The Mandela Catalogue

Brother

We're in the living room, all of us sitting on the sofas. Twig was laying in the living room floor, passed out. We're waiting for him to wake up. His body was covered in bandages.

(Twig POV)

I sit in a dark room, nothing there other than a small chair. I sit on the chair and wait. Another alternate comes towards me, I sense no danger coming from him but we both keep our distances from each other.
"I am sorry I did not come in time." The smiling man says.
"it was not your fault." I say.
"was it not?" he asks.
"no, I should not have trusted so easily." I say.
He looks down as if he felt sad for me, but he was still smiling.
"I am sorry." he says.
"I do not need your pity." I say, looking down.
"but I do feel guilt." he says.
"why? You were not involved." I say.
"others may not be involved, but can still feel guilt for not being able to help." he says.
"it is over now anyways." I say.
"not yet." he says.
I look up at him.
"is it not?" I ask.
"your merely asleep and he is still alive." he says.
"I thought this was my end." I say, standing up.
The chair disappears.
"no, your very hard to kill." he says.
"what?" I ask.
"I would have to shoot you more than once for my bullets to kill you Twig. What is one puny human with a knife going to do?" he says.
"what about the blood loss? Infection? " I say.
"I will give you some of mine." he says.
"It does not work like that." I say.
"blood type?" he asks.
"B-" I say.
"I can give blood to anyone." he says, like I was supposed to know that.
"are you O-?" I ask.
"yes." he says.
"wait we are alternates, why do we have blood types?" I ask.
"every living thing has blood types Twig." he says, putting his hand up to his face.
"yes but, how do we know them?" I ask.
He pauses for a moment.
"... I do not know." he says.
"hah." I say.
He looks up at me.
"did you just laugh?" he asks.
"maybe" I say.
"you did-"
"when am I going to wake up?" I ask.
"when I am done talking to you." he says.
"but I want to see my friends." I say.
He sighs.
"I will come to you then." he says
"ok." I say.
I wake up.

_______________________

I open my eyes, sitting up to see everyone sat on the sofas, it looked like they were having a silent meeting.
Fox instantly gets up and hugs me.
"what did I miss?" I ask.
"you were out for a while." Michael says.
"oh, my brother is coming to do a blood thing." I say.
"brother?" Fox asks.
Smile man appears in the room.
He holds a needle.
Everyone looks at him.
"he's your brother?!" Damien asks.
"uh, yes." I say.
"you can not just tell people." he says walking over to me.
"why?" I ask.
"because... I don't know." he says.
"what about that story where you wanted to ask him to walk with you but you were scared you were gonna get shot by him?" Fox asks.
"that was made up." I say.
"why tell us now?"
"cause I could not be bothered to keep it anymore, you are my friends also, we should not keep things from eachother." I say.

______________________________

A few hours passed, my brother stayed to look after me.
I am sat on the sofa.
"I am fine." I say.
"I still need to look after you." he says.
"why?" I ask.
"incase you do something stupid and hurt yourself again." he says.
"I won't." I say.
He sighs.
"I am still staying." he says.
"I am going to sleep" I say, laying down.
"it will do you good." he says.
I close my eyes and fall asleep.

______________________

"you want some tea or something?" Damien asks Smiling man.
"in fine thank you." he says.
I open my eyes.
"oh, there is something I want do give you." Damien says.
He goes to his room and comes back with a brown scarf.
"it's for all the times you saved us." he says.
He puts it on.
"you look good." I say.
"thank you." he says.
"do you have a name?" Damien asks.
"Roger." he says.
"oh, nice to meet you."
"it is a very normal name, especially for an alternate."
"did Twig have a name?"
"Robert."
"but you said you didn't have one and that we could name you?" he says to me.
"I do not like my name, so I changed it to Twig." I say.
"oh, OK" he says.
"so, are you sure you don't want tea?"
"oh fine."

(Hello, future me, this is cringe, what was I thinking? This chapter was half assed I can tell.)