I'll recover

Aiden's attention was drawn to the bruises on Grace's skin after Lucas stopped smashing the face of the unfortunate young man. 

He immediately connected the dots as anger rose up inside him. "Who did this to you?"

He calmly asked Grace, scaring her backwards. According to her, big bro had suddenly appeared behind her with his scarily calm face. She glanced sideways at Lucas who was approaching them and explained everything truthfully to her big bro.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked her in the same calm tone. 

"I could solve it on my own." She rebuked with a defiant gaze.

"And what if you couldn't?"

"What if I could? Trust me sometime, will you?" There was a hint of hurt in her voice which Aiden didn't miss. "Trust you at the cost of you possibly getting badly hurt?" He simply heaved a sigh and shook his head. 

Turning his gaze to Lucas, he asked, unbothered that some young people were slowly standing up. "How do you plan to resolve this?"

He didn't reprimand Lucas for what he did, if anything it helped him calm down his anger somewhat. He had aunt Hellen's backing but it didn't feel good always asking her for help. His eyes caught sight of a few people dressed differently approaching the scene from inside the care center.

Some were in suits, some in nurse outfits, some in normal clothes. The guy leading them furrowed his brows as he beheld the scenario. Just as his temper was about to flare up at the only three people looking uninjured, Lucas spoke up.

"Are you Ethan's dad?"

"What of it?"

Lucas simply spread his hands. "I am afraid you can no longer keep your position." He then outright ignored the man as he took out his phone and dialed a number. Sensing something wrong, the man turned to the staff members.

He had an inkling of what his son was up to all these years but let him be, thinking it might be something not so serious. Bullying was common in all care centers, he figured letting the kids solve it among themselves was better. All was good as long as no one got critically injured. 

Indeed, he could notice even now that the majority of people were only knocked out. It was his son and a couple other youngsters who were holding weapons like bats were badly hurt.

He heard the young man with blonde hair speak into his phone. "Hello? I would like to remove the director of the care center of Bluris town from his position." Lucas then went on to explain the things Ethan did using his father's authority while the man stood with his fist clenched.

Unlike his stupid son, he was smart enough to realize who to mess with, and Lucas didn't come under them. His position was high enough that he had an inkling what kind of people the young man might have contacted. He wisely chose to keep his mouth shut as he directed all the staff and nurses to take care of the children. He could only be glad that not every child and staff participated in his son's madness.

Lucas caught sight of nurse Ava as he overheard a few people calling her out. With phone still to his ears, he listened to the instructions as he took in her sight. Nurse Ava was what you could call hot. Simple, hot. She had the curves, the body language, the charm and the vibe for it. But not the voice. She had a high pitch voice which leaned more on the cuter side. It was a weird combination, reminding him of someone. But before he could delve into his memory any further, the talk from Bureau's agent caught his attention.

"You are surprisingly calm for someone who lost his position so suddenly, and that too, not because of their own mistake, at least not directly." Aiden narrowed his eyes at the director. The man paused, taking a break from handling the situation as he scrutinized Aiden once, and gave him a confident smile, "I'll recover."

Aiden simply shrugged at the confident man. He had nothing to say, he only took a fleeting glance at the structure of the care center before thoughts popped up in his head. 

Even the care center is not safe. Where should I even leave them? Take them with me? Maybe I can just keep them around in my house? We should be able to finish dealing with the helping ghost today. I'll leverage the Bureau's team's help if needed.

Aiden didn't know what went on later as it was Lucas who dealt with everyone. He wasn't curious enough to know how the situation would be handled. 

"Let's go. We're not staying here any longer."

His mood had worsened. His sister was in trouble and he didn't even know. Frankly, he felt a little tired too. Holding Mimi in one hand, he held Grace by another and left the premises of the care center.

Of course, the bus wouldn't wait for so long for me. 

Without waiting for another bus, he began walking in the direction of his home. Too much had been going on in his life.

A ghost randomly appeared, keeping him on toes every time he was inside his or aunt Hellen's home, which was, ironically, supposed to be his safe zone, where he relaxed. 

His acquaintance admitted to using him as a bait for humanity's greater good. 

The helping ghost somehow began to be able to use its phaseless ability endlessly, making him fear about the day its ability would activate. 

His childhood friend, Evander, had likely gone missing, the blood on his letter only escalating his worry about what might have happened. 

There was still a condition he didn't know about the powerful ghost which was targeting the town. He couldn't leave either, as his other childhood friend, Lucas, had fulfilled two of its conditions, he was already entangled with it. 

The Bureau's team which was supposed to rescue them were a bunch of youngsters. Some of them being wrong in the head.

According to the youngsters, the Bureau was serious that it wouldn't leave Mimi alone since she overheard some of their talks. He might come out unscathed considering he was going against the helping ghost, no rules broken there. 

His sister was being bullied and he couldn't do anything about it. 

"Arghhhhhh."

He randomly shouted, scaring both the girls. 

Sometimes it just becomes too much. Life throws so much stuff at you, with most of it being not even your fault. Who could you complain to? Gods? Aiden didn't believe in gods. If they existed they would have helped during the Great Smog 14 years ago. 

He had read about evil in textbooks and on the internet. If god existed, why was he allowing this? It was either that gods didn't exist or they existed, but were helpless to solve it, or maybe allowed it themselves. 

He knew there was a balance to all things, two sides of the same coin and all of it. That if good existed, evil would too. It was necessary. But he couldn't bring himself to believe that. Was he supposed to believe all the evils were necessary? Raping, killing, torturing… were these all necessary?

My thoughts took a different turn again. 

He silently admonished himself as he returned to his original line of thought. There was no one to complain to. No one who would constantly help him out with life. No one to constantly catch him in case he failed. He would simply have to suck it up and just make something of what life threw at him. That's what he learnt through years of living alone with his sister.