Pure Life

Rating: Abuse not big abuse but it’s a form of it.

A/N: Poor Rune, but it helps give some background on him. Enjoy!
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The snow was falling outside and it was only getting worse. Rune sat up when he saw them, Zach and Caden had gone out in the animal forms to the supplies from the shed. “Keir their coming!” The storm had hit after dinner and they wanted to get everything ready before the power went out.

Keir was at the back door. He pulled it opened and held it as wind and snow flew in. Caden and Zach shook their bodies making the snow fly. With the help of Caden, Keir got the door closed and bolted. “Damn storm.” Zach was in his human form and shivering. “I’m going to get my jacket.”

Looking over at his dad Keir motioned to the boxes and the large blonde wolf nodded. “Rune, help me with this stuff.”

“Okay!” He ran over and picked a box up. “Where to?”

“Follow me we’re going to hook it up down stairs to the fuse box.” Just then the power went out. “Damn just in time too.”

“Keir I can’t see in the dark.”

A flashlight clicked on and was passed to Rune. He saw Caden and he smiled. The wolf padded out of the kitchen. “Come on Rune,” he took the box from him and the small male held onto the flashlight.

The black haired male walked over to a door and opened it. Rune stopped and stared at the doorway, ‘Different house. Different house.’

“Rune.”

“C-coming.” He walked up to the door way and looked down. Slowly he climbed down the flashlight lighting up the stairwell. He called out to make sure, “K-keir…!”

He appeared at the bottom of the stairwell. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” He quickly ran down the stairs and then followed Keir over to a metal box on the wall. “Is that it?”

“Yep.” The door was pulled open and Keir started to open boxes. He pulled out a black box and pushed some buttons on the top. A canister rose out of the box. Keir pulled out the cylinder and placed it in the box. He pulled out another canister, as he pulled the plastic off it lit up.

“Wow, is that what I think it is?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow I thought they stopped making those.”

“They did. The guy who made them pulled out after the first one blew up a house.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry me and Zev messed around with this one and made it better.” He looked at Rune. “It won’t blow up.”

“T-that’s good.”

Keir smirked and pushed the item into the box. Then the box started to make a low hum. His fingers pushed another button and he pulled a cord out. Stretching it out over to the fuse box he connected it to the power box. The lights flicked back on and Keir looked at Rune. “See it works.”

Rune glanced around the basement and he ran over to a pool table. “Wow this is an old one!” He walked around it and Keir smiled. “What else is down here?”

“Stuff that would give us away if we had it out and about up stairs.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry I’ll show you one day.”

“Really that would be so cool.”

The vampire pulled Rune closer, “Come on you let’s get upstairs.”

“Okay.” They both climbed the stairs and Keir flicked the light off. “Hey how long you think this storm will last?”

“It should be over in a few days.”

“Okay.”

The door closed and the dim glow from the box barely lit the room.
^^^^

Zach sat down at the table next to Rune. “So how do you feel?”

“Bored.”

Kaya ran into the kitchen with Nuri on her tail. They were laughing as they ran around the table then back out. Keir was helping in the attic with Dawn and Caden. Rune looked at his plate; the half eaten sandwich was sitting there staring at him.

“Come on you bored. You could turn this house into a playground if you wanted to.”

“I don’t want to.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“Rune…”

“I’m just tired.”

“Now you know?”

Rune sighed and shoved the plate towards him, “I’m full.” He stood up and walked off. His brother rubbed his chin.

‘Something is wrong here.’
~~~~~

Keir walked down the stairs holding two boxes. He saw Rune walk by, the small male had his head down and hands stuffed in his pockets. “Rune.”

Looking up he saw Keir, “Hey.”

“Are you okay?”

“Just tired.”

“You’ve been tossing around a lot lately.”

“I know. I need something to do or I’ll fall asleep.”

“Help me here; I need to take these to a room on the first floor.”

“Okay.” He passed a box to Rune.

“Do you have it?”

“Yeah.” It was heavy and when he looked inside he found old toys. “Did these…?”

“Those are Zev’s.”

“Where are yours?”

He nodded towards the box in his hand, “These are mine.”

“Can I look?”

“Nope.” Keir quickly walked down the steps.

Rune rushed after and slowed down once he was next to him, “Why not?”

“There just old toys.”

“I want to see!”

They walked past the kitchen and headed down a hall. The small male was still trying to get Keir to let him see and Keir just kept saying no.

“Why not?”

“There just old toys.”

“I bet there’s something in there you don’t want me to see.” He grinned and looked up at Keir. “There’s nothing wrong with having toys. I wish I had old toys.”

The vampire smiled and pulled out an old stuffed cat. “Here hold on to this for me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” The cat sat on top of the box as Rune walked. It was gray and had patches here and there, two large green eyes and four long floppy legs. Keir pushed a door opened and they walked in. Inside the room were more boxes. He sat down the box and Rune sat down the one in his arms.

Rune snagged the cat and grinning ran out of the room. He shook his head and walked out after him. As he walked back down the hall he could help but think about what Zach had told him the other day.
****
“Keir.”

Turning around he saw Zach. “What is it?”

“I need to tell you something.”

“Let me guess, a place where Rune can’t hear?”

“That would be good.”

He nodded and stood up. When they got down stairs and into a room Rune wouldn’t go in, Zach flopped down in a chair. “So?”

“Rune doesn’t sleepwalk.”

Keir pulled a chair over and sat down. “Didn’t you say he was?”

“I just tossed it out there.” He sighed and sat forward. “He goes into this trance like state and from the looks of it follows something. That something always leads him to either an open window on the highest floor, a balcony, outside, or some other place where he’s most likely to get hurt.”

His face didn’t change as he told him. “How long has it lasted?”

“I don’t know, but I do know how it started.” Zach rubbed his head and sighed. “He wasn’t treated right growing up. Mom had an affair with some guy when I was two, probably Rune’s real dad and my dad found out.” Sighing once again he kept talking. “They had this huge fight and a week later mom found out she was pregnant. Of course the old man hit the roof. Then there was another fight, mom was going to go and abort it, but dad wouldn’t let her. ‘Let’s see how you like to carry another man’s child.’ Is what he told her.”

The black haired male leaned back, “I think mom should hear this.”

“I am.” They looked at the door to find Dawn standing there. “It gives them no right. A child is a child no matter what. They can’t help what the parent did.”

“I know. He didn’t have to put up with it.” He lowered his head. “She would lock him in the basement when he would do something wrong. It was also where he slept; there was a bed down there for him. He got my old cloths and she fed him. Went to school and came back only to get a cold shoulder. I remember one time she locked him down there and the light had gone out. You could hear him screaming for someone to unlock the door.” His hands clutched at his head. “I had money from dad and I went out to buy a new light for Rune. I got caught and the light was broken.

“Rune would do everything to get mom to say something to him. I told him not to worry about it but he was just too damn stubborn. It was a few years later that I started to notice the difference. Mom locked him in the basement but this time he didn’t cry for someone to let him out. I was scared so I snuck down one night and entered the basement. He was sitting in the middle of the floor just staring at the window. So I walked over and called out to him. When he looked at me his eyes were different, just blank and then he smiled.”

“What was wrong?” Dawn was sitting down now and listening, she was going to do everything she could to help.

Keir was leaning against the arm rest his arms crossed, he had his eyes closed and then he looked over at Zach. “The trance.”

“Yeah.”

“At nights I would wake up and he would be standing at my door. Scared me the first time but I slowly got used to it. Till he walked right out of the house and didn’t come back for days.” Zach shook his head. “Someone brought him home said he found him out cold in his barn. Rune had walked all the way out to the farmlands and he was gone for four days. Mom was nice to the guy, sickening nice. I wanted to shout and tell the guy to take him away, anywhere but here.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Father had a grip on my shoulder; he knew what I wanted to do. But I would be tarnishing his happy family act and that was no good.” He smirked and raised his head. “So I plotted and planed. A year later at night I grabbed two bags that I had packed and went down to get Rune. I was going to get him out of there and find a place we could stay. With money I had saved up we took a bus to the outskirts of town and then we walked. If I had known we would have ran into Abner’s goons I would have turned back round. We were taken, marked, and tossed into that hell hole. A few days later Akira was tossed in with us.”

Keir spoke up, “What did he do to Rune?”

“That trance thing, he found out about it. Day after day Rune would slip into it but Abner was planning something I could tell. Then one day Rune slipped into his trance only it wasn’t the blank eyed boy I was use to seeing. Somehow a new personality formed, and this side was different from the childish boy everyone is use to seeing.”

Dawn looked at Zach, “Is there a chance this new side will show up.”

“I don’t know I wish I did. It’s all her fault. I should have tried harder to help him, and then he wouldn’t be like this. ”

“Zach, you were only a kid.” He looked at Dawn and he shook his head.

“Afterwards I couldn’t help him either.” He started chuckling. “I remember the look on my dad’s face when he heard Rune was out behind the gym making out with another guy.” That smile turned into a sad one. “Instead of reacting like the way I thought he would, he sent Rune to the same place as the others. He didn’t want anything to do with him and shipped him off.” His hand scratched his neck. “Rune was gone for a few years came back long enough to finish school, join a band, and go to college to try and become a teacher. But that didn’t happen either.”

He was muttering now. “After he told me that, mom and dad took little Ray and left. I had only enough time to tell Kai before I left to find them, told him to tell Rune that we all had gone missing. Found them and didn’t stray I wanted to keep an eye on Ray. Then they went missing again and this time the whole place was trashed.”

Scratching his head he nodded, “That’s about it.”

“What about Rune?”

“He went on living his life. I didn’t want to do it, but he needed to do something anything to get his feet moving.”

Keir leaned forward and looked Zach in the eyes, “You heard about after wards.”

“Yeah. I still feel like an ass, my brother needed me when I was trying to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to Ray.” He shook his head. “As you can see I’m trying to find a way to fix things and you need to be next to him. I’ve seen how close you two are and I don’t want that messed up because of something that he can’t control.”

“I wouldn’t leave him any ways. You do realize that half our family is were.”

Dawn smiled, “We can handle uncontrollable.” She stood up and looked at Zach. “I’ll show him what a good mother is, so that when he compares her to me he knows the difference.”

“Thanks.”

Keir was curious about something, “How do you know?”

“Huh?”

“How can you tell when he’s going to slip?”

“You really can’t but I know when it starts.”

“And?”

“His pupil, there will be a thin red ring around it. Speaking of eyes, mine are red because of the tinkering with my DNA. His stayed the same, but there are two more, maroon and red.”

“Maroon?”

“Yes.”

“His eyes are maroon when he wakes up and…”

Zach gave that knowing grin and Keir narrowed his eyes. “Sleepy, excited, and s…”

“I get it!”

Dawn couldn’t help give a giggle. “Aww, Keir he’s only being helpful.”

He saw the smug grin and he just wanted to chuck something at his head. Maybe his shoe would work. Then Zach’s face grew serious, “Has his eyes ever turned red.”

“No.”

“Good. Has he seen any blood other than his own?”

“N- wait yes.”

“Keir…?” His mother was looking at him.

“In an alleyway right after Liv and Chaim was born.” He rubbed his stomach. “The last guy stabbed me with a pocket knife and got chased off by a bunch of wild dogs.”

“Is that all?”

“Don’t worry it healed after I pulled out the knife.”

“And?”

“To small.”

“Keir?”

“Don’t worry I’m fine.”

Zach coughed and they looked at him. “Rune must of called the dogs and blood other than his own pulls up bad memories for him.”

They nodded, “That means mom will have to drink when he’s not around or out of the bottle.”

“I have mine as soon as I wake up.”

“Okay.”

He smiled and looked at the two. “I’m glad Rune has some kind of a good family even if it’s not his real family.”

“Don’t worry we’ll take good care of him.”

Keir looked up and then he stood, “I’m going to bed.”

“Night, don’t stay up to late.”

“Will you two ever quit?”

“Nope.”

He sighed and left the room as the two started talking some more. As soon as he got up stairs and in his room, he found Rune sitting up and looking out the window. The small male turned and grinned when he saw Keir. “I was waiting.”

He smiled and climbed into bed, and then Rune curled up against him. “Night.”

“G’night.”
****

Keir chuckled when Rune sat in the TV room with the stuffed cat. He was showing Zach and then two were talking as he held onto it. It was just an old toy but to Rune it was the second best thing, Keir was the first. His brother was third. He smiled as he thought about it, Zach would most likely end up jealous if he said that out loud.
^^^^

Rune was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. Turning around he saw Keir and waved at him. He had a spoon in his mouth and the cat was on his head.

He smiled at least he wasn’t moping around like before. Walking into the room he picked the cat up and patted him on the head. “Your hair is getting longer.”

“Really I guess I could cut it.”

Nuri had happened to walk into the room when he said this, “I’ll do it!”

They both looked at her, “Rune, say no.”

“Please.”

“Umm… okay…?”

“Yay!” She pulled him out of the room by his arm. “Come on we need to go upstairs.”

Keir sighed and called out, “Don’t cut it all off.”
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Done… when I finish this story I’m going to start on the prequel. You don’t have to read it but if you want to you can. Reviews are welcomed.
Shade :)