The attic! “Sehun, take everyone and go up to he attic.”

“What?”

“Just go.-”

“Let us enter!!!”

“-Go!” Aron told Sehun. And at the next moment he put on his innocent face and acted like he knew nothing: “Coming!” Let me live... But in reality his heart had never trembled this much. Before he always had plan B and C and so on – he had everything and I do mean 'everything' thought trough, but now... it was more like 'improvise and hope you'll survive' kind of plan.

Aron hadn't even opened he door properly when the troops crashed in – that should be accurate enough, because they basically broke down the door, they actually damaged the floor with their fecklessness and as there were so many of them the first ones coming in tripped and the others coming after them fell on top of them and so we had a nice pile of Rotten's guards in the living room.

But Aron didn't feel like laughing. He was too busy praying that others would make it to the attic on time.

It wasn't like the ones upstairs had let their guard down just because it seemed that the Rotten hadn't found them so far and the only ones knocking on the door were friends and allies. No, they were wide awake and aware and ready for this to come.

Lia, who had reached up before Sehun, told the others to grab their stuff, pack their most needed things and hide everything else, which was easy because they hadn't unpacked their stuff anyway. The girls and boys knew they couldn't hide in the basement room so going up to the attic was the only logical step.

JR really had trouble moving fast enough so Ren and Minhyun literally dragged him upstairs. The prince had to use all his will to not make a sound – the stitches on his back ripped and started bleeding. HyunAe and Haeran moved like robots – without thoughts, without purpose, just following the order. How much more could they this kind of shaking, who knew?

“Halt!” the guard yelled at Sehun and opened fire.

Aron could only watch as Sehun got hit. The bullets weren't the ones you know... These here were made for maximum damage. The bullet split into tiny pieces right at the point of launch, which meant that the victim got hit with thousands of bullets. Two bullets were enough to make Sehun's legs into scrambled eggs. And the boy screamed the agony he felt can't be put in words.

The guard, who shot Sehun recklessly pulled the boy off the stairs and ran up the attic.

Aron's heart stopped. I failed...

***

Tao and Kris used to share a room when they were younger. Their mother had kept it as it was four years ago when the boys left home. Everything was at its place just like on the old days: two beds, one two sided study table with a built-together bookcase, one enormous wardrobe and so on. The walls were still the same calm green; the door was at its old place and so did the windows.

It felt like home.

“Why did you change your mind?” Kris asked the moment Tao had sat on his bed.

“Why do keep on pestering about it?” Tao asked in return. “Do you really like the beating you get?”

Kris closed the door. “I know you. You don't to anything without a reason.”

“Neither do you.”

“You're not answering my question.”

Tao let out a heavy sigh and looked at Kris. “Fine. If you must know.”

He took out a little book or was it a notebook? Whatever it was it was old and worn. The leather covers were stitched together from the corners and the pages sticking out didn't have the prettiest edges anymore.

“Where did you get it?!”

“You left it behind.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Are you mad?”

“No...” Kris said forming a hint of a smile on his lips. “So you read it?”

“Only the first entry. You wrote down your own future.”

“I know...”

“I've taken the family for granted. I've always had someone by my side... I can't imagine... actually I didn't want to understand how hard it was for you. But now I know why you do the things you do. Now I know that...” Tao had to pause – he couldn't find the words.

Tao didn't have to find those words anyway. There was more than enough that had been said. Kris had the weigh of the world lifted off his shoulders – his brother was his brother again. Tao wasn't looking at him like an enemy anymore. They were brothers again, they were family.

"We're one and one is whole and whole is everything and everything means flawless and flawless means we're brothers. Bothers untill the very last breath we breathe, until we're old and can't remember our own name, but we'll always remember who we are and where we're from, that we're brothers and we'll always be and we'll always know that no matter what happens we will be...

...BROTHERS!"

And the poem that little Kris wrote back when he lost his parents for the first time, his real parents, was now invalid. That poem needed a new verse, a new theme and it most definitely needed a new ending, but it seems that Kris had all that figured out.

Standing in the rain with nothing to protect you,
I know all the struggles and the pain that you’ve been through.
You are not alone there are people who love you,
Giving up is not the answer to the sorrows you cling to.
Dark will soon be the only thing that surrounds you
But don’t get lost within the lies that they spread are true.
Hope will guide you to the light you deserve so;
I will watch over you,

I will watch over you

Growing up I never really knew what to say because
All I ever seemed to be was judged and cut.
I had this fear of looking stupid and so I just gave up.
But now I’m looking and I know that is not the way
We shouldn’t have to be scared to say what we want to say.
Society is only throwing grenades of shame today,
But why can’t they see that all it causes is pain?
Blinded by the pride they don’t even possess,
pushing people away when they should be caressed,
If this is the future we so proudly built
Then I’d rather be killed than beat to some bloody pulp.

The poem you see above is NOT my creation. The credit goes to my dear friend AikaHikari