Seeing Double

Pre-Prologue

Tylo:

(10 years ago...)

Blood, so much blood, ribbons of scarlet were racing each other down her marred face. Her features were blurring as tears coalesced around his two eyes, eyes that were witnessing way too much.

His trembling hands cupped her face, and he felt like shredding his own skin if only to feel her pain, if only to take her pain away. Raindrops buffeted his skin, tearing invisible wounds open, and ripping open his heart.

"Do something wild for your initiation," his brother's 'friends' had said.

He knew because his brother had been grumbling about it all day yesterday. His delusional, high on technologically-advanced narcotics brother. He shouldn't have trusted him with that secret, that one secret that would lead to Gloria lying in a pool of blood at his feet right now. Was he to blame for her uncanny demise... no, please, it couldn't be.

He held his head in his arms, rocking back and forth. For a guy who had accepted everything up till this very moment, he was feeling a whole lot. Like a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode, he moved back and forth and back and forth, shaking his head.

Should he call the cops? No, they would cordon off the area and then there would be all that red-tape, and God, all he wanted was to be with the only person who had ever loved him, just for a few more minutes... He let his quaking hand caress her cheeks, cheeks that had been drained of blood. She was an empty shell of the girl she had once been.

What was his brother doing while he mourned? Oh damn that bastard! He was probably enjoying beers with his pals at some upscale bar for the filthy rich. In this world where money bought everything, including freedom from the judicial system, it was so easy to be odiously caught up in one's impunity, in one-upping the government. His brother had done just that and was never coming back. The young boy knew, for a fact, that after tonight, he wouldn't see him ever again.

That murderer.

He wouldn't want to see him ever again, anyways. Always living in the shadow, eh?

Well, it's about time you stepped out of your shell, Tylo.

There's blood to be spilled.

***

Author's note:

This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful theyoungadultawards for taking time and effort to host their monthly writing contests, and a big shoutout goes to all the judges who thought this book was deserving.