"My Pa always told me, "History is written by the victors, so if you wanna fight kid, you damn sure better win," said a familiar male voice.

"Was he a good man," a distinct female voice questioned.

"He was one of the best, though he was a bit of an alcoholic, he always took good care of Ma and Me from what I remember. My older brother wasn't there much, he was the misfit of the family... Anyway, we had a stable income living in our little countryside home, and my Pa always made sure there was food on the table," the male voice said warmly.

"And your Mom?" The female voice questioned again.

"Man, there's not a day I go without missing her," the male voice mentions.

FLASHBACK BEGINS*

Years ago...

Every Wednesday she would take me and my Best Friend William, to this awesome theme park and win us this delicious cotton candy. Anyway one day at the theme park I decided to be a whiny little asshat because my friend won more prizes than me. My Ma stepped away to take a phone call and there he is telling me about all the super cool prizes he won and I'm ignoring him, completely shutting the kid down.

That's when this colossal dickwad comes out of nowhere and snatches my best friend's cotton candy out of his hand, "That's mines give it back!" he shouted

"Dickwad goes, Scram kid, I like this flavor I think I'll keep it!"

"No that's mines!" "Scott help me!" I just stared at him selfishly and watched that asshole eat my Best Friend's cotton candy. As I started to march off to do my own thing, that's when my Ma comes back from her phone call, see's the guy, and gives him this silent death stare that she would give my Pa that always seemed to startle him.

So she grabs the guy by his shirt, I swear she lifted him a few inches at least and whispers something into his ear that I couldn't understand but I kid you not, the guy's entire demeanor changed and he gives my Best Friend his cotton candy back all polite like then runs away.

After that, my Ma turns and looks at us with this gracious smile she always gave that seemed to uplift everyone's spirits no matter who they were. She asked if we were okay, and my Best Friend turns to me giving me this hurtful look and says, "Yeah, but Scott just watched him take my cotton candy,"

I snarl back saying, "Did not" and we go back in forth arguing, "Did too!" "Did not!" "Did too!"

My Ma stops us and bends down to touch both of our shoulders.

She turned to me and looked deep into my eyes and asked, "Scott, did you watch that bad man take William's cotton candy and eat it." I couldn't lie to my Ma, I admitted I watched him do it.

So here I am expecting my Ma to tear into me for what I've done but instead, she responds to me softly saying,

"Scott honey, you have to take care of your friends if you want them to take care of you."

I say, "Mom I don't need friends, they slow me down, I do things better by myself! I don't even need Damien and he's my older brother!"

She just smiled at me with her sparkling brown eyes and said , "Remember when you won more prizes than William and he congratulated you and he even let you have that cool action figure he won?"

"Yeah..." I told her.

"My point is William didn't get mad or jealous because he's here for you, it's what friends do. Your brother Damien is here for you too, he's just staying with uncle Ed for a moment."

Before I could respond, she grabbed my shoulder with her other hand while still looking deep in my eyes and says, "Never forget who your friends and family are Scott, always keep them close, and when they are in trouble, always stand by their side and hold them close no matter what, even if it doesn't seem like they deserve it all the time. It is always, and will forever be worth it, sweetie."

"Ma I don't understand, what does that mean," I said confused.

She just looked at me with that big warm smile, patted my back, and told me, "Don't worry, It'll all make sense later sweetie."

FLASHBACK ENDS*

PRESENT DAY*

"Your Mother kinda sounds like a badass," the Female voice says expressing tenderness.

"Yeah, I guess she was huh," Scott says remembering the thought of his Mom. "I stayed up all night thinking about those words she told me, trying to understand them but I never could, not even when the Covenant killed both of my parents in cold blood."

"I'm sorry," replied the female voice sentimentally.

"Yeah, well I guess I'm still trying to figure out what those words mean." " You would've thought I would've understood them when I lost-," Scott stopped himself as if he wasn't supposed to say anymore.

"Until you lost who," the female voice asked now curious.

"You know what forget about it, I'll tell you some other time."

"Alright, I won't pry, and hey...thanks for sharing this with me, you don't have to continue to be a lone wolf ya know, you have friends who care about you here."

"It's not that, it's that I always work and cope better alone, that's how it's always been, I tend to lose people I care about when that's not the case."

The female voice says softly, "You have to open up more to the others sometime Scott, they barely know anything about you."

"Yeah... I guess," he says deeply sighing with pain in his tone, as they sat in silence around the sounds of a burning campfire.

END OF PROLOGUE

No spoilers hehe ;)