Chapter 1 First Love

Caden's POV**

"Never involve yourself in any form of combat with weaker children, remember the son of who you are..." I chanted my father's words slowly in my mind as I held my hands in tight fists beside me.

A single tear formed and dropped from my eye as I desperately tried restraining myself from hitting at one of the three boys who were quickly backing me into a dark corner.

My dad had warned me never to fight, never to get in any form of physical combat with any of these orphanage children or else I would blow my cover.

I didn't understand why I had to stay in an orphanage though, I mean my dad had a mansion, a very big mansion, and had lots of servants working under him.

So why the fuck did they abandon me here to rot? And to tolerate these children's shenanigans!

"Cat got his tongue!" One of them yelled in my face. I quickly took a step backwards because his bad breath was enough to numb my senses.

"Yeah... cat got his tongue." The biggest one of the trio, Jake said with a grin on his face.

He pulled me close to him by the collar of my shirt and landed a fatal blow to my midriff. I squirmed, bending over as the pain shot up my stomach.

"Next time, you'll learn to obey whatever we say." He growled in my face, infuriating me even further.

I shut my eyes tightly closed, reigning in the sizzling rage that was about to burst out of my body and was about to strike back at him when the sharp screams of someone pierce my eardrums.

The sound was so sharp, and so loud I had no other option but to insert my index fingers into my ears to block it out.

Suddenly the noise stopped. I instinctively brought out my fingers and was shocked to notice that they had been stained with blood, my blood.

I looked up and saw that the other boys were sprawled on the floor, writhing in pain, with droplets of blood seeping out of their ears and eyes.

A kind of fear ran up the length of my body when I looked towards the doorway to find a little girl by the door, holding onto the door frame for support.

Her eyes were round with fear but they had this unnatural glow to them. She was the screamer, and I was indeed shocked to realize that she was Brynlee, the child in room 303.

The one who was always separated from the crowd, the one most of the other children called 'the beast' because according to them, she had the abilities to wreak havoc.

And she had just wreaked havoc...

"Are you okay?" I heard her whisper softly to me. I nodded my head and took a few steps backwards when she staggered slowly towards me.

My initial fear dissipated when she held her small hands towards me with a sad look clouding her eyes. She looked fragile... and unsure. It clawed at my heart.

I gingerly held her hands in mine and was shocked when a jolt of electricity ran up my spine.

I guess she felt it too, for almost immediately, she beamed a smile at me; her smile seemed to warm my heart, lighting up my bleak world momentarily.

"What is your name?" She asked softly, looking up at me with a weird expression on her face that I actually found cute.

She was so small, I would've almost thought she was fragile if she hadn't nearly burst my eardrums only a few minutes ago.

"My name is Caden, Caden Pierce." I replied, ruffling her wild ginger red hair.

"Kwaden Parse." She said with a grin. I didn't bother with correcting her though. Her pronunciation of my name made me chuckle. It sounded weird in a funny way.

"My name is Brynlee Levine." She said with a giggle, and I nodded. I didn't bother trying to tell her that I already knew her name and that she was the most popular kid in this orphanage. I simply let it go.

I felt an uncomfortable warmth run up the arm that she held, but I didn't say a word about it. I simply let her drag me around the environs of the orphanage, while I tagged along like a lost sheep.

We became friends after that day.

She was my only friend, while I was her only friend as well. We literally went everywhere together, ate, and played around together, making most of the other orphanage children avoid me because they feared her.

We were literally inseparable, and were only separated when the doctors came to take her into the labs for testing, or when it was bedtime.

The other children slept together in a very big hall while Brynlee was made to sleep alone in a separate room. Thus earning herself the name, 'the girl in room 303'.

I always wondered what they did to her whenever she was taken into that scary white lab, keeping her in for hours non stop. She never talked about it though, sometimes she even tried to pretend like it never happened.

Our friendship blossomed within my six months of staying at the orphanage. She filled my world with so much peace, so much fun that I almost forgot that I wasn't going to be there for a long time.

One evening, I sat alone at a corner of the large dining hall, picking at my plate of pasta when one of the nuns came for me, to inform me that I had a visitor who wanted to see me immediately.

To my greatest surprise, I walked into the head nun's office to find my father, in all his glory, sitting majestically in front of the head nun in his Armani suit.

I gasped, and ran into his waiting embrace but I didn't find it exciting when he said he was here to take me back home. Why all of a sudden when I have a reason to be happy here?

For the period he left me here, all the days, I had craved to be home with my father but that changed when I met Brynlee. I no longer cry to be home or taken away from here, I found myself always craving and happy to be around her.

I wanted to tell him that I can't leave with him anymore but I don't have the courage to speak to my father that way yet.

Nobody speak when he has already made his decision. We were about to go out of the office when I abruptly pulled my hand off his grip.

I can't leave Brynlee. I can't go anymore, she is already part of me. If I need to leave here, then she has to leave with me.

"What is it son?" Father had asked, looking down at me like I had suddenly done something alien like.

"My friend isn't here." I replied immediately, shrugging out of his hold, and then turning back to talk to the head nun, I asked softly; "can I take Brynlee with me, dad I can't leave her alone here?"

"And who is Brynlee?" My father had interjected quickly, staring at me like I suddenly owned two heads.

"My friend-"

"An orphan here." We both answered simultaneously.

Father glanced pointedly between us, seemingly a bit confused as he asked; "and where is she now?"

"She's in the orphanage's clinic, receiving treatment." The nun answered quickly, and without being asked, she continued; "you can't take her along with you though, it's against the system here."

"But she can be adopted right?" Father asked, cocking his eyebrows in askance.

"That particular child isn't up for adoption." She answered immediately.

I heard my father sigh loudly, and I glanced between the both of them confusedly, unsure of what the fuss was about.

"Caden..." he called softly, making me glance up at him in confusion. "We can't take her along with us."

"Why? Dad we have to take her with us please. Nobody likes her here!" I cried, suddenly feeling a wave of sadness wash over me.

"She's ill, we can't take her. They will take go care of her here." He said slowly, crouching in front of me as he cupped my face in his large hands. I shrugged out of his grasp, walking towards the door.

"No they can't! Brynlee needs us! She needs me!" I cried. My eyelids burned with unshed tears, and it took everything within me to restrain myself from crying.

" You can't take her with you, and you won't be able to see her now as well. She is undergoing chemotherapy." The nun answered, I knew she had lied though but I ignored her.

Brynlee didn't have cancer!

I felt my father tug at my shirt's collar impatiently, as if he was already growing tired of my tantrums, and then he literally dragged me out of the orphanage and into his waiting car.

I bellowed out Brynlee's name desperately, but no reply came forth. She had been locked up in that white room again!

In frustration, I burst into tears as the car drove out of the driveway and into the street beyond, while my father and the driver ignored my tears.

I tried severally after that day to get my father to take me to the orphanage, and when he finally agreed to take me there, we were told she had died a few months back upon our arrival.

I was hurt. I cried bitterly when I got home that day, but at the same time, I knew that she wasn't dead. I knew that they had lied again.

I wasn't sure what it was that made me so sure, but I knew deep down in my heart that Brynlee wasn't dead...