Twins

Levi stood up from behind his bullet peppered couch. He viewed the catastrophe that once was his house, lamps shattered, furniture over turned, bullets holes and damage as far as the eye could see. He kicked aside the corpse of the burly bounty hunter who had been there to greet him, he had to leave. Francis had escaped and now the game was on, soon the sounds of a witch hunt will echo throughout the city, his face plastered on posters only a reinforcement to his death sentence.

If only he had more time, he had been looking for his brother, but the process was difficult and all he had to go on was their former last name, Lavery. That was hardly going to help him as they had been renamed once they had been adopted.

Of course that wasn’t quite everything he had on his brother, he had a general search radius but even before his discovery it would have been like searching for a needle in a hay stack. But first comes first, he needed money and there was only one decent way to get it.

He went on foot, not trusting anyone at the moment, not even his driver. He ran with all the strength his sore body would give him, now was when all the time he had invested into feeding his paranoia of being found came into use. He didn’t keep his body in shape because he wanted to be a model; it was because of his intense training regiments. That might be why his look was in such demand as it was altogether different from anything anyone else had to offer.

As his body began to wear out on him he took a moment to give himself a breather, his choice of running through back alleys was almost worth reconsidering. But he couldn’t, he had to be tough if he was ever going to see his brother, he doubted his brother would have gotten the same opportunities that were just handed to him on a silver platter. He had been lucky, he acknowledged that. That was why they were going to get out of this alive.

He began to jog again, occasionally hiding from the rare passerby. Yet strangely everything seemed quiet, too quiet for a Saturday evening. His instinct urged him to hurry and he increased his pace, placing his thoughts on hold until he reached his destination.

The world was nothing but a blur of danger and safety as he traveled, he couldn’t remember anything about his surroundings other than safe and unsafe as he stood in front of a large iron gate. It was as imposing as he remembered, a lesson from his adopted father played throughout his mind.

“We are people of privilege Levi, and that’s something you can never forget. Look at these gates that are at the forefront of our home and remember. We are like them to others, bleak and imposing, not of their world, our rank catapults us into another realm. A world only known by the elite.”

He could still remember that day, the first of many that taught him that he was different from others. What his father hadn’t realized was that he already knew he was different, the knowledge of his twin ingrained in his soul. Would he have still called him son at that time if he knew? Would it have even stopped him for a second, from pulling the trigger? Or was he just like all the rest, a self-proclaimed member of the elite.

It was time to find out he supposed, grabbing onto the iron bars. Scaling the wall was easy, but finding answers never was. Yet even as he hopped down to the other side he felt the answer resting in his heart, he left it unacknowledged. Yet he pulled out the gun from his jacket, a last minute accessory he barely remembered grabbing. He was going in prepared and it was at that moment that he knew he would no longer ever go long without a gun near his hand.

He used stealth as he walked up to the mansion, yet he soon realized his creeping was unnoticed and unneeded as the staff seemed to have been dismissed for the day. His hand tightened on his gun as he contemplated this, a foreboding taking root in his body, unable to be restrained.

As he opened the door he walked more casually, yet kept his gun trained in front of him, still on high alert. It didn’t take long to find her, sitting in their large living room, a neutral look on her aged, yet noble face. His mother was a refined woman; it was obvious from her posture and stature, even when she was doing nothing at all.

“So you decided to come,” she said with a dead tone in her voice.

“Yes, mother,” he addressed her after a pause, unsure of whether or not to call her that anymore, “I… I need the money we keep in the safe, I won’t be around for much longer.”

She merely nodded her head at him. Taking this as assent he walked over to a book shelf tucked away in the corner of the regal room. As he began to move it he realized how out of place it seemed in its surroundings, the lavish furniture, portraits and chandeliers. He didn’t understand why they never decided to find a better hiding place for this safe, or perhaps they thought it was better to hide something in plain sight.

As Levi began turning the dial of the revealed safe he began to hear his mother speak once again.

“Why did you do this to me? To us?” she asked, voice still lifeless without the colour of emotion, “No son of mine… No son of mine would strike the family name in such a way!”

He focused on the safe, tuning out his mother’s words, while staying alert for danger. He needed this money and he needed to get away from here, fast. It was clear whose side his adoptive parents were on. With a click and a small hiss, the safe opened suddenly a click and a small hiss, the safe opened suddenly, the next thing he knew he had grabbed the duffel bag out of it and had swung around, ready to fire.

His father now stood behind his mother wordlessly. Nothing was in his hands, his father just stared at him, a cold, piercing look.

“Go,” he said bluntly, and those were the last words Levi Overholt ever heard from them.
It was genetics, the thing that separated Overholt from Lavery and it was genetics that ripped his life apart. However, there was one thing he could say…

“At least I’ve got another life,” he said more to himself than anyone else, and with that, he walked away.