Chapter 31 - The World Burn : Part 2

"You don't actually think I'm going to open this door, aren't you?" Kiaran snarled at Axel's tenseness, a playful smile formed behind his mask as he pulled his hand away from the doorknob where the experimented demons stayed.

Axel's petrified blue eyes were still staring at the door. His gaze moved to Kiaran and the door over and over, frozen in his place.

"Come on, Axel, I was only teasing you." Kiaran laughed with his melodic voice, paddling over to his little brother. "Don't be all stiff like that."

The mercenary stopped right beside Axel, looking at him from the corner of his eyes with a hint of dark glee between the blue ocean pupils. He put a hand on Axel's stiff shoulder, gripping it a little hard.

"Tell me, are you scared, Axel?" Kiaran asked almost tauntingly. Though his voice echoed in the kid's brain as he returned his brother's stare with two trembling eyes.

The boy did not answer. He was caught in between silent panic as he tried not to fall into a hysteric fit of terror. Axel tried hard to steady his breath.

"Kiaran, stop this." Axel croaked earnestly.

"Yeah-" The 18-year-old paused, faking a consideration before turning his head to Axel. "-no."

Kiaran turned his back on Axel, walking ahead of him a little as he began to speak again. "Okay, so here's the plan."

"I'm going to release these demons I gathered tomorrow and finished the bombs tonight," Kiaran explained, unable to hold back the hidden grin.

"It's going to be marvelous, Axel. You just have to stand with me as my murderer." The teen continued without looking back, playing with the remote in his hand.

"You'll watch the world burn with me. Just call it-" The 18-year-old paused, spinning the remote playfully. "-a brotherly bonding."

The mercenary cackled madly, laughing almost ironically. "Isn't it wholesome, brother?"

"Kiaran, please-" Axel suppressed the last word, pleading.

He took Kiaran's hand, holding it tight as he begged. The mercenary raised his eyebrows, glaring daggers at the 16-year-old.

"-Stop this." The boy breathed with a racing heart.

The silence ate Axel's words as the two brothers stared at each other. Each second felt like an hour for the boy, unable to catch what Kiaran was thinking.

The mercenary wrinkled his nose as he sighed. "Alright, that's it. Stop talking." Kiaran said, jerking away harshly from Axel's grasp. "This is a command." He ended the sentence with two annoyed eyes.

Axel bit his lip. His hands formed a fist as he diverted his gaze to anywhere but Kiaran's eyes. The older teen stared down at the boy for a second before turning his back on Axel again.

So it went back to Axel following Kiaran again as the mercenary walked around, picking some explosive in his hand. Axel brought some explosives along with him, trying to help his brother.

As they were about to get out of the long hallway, a sudden pang went in Axel's heart, and his breath hitched. There was a blind white pain coursing through his veins, spreading like fire from his chest. The boy found himself choking on nothing in silence.

The boy gasped, hand desperately clutching his white sweater, making the explosives in his hands fall onto the floor. "W-wait, Kiaran-"

"I said stop talking." Kiaran let out a high, grating command without looking back.

Axel's hand shook wildly as another pain stabbed his heart. "K-kiaran something's-"

"Axel, don't talk. You are testing my patience here." The mercenary warned him again. A dangerous tone started forming in his voice.

Axel tried his heart to breathe, blinking away the tears from how painful the pain was. "But, my chest h-"

A slap went to Axel's face, and the boy fell to his left, making a loud thump sound.

"I said don't talk." Kiaran stared down at his little brother coldly.

He slowly crouched down to Axel's level, narrowing both of his blue eyes. The mercenary took the rest of the explosives on the ground in one swipe before standing again, ignoring Axel, who stayed on the floor, breathless.

Noticing something had been watching him for a while from behind, a smirk formed behind his mask, and Kiaran gracefully turned around. "Well, hello there, my dear sister."

Kiaran sharpened his gaze at the assassin, making both of his eyes form a dangerous look. "Enjoying the show?"

Adreanna stared back at him from behind her red porcelain mask with two content, blue eyes. "When will we begin?" She asked impassively.

"Ah, changing the subject like you always do. Typical Adreanna." Despite the playful tone Kiaran was giving, there was a threatening tone laced behind.

The two fell into a cold pit of staring contest that seemed endless. Both equally waited for the other to say something.

Axel's ears started to ring as he tried to see Adreanna from his two blurry eyes. The boy gritted his teeth, clutching his gloved fist tightly.

"Fine then," The middle child began, walking over to the first child. "Let's change the subject."

Kiaran walked past Adreanna, leading the way. Though the assassin lingered a little bit longer, looking at Axel, who was trembling on the floor with two emotionless eyes.

She just stood there, watching her brother in silence. Axel returned the stare in between the agony, blinking slowly as the edge of his eyes turned black little by little.

But just like the middle child, the first child turned her back on him too, walking away.

The two siblings left Axel withering on the floor alone. The only witness was the red emerald necklace that the light had gone dim, finding its way slowly to the boy's heart.

And the boy's vision turned black.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

"-and the world will burn." Kiaran raised his eyebrows at Adreanna, eyes full of hidden madness as he finished explaining his plan to her.

The two masked criminals faced each other with a table in between them. There was a map of Livedam city on top of the table with marks of where Kiaran planted the bombs.

Adreanna fixed her porcelain mask without diverting her gaze from her brother's blue maniac eyes. "What's in it for me?"

Kiaran tilted his head to his right, smiling knowingly behind his mask. "Don't you want to end those governments who were using these people and turned them into demons?"

Adreanna tilted her head to her left, following Kiaran's movement. "Aren't you using them too?"

"Well," The younger darted, fiddling with the knife in his hand. "I'm making them have their revenge."

He spun the knife in his hand, fidgeting it around. "It's a win-win situation, don't you think, Adreanna?"

She caught Kiaran's smirking eyes with a restrained look behind her porcelain mask. Her eyes became unengaged as she diverted them to the table. The 19-year-old traced the map with her red gloved hand, looking at it thoroughly.

"How do we make all the governments come out and make them stay in one place?" Adreanna asked without looking away from the map.

A photo of a red-haired girl slid on the table, stopping right in front of the assassin. Adreanna furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at the picture.

A knife was suddenly thrown into the picture, cutting right into the table. Adreanna quickly looked at Kiaran with a questioning gaze.

"We'll kidnap the president's daughter first." The mercenary said, leeringly looking down at the knife that he threw.

Then the door suddenly burst open, revealing a boy paler than he usually did. Exhaustion was written in his body language as his chest heaved up and down.

Despite his situation, his eyes were piercing right through Kiaran, glowering in anger.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Axel jolted awake, taking a big gasp as his heart thumped loudly. He pushed his hands against the cold floor, blinking his eyes slowly and adjusting them to the surroundings.

The pain in his chest worn off a little. Either that, or he just started to get used to the pain. He did not even realize he ended up blacking out from how painful the pain was.

The boy quickly looked around, searching for where Kiaran was. He got up slowly from the ground, swaying a little as he kept steady on his feet.

Axel roamed in the hallway, following the faint voices that caught his ears. There was a throbbing pain in his heart as he continued forward. He tried hard to ignore it.

"How do we make all the governments come out and make them stay in one place?"

Axel managed to hear the voice more clearly know as he got close to a room. He carefully walked closer to the door and put a hand in the doorknob to open it.

"We'll kidnap the president's daughter first."

And when he listened to the last sentence of what Kiaran said, he burst through the door, completely forgetting the pain in his chest from the adrenaline that shot right through his brain.

Kiaran's eyes widened a little, looking startled at the sudden appearance of his little brother. Though it quickly vanished, just like when it came.

"Finally joining the party, eh, Axel?" The mercenary teased, eyes forming a calculating move. It was the same thing that he did when he spotted a dangerous enemy.

Though he was facing his own brother right now.

"Don't touch Rune." Axel gritted through his teeth, lips curling inwards behind his mask.

"That's unfortunate then. She is part of the plan after all," Kiaran spoke in an apparent fake sympathy. He brought his hands to his back and intertwined them together.

"I'm not going to let you kidnap her." Axel spat at him. Vertical wrinkles started to appear between his eyebrows.

Kiaran leaned back. "Is that so?" He hauntingly asked. "And what are you going to do?" The teen continued, taunting the youngest even more.

Axel brought his hand to his pocket and took out his gun. He aimed at Kiaran's forehead steadily despite the forgotten pain in his chest.

"Oh?" Kiaran sang. His face darkened, mixing with an impressed look. "You're going to choose your friend over your brother? I'm wounded, Axel."

Axel was taken aback for a second at his brother's words. A million different thoughts came to him simultaneously. Each side of his brain fought with each other.

Then his mind flashed with Rune's cheerful smile. How she always stood in front of him to defend him, how she would always be there for him, and how she laughed like a real angel.

His grip on the gun that was loosened a little quickly went firm and went steady again. He put his finger on the trigger, still pointing the gun at Kiaran.

"Don't touch her," Axel repeated his words, unwavering.

In a swift move, Adreanna stepped up, standing between Kiaran and Axel, and aimed another gun back at the boy. The light in the room glanced off her porcelain mask, blinding Axel a little,

"Don't touch him." Adreanna retorted back coldly at her youngest brother.

Axel still tried to aim at Kiaran despite how Adreanna was shielding him now. Behind her, the mercenary was looking at him with two dark gleeful wide eyes. The 18-year-old seemed to be pleased by how Adreanna stepped up for him.

"Oh, dear Axel." Kiaran put both of his hands on Adreanna's shoulders, peeking from behind her head that covered half of his face.

"Don't worry. I knew you were going to be against me either way." He added, tilting his head a little.

"Whether it's because you choose your best friend-" Kiaran emerged from behind Adreanna, taking a lazy first step to stand beside her.

"-or another me."

Axel stumbled back at the sudden revelation. His hand was wavering a little as he desperately still tried to aim at his brother.

"You think I didn't know that you've been meeting the other me? Other Adreanna and other father too?" Kiaran walked closer to him, covering the lamp behind him, shadow hovering over the mute murderer.

Suddenly, all the adrenaline had turned into fear. Both of Axel's feet started to get cold, and sweat ran down from the side of his brow.

"I'm not stupid, Axel." Kiaran bent down and pressed his forehead on the tip of Axel's gun.

"And I'm not stupid too to not know that you can't kill me anyway." The mercenary taunted darkly.

"Kiaran," Adreanna warned, delicately red gloved hand still pointing a gun to Axel's forehead.

The boy's mouth stretched and drawn back, exposing his teeth behind the white mask he wore. His hand froze, and he hated to admit that Kiaran was right. He could not pull the trigger no matter how he really wanted to.

Or did he really want to?

The mercenary snickered in front of his face and straightened his back. He easily walked away from the gun, passing the boy who was locked in his place.

Adreanna raised her eyebrows and slowly lowered her gun. She tucked in the weapon to her cloak, fixing her porcelain mask, and followed Kiaran right after.

"You were kind in the other world." Somehow, that was the words that came out of Axel's mouth instead of anything else.

Kiaran stopped in the doorway for a moment, making Adreanna stop right behind him too.

"Then go with him.." He said as he disappeared from the door.