"Issac!" A car sped to them, stopping right in beside Issac as Soren ran out of the car.
"Soren?"
"Come on. I came to pick you up." He said, looking behind him to see two more people on the ground. "What the hell happened?"
"Not too sure," Issac said, scratching the back of his head. "I am getting more and more confused with everything right now."
"You're confused? What do you think I am feeling them?" Soren sighed, pressing his temples in annoyance. "Let's deal with this later. Get in the car."
As he walked over to Haiti, Issac noticed the slight pause before he bent down and placed his fingers in front of her nose.
"Dead." He mumbled, turning to Issac who walked to him and picked the woman up. The two locked eyes as Jadin began to pick Orion up. "Later."
"Do you think he is dead?" Jadin asked as Orion walked to him.
"He isn't," Issac said, looking at his eyes twitch slightly. "But his reaction is a little different from them, don't you think so?"
"I think so." Jadin nodded, getting into the car. "Wait. Why am I going with you?!?"
"Don't you want to see what's inside this HDD?" Issac asked, trying to arrange himself in the passenger seat, still holding Haiti in his arms.
"… I do."
"Ok. We will check it together." Issac said, as Soren entered the car aggressively and plopping into the seat.
"You …" He began driving the car away at full speed.
"Yes?"
"Why do you keep getting into all kinds of troubles all the time?" He asked, more so to himself than to Issac.
"Maybe I am a magnet for trouble." Issac shrugged, taking off his coat and wrapping Haiti's freezing body in it.
"By this point, it isn't even a maybe anymore." Soren scoffed, staring straight ahead. He stared from the rearview mirror at the boy. "Who are you anyway?"
"O-oh. I am Jadin." He introduced himself, putting Orion in the empty space beside him.
"You two are wearing the same uniform." He remarked, looking at the two as they stopped at a red light. "What were you both doing?"
"Watching people die," Issac said, opening the compartment in Soren's car and pulling out a candy and offered it to Jadin. "Want one?"
"Huh?" He did not have the chance to process it as Issac shoved the candy in his mouth. "T-thank you?"
"No problem." Issac gave him an empty smile and popped another into his mouth, holding another one out to Soren. "Want one?"
"No." The man said, fuming.
"Ok." He said, popping that one into his mouth too.
"So … how did she die?" Soren asked, attempting to make conversation in the empty silence.
"Some kid killed her," Issac said, biting into the candy. "Raymond or something like that."
"What?! Why?"
"They were after this." Issac pulled at his shirt to reveal the HDD nestled comfortably in the inner pocket.
"A Hard Disk?" Soren asked, speeding the car up. "Why?"
"Even I want to know that," Issac said, leaning back against the seat of the car.
His vision blurred as he struggled to keep them open, exhausting spreading through his body.
"You ok?" His friend asked, looking at him from the corner of his eyes.
"Yeah. Just … wake me up when we get there. I …" He could not complete his sentence as he finally lost consciousness. Succumbing to the darkness.
___________________
"Issac!" A voice called to him as his eyes slowly opened.
The first thing he saw was his small hands, Issac looked up to see a woman smiling at him, her tired eyes not giving a thing away.
Who?
"Are you that sleepy?" The woman asked, patting his head softly as he leaned into her touch. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Sleepy," was all he responded, still half awake.
"Come here then." The woman said, picking him up with ease and placing him on her lap. He leaned against her chest, hearing the heavy thumping of her heart against his ear.
She began to hum softly, patting his head as the boy gave a contented sigh.
"I'm sorry, Issac." She said, voice below a whisper. Almost like she did not want him to hear her. "I couldn't do anything to protect you."
What is she talking about? He thought, heavy-lidded eyes staring blankly at the back of the chair she sat on. Protect me?
"I failed Araya and I am going to fail you now." She mumbled. "I hope … you don't hold this against me too much."
She stood up, laying the boy on the table as he stared blankly at her, unable to move his body as his vision faded in and out.
"Don't … don't be mad at me, ok. Issac?" She asked, holding up a kitchen knife and stabbed him across the chest.
Unsurprisingly, he felt nothing except the blade penetrating his flesh. Only the sounds of the blade hitting the machine in his chest made his body shake.
"What?" The woman said in horror, cutting his chest open as the blood spurted onto his face, the tabletop, her face and flowing to the floor. "What the hell …"
So she does not know. Who is she anyway? My mother?
"What are you doing??" he heard a man shout from the doorway and rushed to them, shoving the woman out of the way.
He stared up at the hated face of the man that looked at him with a frantic expression as he stared at Issac's breathing grow ragged.
For the first time in a long, long time, Issac felt a genuine smile coming on his face when he saw how panicked that man looked. Though his vision faded in and out, that remained and he couldn't help but feel an exhilaration filling his body.
His already tired face looking even worse than it already does. Unkempt hair sticking in all directions, with eyes as black as the night looking at him like his entire world fell apart.
I wish I had a camera right now.
"I need to stitch him back up." The man shouted, running out of the room. "Live … he will live."
"H-have … have I failed?" He heard the woman whispering to herself before turning to Issac. "Issac. I am sorry."
"You want him to not be a pawn?" A child's voice came into the room as a young-looking Araya walked in, a hammer in her hand.
"Araya?!" The woman stood, rushing to the girl. "W-what are you talking about-?"
"Father is going to kill me soon." She said, staring blankly at the hammer in her hands. "He has found his perfect subject after all."
"Wh-"
"Before I die-" she looked at Issac dead in the eyes, walking to him with no expression written on her face- "allow me to hurt that man a little more."
Without another thought, she raised the hammer and began smashing Issac's head in. The pain coursed through the boy's body but he could not scream nor could he move.
Instead, he was just left gasping for air, mouth opened in an unheard cry as tears or blood ran down his face, blurring his vision.
Soon, the pain began to fade as the dull thud of the metal against his skull started to make squishy sounds and he finally began to lose consciousness as the man's figure appeared in the doorway.
The woman from before rushed forward to stop him from coming closer, blocking his view of him.
Araya. He thought, fingers twitching as the darkness surrounding his vision grew wider. Run. Please.
__________________
Issac opened his eyes slowly, looking around him as the smell of a car freshener and the horrendous music always played by Soren filled his ears.
Unintentionally, his body shivered just hearing a few notes of the sound and his hands reached out, turning the music off.
"What the-" Soren's voice came from his left as he lazily turned to the man driving the car. He turned and made eye contact with Issac, almost running a red light. "Issac??"
"No more music." The man groaned, pushing himself up on the seat as he rubbed his eye.
"Why not?" Soren pouted as Jadin grabbed Issac's shoulder from behind, looking at him gratefully.
"I was about to die." The young man groaned. "I didn't think I could get sick of a song this quickly."
"How long have we been on the road?" Issac asked, turning from Jadin to Soren who was still pouting.
"You both have no tastes." He mumbled, looking at the watch on his wrist. "About ... ten minutes?"
"We aren't at my home yet?" Issac asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "You were so fast before."
"I had to take another path." Soren sighed. "The police are on their way to the scene and ... we can't be seen going out of that place. We are already suspicious enough."
"I see," Issac said, looking at the mirror on the window, noticing a car and then a familiar face sticking out of the window for a second.
"We can't go home yet," Issac said to Soren as they reached a junction in the road. "Turn to the right."
"But that is-"
"I know. Just trust me." Issac said, not taking his eye off the mirror. "And speed up."
"Fine."