Shadowed Faces/I Believe
Sequel to Once Forgotten/I Believe
Author's Note: This is mostly a story about their children. . . Good luck figuring out who is who's kid! Word of advice: Make a list.
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Part One – Tore Speaks
My life has always been unexceptional. Overly so, I thought. There was no daily warring, no excitement, nothing except far too many siblings and cousins and no one who really understood what it was like to be me. I was always the one on the fringes at the soccer games, the one who's name never appeared on the program for the school play. And after a while I managed to convince myself that I liked it that way. Sometimes it's better to be alone.
Then the dreams began. Dark dreams, terrifying dreams, dreams of a place with a burning red sun, dreams of stars that burned your eyes, dreams of fear, and loneliness, and hate. . . Then came the face, the black eyes, the sharply jutting nose, the thin mouth, the sarcasm and hatred evident in every aspect.
This was a man I have never met, and never wish to. It turns out I have no real choice.
He's on his way here. To get me and Kally and Sarah and Aaron.
He wants us to pretend to rule a planet, to be the figureheads of a massive organization of crime and villainy, where the elite rise to the top and the poor, the ones my parents worked so hard to save, fall to the very depths. They want us to go against everything we've ever been taught.
Our reward? We'll never have to do any real work, we'll never want for anything, we'll always be at the top.
I'm ashamed to be tempted.
But there is no way in hell that I'm going to give in to that temptation. My father did not give up two years of his life just to watch his son break his former home into pieces. My mother did not spend two years of her life raising me on her own, crying and praying every night for my father's safe return, in vain. They will not regret their decisions.
Hopefully, my cousins will choose the same way.
Unfortunately, that brings us bigger problems.
How exactly are we supposed to fight back?
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