Work Text:
It was a chilly Halloween night. All the kids were running around demanding candy from any house that had its lights on. All those little kids dressed up in their costumes made me excited. But what was even better was the corn maze. The parents never wanted to go through the corn maze with their kids so there were all these kids alone in a corn maze with only one way out. This would have to be the best night of my life.
But I felt a hand grab my arm. I jerked around raising my free hand, ready to strike whoever had grabbed me. But my attacker chose to talk then, “Raphael it's been too long.” I raised my eyes and found my oldest brother, Stephan, was the one holding my arm. “Well crap Steph, you can’t sneak up on people like that!”, I said while pulling him in for a hug. It had been too long since we had last seen each other. About 8 years ago, when I was sixteen, Stephan packed his bags and left to start his own company. Not the kind of company you’re thinking of though. Steph started a company where you could hire out assassins. Yep, my big bro is a contract killer.
Stephan had since dropped my arm and had taken a few steps back to survey our surroundings. When he was done he nodded his head and started walking towards me. He had this look in his eye, the one he always got when he was after something, or someone. I backed up until I could feel the corn stalks against my back. “Stephan what are you doing brother?” Stephan didn’t answer and continued to stalk forward. When he got to me he stopped and I sagged in relief. I honestly thought that he was gonna hit me. Just as I went to say something about him freaking me out for nothing, his arm shot out and he wrapped his hand around my throat. He pulled me up until my toes were barely touching the ground. “Raphael. What is this I hear about you going after children?” I was gasping for air and I was positive Stephan wasn't going to let go of me anytime soon. I stared up at him pleadingly, begging that he would let me breathe. Spots appeared in my vision.
Then he spoke again; “We were raised to never go after children. NEVER”, he said through gritted teeth. “Mother raised us better than that. She’d be so disappointed in you.”
He was right, Mother would be disappointed in me. I don’t think she would even be able to look me in my eyes. God, I can’t even look at myself in the mirror, why would she want to.
By now my vision was starting to dim and narrow into a tunnel and I wasn't sure how much time
I had left. I frantically struggled to get a breath, beating on Stephan’s hands. But he wouldn’t budge. The world was fading away and I knew I had seconds left before I passed out.
The last thing I heard before everything went dark was Stephan saying, “You’re just like Him”
*TIME SKIP*
When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was Stephan. He was sitting in a chair by the wall reading a book. I rolled over on my side and cleared my throat, watching as he slowly looked up at me. “Well, it took you long enough to wake up,'' he said while closing his book. I sat up in bed and threw my legs over the edge and made to get up, before I felt a hand push me back.
“No. You stay there. I have more questions for you and don't need you running away.”, Stephan said. I rolled my eyes but leaned back against the wall and motioned for him to continue. He moved away and sat back down on the chair. As he sat down I decided to ask the question that had been bouncing around my head since I first saw him. “Why are you here? Well not here but with me here.” He shook his head and laughed. Not a happy laugh but this cold, dark, empty laugh. He leaned forward in his chair until his elbows were touching his knees. “I’ll repeat my question from earlier, since you fainted before I could get an answer out of you. Why are the cops, THE COPS Rapheal, calling me up asking where you are?” Stephan spit the words out. I was shocked. Never in my entire life had I ever been caught by the cops, so why were they asking about me now? I’d always been so careful when I took kids. Never went to the same neighborhood twice for 3 years. “The cops are looking for me?,” I whispered. Stephan sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Yes, the cops are looking for you and for some reason they assume I keep tabs on you.” Well that's stupid. Steph and I haven't talked since he left 8 years ago. And how did they find out that we’re related? I looked back at Stephan and found him standing up and walking towards the door. “Get up and follow me if you want food, I won’t bring it to you.” I hurriedly jumped out of bed and followed him out the door and down the hall. We entered the kitchen and I saw that there were sandwiches on the table already. Stephan took a seat at the small table and grabbed a sandwich off the stack and started eating. I hesitated to sit down but when Stephan glared up at me I quickly slid into my seat and started eating. We sat there, eating in silence, until Stephan finished eating and laid a folder on the table. He slid the folder over to me and I opened it and started flipping through the pages inside it. After 3 pictures I slammed the folder on the table. “Where did you get this!?” I shouted at him. He laced his fingers together and smiled twistedly. “I have been keeping tabs on you for the past year. I had my suspicions that you were going after kids but couldn’t catch you in the act. I was proved correct though when the cops came to me and gave me video evidence of you kidnapping a kid.” He got up and went to the sink and started washing his hands. I picked up the folder again and reopened it. I spread all the pictures out on the table and actually looked at them. Stephan had been keeping tabs on me and for a while for the looks of it. There was about 2 years of info in here. All of it about me. I sat back in my chair and put my head in my hands. God, I thought I had been so careful, but apparently I’d been slipping up for quite some time. I distantly heard Stephan turn the water off and then there was a thud and the table shook. I looked up to see a hunting knife stuck in the middle of the table. I looked up at Stephan with a question in my eyes and saw a small smile on his face. I hated that smile. Then he started talking, “I’m going to give you 3 options. Option 1: The cowards way out, you pull that knife out of the table and take your own life.” I shook my head violently after hearing that “Not that one? That’s too bad, I think Mother would have had a good laugh. Oh well, there’s still 2 other options.” He laughed at the expression on my face. I went to stand up but he slammed his fist on the table and growled, “Don’t you dare move out of the seat.” I scooted back in the chair and gripped the edges of the arm rests. Stephan straightened up and smoothed out his suit jacket. “Now for the other options. Option 2: I tie you to that chair and then call the police and tell them that you're here waiting for them and they take you to prison or we have Option 3” I opened my mouth and then snapped it shut. Did I really want to go to prison? Did I want to spend the rest of my days in a prison cell? Would that path end better for me? The answer to all those questions was no, I didn't want to go to prison and spend the rest of my life there. They’d probably let me rot in a cell somewhere and try to forget all about me. I sighed and raised three fingers on my left hand. “Tell me Option 3” Stephan smiled again and pulled out his chair and slid into it. “Option 3. Well this one is my personal favorite. Option 3 is where you pull that knife out of the table and then you run as fast as you can.” I opened my mouth to say yes but Steph held up his right hand. “I’m not done speaking. You run as fast as you can through the forest behind the house.” I looked out the window and yep there was a forest right in the backyard. The trees were huge. I looked back at him, “I want a five minute head start.” He laughed and stood up, “I knew you would choose that option. Well it's only fair to give you a little bit of time before I give chase. Five minutes seems like a good amount of time to me.” I let out the breath I was holding, I wasn’t sure if he would agree to give me extra time. I nodded my head and reached for the knife. My fingertips grazed the handle before something cold and hard hit my face. I flew back in my chair and looked down to see a frozen water bottle in my lap. I glared up at Stephan only to see him leaving the room. “Take the bottle and the knife and run Rapheal, you only have five minutes. Oh and I’ll know if you took anything else.” His voice was fading away as he went back to the room I woke up in. I jumped up and yanked the knife out of the table. I grabbed the water bottle and bolted over to the back door. I twisted the handle and let out a breath of relief that it wasn't locked. I pushed the door open and ran as fast as I could to the forest. I needed to get past the first line of trees if I wanted to have any chance. Stephan didn’t say what he was going to do if he caught me. When. When he caught me. There was no if about this, Stephan would catch me and I would die. Today is my last day alive. I was going to die tonight and there was nothing I could do to stop it. So I ran. I ran as fast as my body would let me. I made it past the line of trees and jumped over a fallen tree. Distantly I heard the sound of a door slamming shut and pushed myself to go even faster. I knew that Stephan would never make noise unless he wanted to be heard. Stephan wanted me to know that he was giving chase. I saw a river off to my right. If I could just make it over that river I’d have a little more time to think up a plan. I quickly changed direction and sprinted over to the river. The only sounds I heard were my own heaving breathing, the birds, and running water. Hopefully Stephan wouldn’t find me too quickly. I could clearly see the river now. Just a few more strides and I could jump in and swim across and hide behind some trees and think of a better plan. I took a few steps before something tackled me to the ground. I hit the ground and Stephan didn’t waste any time in flipping me over and dropping his knee on my chest. I felt my hand close around the air and jerked my head over to try and see where the knife went. I spotted it a couple of feet away stuck in the river bed. I laid my head on the ground and closed my eyes. I knew my time was up and there was no point in trying to fight anymore. I opened my eyes to find Stephan peering down at me. “You’re not going to fight?” He sounded so confused. I sighed, “What’s the point? You’ll win in the end and I’ll die either way, this is just the best option. He jumped off my chest and took a few steps back. “You said you’d put up a fight John. You promised me that this time you’d fight back and we’d see who was truly stronger.” What was Stephan talking about? Who’s this John person? Was Steph actually losing it? Before I could ask any of the questions I had, Stephan disappeared. WHAT!? WHERE DID HE GO?? He was just here. I jumped when I felt something hit my back. I turned around but there was no one there… What is going on?
All of a sudden there was blinding light and I closed my eyes against the onslaught of it all. When I opened them again there was this guy standing in front of me holding a VR set. “God John, I can’t believe you just gave up on me again!” I smiled a small smile, “Sorry Dave! I couldn’t think of anything else! I saw the river but there was no fish and it stumped me.” Dave laughed and grabbed my hand. “It’s fine, the producers say they have what they need anyway so we can go grab a bite to eat before we continue testing out the new games.” I laughed and started walking towards the doors. “Good, I’m starving!” Dave rolled his eyes and laughed, “Let go to Jade’s then, they have really good food there and i’m craving some shrimp” I rolled my eyes and pushed the door open. The yellow light of the sun was the last thing I saw.