Welcome back to returning home. Please see the end of the chapter for Authors notes

Chapter 2

"You don't choose your family, your family chooses you"

James had made two stops on his way home. One of which revolved around him getting a coffee and the other being him using the washroom of a gas station. The drive had been otherwise uneventful. Parking his car, James made his way into the apartment building. The building in question was nothing extraordinary, just a simple brick and mortar building.

James ascended the stairs to his third floor apartment, fumbled with his keys and pushed the door open. Slowly walking in and dropping his duffel bag he looked around. "Home sweet shitty home"

James' apartment was much like the building it was situated in, nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact the building itself had more furniture than his apartment. James' apartment in question had one couch, a very small TV on the floor and a small plastic container serving as a coffee table.

James moved into his bedroom and fell backwards on his bed. His bedroom only had a bed in it. No posters for the wall, no dresser, not even a bed frame. To say he was living a normal life was an understatement. James didn't have time to do anything else before he was under the cloak of sleep.

James awoke in a field of blackened grass, trees devoid of leafs and a pitch black sky.

"This is... New" James said.

James walked forward and brushed his hand against a bush. Yet it was as if the bush had never been touched at all.

"Definitely weird" James mumbled.

"Little Jem?" A gentle female voice rang out among the field. Yet no-one was in sight.

"Lad?" this time an accented voice called out. James looked around yet coming up with the same results as before, nothing.

"Hello!? Who is here?" James called out, only to be frustrated when no-one answered.

James continued to walk forward intent to find out what was going on.

"Son?" A male voice echoed out of the void.

"Oh I get it, my brain is going to fucking torment me for having left my family against my will. Well screw you brain!" James yelled.

"An' who ye be ta take away me lad!?" the accented voice yelled out again, this time as if in anger towards someone else.

"Fucking... Great, literally just WHAT I Needed" James threw a fist out in anger but hit nothing.

"Son, you need to understand. We aren't normal robots..." The Male voice whispered, as though it were right next to James' ear.

James quit walking aimlessly and stood there. "Yeah, I-I gathered that long ago Freddy"

"JEM! ARE YOU OKAY!?" the female voice screamed in fear, James dropped to his knees, it was as if her voice was inside his skull... Driving its way into his very soul.

James did however, remember that scream. "That has to be the day I split open the scar on my stomach... God, I scared them all so bad" James gently brushed the scar on his stomach... Although he wasnt in the real world he could still feel the long ugly scar that spread from the end of his sternum to his right hip "Even to this day I can't believe my father did that to me"

The world around him lit up suddenly, as if someone had sent a sun into a supernova.

"Laddie?" The Accented male voice called "What be tha matter lad?"

James didn't move nor did he get up. James lost track of time and was only brought back to his senses when hands covered him and pulled him into the darkness, James however did not fight back. He let them take him. The Last thing he saw was a blackened hand cover his face.

James woke up in a fit, he was dry heaving and his cheeks were puffed out and red.

"Mr Bryant, open up! I know you're here!" A gruff voice yelled.

James stopped all movement and sighed "Shit"

The man with the gruff voice started to bang on the door "Bryant, you open this fucking door right now, or so help me I will come in there!"

James stumbled to his feet, quickly donning a shirt and pants he rushed to the door. "Remember, no punching James... Deep breath"

Hesitantly he opened the door. "Yes William, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You owe me rent money Bryant, that's what" He yelled in James' face.

James looked up and smirked "yes we'll, I believe you owe yourself a breath mint and anger management courses, no wonder why the school division filed restraining orders on you"

William backed away, "H-how do you know that you cripple"

James leaned in, mere inches from Williams face "You forget... Sir, I was a firefighter. And I remember talking to alot, I mean alot of police officers in my time. And your name came up many times. For instance, I know you're a repeat offender and sexually assaulted your kid. Of course it wasn't the first time"

William stood, frozen stiff. He however quickly recuperated and got into James' face "Y-you tell anyone, I'll kill you, understand"

James' smirk accelerated from a grin to a full blown smile. "Good luck with that, you see. My phone has a dead man's switch. Meaning if I die, this conversation is emailed to my friends in the police" James sighed, he hated resorting to threats "I may be poor William, but I AM NOT stupid. Now if you'll excuse me I have things to do" James closed the door in Williams face, the fake smile he had dying immediately.

"God I hate myself" James sauntered to the kitchen and made himself some coffee. Grabbing the news paper he slowly turned the pages until he got to something that piqued his interest. "Firefighters battle massive asphalt storage tank fire, Fourteen firefighters were injured in the blaze and another thirty are being treated for chemical burns to their lungs" James sighed and said a few words for his brothers and sisters "The bell from hell put your dispatcher on the horn with a call of a tinder box Adress, you answered that call. You did what you could, My only regret is being crippled and not being able to return to you all" James raised his coffee cup up in silent salute.

James was having a hard enough time forgetting what happened to his arm. But yet here he was, looking at images of that fateful day...

"Attention Winnipeg Fire, Attention Winnipeg fire. Industrial fire, 1450 Joshua Street, Be advised the building is a school, Engine 9 and Ladder 33, you are the first due. Your time out is 18:46. Stay safe"

The captain of Engine 9 grabbed his radio, and without hesitation said "We always are Dispatch" he let go and looked to James "Let's get the baby rolling"

James gave a slight smirk, flicked the switches for the lights and started to roll out of the engine bay, ladder 33 close behind him. Upon making it to a more busy street James put his left foot on the pedal for the Q siren and let it scream at the idots that didn't see him coming.

"You know where we're going James?" one of the members in the back of the truck asked.

"Yeah, that Adress... It's my old school" James' demeanor hardened.

James slammed on the breaks however when a semi truck came out of nowhere, the damage was done though. And neither party could stop on time, also due in part to the black ice on the roads. "HOLD ON EVERYONE!" James yelled. And mere seconds later a sickening crunching was heard, The impact was so forceful it ripped the seatbelt apart and ejected James straight out of the windshield.

James tried desperately to get up from where he was. However. He couldn't feel his left arm. "Help.." he was barely able to mutter anything else out.

James lay there for what felt like hours. The ladder truck that was following them had pulled over and were trying to find James, everyone else in the engine had been unscathed save for a few bumps due to James' quick reaction. He had taken the brunt of it.

"JAMES! ARE YOU OUT THERE BROTHER!?"

James' heart lept upon hearing his best friend from the ladder call out. He tried to respond but could only scream in pain when he accidentally hit his sprained ankle. That however was enough for his friend to find him. The light from his flashlight passed over James and within seconds he jumped down the minor hill and rushed to James side.

He grabbed his radio. Said radio was full of fellow firefighters involved trying to get help their way when he spoke "Break, Break, Firefighter down, I repeat we have a firefighter down, we're just past the wreck and down the incline. Be careful coming down its icey" He let the radio fall back down just as the dispatcher pressed a button on his end and a trio of terrifying tones rang out.

"Hang in there buddy, we got you, we... Got... You..."

James' hearing faded after that and he couldn't remember anything save for the distant flashes of red and white lights, and his friends mouth moving making sounds that he couldn't comprehend.

" God. If only I had seen that semi seconds sooner... I could've avoided this" James let a quick sob out before he composed himself and made for his light wind breaker. Quickly checking the time he moaned "I'm going to be late!" and with that he ran out of the house and got into his SUV, driving off to Freddy's.

End, yes I'm aware I haven't been able to update in a few weeks. However. Like I said prior I do have school amongst other things. I respectfully appreciate the patience you're all giving me. However. Updates will not be a normal thing especially as I have to use my phone for now. (Computer has died again) that's one of the reasons why this chapter is so short.

Anyways. Updates might normalize a bit after my exams. But I won't guarantee anything as of yet.

Dinovictor: Thank you, I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. Things will just be slow for a while.

Justin Sewell: I appricate that you like it. Just bear with me on updates.

Phantom 1968: I'm glad you feel it has potential, I feel as though I'm beating my head Into a wall especially seeing as I'm not used to writing in 3rd person. As I said to Dinkvictor I've no plans on stopping. Just being slow, who knew the final year of highschool could hit me so hard.