Prologue - Suffering Of A Survivor

It was a refreshing feeling. A good night's rest always had him thinking that.

He liked the warmth his bed and blankets provided him at night to the early mornings. It reminded him of the simpler times when he was a child when he was free to cry in his father's and mother's embrace. Missing those times when he had someone he could rely upon.

Only at times like this did he feel this warmth, causing him to shed tears.

But as with all such things, his peaceful slumber was interrupted by the blaring sound of his alarm. The sound swiftly silenced as he pushed himself upwards and moved his blankets aside.

Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes as if to rub the sleepiness and tears away as he groggily yawned and looked at the ceiling.

"How are you, my only companion..."

He said as he focused on it as if waiting for a reply.

But soon, he looked away, his eyes downcast as he moved to sit at his bedside, Opening the drawer closest to him and pulling out a photo of a young boy who seemed to be 2 years old with messy brown hair and lively dark brown eyes, standing by a happy couple who also held a baby in their arms.

As he continued to look at the photo, he slowly stood up, walked towards his bathroom door and entered.

"Would you still smile like that if you saw me now?" As he finished, he looked into a slightly bloodied and cracked mirror.

What looked back at him was a ragged young man, having dark stubble on his face and messy brown hair with dark brown eyes that seemed listless. He had a scar on his cheek and an even more prominent scar on his chest as he touched his reflected image.

But that lasted for only a moment as he slammed his fist into the glass, shattering most of the mirror into tiny shards. His breath ran ragged as he grit his teeth and clenched his now bleeding fist.

"Fuck! fuck! FUCK!!!"

He screamed as he repeatedly slammed his fist into what remained of the shattered mirror.

"W-why, why'd it have to be them... Why?"

He stammered out as he fell to his knees and slammed the sink with his bloody hand.

"Mom, Dad, Andrew... Why did you leave me alone!"

He cried as he was on his hands and knees, looking at his bathroom floor as tears fell endlessly from his eyes.

"I'm not that strong..."

As he finished, he weakly rose from the ground and looked at the shattered mirror before wiping at his eyes trying to get rid of his tears.

When he finished wiping away his tears, he slowly turned around before sluggishly walking out of the bathroom, forgetting about the picture of his family.

As he left the bathroom, he slowly walked to his closet and grabbed a shirt before putting it on and walking into his kitchen.

The moment he entered the kitchen, he heard a soothing song start to play, and he paused for a moment. Soon after he slowly dragged his feet to where the sound had come from and picked up his phone and answered the call.

"Uh, hello, this is Jax Mitchell."

A strained voice sounded as Jax answered the phone, still not recovering from his breakdown.

"Hey, Jax. Tristan here, checking in on you since you are starting university now."

The voice from the other side said with a hint of concern at Jax's strained voice.

"You don't need to worry, Uncle Tristan. I'm good to go."

Jax, with a horse tone, replied as he grabbed a protein bar and started to snack on it.

"Are you sure your voice sounds strained?"

Tristan asked over the phone, showing his concern for the young adult, but as Jax heard his concerned tone, he clenched his fist.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Tristan."

Jax replied, dismissive of Tristan's concern.

"I've promised your parents to look after you, Jax! Tell me the truth, please."

Tristan begged with sadness and frustration at Jax's dismissive attitude towards his concern, Jax visibly tensing up as he heard him bring up his family.

"Yeah, So what! I don't need your damn concern, Tristan!"

"Jax please, I'm trying to help-"

"shut up! SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!!!!!"

Jax repeatedly screamed and started to pant as he finished

"Jax I-"

Tristan tried to continue but was cut off by a hoarse yet infinitely cold and callous voice

  "Save that concern for your dying daughter."

When those words escaped Jax's mouth, Tristan went quiet and the call was ended shortly after. 

After just standing there, he started to tear up as he looked down at his bloodied fist, remembering his family once more before walking over to the cabinet and bandaging his hand.

'Shut up, you fucking cunt who needs your damn concern.'

When he finished that thought, he slowly walked into his lounge, picking up a blue hoodie on the couch and putting it on before grabbing his bag. And headed to the door, huffing a sigh but stopped as he looked at a book on his table.

After a while of deliberating, he walked over to the table and grabbed the book flipping a few pages as he read through, soon letting out a chuckle and a little smile.

'Heh, That was pretty funny.'

But only a short moment later, he had tears running down his face as he flipped through the book's pages.

'I remember how much I loved this story. I consistently begged my parents to read this story to me and sometimes my brother with me. Although only this one volume was released at the time, it wasn't even for people my age.'

After flipping a few more pages, he closed the book and put it in his bag before walking over to a shelf that housed the rest of the volumes of the story. As soon as he reached it, he grabbed the next book before placing it into his bag, turning around and heading out the door, locking it as he left.

'I wish I had someone to talk to about this story.'

----

As Jax walked out of his house, multiple people looked toward the boy with concern, all having heard his screaming in the morning. But they did nothing as they knew it would only anger the young man.

"Sigh, That kid is still like that. What happened to that bright boy who smiled brightly at everyone."

"I mean, can you blame him? He lost his family at only the tender age of five and was-."

"Yeah yeah, I know that. It just doesn't feel fair to me."

"Well yeah, the world is unfair. That's just how it is. It's just more clear in this case..."

"I hope we can see that smile of his once more."

"Agreed, I think that child deserves to live a happy life."

Most of them had known the boy before the accident in which his parents and younger brother fell victim. After looking at the young man for a short time, they reminisced about the two boys of differing ages playing with their parents as they smiled brightly. But now, that scene might never happen again, as three of those people are no longer here, and all that is left is a broken young man.

----

After Jax left his house, he walked to his garage and grabbed his helmet and gloves, putting them on before pushing his motorcycle out and hopping on, driving off.

'But regardless, I must carry on. After all, it's what I last promised to my father.'

As he drove along the busy road, he got lost in his thoughts and reminisced about the moment he lost his family.

***

"Jax, Andrew, Get over here now, young misters."

"Nah, uh, you'll have to catch us first."

"Yep, Yep, Catch us."

"Jax, Andrew-"

As the woman was about to raise her voice at the young boys, she felt a rough hand holding her shoulder. When She looked over at the owner of said hand, she saw her husband.

"Come on, Penelope, just let them be. You see how much fun they're having."

"But, Damien, don't you have to get to work soon?"

"I'll call in, so it's fine Tristan's lenient with me. He's my best friend."

"Dear, you can't keep doing that."

"Why not? Tristan also uses that card as well."

While the married couple bickered, their two boys played on the giant playground, with the other young kids joining.

They could be noticed running around with three other kids their age, Playing tag as they swung and maneuvered around, Andrew being the hardest to catch as he used his size to his advantage and hid. While Jax was constantly being tagged, he was the slowest of the remaining kids, but it didn't mean he couldn't catch them. The reason was that he was good at getting around and cutting through things to catch up to them, but if they continued in a straight line, he quickly fell behind them, like what is happening now.

"Hey, no fair. I thought we said you can't leave the playground area."

"Stop being such a baby Jax."

The young girl poked her tongue at Jax as he stomped his feet in anger at the situation before releasing a grumble.

"Hmph, fine, you can run again, Nina, but this time you can't leave the playground, or I won't play, and I'll tell Uncle Tristan."

"Pssh, fine."

"Ok, 1 2 3..."

As Jax counted down, Nina quickly scurried off and grouped up with the other two kids. Andrew saw all this as he watched from the highest tower of the playground, sitting on the slide.

"7 8 9 10-"

Just as he was going to finish, Jax felt a massive force push him, and he blanked out soon after. As he blanked out, he saw his mother and father fall and also saw his younger brother slide down the slide with his eyes closed.

*

It felt like it lasted only a moment as Jax soon awoke in a devastated park. As Jax slowly started to regain his strength, he tried to stand up, but he fell as he looked at his body which was now scarred and bruised. He slowly began to cry and scream as he felt the pain come from all over his body, at once, writhing in agony on the ground.

After a while of his continuous screams and cries, he slowly stopped as he weakly looked around and saw his younger brother. Seeing his brother in a worse state than his, he weakly tried to crawl over to him, soon feeling someone pick him up and approach his brother. When he looked to see who it was, it was his father Damien, who looked to be in horrible shape carrying him and his still unconscious mother, with him soon arriving at his son and also picking him up before grabbing and placing all of you down on a clear patch of grass.

Soon he headed over and picked up Nina, the other kids and their parents, placing them close to your family on the grass patch as he sat down next to you and saw you awake.

"Hello, my dear son."

"Aaa...."

When Jax tried to reply, all that came out was a hoarse cry, Damien grits his teeth as he hears Jax's hoarse cry. Soon tears streamed down his face as he looked at his injured sons and wife but later stopped as he grabbed Jax and held him in his arms.

"Jax, are you listening."

"Aaa..."

"Jax, I love you, your brother and your mother so much."

"Aa..."

As Damien looked at Jax and listened to his hoarse cries in reply to his words, he clenched his fist and looked at his injured body. While he looked at his injuries, he also looked at his wife Penelope and his other precious son Andrew. Seeing the wounds the two had sustained, he began to tear up more and looked at Jax with deep sorrow.

"Jax, even if we aren't here anymore, your brother, mother, and I... We love you so very much."

"A..."

"And I know this will burden you, but please carry on with your life, and don't ever think of taking it. Promise me that you will listen to these words."

When Damien finished, he looked at Jax and saw him nod.

Damien slowly closed his eyes as he slumped to the ground. And shortly after, the only sound heard for hours was the hoarse cries of Jax as he wailed, not understanding why or what had happened.

***

As Jax finished reminiscing, he slowly pulled to the side of the road and took off his helmet. He looked down and tried to wipe his tears.

While he continued, trying to wipe away the endless tears trickling down his face, he couldn't help but remember his family, which worked against his efforts.

After a while of trying to wipe away his endless tears, he decided to put his helmet back on and try arriving at his destination before dealing with it.

'I've dealt with this by myself for 14 years already. I should be used to this now, so why is it hurting so much as more time passes.'

Continuing to start up his bike, he began to drive onto the road and race to his destination as he continued to wallow in his emotional distress. But soon, as he was riding his bike, his tears started to blur his helmet as his tears gathered up, causing him to try and pull to the side. Not realising the speed he was going at or the car that had begun to pull out just ahead of him and with all these points coming together.

Bang!

Clank!

Jax was sent flying as his bike crashed into the car reversing out in front of him. Screams sounded as they heard and saw Jax smack against the ground, cars screeching to a halt as they stopped.

Soon blaring sounds of sirens were heard as the hospital vehicles arrived at the scene, picking up the injured Jax, while the other driver came out unscathed, only a little shaken. But as soon as Jax was placed in the ambulance, he was rushed to the hospital to begin treatment.

But as all of this was going on and Jax blanked from consciousness and back, all that was going through Jax's head was the final comment the author had made at the end of his novel.

'I would do anything.'