BURNS » Niam ✔

7 - Written In Scars

Three nights later, Liam came in the bedroom to find Niall sitting up in the bed and waiting for him. Niall patted the mattress.

"What? No school tonight?"

"Nope. Not tonight."

"Why not?"

"I wanted to talk. Remember?"

His expression changed. "Right." He sat down on the bed and looked at Niall who took hold of his hand.

"Don't be nervous. I just want to be honest with you about why I've been afraid to go further with you because I know constantly stopping you is making you frustrated with me."

"No. Not with you. Only with the situation. If you're not ready, you're not ready."

"But it's not just that I'm not ready. It's more than that."

Liam caught his breath. More than that? He knew he had been wanting an answer but now that he was about to get it, he wasn't sure that he wanted it anymore. "Okay."

"First of all, it's not you. I know you thought that it was you but it isn't. It's just... It's not that easy to let go of the past when it's with me every second of the day. And it's not that I'm lying to you either. I just didn't tell you the whole truth."

"About what?"

"About my life. You know that I'm adopted but it's time you know why. Just please... Please bear with me."

"I'm​ listening." He assured.

Now Niall took a deep breath, deciding to just dive right into it. "It was when I was five years old. One night, I was sleeping in my bed and I woke up to something burning my back. I screamed out loud, fell to the floor and rolled around. At first, I wasn't sure what it was, but then I saw my brother Greg standing over me and smiling with a match and a matchbox in his hand. He had set me on fire."

Liam gasped. "What? I didn't know you had a brother. And he set you on fire? On purpose?"

"Yes. And it wasn't his first time setting something on fire for fun either. He used to set small things on fire. Like my mother's​ handbags and even the dog's old doghouse. That second one actually set the yard on fire and the fire department had to come put it out. My parents told them it was an accident but they got fined for burning in the city."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah. But luckily when I rolled over, I put out the fire so it didn't have that much time to spread to other parts of my body like it did in the yard."

"But what about your parents. Did they know he did that?"

"Yeah. When I screamed, they came running. But they loved Greg. He was their first child and they knew that with his impulse disorder, he'd be sent to a mental hospital. They were scared for him because he was only twelve."

"You were only five then. So... he's seven years older than you."

"Right."

"That is young."

"It is. By the time they rushed me to the hospital, I was unconscious because I had gone into shock. But while I was getting treatment, they lied to the doctors. Since it was wintertime, they told them that I stood too close to the fireplace and one of the fire embers popped on me and set my pajamas on fire. And when I woke up, they told me I was supposed to tell the doctors the same thing."

"Did you do it?"

"I did."

"And they believed it?"