Chapter 12: The Second Test

Grant stared out the window as the trees moved by in a blur. He had no idea where they were going and Garrett hadn't bothered to tell him. He was being just as mysterious as ever.

Things began to look familiar though the closer they got to their destination and suddenly it clicks, they were going home. Well his home to be more precise, where he had grown up. He had been back here in several months not since he had tried and failed to kill his brother and the thought didn't sit well with him that they were now returning.

"Why are we here?" He asked looking over at his mentor. "So, you've figured it out" Garrett said. Not taking his eyes of the road as he spoke.

"Of course, I've figured it out. I'm not stupid so, why…" He was cut off, "The second test requires letting go"

"Are you finally going to let me…."

"No Grant. You can't kill your family. They are the thing that makes you who you are and the reason that you're strong. Take that away and you don't have a reason to keep fighting. You want desperately to prove them wrong and show them how strong you are. This is the way" He said.

Grant didn't understand, but he supposed that was the point. "Then why are we back here" he said bluntly not in the mood for games.

"Because this place holds scars from your past, ones that I hope you can eventually overcome, scars that will make you stronger" They rode in silence the rest of the way, neither saying anything and Grant could feel anxiety building up the closer they got to their destination.

They arrived only a few hours later. Getting out of the car and heading through the familiar town. Nothing ever changes in this place, you could be gone 20 years and come back and it was still the same. At least that was the way Grant saw it. They were headed in the direction of his old house he could tell no, he could feel it and that only made his anxiety spike that much higher.

A familiar voice reached his ear and he suddenly paused, turning towards the college that he had once snuck into months ago, to kill his brother, and there he was. Christian Ward a wide smile on his face and he seemed to be talking to a girl.

Grant couldn't see her face because she had her back towards him, but for some reason she struck a chord in him and there was something about her that was familiar, very familiar. He suddenly found his feet dragging him in the opposite direction towards the girl. All he needed was a look he just needed to see her face.

Feeling a vice like grip on his arm he froze and turned. Garrett was standing there and he had a deep frown marred across his face. "I thought I told you…."

"I wasn't going to kill him. I was just surprised is all…" That was a lie of course, but Garrett didn't need to know that. He hadn't even been thinking about his brother when he had made his way towards Christians direction no, his mind had been on the girl and why she had been so familiar. He hadn't even got a good glance at her face. All he had seen was her back.

Turning to glance back again, he noticed the girl was gone. She had left and the curiosity slowly began to fade from his mind. "Sorry, let's just finish what we came to do" He said letting Garrett pull him towards his old house.

They didn't end up in the house though, instead Garrett led him towards the back of the house and began leading him deeper through the forest that was located behind the house until they stopped directly at the one place that he had never wanted to go again, the well.

"I don't want to be here" He said bluntly. Turning to walk away when Garrett grabbed his arm. "I know you don't want to be here Grant. This well holds terrible memories for you and its time we sever them" He said. Grabbing the rotting wood that had been used to cover up the man hole and he began to pry it off, revealing the murky water below.

He could feel his breath quickening and sweat began sliding down his forehead and he could feel the onslaught of a panic attack starting to merge. "He died here, your brother. You were here and so was Christian. You could have saved him, but your brother hadn't let you. You've blamed yourself for his death all these years" Garrett said.

"Now you need to let that go" he said and suddenly Grant felt a shove and then he was falling right into the freezing water of the well below. "No" he whispered. "No!" he screamed slamming his palms onto the side of the walls slick with moss.

"I'll let you out in the morning" Garrett said covering the whole again and submerging him in darkness. "The water was up to his waste, if he had been a childlike tommy it would have gone to his neck and trying to paddle all night to stay afloat would have been impossible.

Closing his eyes, he could remember Tommy's screams. Grant, Grant… help me…. Please. This isn't real, none of it is real, he thought. Trying to block out the screams of his dead brother. Pressing his hands to his ears his breathing was ragged now and heavy, Grant please let me out… Christian! I'll be good.

"I'm sorry" he sobbed. "I'm sorry Tommy. I couldn't save you. I wasn't strong enough" Grant. The scream echoed in his mind. Imagining Tommy struggling in this freezing water, barely able to keep his limbs up.

Help me! He was so pathetic and Tommy died because of it. Closing his eyes he thought about Garrett who wanted to make him stronger so that he would never have to feel weak again. He didn't want to feel weak.

"I never want to feel helpless, not like that day, not again" He said and then suddenly the screams in his head died down and suddenly all he could hear was his own ragged breath. He needed to let it all go. His vengeance on his brother, but most of all he needed to let Tommy go. The one person who had been holding him back, he had to.

No matter how much it hurt him he needed to get stronger for Garrett. This was all for Garrett, the one person in the world that cared about him and he couldn't let that man down.

He stayed in there for what felt like years and the only sound that he could hear was the water as it sloshed up the sides of the walls. His senses heightened, due to how long he had been down here in the dark. Maybe that was where he belonged, in the dark.

The cover was finally removed and he could see sunlight coming in and Garrett leaning over him from above, a smirk stretched across his face and Grant only had one thing to say to him.

"The final test better not have to do with me being trapped in the dark again" Garrett only smirked and said, "You passed" Two tests down and a final one to go and he had a feeling that this one was going to be much harder than the last two.