Like father, like son

I came from what one could call a broken home.

My father regularly beat me and my mother seemingly for the fun of it, controlled every aspect of our every day lives. He was a cruel man, a cruel man who despite everything was painfully human. No matter how much I saw that monster, no matter how much my child innocence tried to urge that it wasn't human, it was. That was what scared me most. The cruelty of humanity, of how others can bring themselves to hurt the people they are supposed to love just because.

I don't know if there was a reason. I just knew that he did it, and there was no excusing his horrible actions.

I don't ever want to become anything like him. No matter what or who stands in my way, i won't let that legacy live on. I'm not him. I'm not like him, even though our faces are so bastardly similar i am not my blood. I'm not going to be another monster roaming someone's halls.

I don't want to be a monster. I don't want to be him.

My life was good for a while. I was just like everyone else. I went to work and baked to my heart's content, serving my customers with a smile.

Then he showed up. The most peculiar man I had ever seen walked into my shop seemingly with a mission. His eyes scanned the bakery slowly before settling on me. Something lit up in his eyes– It was this happy little glint that showed up as he looked at me but i didn't feel frightened or weirded out at all. It reminded me of a little kid happy to see their favourite person. He approached the front, hands twitching in a way that struck me as a nervous tick, "You.." He spoke carefully, mouth barely contained in a straight line. "You're the owner of this place, correct?"

I observed him a moment, straightening my back, "That's correct. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards, "My name is Stafford Johnson. My father was Derrick Johnson. Mama... she told me before she passed away. She said that I had a brother. I'm your brother."

I paused, mouth opening and closing as I was left speechless. I didn't know what to say, but looking at him, looking into his eyes– I could tell he wasn't lying. He had my eyes, filled with pain but trying to hide it. He had his eyes, a familiar shade of striking green.

"She said you wouldn't want me but– you look so nice! You look exactly how i'd imagine a big brother would look like!" He looked so young now that I thought about it, and so happy at the thought that he had a sibling. That he had someone.

My heart ached for him.

Derrick had been a caucasian man with striking green eyes, usually wearing a crooked smile. His hair was a dark ebony colour, just like mine. He always hit me, always took out his cruelty on me when he deemed it fit, and i had been so scared of the monster that was my father. I will never become him.

Faith had been a woman with dark skin and strange but beautiful blue eyes. Her dark hair was soft and fun for a child to play with, and to this day I can't fathom how she didn't even get irritated in the slightest whenever I would get something stuck in it. She never complained, just smiled. My mother had been kind and full of life, despite the situation we were in.

Father had stolen that life, so I had taken his. He was dead and could never hurt another soul.

To think that he had left any more parts of himself in this world almost felt like a practical joke. He deserved no remnants left in the mortal realm. He deserved not to be remembered by anyone fondly, he deserved not to leave anything for anyone to remember him by. He deserved nothing. Not after everything he did to me and my mother.