Fifteen ✔

17

"Who's your brother?" I asked, standing up to meet him.

"You don't remember?"

"Who," I took another step towards him, "is your brother."

"The leader."

"That makes you Bradley, then," I frowned as the dots connected.

"Uh huh, so you do remember. I know I changed a bit since then."

"A bit is an understatement."

"Yeah," he looked down at me, "I'm actually here so you can finally meet Baden."

"I'm ecstatic."

"I would be if I were you. No one gets to see him."

I shrugged, "I can't go right now anyway. My friend told me to stay here."

"What's the matter, fiesty Koni's calmed down for her little girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend. I just met the girl for gods sake."

"Oh well. Welcome to the world, Koni. It's a whole lot of a mess. No order even when it comes to dating and everything that ties in with that," he crossed his arms, leaning against the wall, "When was the last time you heard two people say that they loved each other? When was the last time you told someone that you loved them?"

"I haven't heard anyone say they loved each other in a while," I looked up to the ceiling in thought, "I've never told someone that I loved them. Not even Capri."

"Exactly. No one cares about love anymore, it was over used and was a big thing. Now it means nothing. "

I moved my eyes from the ceiling to him, "Why'd we have to grow up like this?"

"Don't ask me. I couldn't imagine living a life before the Fall. We're free now, we would have been bound to a live a life of countless, meaningless 'what ifs,' where now, those would get you killed in this world," he spoke calmly, as if he weren't slapping me in the face with the worst weapon that could exist; reality.

     "So you like this life?"

     "Let's not get crazy. I never said I like this life, I said I couldn't imagine living a different life. This is the only life I've ever known."

     I simply looked at him, wanting to know every bit of information he had. I wanted this from alot of people though, I want to know as many stories as I can. Because that's what they are, stories. They're not people, they're not things, they're stories.

     I'm truly disappointed that I'll never know the end to some of these stories. They'll never know the end of mine unless they're with me to the final page of the final chapter. I'll weave in between other stories as they'll weave through mine but they can never truly be part of my story, nor I to theirs.

     My story keeps intertwining with new ones, but those stories are simply making little cameos in mine. They cannot be a part of my story, but they can read mine. When people are with me, they are reading my story. That is one of the most beautiful things I could ever imagine. Someone wanting to read my story.

+~+~+~+~+~~+

     I looked up at the door as Nadia walked in. She sent a glare at Bradley who still stood against the wall.

     "What do you want Brad?"

     "Where's your brother?"

     "Why do you care about Shepherd?"

     "Where is he, Nadia? Normally you two are seemingly stuck to each other."

     "Shut up. What do you want?"

     I looked between them as they spoke, "This isn't going anywhere. Shepherd is no longer with us and Bradley came to take me to see Baden."

     "Thanks for ruining my element of surprise," Bradley almost growled at me.

     "Yeah, whatever. Can we go? Since I'm oh so special enough to meet the oh holy Baden, I guess we better nkt keep him waiting."

     "You kept m-!" He began but I cut him off.

     "Shut up and lead the way, you filthy monkey."

     Nadia choked back a laugh as Bradley stood stunned, "Did you ju-. You just called me a filthy monkey."

     "Like the good old days when we were about five years old, right Bradley?" I threw a smile his way before walking towards the door. I twisted the knob and swung the door open.

     "Well.. Glad I'm not the only one who changed," he mumbled as he followed me. I lightly closed the door after he exited and let him lead the way.

     We walked towards a set of stairs that couldn't have possibly looked newer, "How does everything in this place look so new?"

     "Magic."

     "You're kidding, right?"

     "Obviously," he said with a straight face, but I still wasn't convinced.

     We walked up the stairs in silence before reaching the top of this set and continuing up another flight. Step by step, Bradley was leading me to his groups possible demise. I suppressed a laugh at that. If this plan worked, I'd definitely want to tell Bradley that he was the one who brought me to the core of it all.

     We were still silent as we reached the top floor. It was more open than the other floors, a grand floor surrounded by windows. There were a few doors branching off, fewer walkways leading off to what I presumed were hallways.

     Bradley put a hand on my shoulder before walking towards one of the smaller looking hallways. There weren't all that many doors, but when there were they were grand and windowed, allowing vision into the rooms.

     Most of the rooms appeared to be offices or storage rooms. At the end of the hall sat a very plain door, a light brown with no windowing that stood in stark contrast to the other doors of the short hall.

     "This is it," Bradley grinned at me and raised a knuckle towards the door, "Are you ready?"

     "I mean, I don't have a choice," I let out a soft laugh.

     "You always have a choice."

     With this Bradley rapped his knuckled against the simple door in a pattern that I would try to remember but fail horribly. In response to this a voice sounded from the other side of the door.

     "Bradley. Do you have the girl with you?"