Prisoner of Circumstance | ✔️

7 | Deteriorated

SEVEN – Deteriorated

"I am guessing you're well acquainted with the word Hoards by now, yes?" Pius started.

"Your guess." I rasped sardonically. "It's damn impossible to get through a day without hearing that darn word. What horrible have they committed this time around?"

"What do you know about them?" Pius asked.

"The little Melinda and Ndeshi shared with me which is basically nothing." I rolled my eyeballs back into their sockets with a deep sigh. "What I don't get is, if the said organization or the whatever the 'f' is so secretive or... for better words practically non-existent, how is that everyone seems to know about their existence?"

"Oh... everyone no brother. Only few people are familiarized about the said subjects and they are not even safe knowing that. Not by a chance."

I ignored his statement because I didn't understand anything of what all the buzz was about the said Hoards or whatever the fuck they were. Okay, I understood the part where they played a crucial part in my incarceration, my father being the leading Frankenstein behind the whole organization thing, and its members being ruthless, greedy, blood thirsty rich asses but...

"Hey... hey, Xander... are you with me." Pius snapped me out of my head. "You okay?" he asked me worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah... sorry about that." I shook my head to get my mojo back in the game. "Okay," I swallowed. "what's your deal with them?"

"They're the reason I am back and... one of the reasons why Valeria and I broke up...?"

"Wait, wait, quickly rewind please. What do you mean broke up? When did this happen?"

"About a year ago I guess." He answered with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"WHAT?" I burst out, flabbergasted beyond reproach. "Pius what do you mean a year?"

"What you heard." He stared at me with a sad glint in his eye. "We ended things last year, a bit messy... in fact, too messy if you ask me."

"That's not making me feel any better. What the fuck is happening?"

"That's what I also want to know... to find out... for myself. Shit is getting real brother." He ran his hand through his hair.

"This is not right." I exhaled exasperatedly. "This is not how our lives were supposed to be. What the fuck happened? How did everything end up so horribly wrong? Out of place. When will it come to an end? Will there ever be one? A cease fire?So many questions but no answers at all. None..." I trailed off with a fractured sigh escaping my lips. I didn't speak for a while. None of us did until I broke the silence. "What do you know so far?"

"About what exactly?" he looked up at me.

"Everything." I stated.

"Only what Ann told me." He said. "And it's some twisted shit that has your name written all over it."

"What?" I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What do you mean has my name written all over it?"

"Let's see... starting from your father, your arrest, your brother's accident... the common denominators in all those things are you and your father."

"My brother? You also know? How?"

"Ann." Pius stated. "She is the one that told me."

"So I was the only one that didn't know I had a brother?" I asked. "How fuck up is that? God... this is so frustrating. I am tired. My brain is exhausted from all the thinking, worrying and putting all the pieces together."