2023

"I don’t know." His mother continued weeping. Ryan turned from them and went to his room. Once there, he slammed and locked the door, and started his favorite MMD (music mini disk), a group called Tail-End. He turned it up as loud as it would go, fell into his bed and slept.

Ryan didn’t go to school the rest of that week. He slept, accepted sympathizers and hung out with Bob and Xeana. Brian’s parents, in their paranoia, wouldn’t allow him out of the house.

Four days after the incident, Bob, Ryan and Xeana all sat in his room, eating a bag of chips and listening to Hellhole. Xeana suddenly looked at Ryan from her spot near the wall and said, "There are a lot of rumours going around. Are any of them true?"

Ryan shrugged as he lay on his bed. "How would I know?"

Bob, who was sitting on the beanbag, said, "Do you even know what the rumours are?"

Ryan shook his head. "Do I care?"

"They say that the Qa Tsanu meant to kill you," Xeana persisted.

"They say that you’re in trouble with the law," Bob added.

"That you’re related to Terçk."

"That your stepfather hired the Qa Tsanu."

"That you are Qa Tsani and - "

"Stop!" Ryan yelled. "As far as I’m concerned, they’re all lies. As far as I’m concerned, my parents and everyone else besides can just rot in hell."

His friends fell silent. The MMD ended. Bob stood, put Tears of Blood in and sat down as the music began to play.

Ryan sighed. "I’m sorry. It isn’t your fault. I’m just sick of everyone saying ‘I’m sorry, what can I do?’ Sorry helps nothing and nothing will bring Derek back or stop my mother’s goddamned crying."

"Isn’t that a little harsh? I mean, your mother just lost one of her sons," Xeana pointed out.

"And I lost my brother," Ryan retorted. "But do I sit around, moping and weeping constantly?"

"No," Bob said. "You sit around bitching and sleeping."

"You know what, Bob?" Ryan began. "You can just - "

"All of you, shut up, cool off. Listen to the music," Xeana shouted above the fight that was about to occur.

The music continued, oblivious to anything but its own sound.

They say you’re related to Terçk.

Even after his friends had left, their rumours stuck in his head.

As he lay in his bed that night, Ryan began thinking more seriously about his friends’ words.

Who in your family has your hair? Your eyes? A nasty little voice asked Ryan. He instinctively put his hand on his light grey hair.

"Derek did," he said softly.

It was true. Derek and Ryan looked so similar that they were often mistaken for twins, despite Ryan being Derek’s senior by two years.

Ah, same hair. Your mother’s hair. But the eyes? Where do they come from? Your mother has brown eyes and you don’t know your father.

"Maybe it is from my father," Ryan said stubbornly.

Ha. Right. Do you know anyone who has eyes that color besides you…and Terçk?

Ryan shut his eyes…eyes that were the same shade as his hair. "Shut up."

You know I’m right.

"You’re not right and you know how I know that? Because you’re me and I know I’m not Terçk’s son. Leave me alone."

With that, he turned over and slept an uneasy sleep.

"Idiot," Ashtan Terçk growled as he watched the news from his luxurious home in the center of the country.

It had been a week since Derek was wrongfully murdered. The Qa Tsanu, by the name of Ketin, had been discovered and executed.