Pursuing Atonement

Begged words interluded to the infernal winds wafting in from the ocean's gasp. In their haste not a founded expression alluded to some internal conflict nor outer answer for Gan. Only the gaping mouth that Claire possessed stole away a smidge of attention better placed elsewhere - into the unreadable storm brewing in the other. 

A single source of inspiration fled from Kage's eyes as they drew to the blood smattered knuckles of this invader. Cringing from the piercing stare, Gan responded to the conjuring ponder that undoubtedly left his friend in turmoil. "Oh!" He said with an excellent smirk of hallucinating surprise. "I had to deal with a voyeur on the way. He… He tried tying us apart." The lad shook his head as if to desecrate the idea. "The fucker told lies then dared to stop me from coming to you. He deserved it, Kage."

Red glowering beams penetrated through the air delving into the buried depths of Gan, searching for something unknown but now perturbed. The eyes which should be blank with gray instead glowed to snidely slide the lies of this person against their blade like sharpness. 

"Is Isaiah alive?" The sentence was not spoken with care nor affection but rather a demand ordering the other to relent on the requested information. However, in the midst of his torment, the boy could not perceive this definition to Kage's tone. Instead, the general purpose was all that came to mind. 

'Kage asks about that runt!? He asks his condition? He stares at me with such disgust, why? Even when I walked through those doors his mind was made for some reason. The taint of these fools must be the reason, he's nearly returned to his origin, yet the corruption remains.'

Gan reached out with either arm, hands unclasped beckoning for his Brother's presence. "These people, they have led you astray, brother. They sow seeds of contempt which you have fallen for. Can't you see it?" 

The stare stayed the same, calling forth only a solitary decree, "Is Isaiah alive, Gan." Gan's hands fell to his waist, tightening as a rage burned from within. It reminded him of the moments before fighting, then killing, the fiend at Dolemeut park. Similar gazes overlapped between the Villain who contemplated the end of civilian lives with that of cool harshness which now plagued Kage. 

'Could they perhaps be the very same?'

"That boy is alive… for now. I can always just go back, if that's what you wish?" Gan stomped forward kicking a cloud composed of grime from the floor as it groaned beneath his footfalls. "But, I question you brother. You ask for the boy's condition before my own. You state orders before answering my own. You don't bother to ask where I have been, how I know you were here, or what happened!" Seething vitriol bloomed into roaring beats that drummed into Kage's face with the fly of spit 

Burgeoning muscles pounded in Gan's body while his hazel eyes narrowed to beady bug-like creations which stole Kage's features, micromanaging each piece. The person before him was the Kage he recounted, built by stone only to be scarred by the infallibility of his own weakness that permeated each syllable spewed. Such a miscreant insect gazed forth calling out his superiority when they stood as equals. 

'NO! This person is not my equal, not anymore! Just a mound of flesh, pristine but still rough. In need of much more molding before completed.'

  Kage coughed his own reply, "Then tell me, 'my brother'. Tell me what you have gone through." Further had the words been accentuated with sly hate unrecognized by Gan, again. Mockery dotted the tides that pushed on Gan's dyed blonde hair, echoing for him to divulge into a spiel. 

Thus, he did exactly as Kage expected. Gan spoke in succinct fashion of the events that transpired. Him effectively saving Kage due to him forcing Isaiah to search for his location. Then, the rush to resuscitate his cold corpse as he experienced seizure after seizure, an act only sustained because of Gan's strength and will. The eccentricity of his hands basked the failures of the others into view as they stumbled with worry and fear eclipsing nothing else. 

"You fucking liar, Gan!" Claire exploded with fury at the flip in the scenario that Gan caused. Each word that left his mouth appealed to some innate self-identity he knew alone about Kage while the descriptions of the others portrayed a calculated betrayal. One that decided to separate Gan from the rest while they planned to entrap Kage in some embroiled plot. She saw through the plan as the second phrase left the boy's lips so searched to make it known. "You were out of your mind so left because you couldn't handle the damn stress! You're a cow-"

The boy's booming voice rocketed off the walls as they shot toward Claire. "SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH, WHORE!" His flared anger inflated the muscles in his arms, even elongating them to near clasping point of Claire's throat. 

He made to snap her like a twig, an effort trounced upon as Kage called him farther from the act. "Next, what happened after you left the Doctor's home?" 

Gan quenched the thirst of hate. Afterall, Kage had called upon him, he wished to know the truth of what occurred. He still believed him despite the corruption. Behind the brown eyes there was recognition in his heart that there was a chance to fix Kage, even now. Therefore he took it with a slackened jaw. One which should have kept his eagerness shortened in the sight of such a prestige deceiver. 

"I got a call. A call from my family telling me to return home, so I did. Yet, when I got there, Villains held my parents captive while the butlers, maids, guards… they were all slaughtered, Kage." A rattled breath, meant to be ceased, instead burst from his mouth suffocating the moistening room. "These Villains, they weren't at all like the ones we faced that night. No, they were seasoned killers stronger as well as more strategic than them. Before even one who was a fucking child I was powerless to do anything." Gan ensured to catch the line of vision from Kage which judged his story, in them, he swore he saw a hint of familiarity which resonated. 

"Just. Fucking. Weak." Planned, even in its cadence, Gan understood immediately the effect he took on Kage. A running moniker that plagued his Brother no matter where his thoughts collided. Weakness forever strained him from greatness. 

"I thought my parents would be killed in front of me and then myself shortly after. However, they gave me a choice. They told me that you had been bothering them, fighting them, killing them. That your actions led them to placing me in this situation." It was a thought to stay quiet on; allowing the actions to sink into Kage's mind. 

Noticing its effect, Gan continued in his endeavor, "Even when I begged, all they gave me was a single choice. The choice to kill you in order to save their lives." A choked gasp brought along with it the stolen shock from Claire who resided in the shadows to Gan's right. 

"You have to die, Kage. So please, help me." Thus his form relaxed, now bent by a hump with a downtrodden face resolutely taking note of the cracks in the concrete. Permitted by a lingering silence coveting the area, an intense awkwardness befell the group as its sole guarantor studied his surroundings. 

There was not a movement committed within the vision that Kage cast over the world. Claire jittered, lips quivering at the prospect of foul play being permitted, a sharp contrast to Gan's bowed form that stoke reverence in the one he labeled "brother". 

Claire finally chanced a step toward Kage which immediately garnered his intense apprehension. Betrayal stoked deep in his soul as the lingering memory was ill to be remembered. This knowledge present in her, Claire chose to speak, "Don't, Kage. Don't belie-"

"Then…" Kage cut her off with that tact of an impoverished bastard. She stole another step to glance into his eyes. Ones which pranced within, attempting to make sense of this story. They dashed and twirled to unfounded depths trudging up any and all facts to determine the truth of the matter. One which fouled him with regretful atonement. Afterall, that was the reason for him arriving at the warehouse. He sent himself to atone, this may just be another portion to that wish of his?

'If my life can give meaning to one more person, then that's perfect. I will have saved more than what I should be permitted with this life. 

Yes, Gan will slay me. His parents, Lisa, and Daniel will then survive because of this. It will be my atonement…' 

It was time for his feet to inch closer to the bent figure. As each echoing step occurred, resounding off the rusted metal walls, the subsequent heavy breathing from Gan permeated anticipation. He was close to finding the friend he once knew and now would be granted again. 

That was until the footsteps stopped in place.

'Wait… Something is amiss…

Daniel… Daniel. A butler was sent to the deal.'

"I interrogated one of the men who kidnapped Daniel. He said that a butler came to them, one who belonged to a prominently well-off family. It was you, correct?"