Chapter 3

9th of November Lara's P.O.V

The house was quiet without my friends around; it was nice to have Sully and Nate around for the while that they were here. We had some laughs, however I could say that the best experience that I had at that point was looking after J. He had managed to heal up very quickly, he was up to some strange things though. One night I'd caught him attempting to cut his own hair and making a good job at it too. He seemed calmer when he was around us, if he was left alone for a while he panicked slightly. Nothing out of the ordinary considering what he'd been through, but it was something that we needed to pick up on, making sure that he wasn't alone for too long. Finally, after 4 days, he seemed to become more active, even going jogging every morning no matter how many times I'd told him he'd get sick, he even had me chase him one morning when I was trying to give him another shot of his medication. Like I said, good laughs.

This morning was a strange one, J had woke up and came down the stairs whilst looking neater than any picture I had ever seen of him, he smiled at me and I waved him over to me, I needed to talk to him.

"Feeling alright today? I did tell you about running in the rain" I smiled, knowing full well he had a mild cold coming on.

J nodded and pulled out the case of herbs I had given to him. He tapped the case and pointed towards the door as a signal to tell me he needed to go out.

"OK, go on. Are you eating breakfast today?" I asked

J nodded and left to have a smoke, something was different today though. Normally he didn't need to ask, he just walked out. Something was up with him today.

Nate walked down the stairs and rubbed his eyes, he clearly didn't sleep very well.

"Hey Nate, you don't look like you slept well." I joked.

"I didn't, I couldn't stop thinking about J." He admitted as he fell into one of the couches next to me.

"Really? " I closed the book, intrigued.

"We talked for a bit and told me about his past, self-harm. I couldn't sleep, it was making me wonder how I managed to survive." he explained as he looked into the fireplace.

"I see, I hope you didn't push him to hard about it." I sighed.

"No, after he told me I didn't ask any more about it. You know what I mean though right? Just hearing about his past stand the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight." Nate began to reveal that he was actually scared.

"Bad things happen to good people Nate, it's just the way that the world works. It may not be fair but at the very least it's taught J what it feels like, he won't grow up to be like his father. Think of it like this, the things that have happened to him have scarred him for life, but that doesn't mean he can't lead a good life." I smiled, trying to help Nate out with some positive outlook.

J's P.O.V

Where it was raining 3 days before, the rain had become snow. The air was cold and thin, but I was used to that. After taking a drag of my herbs I realised that the hair wasn't going to be enough to say goodbye to the past, I was going to have to start speaking to the people who saved my life instead of being what I always used to be. Mute. It wasn't long before Sully came over to me, I was stood looking out onto the garden and the light grey clouds above.

"How are you doing kid?" He asked.

I took out the notebook and wrote quickly, keeping the herbs in my mouth.

"Something's trapped in my mind and I can't shake it, are you alright?" it read

"I'm fine kid, wanna talk about what's on your mind?" he asked in reply.

I shook my head and continued to smoke the cigarette, Sully on the other hand stayed there puffing a cigar while I patiently let out puffs of my own. I was in no hurry, plus the morning sky looked so beautiful when it snowed. I chuckled to myself as I noticed some sort of frost forming on the windows of the house; Sully noticed my amusement but didn't seem to understand why I laughed. The door opened quite slowly, Nate came through with a letter in his hand.

"Hey kid, sleep well?" Sully asked.

"Nah. This is for you." Nate gave me the envelope and I read it in my head.

"Dear Jason. H. White

The death of Rebecca Shin has been confirmed and her body is being held in the city of Tsun. Next of kin and family/friends are also being informed of this, should no-one come forward her burial will be conducted by the state for her work in the medicine field. Her passing saddens us all. In her last Will and Testament she has bequeathed her home and its contents to you.

Our thoughts are with you at this difficult time.

Signed *unreadable*"

I sighed and put the letter on the concrete, but that was before Nate tried cheering me up.

"It's not all bad, the blood tests came back and apparently you're clean!" he tried.

I gestured for him to look at the letter, he seemed intrigued enough. I pointed out the part about Mom's death and let him read. Suddenly he realised his mistake.

"I'm sorry J, I didn't know I swear." He apologised.

I nodded, but Sully was also intrigued now. He looked at the letter too, he then sighed and put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"Sorry Kid, I don't know what to say." He gave me sympathy.

I stubbed out the herbs and looked over the letter again. After all this time one of us died and it had to be her, I had to forget, make sure that I had no recollection of what happened. Then again, the only real resolve I could get was to kill my father for doing this to us. Then I could live in peace.

"Lara doesn't seem so happy today, I hope she's all right" Nate sighed.

The grounds were covered in a thin layer of snow; the area was filled with a almost transparent fog. Water that would've been running had turned into icicles. Winter was solidly here, one night was all it took to freeze this small section of England. Pulling out the only thing I could use to communicate I wrote fluently.

"She's scared of something. Don't tell her, but I'm freaking out. All of a sudden I'm here without a clue of really what happened in between then and now." I gave Nate the page while I stubbed out the herbs.

"You don't need to worry, the thing is...well, when I was in trouble Sully got me out. Then he took me here, Lara is one of the best people you can meet. She'll never let you down. All you need to do is give her some time." Nate assured.

"Besides, you're different right? What did you mean earlier? You said something about not being human..."

I sighed lightly; it was strange to me that Nate hadn't noticed what it was that made me different from people like him. I stared into his eyes, doing my best to make it as obvious as possible. It was my eyes; they were the eyes of a Tiwinoku. A Tiwinoku was a powerful warrior; they lived in the mountain region of China, where I was born. Our eyes sparkle in the light, and seeing as it had snowed it would've been almost impossible not to notice.

A smile reached my lips.

"What?" Nate asked.

I burst out laughing, scaring Nate into a wall. Why was I laughing? Because I soon realised that I could not become normal, there was no normal with me. So, killing Angel would solve everything. Perhaps, but for now, I had to grow.

Calming down, Nate came over to me.

"What the fuck J?!"

I didn't want to scare Nate any more than I had done, so I kept the notepad away as I let myself fall from the banister and I went to the gym, there was a lot of work to do

4 hours later

I was bored of the gym, working out used to be a kind of release for me, something had changed, I didn't know what it was but something did change. It soon became obvious that I was tired of the work, I still needed rest and nevertheless it was disappointing that when I came back to the living room nothing had changed. Everyone was sat around the fire and having a conversation about something, I wasn't sure what it was so I looked around the room.

As boring as it sounded, the room had quite a lot of interesting things in it. For example the picture that hung above the fireplace, Lara's parents judging by how she looked so similar. For a moment I believed that they were alive, then I realised that the fact that the painting was there meant the opposite. I figured that Lara was an orphan, just like Nate and myself, but that didn't explain much at all, it didn't seem to affect her emotionally.

My concentration was broken by the sound of someone walking in the house; the heels were made out of wood which made me believe that this was some high class dick head. He looked like he had been raised by one of the highest class families in England, an umbrella hung from his arm and a long coat on his back. He looked directly at me.

"Well, I see that you've settled in quite well." He smiled at me, like he knew who I was.

"What are you doing back here?" Lara spoke somewhat aggressively.

"Simply bringing something back, by the way you let him cut his own hair I can see he's already trying to forget the past." He commented as he walked over.

I couldn't tell what he was doing, nevertheless he scared me slightly. He pulled out a small cloth package and placed it on the table, a small clunkrang from the table, he still looked at me kindly.

"Strange, how you managed to know he was in trouble from nearly 5 thousand miles away." he smiled.

"What are you trying to say?" Lara defended herself.

"Nothing, food for thought. I'll leave you to play happy families, good day." He turned and walked away.

I looked at Lara, it was strange that someone had told her that I was in trouble, but the fact that she came as soon as she knew made me trust her. Nothing would change that, nevertheless there was something that did niggle at me and that was the package on the table. Without thinking, I opened the package and let the contents land on the table.

"Who was that?" Nate asked, confused.

I didn't listen, I carefully opened the package. Before I even opened it, I knew exactly what it was; A golden medallion that was mine.

My birth right.

My Medallion.

Eyes wide, all of the people in the room looked right at the medallion and its beauty. The gold glimmered in the light, but the one thing that always surprised people was that the whole thing wasn't very valuable, but in sentiment it was priceless, sacred and ultimately special.

"Is that Marlowe's?" Nate asked

"No, kid. It looks like J knows what it is." Sully replied.

Lara looked closely at the medallion as I backed further into the chair; this was what was left with my luggage that had been left in the wreck. I began to feel faint slightly, almost sick. Multiple theories entered my head as to how they got the medallion back, it just made me feel worse.

"J, listen to me. Where was this when you left it? This is important"

The room began to swirl, my eyes rolled around in my head, again I felt very ill. I stood up in fear of being sick all over everyone, so I moved outside to Lara's confusion. I took deep breaths of fresh air as I exited the building; there was a point where I collapsed to my knees. Lara put a hand on my shoulder to try and make me feel better; she wasn't going to press the subject much further.

And then it happened...

My arm began to burn at the joint, really burning, blue light emitted from my sleeve, then the light turned to flame!
It didn't burn, it was cold. So cold it hurt. Soon the pain began to become unbearable, my body began shaking and my mouth opened in pain...no noise came out, shaking, collapsing, I blacked out. I was breathing erratically, Lara backed off as the pain became unbearable.

This on top of the sick feeling was actually going to kill me if Lara hadn't helped me, she put me onto my back and held me into the floor as I tried to get away. Then...

Blackness, all around me. It engulfed me, the dark scared me and never knowing what was there caused my fear. And in fear I began to breathe irregularly, the breathing burned me inside. My lungs began to brun, then it got worse, fire in my chest, until I fainted, the pain stopped.

Lara's P.O.V

J lay limp on the floor; I placed two fingers on his neck to make sure he was breathing. I had to bring him into the recovery position, which was just as well because vomit had begun to leak from his mouth, only it wasn't vomit. It was just water, nothing else but water pumped from his mouth onto the concrete and into the drain. Nate had come to see if I needed any help.

"Is he alright?" He asked kindly.

"I don't know, he seems stable enough, I'm going to need to put that collar on him." I sighed.

"Collar?" Nate asked.

I nodded.

"I had a friend make it a few days ago, it should give him his injections when he needs them. I can't believe I let it get this bad." I sighed.

"Is it your fault though? I mean, maybe it's just the way he is." He asked.

"What do you mean? What are you trying to say?" I was a little angry with him.

"I'm just saying, if he needed those things, he... I don't know Lara I was just trying to help." He looked down.

Instantly, I felt terrible, Nate did try to help in his own way, he just really wasn't very good at helping people feel better.

"I'm sorry Nate, look. I need you to keep an eye on him. I'm going to put him in the bedroom so you need to check on him every now and again. I'll get the collar ready." I wiped the water from J's mouth away before picking him up.

"Should I take him?" Nate smiled.

"Nate, he's the same size as you." I sighed as he opened the door for me.

I managed to carry J's 90lbs up the stairs and into the bedroom that he and Nate had to share. I placed J in his bed and took the upper portion of his clothing off so that he wouldn't heat up when I placed the sheet over him. Once he was in bed, I turned to Nate who looked under his bed for something. He retrieved the bag that he had brought with him, he retrieved something small out of it and looked over it.

"What's that?" I asked.

Nate jumped a little before showing me. I couldn't tell what it was until I opened it. It was a medical hand book that came from a child hospital, written in Spanish. I looked at Nate and smiled.

"Good idea." I handed it back to him.

"Should I get something in case he's sick?" I asked.

"I'll worry about that, keep an eye on him, I'll be back in a minute." I exited the room

Nate's P.O.V

I couldn't help but feel awkward around J while he was out cold. It felt like I was watching him sleep. After Lara had brought something up in case J exploded again. I decided to turn on the TV that was in the bedroom, I made sure to turn in down quite low so that J wouldn't wake up, TV was always boring but I managed to get quite into this particular show. I sat on my bed, next to J's to make sure that I wasn't too far away. While I was watching this, I heard something that sounded like my name. At first I thought it was someone downstairs but then I realised that Lara told me to stay upstairs and look after J. So I ignored it and went back to watching the TV, until it happened again.

"Na-te" it sounded so real and none of the characters on the TV were called Nate, so I looked back at J.

His mouth was open, and moving slowly. He was mumbling something that sounded like my name. For the rest of the time that J was asleep, it didn't happen again. When J woke up in a start, he ended up falling off of the bed, the sheet keeping his legs tied to the bed. J groaned as he pushed himself back into the bed, I gave him a hand up and got him back in bed, J looked at me confused.

"You threw up so Lara figured you were ill, she wants you to stay in bed for a minute." I explained.

J blushed a little as he figured out that he was shirtless, I handed him his shirt, then I realised something. A blue tattoo band was on his bicep now, then I realised that there were a few scars all over his chest, I realised that I had started staring at him, he didn't seem to mind. Once he put the shirt on, he looked toward the window to realise that it was getting dark. Winter did that to England, especially with the snow that had come out of nowhere. He looked like he was ready to go back to bed.

"It's like 5pm, are you going back to sleep?" I explained.

J took the sheet off of his legs and got up to the window to look outside, I couldn't tell what he was looking at but he was definitely worried about something. To calm him down, I had him watch TV with me. Lara brought up the collar a few minutes later and fixed it to J's neck. He seemed to like the design.
By the time that the sky had gotten dark enough for us to turn the lights on, J began to look tired again, but he seemed to want to stay awake, so I showed him a few things from my bag. We spent a while talking about what Sully and I had done in the past before we decided to watch a movie again.

J had sat on my bed with me, lying back next to me. He'd managed to stay awake long enough to get halfway through the film, I liked the thing quite a bit, when it ended I realised something. J had fallen asleep into the crook of my arm, I actually had an arm around him. I wasn't gay, I knew that, but there was something about him that made me strangely attracted to him, maybe bi, I didn't know. Either way, I was tired too. So I began to drift off too, both of us fast asleep.

Lara's P.O.V

I carefully opened the door as not to wake them up, it was the perfect opportunity for blackmail photos, and nevertheless, I took a photo of the two of them. I wanted one picture of J and Nate together. After closing the door, there was a strange feeling in the house. Sighing, I looked over the foyer before I went to bed, the next day would need a clear head.