The Wings Of A Caged Bird | First Draft

chapter 41: a tale of brothers

At that, I turn around. When I glance at July, I find his eyes widened, which means he indeed didn't know.

"And that's not even half of it." Rain sits down on the edge of the bed. "We are still Castletons. My real father, was actually my fake father's older brother. Which means we had been living with our uncle. I don't know the whole truth, but from what I deduced, my real parents were killed by them."

"Eh?" I frown. "But why?"

"All for property reasons. What else? People can do anything for money. But I of course couldn't find any proof of it. And the reason why we were brought under their care, was so that I could be raised to be the heir of the Castleton Hospital. Because they couldn't make a kid of their own with the amount of despise they held for each other. But that's also why they hated us. We looked too much like our parents. We were the walking reminder of their sins."

"Ju- Hale told me they loved you a lot. They gave you everything you asked and treated you like a prince, but did the complete opposite for him."

"That only started when we were around seven or eight years old. From our performance in school, it was obvious that I was a little smarter than the rest, and they wanted to nourish that. They wanted to use me in every way they could to get more money. I was an investment for them. And since Hale wasn't that promising, they didn't bother with him at all. All he did was draw. And they hated that. Artists can't make money. He had no value to them."

I begin to dig my fingers into my palm. My blood is boiling in my head. Is this how it feels like to hate someone? I thought I hated my mother, but that was nothing in comparison. The kind of hatred I feel right now . . . if I don't control it, I might end up doing things I'll regret.

"Another reason why they treated him like this, was because when we were kids, he had once come very close to figuring out that our parents were killed. They got so scared that they locked him in our basement for several days. When I tried to tell them to get him out of there because there are rats and he's scared of rats, that's when they started brainwashing me. They told me all sorts of things about him, how he is a devil child, how I need to always keep him under me, how one day he will surpass me in everything if I don't stay careful. I was seven years old. And what seven year old is capable of having an opinion of his own? I believed them. And I started doing what they told me. That's simply how my mind became shaped.

"It wasn't until several years later that I started to understand what I'm doing is wrong. When I started to develop my own conscience. But that's when he started to get good grades, and I got scared that I will lose the favour of my parents, that they'll replace me with him and start treating me like how they treated him. And I couldn't let that happen, so I didn't stop. But he still kept getting good grades. He had too much willpower. But that's when . . . that's when Moon came into the picture."

I glance at July once again. He was leaning against the opposite wall, exhausted. But at the sound of Moon's name, he stands straight, and a look of desperation floods his eyes. My heart clenches a little.

"Moon was a . . ." He sighs and shakes his head. "There was something seriously wrong with her. I don't know how to describe it. But she went through such terrible, terrible things, that her head was all fucked up. Hale mistook her phony kindness for love. And he fell in love with her without knowing any of those. I didn't know it back then either. I saw how his eyes would follow her everywhere, and how sometimes she would go talk to him though no one else in our class did. I knew they would start going out soon. I saw that as a chance for me to make sure his mental strength gets shattered. Even at that age, I was so fucking immature. So I went out with her instead, and that's when I found out what kind of person she is. I'm sure Hale must have told you why she is that way."