Gang Blood {on hold.}

Chapter 26 - Finding out more

(Rose's PoV)

We sat on the couch in the living room in front of the huge tv, Along with some blankets, ice cream and a spoon each. Once settled I turned to Rachel who was very quiet.

"Rachel. You don't have to tell me, please only tell me what you want to tell me" I emphasise on the 'you' and send her a reassuring smile.

She takes a deep breath "okay, I do need to talk to someone about it." She admits.

I sit silently, patiently waiting for her to open up. I don't want her to be rushed but I can tell she wants to tell me.

After a second she speaks "About a year ago was when it happened, I don't want to go into too much detail but" she takes a shaky breath "Me and Zach, We have a younger brother. His name is Lucas. Last year he was taken by The Brotherhoods men."

I try not to show my shocked expression. "If you don't mind me asking, h-how old was he?" I stutter unsure whether I should even be asking about him.

"His birthday was today, he's 12. He's was taken on his 11th birthday." She takes another deep breath. "I can't say why but, Zach blames himself. I'm scared that his guilt is eating him up inside and I can't even reach him to let him know he's not to blame." She cries.

I hug her tightly. "Shh, you will reach him. I think he just needs some time."

"Can you try?" She looks at me.

"What do you mean?"

She wipes her eyes "you may be able to reach him better than I could."

I don't understand. "Why would I be able to reach him more than his own sister?"

"He thinks highly of you, you may not realise that but he really does." She packs up the ice cream "I think I'm just going to get some sleep. Thanks for letting me talk about it with you. I don't really have someone to talk to so I'm glad your here." She gets up and returns the ice cream to the freezer. Walking back into the living room she turns to go upstairs "you staying down here?"

"For a little while yeah" I smile her way.

"Oh okay, good night I guess" she chuckles lightheartedly.

"Goodnight Rachel."

I was pretty tired and wanted to go back to bed but what Rachel didn't know was that I noticed a certain someone was at the top of the stairs listening to our conversation.

After Rachel was far enough away not to hear me I spoke out "I know your there.." silence. "Wanna talk?"

After a minutes I saw Zach appear at the top of the stairs, he had some comfier clothes on, a simple top and sweatpants, he slowly walked towards me. He looked pretty rough again, visibly stressed and deprived of sleep. He walked over to the couch and slumped himself on the spot next to me.

"Look, I wasn't trying to pry into anything I just"- he cut me off.

"I really have been selfish, haven't I? His voice broke out.

"What?" I ask confused turning to him.

He didnt turn to look at me but kept his eyes straight ahead staring into nothing in particular. "Rachel. She's suffering too. Stayed awake for hours worrying about me and I couldn't even give her a sorry for disappearing." He sounded genuinely upset with himself.

"It's understandable why you acted like that." I reply.

"That doesn't make it acceptable." He finally turns to look at me.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself." I speak carefully. I don't want him to get upset, start shouting and awaking everyone.

"How can I? I'm the reason it happened." His tone was becoming agitated but it was only directed towards himself.

"I'm sure you didn't mean for it to happen, you shouldn't blame yourself."

"What would you know. Go to bed. You don't need to be here." He says sounding defeated.

I couldn't leave him alone after seeing him like this. He doesn't deserve it, not only that Rachel needs him to understand he's not to blame. He put his head in his hands, which snapped me out of my thoughts. "I'm not leaving you like this.. You need to understand that."

"Your too suborn for your own good." He said head still in his hand. After a minute of silence he spoke. "I just wanted to take him out for his birthday. He wanted to go to that theme park so badly. It was his only wish." He took a shaky breath. "I snuck him out. Against my mothers wishes. I thought I'd be able to protect him if anything happened. But, there were too many of them." His voice cracked out.

A tear dropped from my own eye from listening to him voice his thoughts. He was opening up to me finally. I did the only think I could think of to comfort him. I reached over and embraced him in a hug. He tensed up for a second before wrapping his own arms around me.

"I couldn't protect him Rose. It's all my fault." He cried out.

My heart was sobbing for the broken man in my arms. "It wasn't your fault Zach. They all cowards. You just wanted Lucas to be happy. Please don't blame yourself. You couldn't have known that would have happened." He hugged me slightly tighter after I said that. I would be lying if I said my heart didn't flutter slightly from the hug.

"Thank you. For talking with Rachel and looking out for her. I've been a horrible brother." He speaks out.

We break away the hug. "Don't worry too much about it, guilt can do that to people. She just wants you to be alright." I smile at him contemplating my next question. "Forgive me for asking but.." I hesitate.

"Speak your mind." He reassures me relaxing into the couch. I could visibly see the fatigue eating away at him.

"Are you still looking for him." Slightly worried about the response I'm about to get as I also relax backwards into the couch next to him.

"My mother and Rachel. I think they've given up, they don't see why they'd keep him alive, but I think otherwise." He speaks whilst yawning.

I was unsure what to say. I hope Lucas is still alive because if not what I'm about to say would be putting Zach's hopes up. "Then let me help find him."

"Your funny Shortie." He chuckles.

I roll my eyes. "Still using that nickname huh? And what's so funny about that?"

"Yep." He says, "and it's funny because you know nothing about gangs and therefor wouldn't really be able to help. Thanks for the offer though."

"I may not know much." I yawn myself, eyes feeling heavy. "But I will still do what I can. Also I can use a gun, that's gotta count for something."

Zach chuckles "okay then."

After then we fall into peaceful silence, looking at the clock on the wall it reads 5:58am.

I don't think I've ever been more tired before..

Before I can even get myself up to go to bed I fall into a deep sleep on the couch, with only the sound of soft snores from Zach accompanying the silence.

{a/n:

Hey all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. It kept rewriting this chapter as yet again I was never happy with the outcome but hopefully this does okay. :)

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you for all the support on this book. It's very appreciated. <3

I've been having a lot of fun working on other future projects so stay tuned for those :D

Stay safe all!
Cyaa ~Em🖤}