The Shrink Program

It would have been much kinder, I think.

If I had stayed unconscious just a little while longer.

"You always were one for dramatics Jack." Alan sighed, sending a glance back at his brother, whose only response to the revelation was to glare angrily down at the floor.

The cheerful smile slipped, revealing the concern in Alan's gaze, and something else, an emotion stuck between regret and pity.

I had asked Alex once, why he never hung out with his brother. Alex had given me a simple, curt answer.

"Alan is a patronising bastard."

When I had mentioned this to Alan, trying to see if I could get a rise out of the cheerful boy, Alan had bashfully rubbed the back of his neck and said.

"Can't say I disagree."

A playful king, sitting aloof on his throne. An amused smile on his face as he watched the children squabble beneath him, fighting petty battles over nothing.

He never got caught up in the drama, never got emotionally involved in the conflict.

The only thing that ever touched him was the pain.

No matter how stupid or irrelevant or easily solved, the problem was, if it caused Alex pain.

It pissed Alan off.

And Alex was undoubtedly in pain right now. Among all the uncertainties and lies, that much was still obvious.

The way his shoulders hunched, the way he glared at the shattered glass on the floor, as if he couldn't bring himself to look at the damage in the room.

That's why I knew, the moment Alan looked back and saw his brothers grief.

That Alan was done playing.

"Jack." Alan murmured, his gaze slowly shifting to the boy, without moving his head. "In a moment, I am going to ask you to go outside and set off the signal, letting our boys know that it is time to retreat. But before I ask this simple task of you, I want to remind you of something."

He turned his head slowly, and as he did, the glass fragments on the floor shifted.

And begun to rise up into the air, floating weightlessly in the room around us.

Blue eyes glowing, there was no amused smile on Alan's face as he spoke to Jack.

"We have hacked into their system, Jack. We can see everything that is happening in this building. We told you where to find them for pity's sake. Now, tell me the truth here Jacky..."

He tilted his head, blue eyes cold

"Did you really think that we wouldn't see what you did to her?"

The glass shifted, rotating in the air like fragments of a deadly mobile.

Jack to his credit, only offered an indulging smile

"Of course not Alan. In fact..." He took a step closer to the taller boy, hands tucked neatly behind his back and a coy smirk twisting his expression. He gestured towards me, where I lay bleeding on the floor.

"I was under the impression that I was warming her up for you."

Even before he finished, a shard of glass shot past his face, leaving a line of blood where the razor's edge sliced his cheek.

Jack stiffened but otherwise made no move to acknowledge the injury.

"Hush, Alex." Alan reprimanded, sending his brother a wry look out of the corner of his eye. "Let's not make a fuss. We have better things to be focusing our energy on."