Consequences Be Damned

15.1 ⇻ a damned brother

John had a suspicion, a very solid suspicion that there were more odd things than usual going home. At first, this had been an inkling, when Dad had all of a sudden sprung Summer on them, saying that she was going to be their sort of adopted sibling, but not actually. When neither Summer nor Dad elaborated on where she came from, why she was there, and who exactly she was, it began to grow.

But John didn't think anything of it because Summer was the last person one would ever mistrust. She fit in with him and his brothers at a time when they were feeling so divided over Luke's departure. Him, Mark, and Matthew had been hovering around each other, never acknowledging each other, or treating each other like brothers–not until Summer had practically forced them all together.

Which, admittedly, they had all planned on doing as a revenge scheme because Dad had seemed to favor her too much.

However in the face of that kind smile, even the spawns of the Devil were powerless.

The second time his suspicion grew was when Dad suddenly allowed Summer to move out. After weeks and weeks of arguments between the two, he just... let her go.

Just like that.

And what made it even more suspicious was that it took a lot longer to keep Mark at home. Their Dad had put his foot down out of any of them moving out after Luke left. He didn't want them breaking apart, as if they hadn't already been doing that under the same roof.

Summer wasn't actually their sister, but whoever lived in the mansion, followed the mansion's rules. And the big one was that no one was allowed to leave.

And yet, the same day Summer had a roommate interview and the same night that she found an apartment, Dad announced made another announcement: that Luke was coming back.

    Luke, who swore their dad out when he stormed out of there with the things on his back.

    Luke, who promised he would never come back, not after his dad didn't do whatever he could to save someone.

    Luke, who all of a sudden, was not only moving back, but he was going to their same school and living in the same apartment as Summer, even though John remembered that Dawn and her roommates had only been looking for one roommate.

    Something happened to make all these events happen because they were far from coincidences.

    And then the increasing amount of locked door meetings with the Dark Synod–meetings that only happened during apocalyptic eras. They were stressful to Dad, but whenever he came out of these meetings, they were unlike all the others. He was exhausted, the bags deeply embedded in his cheeks, even when he switched to his Other form. He barely had the energy to meddle in John, Matthew, or Mark's lives which he was thankful for, but it unsettled John.

    Then the last nail in the head.

    Luke never explained to any of them what had happened. Not when he left and not when he came back, but John and Luke had been close.

    Since they were the youngest, they spent the most time in school together. Their rooms were right next to each other and they had always been on the same athletic teams together. And so, John knew more than most.

    Before Luke had left, he had been seeing someone. A girl from a school on the other side of the city. He had been head over heels for her, always bringing her up and always ditching them to go hang out with her.

    John teased Luke many times, bugging him if he could meet this girl. For the life of him, John could never remember her name. It was something along the lines of Maria? Martha? Maya?

    Anyway, John couldn't ever remember Luke being so happy.

    And then, a few months later, it was like Luke did a whole one-eighty.

    One day, John came home and there Luke was, his phone in one hand as he sat on the staircase staring blankly at the ground, like the life was sucked out of him. Everything living, the plants, the air, John himself felt the energy being sucked out of him.

    It nearly made him collapse.

    But before John could ask what happened, before he could try to get Luke to open up, his brother had jumped out of his seat and stormed into Dad's office, slamming the door shut behind him. John had waited hours on the staircase, just listening to them screaming at each other, but never being able to make out about what exactly.

    When Luke exited, he didn't spare John a second glance. Didn't acknowledge him. Just left the house and didn't come back for days. And when he did, it was just him looking for clothes to change into and then leaving without a sound.

    John couldn't recognize him.

    And before any of them knew it, Luke had left them. Moved across the country without a number to contact him.

    But John remembered. John remembered the stories Luke told. How he always met her at a park, a special place he found and spelled so that only him and M could find the place, access it. It was such a small detail at the time. Nothing to take note of.

    However the carvings on those trees. The intricacy, the somewhat familiar faces, the magical essence that covered the path which took John a good hour to uncover, it was unmistakable.

    There was a connection there somewhere.

    A connection that had to relate Luke, his M, Summer, and the Sydon meetings.

    Okay, the last one might be a stretch, but it couldn't be a coincidence.

    Their lives weren't made for coincidences.

    And John was determined to find piece everything out as soon as family dinner was over. And he was going to start it by going back into his search on Summer.

    He glanced at her in the passenger seat as she scrolled through Twitter. She had become his best friend over the past year. And while it hurt him to even consider this, this entire situation was something bigger than distrust.

    I'm sorry, Summer.

tbh i wasn't sure if i was gonna share this just yet but i need some padding for the next few updates since i'm... not currently on track in nano (nor do i expect to ever be) so... yeah! let me know what you think? and, as always: