[ 4 ] 2007

-

"Your family is on a wanted list for Area 51. They want to take you away to experiment on you. Your parents worked for me once. But they dropped out when your mother got pregnant with you. Still, they made me promise that if they ever were to pass away, that I would step up and help you two boys out."

-

It was just a few days after the holiday season when members of the mariachi band visited the two little boys in their home in Guadalajara. It had been almost two months since their parents--Enrique and Miranda--had passed away when their tour bus caught on fire on their way to the capital. The band returned home with the two distraught little boys, and each of them took turns taking care of them. There were funeral services held for them and they were buried in their home town of Guadalajara. The members of the band had also gathered money to allow the boys to live comfortably while they all did their best to find any living relatives of theirs.

But it was like they had disappeared from the face of the earth. No one in Guadalajara or even in the state of Jalisco was related to Enrique Medina or Miranda Rivera. The only other choice that they had was to call in child protective services to take the two boys into custody. They had warned Paul about it, and the twelve year old felt betrayed by the people he once saw as his family. The others were trying to help them without taking into consideration that in the foster system, both brothers would most likely be separated. But their hearts were in the right place. They saw the two little boys struggling--Paul made a few coins each day wiping the windshields on cars at stop lights--and it made their hearts ache. 

It was the night before they were scheduled to be picked up by child services when they heard a knock on their door. Paul's heart sank into his stomach, since it was past midnight and they surely weren't expecting anyone that late. The other members of the band had stopped by earlier in the day to bid their goodbyes and to reassure the boys that they would always have family in them.

Paul peeked through the hole in the heavy metal door to the front of the house and gasped as he saw a tall man standing outside, dressed in black from head to toe. In his country, people were very superstitious and also very religious and his thoughts drifted to the worst possible scenario. He thought it was the devil coming to take his soul and he hurried away from the door as quietly as he could. But the person outside knew he and his brother were there, and he knocked on the door more loudly.

"Open the door." He called to them in Spanish, their native language. Although his Spanish sounded a bit heavier, with an accent. Like he wasn't from their country despite speaking the same language as them. "I am not here to hurt you. I am here to help. My name is Arthur and I was a friend of your parents. Their names were Enrique and Miranda. They were very kind and they were like siblings to me."

As Paul heard his words, he was almost convinced to open the door the moment he heard his parents' names. Almost. But he knew the tricks of the enemy. The devil would do or say anything to get an innocent to open the door.

When he stayed quiet in the living room, he heard a sigh coming from the person on the outside. Then out of nowhere, the bolt on the door unlocked by itself from the inside and the door swung open. Paul had been hiding behind the couch when it happened and his eyes widened in shock at the sight. Arthur tried to take a step forward, into the house, but it was like an invisible force wasn't allowing him to. He rolled his eyes as he muttered to himself. "He vowed he'd never use his powers again after leaving the organization, yet he proofed his house." By he, he had been clearly talking about Enrique Medina. And by the looks of it, he was the same species as Paul and his family. He also really seemed to know his parents.

"Wh-who are you?" Paul stuttered in ear as he peeked over the edge of the sofa in the living room.

But Arthur had other ideas first. At the moment, he was most frustrated by the fact that he could not enter their house as though he were some kind of vicious animal. But he did see the advantage of the shields. It protected the home against all kinds of supernatural creatures, including the hunters themselves. The only way for him to be allowed into the house was simple. "You have to give me your verbal permission to allow me into this house, or else I can't come in."

"Why would I do that?" Paul eyed him with curiosity. But he did not budge from his place behind the sofa, nor was he making any moves to invite the stranger into his home. His parents had always warned him that it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't know that man. For all he knew, he could be lying to get permission to enter the house. 

"I'm trying to help you out, kid." Arthur insisted. And looking further into the house, he set his concentration on what Paul already knew. From where he was, he could hear the screeching of the metal bed frame being dragged across the room. "If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it already. And plus, I don't really need to enter the house to take you both with me. I'm just asking you as a formality."

"What do you want?" Paul asked him in exasperation. He could not understand why that man was so interested in helping him and his brother out when everyone else had turned their back on them. The whole exchange was still taking place in Spanish. 

Since their parents made good money with their mariachi gigs in the winter time, the Medinas had enough to hire English tutors for their two sons. That meant that Paul and John were pretty much fluent in English, except for a slight accent that they carried. But Paul didn't want to get rid of it, since he felt that his accent was a part of him. At that moment, the least of Arthur's knowledge was that he could have been speaking to Paul in either language. The twelve year old would have understood him just fine. 

In the next moment, he saw his ten year old brother's limp body floating across the living room towards the front door. Trying to stop him from going any further, he lunged at him and pinned him down on the ground, startling him awake. 

Arthur continued to explain, as though it weren't the most twisted tale anyone had ever heard. "Your family is on a wanted list for Area 51. They want to take you away to experiment on you. Your parents worked for me once. But they dropped out when your mother got pregnant with you. Still, they made me promise that if they ever were to pass away, that I would step up and help you two boys out."

Though it all sounded hard to believe, Arthur was the only chance they had to remain together, Paul and his younger brother.

-

Several times Paul almost decided to turn back and return to Guadalajara. 

But the man, who introduced himself as Arthur Vega, was able to prove that he was friends with their parents. He had pictures of them together when they were younger, and he had letters addressed to him from Enrique and Miranda Medina. Arthur let Paul read the letters, which were mostly friendly ones, asking how he was doing, and asking how the organization was doing. They also mentioned that they missed the good old days, hunting together in Mexico and Australia.

It was enough or Paul to believe him and the three traveled to Australia together. Once there, Arthur explained to Paul about his organization and how it worked. He explained to Paul that he and his brother would train for two years in a facility called the garden, and that later they would train for one year with another established hunter before returning to Mexico to hunt on their own. Everything was arranged. No one would look for them, since he had gone back and erased the two little boys from the memories of the people that knew them. As far as anyone remembered, Paul and John Medina had died with their parents in that bus fire.

But Paul only had one condition in order to join the hunters. "I promise to follow you without question. On the condition that I don't want my brother John to have any part of this. I want him to grow up like a normal little boy. He can never find out what we do."

Arthur saw it as a selfless act of love for his brother and he nodded in agreement. While Paul was to be training in the garden, John would attend a regular school for two years, unknowing about the hunters, or even his own abilities. Paul had asked for John to also have his memory of his powers blocked, so that he could grow up as a normal boy. As far as John would know, he and his brother Paul were going to spend the next two years in Australia with their uncle Arthur. Then they would spend another year in Perth with their supposed cousin James before finally returning to Mexico.

When they arrived in the garden, they were given a room to share in the facility. 

Arthur explained to Paul that it was a facility where children came and went. They had classrooms, a training area, a dining room, and infirmary, and a vast space for the children to play. But the place was virtually empty. There were never more than two or three children there at a time, which was what Arthur saw as optimal so that the employees could provide each child in the garden with the attention they needed. At the end of their two year period at the garden, they had their graduation, and then they'd move onto their in field training. He also explained to Paul that if by the end of the two years they decided they did not want to be a part of that life, he was also willing to help them a place to stay and a means to sustain themselves. Paul thought about that as an option as well. 

On his very first day of training, he was met with the other children who were there at the facility. There was a boy named Rocky, who would be graduating from the garden in six months. He was from Canada, and seemed to get along well with Paul. To the point that they quickly became like brothers. Rocky had told Paul that he had lost his parents and family in a car crash when they were going up to their cabin for vacation. They had died a quick and icy death, while Rocky had been the only survivor. He had miraculously survived being out in the snow unconscious for several days when Arthur found him and took him in. He had treated his injuries first and then started him on his training in the garden. For that reason, Rocky had been at the facility for almost three years.

Paul thought about it and wasn't sure which of the two scenarios was the more gruesome--Rocky's parents dying in a snowy car crash, or his own parents dying in a fiery tour bus inferno. Both had probably been equally painful for the survivors though, since they were no longer able to see their loved ones anymore.

As a few months went by another child came into the garden. A weepy eyed girl called Elaine, who Rocky often referred to as cry baby because she was always crying the first couple of weeks. Because of his teasing, she'd constantly hit him with whatever objects she could find in the garden. One of them was an umbrella, which she broke while using it as a beating stick. Rocky soon graduated from the garden and in came another child to replace him. This time it was a boy from Germany named Dieter, and he had grown infinitely attached to both Paul and Elaine very quickly. 

There were many times when Paul just wanted to quit and return home to Mexico. But he knew that the only way to provide a good life for John was to stay with the hunters. He had to be strong for his brother. They only had each other to rely on now.

-

so i am currently obsessed with writing updates for this story, please bear with me everyone. 

i hope you are also all liking this.

it would mean the world to me if you guys could vote, comment, and let me know what you think so far. i know a lot of this is filler, but once the two main characters of our side story finally meet, things are going to get good. but for the time being, i think there will be about two to four more chapters of filler ish.

just describing their time in the garden and then their time out in the field.

-clary