"What's up guys… you three are here again?" He asked. His face looked funny as he talked, especially the side of the face where the scar stretched from eye to lips. He had some ropes suspended on his shoulders and their ends coiled around his waist. Dylan had an eerie feeling when he saw the ropes, same as his twin. It seemed like they shared a special connection.
"Yes, wanna join us?" Karl insisted. "It's fun…" His voice had been badly damaged by the pirate and the captain game from earlier on.
Zayn shrugged, "I don't mind…" he stepped closer. "What game are you playing today… oh the dynasty game, great!" He answered himself as soon as he noticed the miniatures.
Dylan wasted no time as he grabbed Karl immediately and dragged him aside to confront him about playing with Zayn, especially today with the ropes. It felt wrong. They talked and talked for two minutes before Karl finally managed to convince the two lookalikes. They returned to talk with him.
"Yes, you can start building your kingdom over there," Karl pointed with his mouth, his hands full of things and dirt.
"I have a better idea!" Zayn suggested. All wanted to hear. Zayn was just older and any idea he said seemed boldly cool enough.
"What?" They asked.
He asked for Ethan. Ethan stepped forth and he took him down the slope towards the bank of the river as the other two walked behind them. For once Zayn was involving Ethan in whatever games they were playing as a whole. He took the ropes and tied Ethan tightly around a tree trunk, from the chest, the arms, and the feet with Karl's help. When he was done, he tied Karl too on a tree beside Ethan. And he walked Dylan towards the river and stood on its banks before he spoke out in a loud voice.
"Okay, so the game goes like this…" Ethan's head cocked. This seemed fun. "The first person who gets himself out of those ropes needs to come over and pull out Dylan's head which will be submerged for fifteen seconds under the water. The last one to break free will have his whole dynasty assets taken away from him and given to the other… and he will have to start over. If the first one doesn't break out in time to take Dylan's head outside of the water, half of his assets and the loser's assets will be given to Dylan… are we clear? You get the game?"
"Yes!" Karl shouted. "What about you though? Why are you not tied up?"
"Because someone needs to stay guard just in case he slips into the river. I don't want any injuries on me, boys. Don't worry. We will take turns." He tucked his tongue behind his mouth. Everyone got the idea. He took out his stopwatch and looked at all three. "Now!" he roared sharply as he pressed the timer. Dylan submerged his head in the river immediately while the two tried to fight themselves free from the ropes. They fidgeted between tree and rope as they tried to squeeze themselves out from grasp "…six seconds, seven, eight…" Zayn spoke up as he looked at the timer and then at the two. They were nowhere near to freedom. "…eleven, twelve seconds…" They continued dancing their way out, the ropes really had trapped them! "…fourteen…"
"Fifteen!" he finally finished and Dylan got his head out of the water in a swash only for Zayn to push it back in a splash, with the whole weight of his body behind his two hands.
It took a moment before the kids realized what was going on…
"No!!!!!!!!" Ethan screamed. "STOP!"
"Zayn, get him out of there! Stop, please you're gonna kill him!" Karl roared, chest pounding harder.
"Did you think I was going to let you go away Dylan? Did you?!" Zayn sneered, his hand clasping and locking the brown-haired head beneath him in deep water. He was really massive in comparison to the young lad below him; in strength and size. Dylan was fighting Zayn, in a bid to get out of his grasp and the mired horror episode. He squeaked and wailed, kicked and scratched, fidgeted and shook, all in vain. Zayn bit his lip harder, with eyebrows drawn closer creating a terrible example of a face on him. He held onto and pressed on and on as he drained the life out of him. "Do you ever think of how I hold my spoon? Or how I write? Do you ever imagine how people give me weird stares?! DO YOU!!" he roared, no remorse in his voice. "I told you I was going to kill you… "
Dylan shuttered endlessly as his haltering breaths took him away from the earth. His fists were clenched as he got into more shock and let out tortured sobs. His vision became more blurry under the water and his body even less strong. His body went numb, one finger at a time and the efforts became less futile. He didn't want to die but he was too weak to fight again. His blinded eyes realized that they'd never see another sunrise.
"Zayn please!!!" Karl was now crying, bitterly and heavily. "Please!" his sore throat did not allow his voice to reach that far. "Zayn, please! It doesn't have to end this way!"
"No! No!" Ethan cried endlessly as he fought himself free of the ropes. He immediately raced down the steep bank, rock in hand as he approached Zayn. "Stop! You're gonna kill him, Zayn stop!" He threw the stone at Zayn and he missed it so narrowly as he had ducked in time. He took a rock with his right hand and threw it at Ethan. It landed perfectly on his forehead and cut him at the root of his hair. Ethan bled out, confused as he teetered around. Dylan had felt the sudden weightlift when Zayn got distracted and decided to make an escape for it. His head was almost out of the water when Zayn took another rock by his side and smacked the boy's head. Dylan dropped down again, and Zayn submerged his head back into the water. Red water started flowing around them as the boy in the water continued to fight, barely.
Ethan came back to his senses a moment later and realized that there was no way he was going to beat this huge boy off his brother, even if he let Karl loose to help. He quickly ran back home as fast as he could, head dripping blood. He found his mother watching the television by herself. The baby was in her room probably sleeping. She turned around and noticed the bleeding boy behind her.
"Mom!" Ethan screamed so loudly, crying. Mucus was already coming out of his nose and the blood was way down his face with some red stains already on the shirt he wore. "It's Zayn, he's killing Dylan!" Mother's eyes opened in complete shock and she had a little time to react. She got on her sandals and quickly darted outside the house, Ethan leading the way. She tried to run as fast as she could, losing her footing twice on separate occasions. They ran past the bushes and thickets and dead woods and logs, and even past their locale where the dynasties had been positioned. They ran downstream and what she found… no mother could be ever prepared for what she was about to see!
Lying on the steep riverbank was the human figure of Dylan Purcell, head still submerged in the river? Ethan looked around and didn't catch the sight of Zayn and only Karl was there, still trapped in the tree by the ropes crying himself to an early grave. Mother and son ran over to Dylan and she pulled him out of the river and turned him the other way. She lay him face up on the bank and started performing CPR on him. She pressed her hands against his chest; harder and harder and harder and breathed air into his mouth, again and again, and again. She had lost her whole family, she couldn't manage to lose her son. "God not this one, please not this one… not again, not my boy." She pressed on and on as she determined to bring him back to her hoping for a different outcome. "Dylan wake up. Please wake up!" She cried out slowly continuing in her motion as all the efforts led her further to where she was in the beginning; in a land full of despair. She finally looked at the boy, now stressfully, and finally cried in submission. She was late… too late!