29 Ryker

I only knew that I have parents, although my memories of them are a little foggy, I can still remember them and their personalities, unfortunately not their faces. THe school officials of Hellvania took me away from them and took care of me when I was little, and the only thing they said about my life outside the school was that my parents were a world-famous rich couple who dominated the stock market. They didn't tell me if I had a brother or a sister, not even family pets. I accepted the fact that I may never find out the answers to my past nor would I found out the identities of my parents. I have accepted that the only family I have are Theo, Jessie, Octavia, and the newcomers, James, Layla, and honestly even Colt.

With this revelation, I had mixed emotions filled with doubt and uncertainty. I love the idea of having and meeting my brother but knowing how powerful and clever Hellviana is, it's only reasonable that I feel uncertain to meet this stranger.

Is this person really my brother?

" Zion, are you okay? By the looks of your face, you're not excited to meet your brother." James suddenly appeared out of nowhere, carrying a blanket and a cup of coffee. He sat down on the bench beside me and gave me the cup of coffee he was holding earlier.

"Thanks, I needed a boost of caffeine," I said as I took the cup of coffee and drank it. The coffee was warm and mild, just how I like it. I watched James carefully unfolded the blue blanket made out of cotton, he wrapped the blanket around me, giving me warmth from the cold night breeze.

"How long do we have to wait for Ryker to show up? I don't like waiting in this ranch and my eyes are getting heavy by the minute." I spoke in the mug right after I sipped the coffee. James shrugged and looked at the twinkling stars above us.

"Who knows, that kid didn't give us a way to contact him. We're probably just sitting and waiting in this ranch for no reason." He said coldly with a dead expression on his face.

Sometimes I wonder if he has an identical twin brother and they somehow switch every other day to play the role of one of my good friends James. He can be sweet and caring at times and then moments later, he is suddenly cold and brutal.

"Do you just sometimes feel relaxed looking at the stars? Or am I just crazy for feeling such emotions to an astronomical object?" He suddenly shared. I looked above and saw the marvelous display of twinkling stars, each celestial body seemed overjoyed that we finally noticed their beauty as their light grew brighter.

"They do seem nice, but I rather say that they intimidate me than make me feel relaxed," I told him. My opinion opposed his opinion. This made James gasped comedically, a trait he learned from working so close with children.

"Why do you feel intimidated to the stars? They can't even lay a finger on you." He exclaimed, which made me laugh, not because of the idea that I feel intimidated to a bunch of balls of gases but because of how silly he sounded when he spoke that comment.

"Yeah sure but when they blew up, they can wipe planets after planets. Don't let those pretty balls fool you, their basically a ticking time bomb." I remarked, trying to hold in my sudden urge to laugh.

"I have to agree with your friend here, dear brother." A man's voice unexpectedly chimed in on our conversation. In a immediate response to a threat, James' hair quickly lid up and his hands were already conjuring bright blue flames.

"Why are you initimidated to bunch of sphered light in the night sky? You're a reality and time bender, you can just wish those stars away and problem solved." The voice continued.

Due to the light caused by James' flames and hair, we can perfectly see the bench we're sitting on and meadow up ahead. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a shadow figure running by. I tried to followed it but it was too quick for my eyes to follow.

"Is your name Ryker? How'd you find us? Where did you come from?" I declared at the invisible man who was toying with us, using the shadows to trick our eyes.

"Zion get behind me. I'll burn this wimp with my flames." James murmured.

I shook my head no and stood still. I closed my eyes and went into my subconciousness. Using my reality bending abilities, I opened up my senses. My sense of hearing was doubled that I could hear the birds nesting up on the trees, my sense of smell picked up every scent good or nasty on a certain radius. As I amplified my body's senses, I picked out the things I found familiar, like the birds' chirping, or James' heartbeat and breathing, to hopefully catch a clue as to where this person is hiding.

"Behind you, near the barn, on top of the chicken coop." A bunch of voices in my head announced. Knowing these were the same voices that helped me out when I'm in trouble, I followed their clue and shot a bolt of lightning using the stars' brightness and Jame's fire.

In an instant, Ryker's body jumped out of the shadows to avoid the bolt of lightning. The lightning collided into the chicken coop and exploded, the chickens whowere peacefully sleeping quickly woke up and panicked, scattering around in fear and confusion.

"Damn, I was just playing with you, jeez." Ryker whinned. I offered him my hand to get up and he accepted it without hesitation. James saw this and calmed down, his flames disappearing soon after.

"Can you just please tell us everything you and what you know? I want to go to bed." I requested. Ryker looked at me and slowly nodded in agreement.

"Go get your squad. I too, need my beauty sleep." He said and sat on the bench. James volunteered to go get the others, he left swiftly, leaving me alone with Ryker.

Jessie's description was spot on. Ryker was a tall young man, with a skinny and well built body and has a weird posture. My eyes wandered, checking every single detail of Ryker I can see. From his slightly curly blue dyed hair, to his scar on his left cheek. I debated to myself if I should use my ability and manipulate my subconciousness to personally check his mind but eventually declined the idea as I find it disturbing to check someone's mind and memories like it's some sort of a file drawer.

"Are you done checking every detail of my face?" He snapped. A sudden feel of guilt and awkwardness surged into my body once I heard what he said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's a force of habit." I apologized. Ryker folded his arms and looked at me.

"You're softer than I remembered. From what I remembered in my memories, you're like demon." He sneered. I immediately thought of what happened at our escape, although it was foggy memory, I could still feel all the carnage I did once I transformed into my "demon" form at that time.

Before things go any more awkward than it should be, thankfully, my friends arrived. Just in time to save me from anymore awkward encounter to this person who claims to be my brother.

"We're here." Octavia said, gasping for air. She motioned to Layla to give her some water, she glared at her first, judging her for usining her like her personal servant, but she eventually granted Octavia's request for water once she saw she really needed it.

"Great, where do we start?" Ryker grinned rather sarcastically.

No one answered his questioned, I glanced to look at my friends only to find out that they were also looking at me as well, as if waiting for me to answer Ryker's question. I gave Theo, the supposed leader of our little team, a nasty look but he avoided eye contact.

I took a deep breath just before I sat down on the bench and listen to Ryke and his story.

Finally with a heavy feeling and uncertainty of what Ryker's going to tell, I said, "From the beginning. I want to hear everything."