Chapter 94 - Declaration Of The Play : Part 2

"We'll be going against the whole government, including the president. Attacking the president means that we will attack the whole country." Adreanna reloaded her guns as she spoke, focusing on every weapon on top of the table.

"Okay." Axel hummed, mismatched eyes locking on the apartment floor. His feet were dangling on the edge of the bed as he sat there.

"I'll protect you, I promise." Adreanna quickly chimed in, putting down the weapon in her hand.

She walked toward Axel slowly and sat beside him. With an emotionless face that did not match with her act right now, she put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort the boy.

That was how Maera taught her to do. Her friend used to comfort her this way. She never thought that she would use the serial killer's method like this.

"I'll stay by your side. So don't worry about anything, okay?" Adreanna softly speak. It would sound really nice and sweet if her voice were not toneless.

Axel stayed silent at the statement. The boy lowered his head even more as his eyes glazed over something, glinting in sadness.

"I will always be here for you, Axel." Rune had said one day.

"I'm here, so you don't have to worry about anything." Kiaran, too said one day.

They both turned out to be a lie. Axel hated how similar Adreanna's words were right now. He did not want this to be another lie, so it was better never to put too much hope anymore.

Everyone would leave eventually, right?

Axel had to quickly swallow back his saliva after feeling the dread clawing his throat again.

"I want to train." Axel dodged Adreanna's words and easily changed the topic. He finally looked over to his sister with his usual wanly eyes.

"Train?" She blinked, calculating the boy's intention. "But you're talented enough already."

Axel diverted his gaze away again from her. He stared at the pink ribbon on the edge of the whiteboard dazedly. "I was just copying you since little."

"Of course, I would be talented. You are the one who's talented, Adreanna." He remembered how he watched Adreanna train every day from afar, fearing that his father might get mad by him being there.

Kiaran told him to stay away from Adreanna and Cain so many times to the point he felt like it was a sin just to appear in their sights.

"You never trained before?" She asked, still trying to understand her brother more. It was hard to know why his face looked like that for her.

"I did train." Axel's eyes became dull as he answered her. They became duller even more as he started to lose in his own thoughts.

Of course, Axel knew it too well about training. It was hell for him, but he needed to do it anyway. He always did.

"A lot, actually."

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A twelve-year-old boy heaved up and down with sweats drenching his whole body from hair to feet. His knuckles had bled down from hours of punching the tree inside the forest near their house.

His lips were pale from the lack of rest he was having. Axel who was too young to be trained into a murderer fell onto the ground as his legs gave in. The bruises and scars on his skin were countless.

His hands could not even be called hands anymore for his many burns and cracking skin. It was his fault anyway; he was not too skilled at how to handle a gun.

"That's all? You wanted to protect me by being like this?" Fourteen-year-old Kiaran spat as he leaned on one of the trees. He looked at Axel with disappointment, as if the boy was the lowest being on earth.

Axel tried to look up from the ground, desperately trying to stay awake. "I-I'm sorry, Kiaran. I'll train more and-"

"Train more? Until when?" He raised his eyebrows as he slowly kneeled down to get a closer look.

Axel's blue eyes had dimmed, trying to keep little lights on them so he would not pass out. His whole body trembled in pain as he could not hold it anymore.

Everyone was having a summer vacation, yet the boy was filling it with training and murdering. He needed to cover the bruises, so Rune would not panic when they got back to school later.

"As fast as possible. I promise I'll protect you, brother. I will always-"

Axel did not get to finish his sentence when he suddenly felt an ugly sting on his left cheek. He snapped his mouth shut right after and lowered his gaze to the ground.

Then he felt something running down from his nose like water. The said water dropped onto the ground, staining it red. Axel could hear a gasp not long after. It wasn't coming from him.

"I-I'm sorry! Are you okay? I didn't mean to." Kiaran uttered, cupping both of Axel's cheeks gently to see his face.

There was an etching worry on his brother's face. Somehow, it felt really nice. Axel would not mind getting hurt if he could see this expression often.

It just felt really nice.

He was suddenly thrown into a hug. Kiaran was holding him like a fragile glass that would break any time, and Axel found himself leaning into the touch.

"I'm so so sorry." The older mumbled. There was a slight tremble in his voice. "You know that I love you, right? I'm doing the best for you."

Axel tried to nod, cautiously not to bump his head to Kiaran's chin. "Y-you don't have to apologize. It's my fault."

He smiled. It seemed like all the pain in his body had vanished. "I love you too, Kiaran."

There was a slight silence that almost made Axel wonder if Kiaran heard him at all. He was glad that it did not take too long for his brother to actually answer him.

"No, I love you more."

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"But it does not really matter anyway." Axel brushed it off and tried to form a reassuring smile to Adreanna.

"I just want to train this thing." He brought his hand up and made it to be slightly disappeared. Then it went back to being solid again. Axel only managed to control it a little.

"It'll be a problem if I can't control it. I don't want to be a burden to you." He still smiled, not wanting to make her worry.

Axel could not get what Adreanna was thinking as she stared at him for a long time. He hated that he could not know what was going on in her head. He hated that he never got to grasp any situation he was in.

"Alright," She sighed and got up from the bed quickly, leaving the boy behind. "Let's head down to the basement."

Axel tilted his head wonderingly. "Basement?"

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They had arrived at the empty basement not long after. There were some punching bags around and some kind of training stuff. Axel wondered if all of this was Adreanna's.

An eyepatch was covering his red eye right when he got there. A red eye is a sensitive thing for people nowadays, you see. They were still traumatized from the mindless demons event that day.

He and Adreanna left to do their own things. It seemed like she wanted to give him some space to train alone.

Axel brought the trash around the place and put them in front of him. There were some empty bottles and plastics for him to try his training. He wanted to train on how to make something disappear with his demon power.

He grabbed the nearest bottle and stared at it for a while. He put it down and grabbed it back repeatedly, trying to figure it out. He kept trying to focus on how to make it vanish like that day.

Then an answer struck him like lightning.

A reason.

If he had a reason to make something disappear, it would. And if he did not have a reason, he would only touch it without making it vanish.

But to overcome how to make it disappear when he did not have a reason, he needed to do something about it.

Axel grabbed the bottle again and stared holes at it. If he did not have a reason to make this bottle disappear, he just had to have a wishful reason if he never had this demon power.

He had to manipulate a reason and make the bottle disappear.

He thought of a reason if he was normal—if he was just human. Then he would not have to make it disappear. Because he had this demon power now, he needed to make the bottle vanish.

He manipulated his own mind to think that he had to make the bottle vanish.

He learnt to manipulate his mind easily. Besides, he had always experienced it first hand anyway.

"A reason." He whispered, and like magic, the bottle disappeared in his hand.

Axel did not realize he was smiling at the power. He was smiling at how he could finally adjust to being a demon.

He may have realized that he was being manipulated by Kiaran, but he did not realize he had manipulated himself for the most part of his life,