Prolugue Brighter: Wonderwall

When Kylie, Chevy, Kayla, and Brody entered the house, Q had been sitting in front of the tv, looking like an impatient father waiting on his daughter to return from her first date. He sat up when he saw them and yelled, "Where y'all been? I been waiting for hours."
Brody didn't say a word. His face held no emotion with his eyes clearly saying, "I don't wanna talk about it". He just rushed up to his room upstairs and closed the door. Kylie watched him take that lonely path all the way up to his room and she wished then that she knew the right words to comfort him.
Kayla wanted to walk up after him, but she didn't know what to say to make him feel better so she decided against it and decided to dispel Q's worries instead. "Nothing Q. We just had a long night." She stretched her arm and yawned, signaling that she was tired. "I think I'm going to bed. We'll talk more in the morning alright Q?"
He just nodded, glad to see they were all safe. "Alright, lil' mama." Then he looked around the group. Kylie sat on the couch next to him. Chevy was in the kitchen. He knew there were two others missing. "Say, whatever happened to ya' boy and that girl he was with?"
With a mouth full of grub, he answered, "They somewhere. Brody told Nic he could come back, but Smartz had to stay home."
Q laughed. "Damn dog, like that!?"
"Brody don't be playing. He ain't like the way she was talking about us like she better than us. So he said don't come back. She lucky. Lil' mama almost put a blade in her."
Surprised, Q turned to see a lounging Kylie. Struck by surprise, he asked loudly, "Damn lil' mama."
She smiled. "What can I say? I didn't like her since the first time I saw her. Coming here dressed like my mama, where does she get off? Don't she know how much that hurt me and Kayla? To see what we lost just in our face like that." Chevy shook his head, knowing that no matter what, he never wanted to go through the pain that Brody, Kylie, and Kayla deal with on a daily basis. "Besides I don't like the way she was talking to Brody."
Q shook his head, laughing. "Yeah, I know you got a little crush on him."
She smiled and said, "Shut up." But with that smile, she couldn't deny it. She couldn't say it wasn't true.
Amidst her beautiful smile, Brody came down the stairs with a face full of focus and a new outfit complete with a rosary over his fitting white tee. He walked briskly, his sagging baggy khaki shorts catching the breeze he created, silver wallet chain swinging with the breeze, toward the refrigerator. He grabbed the iced wine he had refrigerating and gripped the bottle by its long neck. He looked at Chevy without a word and held his hand out for a set of keys. Chevy shook his head, knowing that he just needed some space. He passed Brody a key chain with a single key that held a skull on the key handle, a serpent hanging from a metal chain, and another metal chain holding a growling lion's head, and it was clear to see that Brody was going to be wheeling a dangerous car on a lonely road. That would usually be a dangerous situation for anyone else but Brody had a destination, a destination he was not going to let anyone get in the way of.
When he stepped outside, he pressed the lion's head, and a beautiful, black, sharp car rose from the ground, and it looked like the car wouldn't leave just a trail of fire, but a wound on the road that would simmer and boil. No doubt the black car with white thin stripes rising from the evil lowered headlights was a killer on the road and it matched the way Brody felt. The car like Brody said, "Fuck the world!"
He stepped in the car and put his hand held music player into the car and placed an old tape by a local rapper who he used to sell drugs with. He just needed to ride listening to someone else he could relate to someone. He leaned back and relaxed in the leather seat.
Kylie watched from the window as Brody sped off and she felt a piece of her heart leave out of that cobblestone driveway. She looked back at Q talking to Chevy and she felt like her place was by Brody's side. So she walked quietly out the door, not knowing that Q tapped Chevy on the shoulder, and they were both watched her leave the house with a smile on her face. When the door closed quietly behind her, Chevy looked over to Q and smiled. "Well...we know where she going huh?"
Q threw his hands up and smiled, "Like you and Brody say, that's none of my business."
They both laughed as Chevy tossed Q a sack of marijuana and a pack of cigars. "Hey roll up some. I'm finna get a shower real quick."
Q nodded his head, acknowledging that he understood. Then a mischievous smile flashed across his face while he was breaking down the cigar. "You know though, I'm uh start on one while you in the shower, but knowing how you take showers, I'm prolly gonna be just finishing the first one. Know how you like to take showers at the speed of Superman changing in the phone booth.
Chevy laughed and threw his hand in the air in a disregarding manner. "You stupid." They both laughed. Chevy quickly ran up the stairs and Q began to roll up the blunt.
While her brothers were in the mansion partying, Kylie stood in the cobblestone with her eyes closed. She retreated in her mind, and in the shadows of her mind she saw where Brody was headed and she saw an alternative route to get there. She still wasn't sure if she should follow Brody, but when she opened her eyes to see that she had turned into Gun Shadow, she knew that she no longer had a choice. She looked into the night and jumped into the stars' shadows, disappearing into twilight.


Brody gripped the wheel as the early morning traffic whizzed by him as though he had tunnel vision. The rapper's music only fueled his focus as he sped through the streets o Nashville. He disregarded the presence of police and WU's flying over him. He found himself no longer caring about the presence of police. He found himself no longer caring about the E-v attacking the streets. The only thing he cared about was the blunt he was smoking and the place where he was headed.


When Brody finally reached his destination, he grabbed the wine bottle from the passenger seat and got out of the car. Still chiefing on the blunt he had inside of the car he walked into the field of graves in search for the two graves that held the people who were once the center of his world. His gravity. His sun.
Unbeknownst to him, he had a shadow following the sound of his swinging wallet chain, watching his quick movements through the graveyard, seeing the tears fall from his face as he got closer to his family's set of tombstones. When he finally reached his sister's, his father's, and his mother's gravestone, she saw him make a sudden stop, popping the cork of the wine bottle, and throwing the roach into the night.
He turned the bottle over and watched the contents of the bottle spill onto their graves. It was like watching an irrigation system the way the wine flowed onto the three separate graves. Gun Shadow watched his face fill with tears as he stared at their separate birth dates. November 16, 2078-December 29, 2084. August 25, 2054-December 29, 2084. September 5, 2057-November 17, 2078. It was almost his father's birthday.
He turned the bottle back up when it was halfway gone and put the opening of the neck to his mouth and drunk the contents to quench not only his thirst but his pain. He took large swigs of the wine hoping it would drown out the memories of watching his father become infected by the E-v, seeing his sister's Evil Virus turn her against him. But to no avail. No matter how much wine he ingested, the memory of watching his father convulse on the floor as the Virus took over him still plagued him. He still remembered his eyes as they bled and bulged out of their sockets. He remembered the look of pain his father had as the virus bursted out of his body. He remembered his father reaching out for him an he remembered the look of fear he had on his own face as he shuddered away, not understanding what was happening to his father, or himself for that matter. The memory stuck with him simply because after he had killed his twin sister, that was the last day he had fear in his heart.
She continued to watch him have an indecipherable conversation with his family's gravestones. While she watched, she didn't notice that her large scarf had been disappearing. Her large blade had evaporated into the air and her miniature assault rifle had dissipated on its holster. She felt compelled to walk out of the shadows and place a comforting hand on his shoulder. The more she thought about the pain he felt for losing his entire family, the more the evil inside of her fled and the more she wanted to show Brody that he was not alone.
She took a step out of the shadows, all the while thinking that no one should have to go through this alone. She took another step nervously, not knowing what she was going to say. She took another hoping the falling moonlight would inspire her. She took another step. Then another. Then another until she was close enough to place a gentle hand on his shoulder.
When he revealed his face to her, she saw a man whom she had never seen cry before hold a face so drenched with tears that it frightened her. It scared her to know that someone who seemed almost impenetrable was hurting so bad deep down inside. But then he smiled. She said the only thing that could come to her mind. "Brody, you know you didn't have to face this alone."
He turned away, smile still on his face and he answered, "I know, but I wanted to give the bad news to my sister and my pa by myself. I wanted to tell them that once again I have sent one of our family members to their death." He wiped away a runaway tear and looked her directly into her eyes. "I just hope they can forgive me."
She rubbed his shoulder for a second and then wrapped her arms around his waist. His arm fell over and she said softly, "I don't think you have to worry about them forgiving you."
"What do you mean?" He asked confused.
She smiled, inhaling the marijuana and wine from his clothes and answered, "I think you have to forgive yourself. You've been holding on to your sister's death for so long thinking that it was your fault, but in reality, it wasn't. You were younger than me when you had to make that tough decision and I don't think anyone else would have been able to make that same decision were they in your position. I don't want you to think that you have to carry this burden alone when you don't have to. Not when you have someone who is willing to share the load with you."
She smiled wider, realizing that she just gave hint to the feelings she had for Brody. "I just think about it a lot. I mean I put that gun to her face, and I just shot. I just shot my twin sister right after my father died, and I was alone."
"You will never be alone. Not while I'm here. Or Chevy. Or Kayla or Q for that matter."
He shook his head. "You know her words are still with me?"
"Who?" She asked curiously.
"Smartz. When she called me a monster?"
Kylie remembered that moment all too well. It was the moment where she had found out how deep her feelings were for Brody. She was ready to kill Smartz for disrespecting someone who she loved. She didn't even know how she felt about Brody until she heard Smartz call him a monster. "Why? Why does it bother you?"
He looked down, tears streaming from his face. This was the first time she had ever seen him have any other emotion besides mad or happy since....She looked at his tears. She stood on her tip toes and kissed a tear off of his face. As if her lips on his face had opened up floodgates, white waters of emotion exploded out of his mouth. It was so new to him that showed her so much of him, so much of the sadness, that he didn't even know what to make of his confessions. "Because I am." He looked into the stars hoping to see his father floating among the constellations. Hoping to find forgiveness for killing his father's only brother. His baby brother. "I killed the only family I had left last night. He asked me to do it and I did it. He said that I was helping him by killing him and I did it, and the worst part about it was that it was easy for me. The E-v inside of me evolved into a killer, and I was able to shoot my uncle in the head. The man who showed me my dream house. The first person who I ever told my dream to. The man who taught me to look out for the oppressed. The reason I even considered using my gifts for good, and I killed him. His only nephew, and I killed him." She couldn't say anything afterword, merely squeeze him tighter, hoping that her embrace would tell him how much she cared and show him that she was right there by his side when the tears fell. "That's how I know that she was right. I am a monster or at least I have a monster inside of me, one that I can't control. He comes when he's needed and he kills anything." He took a deep breathe before looking down on Kylie. He took his hand and massaged her long brown hair. "You guys are the only people I have left and I can't lose y'all."
She looked up at him with those gleaming brown eyes and asked, "So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying I love y'all too much to risk y'all anymore. I wouldn't know how to deal with losing any of you. I love all of you." He grabbed her chin with his free hand and he smiled, eyes glowing with the realization that the person he had been waiting to fill the void in his heart was in his arms already. "I love you, Kylie, and I refuse to have anything happen to you, sweetheart."
She smiled, feeling like she just had one of her dreams come true. "Do you mean it, Brody, or is this a just a moment in time where you feel vulnerable enough to let me in? I don't want to be shut out, Brody, not after I have ventured so far into your mind," She stroked his face, heart skipping beats and she added, "Your heart."
He licked his lips looking deep into her eyes and in his deepest, most seductive voice, he answered, "We have enough heroes running around saving the world. I don't think they need a monster like me running around calling himself saving the day. Maybe Chevy was right. Everyone hates us. Every time we save somebody the government or police step in and try to subdue us. We're always escaping and I'm tired of it. I just want to chill for a while. Sound good to you?"
His smile was matched by her own radiance. "You know I would follow you 'til' the end, sweetie. I just have to know....what about me?"
"What about you?" He asked, lips crawling toward hers.
"How do you feel about me?"
He leaned down and kissed Kylie passionately, releasing all of the passion, all of the wanting for someone to love on a deeper level, all of the need to never be alone again into that one kiss. When his lips parted with hers, he held her face and asked her, "Does that answer your question?"
She smiled, feeling as though an eagle on her mind, Cupid had built a home on her heart, and butterflies settled in her stomach, and she answered, "Perfectly." And she leaned up and kissed him again as the moon fell to the earth, a perfect marriage of celestial beings, including Brody and Kylie.