The alarm then shuts up. Brendan is a 15-year-old boy and is taking his GCSE’s, nothing interesting you would think. Something is about to happen though, that will change his life altogether. Is he prepared? We will have to find out.
   Brendan’s twin brother Connor was in the next room to his, but instead of being half asleep he was wide-awake. There are just two things you ought to know about these twins; no.1 is that the only difference between Brendan and Connor is that Brendan has Blue eyes, and Connor; brown. And no.2 is that Connor isn’t really there for most of the story. The reasons why will be clear, until then read on.
   Brendan eventually got dressed and splashed himself with water to get rid of the sweat that had formed on his face. After that he walked back into his room and found his brother searching through his drawers,
   “What you after?” Brendan asked not looking at him,
   “Just some socks, mum forgot to wash mine.”
   “You’re looking in the wrong drawer then, socks are in the bottom one.” Brendan said sitting on his bed putting his tie on.
   “Thanks.” Connor said after pulling out a pair, Brendan smiled and Connor walked out leaving Brendan to search for a pair for himself.

   After the usual morning rush, the two boys headed for school, a whole days working ahead of them. During History, Connor’s teacher Mr.Atkin’s reminded him about the after school he had that day. Connor grumbled in annoyance and walked to Music, his next lesson.
   Brendan arrived at home quarter of an hour late after school, his best mate Ryan wanted to look for ideas for Christmas presents and Brendan tagged along hoping to meet his brother when he got off the bus.
   When the time came, Connor had to get off the bus alone, and started to walk through the dark streets before it got darker. Brendan had a call from his mum and told him to come home around 5:00, after she realised that Brendan was late.
   This was why Connor was alone. He started to walk through the damp, dark alley that separated his home with the nearby street. He then stopped walking fast and  continued slower in the dark, his after school detention on his mind. Connor didn’t mind the cold; he just had his school shirt, trousers and trainers on. His bag was on his shoulder, and as he grew bored he swung it from arm to arm catching it. As he grew closer, he saw someone was blocking the other side. He was going to run or even to go back the way he'd just come, but the figure was close and didn't see him as a threat. Instead he just kept quiet and still as the tall figure reached just a few steps away from him; he then recognized the figure then;
   “Do you want to get passed?” Connor asked him as the figure; Will. Not seeing him as a threat was now an obvious mistake as he grabbed the weapon he held in his pocket. Connor didn't know he was armed yet though, so still didn't escape. The figure then started breathing deeply as he started getting the glass out of his pocket. Slowly he remembered how he’d grabbed from his house on the way to the small alley; he knew this was supposed to happen. But all the same he always thought the worst, ‘What would happen if it all went wrong?’ he thought, ‘Would I go to jail?’ The gardening gloves he wore to protect his hands were old and had holes in, but still Will managed to get the glass out of his pocket without cutting himself. Connor, however didn’t realize this unfortunately he didn’t realize his life was going to be on the verge of life and death in only a few short minutes. Unfortunately the glass was a 10cm shard, the biggest Will could find in the minutes he had.
   “Will?” Connor asked, “What’s wro-” he stopped and screamed as the knife entered his chest.
At that point, Brendan sensed something was wrong, so ran to the alley, but it was too late. Will had already stabbed Connor 3 times, with difficulty but was already going for the 4th as Brendan ran to grab Will out of the way. Will turned around before Brendan had even got even half way into the alley way, but said nothing, only one thing was on his mind. Brendan then ran back home and got his mum and she rung the police. She shouted after Brendan as he ran back to check on Connor. He knew he was an idiot for leaving his brother when he knew how badly he was injured, but he had no choice. He didn’t have his phone on him, and knew that this was more serious than what he could manage alone. Will, after seeing that Brendan had gone home ran himself away from the nightmare he was living. He knew he had gone too far, but stopping himself now would be impossible.
   “CONNOR!” Brendan shouted, Connor looked up, weak but alive, just…
   “Help-” Connor tried to say, but he was getting even weaker with every minute that passed them both by, time seemed to go so slowly. But when the ambulance arrived, Connor was already dead.
   Before the ambulance did arrive though, Will did come back to find Brendan basically screaming at Connor to wake up. Even though he didn't want to face it, didn't want to accept it. He knew Connor was dead, he grabbed his brother's wrist and checked for the pulse that he knew wouldn't be there. 'One beat, please. Not now, not like this' Brendan screamed in his head, he knew the pain was too much already but also knew that Will was now a murderer. 'MAKE HIM PAY' part of Brendan's mind screamed out, 'MAKE HIM PAY FOR THIS'. Brendan slowly got up, his heart was racing, beating faster and louder with every second. Every beat was banging in his ears, every beat of his heart was a curse because he knew the one person he wanted breathing instead of him was dead. And yet nothing could bring him back.
    “You murdered my brother…now you’ll pay” His voice was quiet, but evil. Was this the same Brendan that laughed at life? The same easygoing, down to earth person who only this morning had a dream of how great life could be? How could it be when everything changed in less than a minute?. His brother was dead, now he was alone, so when Brendan slowly and forcefully pushed himself up, Will just stood back against the wall, not knowing what would happen next, not knowing how much anger Brendan had inside him. Brendan forced himself to punish Will, to punch him as much as his body could take, but the only thing that worried Brendan was the fact that Will could still have the glass on him. Unfortunately, he did, but he didn’t know that. He just went for his face, he just got one punch on his face and was going for a second, when Will got the glass back out and stabbed Brendan in the right side of his chest, then Will ran again, Brendan fell, next to his brother, trying to stop the blood escaping out the side of his chest, (having no success, )he screamed with pain.
   Just then, his mum came running round the corner with the sound of the police siren close behind her and sounds of the ambulance close behind that, she was the one who went straight to Brendan, she had a feeling that Connor was dead even without looking over at his body. Now face down and filled with fear of what he’d already become…dead. He was scared of death. Brendan was too scared to say what really happened in the alley, he still wasn’t speaking after 5 days in hospital for shock and the stab wound in his chest, but that didn’t stop the police, his family and friends trying to get what really happened out of him. They only knew someone had stabbed Connor and it obviously wasn’t Brendan. They didn’t know who did it because Brendan was the only person who saw…but he was still shocked by seeing his own brother dying in front of him, and seeing that Will could get away with it!.

   He had smooth brown hair, but also had faint light brown and blonde highlights. He had blue eyes that attracted most of the girls his classes and when he was switching lessons.
   He was medium height, but growing taller every day. And as you’d already guessed, was a rebel, doing what the teachers said, but gradually and over time, he was like this before, but now he’d changed, he’d gained a reputation by this, but still had the same gang he’d always had.
   No matter what, Brendan always brought his CD player in, he always listened to it in one ear during brakes, with the wires hiding beneath his school shirt. He always had a tie on, which magically grew shorter during the day, and always had his blazer off, and shirt tucked out, with key chain dangling beside his right leg with his keys and wallet attached at the back with pictures of his brother and all his mates on. He’d scribbled on the backs on them who they were, and made decorated borders with doodles for when he grew bored in a lesson. The doctors said that that stab wound would be a permanent scar, which was ironic, because all Brendan wanted to do was forget what happened, but every time he looked at the scar, he’d remember exactly what happened. 

   Brendan had an unusual visitor the following day when his mum came back home from her friends,
   “Where is he?” Asked his girlfriend. She was unusual because she moved to America two years after they both started secondary school, he hadn’t seen her since then
   “In his room, where he’s stayed ever since he came back from hospital.” Brendan’s mum replied. Melissa then walked straight up and walked up to his room, she did knock first, but Brendan just stayed in the same curled up position on his windowsill, In the mornings and evenings, he stayed by the window, afternoons curled up at the back of the bed with the pillows hiding the tears silently crawling down his face.
   “Brendan” said Melissa, shocked at the boy she’d known disappear.
   “I’m not here to ask what happened, I know you won’t tell me. But I guess that doesn’t stop me being here. I heard what happened, your mum called me and said. She was on the verge of breaking down, I’m so sorry. He didn’t deserve to go like that.”
    Brendan then moved from the windowsill and over to his bed where his laptop was waiting. Brendan looked back at Melissa, but he could see through the same happy face she had on. Everyone else had the happy face to hide the worried expression that they couldn’t show and he couldn’t bear to see. So Brendan looked away again this time to the window, which to his surprise had now started to snow.
   He knew he couldn’t tell her, words came so hard to him the past few days. The only communication he gave was to his mum in shakes or nods of his head. So he decided to show her what happened by writing it down. That way, only she could see it. ‘Maybe it will be easier this way’ Brendan thought opening Microsoft Word from the start menu. Brendan described nearly everything, everything apart from the person who killed his brother. Melissa was wondering why, well until he told her that even though he didn’t go out, that he was still scared, he knew the person who did it was watching his house nearly every day. Will made up excuses that he was getting bullied. He made up the story so that he’d get out of school and to wind up the teachers of the fake story.

   Connor was the one who told Brendan to tell Melissa what happened, except that Connor couldn’t predict the future and telling Melissa would be a big mistake. He also tried to persuade Brendan to come out of his room, but even he wasn’t having any luck. It wasn’t until 2 weeks after he’d come out of hospital that he properly came out. Even then he knew that everyone else was out. He could still feel his brother’s presence even though he was dead.

   His brother’s funeral was in just two days, but he still hadn’t decided whether to go or not, it was hard enough when he saw him die in front of his eyes. But now he had to face his brother in a coffin, dead…it was looking likely to him, that he wouldn’t say goodbye till the ceremony had ended and when everyone else had gone that he’d come out of the bushes that hid him from view and say goodbye then.

    On the Friday 9th December, it was Connor’s funeral. In the two weeks that Brendan had spent in his bedroom, Kathy had arranged the funeral and the wake afterwards. Brendan didn’t want to go, and told his mum he wasn’t going. When the hearses slowly drove up Brendan’s street, Kathy was making a final run around to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Richard was just standing outside, not helping but instead smoking. When Kathy had everything, she slammed the door and Brendan jumped, he didn’t cry but shook with fear and uncertainty with living without his brother ever again. Melissa then walked in; Brendan strangely didn’t notice her straight away. This of course was until she came in and hugged him so hard, he nearly lost his breath, he had tear in his eyes every second as they silently made there way down his face and which made a damp patch on his jeans and t-shirt…
   “Are you going to the…” She paused, she didn’t know how to say Funeral and not take other peoples feelings in
   “Yeah…course I am!” Brendan replied. And Melissa looked surprised, not because she wasn’t expecting that, but because that was the first time he’d spoken since it happen, since Connor had died.

   Brendan was waiting at the back of the church, his arms covering his eyes as he cried the hardest he could. He didn’t want to be near the front; Richard would make his life even more difficult if he did. The ceremony brought more tears than Brendan had expected, his mate Ryan was there. So were Emma, another close mate and some other students from his school. They were in the isle opposite him and never walked over because they didn’t know what to say to him to make him feel a little better. The truth was, nothing could. Even though Brendan went to the graveyard after the funeral, when everyone else had gone, he knew someone else was there; Connor. He’d watched his own funeral and was now watching Brendan, he was the one who took it the hardest. He’d never be able to do the things he was used to be doing through all he years he was alive. He asked questions to Brendan as he looked over his brother’s shoulder, but Brendan couldn’t hear him. Not yet. So he silently cried while he looked at his mum walking away. Brendan felt someone or something around him even though no one was. He cautiously looked around; he wanted to be alone and didn’t care what it took.
   Brendan also knew this would make him stronger, but didn’t know in what way or how long it would take. Thoughts clouded his mind, making him daydream. This was his only escape and he wanted to keep it that way. As he got home, he wasn’t expecting what was waiting for him…through all the years the brother’s stood up for one another…this was the first when Brendan was alone. And Brendan wasn’t prepared;
   “Where the hell have you been?” Brendan’s mum questioned him,
   “No where” Brendan started walking upstairs…but…
   “Just because you saw your brother die, doesn’t mean you can take it out on us” His stepfather called up. He said it in a satisfied tone, because for once, he wasn’t going to have to argue with two 15 year old twin brothers, but this was too far for Brendan… so shouted…
   “DON’T BRING CONNOR IN TOO THIS! I DIDN’T TAKE IT OUT ON YOU!” and ran back out while slamming the door. His mum tried to call him back, but Brendan wouldn’t listen. He didn’t know where though,  all he wanted to do was escape, he didn’t care how.
   
   As he ran, all he could see was his himself running through the streets that surrounded his house. But he had to stop just behind his house, he heard the screams of his mum and step-dad as they argued more then ever about what had just happened. Brendan wanted to scream. But had to force himself not to, because he was even more concentrated on getting his breath back and trying to stop the small leak of blood tricking down from his scab on his chest which had split open because he was running. As he tried to get his breath back, he kept thinking he was alone, but someone else was there, trying to get him to follow the person beside him, in his fears, and in his dreams, always there, never alone.
   “Don’t be like this, I know you get scared easily now, but I can’t help you if you are like this, just breathe deeply…” Connor explained. Brendan looked up, but all he could see was the snow falling on his face, he kept his face up, even though the Angel was right beside him…
   “Brendan…look at me!” He said sharply, Brendan did what he was told, though instead of standing still, started walking backwards, but stopped. He wasn’t in fear, but balancing himself against the wall. He couldn’t see him at first, but Brendan knew he was there…he listened to the snow as it silently pattered against the cold floor, now covered in snow…
   “Come with me”. And silver glistening footprints suddenly appeared on the floor. All Brendan hear for the first couple of seconds was the sound of the ghost’s footprints leading the way to somewhere in the distance…then only seconds later, his footsteps joined in without warning. He let his feet guide the way as his eyes looked constantly at the ghost in front of him…and his ears listening out to the slight movement in the change of footprints.
   The footprints lead him to a dark house on the corner of the town, it was where they used to spend there sleepovers, it was really there Dad’s, but was handed down to Connor after he died 2 years before. Brendan stood in the entrance, totally in the dark, but he knew the angel was still there, he just needed a sign to show him where he needed to go next. Soon after he entered, the door silently closed behind him. Just seconds later, the lights started to turn on, Brendan followed, though he was now getting slightly weary of what was going on, but at the same time anxious and more aware…he came to a room in the back…it was dark, but finally he could see who the person who led him here…Connor,
   “Now can you see why I brought you here?” Connor asked him…
   “I…Not real- how come you’re here, I saw you die!” Brendan asked unsure of what he was seeing
   “I’m here because you were the one who saw me die, look I’ll explain in a minute, but just sit down for now” he replied. And Brendan did as he was told; he sat on the chair next to the back of the door. He watched his brother lean over him and when he put his hands over his t-shirt just over his own stab wound, in a few seconds, it stopped bleeding and start healing. After that, Brendan sat, half shocked, half pleased, not because he’d seen his brother, but because his brother was now explaining everything he knew, but the thing was, Brendan needed to tell what happened, but he was still to scared to say anything…he did eventually cave in, but only when no one else was with him. He went to the police station by himself…or so he thought, he was actually being followed…this time, it wasn’t Connor, it was Will…he’d been making tabs on Brendan ever since his brothers funeral. But was a bit unsure where he went after the fight with his step dad, so had to try and fill in the blanks in him himself. With no success, he gave up. Looking for clues about whether to go the police himself, but not to own up instead to blame Brendan for killing Connor. As he watched the police station in the park he thought his time was up and was about to hand himself in however he hadn’t realised that Brendan had already told the police that morning, and they were now trying to look for him. Brendan was now going to the nightclub ‘Phoenix’ because his he was meeting his Uncle Harvey to ask if he could move into his house for a while until his step- dad calmed down.

   Brendan’s uncle had one of the best houses he’d ever seen. He had a large pond, 4 bedrooms; the master bedroom was en-suite, conservatory, kitchen, 3 toilets, 2 inside, one in an study at the bottom of the garden, overlooking hedges looking over the pond and part of the next door neighbour’s garden. Harvey let him stay here, but was going on holiday the following week to the isle of Wright. His Uncle still allowed Brendan to stay at his house for a while. At first, Brendan’s mum didn’t know where he was staying, but soon found out after she went to ‘Phoenix’ and found Harvey there working on account details. There he explained why he didn’t want to come back just yet and that he only wanted to see his her and not his Richard.

   December and the Christmas season came more and more into view, but there was one person who wasn’t happy about this; Brendan. This would be the first Christmas without Connor, and everyday was a mission to get through so far. Memories and things they did just months before were now clouding his thoughts, making him only remember those times and not ones he wanted to forget. Still Brendan wasn’t finding it any easier to get through each day and not scream with anger at the way his brother was taken away from him. He just wondered if it would get easier, and just how long it would take when Christmas day was just a week away. It was now the last day of term and the school today broke up for the Christmas holidays. Brendan once again didn’t want to go anywhere, it wasn’t until he realised that today was probably going to be the last time he saw Mr.Atkin’s that he smiled briefly and got ready for another day of school. He wasn’t planning of enjoying the one hour assembly that was planned just before the students left, but was planning to make Mr.Atkin’s day a little more difficult. He knew that it wasn’t his fault for giving Connor the after school detention all that time ago, but blamed him because Mr.Atkin’s knew that it wasn’t Connor’s fault for talking in the class, but still gave him the after school anyway. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in school. That meant that Brendan was his usual quiet self.

When Christmas day arrived, Brendan was still at his Uncles. Having the day to just the two of them, they quickly ran out of things to say and do and they soon got bored. For most of the day, Brendan just played on his laptop. Playing solitaire and chess, after he opened his one and only present from Richard. It turned out to be the basics brand of deodorant from Tesco’s, so tossed it under the bed he was sitting on. Kathy’s presents were better; a CD, a new light for his bike, a new black t-shirt with a phoenix on, and a new set of Parker pens with spare parts and ink cartridges.
Harvey’s was a photo of Connor and Brendan, and a new jumper. Brendan stared at the photo of him and his brother for a while after he opened it; so many things had changed since he’d died. Most of the things that had changed happened to him.

   The New Year wasn’t much different for Brendan than the year before, the only difference that he could think of straight away was whom he was staying with. Last year he was a family, now he wasn’t. The next door neighbours to Harvey celebrated with fireworks, a late night bonfire and making themselves so drunk they ended up being sick over Harvey’s fence. Harvey shouted at them to die down and shut the back door on their laughing faces. He then walked into the hallway and into the sitting room where Brendan sat talking to another one of his friends; Gregg online. Soon after though, he went offline and Brendan was left visiting random websites that he hadn’t visited in a while.

   The police had arrested Will, but of course, had denied it. Brendan was still staying at his Uncles, but was finding that the days passed quicker if he went out on his skateboard or BMX to the nearest park to do tricks. He was never alone, but right then he didn’t care, he wanted other people around his age around him.
   
   The next morning was a Monday, and the first day back after the Christmas holidays. There were three exits to his secondary school, the main entrance, where his mum waited before the holidays, the exit by the car park where Richard always ended up, and the other exit they didn’t know about, and which lay covered. This was where the bikes were, and Brendan always went there after school, avoiding both the parents, and not just with luck.
   He now brought his bike to school, but only started doing that after he moved in with Harvey. He was never fully dressed when he arrived in school, but he had enough time from arriving and when the bell went, to look reasonably respectable. But this usually slipped during the day, by the end of the day, he looked roughly like he did when he arrived, but sometimes worse.
   Brendan was trying to get to school when today when he saw Richard, not standing at his usual post at the back by the car park. But by the front entrance with his mum, looking up and down at the street. Richard then saw Brendan. Brendan noticed, took 2 seconds, then got back on his bike. Only when his mates realised he was going in the totally opposite direction from school, did they start shouting after him. His mum noticed only after he got back on his bike, and Richard got in his car, that Brendan was there all along.
   Brendan was scared for his life, as Richard’s car grew ever closer to his bike, people had noticed what was going on, so did Connor, but he couldn’t do anything, neither could anyone else. Brendan heard Richard’s engine slowly get closer and closer to his bike, but he couldn’t do anything to make him stop.
   Brendan suddenly turned a sharp corner he’d seen something less than a second before and turned to get away from the scene. He thought the sudden change in direction would pull Richard away form the chase but he speeded up instead. Knocking Brendan into his windscreen only to be flown back off from the force of it. Here Brendan lay on the floor.
   Richard tried to escape, but the police caught him as he left the car and taken just 10 paces from his car. He took one last look as Brendan as he was put in the police car, and driven off. Brendan was still breathing, but bleeding heavily.

[Saint]

O_O Long. Yeah, you were right, you do just go on and on... O_O

[Phoenix]

chapter 2's better >.>

[Phoenix]

Chapter 2 - Silent Sufferer

As Brendan slowly awoke from being unconscious, he saw the person he’d seen just a few moments before he got thrown off his bike…
   “What are you doing here, I don’t want to see you” His voice was cracked and sounded broken, that was because his heart was broken…and his left arm was too. He was laying in intensive care when he first woke up. You’d think the person he didn’t want to see by his bedside was Richard, which was true…but he was in prison awaiting trial. The person who was there though was Robert. He had seen him and Melissa kissing just before he crashed into Richard’s car.
   “Why? What’s happened between us?” Robert tried to sound innocent…but it wasn’t working, Brendan knew his little secret, and it wasn’t a good one either, or one that he could forgive him for doing…
   “I can’t believe you don’t know!” He paused “I know your little secret” Robert made a different strange expression to say ‘What are you talking about?’ but his innocence was being tested to the max, and Brendan was going to get the truth out of him one way or another…
   “How long have you been going out then?” Brendan asked sarcastically and bitter. He didn’t care about life anymore, and the one thing he did care about was gone. Then again, things aren't always as they appeared to be, were they?
   “What do you mean?” Robert asked. But his questions weren’t getting him anywhere. He was sitting on the visitor’s chair but his face was red. He’d either been crying, or was seriously embarrassed.
   I thought that was obvious.” Brendan said simply…He paused, his voice was cracking up and he needed to cough. He also had to take deep breaths as his heart rate was pretty high at that point.
   “If you aren’t going to tell me, then I have better things to worry about!” And he stood up and started up walk through the curtains… when Brendan said in the coldest voice he could manage…
“Like kissing my girlfriend, or is she yours now?” Robert stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around… “Been caught then have you? yeah, that’s what I was talking about. But I thought you’d pick up on the hints I gave you, I think I gave you too much credit don’t you think so?” He paused again… “So answer my question or the unbroken fist might make contact with your nose, after all, I’m not responsible for my actions right at this point.” He said with the same tone, but with an evil grin on his face…
   “What question, why are you threatening him?” Came Melissa’s voice from behind the curtain… “Answer me!” She demanded.
   “Melissa…” Richard began,
   “No, he has to answer me…or has another brother died in front of your-”
   “NO!” Brendan shouted
   “Melissa, shut up will you?” Robert said in an anxious voice…
   “Is everything ok in here? Because this is a hospital, if you carry on like this, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave”
   “Everything’s fine” Melissa said who was shocked by Brendan’s reaction and was now staring at Brendan’s rolled over body, facing the only chair in the cubical which Robert had been sitting on. The nurse turned away, stealing glances over her shoulder while standing to read someone else’s notes.
   “Brendan?” Robert whispered… but Brendan was silently crying. His heart rate was really high, but he’d given up trying to bring it back down again.
   “I think you should just go.” Robert said, while looking at Brendan.
   “But…” Melissa said shocked, after finally diverting her gaze to Robert.
   “Do you know what you’ve just said?” Robert said slowly and firmly.
   “No, and what did I say that was so horrible?”
   “You can’t remember what you just said?” Robert looked at Melissa with such confused face, that Melissa diverted her gaze quickly to the floor. “Ohh my god, and I thought you were the first person Brendan spoke to after his brother had died…guess I was wrong there wasn’t I?”
   “What are you talking about, you know I was!” She gazed at Brendan once again
   “Then you’d know what he’d been through, you’d know that it was Will who did this, and how much he thought he could trust you.” Robert paused, “But doesn’t now.”
   “Why? why are you talking about what he told me?”
   “You don’t get it do you? ok, I’m going to say this clearly so you can understand.” He paused, wondering where to begin “Because Melissa, if you’d bothered to think before you said anything, you’d realise that you were about to say” He paused again, thinking about what she’d said… “Or is it another brother you saw before your eyes?” He said in a high and squeaky voice then continued in his own “And I’m guessing you wouldn’t have stopped there either, I think you would have mentioned that he was too afraid to talk and you had to be the one who heard the story. You know the person who killed Connor is your ex-boyfriend! You dumped him because he was too violent. I don’t get you! why say something like that? Why bring it up?”
   “Look, I don’t know, but it’s not like he knows about us is it?”
   “Are you sure about that?”
   “Yeah! he would’ve kicked both of us out before now if he did.”
   “You obviously don’t know him as well as you thought you did then.” Robert said in a quiet voice, so only her and Brendan could hear
   “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
   “He does in actual fact; he questioned me about it before you came in. Even if he didn’t, I think he’d have ideas by now anyway!”
   “He knows? but why didn’t he say any-”
   “He was! you just didn’t give him enough chance to tell us. You started off questioning him about if he’d seen another one of his brother’s die. Which he hasn’t, how would you like it if I said that about your sister?”
   “Don’t bring her into this!”
   “Why not? You brought that thing up!”
   “Ohh forget it, I’m goin’, I’ll be back later though, just don’t pretend to be asleep, you don’t get rid of me that easily” She left, but Brendan said
   “Wanna bet?” Under his breath…
   “Brendan, look, I didn’t want you to find out that way, I promise you that!” Robert said, Brendan turned around.
   “I don’t care, I just…” Brendan said while trying to get his breathing under control…
   “Want me to go?” Robert said in a confused look on his face…
   “No, I just got a head ache, the crying made it worse. Still, you haven’t answered my question yet.” Brendan said, while pouring himself a glass of water with his right arm and rubbing his head after he drunk it.
   “What err…question?”
   “Hey! Don’t you dare play me for a fool here got it? You should know the question by now. I’ve asked it often enough.” Brendan snapped
   “OK! Look I’m sorry, I really am.” Robert said desperately.
   “I’m not asking you again…” Brendan sighed
   “You really want to know how long we’ve been going out.”
   “Told you, you did remember the question. And yeah! Why wouldn’t I wanna know?”
   “I dunno, but you don’t believe I'm sorry do you?” Robert asked, but Brendan stayed silent. “Ok, but listen… it was her idea, not mine. I didn’t want it to end this way. I didn’t want you to get hurt.” He continued, after no response from Brendan carried on… “I know you’re gunna kill me, I don’t actually blame you if you did…but we’ve been going out since March…2 years ago… basically one month before you…” Robert finished off.
Brendan was surprised to see his heart rate was relatively normal, so just said.
   “I know you’re not my best mate and I never said you were. But you’re probably wondering why I haven’t asked you to leave yet…”
   “Well, it wasn’t my good looks, coz I obviously don’t have any…”
   “Right, ok, the reason I haven’t asked you to leave yet is because of what you said. And because I was waiting for an answer…”
   “Ohh, ok. Just that my mums picking me up later and I-” Robert said
   “I’d rather you left actually” Brendan cut in
   “Now?”
   “Yeah”
   “Ohh, Bye” Robert said as he left…

Obviously Brendan was angry at the sudden exit. It was like Robert wanted to get away, but he was too tired to care about it for long. He fell asleep within moments of him closing his eyes.
   When he woke up, Ryan was sitting by his bed, trying to pretend he was interested in his shoes.
   “Hey… you ok?” Brendan said with a smile on his face
   “Yeah… doesn’t look like you are though…”Ryan replied looking up
   “Well thanks!” Brendan laughed, “How’s the arm?”
   “How do you think? I still can’t write properly” Ryan said sadly, showing the bandage on his right arm.
   “Your dad still think it was deliberate?” Brendan said sympathetic. He remembered how Ryan injured his arm. All down to his stepsister Lauren, running in the middle of a skate board ramp when Ryan was in the middle of a trick. He was trying to divert around her and flew off at the wrong angle and slid back down on his right side.
   “No! My dad wasn’t the problem, Ellie was…”
   “Ohh yeah…” Brendan said “Sorry” Ryan smiled awkwardly then asked…
   “So when do you get out of here?”
   “Good question… guess it depends on my ‘recovery rate’” Brendan replied
   “And you started being all ‘doctorish’ when?” Ryan asked as Brendan laughed
   “Well someone’s up…” Emma’s voice came from behind the curtain…
   “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was up ages ago!” Ryan said
   “Stop joking…you know who I was talking to” Emma said
   “Ok, ok! I was just fooling’… No need to take it personally Emma. You know what I’m like.”
   “Cut it out you two, or I’ll-” Brendan said
   “What? Call your mum?” Ryan said but immediately shut up “sorry, that came out wrong…” Ryan said and looked at his shoes again, shuffling them on the floor uncomfortably “What were you gunna say?” He finished off
   “I dunno, I was kind of hoping you’d shut up before I has to say anything else” Brendan smiled a little, looked at Ryan and laughed
   “And what’s so funny?” Emma asked him
   “Nothing! Cant a guy laugh at something for no reason what so ever?”
   “That’s not what I-”
   “You know I haven’t been the most …happiest of people lately” Brendan cut in struggling to figure out what to say “But… I thought you’d be happy I was laughing…not …confused” Brendan trailed off…
   “I am, just that I haven’t seen you laugh for so long, no… heard you. I just thought you might be in pain or not… yourself” Emma replied
   “Ok, why would I laugh if I was in pain? And I am myself. You may just have to trust me on that”
   “I dunno, I was just saying, but of course I trust you. I’d be crazy not to”
   “Strange…I thought you were…”Ryan said and looked up at Emma “Crazy I mean” He gave a smile and she returned it with a playful punch on the arm.
   “Well, this crazy gal’s gutta go. Her dad’s picking her up outside in a few minutes…So bye Brendan” she said as she walked over to him and gave him a hug. And was just about to leave when Ryan said “Ohh! Thanks!”
   “Fine Ryan, you useless waste of space” Emma laughed, hugged Ryan then left.
   “You’re playing hard to get you know that?” Brendan asked
   “What do you mean?”
   “What do you think I meant?”
   “…Ohh… look, I don’t like her!…ok! I do! Just not in that way, I like her just as a close mate, that’s it, besides I got someone anyway”
   “Ohh, I do…” Brendan trailed off, Ryan gave a small laugh then smiled.
   “You don’t have to worry about me fighting over her… but I haven’t you just broken up with-”
   “DON’T SAY HER NAME!” Brendan cut in
   “Sorry” Ryan muttered, and Brendan immediately felt guilty. “Has your mum been by yet?”
   “Not that I know of”
   “Ohh, just that…”
   “What?”
   “She saw me before school a couple of days ago. You weren’t in…”Ryan paused
   “And what happened?”
   “She told me to tell you… she wants you to move back in… back home…she said it didn’t matter how long it took, or whatever she had to do to convince you to go back” Ryan finished off.
Brendan was quiet for a moment, daydreaming in space with what Ryan had just said. Then he said
   “Right”
   After a while, Brendan was left alone as Ryan had to go back home. Brendan was kept awake by the bust day life in the hospital and after 5 days he was allowed out. His mum came by during the time when he was in hospital, but they never talked much. The atmosphere was tense and both of them could feel it.

So Brendan went back to his Uncle’s. The moment he stepped into the out house where he slept, he sensed something was missing. The huge canvas for his art coursework was still there. The road, pond, grass and wall practically complete in a mixture of pastels, chalks, and water colours. His cupboard was closed and is bed was made. Then he realised, he hadn’t really got a reason to stay there anymore. After all, the only reason he’d stayed at his Uncle’s was because of Richard but because he was in jail, he obviously wasn’t around.

   January to April were uneventful, not much happened though the time went so quickly that some people didn't even notice that time had passed until it was too late.
   Revision lessons had now started, but other than that there was noting new in the school other than a few students that came half way through the term. Brendan was still staying at his Uncles and was happier there than what he had been with his mum and Richard. When Connor died though, Brendan could tell that something wasn't going to be the same and he was right.

   Trying to pass the day  without having to resort to him going out, he decided to ring his mum. Taking his time, but picked up the energy and dialled the 11 digits. At first no one answered, he thought she might be out, but then she answered
   “Hello?” Brendan sighed on the other end and his mum knew who it was. There was an awkward silence then Brendan finally said…
   “Hi, any interesting news where you are?”
   “No, not that I know of anyway… you heard anything from Sophie?” Katherine said eager to keep him talking, but Brendan paused. His mum thought he’d put the phone down and gone somewhere. She was relieved when he replied
   “Sophie? Cousin Sophie?”
   “Yeah. Apparently they’re coming down for a visit soon.” She replied.
   “Ohh… no, I didn’t know. That’s cool though, I can show her around and stuff.”

There conversation lasted longer than the others they had in the hospital. But Brendan felt guilty after he said goodbye. His Uncle was calling him but he suddenly felt that he didn’t want to go.

He reluctantly turned and walked outside. His Uncle was on the patio and smiled when he saw Brendan walking up the garden path from the outhouse.
   “Hi, I got some news for you…”
   “What?”
   “Sophie and your Aunt Christie are moving back!”
   “Really?” Brendan said. He hadn’t seen either of them for longer than he’d liked. They were away staying with Christies Brother Stuart. She was doing a theatre production and took Sophie with her on the weekends and the holidays. Sophie had the virus and couldn’t go back to England for Connor’s funeral or any other time till Brendan broke up for the Easter holidays.
   “When are they moving back?” Brendan said after the shock hit him.
   “In 2 days!”
   “What?” Brendan almost choked on the apple he’d just began to eat.
   “Yeah! Christie just sent me a letter over explaining it. Apparently they wanted her to work another 2 years, but she quit!”
   “Really?” Brendan laughed. Recovering from nearly choking, smiled and walked inside so his uncle could show him the letter.

   Then it was the Easter holidays, and Brendan got so many chocolate Easter eggs, he still had 5 at the end of the holidays. He shared some with Harvey sometimes when they were watching TV but other than that they stayed in his bedroom and lay uneaten.

   After the holidays, Uncle Harvey gave Brendan a lift to school. Before he got out the car, he asked Brendan…
   “How much sleep have you been getting?.” Brendan paused, one leg in, one leg out.
   “Why?” Brendan said while turning back around
   “Coz it looks like you haven’t had any” His uncle replied
   “That’s what it feels like to” Brendan said quietly.
   “Why? Do you have trouble sleeping?”
   “I have done…ever since Connor…” Brendan said almost to a whisper, “You’ve just noticed?” He said more clearly.
   “No, it’s just now its clearer. You can see it”
   “Ohh” Brendan said looking down.
   “I’ve noticed it for over a month. You just didn’t say anything”
   “I didn’t want to” Brendan said almost choking with tears.
   “I’m worried about you, I don’t want to lose you as well.”
   “Would you let me try anything?” Brendan asked
   “For what?” His uncle replied.
   “For me to get more sleep” Brendan replied
   “Yeah, but what do you have in mind?”
   “I don’t know,  I was just asking” Brendan said, looking down again.
   “You can try anything, just as long as you check it over with me first ok?”
   “Ok.” Brendan looked up, smiled, out his arm around his uncle and got out of the car.

   He found his friends pretty quickly, they were in the usual place in the car park.
   “Hey!” Emma called out “You ok?” She continued with a new smile on her face.
   “Yeah, I’m good” Brendan replied, while whispering afterwards to her “ I need to talk… to you alone”
   “Ok” Emma said sounding worried.
   “Later…” Brendan said while trying to smile
   “You name when, and I’ll be there” Emma said more cheerfully, linking arms with him.

   Brendan and his friends only had roughly 3 months till they left to go on study leave. Brendan was up to date with his coursework. Otherwise he’d have worried a lot more about all the time he was having off.

   In science, Brendan was quiet and concentrating. English he was more anxious and tired, but by the end of break and p.e he was drifting off to sleep. Emma had forgotten her p.e kit, so she was keeping Brendan Company as he obviously couldn’t play tennis, run around a track or throw javelins.
    “Lunch…” Brendan said near the end of the lesson.
   “Huh?” Emma said confused
   “What I want to say, I’ll say then”
   “Ohh!” Emma said remembering “But where?”
   “I know somewhere” Brendan added on, Emma smiled.
   After 10 minutes, the lesson was over. Ryan had a detention, Brendan’s other friends either wanted to catch up on coursework or eat there lunch. This left Emma and Brendan
   “You hungry?” Brendan asked
   “No, I ate most of my lunch at break time” Emma replied
   “Good, I mean… nether mind. Follow me” He said leading the way.

   He went back to where the changing rooms were, and went up the stairs. He carried on till he was on the 3rd floor. Emma was right behind him, he checked, smiled and went through the empty classroom and turned left.
   “We aren’t allowed up there” Emma said while looking where Brendan was going,
   “Chemistry students are…”Brendan said while facing Emma
   “And you are?” Emma asked
   “No, but Connor was” Brendan turned back around and walked up the stairs at the end of the passage.
    “Really? Chemistry is extra curricular”
   “I know, he didn’t tell many people” Brendan said.

Emma uncertainly waked up the stairs to find herself in a small garden, with no grass, but benches and flowers in pots.
   “So…What do you think?” Brendan asked
   “Its…different” Emma admitted “why do you want to talk to me alone?”
   “People are giving me different pieces of advice, and most of them are stupid. I’d rather just talk to one or two people” Brendan replied.
   “That makes sense” Emma said “Did you actually get any sleep last night?”
   “I…”Brendan began to say ‘I don’t wanna talk about that’ but saw Emma’s worried face so said truthfully “Yeah, 5 hours”
   “5 Hours?” Emma exclaimed “What time did you go to bed?”
   “8!” Brendan said “I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep”
   “Hold on, You woke up at 3am?”
   “Yeah” Brendan replied “I know my body needs rest, especially now, but try telling my brain that!”
   “Sorry” Emma said embarrassed, Brendan sighed and looked on the floor.
   “No, don’t be” Brendan finally said “I know you’re worried about me, and that’s why its me who should feel like an idiot, especially when I snap at you or make you feel stupid” Brendan paused “Coz you’re not stupid, and I’m sorry if I ever made you think that you were” Emma held her breath and looked at Brendan.
   “You have NEVER made me feel stupid!” Emma said with a tear in her eye.
   “Never?” Brendan looked up and looked at her
   “No, Never.” Emma said putting her arm around him “So what did you wanna say?”
   “Ohh, I might move back in with my mum…Do you think it’s a good idea?”
   “Really? Yeah! It might help you sleep as well”
   “Ohh, I doubt that…”
   “How come?”
   “I dunno, I just have this feeling”
   “Ok, but do you wanna try anything to get some sleep?”
   “Yeah, but what do you have in mind?” Brendan replied half curious, half worried,
   “Let me sleep around your house tonight” Emma answered. Seeing Brendan’s expression, continued “Don’t worry, but you better let me see what I can think of before you get tablets or collapse from exhaustion” She finished off.

[Phoenix]

Surprisingly, Emma’s dad wasn’t worried about Emma sleeping over. It was a Friday, so Emma could easily get back home again the next day and not worry about school.
   Even through the rest of the day, Brendan was calm and even though he often drifted off to sleep, the teachers didn’t mind. They knew how much pressure he was under, and didn’t ask him to pay attention in the last two lessons he had that day. Ryan had made notes for him while he was away, so didn’t mind doing it for the last two classes. Luckily, one of them involved watching a video, so that made it easier.

   At the end of school, Brendan walked down to the train station with some of his friends that lived in Dorking, and waited for his train to Horsham. He smiled to himself when he thought about living back home with his mum again, he hated walking the ½ hour walk after he got off the train through streets to get to his Uncles. There were no buses that went that far, and it hurt walking too far because of him getting hit by Richards car.

   As soon as he got back, Emma called to say she was on her way. Brendan had been sleeping in the separate study at the bottom of the garden till now, but he was changing to the spare bedroom in the main house till he moved back to his own house. He was moving back over the weekend and most of his stuff was in boxes again. This didn’t bother Brendan too much, the spare room was rather small, and there wasn’t enough room for most of Brendan’s things if they were out.
   After around an hours wait, Emma’s dad’s car pulled up on the driveway. Brendan had talked to his uncle of course, and he said ‘Yes’ to the arrangement. Even though he had to be reminded of his promise he made to Brendan before school.

The two of them watched t.v until 7:30pm and then Brendan went upstairs. Emma followed, uncertain. He showed her where she was sleeping (Sophie’s bedroom) and then went into the spare bedroom to show her his latest painting. It was in acrylic paint and it was a copy from a photograph he took before Connor had died. It was A2 and Emma was surprised to see that he added her to the painting even though she wasn’t in the original photo. Brendan smiled and said
   “I copied you from another photo I took of you” and laughed
   “Right…well, can you answer me why you’ve also added our head teacher then?”
   “I dunno…” Brendan stopped laughing and took a while to continue “I needed to practise painting different expressions, his was one of the ones I had trouble with”
   “I would’ve thought that mine was the worst to draw…” Emma replied “I mean difficult wise” She continued, looking at her painted laughing face
   “Nah, yours was easy…” Brendan said confidently
   “Ok, fine then” Emma laughed “But can you answer me a question” Emma stopped laughing to look at Brendan
   “Another one?” Brendan said sarcastically
   “Funny” Emma said pulling a face “No, I’m being serious…”
   “Fine” Brendan said collapsing on the bed
    “How much sleep do you get-” Emma said, then paused. Brendan sighed
    “I already answered that at lunch time” Brendan said lying down and looking at the ceiling
   “Then let me finish and into a different question!” Emma said, budging Brendan’s feet up to sit down. Brendan stayed silent and put one of his legs back down behind Emma. “How much sleep do you get before the night mare starts?”
   “How do I know?”
   “I mean… does it start straight away?” Emma said quietly. When Brendan replied, Emma almost didn’t hear him
   “Yeah, straight away…as soon as I think It’s a ‘normal’ dream and it wont happen… it does” Brendan sighed.
   “Do you wanna talk about what happens?” Emma asked, aware that Brendan probably wouldn’t. She was prepared for him to say ‘No’ and was surprised to hear him say
   “Maybe… but how do I know you wont do a…” Brendan paused … even after all this time, he couldn’t say her name
   “I wont. She was evil. And not only that, but I’m not going out with you am i?” Emma said with a nervous smile on her face.
   “I…I know” Brendan said as he closed his eyes “You Have to keep this a secret…no matter what happens… I cant trust you ever again if you blurt this out.” Brendan almost choked on these words, he couldn’t bare to think of what would happen if he did tell someone else, and turned over on his side. He was facing the room, Emma could see he was crying. She went over to him, but Brendan pulled his legs up and brought his arms around them.
   “Why would I tell anyone? I hate not talking to you, and I wouldn’t jeopardise that for anything” Emma almost whispered
   “I…it starts in a hallway” Brendan paused, his eyes were still closed and he was breathing deeply, trying not to cry. “I’m … I’m always alone…I can hear someone behind me, but when I look around, it’s always stairs…lots of them. I try to walk away from them, away from the stairs, but I can hear them coming closer.” Brendan’s voice got heavier when he continued “I can’t escape, He’s following me… I run faster… but i… I…” he paused again opening his eyes before continuing “there’s blood coming from my chest… but no ones behind me… the footsteps stop but I keep walking…I try jogging but then I notice another gash in my leg…” Unable to hold back the tears any longer they streamed down Brendan’s face “I can’t go on… then the footsteps carry on again…they’re nearer than they were before…but I still can’t see him!... I feel something else on my chest… and there’s another one on my chest…”
   “Brendan …” Emma said quietly
   “Don’t you remember? About… abo-” Brendan, unable to say the rest buried his face in his arms
   “Connor” Emma finished off… she understood…
   “He had 2 on his chest and one on his leg” Brendan began “But I’m not him…”
   “Brendan-” Emma began
   “DON’T YOU GET IT? IT’S NOT OVER!” Brendan shouted
   “He’s still after you?” Emma said so shakily, she had to lean on Brendan’s bed to keep her steady
   “YES” Brendan shouted again… “but the dream hasn’t finished either… there’s still more…”
   “Tell me” Emma said while getting hold of one of Brendan’s hands
   “You know who I’m talking about?” Brendan paused “The one that’s following me”
   “It’s obvious…but yeah, and I’m not gunna say his name. Even I’m scared of him.” Emma said honestly.
   “I look around, and notice what’s cut me…the glass.” Brendan paused again, feeling stronger with Emma’s hand “I grab it but something hits me again…my back…I go to one of the walls, but he’s there…Waiting…he grabs the glass out of my hand and hits me again…my arm…I fall to the floor, but I still cant see him…then he shows his face, I scream...i have to get away…but I can’t…he smiles and laughs at me…” Brendan paused to take a deep breath and continued “then…footprints again…but its not him… its …”
   “Connor?” Emma asked unsure
   “Yeah…” Brendan said slowly “He can see me, but not him…so he comes over to me…he shoots him… dead…I don’t know where he got the gun from, but why can’t he shoot me dead?”
   “Brendan!” Emma whispered. Brendan cried his eyes out for what seemed like ages after he told her. The images of the dream were so vivid they seemed real. That was why, when he woke up screaming and covered in sweat, the images stayed with him thought out the day. After all, it wasn’t exactly the dream you could forget straight away if you had it every night.
   After a while, his tears subsided and Brendan looked up, Emma was still beside him, crying slightly but with a small smile on her face.
   “How did you know it was a nightmare?” Brendan asked slowly
   “It couldn’t have been that you aren’t tired enough, and when you said it wasn’t your mum, I guessed.” Emma replied, the nervous small smile faded to be replaced with a more worried expression. She slipped her other hand into Brendan’s, before brushing his hair away from his face and wiping the last few tears away from his eyes with her hands “Are you ok?” She said in a voice not quite her own.
   “Headache, but I guess crying does that to you” Brendan sniffed and let go of Emma’s hand as he sat up. “Great, now I have head rush!” Brendan said half amused, half annoyed.
   “Can I get you anything?” Emma said while sitting on the bed beside Brendan
   “Water…” Brendan said
   “Kitchen it is then, do you want a tissue as well?”
   “Nah, I’ll get that” Brendan smiled and got up.

While Emma was downstairs, trying to find a cup to use in the large kitchen, Brendan had got the tissue and had wiped and blew his nose. He was now asleep, but Emma didn’t find out till she came back upstairs. She guessed he was exhausted from the day and crying, it was also though, the fact that she now knew what happened to him in dream world. It was a place he used to love being in, now he was afraid every night. Seeing his brother die all over again.
   He wasn’t awake when Emma left the next day at 11:30, in fact he didn’t properly wake up until Sunday, nearly 2 days after he first went to sleep. Obviously, Brendan didn’t know about it being Sunday until he checked his phone. HE had 2 new messages from Emma, 1 from Ryan, 2 missed calls from his mum and 3 from his Aunt Christie. Not forgetting the pop-ups saying his battery was low and 1 message from his network.
   He out his phone on charge, then left it on his bed. He’d remembered about his Aunt coming back and set off to find them. After checking all the rooms in the house, even the one outside, Brendan went back to the spare bedroom. Here where he didn’t notice, being half asleep, he realised that some of his boxes were gone. Also, right beside where his phone was on charge, a letter was sitting beside his desk lamp and labelled ‘Brendan’. He picked it up and sat down on the bed with it, looking at both sides, Brendan finally found somewhere to open it from. It was the side, the top was well stuck down from edge to edge so he couldn’t open it that way. The letter read;
   ‘Brendan, if you are reading this before we get back, then we (meaning Christie, me and Sophie) are out shopping. I never got around to tell you on Friday, with you being asleep and all, but Sophie has transferred to your school in Dorking. We know you’ll look after her until you leave, which I wouldn’t be surprised in thinking she’d have a few friends by then.
   If you haven’t noticed by now, some of your boxes have been taken back to you’re mums. The rest your mum is collecting later on.
   However, if you have only just found this letter and we are home…then you should look around your room more often. Whenever you come to stay that is.
   I’ve loved your company and we all hope you enjoyed your sleep. As you gathered, Sophie and Christie are both fine, tired but excited to see how much have things have changed around here.
   Sophie is dreading going to school on Monday (tomorrow) as she’s picked up some of that ‘horrible’ accent. (her words, not mine) I said it was ‘a useful way to identify yourself from the other year 9’s’. I said this mainly for you as you still haven’t seen her. She has changed, and if you don’t recognise her, you could always ask some year 9’s’ at random who they are until you find the right one. Unless she comes up to you. She knows what you look like now after all…’ Brendan laughed a little, then read on ‘So you could always wait till we come back for you to see the ‘wonderers’ again, or wait till next time as I’m sure you’ll have plenty of unpacking to do.
   So STRETCH!, (after all that sleep you may need to…) and we’ll see you when ever. Call us later to let us know (if your home) that you are…home, if you waited, I’m sure we’ll soon find you… (yet knowing our luck, you’ll probably still be sleeping!) so goodbye for now. Harvey x’

   Brendan read the letter just once, then phoned his mum. Staying there to say ‘hello’ to his aunt and cousin seemed tempting, but he did just want to get back home. Back to the familiar sounds of the road next to his house and the flowers and pond of his next door neighbour. He wanted his bed with the blue covers and white new sheets laid out every morning. He most of all wanted to look out of his window and see the world and wonder what other peoples lives were like. He wanted to go ‘back to normal’. Back to the usual routine of getting the 32 bus from Redhill to Dorking.

   He wrote a note to his Uncle and left it by the front door saying ‘Read the letter, will call you later. Going home. Love you all’. By then, his mum was pulling up the driveway and Brendan had a smile on his face that was so large, it filled his whole face.

   He managed to unpack some of his stuff when he was back home, but some of it was in boxes he’s never seen before. It took him a while for him to find out that the other boxes were Richards and when he realised, he smashed each one against the nearest wall. His mum came up to find out what was going on, but just laughed at the sight of all Richards ‘worldly’ possessions smashed and thrown about.
   Brendan managed to locate the books and school equipment that he would need for the next day, and sat about trying to find the right pieces of homework he needed to complete. It took him ages, but his mum helped. He finally realised how crap he was on packing and wished he’s taken up his uncles offer to help.

   Brendan managed to get to sleep finally at 10:45pm. His books and school bag were on the bed and is pencil case beside that. When his mum came to check on him, she smiled and put the stuff on the floor. Then covered Brendan in his quilt that he’d pushed to the end of the bed, kissed him on his forehead and walked out closing the door.
The next morning, Brendan was awake normal time. And was out the house at 7:00am. it took him 20 minutes to walk down to the town centre, and saw Ryan. They didn’t say much, but, but they didn’t have to. The bus came before the ‘awkward’ conversations could begin.
   On the bus, Emma got on. She never looked at Brendan or the others, but stayed with her back to them. Brendan was going to get up and talk to her, but she put her head phones in and was faking doing her home work. Brendan sat back down and turned on his new mp3 player. Nothing happened for a while, then some more people got on the bus and came straight to the back. Even though Brendan didn’t feel like talking much, he did make conversation with some of his mates as they caught up on what happened over the weekend. They immediately found out why Brendan didn’t go online. It was clear nothing much happened on Brendan’s weekend other than well deserved sleep.
   At first, Brendan thought that Emma was in a mood with him falling asleep with no warning, or the fact that he never replied to her messages, but Brendan’s opinions on this would change at lunch time.
   Though out the day, Brendan was nearly his whole self again, talking and not falling asleep, but at lunch, that was about to change. After English, Brendan tried to catch up with Emma. She got held up because of something that happened in the girls toilets on the previous Friday, so Brendan waited.
   “Hey, you ok?” Brendan asked
   “Yeah, fine” Emma replied slightly annoyed. Brendan picked up on the tone she was speaking to him with, and felt confused
   “I was wondering…” Brendan began
   “What?” Emma almost shouted, then read the look on Brendan’s face as he thought ‘What the hell is wrong with her?’ then continued “Sorry” even though Brendan could tell she wasn’t.
   “What are you doing tomorrow after school?”
   “Nothing” Emma sounded annoyed with the invasion of privacy “Why?” She continued
   “I was…just wondering if you wanted to do something… I mean I’ve moved back in with my mum… there’s boxes around… but we didn’t get to talk much on Friday-”
   “Yeah I noticed… But I can’t. My aunts coming over and wants to see me” Emma said quite cold and with no remorse again
   “But you just said-” Brendan began
   “I also said I can’t ok?” Emma was getting fed up and angry, he could tell
   “Fine, what about Wednesday?”
   “Can’t” Emma said simply
   “Thursday?” Brendan asked
   “I can’t”
   “The weekend?” Brendan was getting annoyed now, and tried not to show it in his voice
   “MY AUNT-” Emma shouted, then continued quietly in a low voice “-is coming over for 2 weeks. I can’t just drop everything for you, why do you think I-”
   “I’m not asking you to drop everything for me am I? I just thought-” Brendan cut in then Emma did the same to him
   “Don’t cut me in again!” Emma warned “Why do you think I want to go back to a place with loads of boxes? I’ve got better things to do then spend time looking at them!”
   “Have you finished?” Brendan said, the tone of his voice shaking with the anger he hardly ever showed. Emma just stayed silent “Good, I was just asking. But why just remember about your aunt after I asked you if you were busy?”
   “Does it matter?” Emma said, almost shouting
   “No I-” Brendan began then shut up as Emma ran him up against the nearest wall
   “I told you not to cut me in again didn’t I?” Emma said so low that he almost didn’t hear her “It doesn’t matter when I remembered it. Just that I did. But what’s with all the questions?”
   “Does that matter? I was just … no! it doesn’t matter. Why would it if I cared about you?”
   “You? Care about me?” Emma almost laughed “I don’t think so. And there’s another question”
    “What? FINE! I’ll stop asking if you’re ok. I’ll stop caring about you. And I wont ask if that’s what you want, because obviously that’s another question. But here’s a warning for you.”
    “What?” Emma faked a worried expression
   “Strange, you’re allowed to ask the questions, not me…” Brendan said clearly confused “ok, get off me now” He continued in the same annoyed tone she was using,
   “Or what?”
   “There’s another question.” Brendan paused, expecting her to say something else, but when she didn’t, he continued “I’ll make you get off me” Brendan said, hoping he wouldn’t have to. Emma backed off slowly, but she still had one of her hands one of his shoulders. She changed her position till her fingers were digging down on his shoulder. Brendan flinched and she pressed harder. After a while, she brought her hands away, aware that Brendan didn’t fight back.
    A few seconds passed and someone came at Emma, “Why did you say those things to him?” It was Sophie. Brendan hadn’t seen her until now, he hadn’t had a chance to find her between lessons, and had to stay by the office most of Break time, talking to one of the members off staff about him being back home. He held his shoulder, hoping there wouldn’t be blood, but there was a little. He hid the little blood there was under his hand.
   “And who are you?” Emma asked curious
   “Some one you should know. And will. But answer my question first”
   “And what was that?” Emma asked
   “Ohh my god.” Sophie laughed “Did you know Brendan, you’ve got a friend with a memory of a goldfish?” She continued in the same tone. Emma looked at him, then back at Sophie
   “You know Brendan” Emma said confused. Brendan hadn’t had a chance to introduce his cousin to his mates, and felt happy confusing Emma.
   “I told you I know him!. No offence girl, but can’t you remember anything?” Sophie asked
   “Of course I can!” Emma replied annoyed
   “Then can you answer my question, before you forget it.” Sophie was getting annoyed now, and wasn’t smiling “Why did you say those things to Brendan?”
   “What things?” Emma asked “It was none of your business.”
   “You’ve even forgotten what you’ve said?”
   “No! of course I haven’t!” Emma stood her ground, but Sophie was one step in front of her.
   “So you think he deserved that? You think he deserved the nails in his shoulder? He was trying to ask you some questions! He wanted to make it up to you about Friday but-” Sophie said, but Emma said,
   “He didn’t need to” very quietly. Sophie heard her, though already knew that Brendan wouldn’t. He was long gone, he’d snuck around the corner and along the corridor, now he was in the boys toilets.
   “Well try telling that to him!” Sophie said. Emma turned around, and noticed Brendan wasn’t there. “except now you can’t…obviously. But I think fights are part of my business if me and Brendan are in the same school and if we’re family” Sophie said, the tone of her voice showing that she was ready to explode. Emma turned back around, a puzzled expression filled her face, then she remembered
   “Sophie”
   “Yeah! Now the girl remembers, but I suggest you don’t try to find Brendan. I have this feeling that he’d prefer to see his real friends” Sophie said and walked off where Brendan had gone before.
   She looked in all the classrooms down the hall, but still couldn’t find him. She then saw Ryan, she didn’t recognise him straight away, but when someone called his name and answered, she knew it was the right one
   “Ryan?” Sophie called over
   “Just a sec-” Ryan replied. He was talking to someone else. And when he’d finished, he went to find the person who’d called him. “Do I know you?” Ryan asked unsure
   “Sophie, Brendan’s cousin…” Sophie said, not giving time for Ryan to say anything she continued “I need your help, to find Brendan.
“What happened?” Ryan asked worried
   “No time to explain, just help me. Please?”

They searched every where, until someone called Ryan over again
   “It’s Brendan, he’s in the boys toilets…” Ryan said to Sophie minutes later
   “But-”
   “Lets go!” Ryan said urgently.
Ryan burst in the boys toilets, sweating and out of breath. He immediately spotted Brendan, his head was in the sink, it was filled with water.
   “NO!” Ryan screamed and ran to him.

Brendan was still alive, Ryan dragged him from the sink, and even though Brendan tried to break free of Ryan, he couldn’t. He had no energy left.
   “I can’t do this… I can’t… NOT ANY MORE!” Brendan screamed and burst into tears, snapping the orange and brown necklace his brother made him. The beads scattered every where, so did Brendan’s life again.

[Phoenix]

   Sophie heard Brendan’s screaming and didn’t know what to do. The lunch bell was going to ring shortly for the students to go to their form tutors, and she had no idea where she was. Being so new to the school, she could have asked some of the teachers how to get to her form room, but there was none about.
   Inside the boys toilets, Brendan had calmed down. He was holding the chain that he had on his neck just moments before. The one thing he always kept on him but he’d snapped. Water was dripping from his hair onto his nose, and dripped onto his school uniform. His blue eyes shone as he held the chain tighter and more silent tears streamed down his face. Ryan was partly in shock, he’d known Brendan all his life, but he’d never broken down before. Never screamed because he couldn’t carry on, never tried to drown himself. Ryan had to realise, Brendan was only human and with all he had been put through, it just seemed strange that he could break down after one fight with someone special.
   They were standing up, but Ryan was leaning against a wall. It was cold and Ryan could feel it against his thin school shirt. He gave a shiver and this seemed to wake Brendan from the distant world he was on.
   “You ok?” Ryan asked. Brendan took a while to answer, and when he did, it was small and almost a whisper
   “I…” Brendan sighed heavily and didn’t know what else to say
   “Dry yourself off…the bells gunna go in a minute” Ryan said his words also barely recognisable in a voice that didn’t seem his. He let Brendan go and sighed himself. He never realised how light Brendan was, and felt almost nothing when Brendan walked forwards and leaned over the sink that he’d almost killed himself in. Ryan was watching him, but all Brendan did was sigh again and walk over to the hand dryers to try to dry his hair. Ryan, seeing this realised that Brendan wasn’t going to come back over and pulled up his sleeves to pull the plug for the sink.
   Sophie was still outside the toilet door when the bell went. She recognised none of the people that walked to their form rooms and didn’t know what to think. If she was happy because she got more time to see if Brendan was ok, or annoyed because she still had no idea where she had to go. She heard the hand dryer in the toilets turn off for the 5th time and was about to give up waiting and look for someone when they came out. Brendan had his blazer on, hiding the damp patches of water on his sleeves and around his collar. His hair was still damp, but he’d managed to dry most on his hair with his blazer. It was now partly fluffy and messy. Sophie got a brush out of her bag and handed it to Brendan. He went back in the toilets and sorted his hair out while Ryan told Sophie what happened. Only less than half a minute later, Brendan came back out. Sophie smiled and hugged him, he hugged her back. He wasn’t crying anymore, but his eyes were slightly red.
   “Can you help me out?” Sophie said while still hugging Brendan.
   “yeah” Brendan said but Sophie couldn’t hear him, so he coughed and repeated himself.
   “Where’s Mrs.Floxon’s room?”
   “She’s English right?” Brendan asked Ryan
   “Yeah, 1:4” Ryan replied.
   “Ok, we’re up that flight of stairs, but further up… we’ll show you” Brendan said.
   They started off along the corridor, turned left then right then left again. They walked along that corridor, turned right and they turned up in the entrance hall. Then all three of them climbed the stairs 2 at a time. Brendan and Ryan’s shoes squeaking from the water on the floor in the toilets. They reached the 1st floor and showed Sophie where she was,
   “Thanks…You two know the school better than I will” she joked
   “Meet me in the playground after school tomorrow, you can come back to mine. Mum’s been waiting to see you after all these years”
   “I will, but I’ll phone my dad… just in case”
   “See you after school?”
   “Course” Sophie said and walked into the classroom 2 doors away
   “Now time for the science department” Ryan said, still not sounding quite himself
   “Yeah, the fun bit” Brendan said sarcastically.

They went back through the doors into the staircase, climbing another 2 sets of stairs to the 3rd floor. But before they went through the doors to the corridor, Ryan held Brendan back by putting out his left arm in front of him and saying,
   “What exactly happened with you and…” Ryan paused though, seeing Brendan’s face made him stop and bite his bottom lip
   “I…don’t want to talk about it” Brendan replied simply
   “Ok… I thought you’d say that” Ryan said rolling his eyes. He put his arm down and took a step forwards. Brendan took a deep breath and said
   “She changed.” Ryan paused mid-step,
   “What do you mean?”
   “She changed.” Brendan said again, Ryan still not getting what Brendan was saying, said nothing. Brendan continued “Since Friday. She snapped at me, I…” Brendan closed his eyes, and tried not to think about it, but he couldn’t forget, couldn’t get the argument out of his mind.
   “I’ve noticed she isn’t… as cheerful as she usually is”
   “Can we switch places?” Brendan asked nervously “In tutor”
   “Sure, just promise me you’ll tell me soon…ok?”
   “Yeah, ok”
They ran up the last few places and through the doors. There tutor still hadn’t come to register them, so the other students in there tutor group were talking loudly to there friends. No one noticed that Brendan’s hair was wet in fact, they hardly noticed Ryan or Brendan at all. They sat at the table at the back of the classroom. Two people sat at the ends; this was usually Andi and Emma who sat with her back to the window. Andi was next to Ryan and Brendan beside Emma. But today was different. After the argument Brendan had with Emma, he wanted to sit by Andi instead.
   Emma was watching them sit down and tried to make conversation with them. Neither of them said anything. She said
   “Your cousin looks different.”
Brendan knew she was talking about Sophie, and knew it was true though he never said anything.
   The last time Brendan saw Sophie, she had short hair, she was small for her age and wore glasses. She looked innocent, like she was still 7 though at the time she was much older. Now though, she had long hair, hiding her pierced ears. Her glasses were gone, replaced by contact lenses, and as for the height and innocence…gone.
She was still smaller than Brendan, but not by much. Over the years, she had turned into a typical teenager, rebelling and it showed in the way she acted and spoke. Her features had gown, and now Brendan knew how much she’d changed.
   Andi was confused by the silence, but said nothing as he looked at Brendan. Even though he hated to admit it then, as much as he wanted to forget Emma and how much he cared about her, he couldn’t.
   The bell went again, and their tutor came through the door, silence followed. Mrs.Fairdy called their names one by one and the students answered grudgingly. It didn’t take long, and the chatter rose level rose again.
   At the end of tutor time, Brendan was called to take the register down. Emma sighed as she was hoping to talk to him before the next lesson. She instead talked to Megan, another girl from the tutor as the others made their way to their next lesson. Megan was one of those uptight people who liked hardly any people and hated the others. Emma was one of those few Megan liked, even though, Brendan hated her.
   The next day, Emma tried to talk to Brendan again. But not to make up with him, well at least not yet. They had science first lesson and at the end, Emma tried to trip Brendan up. She tried to look innocent, but Brendan wasn’t fooled. At break time, Emma bumped into him on her way out of their second lesson Art. At lunch time though, after English, Emma called Brendan as he was leaving the classroom.
   “Brendan wait” she called twice. But she noticed he was walking away from her not towards her, so ran up to him. Brendan said nothing to her, he kept his mouth shut.
   “Brendan, what’s up?.” Emma asked, Brendan was reminded of what Sophie said to him yesterday about Emma having the memory of a goldfish and almost laughed. “What’s funny?” Emma said confused. Still Brendan didn’t say anything, but Megan and her clones were just down the hall watching them. They started to walk over to Brendan and Emma and Brendan’s smile subsided.
   “So, Emma, what you doin’ still hanging around with this loser?” Megan said directly to Brendan. Brendan, gave her an evil look and stood against the wall. He knew that he wasn’t going to get out of the hallway where he was standing without at least one more insult added to his name.
Emma had no answer, so Megan continued “Anyway, me and the others are going to see what the art teachers are up to…want to come along?”
   “I…” Emma said unsure
   “Ohh, come on, it’ll be fun!” Megan said pleadingly. But right at that point, Mr.Atkins one of the History teachers came around the corner.
   “What are we all doing here?” he asked
   “Errr…” Megan began, but couldn’t think about what else to say
   “Emma? Brendan?” Mr.Atkins asked. How much he hated Emma at that point, covered up for her.
   “Emma wanted to get her p.e kit out of my locker sir, we have p.e next lesson”
   “Well that’s ok, I saved the best for last. Megan Flyler what are we doing standing here?”
   “I was going to see you about my detention after school”
   “Yes, shame that. I know you’re a chatter box, and I have lots of reports to fill out” Mr.Atkins said, Megan looked slightly offended and shut her mouth that was open to argue the matter.
   “My mum said that I can’t do it. We have plans”
   “And are plans more important than discipline?” Mr. Atkins asked,
   “No…I”
   “I will phone your mum and see if what you have said is true, then talk it over with her. If you have been lying to me, you’ll have more than one after school. Especially if you avoid it today.”
   “You don’t have to…I…” Megan trailed off,
   “I suggest you either go to the canteen or go outside for the end of lunch, don’t want to make the detentions last longer do we?” Mr.Atkins walked off and went to tell off another group of students still in the hallway for eating.
   “So you want to come and see what the teachers re doing in the art room?” Megan said to Emma, completely blanking out Brendan.
   “Yeah, in a minute” Emma said, Brendan seeing that Emma was more interested in Megan, walked around the corner to his locker. Emma followed him,
   “It’s nice to see where your loyalty lies” Brendan said clearly only for Emma to hear. Emma didn’t know what to say, but kept quiet. He opened his locker then handed her her p.e kit.
   “I don’t want this yet” Emma said,
   “I know, but what makes you think that I want it in my locker?. You said to keep in my locker until you had another key for yours”
   “Ohh yeah”
   “And besides, if Mr.Atkins see’s you with out it he’s going to think that I lied.”
   “Ohh…yeah…”
   “Emma, hurry up” Megan called her from the end of the corridor.
   “Coming” she called back, dropping her p.e kit on the floor. Brendan walked off, accidentally leaving his keys in his locker. Emma was going to call after him, but found that nothing came from her mouth. She hurried to Megan, but she had already gone ahead. Turning back, she found that Brendan had disappeared so got her p.e kit and noticed his keys in his locker. She cautiously opened the locker, hoping that Brendan wouldn’t come back around the corner.
   In his locker was his spare books and at the back, a photo of him and Connor. But there was something else in there as well. It was apparent that Brendan had gone back to the boys toilets he was in the day before, and had taken the lose beads that had fallen when he snapped his necklace. They were all in a plastic wallet behind his spare pencil case. She took them and locked Brendan’s locker, then picked up her p.e kit and walked down the hall.
   She didn’t get a chance to return Brendan’s keys until a couple of days later. But it wasn’t in the way she wanted it to be. Brendan met up with Sophie later on after school. They walked to the train station together and talked about things that they both missed in the years apart.
   “So, how was life with just your mum?”
   “Pretty cool, she kept giving me things I wanted. I guess it was just because I didn’t have a dad around. Still, it was defiantly different.” She joked, Brendan said nothing. “What about Emma?”
   “What about Emma?” Brendan snapped
   “I was wondering, is she actually your friend? I mean the way she was speaking to you gave me the impression she wasn’t”
   “She is… I mean she was”
   “What do you mean?” Emma asked quizzically.
   “I mean, she was ok on Friday. But today… well, lets just say something is up with her. I just have to know what it is. Thing is, I’m not on speaking terms with her and at the moment, I don’t think I want to be. So did you call your dad?”
   “Yeah, he’s gunna pick me up around 6, he wants me home for tea. If you ask me though, he just wants to find out how school was.” Sophie said slightly annoyed, but mostly pleased that she could see her aunt again. Brendan just laughed and went up the stairs onto the platform.
   They waited ages for their train, and when it came, Brendan paid Sophie’s single fare. It didn’t take long for them to get to Redhill, which Sophie was surprised about, she was joking about the most random things and Brendan showed he was glad for her joyful company by laughing at her jokes and smiling with the biggest grin he could manage. When his mouth started to ache, he just drank the bottle of water in his bag and continued as he did before.

When he got home, his mum still wasn’t in. But he had post, one was his bank statement and another one was from a boy called Tyson. In the letter it said;
   ‘I know you don’t know me, but I know you’re mum and dad. The ones I thought were mine are dead and it feels strange to think that my parents are closer than I thought they were when I found out. I knew I was different, even though Tony and Annie –my adoptive parents- never showed it. I’m starting year 7 in September, and I wish I knew that I was close to my real family. This letter may come before I do, social services apparently found the original copy of my birth certificate. I guess that they’ll tell you and your mum and dad what’s going on when I get here.
   I’ve sent a photo of all three of us, I’ve made a copy, so don’t worry about sending it back to me. There isn’t much else I can say…other than I guess I’ll meet you soon I guess…
Bye

Tyson .A. (‘A’s my middle name, I don’t know what last name to put)’
Brendan didn’t notice the letter until he got home a day later. And even then, he wasn’t in the mood for reading a letter, when he knew what it was about. Depressing news, and shocking.

   When Brendan’s mum came back home just over 10 minutes later, she immediately spotted Sophie and screamed with delight. Sophie walked backwards into the wall behind her, while Brendan just laughed.
   “Finally!” Katherine exclaimed
   “Hi Aunt Katherine”
   “You still haven’t learned have you?” Katherine asked, Sophie looked really puzzled, so she continued “‘Aunt Katie’ or ‘Kathy’ please? Katherine’s to long.” Sophie caught the amusement in her voice so smiled.
   “Yeah, she’s been insisting on that name ever since ‘evil guy’ left.” Brendan confirmed, also smiling.
   “Is that the guy I know you wont speak the name of?” Sophie asked, nervously.
   “It might be…” Brendan said, he’d stopped smiling, but for once wasn’t slowly backing out of the room and showing he didn’t want to talk about it. ‘Kathy’ noticed this and put her arm around him, he pulled it off again, clearly embarrassed.
   After they all caught up about the years they spent apart, Harvey drove up the small driveway and got out of the car. Brendan had heard the car, as did Sophie and Kathy but they waited for him to ring the doorbell. It only took him a couple of seconds though, as the his car was parked right next door to the house itself.
Brendan answered the door, and showed Harvey into the sitting room;
   "It's a nice place you got your self" He said as he caught sight of Kathy and Sophie on the sofa.
   "Thanks" Brendan replied "You haven't been around for ages have you?"
   "No, I’ve had things on my mind...things to do. it looks like your mother has to. Keeping that boy out of her mind..."
   "Do you mean Connor?" Brendan asked clearly confused. Harvey opened his mouth and shut it, opened it and said,
   "Forget i said anything..." Then turned to Sophie and asked "You ready?"
   “Ok, You say goodbye and I’ll start the car"
   "Ok" Sophie replied happily.
It was obvious that Harvey didn't want to say anything else to jeopardise the thin line of trust that Brendan and his mum still had, because of the way he departed. Brendan was still confused, but said nothing. He thought that he was maybe just joking, but to be truthful he just hoped. He knew there was something different about his mum, a deep secret that hardly anyone knew. It just puzzled him that he couldn’t figure out what it was and that his mum wouldn’t tell him. ‘Perhaps she can’t’ Brendan thought, ‘or perhaps it’s one of those secrets where you don’t know where to start because of how long the explanation is’. He thought about this until around 6:45pm. His mum had called him down stairs; he was lying on his bed and reading a text book for homework. But his concentration was slipping; it kept going back to the subject of his mum and what his uncle had said to him just before he left. It seemed that nothing could get his mind off that non-school subject so he went to see what his mum wanted from downstairs.
   “Honey, could you do me a favour for me?”
   “I asked you not to call me ‘Honey’, but what do you want me to do?”
   “Go down the shops and get some pasta? I need to help next door with their car again, it keeps leaking apparently.” His mum asked smiling, but Brendan had immediate doubt. He could sense something was about to happen, but he didn’t know what his mind was telling him or how to understand the messages given to him from it. So, he went along with the ‘favour’ his mum asked him to do and got the money from his mum.
   There comes a time in every story that the reader finds out what the parents of the main character actually does for a living. And in this story, that point has been put off long enough. Brendan’s mum was a mechanic, though she was living her fathers dream. Her father couldn’t live the dream because he had arthritis early on and couldn’t move his hands. But Kathy left that job to become a part time nurse, handy in Brendan’s case, especially when he was younger…falling over, and defiantly clumsy. That was why she could help the neighbour with the car problems. The owner of the car having no car experience other than how to drive it and Kathy, one of the most experienced people in the street that knew how the car works. Brendan’s father, Matthew mainly worked in an office, but his job required more of him than sitting at a desk 9-5. He would design products for small children, and having 2 young children around him at home, it helped with most of the products designed and tested. But sadly, he died when Connor and Brendan were 12, on his way to work and another driver smashed into his right outside his work place. There was no fire, but also no survivors.

Brendan walked into the alley that led to the shops and stopped. Where the alley got wider, Brendan could see people. Megan and her ‘clones’ again, he thought about turning around, but Megan saw him.
   “It’s about time” She said
   “What?”  Brendan asked
   “Well come here!” Megan asked, pleased about what she was going to do. But Brendan didn’t move, other than taking a few steps backwards. “What’s wrong?, scared are we?”
   “No” Brendan said simply.
   “Hold on” Megan said distractedly. She only took a few seconds while typing ‘He’s here.Go’ then turned back to Brendan who had no chance to move. Two people had come up behind him and pinned him against the wall. Megan ran forwards a little but stopped in front of him,
   “You think that you can speak to one of my friends like that and get away with it?” Megan asked
   “What do you mean?” Brendan asked breathing deeply. He couldn’t move, two people were holding his arms and he couldn’t kick in case he fell over.
   “Emma!” Megan said surprised “Have you forgotten already?”
   “How could I?” Brendan asked coldly. “GET OFF ME!” He screamed. Megan had lifted part of his school shirt to show the scar that Will had made with the piece of glass all that time ago.
   “Why? You hurt my mate.”
   “NO I didn’t” Brendan almost screamed “Just get off me”
   “No” Megan said and brought out something that Brendan never saw until it was to late. “Wanna know how it feels?.” Brendan didn’t get a chance to reply, the knife entered his chest, all he could do was open his mouth and scream again. “Come on, lets leave him…” Megan said. She took the knife and strutted away like a chicken. She looked happy, like she was a little child in a sweet shop. Only a few people followed her, the rest stayed behind. Megan was too happy to notice some staying by Brendan’s side.
   “Come on, lets get you home” One of the people holding up Brendan said and brought him forwards. Brendan nearly collapsed because he had already lost loads of blood. “Hey!, Harry help” The person holding Brendan called over, someone came forwards and held Brendan’s other arm. For a  moment, the wound was open and no one was trying to stop the bleeding, then Harry said
    “We have to stop the bleeding” His voice was cracking and sounded as though he was crying. Straight away Martin holding Brendan’s left arm, took his jacket off and tied it around Brendan’s waist to stop the blood flow. Then they asked Brendan where he lived, he didn’t answer though he knew they were trying to help him. Someone there said his street name and number and they all went down the alley to the shopping centre. No one was looking, and even though Brendan’s house was a while away from where they were, Martin and Harry took side alleys and went down streets that Brendan hadn’t seen before. When they got there, his mum was sitting on the stairs;
    “What happened?” She asked Brendan and the people trying to help him
   “Who’s he?” Brendan asked, though his voice was barely heard. He was talking about a boy who his mum was talking to
   “Tyson’s your…brother” His mum replied clearly wondering what else to say,
   “What?” Brendan asked louder than before, his mum repeated herself but when she finished, Brendan collapsed on the grass. They crowded around him and one dialled 999.

[Phoenix]

   Brendan woke up slowly, still tired and in pain. He closed his eyes again to block out the pain, but it didn’t work. It seemed nothing could. Beside him on his left, his heart rate showed. It was beating faster now he was awake, though it took him a while to realise why. Attached to his right arm though, was something that he never had before. Even when he got stabbed the previous time or had got run over. A blood transfusion was in place, sending blood into his arm. Brendan wondered how many more see through packets he’d have to go through before he could go home again. But Brendan had doubts as he thought about this, just before he fainted, he found out something that would change everything and probably every one around him from then on.
   ‘A lost brother I never knew about?’ Brendan thought in his mind ‘How could this happen?’
   “So he awakes?” A nurse came in saying with a smile on her face “Want me to tell your mum?”
   “No!” Brendan replied a bit too suddenly
   “Ohh,” The nurse replied confused “I just thought you might want to see her”
   “I don’t, the person I want to see is my dad” Brendan replied honestly with tears in his eyes “But that would be impossible.”
    “Why?” The nurse walked over to Brendan to take his blood pressure.
    “He’s dead” Brendan replied simply. The nurse bit her bottom lip, probably to shut herself up from saying anything else that would wind her patient up.
   “She checked his blood pressure and the blood transfusion level, then asked;
   “Is there anyone else you want to see?” Brendan thought for a moment before saying,
   “Is Ryan here? My best mate”
   “I’ll see” The nurse answered and left.

    Afterwards, Brendan wanted to thank her for asking about his dad, it was something he wanted to say for someone for a long time, but never seemed to be able to. He lay there for what seemed like ages before she came back, she was talking to some people. For a split second, he thought it was either his mum or dad or both. The voices got clearer though, and he realised they were neither his dad or his mum, but someone else. As they came through the curtain, the boy suddenly turned shy and looked at his feet.
   “Harry, get over here”
   “No” He replied. His mum was a little way from him, evidently with the idea in her head that Harry deserved all the punishment and guilt there was. Which meant what he’d got himself in for.
   “What?” His mum asked
   “No mum” He replied louder. His mum clearly looked shocked from her son’s ‘display’ and came towards him. “I need to talk to him” He continued, braver than he was
   “Your sister-” His mum began
   “Is a psycho?” Harry finished off. His mum opened her mouth and closed it just as suddenly. “I need to talk to him” He repeated louder than before. His mum said nothing else, but walked away. Harry silently sat down and put his head on his arms
   “Your sister…” Brendan began unsure
   “Is Megan” Harry finished off, still not looking up. “And my brother is Martin.” He continued. It was a while before he brought his head up and said “Martin’s 20, the eldest. I’m 17 and Megan you probably already know” He sighed then continued “Megan’s disappeared. Dad recons she was scared of what would happen, mum thinks she’s a coward and never wants her back in her life. She knows about you and Connor…especially Will. When Martin came back to our dad’s, our dad was first worried. Martin explained it wasn’t his or mine and he demanded us to tell him what happened. He went nuts, he started on me at first, then Martin protected me, I was on the floor covered mostly your blood and some of mine. I couldn’t believe this was happening, I couldn’t believe it was real. Then mum came around, she caught sight of us and screamed. She was going for the phone, she probably thought we were near death and dad was the cause. But he blocked her, he screamed at her saying what really happened. And then she started on us, luckily Megan came back then…she’d changed into a sleeveless top and shorts…Mum stopped mid-tracks and stood in shock, I don’t think she thought Megan would even dare step foot in mum or dad’s place again…” Harry paused again. “Martin told me to run out the back gate, before mum or dad could even begin to wonder what was happening I was at least 30 yards from the back garden. I waited for a while, but it was getting dark and I still didn’t see Martin come out. He texted me to meet him somewhere, so I went and waited where he told me to. But I fell asleep, he woke me up around 11:30 and said we were spending the night around one of his friends…one of his is one of my mates. With all the sleep I had, I guess the bruises kicked in full swing…my whole body ached, especially my chest and legs. Martin had to support me to Shawn’s car, but I felt something warm and wet against my head. I asked Martin about it, but he said it wasn’t the time or place.” Harry told Brendan.
    “Why are you telling me this?” Brendan asked
    “You have to know…what happened wasn’t our fault. Megan even had the guts to push Martin into it…I guess she had to, mum still didn’t trust her with what she did in the shopping centre…”
   “What did happen?”
   “Errrr…” Martin looked down at his shoes and muttered, “You know she’s crazy…” Martin continued, distractedly “Right?” He asked hopeful
   “That is actually a stupid question…” Brendan said in the loudest voice he could manage, which was barely heard by Harry, but he understood
   “Well, I’ll tell you the exact details after my story to this morning, its not that long…but there is something Martin told me to tell you, he’s in hospital now, getting checked over. Mum doesn’t know he’s here, so don’t tell her ok?” Harry asked, finally looking up. Brendan nodded and then continued “He has a girlfriend, Emily…my parents know that…but they don’t know …She’s-”
   “Pregnant” Martin came in through the curtains finishing off.

A first, Harry stayed silent, not saying a thing but looking at the floor again. Then Martin came in, and told him he was ok.
    “No lasting damage” He told Harry, though his tone was slightly happy, Brendan could tell he was being sarcastic and almost cried because he was being so brave.
    “You never...told me” Harry struggled to say,
   “I know, sorry. It’s just that it never seemed to be the right time to tell you. What happened after I left was something I didn’t want to talk about last night,” Martin explained.
   “But look at you!” Harry almost burst into tears.
   It is true that Martin looked terrible, worse than when Harry had left him, and worse because of the bruises and cuts healing. His right arm was in a sling, and his left was in a bandage from his hand to his elbow. Martin had tried to put a jumper on to hide it, and because he was cold, but found that it hurt to much trying to put it on, so simply gave up and sighed instead. Hidden though, were the 7 stitches in his left leg, and 4 on his shoulder blade. His face was the worst though; Harry kept looking at the stitches above his right eyebrow, 5 of them and in a jagged line. His left eye was bruised and already purple and his right had a cut from the corner about 4cm round to his ear. His lip was cut and he had red marks on his neck.
   “Yeah, apparently I can’t wash the stitches for a week, or at least 5 days. But can you help me later on?” Martin asked Harry “I can’t write at the moment and I have an essay for Uni I have to finish”
   “Yeah, course” Harry replied, still looking at the stitches on his brothers head.
   “I’m ok” Martin said, worried that time was running out “I came here to talk to Brendan, I think you can wait a little longer” Martin said smiling
    “Yeah, sorry Brendan…Martin wanted you to know about Emily because-” Harry stopped and Martin continued
   “You have to trust us. After I realised what she’d done, I was in shock for a few seconds. After she’d practically gone though, I struck back to reality with a loud crash and helped you”
   “How nice” Brendan just about said,
   “We didn’t know she was gunna go that far though. Honestly.” Martin said, “She said she just wanted to threaten you to back off…We had no idea what she really had planned.” Martin paused “The police want to speak to you…”
   “Why?”
   “Because of this. What she’s gone and done.” Harry answered.
   “We saw them down the hall, talking to your mum.”
    “Ohh” Brendan wasn’t feeling in the talkative mood and Martin and Harry understood why. They didn’t ask the questions to Brendan they knew he wouldn’t answer, but asked ones off the subjects totally. Coming out with random things every few seconds, and Brendan came out of the protective shell he’d hidden himself in.
   “Was it you two who Megan was texting just before-” Brendan asked, braver than he had been only 5 minutes before
    “Yeah, and it was us who pinned you against the wall.”
    “That’s not important” Brendan said
   “How?” Harry asked confused “After all, if we hadn’t pinned you, you would’ve had a chance of escape”
   “I don’t think I would have…” Brendan said honestly, “I could see how many of her friends were there. If you two couldn’t tell, I could. I was surrounded, outnumbered. And I guess that if I did try to escape, she would’ve stopped me.”

There was a pause, where no one spoke. Then a police officer came through the curtains
   “Brendan Reace?” He asked
   “Yeah” He replied
   “I’m going to have to ask you some questions, about when you got stabbed.”
   “Again…” Brendan said under his breath,
   “You two are the suspects relatives aren’t you?” The officer asked Harry and Martin
   “Yeah, but-” Harry shut up, not sure what else to say,
   “They’re ok, they helped me.”
   “You don’t wish to press charges against them?” The police officer asked.
   “No, course I don’t. If they didn’t help me, I would be dead right about now” Brendan replied. Martin smiled a little, but Harry just looked at his shoes. Harry and Martin honestly didn’t know what their sister was planning; they’re like Brendan in many ways. Generally good people that people take for granted. The smiles were innocent, and there words, the same.
   “Ok, can you give me any names of the other people who were there?” The police officer asked. He was aware that Harry and Martin could change Brendan’s mind say there sister was innocent, but having 3 people who were at the scene in the same cubicle made it easier for him to interview. And besides, Brendan said that he couldn’t see some of the people who were there, it was left to Martin and Harry to tell the police officer who was there that they knew of.
   After the officer left, Harry asked,
   “You’re not pressing charges?”
   “Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Brendan asked, “No.” He said simply, “I’m not”.

   Later on, after Harry and Martin left, Brendan was left alone again for quite a while. It didn’t other him too much, the day life of the hospital kept his mind from the subjects he didn’t want to think about. This was mainly his mum, though Emma popped up in his mind as well.
   Brendan was drawing in a notepad that Harry let him keep when Tyson came through the curtains
   “Hi” He said nervously
   “Who exactly are you?” Brendan asked, though he realised too late that his question sounded stupid.
   “Tyson…you fainted before mum could explain anything…”
   “Sorry, didn’t realise she wanted to talk to me… even though I probably would’ve fainted from shock anyway” Brendan said sarcastically
   “It was probably more of a shock for mum…seeing me…”
   “No offence, but I don’t exactly care about her at the moment.” Brendan said more quietly than he intended
   “I wouldn’t be surprised” Tyson said rather quietly himself,
   “You might as well stay…sit down” Brendan said louder than he did before
   “I wouldn’t think you would want to see me”
   “Why not? It’s not like you have a secret child tucked away is it?”
   “I wouldn’t be to sure on that” Tyson said laughing, he sat down on the chair Harry had down on before and put his hands in his pockets
   “So you’re my long lost brother then?” Brendan asked with the same confused grin he used with the nurse earlier on
   “Yeah, I mean Tony and Annie didn’t get a chance to tell me, they died a while ago. I found my original birth certificate saying my ‘real’ mum and dad were some people called ‘Katherine’ and ‘Matthew Reace’. I had a blood test done…so did mum…” Tyson bit his lip and then continued “They got some of your blood when you fainted”
   “Convenient” Brendan said sarcastically
   “Sort of” Tyson muttered
   “Has she explained anything to you?” Brendan asked hopeful
   “Yeah, quite a lot…but she said she wanted to tell you…she didn’t want me to tell you” Tyson explained
   “Shame” Brendan said under his breath
   “What is?” Tyson asked, Brendan was surprised he heard him and took a while to answer
   “I was looking forwards to hearing more lies?” Brendan asked
   “Ohh, there was something that she didn’t explain though…” Tyson began
   “What? Why she never told you?”
   “No,” Tyson said wondering where to begin “What happened to dad…”
   “What?” Brendan cut in “Why?”
   “I don’t know…she also didn’t ell me what happened to-”
   “Please don’t say ‘Connor’?” Brendan asked, hopeful again
   “Yeah, Connor” Tyson almost muttered afraid to look at Brendan
   “I can’t believe her!” Brendan exclaimed…
   “How could she tell you about what the hell happened and not say that Dad and Connor are dead?” Brendan continued, unnoticed went Tyson’s shocked expression. “You did know they were dead right?” He asked, Tyson was staring at Brendan with his mouth open, he shook his head still with his eyes fixed on Brendan.
   Brendan said nothing, it took him a while to sink in and even when it did, he didn’t accept it.
   “They’re dead?” Tyson asked, finally shutting his mouth afterwards. Brendan wanted to scream with anger, but it hurt for him to even breathe and he knew he’d regret it later. So he lay there in controlled silence, not saying a word.
   “I thought I head voices” Someone said, breaking the silence.
   “And who are you?” Tyson asked, Brendan snapped back to reality in a second and realised he was looking at Emma, so looked away again.
   “Emma, I was one of Brendan’s mates”
   “Was?” Tyson looked confused, Brendan didn’t blame him.
   “It’s complicated” Brendan said, looking back at Emma. She didn’t say anything, but Brendan hoped she wouldn’t. Her pleading eyes said enough.
   Tyson realised Emma was hoping to speak to Brendan late, but when he did he said
   “I’m going to…go…” Indicating the curtain Emma was still standing half in, half out.
   Brendan never said anything, though he didn’t want Tyson to leave so suddenly, he also didn’t want to hear what Emma had to say. He still kept to his words when he said to her “Fine, I’ll stop asking if you’re ok, I’ll stop caring,” though he hated to admit it, it was easier said then done.
   Before he knew it, Emma was standing at the end of his bed, showing her left arm that was in a sling, but which had no bandage on. Tyson had left them but with it came the awkward silence and distracted eyes not sure where to look. Emma answered Brendan’s questions as to why her arm was injured before Brendan even opened his mouth
   “Trampoline, I lost my balance and fell off. Luckily I landed on a mat not the ground.” She said Brendan never said anything to this though. He lay there in silence, waiting for the next thing she wanted to say. “I never meant for you to hate me. I didn’t want to fight.” She continued, Brendan sniggered, but looked at the curtain in front of him. Hopeful someone else would come in before she said anything else. Luck, it seemed wasn’t on his side. She carried on “I didn’t know Megan would do that” This brought Brendan’s attention, and he searched her face. “Megan wanted to know why you hated her, she used me to get to you” Emma explained, though this was not the whole story.
   “She hated me, so I hated her” Brendan said quietly, but Emma heard him
   “She didn’t hate you, she liked you” Emma said biting her bottom lip afterwards. She took a while to continue, when she said “She was angry after the fight we had in the hall, after I told her she screamed.”
   “You’re not making much sense” Brendan said clearly confused
   “Megan likes you…she was playing hot and cold, well she thought she was…I guess it was mostly cold”
   “She genuinely likes me?” Brendan asked
   “Yeah. I found out on Saturday, she was talking to me online after I got back.”
   “How do you know she’s telling the truth?”
   “I don’t know. She showed me a photo she’d got of you. She told me she took it from my purse, there were love hearts drawn around your face and on the back. She also showed me some of her exercise books; French, Maths, English, History, German and Citizenship. She’d drawn little pictures of you and her, love hearts with your initials and hers…” Emma paused again, still not looking at Brendan. She knew if she did, she’d cry. “…She wanted to go out with you, she kept having a go at me when you ignored her because she wanted to get you alone.”
   “No offence, but if she kept playing hot and cold, why would I be interested?” Brendan asked
   “I don’t know” Emma replied
   “And don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to know that someone like me in that way…” Brendan was going to say “…But it’s a shame it wasn’t you” but said “…but its freaky…why stab someone if you had a crush on the person?” Emma stayed silent and waited “Girls make no sense sometimes you know that?” Brendan asked sarcastically
   “Are we talking again?” Emma asked, finally looking up at Brendan
  “I just saw one of your friends in the hall” Tyson came through the curtains and stood with his arms crossed
   “Who?” Brendan asked
   “Ryan, he told me about your fight, still not what it was about though”
   “Yeah, he wouldn’t know” Brendan said
   “Why?” Emma asked
   “Does it matter?” Brendan snapped, “I never told him that’s all” Emma stayed silent until Brendan continued again “Don’t like it when its you being criticised do you?”
   “I never criticised you”
   “If you didn’t, you certainly made me feel like nothing” Brendan said quietly.
   “Yeah, we have another problem…” Tyson began
   “What?” Brendan asked, fed up
   “Mum, she wants to see you…to explain some things”
   “Why is that a problem?” Emma asked curious
   “Ohh my god!” Brendan said out loud “My mum tucked one of my brothers away! I don’t trust her anymore! I don’t want to see her!” Brendan said louder than he intended. Emma stayed silent again and put her head down
   “Yeah…but there is something that I have to tell you…” Tyson began again, quieter than before. He didn’t expect an answer, and he never got one. “Annie and Tony, the people I mentioned earlier…”
   “What about them?”
   “They’re your Aunt and uncle-”
   “You have got to be kidding me!”
   “I’m not, I thought you’d better know. I didn’t think mum would tell you, they kept you quiet all my life. I knew you were twins with Connor, but that’s about it” Tyson explained rather fast, still Brendan caught on.
   “Where is she” Brendan said, though rather evil sounding.
   “Down stairs, but she said she’d come up soon though” Tyson warned
   “One more question,” Brendan asked, still sounding not himself “Are they from mum or dad’s side of the family? And are they any more Relatives I don’t know about?”
   “That’s two questions, but I’ll answer them, quickly though. Annie and Tony are from mums side of the family and-” But Tyson never finished the sentence, Kathy came through the curtains. Time stood still it seemed for over a century, but in reality it was just over a minute. Brendan at up the moment he saw her, though he immediately regretted it afterwards. His heart rate was beating faster than it had ever been, and some of the stitches had snapped, causing the wound to open again.

   No one spoke for a while, though Emma was getting more and more uncomfortable with every second. In the end, she ran out crying holding something in her right hand. Tyson took a step forwards and stopped; Kathy was looking at him,
   “What did you tell him?” She demanded, her face was red with anger and her long blonde hair was loosely waving from the air from the open window. ‘She looks like a demon’ Brendan thought to himself as he put his right hand over his stomach.
But Tyson said nothing and went to get a nurse, he had noticed Brendan was bleeding and was back in only 10 seconds, nurse closely following at his heels.
    “Nothing” Tyson finally answered
   “You told him something!” Kathy demanded in the same tone
   “I will have to ask you to leave if you carry on like this, Brendan needs to relax” Another nurse had appeared with a trolley with some thread and needles
   “Like that’s ever going to happen” Tyson muttered.
  “You’ll feel a small scratch in a minute, but after that it’ll be numb” The nurse carried on like Tyson had said nothing, and motioned for Brendan to lay down, which he did, happily though not smiling.
   “I told him the truth, about Annie and Tony” Tyson replied, not looking at what the nurse was doing.
   “Did you tell him about Rachel and Paul as well?” Kathy asked distracted,
   “No” Tyson said simply “I was going to leave that to you” Tyson said and was about to walk out, but sat down on a chair instead “So go on! Explain!” Tyson demanded, he didn’t mean to sound so demanding, but he was getting angry because of the tone Kathy was using,
   “Paul’s my brother, So is Tony, Annie and Rachel are their wives.”
   “So your saying that you have two brothers I never knew about and possibly families two?
   “Yeah, but Paul and Rachel do have a family. You have more than one cousin, you have 4”. Kathy explained, not looking at Brendan or anything else.

[Chinaren]

Cool Pho, but there's lots of little punctuation mistakes you need to go over.  Plus a common error somewhere near the end...

your / you're

Your:  Is this your book?

You're: You're nearly as clever as Chinaren.

[NicTei]

Wow, you are full of yourself, aren't you?
...
...
...
Not that I'm one to talk...

[Saint]

No, NicTei, it's "You're full of yourself." If he's going to help us, we may as well try it.

[Phoenix]

these chapters are almost a year old...

so this story ISN'T recent..
I'm working on 'Forgotten Screamer' and 'Foundation: - Introduction'.

I finished this on the 13/02/2008. thats how i post the chapters up so quickly. All the chapters are written

[Chinaren]

No, NicTei, it's "You're full of yourself." If he's going to help us, we may as well try it.

 

[Phoenix]

   Fortunately, Brendan didn’t have to wait that long for all his blood level was at a normal rate. It seemed to him though, that the decisions he made now, even in hospital would affect him for the weeks to come. He hated to admit this however; instead he mostly stayed in a separate world from every one else. Only brought grudgingly back when he saw his mum on her daily visits. Nothing could’ve prepared him though, for the options he’d have to take. He wanted to trust his mum as much as he wanted Connor back with him, joking about life and all it had to offer. But all the secrets she had kept, kept getting in the way. The secret brother and aunts, uncles and cousins he had never even heard of. What was his mum thinking of? Could this be the end of there relationship altogether because of the people she choose to not mention? Questions, it seemed were unwilling to answer to the people who needed them most.

   Brendan kept wondering about going back home, what would it take for him to trust his mum like he did before this all happened?. He wondered silently in and out of the real world and into the protective world he created after Connor died. Nothing could be the same again…could it?

   “There are some things I need to explain” His mum was sitting down beside Brendan’s bed. Quietly hoping that Brendan would still come back home and not go somewhere else until he could trust her again. Her nerves were shaking with anticipation as she grudgingly waited for the answer she dreamed he’d say.
Brendan never said anything; he was in the protective world. He was listening, but he was also in distant space. This was a good thing, because if he was speaking, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself with the things he could come out with. His mum continued;
   “Tyson is not your step brother, but your actual real brother. He starts year 7 in September, and because his legal guardians; Annie and Tony are both dead, He is coming to live with his real family, us.” This was the boring bit Brendan was dreading, he wanted REAL information, like how was he kept a secret and why?. These were the few questions that Kathy answered; the others were a mystery to explain even if she tried. “A while ago, 20 years in fact, me and my family were a normal family. Then when my dad, your granddad died, my family changed. There were arguments about simple things; who was first in the shower, who made dinner every night, who did the chores. Soon, my family split in two. My brothers and sisters and my mum. No one spoke to each other for over 10 years until my mum died. We all came together for the funeral, even you and Connor. You are probably to young to remember though, the pictures we have of the funeral don’t include your aunts and Uncles. After, I found out that Tony and Annie couldn’t have children, they joked about me giving birth and them bringing him or her up. That is what happened, you and Connor were in America for 4 months and while you were away, Tyson was born. Whenever we had a midwife coming over to check on the progress Tyson and me were making, you were away at school. Do you remember a room that was always locked?” Brendan didn’t respond, so she continued, “That was the baby room, no one except me and your dad went in there. But after 4 months, Tony got bored and went to America, I never knew until now. He wanted his own family, and he couldn’t when I was around he said. That was the last time I saw him before he fled.”

Brendan was at home when his mum was talking; he was lying on his bed, staring off into space.
   “Stop it” Brendan muttered, his mum stopped. Her mouth frozen half open “ I don’t want to hear any more lies”
   “These aren’t lies! This is the truth!” Kathy exclaimed
   “My whole life has been a lie!” Brendan shot back,
   “You’re like your father sometimes” Kathy said, Brendan sniggered
   “And you think that’s such a bad thing?” He asked, waited for a couple of minutes for a response (But never got one) so continued “I’d rather be like him than you”
   “Do you know what your father was really like?”
   “I know more about him than you” Brendan said so coldly that Kathy shuddered. Kathy paused, then said;
   “There we go, always thinking about yourself again. Ever think there are more important things to worry about then you?” Kathy said in the same tone as Brendan
   “What?” Brendan shot back
   “You think I’m fully responsible for Tyson. Your father wasn’t a saint either you know!”
   “I know!” Brendan shouted, “I never said he was anything. What makes you think I’m ganging up on you?”
   “Like I care if you are! You’re just selfish like him! I don’t need another reminder of my husband. It was hard enough burying him!”
   “You should listen to yourself!” Brendan shouted again “You say I’m selfish, yet its you who says ‘I, I, I!’”
   “Well its not my fault, Tyson screwed up things. If he didn’t come along, we wouldn’t be arguing”
   “How can you say that?” Brendan asked, his voice was shaking though he tried not to show it
   “It’s easy” Kathy shouted
   “Like he asked for this! Would you have told me about him if he didn’t turn up?” Brendan exclaimed
   “No-”
   “That’s the answer I was afraid of” Brendan muttered
   “Your father seemed to think it best”
   “MY FATHER IS DEAD!” Brendan shouted. Kathy sat in silence for a while, then they both of them heard the door slam.
  “Where’s Tyson?” Brendan muttered
   “That’s a good question,” Kathy said almost as silently.

They searched the rooms, but Brendan had doubts even as he looked in the upstairs toilets. He had a feeling that Tyson was listening, and he had been right. Tyson was now running away from the house, Brendan called him on his mobile, but Tyson never answered. He deliberately left his phone back at the house. Brendan tried to look for him, but his chest was still healing. He tried his bike, but he only barely managed to get on it and it hurt when he tried to ride it. So he screamed and forced himself to get off.

After trying and failing to get on his bike (and screaming) Brendan caught sight of his senses from that second, and shuddered. He had been an idiot to try to ride. He knew it would hurt and cursed himself for not being brought to his senses earlier. He had wasted time, and right now time was precious.
   “You idiot!” Kathy shouted from the window, she had seen and heard Brendan screaming and saw the bike on the floor “Please tell me you didn’t try to ride your damn bike! Do you want your stitches to come out again?”
   “Shut up!” Brendan shouted.

He’d had enough of the lies and secrets from this family…his family. He wanted things to go back to normal, to the way it was before. Little did he know, there were more secrets to come.
   He started to walk down the driveway, when his mum ran out the front door;
   “Who do you think you are?” She demanded
   “What do you care?” Brendan replied
   “A lot more then you think.” Brendan sniggered as she said this then said;
   “You certainly show it in a strange way.” And with that, he forced himself to pick up his bike that was lying on the floor and got on it a lot easier than he did before
   “You’re an idiot!” Kathy laughed
   “And so are you!” Brendan called back. He turned and managed to ride down the hill without moving his legs too much after that it was surprisingly easy. He’d managed to block out the pain by the time he’d reached the town centre, but he kept checking his chest in case. He’d not only got the stitches in, but had also received a bandage to help relieve the pain. This however didn’t help relieve the guilt he’d felt ever since Emma had left the hospital the last time he saw her. He knew it was stupid to feel guilty when it was her fault they had the falling out. But he couldn’t think about anything else, he didn’t want to think about anyone else.
   Something inside him told Brendan to go around Emma’s house. He didn’t know what to say to her, but he didn’t care. Seeing her face would make him think clearer.
   After he went through the town, he turned right and went around the one-way system. He could feel someone following him, but he didn’t look back. Amotion Avenue neared, and with it the peaceful gardens and roads. Brendan could see a car outside number 12, and only hoped someone was in.
   He didn’t want to get off his bike, he was afraid of how much it would hurt if it did. He had no choice however; Emma’s front garden was a mixture of tiles and grass. To get to the front door required him to get off and ring the doorbell anyway, so he took a deep breath and braced himself.
   Someone opened the door before he’d even begun to get off though, Emma’s dad;
   “This is private property” He said, Brendan knew he was joking but played along,
   “Please sir, I just need to talk to your daughter” Brendan said in a childish voice
   “Well why didn’t you say so?” Matt (Emma’s dad) smiled and gestured his arm for Brendan to come in
   “No, could you just get her please?, it’s gunna hurt like hell if I get off”
   “You’re going to have to sometime, but wait here”
   “I know, thanks” Brendan replied.
A few minutes later, Emma was at the door and smiling awkwardly.
   “Hi” She said nervously
   “Need your help” Brendan said briefly
   “How can I help you?” Emma asked
   “Tyson’s gone missing…” Brendan began
   “Say no more” Emma smiled “I’ll get my bike” She turned to go inside again, but stopped “When was the last time you had a pain killer?” She asked
   “I haven’t had one today, last night before I went to bed. Why?”
   “You look like you need one, or two…maybe three” She smiled awkwardly and went back inside.
   When she came back out, she was holding two tablets and a glass of water. “Drink up” She said
   “What are they?”
   “Paracetamol.” Emma answered; Brendan took the tablets and swallowed them in both in one go. “Lets go, my bikes around the back,” She added after she took back the cup from Brendan.
   Brendan had to manoeuvre his bike around so Emma could get passed. She appeared around the side of her house, wheeling her bike with one hand.
   “What exactly happened for him to run off?” she asked
   “Me and mum had a fight” Brendan replied simply. His concentration level was the most it had been all day, although this he didn’t show.
   Then lets find him; he doesn’t know Redhill as much as we do. He could think he’s lost but he really isn’t.”
   “Can we call around Ryan’s?”
   “Sure, we’ll take the back route” Emma said responded and replied with a smile on her face.

They cut along the one-way system, through town again and up a side alley that leads straight to Ryan’s house.
   “You knock” Brendan called over to Emma. She nodded and slowed down to get off.
   Brendan stopped, two houses from Ryan. Emma left her bike with him and went to knock on the front door. A few minutes passed before she came back
   “Ryan’s not in” She said honestly upset. She knew finding Tyson was important, especially now. “But Matt’s going to help us look” She continued. As she spoke, Brendan saw Matt, Ryan’s 14 year old step-brother come out of his front gate riding his bike slowly;
   “Yeah, Ryan’s at our grandma’s. He didn’t want to go, Dad made him.”
   “Right” Brendan said simply
   “While I was waiting, I called Gregg and Andi, they’re out looking now” Emma said a little happier
   “Thanks” Brendan replied
   “Where should we go then?” Matt asked
   “Around where I live first, it’s pretty complicating around there if you don’t know where you’re going” Brendan replied
   “Lets get going then” Emma said smiling, but in a serious tone.

   Back to Brendan’s house didn’t take that long; obviously Brendan didn’t want to see his mum. It was a sensible though, the things Kathy had said made Tyson feel worthless and unwanted, so Tyson never went back.
   “Lets split, I know the back alleys and that, but you two can do the main roads”
   “Cool” Matt said, shrugging his shoulders
   “Yeah, sure” Emma said.
   They were close to finding Tyson, when Brendan and the others were searching. Tyson was hiding in one of the side alleys, red faced and still crying. Brendan nearly saw him, but Tyson moved out of the way. He was making it clear he didn’t want to be found, not yet.

    Though the next few days were tough, wondering where Tyson was, (and Tyson keeping his distance,) Brendan had been though worse, every one knew it but didn’t face it.
   It was becoming clear that Brendan held a secret, and by the end of the weekend, every one knew. They were having trouble figuring out what it was though, Brendan liked it that way, and kept his distance in case people started badgering him to tell them what it was.

   Monday came, and with it the usual weather of April. Rain and wind were two of the everyday scenes and no one was surprised by the lack of enthusiasm about going to work or school.
   School runs with bus loads of students came, dropped off then disappeared. Taking with them the shelter the children had known, now they were getting wet and fed up.

   It was still miserable at break time, though Brendan saw someone out of the window…
   “Tyson…” Brendan muttered. Obviously he wasn’t sure, but it had to be him, he had to be sure.
   He was outside when he saw him, the teachers were around, and so running outside school was risky. He didn’t waste any time though, he saw 2 teachers wondering around the school but took his chance all the same. They didn’t see him running slowly out of the school, but people in houses around the school did.

The chase with Brendan and Tyson luckily didn’t last long, Brendan was already tiring by the time he was only 15 feet away from him…
   “Tyson, please don’t make me run anymore!” Brendan shouted, after that he had to stop and rest against the nearest wall.
   “You didn’t have to chase me…” Tyson said while trying to catch his breath,
   “Yes! I did!” Brendan exclaimed, “Why do you think I’d let you run off again?” Brendan asked a little quieter
   “I don’t know, I just had to run… you don’t understand…”
   “What? What don’t I understand?” Brendan asked again, his breathing had got a lot easier, and he managed to stand up
   “You! You don’t want me here, you never did!-” Tyson began
   “No!” Brendan cut in “Mum said you screwed things up, not me! I know you didn’t ask for this, neither did I!” Brendan almost shouted.
   Brendan was only in his school shirt; his blazer and bag were in his locker at school. Now, because it was raining, he was soaked. His shirt had gone see through, showing the black phoenix t-shirt he was wearing underneath.
   It took Tyson a while to reply, but said;
   “Aren’t you cold?”
   “Yes,” Brendan replied, his hair was once again dripping onto his nose and splashing around his eyes. He blinked twice and tried to push the hair out of his eyes; “Why don’t you come home?” Brendan continued quieter
   “Home? Where is it? I used to know a home in Bournemouth, Brighton, America…you name it!”
   “I know, you don’t have to come back to mums”
   “But where is there?” Tyson asked
   “Harvey’s…or Grandma’s…”
   “Grandma’s?” Tyson asked, confused
   “Dad’s mum…” Brendan asked
   “Do you even know where she lives?”
   “No, but my dad had this address book. Her address was in there”
   “And you know where this is?”
   “God, you ask a lot questions… yeah, I know where it is.”

After, Brendan had to go back to school. The teachers were looking for him, luckily in the wrong place. He managed to sneak back into school with Tyson following in his footsteps, as soon as he was sure no one was looking that is. He went straight to the office, and asked to phone his mum. Really though, he was phoning Harvey.
   “Hello?” Harvey asked
   “Hi, I’ve found Tyson. Can you pick us up?” Brendan asked
   “Where was he?” Harvey said desperately
   “Here, at school…can you come?”
   “Yes, but there is something you have to know.” Harvey said distractedly
   “What?” Brendan asked
   “It’s your other Aunt and Uncle, there at your house with your cousins…”
   “WHAT?” Brendan almost shouted, but luckily caught himself just before.
   “I know, they just turned up!. Kathy was straight on the phone to me, she couldn’t tell them to leave…so she asked me to phone the school, problem was I forgot the number. I’ve been looking for it all day, until you phoned.”
   “Convenient” Brendan muttered…

   The lunch bell rang, and the teachers started to realise that Brendan was already back at school. They asked him why he left, but Brendan just said “Tyson” to some of them and the others, he didn’t have the strength to answer.
   After Brendan hung up the phone up in the office, Brendan was taken to the p.e closet. There he got the spare p.e kit he was now wearing waiting for Harvey. They asked him if he wanted something to keep him warm, but Brendan said he didn’t care. Ryan heard what happened and came down straight to the office where Brendan was waiting, he gave Brendan his coat which he took but never looked up.
Emma was waiting for Ryan around he corner, waiting for answers to the questions she’d longed to ask herself. Ryan answered truthfully
   “He never said anything, I’d leave it-”
   “But-” Emma began
   “Just leave it… he isn’t himself” Ryan continued. Emma bit her bottom lip, and almost cried. Ryan sighed and put his arm around her
   “It’s because of me… isn’t it?” She asked
   “What is?”
   “This!”
   “I- It’s not just you… Its his mum mainly, keeping a brother a secret from him shook him really badly. Like I said, he’s not himself.” Emma shrugged off Ryan’s arm and ran down the hall.
   Emma never turned up to afternoon tutor or lesson 4 or 5. she was in the secret garden balcony Brendan showed her. The room was labelled ‘T7’, there was ‘T1-6’ as well, but most of those rooms were filled with cleaning stuff. Emma sat in silence, she hardly moved apart from the occasional tear that fell from her eyes. She didn’t care she was missing her lessons, she knew that Brendan was going home early and Brendan was the only reason she got up in the morning. Just to see his smile would make her think of nothing else that day. She was daydreaming for the 2 hours when she was supposed to be in Music and Science, it was better thinking about how much she screwed things up because that way she could try and make it right. She still had the beads she took from Brendan’s locker and had a plan for them, the problem was getting Brendan on his own to give his keys back to him. She wanted to explain what was going on in her mind, although she knew he probably knew he wouldn’t care, she had to try.

   Meanwhile, Harvey had collected Brendan and Tyson. Brendan took of Ryan’s coat as soon as he came and wrote a note saying ‘thanks’ and put it in one of the pockets. Ryan found this later and smiled; Brendan never forgot to say when he appreciated something.
   Harvey knew that Tyson didn’t want to see his mum yet, so took him straight to his house. This was where they were now. To answer the teachers questions about why his mum couldn’t pick him up, Harvey told him that his mum was stuck with lost relatives. It was technically true;
   “Describe him…please…” Tyson asked; he was sitting on Brendan’s bed, twiddling his thumbs and thinking in deep space. Brendan was just lying on his bed, his thoughts distant although he never showed it.
   “Who?” Brendan replied
   “Connor” Tyson said, he looked up and turned to face Brendan. He never argued,
   “He was…laid back” Brendan began closing his eyes “He never swore, or hardly. He wasn’t perfect, but no one is,”
   “He sounds like you” Tyson muttered Brendan never answered but continued;
   “He made the best out of every situation and hardly got angry. I know people took him for granted, they thought he was easy to use and take advantage of. At first it was hard to look at him after dad died, he looked so much like him. Connor had this strange knack of making you smile and laugh even if you wanted to kill yourself, we were a team…until-”
   “Will?” Tyson asked, Brendan took a while to answer
   “Yeah.”
   “You two, come down here” Harvey called up
   “We’d better go” Tyson said sadly, he wanted to hear more. Brendan opened his eyes and looked into Tyson’s, he could tell.
   “More later” He said quietly, Tyson nodded and got up.

   Harvey was waiting for them outside the sitting room door,
   “You’d better go in…I’ll be right behind you” He said, the brothers looked at each other, swallowed hard then walked in.
   “Ahh, here we are” Kathy said, “Brendan, Tyson here is your Uncle Paul, Aunt Rachel and cousins Sarah, Michael and Ben” She continued, indicating Ben, who was playing with lego on the floor, and two teenagers and adults who were watching TV.

[Phoenix]

   “No” Brendan muttered, Kathy looked at Tyson and Brendan and her smile faded
   “Well hello there” Paul said as he got up, Brendan took a step back and shook his head
   “What’s wrong?” Kathy asked, aware that Tyson was now standing behind Harvey,
   “NO!” Brendan shouted “NOT NOW! HOW COULD YO DO THIS?” He shouted again, breathing deeper and longer to get his built up anger out of the way
    “What do you mean?” Kathy said in a small voice, it was clear from the tone she was using she was actually afraid of Brendan. Ben ran out of the room and Rachel followed him, just as Brendan put his hands behind his head and screamed the loudest he could manage.
   “YOU’RE INSANE!” He shouted afterwards, then laughed “you think that we’re going to play ‘happy families’ just because your Brother and family have turned up?” He asked
   “I just hoped you’d-”
   “Understand?” Brendan asked “Yeah, course I do. You want to forget you screwed up”
   “She hasn’t” Sarah said
   “And no offence, but who asked you? I never even knew you existed until 5 minutes ago!” Brendan said rather annoyed
   “That’s enough, we all need to calm down” Harvey said, he was still standing in front of Brendan. Brendan turned and walked out, Harvey didn’t stop him but he followed him to the study at the bottom of the back garden
   “Are you ok?” He asked
   “No…” Brendan muttered, just as Tyson came in. “Why would I be?” He continued.
    “Can I ask you a question?” Tyson asked
   “Yeah,” Brendan replied
   “Why did you chase after me?...at school…”
   “Why wouldn’t I?” Brendan replied “You didn’t ask for this-”
   Brendan never got a chance to finish what he was going to say, Sarah came in like a charging Rhino and attacked the first thing she saw. This was Tyson.

   “GET OFF HIM” Brendan shouted, while trying to push her off Tyson who was covering the left side of his face. Sarah then started on Brendan, Tyson had been taken to one side by Harvey. Both Tyson and Harvey were crying, Brendan was screaming with rage and pain as Sarah kicked him to the ground.

   Sarah was eventually pulled off by Harvey who was beyond mad or angry. Paul didn’t know how to react when Sarah was walked across the garden, Harvey behind her, to the top of the garden. He saw the blood on her and ran straight past her to the study, she screamed;
   “DAD!” but he wasn’t looking.
   “Tyson, Brendan” He called, no one called back so he walked in.
   Tyson was standing beside Brendan, his arm was supporting him as he led him to the sofa.
   “What happened?” Paul asked,
   “Can’t you tell?” Tyson said through gritted teeth “You have a nutcase for a daughter!” He continued. Paul was about to argue back, but caught the sight of Brendan and ran over straight away,
   “What did she do?”
   “Take a wild guess…” Tyson said sarcastically “What was the last thing she said to you?” He continued
   “Before…”
   “Before she ran down here and went mental!” Tyson shouted
   “Tyson…” Brendan started
   “Sorry…” Tyson muttered
   “The last thing she said was what she said to you before you walked out. She said nothing to me or anyone else afterwards”
   “Then what made her go so mental?” Brendan asked
   “I don’t know” Paul replied “Lets get you sorted out first though.”

    Harvey told Sarah to wait in the sitting room, then went back to Brendan and Tyson. By then, Paul had got some tissue from the en-suite bathroom and was cleaning up Brendan’s head very carefully. Brendan flinched and closed his eyes as Paul started to clear up the blood around his left eye.
   “How bad is he?” Harvey asked
   “I’m not sure, probably not as bad as what it looks though” Paul replied, Brendan got annoyed and said sarcastically;
   “Am I invisible?” Paul froze and said
   “Sorry-”
   “Only I can tell you where it hurts.” Brendan pointed out, “Not unless you want to guess and guess and get it wrong.”
   “Does it hurt on your chest?” Harvey asked, Brendan opened his eyes again and stared at him, “Does it?” He asked again, he’d spotted something…
  “Yeah,” Brendan said in a small voice, he sounded almost scared
  “Take off your t-shirt” Harvey said fast
  “Why?” Paul asked “Is there something wrong?”
   “I really hope-” Harvey muttered, but stopped, Brendan and Harvey just stared
   “YOU NEVER TOLD ME!” Paul shouted
   “What? What’s going on?” Tyson ran in from the bathroom and stopped, he saw the blood
   “Not again” Brendan muttered
   “Does he have to go to hospital?” Paul asked
   “What does it look like?” Harvey shouted. No one spoke until Sophie ran in
   “What happened?, a girls in our sitting room dad-” She began
   “I know, that’s your cousin, she caused this” Harvey cut in, he indicated where Brendan was with his arm and Sophie froze
   “The little-”
   “SOPHIE!” Harvey shouted,
   “I’LL KILL HER!” Sophie shouted back, then ran over to Brendan. Paul was trying to stop the blood flow with a tea towel; Tyson was back in the bathroom trying to check the rest of his face with a mirror. As for Harvey, he’d gone back inside to tell Rachel what was going on, none of them had rung the ambulance because Brendan said he’d been in hospital more times than every one he knew put together. This didn’t stop Sophie ringing eventually though, the ambulance came and cleaned Brendan up the best they could. The two stitches that’d snapped had been stitched back up, and another bandage put on.
   Brendan’s face was sore, especially his nose and his left eye where he banged in to the corner of the table. Other than having a massive headache the cut above his bruised left eye and the re-done stitches on his chest, most of the other injuries like the rare bruises on his chest weren’t visible.
   He checked out ok, so Brendan didn’t have to go to the hospital in the end, but by the time the ambulance men left, Tyson was nowhere to be seen again.
  “Tyson” Brendan called, no one answered so he checked the en-suite bathroom where he knew Tyson had been. No one was in there though, Harvey went back to check the house, Sophie helped Brendan check the garden while Paul went back to the house to have a go at Sarah.
   “Tyson” Brendan called again, still answer, Brendan went right to the bottom of the garden where a pond was surrounded by trees. He went through the small creaking gate and stopped, Tyson was here…
  “Tyson” Brendan said, Tyson spun around while he was sitting down, he acknowledged Brendan then turned back “What’s up?” Brendan asked
   “Can’t you tell?” Tyson asked back. Brendan sat down beside him but said nothing “I hate her-” Tyson muttered
   “Who? Mum or Sarah?” Brendan asked sarcastically
   “I’m spoilt for choice!” Tyson laughed coldly, “Both, how does she expect us to trust people we didn’t know existed when this happens?”
   “I’m not sure,” Brendan, said “I thought you knew about them before me though” Brendan trailed off
   “I did, but not by much.” Tyson explained “She told me about them when she was explaining everything”
   “Yeah, shame she didn’t tell us about Sarah being crazy though…” Brendan muttered,
   “Things are never easy when you need them to be…” Tyson muttered. Brendan smiled and got up
   “Yeah, I noticed that” He said though in distant space.
   He looked around, aware that time was passing and people were still looking for Tyson.
   “Can I tell you something?” Brendan asked
   “Yeah,” Tyson replied
   “When he killed Connor, time went so fast. I didn’t accept he’d died until a week after the funeral.” Brendan replied, he was still in a distant world but he looked at his hands. “I couldn’t believe he’d died because when it happened, it seemed like a blur. I couldn’t make out what was going on” Brendan continued,
   “Brendan, Tyson” Harvey called from far away,
   “We’d better go” Brendan said, Tyson stayed silent and thought about what Brendan had just said. “Are you ok?” Brendan asked, he’d snapped out of the distant world he was in and looked at Tyson
   “Yeah, I’m fine” Tyson muttered.

    They walked up the garden path away from the pond, when Harvey called again,
   “Brendan!, Tyson!”
   “Here” Brendan called back, Harvey heard them and came down to meet them half way
   “You could’ve told us you found him”
   “I didn’t go anywhere” Tyson muttered
   “I know, but-”
   “Yeah, I know” Tyson but in, he understood why “Sorry” He said.
   “Yes, and so am I. I forgot to tell you earlier, there’s been some changes at the nightclub. Deliveries and that apparently, I have to sort out-”
   “Right” Brendan cut in
   “But your mum wants to talk to Paul and Rachel over dinner, I’m afraid your on babysitting duty”
   “Can’t they look after themselves?” Brendan asked
   “Afraid not, Paul’s insisting on you two looking after them. He doesn’t trust Sarah-”
   “What makes him think that we do?” Brendan cut in
   “I don’t know” Harvey said desperately “But I have to go.”
   “I know” Brendan said
   “I am sorry”
   “That’s what dad said be-” Brendan cut off,
   “Before?” Harvey asked
   “Go” Brendan said simply, he didn’t want to talk about it here.

   Harvey rushed off to his car, all the time from then on he was thinking about what Brendan would’ve said.
   “What were you gunna say?” Tyson asked
   “This isn’t the time.” Brendan replied, they were still in the garden but slowly walking back to the house. Tyson understood why he probably didn’t want to talk about what he was about to say, he had an idea that Brendan would’ve said ‘That’s what dad said before he died.’ And knew what that felt like.

   They reached the house and both took a deep breath. They heard their mum saying goodbye to Michael and Ben and walked into the kitchen, Brendan first. By the time they’d walked into the sitting room, Kathy, Paul and Rachel were about to leave.
   Kathy said nothing when she looked at Brendan, she never went to the bottom of the garden to the study.
   This meant though, she didn’t know the state Brendan was in, at that point she regretted asking Paul and Rachel to dinner and secretly cursed herself for it. She couldn’t look at Tyson, let alone Brendan for long though, its never easy looking straight at disappointment. Nothing else was on Kathy’s mind, other than Brendan and Tyson. She’d only known Sarah for a short time, but had the impression she was one of those you had to learn to love. She got in the car, wishing that Paul and Rachel could magically turn into Brendan and Tyson.
   Paul was thinking the same thing and knew only trouble could come of Sarah being unsupervised. It wasn’t that she was dangerous most of the time, but she was mysterious and kept part of herself distant from every one else. This is what scared Paul, mainly because he didn’t know what she was capable of if she got really angry. He knew that what she started last time was not the limit of what she could do.

   Back at the house, Brendan was in the bedroom with Sophie and Tyson. Sarah was cleaning up in the study while Michael and Ben were watching TV. Sophie had tried to make conversation before, but the only person responding was Tyson, Brendan never said anything until Sarah came in without knocking
   “Aren’t you supposed to be looking after us?” She asked
   “Look after yourself” Brendan replied “Your old enough aren’t you?”
   “You know nothing about me. Why get involved now?” She responded quicker than before
   “Well I don’t actually care, you can leave if you want. I don’t care” Brendan said without looking up.
   “Don’t you get it?” Sophie asked Sarah, “Go” She added. Sarah was about to start a fight with Sophie, but after sizing her up, decided not to. They were about the same age, but Sophie had something she didn’t have; courage. Sarah preferred to walk away from the fights she didn’t start, covering the others like a blanket to get the action but not do the work. Whereas Sophie had the last word in any fights, the ones she didn’t start normally made her jump because they usually started without warning.
   Sarah waked out again, the black mood she was in followed;   
   “I wonder when they’ll get back” Sophie said absent minded and looking out the window,
   “I don’t care about them. I just want Harvey back” Brendan said and looked up and outside the window opposite him.
   “Are you two hungry?” Tyson asked
   “A little” Brendan replied
   “Yeah, are you?” Sophie asked
   “Yup, time to make some food then” Tyson said while getting up.
   “Fancy pasta in tomato sauce?” Brendan asked “I haven’t made it for ages, but its nice with grated cheese on”
   “Sounds good to me” Sophie said, but continued “You shouldn’t be cooking though”
   “It doesn’t matter” Brendan said whilst getting up himself, “I’m hungry”.

   Brendan slid off his bed and walked to the door, something still held him back although he knew he couldn’t stay in his room forever. He forced himself to go through the door and walk through, but paused at the top of the stairs. His hair was long, drifting in the breeze as he stood motionless. Although the highlights in his hair had long since gone, the sunlight that was shining on it made up for the colours that had disappeared.
   As for the eyes, they were still as blue as ever, hiding behind his hair which was slightly curly at the front. The mystery behind the eyes still lay hidden and guarded, so did everything he thought about.
   The reason Brendan paused at the top of the stairs was because he was waiting for Tyson and Sophie. However much he wanted to go downstairs after the fight he just said, he didn’t, not yet anyway.
   “Are you ok?” Tyson asked
   “Yeah” Brendan replied, he looked straight ahead for a few seconds then looked down to the floor. Tyson knew he was hiding something and wished he knew what it  was, he felt sorry for Brendan and wanted to help. “Lets go” Brendan said as Sophie appeared.

   They made their way into the kitchen and together found the ingredients. Just as Brendan was put the pasta on the stove, Michael walked in;
   “Do you want some help?” He asked
   “ No” Tyson replied
   “Where’s Sarah?” Sophie asked
   “With Ben” Michael said, “If you ask me-”
   “Ben’s gone!” Sarah shouted
   “What?” Brendan said in disbelief
   “I just went to the bathroom” Sarah said while running in, “When I came back the front door was open and he wasn’t in the sitting room” She continued breathless.
   “You have got to be kidding me!” Brendan shouted,
   “My brother’s more important than you having a break down you know.” Sarah said coldly,
   “I’m not having a breakdown.” Brendan was going to say ‘yet’ but thought he’d better not. “You stay here.-”
   “WHY?” Sarah shouted,
   “Because im not having you around me!” Brendan said, evil and not his own once more. “You’ve caused enough trouble for now, stay here” Brendan continued.
   He went into the hall and phoned Ryan, it seemed a long time until someone answered, Brendan only wished someone was in.
   “Hello” Ryan’s dad Peter answered,
   “Is Ryan there?” Brendan asked,
   “Brendan?” Peter asked,
   “Yeah,” Brendan asked, he realised his voice still didn’t sound himself so coughed and spoke again. This time sounding more like he usually did. “Is he there?”
   “I was going to say, it didn’t sound like you. It’s hard to tell over the phone though. Yeah, I’ll just get him.”
   Just under half a minute passed before Brendan heard running down the stairs and Ryan picking up the receiver;
   “Brendan, what’s up?”
   “Long story, im at my uncles.” Brendan began,
   “Guess you didn’t want to go back home then-”
   “What home? With mum?” Brendan laughed “Sorry, but I don’t think im ever going to go back. I don’t want to.”
   “Right. There’s more though isn’t there?” Ryan asked,
   “Yup, mum turned up after we did. Uncle, Auntie and cousins too.” Brendan couldn’t help muttering, “The middle one, Sarah went a bit…” Brendan struggled for the next word, but just said “Nuts, she started a fight with Tyson, I cut in then she started a fight with me.” Brendan said louder than he had done before, but it was still quiet.
   “Are you ok?” Ryan asked, he was concerned about his best mate and showed it in the tone he was speaking with,
   “5 stitches above my left eye, bruised every where and ‘Devils Mark’ opened up again. But yeah, other than that and a massive headache im good. Ben the-”
   “What the hell is ‘Devils Mark’?” Ryan asked, he was seriously confused
   “Where Will and Megan stabbed me.” Brendan muttered again. “But Ben the youngest has done a disappearing act, you’ve seen how big my Uncles house is…”
   “Yeah, I have. Do you want me to come over?”
   “Can you?” Brendan asked
   “Let me just check. It should be ok though, Ellie now believes me about my arm.”
   “Took her long enough” Brendan said then sniggered. Another half a minute passed and Ryan came back on the phone,
   “Yeah, dad’s gunna drop me off. I’ll be half an hour.”
   “Ok, gutta go I have a feeling Sophie’s gunna go a little crazy if I leave her with Sarah for more than I have to.”
   “See you soon then.”

  Ryan was about to leave only 2 minutes after he hung up the phone to Brendan, all he needed to do was get his shoes on and grab is phone. He walked outside and Emma was walking up his front garden path;
   “Hi,” She said
   “Hi, I’m going to Brendan’s house-”
   “How is he now?” Emma cut in
   “Errr,” Ryan struggled to find the right words “Not good, he jut got in a fight with one of his cousins”
   “Sophie?” Emma asked,
   “No, Sarah, it’s a long story.”
   “He’s met his other cousins?”
   “Yeah, there with him now.” Ryan replied,
   “But if he’s just had a fight with one of them…” Emma began
   “That’s why im going over there, he still doesn’t sound like himself yet, but by the description of what injuries he said he’d got I wouldn’t be surprised if he sounded almost robot like.”
   “What has she done?” Emma asked
   “Apparently opened up where Megan stabbed him again, and he’s got bruises and-”

   But right at that point Ryan’s dad came out with his car keys, Ryan said goodbye to Emma and got in the car. He knew she liked Brendan, but the problem was to get them in the same place for more than a minute.
   Meanwhile, Brendan was waiting on Harvey’s doorstep. He couldn’t move that much and wished she hadn’t opened up the stitches in his chest, he had trouble walking after and even more trouble trying to get to sleep. Now it was going to happen all over again, this time with even more pain.

   Peter pulled up the driveway less than half an hour after they left there house, Brendan was still waiting on the doorstep of his house, but now he was leaning against the house. Ryan got out the car and held his breath, Brendan looked worse than the description he gave him.
   “Ouch” Ryan said,
   “Yup,” Brendan replied, “Can you keep Sarah under control while I try and look for him?” Brendan asked.
   “Is she like a grown up version of Lauren?” Ryan sat down beside Brendan
   “Your step-sister? Yeah.” Brendan replied
   “Then I think I’ll be able to. Where are they all?” Ryan asked,
   “I don’t know, they were in the kitchen.” Brendan said getting up slowly,
   “You ok?” Ryan asked, Brendan started to walk down the driveway and Ryan said “Your going now?” Brendan turned back around and said
   “Yeah, good luck” and laughed while turning back around to look for Ben.

[Chinaren]

Wow, between you and NT, you're sure putting out a lot of words! 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, the BOAA chapters have an average of 7 pages each until they reach chapter 18... i wrote alot, but then again if you read what happens the long chapters are apparently worth it

[Phoenix]

Brendan walked to the gates and stopped, there were 2 ways to go; up the street where the dustbins were or down the street to the other houses and the high street further up. He decided to go to down the slight slope of the hill to the houses, that way, if he didn’t see him, he would on the way back. If he went straight to the bins, he’d waste time and let Ben go further away.
   Obviously Ben walking out wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t want something for the others to blame him for. Even though he knew and so did Harvey and Tyson that the fight was Sarah’s fault, he needed to get out of the house anyway.
   Something though, was still nagging his mind and making him lose whatever concentration he had in that second. It was Emma, he was still trying to figure out what made her change and he knew he shouldn’t care but it was hard.

   Eventually he came to the end of the street, the park was here as with a corner shop and one private clothes business. Brendan had no idea where to go now, so he asked a few people at random if they’d seen a boy come past. Some didn’t bother to answer and Brendan got even more fed up with every time someone did it. Others though gave the same answer that; ‘this was a park, what did he expect?’. Brendan knew he couldn’t run or do anything drastic, but he wanted to give up and scream at the people that his cousin had wondered off. He knew also that if he did, they’d just say ‘You should’ve looked after him better then’.

   Then Brendan saw something at the end of the park by the swimming pool, he thought twice about running so just walked as fast as he could before he had to stop and continue again. Meanwhile, Ben was in the sweet store looking at the sweets. He was nowhere near the park but Brendan never knew that.
   Brendan inched closer to the boy he’d seen, but the boy was further away now, he had run with some other boys to the sandbox. He thought they’d stay there for at least 5 minutes or enough time for him to catch up, but they only got something out of the sandbox and went with a lady to the car park. Here, Brendan gave up. There was no way  he could catch up now, then someone called in his ear;
   “It isn’t him,”
   Brendan looked behind him but there was no one around him for about 50 metres. And yet, the voice sounded clear, like it was right next to him. “Turn around and go towards the corner shop” The voice sounded again, Brendan recognised who it was and did as he was told.
    He reached the corner shop and waited, nothing out of the ordinary happened until;
   “-But I swear!, it appeared out of thin air!”
   “How could it? How could a golden arrow just appear on the wall?” Two people were discussing it as they came around the corner,
    Damn,” Connor muttered “I didn’t think anyone was around” He whispered, Brendan heard and smiled where his voice was coming from. “Go behind the building” Connor said, Brendan did and saw what the people were talking about.  It was only about 5cm’s long but you could see it from a distance. “Follow it to the next one” Connor whispered again,
   “Weird” Brendan muttered
   “Just follow the arrows till you get to the back of a large house” Connor said.

   Brendan followed the golden arrows, turning left, right and then straight ahead so many times he lost count and had no idea where he was. Before he knew it however, he reached the large mansion Connor had mentioned. He looked up through the painted black iron gates and shivered. Suddenly there was a breeze and the gates creaked, rustling leaves scattered on the floor rose up, danced and fell. Brendan didn’t like being here, but the arrows stopped here, the mansion was at the end of the deserted street. A dead end.
    Brendan looked up at the mansion, it was half covered in shadows from the trees nearby and half shrouded in mystery. It was the only mansion left in Horsham, yet it looked abandoned and deserted. The windows were covered up in every single room, some had got broken by kids throwing basket balls, footballs and tennis balls at them. Others had no window at all, leaving the wood behind it to go green with mould and damp from the weather.
   The grass was overgrown, and weeds tangled and towered over the dead flowers that were scattered all around. This was what it was like up until the entrance, this was where Brendan waited.
    “Go through the gates” Connor said,
   “Your kidding” Brendan muttered,
   “No, afraid not” Connor smiled awkwardly, though Brendan never saw. He couldn’t see Connor yet, he knew he was there somewhere but Connor wouldn’t send him somewhere dangerous for no reason. He knew that much.
    He cautiously wondered up the garden path, looking behind him every few seconds hoping to hear his brothers voice saying ‘It’s ok’. He never did, he just carried on until he saw a faint glow of gold on one of the walls. Walking forwards, he moved the ivy that had tangled over the arrow and carried on. Seeing the arrow calmed his doubts a little, he knew Connor was still there and when he turned the final corner he had none.
   “Hi” Connor said, Brendan took a step forwards but said nothing, “We don’t have much time” He continued.
   “Where am i?” Brendan asked
   “If you go out the back gate you’ll know where  you are, just follow the street to the end.” Connor said, “Right now though, I need to ask how much do you trust Emma?” Brendan turned around and said nothing, the truth was he didn’t know how he felt about her. He felt something on his shoulder, it was Connor’s hand. He turned to look at it though he still kept his eyes away from Connor’s. Then his whole body stung with healing cuts and bruises;
   “How do you have healing powers?” Brendan asked, this time his eyes met Connor’s.
   “I can’t say” Connor replied. Brendan inspected his brothers ghostly image, aware of how see through he looked in day compared to when he saw him last. He could see the white almost dress like robe he wore, covered in shiny miniature pearls. The halo and the wings glistened and shone from over the garden wall. “You do know-” Connor stopped and remembered something,
   “What?” Brendan asked,
   “Nether mind,” Connor muttered, “How much do you trust Emma?”
   “I- I don’t know” Brendan said honestly,
   “You have to trust me, Emma didn’t mean what she said to you. I know I told you the same about Melissa, but this is different” Connor assured him.
   “Yeah, I thought you did that on purpose. I haven’t seen you for ages-”
   “Your not supposed to” Connor said and laughed,
   “Yeah-” Brendan said but stopped. He found he had nothing to say,
   “Are you ok? I mean lately, I know it hasn’t been easy or anything.” Connor asked,
   “I-I don’t know lately, things just happened to fast sometimes” Brendan answered truthfully,
   “Yeah, I know. Especially with Tyson and-”
   “Did you know about Tyson being our brother before I found out?” Brendan asked
   “What do you mean?” Connor replied,
   “I mean exactly that, did you know about Tyson before I did?” Connor took a while to answer
   “Yes,” He said, “Uncle Harvey told me-”
   “Uncle Harvey told you you had a brother?” Brendan asked
   “He didn’t mean to, he just blurted it out” Connor explained, “I never met him though. Until you did”
   “Yeah, well I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I did meet him. Losing blood really fast is never fun”
   “I know what that feels like” Connor muttered
   “Why did you have to go?” Brendan asked, “It’s not the same, everything’s changed.”
   “I’m not sure,” Connor replied “oldest goes first right?” He smiled,
   “That was a joke we had over 10 years ago!. A lot’s changed since then, besides your only 5 minutes older.”
   “Do you think about it everyday?” Connor asked
   “I cant get it out of my head-”
   “Ok, do you blame yourself for me dying?” Connor cut in. Brendan froze, “You do don’t you?”
   “Is that stupid?” Brendan whispered
   “YES!” Connor shouted, “You couldn’t help me then, I knew that!”
   “But-” Brendan began
   “But nothing, you could never have saved me, don’t you know that?” Connor asked “I was injured to badly for you to help.”
   “Yeah…” Brendan answered, though he wasn’t really listening
   “Listen to me!” Connor pleaded, Brendan looked at his brothers eyes. “We don’t have much time, But I know where Ben is”
   “You do?” Brendan asked,
    “Yes, like I said, go out the back gate and carry on down the road until you get to the town centre.”
   “Right” Brendan caught on, Connor then continued,
   “Then I’ll guide you again, like I did before. But there is one more thing I was with you when you asked Tyson when you were in hospital a question”
   “What one?” Brendan asked, looking at Connor sceptically,
   “What?” Connor said confused,
   “What question?” Brendan answered,
   “The one about the other siblings you didn’t know about”
   “Ohh, shame Mum walked in…” Brendan remembered and looked down to the floor,
   “Yeah, well I can tell there are things people aren’t telling each other. But I cant say more than that, you have to find out for yourself.”
   “Thanks” Brendan said sarcastically,
   “I’m sorry,” Connor said,
   “I just miss you…” Brendan said still looking at the floor,
   “Same here, but I cant come back. You know that”
   “I know” Brendan said. He looked around the back garden, he could tell that no one had been here for a long time. The grass was over grown and growing around the windows.
    “Like it here?” Connor asked
   “Not really” Brendan replied,
   “I didn’t at first, I used to come here when I said I was going to the park. Then dad told me that his mum used to live here, and it got passed down to you.”
    “Me?” Brendan said in disbelief
    “Yeah, I got the other house.” Connor replied “But I have to go,”
    “Ohh,”
   “I’m sorry, just call my name next time” Connor said, then turned around and walked away. Before Brendan could even blink, He’d disappeared. Leaving behind him a deep breeze that lifted Brendan’s spirits.
   “Thanks” Brendan muttered and walked out the gate.

   Brendan walked a little further up the street and found he saw the town centre at the end of the street he was walking on. Right at that point though, Brendan’s phone rang so he answered it;
   “Hello?” He asked,
   “Hi,” Ryan answered, “Emma’s been trying to phone you you know?”
   “Interesting” Brendan muttered,
   “Can you? Phone her I mean”
   “Why? What’s the point?”
   “You still haven’t told me what happened with you two you know” Ryan said
   “I know,”
   “You want to tell me now? That way I can tell her to get lost if she phones again”
   “She said I was invading her privacy-”
   “And what did you do to annoy her?” Ryan asked
   “Just asked if she wanted to meet up, so I said I’d stop caring about her and asking if she was ok…”Brendan sighed, then continued “She hated me asking her too many questions and cutting her in when she was talking”
    Ryan didn’t answer straight away, but said;
   “That’s…anyway. You want me to tell her to get lost? Or do you wanna do the honours?”
   “I’ll do it” Brendan said, though he had to cough after he said it.
   “She’s ringing up now, want me to give her your number?”
   “Might as well, though I may regret this later. This is the only number she doesn’t have” Brendan answered.
   “Well I guess I’ll speak to you soon then”
   “Is that all you rang up for?” Brendan asked,
   “Yup, pretty much. Sarah took one look at me and went silent. You found Ben yet?”
   “Nearly”
   “Nearly?” Ryan said confused,
   “Don’t ask” Brendan laughed
   “Fine, bye”
   “Bye” Brendan answered and hung up.

   He walked to the end of the street, then his phone rang again;
   “Hi” Emma said
   “Hi” Brendan said while walking up to one of the garden walls, he’d seen an arrow again though this time it was smaller.
   “Ryan said you were out”
   “Yeah,” Brendan answered, “Finding Ben,” He continued following the arrow to an alley that led to the town centre,
   “Where are you? Have you found him yet?”
   “Horsham and no, I haven’t” Brendan replied spotting the next arrow a little further up.
   “I need to explain something”
   “Go on then” Brendan said while walking again.
   “I need to say it to your face, not over the phone”
   “What makes you think I want to see you?” Brendan asked
   “Please, are you coming to school tomorrow?”
   “Not sure yet.” Brendan replied simply, he didn’t care about school at the moment. He was at the edge of the high street now, looking for the next arrow to show him where to go. After a few seconds, he spotted it. It was telling him to go in another alley; Brendan walked into it but couldn’t see the end of it. “Great” Brendan muttered,
    “What is?” Emma asked, keen to keep the conversation going,
    “Nothing,” Brendan answered, it was hard to explain what was going on to another person.
   So he walked in the alley, and got to about half way. Still no other signs showed up, but Brendan didn’t expect them to, not yet anyway. Brendan found something on the floor though, he recognised it as he picked it up, it was Ben’s jumper.
    “Have you found something?” Emma asked,
    “Yeah, his jumper.”
    “Did you follow him or something?”
    “No, I just have help that’s all” Brendan sighed, then walked on. Emma was slightly confused about what Brendan was saying, but she didn’t care. He was talking to her, even slightly was good enough for her.
   “Have you got any idea where he is?” she asked,
   “Your asking a lot of questions again… but no. like I said, I have help.” Brendan replied.
   “Do you want me to help you? I mean he’s probably tired. My dad could give you a lift back to your uncles house”
   “No” Brendan said, “Its ok”
   Brendan finally got to the end of the alley and waited again, he thought just for a second that this was a trap, then he heard something. Crying,
   “Hold on, I think I might have found him” Brendan said fast,
   “Ok,” Emma said, she sat on her bed at home, nervous tension filled her body. She wanted to make it right again between them, but he didn’t seem to care about her, or anything else at that point. Meanwhile, Brendan followed the muffled cries to a corner,
   “Ben?” Brendan asked
    “Yeah?” His small voice said, followed by his face peering out of the shadows,
    “You ok?” Brendan asked, Ben recognised Brendan and ran over to him,
    “Can I call you back?” Brendan said to Emma over the phone,
    “Yeah, sure” She replied back. Brendan hung up, put his phone in his pocket and hugged Ben.
   “Why did you run off?” Brendan asked, Ben didn’t reply though. He just clung onto Brendan for dear life, when his small arms relaxed, Brendan said; “Ben?”, but he smiled afterwards, Ben had fallen asleep.

   Brendan struggled carrying Ben back into the long alleyway; somehow he felt a chill and Bens weight being lessened a little. Brendan didn’t mind, he was injured and worn out from the fight he had earlier.
   Soon though, he was back at his Uncles. His Uncles car still hadn’t turned up, Kathy’s car also wasn’t there, and this Brendan was relieved at. He knew that Ben going missing and wondering off wasn’t his fault, but he still didn’t want to explain where he had been and why Ben was dirty.
He walked to the front door and was about to knock on the door when he noticed that the door was open. He crept in, silence filled every room and passage and Brendan shuddered. Something wasn’t quite right; he went into the sitting room and lay Ben down on the sofa. The chill he’d felt ever since he picked Ben up lifted and Brendan walked out of the room still not sure what felt wrong or where to begin to find out what it was.

   Meanwhile, Connor was drifting between the streets. Looking for someone, he started off at her house, and searched the rooms. No one was in except her cat that was asleep in the sitting room. Next he searched the nearby area, no sign of her here either. He was about to give up when he saw her; Emma. She was walking up the street, consumed in her thoughts and her life she didn’t notice him there. Instead he went on ahead to her house, a few minutes passed before she got the keys out of her pocket and unlocked her front door.
   She put the shopping she held in her hands onto the sofa and went upstairs, Connor floated up and caught her when she was half way though the door. Emma still didn’t see him though, instead she went to her bedside cabinet and picked up the photo frame on it. The photo was a picture of her and Brendan, smiling and laughing at the world. Nothing to worry about, not a care in the world. Now she realised where Brendan had got the picture of her from, the one he was painting all that time ago with there head teacher Mrs.Hagen added.
   “How can things go wrong so quickly?” She asked out loud, “I never meant to hurt anyone, yet everyone hates me. I blew everything didn’t I?” She continued, annoyance filled her voice, “Why do I have to be so stupid when I’m around people I care about? Is this going to be my life from now on? Always thinking before I do any single little thing in this world? I cant even look at my reflection because im afraid of what I’ll see. Brendan is the only person I thought I could trust as well as Ryan and Connor, but I blew it with my attitude. It wasn’t his fault, it was mine, I was selfish…and only thought about myself.” Emma continued, tears were now falling down her cheeks and onto her t-shirt. She still held the photograph in her hand, and was looking at it when she said the words she knew were true. “I’m sorry Brendan, I really am.” Connor wanted to comfort her, he knew she meant well, and knew she did feel bad about the argument they had. Something called inside him though, he had to go. He floated up again, this time he didn’t come back down.

   Brendan hadn’t got very far either, he still didn’t know where the rest of his family was and was slightly worried. He’d checked the upstairs and all the bedrooms and they were all empty. The only other places they could be was outside and downstairs, so he went back stairs and looked back in the sitting room. Ben was still sleeping, nothing else was moving in the room except Brendan so he walked into the adjoining dining room. Both the dining room, the kitchen and the toilets however were empty, there was only one other place they could all be.

   Brendan walked outside and smelt the air thick with freshly mown grass. The path leading to the study was getting damp and cold, He could feel it walking down to the study and could see his warm breath against the air that was so cold around him. Feeling anything now would be a mistake, feeling pain and being worried would get Sarah to see his weakness wherever it lay. So he walked on and looked though the windows, the lights were on and he could see shadows moving about;
   “Well?” Brendan heard Sophie say,
   “Well what?” Sarah replied,
   “Well did you plan on saying ‘Sorry’?”
   “Why? He started it” Sarah replied, the annoyance showing again,
   “YOU SOUND LIKE A CHILD!” Sophie exclaimed,
   “Ohh well, that doesn’t matter does it? I can behave how I want!” Sarah snapped.
   “Ohh, I’ve had enough. Im going to check if Brendan’s actually back, you know it should be you trying to find your brother not him.” Sophie said, Brendan heard her walking to the door and whispered,
   “Sophie,” Sophie spun around and smiled,
   “Here you are, did you find him?” She whispered back, and sat down next to him.
   “Yeah, he’s in the sitting room. Where’s Tyson?” Brendan said a little louder,
   “Still inside, though he didn’t look to comfortable when I left.” Sophie replied, at that point though, Tyson walked out and ran up the garden path. Sophie was going to run after him, but Brendan stopped her.
   “Don’t you want to follow him?”
   “Yeah but-” Brendan began but stopped, Sarah was speaking again,
   “You had to go along with it, when you walked out into the kitchen I snuck my chance and told Ben to go out. I said I was going to follow him at the bottom of the road, I guess he just got bored waiting!” Brendan and Sophie looked at each other,
   “They planned it?” Sophie said on the verge of exploding,
   “OHH! COME ON!, you know what Ben’s like, he cant sit in the same place for more than 5 seconds before he gets bored, you knew that he’d go and wonder around!” Michael shouted
   “Doesn’t matter does it?” Sarah asked, “Brendan’s probably found Ben by now anyway!”
   “Yeah, no thanks to you!” Michael said walking out,
   “UNGRATEFUL!” Sarah shouted after him, “THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE!”
   “TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR SELF! THEN, YOU HAVE A STRANGE IDEA OF BEING UNGRATEFUL!” Michael shouted back,
   “Ohh my god,” Sophie began, “Did you know about this?” she asked
   “No, but it makes sense now though.” Brendan replied, “Doesn’t it?”

[Phoenix]

   “We should find Tyson,” Sophie muttered, Brendan heard but said nothing as he got up. “we should tell someone-” Sophie began
   “No,” Brendan cut in. “There’s no point”
   “How?” Sophie asked, but Brendan was walking away to the house. Sophie followed and said while walking. “I mean we have to tell someone, she planned it!”
   “I know, I just don’t want to get into another fight, that’s all”
   “You don’t have to be there”
   “Do you really think they wont want to hear my side of the story?” Brendan asked, “I mean we both heard them, not just you”
    “I know we did but-”
    “Right now, I just wanna find Tyson.” Brendan stopped walking and looked at Sophie, “I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t wanna think about this yet” He continued.
   “I’m sorry” Sophie stopped and looked at Brendan, he was diverting her gaze so she looked away again.
    “Look, I don’t want to leave it like this with you, not now” Brendan said closing his eyes,
    “Then don’t,” Sophie said linking arms with him. Brendan opened his eyes again and looked at her, “But can we at least find Tyson and tell him? Even if we don’t tell anyone else?” She continued,
    “Yeah, sure.”
   They walked up the garden path together, knowing that no one could stop Sarah and her plan of revenge. They knew this was only the beginning of what was to come, and they were unprepared for what could happen.
    “I wonder where Tyson is” Sophie wondered whilst walking in the kitchen behind Brendan.
   “I guess we’ll soon find out” Brendan said walking in front of her again, at that point however, they heard speaking coming from the sitting room and went to investigate.
   “I’ll get him to phone you later” Tyson said, a little pause came then he continued, “Yeah, he’s fine. Bye” And Tyson put the receiver back.
    “Who were you talking to?” Brendan asked whilst coming into the sitting room,
    “Your friends Liam and Jamie. That heard what happened, when did you get back?” Tyson replied
    “Not long ago,” Brendan replied looking around the room, “where’s Ben?” he added,
    “Michael’s with him, he wanted to speak to him with out me being there”
    “Ohh,” Brendan replied,
   “Where was he?” Tyson asked,
   “Lost at the end of an old alley, he fell asleep so I had to carry him back here. Isn’t Harvey back yet?” Brendan asked,
    “No, neither is mum, Paul and Rachel” Tyson replied,
   “I don’t care about them, at least not mum anyway” Brendan said under is breath though Sophie heard him.
    “Sarah planned this,” Sophie said rather quickly, “She planned Ben running off,”
    “What?” Tyson whispered, “she made Ben run away and made it look like an accident?”
   “Yeah,” Brendan replied, “So we’d better keep an eye on her, in case she plans something else”
    “I don’t think she will, at least not today” Sophie said whilst walking to the window,
    “Why?” Tyson asked,
   “Because Dad’s back” Sophie replied.
   “Should we tell him now?” Brendan asked,
   “About what?” Michael asked, Tyson, Sophie and Brendan turned around to see Michael holding Ben’s hand,
    “Something that doesn’t matter to you” Sophie replied, she looked back to the car that had now pulled up the driveway now with its head lights turned off, then she went to greet Harvey.
    Brendan and Tyson soon followed, they didn’t want to be near Michael or Ben even if they did nothing wrong.
    “How are you now?” Harvey asked, looking at Brendan though he was hugging Sophie.
   “Fine,” Brendan replied,
   “I hope you’ve been resting, you’ve only had the stitches in a couple of hours now” Harvey said, Sophie had picked up her fathers brief case and was walking inside with it, so Harvey came over to Brendan and put his arm around his shoulder.
   “I know, but you know what its like for me, I can’t stay out of trouble for more than 5 minutes, if I do trouble usually finds me” Brendan said sarcastically. Harvey laughed and started walking in to the house,
   “You coming?” He asked, Brendan walked forwards too and said,
   “Yeah, I’m coming”
   “Where’s Tyson and the others?” Harvey asked,
   “He’s in the sitting room, not sure about them” Sophie replied,
   “The phones ringing” Michael called from inside,
   “It’s probably work, they cant spare me for more than 5 minutes with out me before something goes wrong” Harvey laughed and walked in to answer the phone call;
    “Wonder if crazy girls come out of the study  yet” Sophie said looking at Brendan,
   “I don’t really care,” Brendan said, “but you’re right about one thing, she is crazy…” Brendan continued walking through the front door.
    “No of course we’ll come over-” Harvey said, Brendan heard and looked at Sophie, was this work? “-No” Harvey paused and said “-Ok mum, we’ll come over tomorrow.”
   Brendan stared at Harvey ‘Mum’?, his grandmother was alive?. Sophie didn’t know what to say either, Harvey contacted his mother since before Matthew (Brendan’s dad) had the accident and died. Brendan’s grandmother Rose had thought the accident was his fault because Harvey was in the same car when it happened, however things weren’t as they seemed.
   Harvey hung up the phone and turned around, he saw Brendan and Sophie and sighed;
   “You told me she was dead” Sophie said quietly,
   “She blamed me for what happened in the car that day, I wasn’t thinking straight” Harvey said and came over to them, “I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what else to do at the time.”
   “Secrets don’t stay buried for long do they?” Brendan asked,
   “Guess not” Harvey said and smiled awkwardly,
   “I just hope there aren’t many more,” Brendan said worried
   “Everyone has a secret at least, its just a matter of time before we accept them and move on” Harvey put his hands on Sophie and Brendan’s shoulders and said “I am sorry.” Sophie broke off for a few minutes, shrugging her dads hands hand back to his side, then she fell into his arms. Her eyes closed and she pulled her arms around his waist, Brendan after a few minutes did the same.
   “Are you two hungry?” Harvey asked,
   “Three” Tyson said,
   “Ahh, you got me. Three people. So who’s hungry?”
   “Me,” Tyson said,
   “He’s always hungry” Brendan joked,
   “I’ll make myself something” Sophie said and stopped hugging her dad
   “What about you?” Harvey asked Brendan,
   “No, I had something earlier”
   “No you-” Tyson began but stopped when Brendan punched him in the arm,
   “If you’re sure,” Harvey said not noticing the punch Brendan gave Tyson, “What about Sarah and the others?”
   “Leave them, they spoilt the evening” Sophie said walking into the kitchen,
   “I know, I didn’t want to go you know” Harvey said mostly to Brendan than to anyone else, “That fight was pretty serious”
   “You’re telling me” Brendan muttered,
   “Well lets go find some food then” Harvey said, urging Brendan to go in the kitchen. At that point however, the phone rang and Brendan answered it;
   “Hello?”
   “Hi” Liam, one of Brendan’s mates said, “I got some bad news for you-”
  “What is it?” Brendan asked,
   “I had an after school, but afterwards I over heard Mr.Hagen, Mrs.Osram and Mrs.Fairdy talking” Liam began, Mr.Hagen was the head teacher of Brendan’s school, Mrs.Osram the deputy headmistress and Mrs.Fairdy was Brendan’s tutor. “They were talking to someone,”
   “Who?” Brendan asked,
   “Megan and her mum, her mum’s complaining because she isn’t getting any education, Mr.Hagen is letting Megan come back-” but here, Brendan dropped the phone, he noticed it when it fell and picked it up just before it fell to the floor;
   “They can’t do that!” Brendan hissed,
   “Tell that to the head teacher! Mrs.Fairdy said that if she came back, she wanted Megan to switch tutor groups! She really didn’t want to come back here!”
   “I’m not surprised, she tried to kill me near enough” Brendan hissed rather fast,
   “I know, after they came out I said to him ‘do you realise what you’ve done?’ he stared me and gave me another after school detention!”
   “he’s gunna have rebellion going on, I just hope he knows that!” Brendan exclaimed, “Do you know when she comes back?”
   “No, but its this week though. I know that much.” Liam replied,
   “It’s still Monday, she’s got Tuesday to Friday” Brendan muttered to himself,
   “Yeah, when are you coming back? Ryan told me about the fight  you had”
   “Not tomorrow, Wednesday maybe. But im not gong by bus, im going by train” Brendan replied,
   “Cool, I’ll meet you at the station. If you’re not coming in then just call me or something “ Liam said a little happier,
   “There’s something else though,” Liam began,
   “What?” Brendan asked,
   “Her brother ran off, no one knows where he is”
   “Which one? Martin or Harry?” Brendan asked, worried again as he knew they had nothing to do with Megan and what she did to him,
   “Harry, all the people in 6thform are worried about him, no ones seen him since last Monday.”
   “Yeah, I forgot he went to our school,”
   “My mum’s calling me, can I phone you later?” Liam said after a while,
   “Sure, but im goin got bed in a minute, I need to get these cuts healing.”
   “What are you saying?” Liam asked,
   “If you call me back I’ll probably sleeping” Brendan replied,
   “Will you be in tomorrow?” Liam asked, then remembered, “I mean at home”
   “After we’ve seen our Nan, yeah”
   “Good, because your supposed to be taking it easy,” Liam said in a worried tone that made Brendan feel guilty about finding Ben.
   “I know, you know me though”
   “What? Generally active? Yeah, I know.” Liam laughed, “I gutta go,”
   “Hey, thanks for letting me know about her”
   “No problem,” Liam said, “What are friends for,”
   “Call me if you can tomorrow, if not don’t worry.”
   “Will do” Liam laughed again then said, “Rest,”
   “Yeah, I’m gunna count how many people say that to me in the next few days. Bye” Brendan said,
   “Bye,” Liam replied.

   Liam hung up the phone first, Brendan afterwards went in the kitchen to tell the others. Tyson spoke first;
   “They cant bring her back,” Tyson shouted, “Can they?”
   “I’m not sure, I thought she was put away somewhere.” Brendan replied,
   “Obviously not,” Sophie said sarcastically, “She is nuts though,”
   “Yeah, so’s the head teacher and her mum. You cant do much about it though can you?” Brendan said, Tyson stared at him and said;
   “How the hell can you be so calm?”
   “I’m just tired of being scared, tired of fighting all the time that’s all. But there will be a rebellion, plenty of people liked Megan before, but when they heard about what she nearly did to me, they had to think more than twice about what they could’ve been involved in. Plenty of people don’t trust her now, there scared of her.”
   “I know but-” Tyson began,
   “-Listen to me, everyone knows that she liked me all along now, probably more than the rest of her friends put together. But She stabbed me didn’t she, her old friends are worried that she’ll do the same to them. In other words if she does come back, its gunna be the whole school practically against her. And she wont be able to get out of it, I just hope she knows that.”
   “That kinda makes sense in a strange way, but either way, I want to make her pay for what she done” Sophie said,
   “Trust me, if she goes through the next few days I wont be surprised if she goes crazy.” Brendan said then paused, he had an idea. “I’ve had a pretty good idea,”
    “Tell us,” Tyson said,
   “She thinks we’re gunna be horrible and make her life a living hell the next few weeks right?” Brendan said, smiling for the first time that day,
    “Right” Sophie replied, following just about,
    “Then lets be nice to her, reverse psychology or something. She will get suspicious, but she wont care.”
    “You are crazy” Sophie muttered,
   “Think about it though, she wont be expecting us to be nice, especially me. But that’s the beauty of it,”
   “I think I see where you’re going…” Tyson muttered, “Pretend to be nice to her for now then plan something later on.”
   “What do you mean plan something?” Brendan asked,
   “Don’t you want to get your own back? We can make her scared, like she made you” Tyson replied,
   “You mean pretend to be her friend but use that against her later on?” Sophie caught on,
   “Sort of,” Tyson said looking at Brendan, “But it can’t just be me doing it on my own, I do need some help”
   “Then lets plan this a little more, if I’m pretending to be friends with her, then I’m also not doing it alone. There is NO way im going near her without at least one of my mates being there” Brendan said,
   “Well, I’m not surprised there. If I were you, I wouldn’t even be in the same room with her.” Tyson said sympathetically.
   “So if we plan something big to happen, what is it going to be and when is it gunna strike?” Sophie asked,
   “Well, its still early to be thinking about when yet. But one things for sure, we have to make her so scared that she’s fearing for her life.” Brendan clearly said, though Tyson and Sophie both knew he was scared, and they didn’t blame him for being so.
   “I wish we could make her fear for her life so much that she isn’t able to talk, her voice gets really annoying even at the best of times” Sophie muttered, the others laughed and agreed with her.
   “I just realised, this is probably the worst news I’ve heard today and we’re laughing about it” Brendan said, tears of joy filled his eyes,
   “And hearing about our cousins and having the fight wasn’t the worst?” Tyson stopped laughing at once and stared at Brendan,
   “Well, we knew we had cousins before didn’t we? I found out when I was in hospital. We just didn’t know their names and that, as for the fight well, I don’t know. That’s not really news is it? That’s more like an event”
   “Weird, your actually making sense” Sophie laughed again and playfully punched Brendan in the arm,
   “Very funny” Brendan said sarcastically.
   “So are we really meeting our Nan tomorrow?” Tyson asked,
   “I guess so,” Brendan said, “I can’t believe we never knew she was still alive though”
   “Yeah, well Uncle Harvey said he wasn’t thinking straight.” Tyson muttered, “It’s weird though.”
  “What is?” Sophie asked,
   “It’s hard to explain, but doesn’t Harvey look like dad?” Tyson whispered,
   “Well, he should do. Harvey was Dads twin remember?” Brendan said, realising that Tyson was looking at him rather weirdly.
   “Haven’t you seen it though?” Tyson asked,
   “Seen what?” Sophie asked,
   “It doesn’t matter, I’m going to bed.” Tyson replied, and walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs,
   “Doesn’t he want any thing to eat?” Sophie asked Brendan, he was still looking where Tyson had left and said,
   “Obviously not, but neither do I.” And looked straight at Sophie,
   “You need food,” She said,
   “Yeah, but I’m not hungry.” Brendan said and walked forwards towards her, “I’m fine, honestly. I’m just tired that’s all.”
   “You better be,” Harvey said, turning around from the stove he was cooking tomato soup on.
   “I am just tired,” Brendan said and yawned. Sophie laughed and put her arm around his shoulder,
   “Bed,” She said, smiling,
   “Finally.” Brendan laughed and walked out slowly.

   Brendan then walked upstairs and took his jumper off in the toilets, he could see the re-opened knife wound with out even looking at the mirror he was standing in front of. It was a little obvious that it had bled a little after the paramedics came over in the ambulance. ‘How is it still Monday?,’ Brendan thought to himself, wondering if it wasn’t really two different days rolled into one.
   He then went into his small almost box like bedroom and collapsed on the bed, sleep and dreams over whelmed his body and he fell fast asleep. He never heard Paul and Rachel come back to pick Sarah, Michael and Ben up. And never stirred when Harvey came in to pull the covers over him and to turn the light off, Harvey just smiled and walked out, closing the door behind him.

   The next morning, Brendan woke up to the sunlight streaming through his closed curtains. As soon as he was awake, Harvey knocked on his door and asked if he needed help getting changed;
   “Just the t-shirt, I can manage the jeans” Brendan replied and lifted his arms up over his head so Harvey could slip his blood stained t-shirt off. It involved Brendan breathing deeply, trying to control his breathing. As soon as it was over the worst, Brendan calmed down and relaxed. The t-shirt was now off and Harvey was now sitting on his bed while Brendan was searching for another t-shirt to wear, it turned out to be a blue short-sleeved shirt with a skateboard on. Brendan then put another shirt over it but rolled up the sleeves until it turned to a ¾ length sleeved shirt.
    “Are you coming to your Nan’s today? You should be taking it easy, but if you want to go I’m not gunna stop you. However I am not gunna let you go to school today, however much you want to.” Harvey said, emphasising ‘not’,
   “Your lucky that I don’t want to go to school then. But I probably will go to Nan’s” Brendan replied,
   “Well, do you want some pain killers before you have breakfast?”
   “That might be an idea,” Brendan said then stopped, his chest hurt. “As soon as you get the tablets I mean, this does hurt quite a lot.”
   “I know,” Harvey said walking out of the room to get painkillers and a drink of black currant juice.
   When he came back, Brendan had already changed in to another pair of trousers, they were black with the belt and keychain already attached;
   “By the way, your mum said she believed you about last night,”
   “About what bit?” Brendan asked, taking the painkillers and juice from Harvey,
   “About the fight, and the fact that you didn’t know that Ben ran off.”
   “You know about that?”
   “Sure, Sarah told us just before she left. Sophie told us what happened in more detail though. Ohh, and by ‘us’ I mean me and Christie, Your mum crashed out on the couch and we couldn’t move her.”
    “Mum stayed here last night?” Brendan asked,
   “Yeah, Christie wasn’t too happy about it though.”
   “Yeah, im guessing Tyson wasn’t either.”
   “Tyson? He fell asleep around about the time you did” Harvey said,
   “Ohh, yeah. I forgot” Brendan muttered,
   “She’s still here now if you want to tell her your side. She wont listen to Tyson” Harvey said, getting up from the bed and walking to the window.
   “Yeah, she’s not gunna listen to me because I wont talk to her.”
   “Brendan,”
  “No, I still don’t trust her. It may sound stupid because she’s my mum and that, but there’s been too many secrets”
   “I know, I’ll let you to get ready” Harvey smiled and walked out.

   After 5 minutes where Brendan put his shoes on (with much difficulty), Brendan walked down stairs. He saw Tyson sitting half way down and sat beside him. Tyson motioned him to be quiet and Brendan listened;
   “How can you expect me to trust him?” Kathy shouted,
   “He didn’t know Ben ran out-” Harvey shouted back, but Brendan just froze where he was, he didn’t breathe until Harvey continued, “-Ben just ran out the door! Sophie told me they were in the kitchen”
   “And you believe her?” Kathy spat,
   “YES! Why the hell wouldn’t I?” Harvey shouted,
   “Never mind, I’m leaving” Kathy finished and walked out the room, she never saw Brendan on the stairs. Brendan, after Kathy slammed the door behind herself ran back upstairs and shut himself in his bedroom, Tyson followed him, but Brendan wouldn’t open the door.

[Phoenix]

After this chapter the chapters get slightly more interesting but i know they're long..still, if you get into this story it shouldnt take you long to read ^_^

[Phoenix]

Off-Topic:

And if you think 7 pages is quite alot for a chapter, you should read IP. The shortest has 4, but the longest has over 12 as far as i know... know wonder why it took me so long to write
And yes, i'm editing it as we speak, though Chapter 3 had no editings as far as i could tell..

Back to BOAA? chapter update soon, i randomly forgot the floppy disk that had the chapters on it [yes, floppy.. the crappy laptop i have so far doesnt let anything else be installed unless you have a driver disk -rolls eyes-]
kinda dumb but nothing i can do about it -i think  -

[Phoenix]

   “Brendan,” Tyson shouted through the door, after a few minutes he heard Harvey’s voice;
   “Brendan please, come out” He said, Brendan gave up and stood up from where he was sitting behind the door. Tyson knocked again but entered shortly afterwards;
   “You ok?” he asked,
   “She said she believed you” Harvey said in disbelief,
   “That’s mum for you” Brendan muttered,
   “Cheer up ok?” Harvey asked Brendan, “Let’s just forget about Kathy and the others for now, I don’t know about you but I don’t want them spoiling our day”
   “I know what you mean, are we still visiting Grandma?” Tyson asked,
   “Yes,” Harvey answered, “We’re going around 3:00pm so we’ve got time” he added,
   “Have you still got the pain killers?” Brendan asked,
   “Yeah, I’ll go and get some” Harvey answered and left the room.
   “Your school rang up half an hour ago,” Tyson said,
  “Wow,” Brendan replied not surprised at all,
   “Harvey almost screamed at the other person at the other end, it sounded like they were being really nosey”
   “Yeah, Harvey hates that” Brendan muttered,
   “I noticed,” Tyson laughed,
   Harvey had now come back with the painkillers and a drink for Brendan this Brendan took. After swallowing the pills, he gave the cup back to Harvey who disappeared again.
   “What school do you go to?” Brendan asked, Tyson looked at him sceptically so he continued, “I mean I never asked, and I’m just wondering if they know your not coming in either”
   “I moved around a lot, I never stayed at the same school for more than a year. Mum’s arranged for me to go to your old school though”
   “My primary school?” Brendan asked,
   “Yeah it’s only until July though, then secondary school.” Brendan laughed and said,
   “Yeah, year 7.”

   Meanwhile, Emma was missing Brendan at school. She’d heard that Mr.Hagen had let Megan come back, but she didn’t want to believe it. However, neither did the rest of the school, they now hated Mr.Hagen, their head teacher, and were planning something against him with out him knowing. Emma was the one who secretly planned this, and people immediately signed up to make the head teacher realise what a mistake he’d made. The new group that was being created was called ‘M.A.M.A.B’ in other words ‘Megan’s Attempted Murder Against Brendan’ By the end of Tuesday they had over 80 students with badges pinned against their blazer that Emma made with a badge making kit. Every one that signed up for the petition got a hand made badge with a green ring around the outside and some posters to stick up around school. Emma being the leader had a red ring and the people on the stands in the canteen had blue. These were volunteers who wanted to get the whole school to sign up practically and stood in the canteen during break and lunch and before and after school. The table they sat at had ‘M.A.M.A.B’ spray painted by Andi, Brendan’s mate and clip boards, a box of badges and a box of posters.
    Unfortunately some children, after hearing about Megan didn’t let their children go to school. They were afraid of Megan now, strangely only the head teacher thought it was a stupid excuse but he was away for a conference meeting in Brighton and wasn’t coming back until Thursday.

   At 3:00pm, Harvey was still choosing what to wear, he’d picked out a suit the night before but found when he put it on that the sleeves on both the blazer and trousers were 4 inches too short. He was now deciding whether to wear a purple suit with a matching tie or a plain t-shirt with trousers. In the end, Sophie’s nagging gave in and he chose the t-shirt and jeans.
   They drove up the driveway and stared up at the house they would shortly be stepping in. The size of it took Brendan’s breath away, it was even bigger than Harvey’s house.
   “How many rooms are there?” Sophie asked, whist getting out of the car.
   “8 bedrooms, 1 large dining room and kitchen, sitting room, indoor swimming pool, 3 en-suite toilets and 2 ordinary ones. And-”
   “And?” Tyson said, “There’s more?”
   “Yeah, And a separate art study at the bottom of the garden.”
   “Who looks after the rooms?” Brendan said, getting out of the car slowly,
   “Maids and cleaners, there are also chefs and a gardener that comes every Sunday whist my mums at church.”
   “There are maid’s working here?” Sophie said, lost for words,
   “Any one would think you’ve just seen a ghost” Harvey said and linked arms with her,
   “Yeah, well… It’s a big house for just grandma, I mean doesn’t she have any guests staying over?”
   “Not usually, but if she gets lonely she’s always got enough room for a party” Harvey said sarcastically,
   “Yeah, good one.” Tyson said still in the car, “Someone still needs to get some new jokes”
    “Yeah, well your not exactly the joker in the family are you?” Harvey said with a massive smile on his face,
   “Come on, lets go in before we freeze, it is cold you know” Brendan said, shivering with his arms around his chest,
   “Yeah, we don’t want to make you get hypothermia” Sophie said sympathetically.

   As they walked up the steps to the front door, Rose came out in a blue dress and large white cardigan that came down to her knees;
   “Don’t just stand there, come in, come in!” She said politely and shivering as well. She took one look at Brendan and said;
   “Ahh, you look like you’ve been in a war and lived to tell the tale” she said to him, then whispered to Harvey; “What have you done to these children?” and smiled worriedly.
From then on, she took a shine to Brendan and made him comfortable in the sitting room whilst she told the others to help with the drinks;
   “Where’s the maids?” Harvey asked her,
   “All down with the flu, I can manage to an extent though, I managed to find the phone and ring for a home delivery of sandwiches and crisps. Other than that my knowledge is limited. I can just about make toast”
   “Well, you were never one for cooking” Harvey laughed and Rose laughed too. Sophie and Tyson didn’t know what to say so stayed quiet.
   “I’m so sorry you two, catching up and that. The drinks are in the fridge, help yourself.” Rose said, noticing Sophie and Tyson still standing in the doorway.
   They didn’t feel so embarrassed afterwards and came in, taking the in the size of the kitchen at the same time. Tyson spotted the fridge first and walked over, Sophie stood on the spot and waited to see what he was doing. After realising that the blue thing that Tyson just opened was the fridge, she walked forwards again.
   “I know, unusual colour huh?” Rose asked,
   “You could say that” Sophie muttered,
   “They came in a set, the freezers purple and the dishwasher’s pink”
   “Bright pink?” Sophie asked,
   “No, pale. I was worried when I got them too, afraid that people might think that I was crazy because I had a bright pink dishwasher. But I was surprised when they got delivered. Pale pink, my favourite colour”
   Sophie smiled and walked over to Tyson who was trying to hold a 2 litre bottle of coke and 3 cups in the same hand.
   “What exactly happened to Brendan?” Rose asked,
   “He got in a fight with his cousin” Harvey replied, ashamed he didn’t help more at the time.
   “The relatives you were telling me about last night?”
   “Yes, one of them went a bit crazy.”
   “You can say that again” Brendan muttered through the doorway,
   “Hey, your supposed to be taking it easy” Harvey came over to him and stood next to him,
   “Well it sounded like you were having so much fun with out me, I had to check to make sure” Brendan said sarcastically,
   “Come on, we’ve got the drinks,” Sophie said, persuading Brendan to go back into the sitting room.
   “Fine, but can you let me help a little bit?” He asked,
   “No!” Sophie said, “ok, if you want you can carry your drink”
   “If that’s all I can do”
   “It is, now go back in the sitting room” Sophie said and laughed at Brendan’s confused face,
   “You’re making it seem like you want to get rid of me” Brendan said disappointed,
   “Maybe we do, you’re just going to have to wait and see” Sophie said,
   “Fine” Brendan said, getting his drink and walking back out. Rose looked at Sophie and said;
   “Is there something that you wanted to say with out him being here?”
   “Yeah, but he should really know. I just wanted to tell you-” she said looking at her dad, “-before he goes to school tomorrow”
   “What is it?” Harvey asked her,
   “My friend rung me up just before school did, she said that there was a protest going on at school about Megan coming back to school”
   “Megan’s coming back?” Harvey said shocked,
   “Yeah, we were talking about it last night. You just weren’t listening that’s all. Anyway-” she said continuing back to the subject she started with, “the thing is, even though our head teachers away, he’s still said that anyone involved will be suspended from school or even expelled. The only laughable thing about it is that they’ve already got over 80 people to sign up apparently. More are gunna sign up though-”
   “What are you getting at?” Tyson cut in,
   “And I though you were smart” Sophie muttered then said, “If Mr.Hagen isn’t careful, over half the school is going to be suspended or expelled.”
   “Tyson caught on but said nothing else.
   “Everyone’s waiting for Brendan to go back to school though, they want to see what happens between him and Emma”
   “The one he had the fight with?” Harvey asked,
   “Yeah, apparently she’s the one who started the protest off in the first place.”

   Brendan wasn’t in the sitting room anymore, he’d moved into the dining room. He picked up a photo of his dad; Matthew and held it against his chest, he thought ‘Wish you were here’ and put it down again. He didn’t hear what Sophie had said but would find out what Emma had planned soon enough. Rose walked into the dining room without Brendan noticing and lightly put her hand on his shoulder, and smiled a little with relief when he realised who it was;
   “You look just like him,” She said and bent down to get something out of one of the drawers beside Brendan, “Take this,”  she said standing up offering a photo to him, “Your father would want you to have it”
   “What is it?” Brendan asked taking the photo with his left hand,
   “Just before Tyson disappeared, Matthew wanted to get a decent family photo of you-” Brendan turned the photo over to face the front and Rose continued “-Your mum didn’t like the idea though, she thought you’d ask too many questions and had all other stupid excuses-” Rose continued but Brendan cut in,
   “Tyson disappeared?” He asked,
   “Yes, Tony and Annie wanted to raise Tyson as there own, you were in America when he was born and your parents never told you that you were getting a baby brother or sister. Obviously you knew nothing so nothing was new to you when you got back”
   “Ohh-” Brendan said, remembering when his mum tried and failed to explain when he was in hospital. Rose continued,
   “This is why I persuaded Kathy into getting the photo, that photo-” Rose corrected herself, then continued, “Kathy wasn’t happy though. In those days she never was, the only times she had a smile on her face was when she was with you and your brother” Brendan seized his chance to ask another question, he had a feeling that Rose could talk for hours if she wanted to.
   “How did you persuade her?”
   “Gentle persuasion, saying that you two probably wouldn’t remember the photo anyway-”
   “You were right there” Brendan muttered, Rose smiled then said more seriously,
   “You have to know Brendan, Matthew never…” Rose struggled to find the right words,
   “Never what?” Brendan asked,
   “He never wanted Tony to look after him-”
   “By him you mean Tyson?” Brendan asked,
   “Yes, he was going to leave your mum. Take you, Connor and Tyson and move away so you could never be found-” Rose struggled again and took a deep breath, “Some thing happened though, almost over night he’d stay away for days even weeks on end and came home almost as suddenly as he went. Kathy thought it was work at first because he never wanted Tyson to go, she thought that he was burying his head in work because she thought he hated her. It was the other way around though, he loved her more than anything” Rose stopped and Brendan had chance to take it all in, still he asked another question;
   “Do you know why he kept away all those times?”
   “No, I wish I knew though. He was hiding something but no one knew what except him”
   “Ohh,” Brendan said looking back to the photo; Matthew was holding Tyson in his arms and Brendan and Connor were sitting between their parents. Kathy just smiled, even in the photo however Brendan could tell his dad was hiding something.
   “Harvey never told us that you were still alive,” Brendan muttered,
   “I’m not surprised, I sort of thought it was his fault that day even though it was that stupid other driver so I lost contact with him, on purpose.  It wasn’t until later that I found out what a fool I’d been”

   They stayed at Rose’ until 5:30 then Harvey said it was time to go home. Tyson pressurised Sophie to tell Brendan about the protest, but Sophie wouldn’t tell him;
   “Not yet,” She said annoyed and impatient. She walked upstairs then slammed her bedroom door behind her. Brendan went to sleep as soon as he got home, no one protested as they all knew he needed to rest as much as he could before he went to school whenever that was.
   Brendan woke up, feeling slightly relaxed. He turned over on his back, wincing slightly with pain as he did. He then faced the window and realised the reason why the room was so dark, the curtains were drawn. Slowly he got up and grabbed his phone off the bedside table as he did so, he had one new text message from Ryan which read;
   ‘Hey, hope u’re coming in 2day. Emma was asking about u all day, she wouldn’t stop until she got called over my Mrs.Osram. text me back please? Emma’s driving me crazy!’ Brendan didn’t text Ryan back straight away, but waited after Sophie woke up to get ready for school. She asked him if he was going to school and Brendan reluctantly said;
   “Yes,” and sighed, Sophie put her arm around his shoulder and hugged him. Brendan smiled and hugged her back, realising from the clock he was facing that they were due to leave in about 20 minutes. He then added, “We’d better get ready”
   “Yeah, because Schools so fun” Sophie said sarcastically pulling away from Brendan first. Then walking downstairs to tell Harvey that Brendan was going to school and to get her uniform from the tumble dryer. Brendan walked back into the bedroom and winced again as he pulled his t-shirt off and put another one on. Then he pulled his school shirt and trousers on, careful of the bruises on his legs. His shoes came on easily but the socks before took a bit more effort. Discomfort formed when he bent down and sat back up on his bed, but Brendan did nothing to stop it.
   By the time he’d grabbed his tie, blazer (that he still never wore) and bag, it was practically time to go. Fortunately Harvey was up early and made Brendan’s and Sophie’s lunches, this is what Brendan grabbed after unlocking Harvey’s car, dumping his stuff in it then going back inside. Sophie was already in the car then;
   “Are you sure you want to go in today?” she asked, Brendan looked at her sceptically and said,
   “Why?”
   “It’s just you are supposed to be taking it easy and-”
   “Hasn’t it escaped your notice?” Brendan replied tucking his seatbelt in then adding, “I can’t stop being injured; it’s like every day I am. I may as well get some education whilst I still can”
   “Ok, now you’re just being sarcastic” Sophie said, looking at Brendan then sighing,
   “So what if I am” Brendan joked, “A guys gutta have a sense of humour otherwise he’d probably go insane”
   “Very funny” Sophie muttered,
   “I know you are but what am I?” Brendan said smirking,
   “A lot better off than you by the looks of it” Sophie smirked too, realising that Brendan was only joking.
   “Ok, we ready?” Harvey asked getting into the car,
   “I guess,” Brendan muttered, putting one of his head phones in,
   “Then it’s time to go. We don’t want to be late.” Harvey said starting the car engine up.

   It wasn’t until later when Brendan realised that he was supposed to take the train and meet Liam after he got off, he quickly texted Liam to let him know then kept his mind on what the teachers would say when they saw him. Ryan then texted Brendan again, making sure that he was coming in. He was with Emma and was talking to her on the bus,
   “Are you sure he’s ok?” She asked,
   “Well if he’s coming in then he must be feeling better. I have to tell you that he didn’t just get the stitches re-done in his chest-”
   “What are you trying to tell me?” Emma asked,
   “He’s got stitches in his head too-”
   “What?” Emma shouted then muttered, “How did he get stitches in his head?”
   “Sarah went nuts remember?, he didn’t want to tell you, especially over the phone-”
   “Well that’s considerate” She said in an undertone, Ryan muttered,
   “He didn’t even want to answer the phone call when you rung him, he still hated you then from what I could tell.” Emma thought about this, then asked,
   “Where about on his head are the stitches?”
   “Above his left eye, 5 stitches apparently.” Emma said nothing again and looked out of the bus window.
   Harvey pulled the car into the car park, and Brendan opened the car door,
   “You don’t have to go into day, you know that don’t you?” Harvey asked, turning around in the driver’s seat to the one behind him.
   “I know,”
   “You still haven’t put your tie on” Harvey stated and Brendan grabbed it just before he got out of the car fully. Sophie waved to her dad as he pulled away out of the school gates,
   “There’s something you have to know” She told him,
   “What?” Brendan asked,
   “There’s a protest going on, M.A.M.A.B-”
   “What the hell is that?” Brendan cut in,
   “If you gave me enough chance I’d tell you what it is.” Sophie continued and told him about Emma and what the protest was about, then Brendan spotted the posters posted on the walls outside.
   ‘M.A.M.A.B. join up now to help get Megan Flyler expelled from school. Rise against Mr.Hagen!’ the poster read, showing a class photo of Megan and a really bad picture of the head teacher.
   “So this is what all the fuss is about?” He muttered,
   “Yeah, I’m not sure if Emma’s doing this for you or for another reason…If you want to find out though she’s usually with the sign up volunteers in the canteen”
   “Thanks, I might just do that.” Brendan said and started walking towards the canteen, Sophie followed.

   Brendan walked into the canteen and walked straight over to the desks,
   “Quite a lot of people signed up” Brendan noticed reading the lists of people. Emma stood in front of him staring at his head, Brendan noticed and looked away.
   “Quite a lot of people don’t want her back” Emma said, looking away from Brendan’s head. Brendan relaxed a little more and reached out for a pen on the table to sign up.
   “I guess I’m one of them” Brendan said walking away. Emma looked back to the sign up sheets and saw Brendan’s slanted tidy writing, by the time she looked back to where Brendan was he’d already gone.
   “He’s forgiven you” A voice said, Emma looked around but saw no one around her, then she saw something. Connor appeared before her, faintly but Emma could still see him.
   “How can you be so sure?” Emma whispered,
   “Be patient” Connor replied then disappeared. Emma got nudged by the person standing beside her and she snapped back to reality.

The teachers did ask questions about Brendan’s injuries, but Brendan never gave full details. Mrs.Osram called Brendan over to talk to him and warned him about Mr.Hagens proposal about suspending all the people involved and assured him that she would leave if Mr.Hagen realised what a fool he’d been way to late.

After school Brendan got a lift back with Harvey, some one walked up to Brendan and Sophie as they were getting out of the car however;
   “Do you two live here?” The stranger asked, Brendan replied
   “No, but Sophie does”
   “You look just like Matthew,” The stranger said coming up to Brendan, Brendan looked confused and the stranger continued, “I’m sorry, I’m Mel Roberts a friend of Tracey’s”
   “Tracey?” Brendan asked looking at Sophie. She looked just as confused as Brendan,
   “Who mentioned Tracey?” Harvey asked then took a look at the girl standing behind Mel
   “This is Lilie,” Mel said looking at Harvey’s expression,
   “I think we’d better go inside” Harvey said still staring at Mel, Sophie unlocked the front door and Brendan Sophie and Harvey walked inside
   “Who’s Lilie?” Brendan,
   “Lilie is your step-sister” Harvey muttered looking to the floor.

[Phoenix]

   “You have got to be kidding me,” Brendan said, looking between Harvey and Lilie who was still standing behind Mel,
   “I’m afraid not, I think we’d better get this sorted out before this turns nasty though” Harvey said looking at Lilie as well, Mel walked forwards to the front door but Lilie stayed where she was. The frightened animal inside her showing in her eyes,
   “You knew about her?” Brendan asked looking back to Harvey for the last time,
   “I had doubts before, but here isn’t the right time to talk about it-” Harvey began but Brendan spat out,
   “When is? I tried to talk to you before but you didn’t want to know”
   “I know, lets just-”
   “Just what? Pretend that we don’t exist?” Brendan started then had to stop, his chest was heaving up and down and it showed in his breathing. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He continued a lot quieter than before and Harvey almost didn’t hear him,
   “I didn’t know for sure” Harvey answered,
   “Is this a bad time?” Mel asked, embarrassed and nervous.
   “A little” Brendan said sarcastically, he looked down to the floor but caught an evil stare coming from Harvey on the way down. “What?” Brendan snapped his head up and stuck his arms out in front of him, “What now?” He snapped again
   “Brend-” Harvey began,
   “You forget to tell me about another possible family member and you expect me to be happy about it? Do you want me to be over the moon or something? Jumping for joy while you hide something else away that I don’t know about!” Brendan shouted but immediately regretted doing it, both his chest and his head were aching equal in pain but Brendan didn’t show it. He was showing the part of him he’d been longing to show ever since Tyson was introduced into the family, “You knew about Tyson as well didn’t you?” Brendan shouted again, blocking out the pain that his body was taking,
   “Brendan I-”
   “ANSWER THE QUESTION!” Brendan screamed with anger, hatred burning in his eyes, “Did you know about Tyson before I did?” Brendan spat, pushing back the urge to physically hurt his only Uncle that he trusted.
   “I … I cant lie to you-” Harvey stammered, Tyson and Sophie held there breathe. Brendan cut in again,
   “Then don’t,” He muttered,
   “Your father told me not to tell anyone-”
   “You still don’t completely get it do you?” Brendan laughed, “ANSWER THE QUESTION!” Brendan screamed again, this time pushing his uncle against the opposite wall
   “Dad just answer the question please,” Sophie pleaded, “Did you know about him before?” Sophie looked between Brendan and Harvey and knew who would win if they had a fight, even though Harvey was older then Brendan, Brendan had strength that his family let alone his friends knew about.
   “Yes,” Harvey whispered, Brendan pushed harder on his uncles chest and Harvey whimpered; “Yes,”
   “Why?” Sophie asked, “Why didn’t you tell us before?”
   “I don’t know” Harvey stumbled and fell to the floor as Brendan let go.
   “TRAITOR!” Brendan screamed and ran out the front door,
   “Wait,” Sophie pleaded, running up to him, “Your going to make your injuries worse”
   “Does it look like I care?” Brendan muttered,
   “No, but strangely I do” Sophie said crying into her hands, Tyson ran to both of them and put his arm around Sophie.
   “I never knew he-” Tyson began but Brendan cut in,
   “I kind of guessed you didn’t know anything”
   “Where are you going?” Sophie whimpered,
   “Mum’s” Brendan said and turned around again,
   “You are not going by yourself” Tyson said,
   “And you are coming with me?” Brendan asked,
   “Yeah, actually I am. Why? Don’t want me to?” Tyson joked but wasn’t smiling,
   “Yeah, strangely I don’t want to be alone”
   “What about dad?” Sophie whispered,
   “What about him?” Brendan asked, “He kept a secret didn’t he?” he continued, “What makes him think that we want to be around him right now?” Brendan finished off looking to the front door where Harvey sat on the floor crying into his hands, Mel was walking back to Brendan.
   “Is everything alright?” she asked nervously,
   “Fine and Dandy, cotton candy” Brendan muttered, Tyson looked at him and Brendan muttered again “Dad used to say it when he was in a good mood” and Tyson looked away again,
   “Should I phone your mum?” Sophie asked,
   “Do what you want” Brendan replied and turned away, putting his headphones back in his ears.
   “We’ll come back another time,” Mel said, ushering Lilie back into the car she was now standing next to.
   “That may be a good idea,” Tyson said walking towards Brendan, then said; “Are you ok? You don’t have to go back to mum’s you know”
   “I know, but I don’t want to stay here” Brendan replied, not taking a further glance at Harvey walked out and down the hill. Tyson followed, saying nothing.
   “Are you hungry?” Tyson asked after they’d walked into the town,
   “No” Brendan replied,
   “Thirsty?” Tyson asked trying to keep conversation, Brendan wasn’t so keen and only said one-word answers,
   “No,” He replied again,
   “Do you have enough money to get to Redhill?”
   “No,” Brendan replied remembering how much money he had in his wallet,
   “Then wait here while I go to the cash machine” Tyson said walking over to a machine 10 yards behind where they’d already passed. Brendan didn’t reply but waited for him until he came walking back,
   “£10.00 should do it,” He muttered to himself.

   They walked on to the train station and Tyson brought the two singles to Redhill. Brendan on the train back got his Art folder out and started doodling a picture, after 20 minutes Tyson saw what he was drawing; an angel. Tyson smiled and thought about what other things he missed, knowing the angel represented Connor;
   “You never finished what you were trying to tell me,” He said,
   “About what?” Brendan asked, one-word answers now turning a little longer,
   “Connor,” Tyson replied, Brendan looked up at Tyson and he continued, “I mean just before Harvey called us down”
   “Ohh,” Brendan said remembering, “I forgot, what was I saying about him?”
   “ ‘That you were a team until’ but you never finished”
   “Guess what happened, Connor got murdered.” Brendan said a small tear in his eye, Tyson paused, knowing that Brendan didn’t want to talk about his brother too much as it brought back so many bad memories, he asked though,
   “Tell me more about him, please”
   “What do you want to know?” Brendan asked,
   “What did he enjoy doing? His favourite colour and that, basic stuff really”
   “He enjoyed playing the keyboard we had until mum sold it to our next door neighbour.”
   “Ohh,” Tyson said but Brendan continued,
   “His favourite colour was Orange, it means happiness and creativity apparently. He loved English, but only for the creative writing part, the other parts he hated. He loved Chemistry too, he did the extra curricular programme which meant he got to leave some lessons early to go to a secret place only they could go to in the school. Since Connors death though, the teachers have allowed me to go up there and Emma, Ryan is allowed along with the 2 extra people the chemistry students chose.
   He loved doing nothing on Sunday’s, but during the week he was active. He used to ride his bike everywhere and was hardly seen without it. Once though, mum told us we were going to separate camps over the summer holidays. He asked her if she could take his bike and she said ‘No,’ he hated her for over a month and I never really understood why. Anyway, while he was away in Scotland, I was in Wales. I came back before him and as a welcome home present he gave me a necklace he made himself, he said the orange and brown beads represented ‘hope, luck and chance’. Anyway, I never took that necklace off after he gave it to me. Until…”
   “Until what?” Tyson asked,
   “Until I snapped it” Brendan replied,
   “We’re nearly at Redhill” Tyson replied, remembering Ryan talk about how Brendan snapped the necklace he was hardly ever seen without,
   “What else do you want to know about him?” Brendan asked, aware they were now pulling into the station. Tyson didn’t answer until they had gone through the subway and were outside;
   “Did he have a girlfriend?” Brendan stopped dead and bit his lip,
   “I can’t say,” He muttered,
   “What’s wrong?” Tyson asked,
   “I just can’t say. Think of something else”
   “Fine, was he a mummy’s boy or a daddy’s boy?”
   “Mummy’s boy” Brendan answered walking again,
   “Best birthday present?”
   “Do you mean his or mine?” Brendan asked,
   “His,” Tyson replied,
   “The keyboard,”
   “Hold it!” Tyson stopped and stared at Brendan, “Your mum sold his birthday present?”
   “Yup, he wasn’t a mummy’s boy much after that” Brendan answered and Tyson couldn’t think of anything else to ask Brendan. Eventually they got home, Brendan unlocked the door and walked in, Tyson followed.
   “Why is everything dark?” he asked, Brendan made held a finger to his mouth and Tyson was quiet. Brendan walked into the dark sitting room and saw the t-v was showing the 6°clock news, Kathy was asleep o the sofa;
   “How nice,” Brendan whispered, turned the t-v off then covered his mum with the blanket that was on the other chair. “There should be room in the spare bedroom for you” Brendan said walking upstairs,
   “Where are you sleeping?” Tyson asked,
   “My bedroom obviously” Brendan answered walking in to the spare bedroom, “Here,” Brendan said,
   “Wont your mum scream when she finds us sleeping here?” Tyson asked,
   “It doesn’t matter, I live here don’t I,” Brendan replied.

   Eventually they went to sleep, dreams overwhelmed Brendan’s body as he sunk lower away from the real world. The nightmare didn’t play it’s endless movie, so Brendan woke feeling in a better mood than what he had been in.
   He texted Ryan to get the train and he replied asking why, when he didn’t reply, Ryan just shrugged his shoulders and waited until the right time to leave.

   “Why are you here?” Ryan asked at the train station, Brendan didn’t answer, but Ryan could tell he didn’t want to think about what happened the night before what ever it was. Ryan knew this and kept quiet, he could tell just from looking into his clouded eyes that Brendan was ready to scream and let go. Truth and lies now clouded his thoughts, actions and now everything about him had changed from what it had been.
   “Does your mum know you’re back home?” Ryan asked, Brendan looked at him and said;
   “What do you think?”
   “Are you getting the bus from the station?”
   “Not sure,” Brendan replied, then noticed Emma walking up the stairs and asked; “Is Emma getting the train?”
   “Yeah, she said she wanted to know you’re ok. She also told me that she was going to give you room and not ask you to talk to her,”
   “How nice,” Brendan said and sighed. Together they walked up the stairs to the platform, Brendan couldn’t see Emma and was sure she was further up, keeping her distance like she said.

   Brendan decided to get the bus through Dorking town centre and get off at the usual stop just before his school, the uphill part of it made it harder but Brendan took it easy and didn’t do anything stupid that would make his injuries worse.
   Emma, seeing that Brendan needed space got off the stop before and walked up, buying some chewing gum and a drink along the way.
   No one bothered to ask what happened to Brendan, it was obvious just by looking at him that he’d been in a fight, however some people did ask who the other person was.
   Megan was still not at school yet, but Brendan could tell something was different about today. Something was going to happen;
   “Brendan!” Emma called, it was tutor time and Emma was racing up the stairs to catch up who stopped then continued, this time slower; “I forgot to give you these yesterday when you signed up.” Emma said finally catching up. She was holding out the hand made badge and posters, Brendan took them and bent down to put them in his school bag.
   “Thanks,” He muttered then said, “T7, lunch. Be there.” Sophie looked confused but said nothing.

   Brendan’s first 3 lessons; English, P.E and History resulted in Brendan paying more attention then usual, his teachers were once again spending most of there time lessons about the importance of GCSE’s and their future influences in the world. Every lesson it seemed teachers would rather spend their lessons repeating things they’d already said then teaching the actual subjects.
   Lunch time came and the students filled the playground and canteen with lively chatter and noise, Brendan kept to his word and went straight to the T7; the balcony. By the time he’d made it up there, Emma was already watering the plants;
   “I thought you’d forget,” He said, walking up to the last two stairs and sitting on one of the benches,
   “I don’t forget everything,” She said sitting down and sighed.
   “Am I allowed to ask questions or are you going to dig your nails in my shoulder again?”
   “Ask away, I wont stop you” Emma replied,
   “What made you in such a bad mood?” Brendan asked leaning back on the bench.
   “A lot of things-” Emma began,
   “Tell me then, I want to know.” Brendan cut in, Emma didn’t complain but explained instead;
   “The first was my Aunt coming over, you’ve met my Aunt Katie from my dad’s side but Aunt Jo is the opposite. Jo’s a control freak, by Monday I’d had enough of her.”
   “Continue,” Brendan said and Emma did;
  “Another reason was because I’d heard what Megan was planning, I thought I was giving you what you wanted as well because I thought you’d be angry if you found out-”
   “About what?” Brendan cut in again and Emma answered,
   “About me knowing what Megan was planning, I knew she wanted to get back at you I just didn’t know what at the time.”
   “Right,” Brendan looked confused but said no more,
   “I’ll tell you what it is someday,” Emma promised, then continued; “I am sorry, and I’ve got something to prove it,” Brendan looked up and said nothing so Emma walked forwards reaching into her blazer pocket as she did. “Here,” She said holding out her right hand, Brendan held out his left hand and Emma brought their hands together. Letting go of the thing she held at the same time. Brendan opened his hand after a while and saw his locker keys;
   “What?” He muttered,
   “The day after we had the fight you left them in your locker, I took them out but never got a chance to return them to you.” Emma explained, Brendan smiled and said;
   “Thanks,” Emma took a deep breath and asked;
   “Was this the only reason you wanted me to come up here? To talk”
   “Why? Any one would think you didn’t want to talk to me” Brendan said happier,
   “I do I’m just curious that’s all,”
   “I just wanted us to be on speaking terms before she comes back to school, we’re both on the same side. I didn’t see the point fighting longer than we had to,” Brendan said more seriously than he intended, “Has her brother turned up yet?” He added, Emma answered truthfully,
   “I’m not sure, no one’s seen him for ages, even his parents don’t know where he is.”
   “I know he was really afraid of his dad-”
   “I know, I’ve met him-” Brendan stared at her and she muttered, “Sorry,” and collapsed on the bench sitting next to him,
   “Is he really that bad though? Their dad I mean,” Brendan asked,
   “I’m afraid so,” Emma said a drop of dread in her voice,
   “Then Megan turned out like her father-” Brendan muttered, Emma cut in again,
   “Hey!-”
   “-Will you stop doing that!” Brendan snapped,
  “I’m sorry but-”
   “I should be allowed to say this, she did try to kill me!”
   “-I know” Emma muttered, “But I’m sorry, things just haven’t been the same since…” Emma was then lost for things to say, Brendan said;
   “Lets just forget about the fight ok?” Emma smiled awkwardly and he continued; “Did Ryan tell you about the plan?”
   “What plan?” Emma asked, Brendan then filled her in about them being nice to Megan. At first Emma thought he’d gone crazy until he explained all the reasons. Afterwards Brendan still wasn’t sure so Brendan assured her;
   “I don’t know if this is going to work, but why not give it a try? Mr.Hagen is expecting something major to happen, it’s better if we bide our time and plan something when he’s least expecting it.”
   “You are crazy you know that?” Emma smiled and got up just as the first bell for tutor rang through the empty corridors. “I have to see Mr.Atkin’s about my history homework. I’ll catch you up,” Emma suddenly said and ran back down the stairs. Brendan seeing Emma’s school bag picked it up and went down stairs too, his own school bag was on top of his locker on the ground floor.

   Brendan slowly made his way to the ground floor, knowing he’d have to make it to the 3rd floor to his tutor room somehow. He turned the corner and walked straight ahead, his locker number 31 was straight ahead and so was his bag. People were chatting through the corridor, smiling when they saw Brendan and carried on. One girl with long brown hair cried when she saw him and ran in the other direction. Brendan was about to go after her, but grabbed his bag from the top of his locker instead. He got the key out of his pocket and turned it in the lock, it opened easily and he looked inside. A silver box was placed right in the centre, a blue ribbon was wrapped around it and a blue card lay next to it. Brendan picked up the card and read it;
   ‘Don’t snap this one, ECF.’ Brendan then curiously pulled the ribbon off the box and opened it, Brendan held his breath, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Laying in the box was a necklace, made with the beads that were in his locker and the very same that Connor had made a necklace with before. This time, the silver chain was replaced with a gold one and there were two crystals in the middle, and an angel wing between them. Brendan knew that the crystals were Emma’s and were part of the necklace she brought on her 14th birthday. Brendan didn’t know what to say to her the next time he saw her but put the necklace on anyway, it felt good to have the one thing he was used to having on back.

   After just one minute, Brendan was on the 3rd floor. With the necklace back, he felt stronger than what he had done and couldn’t stop smiling until he heard shouting coming from 2 floors below. He peered over the banister and saw hardly anything; he knew someone was coming upstairs though, the voices were getting louder.
   Brendan was still leaning over the banister when they were walking up the to the last floor, he knew what the fuss was about and ran into the classroom. Mrs.Fairdy knew even without asking Brendan what was going on, and walked out. Brendan was trying to get his breathing under control as she walked back in, her face expressionless. The whole class turned around, wondering what was going on, but they were silent as she entered the classroom. The silence didn’t stretch for long though, soon there were screams and shouts, Mrs.Fairdy tried to talk but found that nothing came out of her mouth. Still the class shouted;
   “GET OUT!” soon after they turned into chants, still no body calmed the class down. Shortly after the class shouted, the next classroom along which happened to have Mrs.Osram the deputy head teacher in it heard and Mrs.Osram entered the chaotic classroom with nothing to say. Megan stood there speechless, she knew that some of her friends hated her, but nothing was worse than this. Or was it? She didn’t know about M.A.M.A.B yet, and if she found out that over ¾ of the whole school were petitioning to get her kicked out of the school for good then she would think again. She then spotted Brendan, even with the extra strength from the necklace he wasn’t prepared to face her again. Not yet.

   After Mrs.Osram came into the classroom, some of the students got up from there seats and crowded around Brendan;
   “Come on,” Mrs.Osram finally managed to say, the tutor group died down altogether but the people stayed around Brendan.
   “I’m sorry” Megan pleaded, the tutor group booed and Megan cried running out of the room.
Brendan’s 4th lesson Art, he didn’t go to. The whole tutor group stayed in 3:5 and Mrs.Fairdy, Mrs.Osram and year 11’s head of year; Mr.Smith talked to them, assuring them all that Megan wouldn’t hurt anyone of them. Eventually Brendan had enough strength to speak up and said;
   “How can you be so sure? She attacked me after school” and the rest of the class muttered in agreement.
   “Her parents have assured me that she will be getting a lift home with them every day and-” Mr.Smith began but Brendan cut in;
   “How can you be so sure?” He asked again, urgency filled his voice. Surprisingly Mr.Smith didn’t mind Brendan cutting in when he spoke, he just replied with all the honestly he could manage;
   “I can’t guarantee anything.” The whole class held there breath and no one spoke after that, Mr.Hagen had let an attempted murderer back in the school. ‘How stupid could he be?’ Brendan thought, ‘This is rebellion, and he is yet to find out about what is going on beneath his very nose.’

[Saint]

Okay, finally caught up with this on bebo. I hav a fw criticisms for now, the main bing typos and homophone confusion, which China's beat me to pointing out. Another on is the gaps between time in the same block of text.

Okay, I can't find an example just skimming it, but I spotted a fair few when I was reading.

Th other main one was this paragraph:

   Brendan was still leaning over the banister when they were walking up the to the last floor, he knew what the fuss was about and ran into the classroom. Mrs.Fairdy knew even without asking Brendan what was going on, and walked out. Brendan was trying to get his breathing under control as she walked back in, her face expressionless. The whole class turned around, wondering what was going on, but they were silent as she entered the classroom. The silence didn’t stretch for long though, soon there were screams and shouts, Mrs.Fairdy tried to talk but found that nothing came out of her mouth. Still the class shouted;

That made NO sense to me until you mentioned Megan's name.

Anyway, as mentioned, I'm caught up ow, so I can read as you post!

[Phoenix]

Ok, but i don't have chapter 12+ on me. They're large files... so they're on my laptop [which i don't have a charger for....yes... STILL] or my home computer.

I'll post 12+ 13 up today when i get home

I said this story was old, i finished it in February 2008 so it isn't recent.
it's why i'm editing it.

[Phoenix]

Brendan’s next lesson after Art was Maths, the tutor group went to the lesson knowing in their hearts that something could happen and no one could stop it. With this in their minds, the whole of year 11 was distracted and were too pre-occupied with Megan and what she did to Brendan that they didn’t pay enough attention to there last teacher of that day.
   Brendan himself was more distracted, and when his Maths teacher Mrs.Andrews tried to ask him a question, he didn’t answer, at least not straight away. She knew about Megan being allowed back into school and was against the idea as much as the rest of the teachers, however she was told by Mr.Hagen to carry on like nothing knew was going on. This unfortunately was impossible. Especially for Mr.McDee who was unfortunate enough to actually teach Megan for maths, the whole of their lesson was disrupted and in pieces. By the end, Mr.McDee felt like screaming at all of them to calm down.

   Brendan got home with Ryan splitting off a lot later than he would usually do then going back the way he’d just come. Brendan then walked up the hill to his house in silence, ‘this is all happening to fast, how am I supposed to catch up like this?’ he thought as he was turning the key in his front door. As soon as he went into his bedroom he could feel someone else there;
   “Hello?” he asked, no one answered at first then came echoes coming from down stairs,
   “Down here.” Brendan followed the voice to the kitchen where the front door was open; he looked outside but could see no one in the garden other than a cat jumping over the wall and his next-door neighbour tending to his pond. Brendan then turned around, and stopped;
   “Hi,” Connor said a little urgently and Brendan asked,
   “What’s up?”
   “Tyson, Lilie is still at Harvey’s. Mum won’t let her near here until Harvey explains everything,”
    “So what has this got to do with Tyson?” Brendan asked,
    “Lilie was having a tantrum and Tyson was caught in the middle of it. After wards, Harvey went to Lilie instead of him and he ran off. They don’t know where he is-”
   “-Ohh great” Brendan cut in, Connor continued,
   “I have to guide you there, I know where he is”
   “Ok…” Brendan said slowly and walked over to the back door to lock it. “Why was the back door open?” he asked, Connor replied.
   “Tyson came here and opened it; he never got a chance to lock it again.”
   “Right,” Brendan muttered, “I guess you better show me where he is then.”

   Connor led Brendan like before, showing arrows when a new direction was needed to be taken. Brendan eventually found himself in the poorer side of Redhill, flats loomed over him and graffiti covered the walls and even some of the floors. Still Connor led on, soon after the graffiti covered walls stopped though, Connor stopped showing Brendan arrows and talked instead;
   “This is where Megan lives,”
   “And you brought me this way for that reason?” Brendan asked rather annoyed and weary all of a sudden,
   “This is the only way to where Tyson is.” Connor said though he said it in a rather dim and lonely voice.
   “Fine, lead on.” Brendan said reluctantly, and this Connor did with more caution.

Soon they reached a roundabout; Connor knew the only way for him to lead Brendan now was to physically take over his body until they were in an area where he could lead him again. He explained the situation to him, and Brendan didn’t argue. He was tired and needed a break, but Connor wouldn’t give in. Brendan moaned a little in his head, swearing a couple of times but eventually gave in. Connor sighed and moulded into Brendan’s body, Brendan felt the coldness again but also felt something else, he was no longer thirsty or tired. Connor then started walking, Brendan didn’t argue but went along with it, not fighting was easier to him.
   Connor went straight across the road, stopping only to catch his bearings only twice in half an hour. In all this time Brendan had no idea where he was, he knew he was somewhere near Reigate but even this he wasn’t sure of. Then when he was no longer sure, Reigate town centre appeared ahead of him, the roads were packed with cars and people walking about their everyday business. Still Connor led on, he went down under the tunnel leading into the town centre then turned a sharp right and continued along the high street;
   “You could have just told me to go to Reigate,” Brendan thought and was surprised when he heard Connors reply, distant though it was.
   “I know, but I needed to make sure that you weren’t followed and at the time I didn’t have time to think about things. Tyson was pretty shaken up the last time I saw him, I know he needs someone to talk to him and it obviously can’t be me can it?”
   “No, I guess not,” Brendan thought to himself and heard Connors sigh afterwards; he knew Connor meant no harm so let him lead on.
   Right at the end of the high street Connor led Brendan’s body to the left and down a side street called ‘Wavey Alley’ Brendan had heard about this street and remembered his friends telling him a loud obnoxious man lived at number 70 with a dog almost the size of him to match. He was relieved when Connor took him along another street named ‘Barrod Road’ though he wondered what Connor was leading him here for,
   “Here is where I leave you,” Connor whispered and left Brendan’s body with a jolt that made Brendan cringe. “Number 12,” Connor whispered again and Brendan walked up to the number and stared at the house.
   The house itself was an average size, 3 bedrooms, kitchen and dining room linked with the kitchen, only one toilet but extra large sitting room and a garage lay just beyond outside. Brendan took a weary step forwards, Connor could have made this a joke but he doubted it so took another small step. He took a deep breath and finally picked up the courage to knock on the door, a figure moved behind the door, and opened it slowly. Brendan held his breath and the door opened wider, Tyson stood there and stared at Brendan, he wondered how he knew where to go but didn’t bother asking so closed the door again to unscrew the chain behind it. He then opened it fully, looking either side of Brendan to check if anyone else was following him. He gave up after a few seconds and allowed Brendan to enter.

   The hall was large, filled with small china kittens and a full-length mirror in the centre. Wallpaper covered the walls with a creamy colour and the floors were wooden, Brendan took a look in the first room he came to; the kitchen. It was crisp white with tiles that gleamed white in the sunlight. The surfaces were clean apart from the breadcrumbs that were scattered around the far end and the doors leading to the dining room were open.
   “What is this place?” Brendan asked, Tyson replied in a small voice,
   “It was my home, I told Grandma Rose about it and she said she’d pay for the house and we could use it as an escape or something from everyone.”
   Brendan took a while to look around, looking at the awards in the sitting room and in Tyson’s real bedroom. Annie and Tony’s room was left untouched and a few cobwebs had started to appear, covering the chocolate bed covers and creamy walls. The spare bedroom was the largest, the walls were painted blue and the covers on the bed were white with blue swirls. White furniture including a white chest of drawers and cupboard were on the opposite side of the room, a miniature dolls house lay beside them on the floor.
   “You say that this is your actual home?” Brendan asked, Tyson replied
   “Yes, after I found out my mum Annie had died, one of my social workers brought me to mum and told me who she was.”
   “Why haven’t you got the largest room?” Brendan asked, Tyson sighed and answered;
   “Because I took up too much room, Tony wanted me to have a smaller bedroom.” Tyson sighed and went out the room; Brendan followed and walked back into the hall. Tyson then showed him into the sitting room and turned the TV on, Brendan sat down on one of the chairs and said nothing, Tyson knew what he was thinking though 'Why is this all happening so fast?'. After flicking through most of the channels, Tyson gave up and turned it off again. Knowing the silence would stretch if it could he asked;
   "What do you remember about him?" Brendan stared at Tyson and said,
   "Who?"
   "Dad, what do you remember about dad?" Tyson sighed afterwards and hung his head; Brendan took a while to answer;
   "He was mostly like me, quiet and that. Nothing would please him more though than him spending time with us, no matter how busy he was he always had time for us." Brendan finally replied and then continued gaining confidence he never knew he had with every word. This was the first time he'd spoken about his dad properly for over a year and although it took a while to get used to, he felt complete. Like his dad wanted him to talk about this more than anything, but he didnt know what to say to start off with. He soon figured it out though; "He was always smiling around us, he hardly ever frowned." Brendan hung his head too, then continued; "But there was something different about him after we got back from America, I never understood what it was until now."
   "What was it?" Tyson asked, bringing his head back up to look at Brendan,
   "Secrets, hidden secrets which he didnt want to keep or didnt know what to explain."
   "You mean-" Tyson began but Brendan cut in, standing up and walking over to the fireplace where a photo of Tony and Annie sat. He picked the photo up and stared at it before saying;
   "I mean having to keep you a secret from me and Connor, but especially Lilie, only Harvey knew about her and I don’t think he was about to tell us we even dreamed it. I know though, he couldn’t help but keep it a secret."
   "Yeah," Tyson muttered,
   "Its strange though," Brendan muttered, and Tyson asked,
   "What is?"
   "Is it me or has this family got larger in 2 weeks or am I just dreaming?" Brendan lifted his head and laughed, though Tyson could tell it was fake.
   "Yeah, I know what you mean-"
   "Do you?" Brendan asked turning back around to face him, "You weren’t here when this all began, since Connor's died, I’ve gained a Nan, brother, step-sister, two aunts, two uncles, and another 3 cousins. Not including Christie and Sophie who came back. In December I only had my mum and Uncle Harvey! The only thing to top the list of family members now is a dad, and grand-dad!"
   "Yeah, but if you hadn’t noticed, one of your uncles and one of your aunts died." Tyson spat and ran out the room,
   "Talk to him," Connor whispered, by now Brendan had got used to Connor sneaking up on him and saying things to him that he knew he should do. It didnt help however, when he knew what to do but just couldn’t get the words out. Brendan looked around him and saw Connor by the fireplace where he just stood moments before,
   "How do I say sorry?" He asked, "Things aren’t as easy as they were before,"
   "I know," Connor whispered, "But he needs someone here, you two are on the same side. You don’t know who to trust and are scared of letting anyone else into your life because of all the lies." Connor said, then took a step forwards, "You have to talk to him, No one else can right now, but I have to go. Im not just supposed to be watching over you, and-"
   "Say no more, just come back when you can." Brendan smiled and watched as his brother’s ghostly image faded through the window. Then he turned around and walked out to see where Tyson had gone, the kitchen door was still open and he walked in. Seeing Tyson standing over one of the counters, "You ok?" He asked. Tyson lifted his head up but said nothing, "I know I was a jerk, I just can’t get all this sorted out in my head just yet. It doesn’t help when every time I think I know someone there deepest secrets show up and I have to figure them out all over again." Brendan came over to Tyson and put his arm on his shoulder, he turned to Brendan and smiled faintly at him.
   "I know,” He whispered.

   Meanwhile, Brendan had persuaded Tyson to come back home. However he had to buy him a chocolate bar because he was hungry and had no money on him;
   "I'll pay you back." Tyson assured him when they came out of the shop, Brendan with a bottle of water and Tyson with a Cadburys Dairy milk chocolate bar and pack of chewing gum.
   "Lets just get home," Brendan muttered and together they walked along Reigate high street to Reigate College and turned right by the path beside it. It took them a while to get back to the Common, the big patch of land was filled with trees. This is where dog owners walked their dogs to get away from the urban life; the only downside was the road that ran along side it. However the road could hardly be seen from the other end of the large open space and this is what Brendan enjoyed most about it.
   Once they had crossed the common, they walked down the steep hill to the bottom. They then crossed the road and started down another hill, though less steep then the one before.
   "Mums home," Brendan said after seeing her car, "She's going to ask where we've been."
   "Just say that-" Tyson began but Brendan cut in,
   "No more secrets, we can keep number 12 a secret for now. But just follow along with why you went there to start off with, the fight you had-"
   "I remember-" Tyson spat and Brendan cut in after,
   "Then just say I went to find you, I did anyway." Brendan took a step forwards and stopped, "You coming?" He asked,
   "Why not?" Tyson muttered, "No where else remotely interesting."

   Brendan opened the front door and walked into the sitting room, his mum was just about to walk into the adjoining dining room when she saw him,
   "So the wonderers return then? Someone’s here to see you" Kathy motioned her arm and Brendan saw Sophie sitting beside her, "She's got something to show you," Then Kathy smiled and left the room, Brendan looked at Sophie but she didnt look back, She was more interested in watching her feet as they swung underneath the chair. Her school shoes were by the front door, so she just had her pink ankle socks on.
   "What is it that you wanted to show me?" Brendan asked, Sophie looked up and said,
   "Can I show you in your bedroom?" Brendan smiled and picked up his school bag, which he'd dumped on the sofa before going upstairs, "Lets go then," He said and walked out. Tyson had shut the door and had gone straight upstairs; rock music could now be heard coming from the spare bedroom where he was still sleeping. Sophie followed him upstairs and carefully put her bag on his bed. Brendan eyed it suspiciously, Sophie noticed and took out the one thing she had in it and handed it to him.
   "No one knows I’ve got it, only my mum knows about it though. I don’t think she'd mind if you read it, its what its there for." Sophie said whilst Brendan inspected the see through plastic box that the book inside was held in,
   "Why is it in a box?" Brendan asked. Sophie didnt reply straight away but said when she did answer;
   "Because mum told me to put it in there, it stops the dust getting in. Open it," Sophie replied nervously. She got tired of looking at Brendan's confused face and sat down on the bed. Brendan opened the box sitting down next to Sophie; he was curious why she's only just told him about it now but said nothing. Staying silent would pay off eventually, and besides he was once again afraid of what would come out of his own mouth let alone worried of what he would do. He pulled out a thick black book with a bind running around it, Gold angular large letters at the top spelt out the title of the book 'Foresight' and smaller letters at the bottom spelt out the author; 'Matthew T Reace'. Those were the only two things actually on the front cover, the back was left black.
   "I don’t understand," Brendan whispered, Sophie moved closer and said,
   "Mum thought you wouldn't, open it."
   Brendan opened the bind and carefully opened the front cover, the two pages now facing him were covered in fancy decoration and had a separate box saying 'This book belongs to', but with no name beside it. Carefully he put the book onto his lap and turned the next page, a list of the publishers name and address was listed here, along with when it was printed and two words saying; 'First Edition'. Brendan stared at the date that was written on the page; 01/07/94. So many things were going through his mind, were things getting easier or harder?
   "I still don’t get it," Brendan muttered, Sophie smiled but didnt explain straight away,
   "Your dad started to write that just before your mum found out that she was pregnant with Tyson, no one knows why he wrote or had the idea for it. Still, its about time it was returned to its rightful owner,"
   "Rightful owner?" Brendan asked,
   "Yeah, mum said that Uncle Matthew left that book to her to give to you one day, he didnt say when but it's about time you looked after it, after all it is yours."
   "Thanks," Brendan sighed, Sophie smiled and got up.
   "Its time that I went home," Sophie hugged him and left the room without another word.

   "Brendan!" WAKE UP!" Kathy shouted through the door, it was morning and Brendan had overslept,
   "Uhh Ohh," Brendan moaned, and leapt out of bed. Tyson ran into his room and said;
   "You do realise what time it is?"
   "No, what time is it?" Brendan asked, Tyson replied,
   "10:00"
   "You've got to be kidding! Its almost 2nd lesson!" Brendan shouted, then looked at Tyson sceptically, "Why are you here?"
   "I've got a dentist appointment later, im going into school afterwards."
   "Ohh, well I guess I have to get ready before it gets any later."
   "Yeah," Tyson said, "And I’d better let you," and laughed.
   It strangely didnt take him long to get ready, his hair usually took the longest to sort out but today he just brushed out the tangles from sleeping and brushed his teeth. He never had breakfast but brought along a cereal bar for himself to eat before he went to the next lesson, or whenever he turned up. Kathy didnt like the idea of Tyson waiting at the dentists whilst she drove Brendan to school, so he had to wait in the waiting room with his mum looking at the magazines that were to out of date and old to understand properly. Unfortunately he had to de-code all the writing that was originally there as most of it was scribbled on by children who got bored whilst waiting to long. Brendan however eventually gave up trying to read and just looked at the pictures, he found it a lot easier to understand what was going on that way, and it seemed to pass the time quicker too.

   After Tyson was finished and checked over, Kathy dropped him off at his primary school just down the road from the dentists. The silence spread between Kathy and Brendan, but for once it wasn’t an awkward silence that drove them both mad. Instead it was a peaceful silence, eventually Brendan spoke munching on the cereal bar he still had in his pocket before and after he spoke;
   "You knew about Tyson but not Lilie?" He asked,
   "Does that sound strange to you?" Kathy asked, Brendan hesitated then answered,
   "Not really, but im just wondering how many more secrets are in this family."
   "You don’t have to worry about me then, the only real secret I’ve ever had was keeping Tyson away from you." Kathy said, though her voice was distant.
   "How many did Dad have?" Brendan asked, Kathy replied
   "I'm not actually sure, you may have to ask him yourself. Though I’d like to know myself if he left anymore surprises, I don’t like knowing there is more to him than I knew."

   Soon after Brendan arrived at school, it was now break time and he was having trouble finding his friends;
   "Ahh, Brendan. Mind if I have a word?" Mr.Atkins asked him, Brendan shrugged and walked into the classroom he was standing in.
   "I'm just glad to see that you are getting on ok, I know life hasn’t been easy for you ever since..."
   "Yeah, I know" Brendan said, knowing what Mr.Atkins was aiming at,
   "I just wanted to ask you how things are going, have your studies been going ok?"
   "Yeah, they're good." Brendan replied and saw Ryan and Emma walking down the hall,
   "I just wanted you to know that I never imagined he would die, if I even had the slightest doubt I would have given him a lunch time instead. Do you know that? Just know that im here for you if you ever need anything." Brendan stood speechless, he knew it wasn’t Mr.Atkin’s fault, though for a while after he came back from school after Connors death he did blame him and didnt turn up to some of his lessons because of it. Brendan smiled at the thought and said reassuringly;
   "I know, you've watched out for me so far at school. I also know that is not about to change."
   "I'm glad to hear it, now run along." Mr.Atkin’s dismissed him and he walked out of the classroom, he saw Emma and Ryan standing by one of the posters on the bulletin board and snuck up behind them;
   "Boo" He said, making both of them jump. They both turned around at the same time and smiled at him, they didnt bother asking him where he was. There were more important things to discuss now that Megan was back at school.

   Once back at home, Brendan got a phone call from Sophie;
   "Sarah and that are over here again, Ben's told them everything and Paul wasn’t too impressed with her. She's got grounded and had her phone taken away-"
   "Serves her right." Brendan cut in,
   "Yeah, but Michael isn’t too happy. She told him he was part of it too though he really wasn’t, strangely he’s in more trouble than her"
   "Ironic." Brendan muttered, Sophie didnt respond straight away, she held her hand over the phone as her mum called her from downstairs, when she finally did speak she sounded rushed and spoke rather fast;
   "I gutta go, I'll call you soon ok?"
   "Ok," Brendan replied and Sophie said one more thing before she hung up;
   "Read 'Foresight'." Then the dial tone made its appearance and Brendan put the phone down, thinking about his dad he silently went upstairs and sat on the bed, 'Foresight' beside him.

[Phoenix]

Brendan was still sitting on his bed when Sophie rang again, he picked the phone up lazily and said;
   "Any more action going on where you are?"
   "No, but dad wants to see you. Would you come over?"
   "Now?" Brendan said sitting up rather fast and giving himself head rush.
   "Yeah, would you?" Sophie asked,
   "I don’t know, I mean what does he want to see me for?"
   "It’s not just you, its both of you. Sophie said taking in a deep breath at the end,
   "And there was me thinking I was special." Brendan muttered nursing his throbbing head; Sophie smiled and asked again,
   "So will you come, I think he wants to explain everything. And he says he has something for all of you."
   "Do you know what?" Brendan asked,
   "No, but apparently I’ve got one of whatever it is too."
   "Fine, I’ll come. But I can’t stay for long; I’ve got coursework to do."
   "I thought you were up to date," Sophie said confused
   "I was, my I.C.T and Math’s teachers decided to extend my work so now I have more than ever." Brendan smiled awkwardly on his end of the phone and Sophie laughed nervously on her end. Sophie then hung up, a little happier now that Brendan was coming over but still worried because Paul and his family were still here and she had the impression they weren’t about to leave in  hurry. She was afraid of what Brendan would do if he saw Sarah now, it was too soon after their fight for him to calm down properly and she wasn’t sure of what he would do.

   Brendan told Kathy to drop them off at Harvey’s and to go home again, but she stayed. She wanted to have a word with Harvey and to Paul about Sarah and why she could change from being silent and reserved to a monster with a scary outcome when it came to people getting hurt.
   When they arrived at Harvey's Tyson was unusually quiet, Brendan tried to get him to talk but he didnt seem to be in the mood and just stared out the window. Kathy got out of the car first, looking at the house that brought even more confusion to the family that she thought she knew. What else that lay in store, she didnt know. But the challenges so far were more than she thought possible, and what scared her more was that the challenges had only just begun.
   Brendan was the next reluctant one out of the car, Tyson was making it clear that he didnt want to see Harvey or Sarah especially, but for once snapped out of the world he was in early and got out to stand just beside Brendan. Sophie then opened the front door of her house and came over, as she got nearer though, her smile faded and was replaced by the face he dreaded to see. Uncertainty filled her face, dread and fear came next. Brendan just took deep breaths and was literally forcing himself not to get back in the car, by the time she'd reached the car Brendan already had his hand on the car door handle and was pulling it down to leap inside if the moment came. It never did.
   "They're still here," She said mostly to Brendan, Tyson was tense all of a sudden and took a step backwards; Brendan almost did the same but managed to stop himself. Kathy walked forwards and locked the car so Brendan had to let go of the car handle, she then went inside. Sophie stayed behind and moved closer to the car, Brendan moved his head down and stared at the floor, Sophie knew what he was thinking. "You both ok?" She asked, Brendan still didnt look up but looked to the side he was still holding onto the door handle but no one could see.
   Tyson was the first to walk away from the car; Brendan took even longer but felt stronger when he saw his cousin smile.
   "Where are they?" He asked, Sophie's smile faded and was once again filled with the serious expression that made him shiver.
   "In the sitting room,"
   "You three coming in?" Harvey called from the front door, they all turned around but no one moved straight away. Eventually Sophie persuaded both Brendan and Tyson to come in, reluctantly they sighed as they entered the front door but neither turned back.

   Meanwhile, Kathy still had no straight answers as to why Sarah snapped so suddenly and physically hurt two of her cousins. In her eyes, Brendan and Tyson were not to blame for the fight that Sarah had started. She knew that they wouldn't be over the moon about meeting the rest of his family especially so soon after they just found out about them. However, she still didnt know for sure about Brendan being innocent about what happened with Ben. This was until Ben told her what really happed, then she felt stupid for ever doubting her son and believing another person she didnt know so well.
   Sarah was sitting on the patio steps, she didnt want to be near her father or brothers right now because of the fact that they no longer believed her story. Rachel was the only one from the Moore family who wasn’t there, Moore being Kathy's maiden name.
   Brendan didn't know Sarah wasn’t in the sitting room until he saw her from the kitchen window, Sophie was behind him but just suggested for them to go into her bedroom to talk. Brendan agreed, but it took some persuading for Tyson to come, he wanted to go out and demand answers from her.
   The three of them then went upstairs, Sophie holding a plate of custard creams and Brendan holding three drinks on a tray. No one bothered them for a while, so they just talked about what Paul had come round to say to Harvey and Christie. It was then time for Brendan to go quiet and not to say much, Tyson and Sophie understood why he didnt want to say too much but tried to get him to talk none the less. After about half an hour, Harvey knocked on Sophie's door and entered, his expression was grim, and he had his arms crossed. He walked over to the plate of biscuits and ate the last one slowly; Brendan was the first to react even though he just moved a little further away.
   "I'm sorry, but I only just found them this morning when I was running late for work. I didnt want to give them to you in front of them because it wouldn’t have been right." He said, Brendan looked up, confusion showing in his eyes, Harvey noticed and continued. "About a month before Matt died, he wrote 5 letters and gave them to me to give to all of the people they were meant for. Like I said, I’ve only just found them and it's about time that the rightful owners had them." He then walked out of the room; Sophie looked a little disappointed all of a sudden and shifted uncomfortably. Her long hair shadowed her face as she turned away, Brendan looked at Tyson but Tyson looked at Lilie who had just appeared in the doorway. Brendan then met her gaze and he two turned away. Moments later, Harvey came back with a box in his arms and keys held by one of his fingers. He sat on the bed beside Brendan, who shifted again and but Harvey didnt notice, he just opened the box. At the bottom were 5 letters, each had a piece of ribbon tied around it and Matthews’s slanted tiny writing saying who the letters were for. He passed the first one to Tyson, the second to Lilie, the third was Connor's which he placed beside him and which lay unopened. The forth was Brendan's and the last letter was for Sophie. Sophie didn’t question that she got one, but did question why Kathy didnt. Tyson didn't open his straight away, he waited for Lilie to open hers first. Brendan just stared at the writing on the front; he remembered pages upon pages of the same slanted writing thrown away at the recycling bank after his dad died because his mum told him it took up too much room. He was never going to throw this piece of paper away, he just knew that much.
   Brendan's letter lay in his lap for a while after Harvey gave it to him, he wanted to spare the moment for as long as he could. The anticipation of wondering what the possible last words his father wrote was strong enough that he wanted to keep the moment alive. Tyson had already read his letter once and was now re-reading it faster and faster. His eyes skimmed the piece of paper more and more times so his eyes seemed just a blur. Still Brendan didn't open his letter; Lilie was the first to notice and said rather shyly;
   "Is something wrong?"
   "No, Nothings wrong." Brendan said shutting his eyes,
   "Then-" Lilie began but Brendan cut in,
   "I said nothings wrong." And he stood up and walked out, Tyson snapped away from his letter. Clicking his neck as he did,
   "Sophie, can you go after him?" Harvey asked, Sophie nodded and put her letter in her back pocket. She then walked out of her room and caught Brendan going down the stairs,
   "Hey, wait up." Sophie called over the banisters, Brendan stopped but didn't turn around, and Sophie realized she had time to catch up before he carried on walking so ran down the stairs quickly. "You ok?" She asked,
   "Fine," Brendan muttered, realizing that she was behind him walked forwards again.
   "This is too much for you isn’t it?" Sophie whispered, Brendan didnt answer but carried on walking down the stairs.
   "Is everything ok?" Kathy called up the stairs; Brendan stopped again but still didn't turn around.
   "Err, yeah. Everything’s fine." Sophie murmured, then put her hand on Brendan's shoulder, Brendan shuddered and Sophie pulled away,
   "Brend-" Kathy began but Brendan screamed,
   "THIS IS A JOKE!"
   "What is?" Kathy walked up a couple of stairs and stopped,
   "EVERYTHING!" Brendan screamed again,
   "What's going on?" Sarah walked into the hallway but stopped when she saw Brendan on the stairs, "I'm sorry," She whispered as she shock her head, Brendan guessed what she said and walked down a few more stairs. Then saying in the coldest tone of voice he could manage;
   "You better be BITCH!" Sarah tried to turn away but Brendan jumped down the last few stairs and grabbed her by her shoulder, "Leaving so soon?"
   "Please-" Sarah pleaded, Brendan let go and turned away.
   "Why is everything a joke?" Kathy walked down the few stairs she walked up moments before and leaned against the banister,
   "This, Everything." Brendan muttered, Sarah walked backwards into a wall and Brendan turned around to stare at her face. "So many lies, so many secrets." He muttered looking back at his mum.
   "I know," Kathy muttered, "But there are ways of dealing with this other than violently."
   "WHO SAID I'M VIOLENT?" Brendan shouted, "VIOLENCE HAS RULED MY LIFE of YOU HADNT ALREADY NOTICED!" Brendan then said as quietly as he could, "I've been injured so many times, most of the times it has been serious; like when Richard ran me over, when Megan stabbed me, or the most recent one... Sarah." Brendan then had to lean against the wall, his arms covered his head as he said; "But there are other times in between. You know how many times, I’m just sick of all this" Brendan said bringing his arms to his sides, "I don’t want secrets, Uncles and other relatives I never knew about. I don't want to be near death every 5 minutes because certain people hold grudges, I don’t want to hear about lost brothers or sisters when I should have known about them from the start!" Brendan then had to breathe deeply, he slumped to the floor and lay his legs on the floor, "The only thing I want is to go back to normal, to have Connor back. If I could re-play that day, don't you think I would have done something different? You know I would never wish Connor dead, why do you have it in your mind that I would?" Brendan asked Kathy, Kathy came over to him and also tried to put her arm around his shoulder, once again Brendan pulled away;
   "I never blamed you for what happened-"
   "No, at least you didnt say it." Brendan said, Sophie wondered if she was in the right place and was afraid that if she tried to leave and go back outside that Brendan would actually hurt her. So she stayed put. Meanwhile, Sophie had taken a few steps forward. Harvey was still in Sophie’s bedroom trying to persuade Tyson not to get involved. Lilie once again was taking a back seat and was trying to figure out what was going on. "I could see it in your eyes, Connor was always your special boy. You did everything with him and not me, you wanted me dead."
   "Brendan no-" Kathy began,
   "Listen to me, I know that day when you walked straight to me. You wanted it to be the other way around, you used the excuse that I looked so much like him to avoid me afterwards. What do you think it was like for me every time I looked into the mirror? I didnt want to look in the mirror after a while because I didn't see myself, I saw another person. It was scary because I didn't realize that I would change so much! Even when dad died it was different, after Connor..."
   "Brendan-"
   "Just leave me alone" Brendan whispered, getting up slowly he walked out the door, no one followed him. Even though Connor was watching he too didnt follow, he knew his brother needed time to think. After that though, Brendan would have to tell Tyson and Lilie what happened the day Matthew died. And Connor knew just how to persuade Brendan to tell them.
   "Do you think he'll be ok?" Sophie asked, Kathy walked over to her and said reassuringly,
   "I'm sure he will, I think he just needs time alone for now."
   "He's not always like this is he?" Sarah asked, Sophie replied,
   "What do you care? You are part of why he's messed up, the fight you started didn't help things you know."
   "Hey, did you manage to talk to him?" Harvey called down whilst walking down the stairs,
   "Sort of," Sophie replied and Harvey knew what she meant.
   "Things haven't been easy for him have they?" Sarah asked, and Sophie snapped back,
   "What the hell do you think? He had to watch his own brother die! If that wasn't bad enough, a psycho decided to stab him on his way to the shops making him nearly die. And our head teacher has let her back into the school, on top of all that he has 8 other family members he never knew about turning up. He's been blamed for Ben running off although it was really you who made him, his step-dad ran him over on his bike, and now he finds out that his dad isn't who he thought he was." Sarah closed her eyes for a split second and bit her bottom lip, "So no, things haven't been easy for him, why are you still here anyway? Haven't you got anything better to do?" Sarah looked to the floor but didn't move, Sophie turned back to her dad, "I think he wants to be alone, I wouldn't go and find him just yet." She said, Harvey looked defeated but said no more.
   "Where's Brendan?" Tyson asked,
   "Outside, but-" Kathy replied
   "Yeah, I know...I’m just worried about him that's all." Tyson sighed and sat on the stairs, Lilie came down after him but said nothing.
   "I think it is about time I told you about Lilie," Harvey said slowly, Kathy moved into the sitting room and everyone followed. "The reason why I never told anyone about you" Harvey began speaking to Lilie, "Is that Matt swore me to secrecy, even after he died I couldn't say anything because I knew it would prove more destructive than helpful. I knew question's would be asked and I wasn't in the right state anyway, after the car accident most of you know I was in a comma and when I woke up I didn't remember who I was. It was only because you knew what I was wearing that you guys knew me as Harvey and the driver was Matt, It didn't help that we we're exactly alike in every way-" Harvey explained but Sophie cut in,
   "Not every way,"
   "Other than my blood type, ok one difference. Will you let me continue?" Harvey asked, Sophie smiled and sank deeper into the sofa she was sitting on. Harvey looked satisfied and continued, "At first I didn't remember anything, not about Tyson or Lilie. But then it all came back to me when Kathy reminded me about Tyson and a letter I found from Matt about Lilie. There are still blank spots in my head from my past, I can't remember most of my childhood still and the accident is still a blur. I can remember brief moments with him just before the accident, but other than that..." Harvey drifted off,
   "So where does Lilie come in?" Kathy asked, Harvey sighed and replied,
   "I found out after she was born, Matt admitted he knew Annie was pregnant and I fitted it together."
   "So..." Kathy said trying to make it all sink in,
   "Matt knew she was pregnant, I'm guessing that's why he-"
   "Kept away so often after Tyson was gone," Brendan cut in, everyone turned around to stare at him but he wasn't bothered anymore. He just sat down on the sofa beside Sophie and stared at Harvey until he continued,
   "Yeah, it made sense after I found out the reason why but he never wanted you to find out. At least not like the way you did,"
   "Too late," Brendan muttered, but Harvey continued.
   "That's why he wanted to say sorry and try to explain everything in letters, it's just annoying I didn't find them until now."
   "Letters?" Kathy asked,
   "Yeah, he gave one to all his children and Sophie. I'm surprised that he didn't give you one, but he said you'd understand."
   "Unfortunately, he was right." Kathy said looking to the window, "It's getting late, and Brendan has school tomorrow."
   "Yes, I think you're right." Harvey agreed.
   Paul and his family left first, leaving Kathy, Brendan and Tyson who left just after. Brendan had still not opened his letter but wasn't going to open it yet. Tyson had Connor's letter, although it was looking likely that his was never going to be opened.

   Then next morning, Brendan woke up on time. He was still not at his best yet, but then again lately he never was. Lies and Secrets now controlled his life, how many more still yet to come was unknown to him, but now he knew roughly what to expect. He just needed to find out if there were anymore and what exactly they were.
   School started at the usual time, but Brendan was about 5 minutes early. He waited at the front of the school for his friends and caught Willow almost at once;
   "Hey," Brendan called out, Willow looked around till she saw him and came running over,
   "Anything wrong?" She asked,
   "Why would it be?"
   "Just that we haven't had much time to talk, you know I’ve been on holiday since just after you  got stabbed by Megan."
   "Yeah, I know. How have you been?”
   “You shouldn’t be asking me, it’s you I’m worried about.” Willow said, Brendan looked embarrassed and stared at his shoes.
   “You shouldn’t be,” He muttered,
   “Yeah. Well what would mates do otherwise?” Willow said smiling, lifting Brendan’s head to face hers. “Talking of mates, have you asked Emma to the prom yet?” Brendan stared at her and said slowly,
   “What makes you think she’ll go with me?”
   “Because dummy, you like her-“
   “That’s obvious” Brendan muttered,
   “You know what I mean, just ask her to the prom.”
   “You make it sound so easy!” Brendan said sighing.

   Brendan caught Emma on the stairs on the way down from T7 and asked her to the prom, immediately she looked to the floor upset;
   “Brendan, I’m already going with someone…” She trailed off, Brendan felt stupid and started walking down the stairs, “I’m only going with him as a friend though,” Emma protested and ran down to stop him, “I’m sorry,”
    “Yeah, me too.” Brendan muttered and shrugged off Emma’s hand which was on his shoulder,
   “Why?” Emma asked, “You’ve done nothing wrong…I did want to go with you, but Ryan asked me before…” Brendan spun around on the stairs and stared at her,
   “Ryan?” Brendan forced himself not to shout, but still scared Emma,
   “We’re only going as friends!” Emma began but Brendan jumped down the next whole flight of stairs and landed his feet,
   “Don’t come near me.” He said coldly and ran down the next flight. Sophie then bumped into him also out of breath.
   “What’s wrong?” She asked, Brendan says nothing but walks over to the nearest window. Breathing in the air from the small open gap. “Ok, you don’t want to tell me. But there is something I have to tell you…”
   “What?” Brendan asked, though Sophie almost didn’t hear him,
   “Dad gave me a lift in, and we saw Aunt Rachel in Reigate…”
   “So…” Brendan trails in, not quite himself.
   “She was kissing some guy, only it wasn’t Paul. She saw us driving past and ran down a side street to avoid us.”
   “Wow…” Brendan muttered, at that moment though the bell rings and Brendan covered his ears to block out the ringing. After the bell stops, Brendan muttered
   “I have to go,” and walked through an empty classroom. Sophie waited there a couple of minutes and saw Emma walking down the stairs crying.
   “What’s happened?” She asked,
   “I’m an idiot…” Emma whimpers and collapses on the stairs,
   “Did he ask you to the prom?” Sophie guessed and Emma looked up,
   “Yeah, did he tell you about him asking me?”
   “No, but I had a feeling he wanted to. I’m guessing you said ‘No’ then…” Sophie asked and Emma burst into tears. “Hey, he’s still not himself. He’s just found out about a half sister and isn’t exactly over joy with the news…” Sophie said, walking up to Emma. “Just give him time,” She added. Right then though students came running up the stairs, Emma stood up and Sophie disappeared.