The Ghost

66. Losing you

Tyler's POV 

This is not the Gaia I know. She's vulnerable but strong and distant. They all seem to expect this from her, they even follow her commands. But how can they all be OK with the way Gaia is acting, she deserves for them to understand her. 

What is she up to?

The others had left my arms tied up, but I could move now, so I followed Gaia upstairs. 

At the top, I followed the sound of movement to find her packing guns and knives into her duffel bag. Picking up a curved knife with serrated edges, she stares at it thoughtfully. 

She knows I'm here, but I merely stand there offering her my silent comfort. After a few minutes, she speaks up, "They aren't totally wrong you know? You weren't either. Without me there would be so much less pain in all of your lives."

Shit! So that's still in the back of her mind, she hasn't forgotten. "Well, I don't know exactly what would have happened, but trust me they would have been so much worse off. You're right though, I don't know the full story I never have. But look around you. You have all these people whose lives you've changed just by existing. They've experienced happiness because of you and now they want to share that with you, but you have to let them. Let them fight with you. Let them fight for you. You deserve at least the chance to live like a normal person."

She stares at me bitterly, "You're right you don't know the whole story."

I chuckle at her attempt to shut me up, "Well, you keep packing and I'm going to tell you a story." Then I sit criss-crossed on the floor leaning against the wall. 

"Sixty years ago a young man had an idea to continue his legacy of assassination forever. He would build a school for children and secretly train them in killing. The select few admitted would be the princesses from the mafia family's around the world and the offspring of his students… 

"It took him almost a decade to find a truly excellent student, one who he declared would be the very best. Once she had graduated he took her as his wife. He was convinced that she would provide the strongest heirs. That was my grandmother. She was killed once she'd proven that she produced viable male and female heirs. 

"The girl was sent to the school and forbidden from ever mentioning her relationship with the headmaster. Once she turned 16 he chose a husband for her and they were expected to have a child within the first 3 years. That was how my brother and I were born. 

"The son was trained by his father personally. He was a little younger than my aunt but the way he was trained…" I shudder. "He was created to be an emotionless blackhole, practically a robot, but he fought every step of the way and maintained himself. Until one day they did the inevitable. They stole his pride and joy, his daughter Ashley after forcing her to kill his wife, her mother…

"Similarly, my brother and I have been trained in that fashion, although we have been given a choice in who we marry. To be honest, if your Father would have allowed it, you would have been married off to my brother. He worships the way you take lives. 

"Right before we left, I was dating this girl. I had thought we were in love and that we would do anything for each other, but Grandfather found out. I was forced to kill her entire family in front of her before taking her life as well. If I hadn't, he would have killed my father and brother and mother in front of me.

"Eventually my father couldn't handle the pain of watching my brother and I, so he took my brother, my mom and I away. It wasn't like grandfather didn't know it was coming, so he prepared my mother. She was to find one of her father's allies and convince him to kidnap her so father would kill for her. My father did as he was told and when he had made a name for himself you were called in.