Page 35 of Apathy
“I’ll do it. I don’t know why you sound so surprised.”
“Well…” he cleared his throat. “You’ve been quite busy with… things.”
Things being the plan to avenge our parents and use the kids from the other four founding families to get in.
“Seb—”
“It’s okay, Ash. I understand, trust me I do. Or at least, I try to understand. I just wish that there was another way.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this any other way.
They deserved to pay for what they did. They deserved to have their perfect little worlds shattered just how they shattered ours. They deserved to feel pain and despair, just like we did.
The only problem was that Sebastian couldn’t understand that. I was both glad and displeased with that. Glad, because that meant that my brother was a much better person than I was, and displeased, because he mostly didn’t want to have anything to do with our plans. But he was still my brother, and even if he refused to accept the truth, that these people wouldn’t hesitate to kill both of us, I would still protect him.
“Seb,” I took a deep breath before continuing, “how about this weekend? We can start then, and we’ll see how it goes.”
“Really?” The excitement in his voice pulled at my heartstrings. I couldn’t remember when the last time he sounded like this was.
He protested when Uncle Neal and I announced that we would be returning to Winworth this year. We grew up in New York and Sebastian didn’t want to leave the life he had there. Maybe if I had something worthy of staying for, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave either, but my entire life has been dedicated to this. I didn’t know anything better.
When I was eleven years old, Uncle Neal bought me my first knife and taught me how to use it. When I was thirteen, he bought me a handgun and brought me to a clear field, showing me how to shoot at the target. At the age of fifteen, when all my friends celebrated the end of the school year, I was spending my nights reading about Winworth and its most prominent families.
Sebastian tried to fight us on this decision. He begged us to stay in New York, to stay with his friends, to not be a part of this battle, this war, yet he still couldn’t understand that we weren’t merely following this battle. No, it came to us because of who we were, because of our last name. And as long as these people lived freely, we wouldn’t be safe.
When we left Winworth after our parents’ deaths, Uncle Neal lived in Texas, but we had to be constantly on the move. I couldn’t even remember how many schools we had to change because one of Judah’s spies was closing in on us.
Sebastian couldn’t understand because he was too young when it all happened. I couldn’t force him to understand, but I could protect him even when he thought that he didn’t need protection. Leaving him behind simply wasn’t an option, and even though he sulked and pouted for the last two months since we came to Winworth, he had to stay.
There was no other way.
And this sign of happiness, of excitement, was the first since we came here. I just hoped that he would be able to find more things to be excited about while we were in Winworth.
“Yeah, really.” I laughed. A lone figure entering the pub drew my attention, and I knew it was time to let Sebastian go. “Hey, listen. I gotta go, but I’ll see you later. Okay?”
I opened the door, welcoming the fresh morning air coursing through Winworth. For all its depravity, it did have nature like no other place. The cities we used to live in were usually crowded, much bigger, and a lot more polluted. Here, the people actually cared about the river and the surrounding area.
“Okay,” Sebastian answered. “Are you gonna be home for dinner?”
I stepped outside of the car and slammed the door behind me. “I don’t know,” I said as I started walking toward the pub. “I’ll let you know. I’m not sure what my plans are for the day.” I did know, I just didn’t want him to even think of snooping and trying to befriend those serpents.
“All righty. I’ll see you later then.”
“Bye,” I mumbled and cut the call off. I wasn’t sure if he was in school or at home, but wherever he was, I just hoped he wasn’t going to get into trouble. Sebastian was too trusting, too naïve for this world we lived in. If we weren’t careful, he would become just another casualty of this war, and I couldn’t allow that.
I pulled my other phone, checking the screen for any missed calls. As expected, there was a message waiting for me.
Cerberus is in place.
Good.
With hurried steps, I crossed over the sidewalk and headed straight for the pub. A dark Harley-Davidson stood a couple of feet away from the entrance, closer to the bridge than this side. I hadn’t seen it before, and it had an insignia that I have never seen.
Could it be?
An elderly couple exited the pub, holding hands and smiling at each other. I couldn’t help but think if our parents would be the same if they managed to live long enough to reach this age. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to dwell on what-ifs and the things that could never happen. I pushed past them and entered the pub.
I hadn’t been here before, but I visited enough pubs when we traveled to Germany to know that they definitely got the idea from there. The interior was mainly decorated with wood, from the walls to the floors, giving the medieval feeling to it all. Two crossed swords were the first thing you could see, standing proud just behind the bar, manned by one bartender. I looked around, noticing that it wasn’t as busy as I expected it to be.
