Archive of Our Own ^beta

William knew that he and David weren’t like the siblings he always saw on TV or within his friends even when he was young. There was that distance between them. The only thing they really had in common was their mum and their combined dislike for the town that they were growing up in. They disliked it for different reasons— William hated the things he was forced to see and David hated the lack of things he could see here.

Those similarities were it.

David and him never really… got along. Now they certainly weren’t getting along, Vyncent and William slammed through the area, William flinging doors open with more force they needed just to hear the satisfying bang of the door against the wall.

They stepped out onto the street, the rain pouring onto his back, bouncing around on the pavement and soaking William’s clothes to his body— David was a horrible, horrible person, and William wished every pain on him—

Could you lose a brother you never even had?

It certainly felt like it.

William was little when he first started seeing them, the monsters haunting Deadwood. He remembered when he was about three or four— one of his earliest memories, along with his dad letting him sit in the back of his truck and his mum wrapping him up in a blanket and throwing him around.

This one… wasn’t as nice as those, most of William’s memories had faded over time since… well, the cliff. This one hadn’t.

He was about three or four— sitting on the back porch of their house, overlooking the Whispering Woods, right on the edge of town. David was sitting on the back porch too, having to babysit his younger brother while their mum ran to the store.

William had toast crumbs all around his mouth and his hands were slightly sticky from the jam on the toast. He remembered seeing something in front of him move, he remembered the way this slow, slinking shadow revealed itself throughout the forest.

He remembered the way that the ground seemed to shake, he remembered the way that everything— everything was shaking. He remembered looking at David, David whose head was buried in his homework.

“David…” William said slowly, “What’s— what’s that?”

The figure in the woods moved forwards. It was a figure larger than a person, with long tendrils flowing behind them, dragging on the ground, the dirt kicked up around them as William just stared at the area that could’ve been a face. There wasn’t any expression, features, just an inky black void that swirled.

David glanced up. His eyes quickly scanned the edge of the forest, his eyes didn’t land on anything and just then… William knew that even at the age he was, David couldn’t see the way he could.

“There’s nothing there, William,” David looked back down at his homework, tapping the bottom of his pencil against the paper. 

William’s eyes had barely left the creature in front of them, it seemed to tilt its head at William, slowly. William stumbled back, hitting his head against the back of the house.

David shot up, looking at William who was now holding the back of his head. “Why are you being weird— there’s nothing there, William.”

According to David— and later his mum, William had just screamed and run inside, hiding underneath his blanket and shaking. He remembered that nothing could lure him out for hours, and every time he closed his eyes the image of the creature just… looking at him.

He remembered eventually being lured out of his room with the promise of candy— he doesn’t remember the concerned looks that his parents gave each other, he doesn’t remember the talks going on at Church about the children in Deadwood unable to see the things that no one else could.

Of course, William, who loves mysteries, figures that out later. But at the time he was a scared four year old, sitting with his dad, as his dad promises that the scary figures can’t hurt him. That nothing will ever hurt him, because his dad will be there to protect him.

William, being a dumb four-year-old, actually believed it.

"You saw what I did to someone I considered a friend. So what do you think I'll do to someone I don't fucking know. Once chance David. Where is she?" 

"And I'm the villain, okay. Alright,” David reached for his phone, pressing a few buttons before holding the phone out in front of him as it rang. There was a noise on the other end. "Marco what's the status?"

"Taken care of?" the other voice— Marco, apparently, said.

David looked up at William. "Can you be more specific?"

"One didn't make it,” Marco continued, the dread in William’s stomach made him want to throw up, “we handled it."

"And if somebody wanted to find this one that didn't make it?" David’s look at William was piercing this time, he wasn’t even looking at the phone.

"Boss?" Nervousness.

Good.

"It's okay. He's not gonna trust it if he hears it from me."

“… they won't."

They wouldn’t find her.

William managed to look away from the phone David was holding and up to his face— and William hoped more than anything that the fucking anger in his body, the grief and anger stewing in his gut was shown on his face.

William had known from a young age that he wasn’t the only ones who could see these things, the monsters that loomed in all the dark corners of Deadwood. Church was a place of gossiping and figuring out which kids could see them. 

It had been deemed a few years ago to be real, rather than some mass hallucination after someone that William couldn’t remember came to the town confirmed it and then William stopped getting whisked to doctors and they all just accepted that to be another part of the town— another part of their lives.

William was ten when he met other people who saw the monsters— school was rough before all the kids his age figured out he saw monsters in the playground and creatures that loomed over people’s shoulders. He found himself with a lot of time by himself. David was never seen somewhere with him that wasn’t the car going back or forth from school. 

Standing in front of him was someone that William… vaguely, vaguely knew— they were in a class above him. They stood in front of William, arms crossed and unimpressed about the entire thing. They had chin-length, straight, deep brown hair, parted directly down the middle. They had light brown skin. They tilted their head a little.

“You’re the ghost kid, right?”

“Uh—”

“The one who sees all the—” they waved their hand dramatically in front of their face, before looking over their shoulder. “Things.”

William just looked at them.

“I’m Kai,” they said, “I’m new to town… so’s my sister Lily— we can… see them too.”

William’s eyes shot up to Kai’s at that, and Kai shuffled on their feet a little bit before glancing over their shoulder again. William’s eyes followed Kai’s and landed on a girl across the other side of the shitty yard. William was pretty sure she was younger than him.

She waved.

She looked enough like her sibling, with long dark brown hair and brown skin, she wore a pair of glasses that seemed too large for her face and a pair of overalls with grass stains and rips at the knees. She got up from her spot, taking a hurried bite out of her apple before throwing it into the bin on the way.

In a few moments she was standing in front of William, hand outstretched in front of her, “my name is Lillian, call me that and I will be forced to tackle you, you can call me Lily, Lily Shaik. That’s Kai— they’re not as bright as me but that’s okay—”

“Oi, Lillian. ” Kai returned with a smile.

William watched as Lily stood up taller before barreling towards her sibling, knocking them onto the ground. William watched them for a few moments as they wrestled, Lily somehow won, despite Kai being older, before sighing and getting back onto her feet, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand before grinning.

“We want to figure out about the creatures,” Lily said easily, as if they weren’t talking about the thing that had ostracised William for months— years, since before he knew he could have friends, “where they come from— why they’re here, what they’re actually looking for.”

“Uh—”

“You’ve lived here forever, yeah?” Lily asked, “you’ll like be our tour guide, do the creatures hurt anyone— maybe they just want friends? Maybe that’s why you can see them— I mean Kai and I are new and have no friends and we can see them, but you’re my friend now so if we can still see them, then maybe there’s another problem. It’s weird isn’t it? Did people believe you at first or did they check to see if you were hallucinating, how do you even check for hallucinations—”

William looked over at Kai, unsure of what to do about the barrage of questions thrown at him.

“Calm down Lils,” Kai wrapped their arm around Lily’s shoulders and hugged her to their side, ruffling her hair as Lily squealed, “we’ll have time to ask all of these— first of all, what’s your name?”

“Oh yeah,” Lily said thoughtfully, “I forgot about that—”

“Um… William Wisp— most people just call me William.”

“No one calls you Will?” Lily asked, “that’s weird— Kai calls me everything but my name, it’s like affection between siblings. Do you have siblings?”

“Yeah…” William thought about David, the last time they’d talked was dinner last night and that was only because David wanted William to do his chores. He thought for a few moments before looking at Kai and Lily. “David… he’s not… super in my life.”

“Oh!” Lily looked up at Kai, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not missing out on much.”

Lily and Kai glanced at each other again.

“Cool…” Kai trailed off slowly, “uh— do you want to come over to our house tonight? If it’s okay with your parents of course, ours will be cool— we can talk about the creatures, and maybe you can answer some of Lily’s questions.”

“Oh,” and for a good chunk of seconds William just stared at the pair of them, just as Lily started elbowing Kai in the ribs and Kai kept wincing. Then William got his brain to reboot again, “yeah… that would be—”

Cool? Nice? Amazing? What word was he supposed to even use here?

“Fun?” William said, then winced a little.

Yikes.

Kai only smiled, “sounds like a deal, Wisp.”

The bell signalling lunch was over rang, and Lily took that chance to elbow Kai in the ribs quite hard, then sprint off towards class.

William watched the fond— and annoyed expression on Kai’s face as they watched Lily run away.

He knew David had never looked at him with anything even a little like fondness, mostly annoyance, mostly unwillingness or judgement.

And so, like that, William, Lily and Kai became a small trio. 

It was nice, that William now had friends, it was even nicer that he didn’t have to spend as much time in the same house as David and his friends— when David wasn’t studying he was bringing over his friends who fucking sucked . And when he wasn’t doing either of those things he was making fun of William for every time he flinched when he saw something in the corner of his eye.

And he knew… that David’s and his coldness to each other wasn’t normal. Kai and Lily adored each other— even when they were screaming different theories about the origins of the creatures. It was just… odd.

A few months passed relatively nicely, easily, William had friends and kept to himself outside of that. His mum was very happy about him having friends, and his dad wasn’t unimpressed either.

Then Aiden Tian rocked into their life, and things were never quite the same— somehow they got louder. 

William had been in class, the way that he tended to be. He was listening to the teacher drone on about history that he didn’t care much about, tapping his pencil against the desk, ignoring the look the girl to his left was giving him.

Something caught his eye in his peripheral, William slowly turned his head towards it, making sure no one around him thought he was— incredibly weird. Well, he was, but still. Sure enough, a black sludge monster caught his eye.

Or… as Lily and Kai had named creatures of that type: Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate, better known as B.O.B, it was from a movie that William had seen, he just forgot the name of it. Unlike in the movie, this thing was not blue nor cute, it was a large black creature that inky black holes for eyes that seemed to endlessly reach into the face of the creature— like some sort of sick tunnel system. This tunnel system weeped a light grey liquid. They were scary, but something William had gotten used to— it still scared Kai from time to time though.

In front of him, William watched a boy jump.

Really jump. He fell out of his seat and onto the floor, the teacher turned around, giving this boy a sharp look.

“Sorry— ma’am,” the boy managed, eyes flicking back and forth between the creature and the teacher, “uh— is there— something outside our window?”

The teacher huffed, looking out the window, “no, Aiden, there is not.”

That made William finally get a decent look at this guy, Aiden, as far as William knew he was relatively new… or he was that family that lived here a while ago— then they moved and came back. (Church gossip really was the only fun thing to do in this town.)

Aiden had black hair that was falling into his eyes, his fringe was far too long to be practical, he seemed fairly tall— taller than William at least, but that was hard to tell when the boy was still on the ground. He wore a blue denim jacket that had a few patches along the back— including a trans flag, a spaceship, a rainbow slug and what seemed to be an older film camera.

For the rest of the class William stared at Aiden’s back. There was another one— someone else who could see these creatures and was probably… terrified. Kai and Lily had each other, William had his parents, being in the middle of a class and seeing these creatures for the worst time?

Scary.

Class was impossibly long, but William survived, packing his things up as quickly as possible before rushing towards Aiden.

William was nowhere near confident enough to do this, but he stood up straighter and tried to channel his best Kai or Lily impression. “I see them too,” William said and Aiden’s head jerked up towards him, “I have two friends— Kai and Lily, we’re trying to figure out why… if you’d like to join us.”

Aiden had looked at William, looked at the table then looked up at William again, something steely in Aiden’s eyes, “it’s fucking weird,” he whisper-yelled, eyes darting back over to the teacher still in the classroom. “Why is everyone acting like it’s normal?”

“Not many people can see them,” William explained, he glanced back at the teacher— Mrs Albereen he was pretty sure, she didn’t know his name so he didn’t feel too bad about not knowing her name. 

“I’m in.” Aiden said.

There was something determined in Aiden’s eyes, as he looked at William. William found himself wanting to have that same determination. Aiden squared his shoulders and nodded.

“Look at you,” Mrs Albereen said fondly, “you’re making friends…” she looked at William, for the first time since the start of the year it felt like she actually saw him. She looked— so confused, no recognition on his face.

William knew he was a bit of a ghost, but jeez.

So, their trio became four. Aiden, the known leader, the one who would spit and cuss at anyone who even dared think about speaking about the group wrong. Kai, who was actually quite clever and good at talking to people. Lily who asked the right questions and rolled around with bugs more often than any of them would like to admit. And William— who loved the feeling of putting a mystery together, finally putting all the pieces they all brought together.

Then they called themselves the Un-Witness Protection Program.

Which was incredibly lame, but simultaneously hilarious.

Then they went snooping around in old abandoned houses, spent weekends watching creatures move and looking for intelligence— or anything, days and nights spent laying on the floors of each other’s houses coming up with ridiculous, or plausible theories.

And… sometimes he would watch Aiden interact with his little sisters, swinging them around on his arm or hugging them while watching a movie. Or he’d watch Kai and Lily interact, shoving at each other, screaming at each other and laughing in the same sentence.

He knew that David and him weren’t like that. He knew David and him would never be like that.

But still, he leant against Lily or gave Aiden half his sandwich or messed up Kai’s hair basically because he could. It was nice… not the same, but it was nice enough. Even after David would side eye him, even after David would refuse to do the most basic thing for William.

It wasn’t the same…

It was still nice.

"How many people have died? For you. How many people have you killed?"

"I'd never kill somebody— I've never killed somebody."

William couldn’t keep the scoff out of his voice, "answer the question, David."

David’s eyes narrowed, "what are you looking for? Huh? You heard him. It's over. I dealt with it. Go save Ashe,” another pang of grief shot through William at those words, “go home."

"What are you gonna do next? What were the samples even for?"

"I wasn't lying, I want to help people. And I don't want my brother going to prison for murder.” David’s eyes flicked over to Vyncent— who was standing there, face dark and eyes narrowed in anger. David glared back, “what if it was your brother— you wouldn't want that either. You'd handle it. And so that's what I did. Scoff at me, look down on me, I didn't force your hand ever."

David moved out when William was twelve, David was nineteen— almost twenty and sure of himself, completing two years of university relatively locally, before getting a scholarship. Something about medical engineering, William never paid much attention.

His parents were happy though. Seemed good enough.

The final day he was packing, William had his friends over. Aiden was laying on the floor, book balanced on his face as he snored. Lily was making paper planes and attempting to throw them at Kai, while Kai was frowning at the latest cork board they'd set up, holding two pieces of papers with clues on them, debating what to put there.

William was scrolling on his laptop, looking for any information on any obscure forum. It wasn't going great but it was mostly a mindless task to do in the presence of friends.

“Well, they seem to have cases over in Trostenwald,” Kai said, brushing hair out of their face, “so what does Trostenwald and Deadwood have in common?”

“Small vaguely religious towns?” Lily offered.

Aiden snored louder.

“That ties it back to the religion theory,” Kai grabbed another piece of paper off the cork board, “that the religious ties lead to some sort of rift.”

“Kai, that makes no sense,” William sighed, “how does religion cause a rift?”

“How do superheroes happen?” Kai challenged, throwing their hands in the air. “Everything is ridiculous in this fucking world— why not a religious rift—”

“Lots of people are religious,” Lily threw another paper plane and missed quite dramatically, before sighing. “Not every small, vaguely religious town has creatures that only some people can see.”

“Are we sure, ” Kai said.

Lily managed to throw the paper plane in their ear this  time, which had Kai squawking.

“Maybe we’re on a leyline,” Kai said thoughtfully.

“Ley lines are proven pseudoscience,” Aiden took the book off his face and sat up, seemingly awake. He tended to wake up whenever Kai or Lily brought out things he didn’t agree with— it was his personal superpower.

“Maybe there’s another magnetic pole right here,” Kai suggested.

Aiden sighed, he looked over at William, “could you please knock me out with this book?” he even held it out towards William. “Please?”

William rolled his eyes, batting the book away and it hit the ground. Aiden groaned dramatically and Lily threw a crumpled up paper at him, which hit him in the eye and bounced off his face.

Aiden seemed to accept his fate and lay back down on the floor, using the book now like a pillow.

David’s head popped in through the door, he looked at the entire group. No one in this room liked David, and David didn’t like any of them particularly, whenever they were around David seemed to just… have a mildly disgusted expression on his face. 

This was no different.

“You might want your friends to leave,” David shrugged.

“What, why?”

David shrugged, “you might just want to.”

“Yeah… but why?”

He shrugged again.

“W—what?” William looked at his friends who all looked equally baffled.

David left.

They all looked at each other, “uh—” William’s eyes darted back to his friends, “I think you guys gotta go. David might need help packing? I’m not really… sure.”

Aiden groaned, dragging himself up off the ground like he was being asked to climb a small cliff. (Something he had actually done, and complained less about than this.) Kai stretched out their back which cracked, and Lily managed to gather all the paper she brought into her arms.

“See ya next tomorrow?” William asked when they’d approached the door, “maybe we’ll finally check out Dalton Manor?”

“Lils and I will scout that out and get back to you,” Kai said, “see ya, Will!”

“Bye!”

“Fucking off now,” Aiden added.

William rolled his eyes as the three of them left, chatting to themselves as they walked down the street— and William knew they’d split off at the end of the street, the Shaik and Tian houses on opposite sides of the town— with William’s functionally in the middle.

With a sigh, William turned around and walked down the hall to the kitchen. There were boxes lining the wall— maybe David wanted to talk to William before he moved? (William was personally rooting against that entire idea.)

He stepped into the kitchen, where his mum was trying to give about half their plates to David, and David who was more than fine with the current amount of plates he had.

“Why’d you make me kick my friends out?” William moved towards the counter, his mum looking up from trying to give David every plate they owned. “Is everything okay?”

“I didn't force you to do that,” David smiled, a little twisted and ugly, “you did that all by yourself baby brother—”

Then William realised. David was just fucking with him for the fun of it. He felt his entire face drop as he turned to look at David slowly, David’s expression said it all, there was a small smile on his face, his arms were crossed.

He looked so fucking smug and he tried to ruffle William’s hair.

William jerked away, out of his grip. “Don’t!”

“Boys…” their mum sighed from the kitchen, “can we not do this today?”

“He made me kick out my friends!”

“I didn't make William do anything.”

William opened his mouth basically to start screaming before he grit his teeth, whirling around and walking away as quickly as possible.

He made his way to his room, huffing and closing the door. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments. He knew that he shouldn't be excited about his brother moving away forever.

Part of him was proud, David Belle getting out of Deadwood and into the world. On the other… William would rather have eaten his own hand than deal with David for another minute.

He didn't end up actually saying goodbye to David, he just got a knock on the door and William hummed back.

That was… the last interaction he’d have with David for a while, as his dad piled into the moving van they’d hired and as David laughed about something…

William stayed on his bed, texting the Un-Witness Protection Program group chat about the entire situation.

And as David finally left the house all he felt was relief. It felt like not even the house missed David, it didn't hold his print in it. Not chips on the wall from David…

All that remained was an empty room.

Although it felt like it had been emptier for much… much longer.

"What are you thinking?" Vyncent’s voice wasn’t gentle— it very rarely was, but still something about it almost, almost managed to calm William down. There was someone by him, even after what he’d done… there was someone standing by him, still willing to listen to him.

What William was thinking was not pretty— nightmares and screams and voices slowly seeping into David’s mind. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah." 

"I'm thinking he's too good and if he walks out of this room he's gonna hurt as many people as he wants to get what he wants."

"If you recall I didn't hurt anyone,” David piped up.

"You hurt me. You don't care, so you don't get to talk right now." William shot at David, barely giving him a second glance.

"If i didn't care you'd be in a jail cell." David spat back, venom laced within his tone.

Before any sort of retort came to William’s mind— before he could point out the absolute absurdity of that statement— before he could do any of that— he watched Vyncent Sol cross the room with a few long strides—

And punch David across the face, making one of the most satisfying noises William had ever heard.

He watched David slam backwards into the counter, then slump onto the floor. Vyncent turned back to look at William, teeth gritted and eyes filled with raw, unfiltered rage.

"He says he didn't hurt anybody!” Vyncent yelled, shaking his hand out. “Shit! He gave the commands man— just because he didn't directly do it doesn't mean he didn't fucking hurt anyone!”

 William honestly didn’t remember that much about dying, one second he was chasing after a blue wisp— the next second his footing was lost and he was laying at the bottom of a cliff, his legs mangled and barely able to breathe.

He’s pretty sure that’s a result of trauma, how hazy his memory is of all that. But he remembered the feeling of falling— then like he was caught just within an inch of being gone forever— like someone on a tightrope grabbed him and pulled him onto it.

It was just that William didn’t know how to navigate that tightrope either. He still doesn’t.

William remembered that he managed to make his way back home, he remembered that he couldn’t ride his bike home, that he had to walk it home, using it to hold up as much weight as possible.

And— he remembered getting home, his legs weren’t hurting— why weren’t his legs hurting— his legs were supposed to be hurting— how was he not even feeling them, he looked down at his legs. Those were not the way legs were supposed to look.

So— William did what any sixteen-year-old would do, and his entire body toppled forwards as he landed in the grass. He let out a cry as he hit the ground— it didn’t hurt— why didn’t it hurt— he felt a warm liquid trickling down the side of his hand and slowly brought one hand up to it.

Blood.

Why didn’t anything hurt?

“Mum—” William called out, his voice was scratchy and it barely worked, it was more a strangled cat noise. “Mum!” He tried louder this time.

“Oh, William,” came his mother’s voice, and he could almost cry from the comfort he got from it, “you don’t need to ask me, you can stay at Aiden’s— I appreciate the heads up but you’re sixteen now—”

The front door opened, the fly screen smacking against the wall in it’s familiar way.

Janet Wisp was largely considered to be a proper woman, she rarely swore, she told off her sons and husband for swearing. Still, something about seeing William on the ground, with his legs seemingly shattered in several places had her screaming “WHAT THE FUCK?” For all the neighbours to hear.

So William was taken to the doctor’s, they almost flew him out to New Haven. That's how worried everyone around him seemed to be, William personally thought it was… mostly okay, it was mostly fine.

Then it was not fine.

Hearing a doctor tell you “you do not have a heartbeat, a pulse and you’re not breathing.” was— honestly an experience William could’ve lived without, he just stared at the doctor in front of him for thirty whole seconds.

It seemed his parents had the same reaction.

“I… beg your pardon?” his father managed first, “William seems to be doing all of those things.”

The doctor just frowned at him, she looked over at William, before holding his arm up and handing it to his father. His father looked confused.

“Measure his pulse,” the doctor said, she sounded rather tired, “you will find… none. In a world such as ours things like this aren’t unheard of— they’re just exceptionally rare, I believe your son has found a way to cheat death.”

“Oscar…” his mum said quietly, “we need to talk.”

William watched both of them leave, his arm dropping back down onto the bed. He looked up at the doctor who was still in the room. She was tapping her pencil against the clipboard, mouth twisted into an odd expression.

He strained his ears to hear— he’d always been quite perspective, a skill developed from his time with the Un-Witness Protection Program and getting used to having to fend himself from stray attacks from Aiden trying to shove ice down his shirt.

“David—” he heard next door from his mum, “he’ll be worried. We should tell him to come home immediately.”

A few moments of silence.

“Will he?” his mum asked, “he’s been so busy—”

William looked back up at the doctor.

“Uhm— sorry ma’am,” William asked slowly, and her gaze flickered back down to William, “how— how? Is it… genetic or—”

“Superpowers in general can be,” the doctor replied, she gave William a short smile, it was forced— she seemed stressed in general, “however, it is just as common this doesn’t run in the family and something extraordinary has happened to you William.”

William slumped down in the hospital bed, “I don’t— want this? Can they remove powers? Just— y’know, cut ‘em out.”

The doctor frowned, “in theory, yes. It is new technology that can not be performed on minors unless under extraordinary circumstances…” she looked at William for a few more moments, her expression softened, “Mr Wisp— I believe if your powers were removed you would die.”

“Oh.”

“And stay dead, that time,” she tapped her pencil against the clipboard, “however— it doesn’t seem to be causing harm to you, any other vitals that we could find still work. Nothing wrong with your brain or nerves as far as we’re aware.”

“But… I’m… dead?”

“Legally you should be, if you weren’t conscious you would have been pronounced dead.”

“Oh.”

Next door he could hear his parents talking, he heard David’s name a few times, he heard something about his grandpa on his dad’s side. William just stared at the ceiling.

He didn’t want whatever was happening here, he didn’t want to be special or unique or anything like that… he just… wanted to be William Wisp, one of the Un-Witness Protection Program members. He already hated that he could see the monsters that no one else could see.

Now he had… whatever this was, being halfway between dead and alive.

Maybe he’d want to eat brains? Maybe he was a zombie?

Or this was just all some sick dream that William would never wake up from.

Hopefully.

Please.

William pinched his arm. He felt it and winced.

Well… at least he wasn’t developing any powers.

And that was when he phased through his bed.

"Your mum's going to hate me forever also."

"Yeah... probably. I think she's gonna hate me too,” William just looked at the wall for a few more moments… he had to do this, he couldn’t just let David get away with it over and over again, leaving the destructive, ruining path in his wake. He couldn’t. It wouldn’t bring back Cantrip but… maybe somewhere out there this could almost be revenge.

Slowly, William turned to look at Vyncent. “Hey Vyncent?"

"Yeah."

"For this next part I'm going to need you to leave the room."

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them. Vyncent knew what happened the last time William was left alone. William didn’t want Vyncent to see him like this.

"What are you planning?" Vyncent said slowly, carefully, like William was the threat here.

And he was. Wasn’t he?

William couldn’t look his friend in the eyes. "Nothing pretty."

"I don't— I don't think that's the answer though."

"I don't either, I know I fucked up a lot. But do you trust me with this?"

"Dude. William, I need you to not beat around the bush here. Just beat the bush. What are you planning right now? Because my mind is going in every possible direction."

Oh. Yeah. William didn’t laugh, but he felt the closest to it that he had, of course Vyncent was going to assume the worst! Who wouldn’t— with William talking the way he had been, with William acting the way he had been.

It would’ve almost been funny if it didn’t feel like William’s heart was breaking inside his chest.

"Yeah, no, you're right I probably should've just said it. I'm not gonna kill him, I'm not even gonna hurt him."

"Oh thank god i thought you were going to murder your brother— I was like 'dude that's really'—"

"No… no. I can't— I can't."

If that was more of a reminder for William, than a reassurance for Vyncent, Vyncent didn’t comment on it. His face twitched slightly.

"Oh my god that really made this much harder than it needed to be. What are you gonna do, man?"

It's still not going to be pretty though. I just really don't want you to have to see it—"

"Listen, William—"

"It's just a little trick I picked up listening to him."

Vyncent looked like he had more to say, something on the tip of his tongue, but he closed his mouth and just looked at William, Vyncent had moved his posture, William knew him well enough that Vyncent looked like this before going into a fight.

William could hardly blame him.

He turned to look towards David again.

If David Belle had taught William one thing, it was loopholes, it was manipulation. It wasn’t how to ride a bike or tie a tie or— whatever the fuck brothers were supposed to teach each other, but it was what William needed right now.

David showed up back in Deadwood two days after William fell off a cliff, all things considered it was pretty quick for David. They hadn’t talked properly in… months… probably when David sent him an unfunny meme and William reacted to it.

William hobbled towards the front porch, standing against the side of the door as his mum and dad ran past him towards the car. 

The car very clearly didn’t fit the general vibe of Deadwood, it was a sleek modern looking car which just by looking at William was pretty sure had a hover capacity. And so… his brother got out of the car.

David always looked more like his dad than anyone else, a man William had met exactly twice and both times had been so unremarkable that he couldn’t even remember what happened at those meetings. David stepped out of the car, he wasn’t dressed badly even a little, more casual than usual, with a dress shirt and dark blue slacks. He pulled the sunglasses off his face, before his eyes scanned everyone on the porch.

“Mum! Oscar! William!” David folded up his glasses and put them into a pocket somewhere, he walked around the other side of the car, grabbing a bag out of it, then slamming the door shut as he walked up the path, “how’s our little cliff tumbler.”

“David…”

“The most unbelievable thing is that he was out walking somewhere, since when were you a fan of hikes, William?”

“Since I was thirteen,” William shot back, his hand now clinging to the doorframe to keep himself upright. His legs were already aching.

David just frowned, walking up the stairs and looking at William, “your legs are shaking.”

“Yeah— that’ll be the fifty foot fall,” William snapped back, “which by the way is the amount someone is supposed to die at—”

“Your brother died, David,” his father said.

David looked at William. He looked at his step-father. He looked back at William, “he looks pretty alive to me.”

“David!” their mum yelled, “we wouldn’t just be telling you this, William…” she looked slightly nervous before glancing back at William, “we should really talk about this inside, Mrs. Brooker most likely doesn’t care about William’s… condition.”

“It’s not a condition,” William groaned, “that makes it sound like I’m sick.”

“Well, you’re certainly not well, son,” his dad said with a laugh, something about his voice made William smile as an arm was thrown over his shoulder, and his dad started leading the both of them inside.

He let his dad carry a good amount of his weight as William was still struggling with the entire walking thing, his dad didn’t seem to mind as he managed to get William to the dining room table and sitting him down at it.

William sighed, leaning his head against the wood of the table.

“Did we have to invite David?” William asked quietly, “I mean— he’s not a real permanent fixture in my life. We’d be better off—”

“Inviting Kai and Lily or Aiden?” his dad responded, grabbing a plate from the cupboard in the kitchen the next room over, “your mother wants David here— he shouldn’t be here for long.”

“He’s an asshole.”

“He’s your brother.”

“Those are statements that can coexist,” William murmured.

His dad snorted, putting the plate down in front of William— it was piled with various leftovers. They hadn’t been cooking much over the past few days… since you know, William fucking died. Thankfully… he could still taste food.

He ate the cold pizza as his mum and David talked outside.

The great thing about having died a few days ago was that basically anything William asked for would happen— he had eaten a good amount of pizza over the past few days and neither of his parents were denying him anything at the moment.

So he reached for another piece of pizza, “can you get me more?” William asked.

His dad sighed, but sure enough turned around to go get the entire box from the fridge, which was more the move. A few moments later he returned with the entire box filled with the various pizza leftovers. There weren’t many left— about three slices, and William reached towards one.

There was a noise outside, then David rolled into the room, he took one look at the box and then took two pieces. Without anyone saying anything he also took two bites out of it before wincing. “What the fuck is this?” he spat the pizza back out into the box.

The glob of pizza landed on the other piece in the box.

William took a long, deep breath.

Now. William wasn’t a particularly angry guy, he simply did not have the energy for all of that shit. There was something though, something about David walking in here, eating a pizza he didn’t even like then spitting it out on the other piece that had William debating if he’d do alright in jail, especially after a homicide.

He took a deep breath.

Then another.

“David!” his dad snapped.

Thank. God. For William’s dad.

Their mum let a lot of things slide— but William’s dad, Oscar, or David’s stepdad seemed to have way less patience than their mum. He didn’t not like David— they both liked David, in theory William also liked David.

In practice…

In practice if William didn’t go to jail for murdering David, his dad probably would.

David looked up, “what?”

“That— that clearly had pineapple on it, you don’t like pineapple and I think you’re aware of that.”

William looked at the two half eaten pieces of pizza that David threw back into the box.

And William, who had died a few days earlier, who was now phasing through objects uncontrollably and who was about to impale his brother on the fence outside… did not give a shit.

He ate the half eaten pizza.

His limit was the other piece that had the spat-out-pizza-glob on it. He would not be touching that for love nor money.

“That’s so gross,” David said, “what’s wrong with you—”

William looked up from his pizza, “David, I literally died three days ago. If I want to eat half eaten pizza— I’m going to eat half eaten pizza.”

“Went on a hike one time and then you died and now you’re eating a small mountain of pizza, you’re so lazy.”

“David I swear—”

“Boys,” their mum walked in at that, her expression disapproving, “please don’t fight, David, you should know better than this.”

“William started it—”

“You ate my pizza!”

“It’s not yours!”

“It very much fucking is!” William threw his arms in the air, “then you spat it out onto the other piece, you don’t like pineapple on pizza are you blind!”

“William!” his mum snapped, “stop swearing.”

There was a rumbling next to them. 

“Wait,” William said, “be quiet, I hear something.”

“Oh great, now he’s pulling his whole ghost seeing thing,” David threw his arms up in the air, “Mum, Oscar. Come on, he does this whenever an argument happens, it’s not that big of a deal it’s pizza . He can’t just use this whenever I’m gaining an upper hand in an argument—”

There was a thumping noise, it was coming from outside for sure, like something heavy running or thumping against the ground. He paused for a few moments, trying to figure out what it was— it might’ve been Mr Carrick’s truck backfiring again. It did sound concerning.

William turned his head to the side.

What was that noise?

Just too late William realised that this was a creature.

Then the wall of his house was being torn through, everyone in the room screeched as a black voidal hand came sweeping through. Plaster and brick was torn from the side of the dining room. 

It swiped at him, and William felt himself being flung back. When he winced and waited for himself to hit the wall— nothing, and instead he crashed against the ground. The hallway. He went through the wall.

“William!” his mum yelled.

“The fuck?” William whispered, mostly to himself, his body was aching. He staggered back onto his feet.

Just in time apparently.

Another black tendril was lashing out at him.

William dove out of the way, feeling something hit him on the back of the shoulder as he was more— flung into the side. His head slammed against the back of the wall, and surprisingly William didn’t feel as much pain as he should’ve, it was just a dull ache— less like he was feeling it and more like he was supposed to be feeling it.

He groaned, before rolling on his stomach and looking at the creature staring back at him. It was a relatively small one, which William supposed was good. It was a shapeless blob which would… shape to have expression, to have facial features.

The blob shaped to have a mouth with sharp, black gooey teeth.

It was a bit horrifying.

Then it lunged forwards and William fully screamed, being knocked back into the wall and feeling it splinter behind him. The plaster really was not strong enough for this. He groaned as his head spun.

Managing to stumble back onto his feet, William took a deep breath, he could feel congealed black blood start to almost… fall out of the wound of his head. A nice side effect of being half dead, he supposed.

William grit his teeth, “I am… so tired,” he said to no one in particular, just hoping the universe heard him.

The universe must’ve heard him, because something then tried to knock him out.

He threw his weight to the side, something slipping him in the side of his head.

For a few moments William just sighed, staring at the ceiling before whirling around at whatever was on the other side of the hall. Standing there was… one of the Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate’s (or as Lily and Kai had dubbed it, a B.O.B creature), a large creature that looked like wobbuffet in a creepy pasta, with holes for eyes and a giant gaping void that was where a mouth would’ve been.

They were some of the scarier things, they still made Kai and Lily jump— and still made Aiden fall over. William grit his teeth.

This was tiring.

“Oh my Godddd ,” William complained, it didn’t sound too dissimilar to when his mum asked him to do the dishes, “fuck off.”

And with that annoyance, the several injuries and the mild rage about David having the audacity to be annoyed that he had been called to Deadwood for a couple of days. He felt all of that rise up within his stomach.

Neither of the creatures moved. “I said fuck off!” William yelled.

From his hand a bright blue flame erupted, the creatures screeched and William winced from the pain, slamming one of his hands against his ears while his other held the flame out in front of him. 

“Get out of my house! Go bother someone else— I’m not even that interesting, go find David— he’s so great.”

The creatures both reeled back. William waved his hand helplessly towards the creature, then whirling around and swinging his hand at the other one as quickly as possible. 

“A little help, a little help—” William muttered, mostly to himself. He didn’t know his powers were more than some weird ghost shit, instead he could also swing fire at people— that was awesome, and William didn’t want to think about the implications that really had.

Fire. Ghost.

… like the wisps he was chasing.

William whirled around swinging his hand towards the small blob creature that had tried to move up the hallway. He swung his body around again, he wasn’t really sure how much longer he could keep this up— all the swinging with fire and praying that this would go okay.

“William—” David was standing in the door of the hallway, eyes wide as he scanned the hallway, “what’s there—”

“Fuck off David,” William snarled, “you can’t— see— them.”

“Are you sure you’re not seeing things—”

Then the B.O.B (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate) swung with another voidal spur, this time crashing through the wall to their right, William yelped, throwing himself backwards. David’s hand wrapped around William’s shoulder almost automatically before dragging him backwards, his mouth was slightly open.

“What the fuck?”

William just gave his brother a look, before sighing. “Now would be a really good time for any help wisps,” he said out loud.

“Huh—”

William took a deep breath, he felt heat in his hands, in front of him was a few pops of blue as small blue wisps shot off towards the creature (the B.O.B creature), the creature screamed and bolted in the opposite direction, tearing a hole in the wall.

He couldn’t even bring himself to care because he just looked at the other creature on the other side of the hallway, standing near the door that led out to the front porch. William just tilted his head a little bit.

“Can you not?” William asked the small creature.

It seemed to get the message, and turn around and disappear outside, the front door being knocked off it’s hinges.

David looked at William, with a mix of fear and amazement, “you’ve always been weird.”

“Shut up, David,” William snapped.

“We’re going to have to—” his mum had a hand on her chest, breathing in and out quite a lot. His father looked concerned and moved to stand behind her, “call someone— that— that isn’t normal.”

“There appears to be a hole in the side of your house,” David said, ever so helpful.

“Yes, David!” his dad snapped, “we are very well aware of that.”

David pouted like a toddler.

William rolled his eyes, “who do you even call for this sort of thing, mum? Some strange monsters seem to be hunting me. It’s probably just safer if I get out of Deadwood.”

“Where would you go?” David asked.

“Freedom City…” William said very slowly, “the place you live.”

“Oh.” David looked at William, he looked at his mum, “don’t make him live with me.”

“Your brother's life might be in danger here, honey,” she said, “if he needs to stay with you for a while, then he’s going to stay with you for a while.”

David opened his mouth, he closed his mouth before looking at William, eyes slightly narrowed.

“David, you have a four bedroom apartment,” his dad cut in, “you can spare room for William if his life is in danger here. Okay?”

William was pretty sure he’d rather die again than be living with David, especially without the buffer of one of their parents, William was pretty sure they’d end up killing each other. William looked around the remains of what had once been a pretty nice dining room. “I think I’ll take my chances in Deadwood.”

Then he turned around and walked out of the room.

The smoke from the burners slowly drifted over towards William, he took a deep breath, feeling the smoke twirl in between his fingers and around his hand. For a moment he looked at it— it was beautiful.

He crouched down, picking up his brother from where he was still sprawled on the floor from Vyncent’s punch. He had a nasty looking bruise on the side of his face and it filled William with an odd sort of joy.

William took one more deep breath, he watched David’s eyes flicker open, unfocused and blurry as he stared at William.

"I know they're in there.” William whispered, “the faces, maybe the voices or maybe even just the feeling of all the people you've sent to be buried in the backyard.”

The smoke twirled in front of David’s face— 

How many people had died for this? How many people would keep dying for this— William had to try and stop it, the best he could at least.

“But even if you're just lying to me, even if you just think you're lying to me, you're just lying to yourself and you killed. Every. Single. One of them. And everytime that you're about to open your mouth—"

William flicked one of his hands up, and the smoke surrounding his hands faded into David’s eyes and mouth, eyes clouding over and choking on the green mist that was in his mouth.

"Everytime you're about to open your mouth and give the order again, as you did a thousand times before, I want you to remember. Even the faintest whisper from each of them. Because I know together that will be the most deafening thing you ever hear. 

“And if you have even an ounce of guilt or regret... maybe you can finally be true to yourself at least. And if you don't— I will make sure the next nightmare you have, you do not wake up from."

He felt his powers take hold, he could almost feel David’s mind rewriting under his hand, he’d done it to Xavier. David was child’s play in comparison. 

William held onto David’s shoulders for a moment, keeping him mostly upright as William took in several deep breaths, before craning around to see Vyncent standing at the back of the kitchen, nodding.

Either way, Un-Witness Protection were all incredibly excited about the story, and had immediately assembled at William’s house, in his bedroom, while everyone else in the house was on the phone to various people.

Aiden was sitting in the desk chair next to William’s bed, where William was laying, propped up with a bunch of pillows because his entire body ached— Lily was sitting on the end of the bed, and Kai was standing by the corkboard that they’d turned around, grabbing at various pieces of paper to try and figure something out.

“Why would that be happening?” Aiden asked, he grabbed William’s wrist and started feeling around for a pulse, “that implies your powers are somehow connected to— any of this?”

“I don’t know, Aiden,” William looked at the corkboard, “I don’t think it’s safe having me here.”

“Bullshit,” Kai snapped, expression unimpressed, “one, this is your house. Two. What the fuck? That doesn’t mean we’re gonna leave you dude, we’re the only ones who can see the things attacking you.”

William snorted.

“There’s proof though,” Lily said, “I mean— the dining room is wrecked, are you gonna get that sorted?”

“Dad’s on the phone with some people, so’s David and Mum,” William looked back up at the roof, “I think Mum’s trying to call W.A.T.C.H.”

Aiden fell off the desk chair, landing on the ground with a thump, “you becoming a superhero or something?”

“Something like that,” William muttered.

Kai snorted, looking up from one of the papers that they were looking through. “Our William, a hero?”

William rolled his eyes, “fuck off Kai.”

The door swung open, and William immediately looked up. His mum was standing at the door, amusement on her face as she looked at the four of them crammed into this relatively small room.

“William,” his mother said, “I’ve called W.A.T.C.H, they’ve said they’re sending someone right over.”

“Oh.” William blinked at her, “um— okay.”

“This is just for your safety, honey,” she glanced at everyone else in the room, “we’ll figure it out.” She gave everyone a smile, eyes watching Kai, Lily and Aiden, all kids that had been in her house as much as William had. “Hope you’re all well.”

“All good here Mrs. Wisp!” Aiden said, his legs were up on the desk next to William’s bed and William fought the urge to wince, “oh yeah— Mama says that she wants to hold the bookclub at her house next week, and if you could let everyone know.”

“Of course, honey,” she looked around at everyone else, “you’re well, Lily? The boys not giving you too much trouble?” she pointedly looked at William and Aiden, and both of them shuffled under her gaze a little.

“The boys aren’t, Kai is though,” Lily pulled a face at them and Kai pulled one back.

William’s mum laughed, “I’ll leave you be, you might have to leave in a few hours when the W.A.T.C.H representative shows up, apart from that help yourselves, you know where the snacks are.”

And she left, latching the door behind her.

“Your mum is lovely,” Aiden said, “can she adopt me?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No way.”

“Your mum’s great too,” Kai said absent mindedly, they glared at the piece of paper, “hey— they have talks of will o'wisps here. In Deadwood.”

“What?” William sat forwards, “what do you mean—”

“Will o’wisps,” Kai explained like that explained anything else, “there’s only one thing I’ve found— we must’ve printed this out years ago, or stolen it from the library. It’s just about… yeah, mostly mythology and how they lead travellers towards things.”

“I am… not a traveller,” William muttered.

Kai shrugged, “that’s all I got,” they passed the paper to Lily who passed it up to William. 

William read it, it had about the same information Kai explained but nothing else. There were some found in Deadwood about forty years ago… which meant incredibly little to William, he rolled his eyes and put the paper down next to him.

For a moment everything was quiet in the room, it was almost peaceful, that easy silence that William had spent years working towards with his friends stretched. Lily was tapping on her phone, Kai was looking through more papers and Aiden was swinging back and forth on William’s chair like a complete menace.

Then a ghost stuck its head through the wall.

Staring at William was a… frankly terrifying ghost, with half of it’s face melting off whatever… ghostly bone there was, covered in what looked like desaturated burns, bits of bone and muscle were showing on one side of its face.

Everyone screamed. William squealed as he threw himself backwards away from the ghost next to his window, Aiden fell out of his chair and then William landed on top of Aiden. Kai grabbed Lily and in four easy steps was towards the door, flinging it open.

William and Aiden manage to untangle themselves and follow Lily and Kai.

The ghost was also moving towards them. 

“William!” Aiden yelled, “do something!”

“What the fuck do you do?” William yelled back, “I don’t know how to— I don’t know how ghosts work!”

“Why not?” Lily screamed, “we’ve been studying them for— how long now?”

“William, kids?” William’s mum was now in the hallway, although it was less of a functional hallway due to the fact that half of it had been ripped apart by the last monster attack— that had only been two hours ago. “Are you alright—”

What the fuck was happening?

“Creepy ghost attacking us Mrs Wisp!” Aiden yelled over his shoulder.

“Then run!” William snapped, “it’s not after you!”

“When we said we’re not leaving you we meant it! We’re more qualified than anyone else in this house—” Kai said. 

Then. Because Aiden was the dumbest, most irrational, and yet incredibly loyal person that William Wisp had ever met (yet. He would meet Dakota Cole soon.) Aiden swung towards the ghost.

And then punched himself in the face as his fist went right through the body of the ghost. Aiden cried out in pain— did that make him weak or strong— not the point. Then the ghost lunged at Aiden.

Somehow. Somehow. The ghost began tearing at Aiden’s skin.

William felt his blood run cold as a splash of blood landed on the wall next to him. It was odd— William hadn’t felt much heat or cold since he died, but right now it was like there was fire in his veins lighting up and threatening to take everything. Still, his stomach felt cold as he stood there in shock, all of them just— staring.

Then he watched his body fall behind him, being caught by Kai who was standing right behind William. “What the fuck—” Kai screamed.

William didn’t care, the ghost took another swipe at Aiden, and William felt his body move forward. Like he was suddenly so much faster, like suddenly he was so much freer— and god he was free.

He was running into the ghost before William could think about it, and somehow— tackled it, the two of them went barrelling through the wall and onto the grass outside. William felt himself spin around, barely touching the ground.

William swung at the ghost, he didn’t even know if it would do anything, but it felt good when it seemed to connect. The ghost’s head snapped back looking at him, their flesh still looking particularly melty off the side of their face.

“Fuck off!” William snapped, “you ghost-faced bastard!”

Not his best work, William would admit. Quips were not as easy as everyone seemed to make them. William swung again, missing this time as the ghost wiggled out of his very, very, flimsy grip. 

His head snapped back at the ghost punched him in the face— which was rude but whatever, and William felt his form flicker. He looked down at his chest, before looking back up at the ghost in front of him.

Shit.

What was he supposed to do? 

And William knew… there was something deep in the back of his mind that he didn’t know was there, he had no way of knowing it was there. It was deeper than knowledge— it was an instinct that wasn’t quite his.

William put his hand on the ghost’s forehead, it tried to flinch away from him, but William didn’t let it do that. He only took a deep breath, “from where you came.”

Nothing.

“Go back from where you came,” William yelled, this time louder.

He felt the power pulsate through his hand, a beam of blue energy flashing inside the ghost’s head. The entire ghost was tinted blue now instead of the desaturated monochrome they had been coloured until now.

William took one more deep breath, “rest now—”

And the ghost disintegrated in his hand.

The fuck?

Then his head started spinning and William made a small noise in the back of his throat as he stumbled in place. His legs hurt— his entire body was aching and his head was throbbing, someone might as well have put a jackhammer on his skull.

Ow.

He trudged back into the house, going straight through the wall because he could do that now apparently. 

Lily was holding his body while Kai was on the phone to someone and his mum was holding Aiden and using a handkerchief to try and wipe as much blood out of the ghastly wounds on his face. 

William’s vision swam.

It was weird to be looking at your own body, William could see everything perfectly. His eyes— even in his body looked exhausted, he was almost unnaturally pale, even before— but now his skin almost looked grey. Like bodies on TV shows. His body’s eyes were closed, his face almost looked relaxed.

William opened his mouth to make a comment on that.

Then he felt himself tipping forwards, and his vision faded to black.

For a moment William felt like he might throw up, there was a balance— he stood on a tightrope. Around him was complete black, a spotlight shining on him as William used his arms to keep him stable.

‘Don’t fall!’ a voice he didn’t know whispered into his head, ‘don’t fall, don’t fall’ some— almost childlike voices repeated over and over.

He was going to fall— he could feel his balance all over the place as he stared into the black void below them. Oh fuck. Is all William managed to think to himself— if he fell… would he really die again? He didn’t want to die— he was sixteen, what sixteen year old wants to die?

Then he felt his foot slip—

—and William woke up. 

Shooting up awake, breathing unevenly as he stared at his mother’s face.

She was holding the side of his face, looking with concern. Vaguely, William was aware of the blue and red flashing lights around them. He’d been moved outside, his vision was blurry but he was pretty sure a paramedic was watching him.

Everything hurt.

His friends— shit , where were they?

“Where’s— where’s Aiden— the others—”

“He went in the ambulance, honey, the others are okay too… whatever that was you dealt with it. William, I was so worried,” her arms tightened around William’s shoulders, “when I saw you just fall like that— I thought you were gone.”

“I’m not Mum,” he whispered into his mum’s shoulders, “I’m right here. I’m— I’m right here.”

And no, it didn’t matter that William was sixteen. It didn’t matter that he had all these confusing powers that seemed to bring death and destruction wherever he walked— especially in Deadwood.

He cried into his mum’s shoulders, and later his dad joined in, hugging around both of them and William cried even harder. It was too much. He was tired. This was confusing. He fell off a cliff and now one of his best friends had been attacked by a ghost. Everyone around him was getting hurt— he was tired.

William noticed that David wasn’t there.

He told himself that he didn’t care.

(He did.)

The time passing was weird, William was aware of it all. He was aware that Lily and Kai were texting him, then Aiden was texting him too. William couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it.

There was a knock on the door. William knew it was someone relatively important, because his mother who had stayed by his side the entire rest of the day got onto her feet and rushed towards the door.

Some vague chatter passed, that William didn’t care much to listen to, he only sat there, feeling numb. He was still at the dining table, staring forwards a little bit uselessly. 

His mother and another woman walked into the room.

In front of him was a middle-aged woman, she had short red hair that went just past her shoulders, along with large circle glasses resting on the edge of her nose. She looked at William for a few moments and she broke out into a smile. She reminded William of the one good teacher he had in elementary school, there was something kind about her.

“Hello,” the woman glanced over her shoulder, “my name is Ms Gilbert—” she glanced away, before looking back at William, “I was wondering if you’ve ever heard of the Prime Defenders— and if… maybe you’d be interested? You would be away from home, but you could return— and it would be a chance to make the world better!”

And he thought of Aiden, currently in hospital, with dangerous scratches all across his face. They would probably scar. He thought of his house, ruined and his parents constantly being in danger, he thought of… living with David, the alternative to whatever this woman was offering.

So William nodded his head.

William dropped David, he slumped against the ground and William couldn’t bring it within himself to care. He turned to the burners, clicking both of them off and staring at the wall for a few moments.

He took a deep breath.

"Yeah..." Vyncent’s tone was almost approving, concerned and worried, but also approving.

William’s eyes found David again, he’d never cared— not really, he never believed William in his childhood. He took from a child just to boost himself up further in the world— who even did that?

He felt the tears start to prick his eyes, and the lump in his throat start to well up as he tried to stop himself from breaking down on David Belle’s kitchen floor.

William’s eyes met Vyncent’s… just for a moment.

"I really wanted to have a brother."

The door slammed on the way out.