Triplets Forever: Part 2
"I… I want to start over."
Zack stood next to Justin in the Tipton hotel dining room, a skateboard in hand, an extra board in the other. It was the beginning of something special. Zack, Cody and Justin would come to know one another as brothers, no longer as twins, but triplets.
" I want to start over too… if you'll let me." Justin said.
It would be a day to remember. That day they all got up and ventured into the outside world as an unstoppable team ready for anything that was going to come their way. The sky was the limit. It was a great day to be outside in Boston. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. Then all the sudden everything went dark. There was no sun, the park had disappeared, and it was cold, dark and becoming more frightening by the second. Suddenly Justin opened his eyes. He was in a car, his body strapped to a seat. He felt like the blood was rushing to his head, then he realized that the car was upside down. He looked around and saw four motionless bodies in the car. Soon enough, Justin wrestled himself out of the car. To his surprise, he was unharmed. The skies had turned grey and the sound of lightning could be heard in the distance. Today would be truly dark in terms of mood as well as the weather.
Miles was standing above the slope with cigar in hand, simply staring without a known reason. A wicked smile pasted across his face, Miles lets out a horrifying laugh.
"Yes, just like that! This is exactly what I would expect from the soldier I trained."
He throws the cigar to the side and slides down the dirt slope.
"Able to survive any catastrophe, any assault."
Miles then meets Justin face to face. Justin looks upward with a simple expression of shock, and an unspoken question of why. Why did this happen? Miles answers the question before it's even asked.
"Because that's what you are Justin, a soldier. Truly, you are one of the best soldiers. You survive even when others don't."
Justin looked behind him; the people in the car were still motionless.
"What did you… why? How could you do this?"
Miles looks at Justin as if he should already know the answer.
"I told you before that you are dog with rabies. You've poisoned them with your presence and they have suffered for it. I asked you if you knew what would happen if the flame strayed too far from the candle."
Suddenly it began to rain. The world that seemed so bright with promise became a prison of fear and loneliness. Here and now, the future was presently taking place. Bleak and unwelcoming it was. Miles kept staring for a long time with a most terrifyingly satisfied smile.
"This is your fault you know. You tried to be a hero again. And what's worse, you tried to save the one person that cannot be saved."
Justin looked back at Miles, eyes wide with fear, body throbbing with pain, and a heart filled with loss.
"You tried to save yourself from a future you have no control over. That's the most foolish thing you could've ever done."
Miles takes a look at the car wreckage behind Justin and mockingly observes the damage.
"Hmmm…seems to me the driver wasn't paying much attention to the road…"
He turns around to Justin.
"Or, maybe it wasn't the road that was the problem. Perhaps, it was the extra luggage he packed away. I'm sure he'll be a little more cautious next time as to what he puts inside the car."
Miles begins to roar in laughter. At that moment, things begin to rapidly change inside Justin. Between coming to grips with the understanding that his world had officially come crashing down, his dreams of a life with a loving family gone, memories of a life he wanted becoming more distant, and the man standing in front of him responsible for taking it all away laughing at his misery, Justin began to replace the fear, the pain, and the loss inside him with a concentrated force of rage, a bitter taste of pure unadulterated anger, uncontrollably growing at a speed in which he could not measure. And then, something broke. Perhaps it was reality, or maybe all emotion because Justin became so enraged, it was as if he transformed into a beast. Miles' laughter was abruptly cut short as a fist came flying towards his face with such venomous anger; the impact sent his body to the ground as forcefully as a wrecking ball knocking down a building. The hit was unlike anything Miles ever felt before. His head still ringing, he felt his face and realized that something fractured. He looked at Justin and saw that his pupils were glowing unnaturally red, and after realizing the kind of force that knocked him on the ground, Miles concluded that Justin's strength had at least tripled. With lightning quick reflexes, Justin picks up Miles and tosses him so high in the air that he lands on top of the vehicle left above the slope. As Miles lifts himself up, he sees his indentation on the roof. It was then he realized that his pupil was in the midst of become the 'perfect soldier.'
" I can't believe it… you're finally here." He whispered.
The rain began to pour and within one strike of lightning, Justin was face to face with Miles again. Instead of showing fear, Miles started to laugh again.
"Today is your birthday. Welcome to the world my son, the soldier."
Justin was too far-gone to understand anything that was said. He flailed Miles across the field like a rag doll. Over and over again, the man was tossed about. When ever landing, he acquired a broken limb. Bloodied and bruised, Miles praised his creation.
"After all these years of watching, waiting, sleepless nights wondering if drugging your father would give me results. Here you stand today, as the soldier I've been waiting for you to become."
Justin grabs Miles by the neck and begins to strangle him. With each gasping breath Miles encourages his rage.
"Yes, hit me! Rip me apart! Whatever it takes to finish building you. You're so close to achieving your full potential. Do it! Show me who you REALLY are, show the whole WORLD!!!"
The grip tightened around his neck.
"Release that burning fire inside of you, strike fear into my soul. Make it painful and show… no… mercy."
Even with all the rage in the world, all the strength, Justin still was unable to rid himself of the control Miles had over him.
"ENOUGH!!!" The boy shouted.
Justin grabbed the gun concealed in Miles jacket.
"I will silence you even if it's the last thing I'll ever do.
Justin pointed it directly to Miles temple.
"No Justin, STOP!!!"
The voice sounded familiar. Justin turned his head to see that Carey was down the hill below. She had crawled out of the car. She was alive. She was speaking to him.
"No sweetie, don't do it."
Moments later, Kurt opened his door and crawled out. This came as a major shock. Cold chills ran down Justin's spine. His family was still alive. That meant there was still a chance for this nightmare to end. Miles began to shout.
"We are not finished here soldier. You are not complete. You still have a job to do."
Justin turned back to Miles and dug the gun into the side of his head.
Carey shouted, begging for Justin to hear her voice.
"No Justin, please. It doesn't have to be this way. You don't have to be a soldier anymore, you can walk away."
Miles continued to whisper thoughts to Justin.
"The life of a trained killer. This is your only future, your only capability. You are not one of them Justin, pull the trigger and complete your transformation."
Justin released the pressure of the gun off Miles head. But instead of moving away from the gun, Miles opened his mouth so the gun was pointed to the back of his throat.
"If sacrificing myself is a means of completing you, then it has to be done. Pull. The. Trigger."
"C'mon Justin. Don't do it, you're not a soldier anymore."
That voice wasn't Carey. Justin looked back and realized that Cody was standing next to the others. His brother was alive. He listened to Cody's voice.
"Life doesn't have to be like this anymore. You have a real family and it's right here."
That was it. Justin finally came to his senses and was able to put the gun down. He could hear sirens in the distance. Somebody had called the police. The nightmare was about to be over. The dream didn't have to come to an end. Justin looked at Miles who glared with anger, knowing he was defeated.
"He's right, I don't have to be like you at all. The nightmare is over. Those sirens you hear, they'll take you away and I won't ever have to see you again."
Miles looked at his pupil with disgust.
"Coward! Is that what you tell yourself?"
Justin let go of Miles and turned his attention towards his future staring back at him in the form of a welcoming family. He began to walk towards them.
"Or, is that what the voices in you're head told you?"
Justin stopped cold in his tracks. He turned around in shock.
The famous wicked smile returned to Miles face. It didn't matter how bloody and bruised he was, that smile marked his dark persona with such vivid clarity.
"Oh, you think I didn't know about those other little voices that keep wandering around that brain of yours?"
Justin began to remember all the pain those voices made him go through. The voices were there when he broke out of the facility, the voices were there when he had restless nights in the hotel, the voices clawed at his brain every waking moment in his life.
The boy quickly ran up to Miles and grabbed him by the shirt. He needed answers.
"What do you know about the voices in my head?"
Miles said nothing. Instead he allowed Justin's anger to return in hopes of sending him over the edge.
"Tell me Dammit! What do you know about the voices?"
Miles whispered in Justin's ear.
"I know that they dwell in your head all of the time. I know that the voices are telling you something that you don't like to hear. Sometimes they make decisions for you when you can't make them yourself. I know the voices inside claw at you so much that you have to let it out in some way or they'll eat you alive. Tell me, do you like drawing…?"
Justin grew very afraid. Everything that he was saying was right. Miles continued.
"It's been getting harder to regain control hasn't it?"
Justin releases Miles and stares at him fearful of what other things he has to say.
" Like I said before, I didn't tell you how the story ends."
"I told you already that I didn't want you to."
"But you should already know… After all, you are here to save the world, whether you want to or not. 'You're objective is the mission.'Remember?"
Suddenly, great fear begins to eclipse over Justin. He knew Miles was a liar, but somehow, he knew that this was the truth.
"What did you do to me?" he finally asked. Miles begins to laugh.
"I turned you into what you always tried to be, a HERO. Unlike the others, your purpose was greater. The story behind you is the most interesting one of all. You see, in a short amount of time from now, a year at the most, the voices in you head will take full control and destroy all of your independent thinking faculties."
Justin looks at his family down below trying to help Zack out of the car. Before today, he didn't even realize how much he loved all of them.
"You are going to lose all of your memories Justin. In fact, you wont even remember that name."
This wasn't what he wanted to hear but Justin knew that he had to know the truth. Miles struggled to pull out a cigar from his pocket with his right hand being one of the only groups of unbroken bones.
"You will lead all of the others in the battle for control over this lawless world and win. Because there are flaws with every new experiment, the voices in your head come from a sickness."
Miles then lights his cigar and blows a cloud of smoke into the air.
"You'll then have three more months before the developing brain tumor growing inside of you claims your life. That is the story of the soldier that saves us all from ourselves."
"Bullshit!" Justin shouts.
" This is who you are, and all you will ever be."
"Shut up!!!"
"But your death will be a glorious ending Justin. I told you that the future of peace requires monumental sacrifice. You have made that sacrifice. Face it kid… you get to be a historical figure. Killed to make the world a better place."
"No… Not yet. You haven't killed me yet."
The sirens get louder as they make their way towards the crash site. Miles blows another puff of smoke into the air.
"Oh, but you're already dead. Deep down inside you know that what I'm telling you is the truth. You are just a walking ghost waiting to be buried in the past."
Suddenly Justin heard screaming from down below. His mother and father were pulling Zack from out of the car. He was motionless and there was blood coming out of his chest.
Justin raced down the slope to see in horror that his brother Zack was bleeding a large amount of blood. A piece of glass was lodged in his chest. The cops and paramedics were here. Justin put the gun inside his pants to keep it away from Miles. Police officers and paramedics raced over to the upturned car. Cops handcuffed Miles to a stretcher and hauled him off while paramedics gently placed Zack into the back of the emergency vehicle and raced him off to the hospital with Carey by his side. Cody, Justin, and Kurt got into the police car and followed the paramedics in hot pursuit. A million things were racing in Justin's mind. If everything that Miles said was true, then what was the point in even living? Why fight so hard to live the dream if it's going to come crashing down? Little did Justin know, the answers would come a lot sooner than later.
the ending is still coming folks...