AN: I am a hard procrastinator if you look at my upload schedule, but my new years resolution of 2026 is to upload atleast thrice a week. So I hope- no want to believe in myself that I will stay true to myself, I mean I just have to work everyday for 30 days by that time it will become a habit to follow a stable upload schedule.
This novel is also officially uploaded by me on Scribblehub and RoyalRoads. If you find them on any other websites, then they are pirated. Well then, I hope you guys are enjoying reading this story.
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All three of us sit silently in the vehicle, well except for kid Brian pointing directions to his house. Which was barely a 5 minutes walk from the playground, leaving no time for small talk.
I see a similar old similar decrepit looking building, the exterior of which looked even worse than the building I lived-no survived in. Kid Brian slowly shuffles out of the car.
He walks slowly towards the building entrance, then looks back at us and bows slightly before heading back. As we also start to head back to my house.
"He's a nice kid, ain't he." said Brian.
I think about kid Brian's reaction, but nod in agreement.
"Arwin, you do understand that I already knew why you wanted me to escort the kid right?"
"Yes, so he can go home safely without the bullies blocking his path or trailing behind him to follow him to his house."
Brian turns to look at me with a raised eyebrow.
*Sigh*
" Yeah, its cause I wanted to go home early."
"and?" asks Brian.
"And, to not deal with those barfbags."
"Barf-bags? kid you really have a colorful way to portray others. I want you to understand that its not about the number of friends that you can make, rather how close and would you cover each other's back kind of friends I want you to make."
"You want me to have comrades."
"Brothers, I want you to have friends who are like brothers, shitty and annoying but would pull you out of any shithole you might find yourself in." he winces at his slip of tongue.
Arwin nods understandingly, and gazes at the passing by buildings.
"You do understand what I am talking about, yeah?"
"Hm." Arwin nods again agreeingly.
"Then tell me what do you understand, and how would you go around making brother not of blood but bond."
An expression of annoyance appears on Arwin's face, as he had just nodded along but now he had to give an answer to a question he was not quite clearly listening.
"I... uh... hah. You first make friends, and help them whenever you can. If they are going through their worst time and you get them out of that situation, then they would feel debited to you and be with you in your worst time. That's how you make brothers." Arwin says, with a smug at figuring out what Brian wanted as an answer.
"That's a good answer." comes the reply from Brian as he is focused on the road, he slows down the car as he parks the car and turns his attention to him, eyes boring into Arwin's.
"But also that's the most textbook styled answer I have ever heard, but there is no one correct answer to that question. You are a smart kid trust me on that, scarily smart for someone your age and with so little experience, but you think with your brain too much."
"Brian? I gave you the most logical answer and you said that this question doesn't have just one right answer."
"No Arwin you are correct, but also incorrect to me."
'What the hell does he mean that I am correct but also incorrect.'
Seeing the confusion on his young seed's face, prompts Brian to smirk a bit. 'You have much to learn about this world kid, you have been too focused on books that you haven't actually had the time to experience what is written in those books.'
"There is no 3 step plan to forming a brotherly bond or how to make friends in 2 minutes or any other things. Kid, they are not rules that you have to follow, they are just Tips! Tips on making friends, Tips on being a good person and so on and so forth."
"It has always been simple, be there for them."
"Be there for them?" I repeat with a bit of confusion.
"Yes, be there for them for all the highs and lows of life. Then you won't need to guess with your mind because by that time, you will be surrounded by them. You are logically smart for kid, but you rely on it too much and not enough on your heart."
I solemnly nod, "I understand."
He replies with a smirk, "No, you don't understand Arwin. You have to feel it, feel with your heart." as he makes a grasping hand movement over his chest.
Arwin gives a flat look to Brian at his comedic hand gesture and face expressions. "Ok." I open the door to get away from the vehicle and its weird owner, hearing a laughter coming from within the car.
A flicker of smirk appears on Arwin's lips before disappearing, as Brian also exits the vehicle and walks up to him with a chuckle.
They wait for the elevator together, "So what do you say, wanna visit the playground next time as well?"
I nod in agreement.
"4 days a week."
"Twice a week." comes the rapid reply.
"Twice it is then."
Walking towards the door to my apartment, we hear the muffled sound of news anchor coming from inside, meaning Ambra had woken up.
Both of us look each other in the eye, as I gesture for him to ring the fixed door bell which hadn't worked for years until Brian fixed it a few months ago.
***
I look at the screen on my tablet as I work on learning the A- programming language, one of the newer programming languages this world has created to work more efficiently with A.I. Although it would be complex for a 10th grader to grasp the basic concepts, for someone my age and experience it was considerably less hard but not easy, I just needed to understand the concepts and not forget it while learning another concept.
I feel a presence sit next to me, but I ignore it in favor to finding where the error is in the given source code, which is how this programming puzzle worked. It would give A.I generated codes with errors and the user had to find them line by line and correct them, as a test to check the current understanding of the user.
"So which game is that?"
I finish the current function I am reading, searching for any error or mistype in the code before replying, "It's program solving puzzle."
Brian nods before asking, "So how much time will you take? Its evening now."
"What! evening?" I ask with surprise, "Axel, what is the time now."
"It is currently 4:24pm. 36 minutes to 5 pm." comes the monotonous reply.
I gaze angrily at Brian for being disturbed, but then I just sigh tiredly. 'Hah, this level is harder than I thought. There is so many lines to go through that it's burning my brain. Well I guess I will complete it when I come back.'
"So what are you working? I have been seeing you playing that game for a month now." he asks with an unfazed expression to my outburst.
"Programming puzzle." I reply insistently, "and I am not playing a game, I am learning. Currently I am trying to make a better and less monotonous voice language model for Axel. He sounds too dull."
"He is a robot, what do you think he is supposed to sound like?" he says while looking at Axel making lunch in the kitchen.
"Yeah, but he is my robot and it sounds too dull for me."
I look at him and then at the long lines of complex code and close the puzzle but not before saving the current progress.
*sigh*
"Well let me eat before we go."
He nods before saying, "You do know that making any personal modification to a robot will bring the company employees to this house."
I look incredulously at him, "What?"
He looks with interest at Axel, before looking at me, "Oh yeah, you didn't know?"
"How would I kn- no, I should have known."
"Oh and why is that?" he asks with interest in his eyes.
"If someone made an illegal modifications to their robot, then the terrorists would be the first one to do it. Making suicide bomber except the part where the suicider is an unfeeling robot." comes the reply with increasing tone of tiredness from learning about it after a month of learning, but the very thought of, was I allowed to do it? had escaped my mind.
Brian nods, "Well I do know a guy who could change the language model of Axel. If you want I could ask him, and it would take few minutes of work."
I look at Brian and then at Axel before shaking my head, "No, it's a useless expense. I was just working on it as a side project."
"Why are you worried about the expense? kiddo." he says while smacking my back. "And that guy owes me a favor or two. and it's not all bad you know, you work-"
"Yes I know, I learned about language model even if I couldn't put it to use, I will have knowledge."
He smirks at being interrupted but says nothing. I begin to eat my lunch which was boiled chicken with salted veggies for protein and vitamins. I had decided to start physically working out early, which was very young for my age but it only involved walking, doing few stretches for flexibility and hanging on a pull up bar for children. But most of it was to spend time being friends with kid Brian.
It had been 3 months since we first met and while he didn't stutter as much as he used to, it still took him time to relax in my presence. Although he was very curious by nature. He knew pretty much knew everything near the playground and his house from all different pathways and alleys to shops and hidden spots one could go through to reach the playground, although I suspected that was because of bullies who harassed him and his intent to avoid them. Either way he showed me interesting place hidden in alley ways, of course Brian kept an eye on us and followed behind whenever we would leave the playground to explore.
I finish up my lunch and get up, only to see Brian was checking something on his phone with a steely expression, as I wait for him.
I check the window to see for any signs of snowfall, as it had been days since it snowed. The first time experiencing snowfall was quite a weird feeling, although it didn't any different from a normal snowfall. I knew for a fact that this was a fictional magical world, but in actuality the only time I ever had seen magic was either in the hospital or that magical contract in that car. It felt like everything about my past life was a lie. People living their own lives, children with well off parents going to school. But I only needed to turn on the projected screen and look on the news channel for the proof that my previous life was not a dream.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, "Excited to meet your little buddy?"
"Brian is a friend, Brian." comes my reply with narrowed eyes.
He shakes his head, "Brian is your friend, not a friend. Wording Arwin."
I ignore him and open the door as he closes the door and we get down the building in elevator. As we get into the car. "Let's get your friend and I will take both of you to my friend."
With one eyebrow raised I look at him, "You have a friend?"
With a mock expression of hurt, "Ah kid, you are bullying this old man."
"You are not an old man, you are barely in your 40s. Early 50s? nah, don't change the topic. You never speak about what you do in detail and I have never met your friend, not even 'friends' with a 's'."
His expression hardens at the mention of him looking older than he actually is.
We both get into car, as he reverses while looking in the manual rear view mirror, "I told you about the guy who owes me favor, well we are going to meet him."
"Wait, we are going to meet him today? But how would he know which language model will work for Axel. Wh-"
"You were working on modifying Axel's language model, I am pretty sure you know the specs Axel has, Don't you?", he asks with an assuredness in his voice that he has guessed correctly.
"Yeah.", I admit in defeat.
He parks the car outside the playground and gestures me to bring kid Brian who was sitting on the metal swing waiting for me.
I get out of the car and walk towards kid Brian, halfway through I just gesture him to get up and walk towards me. Which he promptly does.
"Hi! Arwin, how ar-"
"Brian you free right now, right?"
He nods at my question.
"Great, my uncle is taking me to meet his friend. He invited you as well."
Like a deer in front of a headlight he freezes up before turning to Brian's car and then back at me, "I-I can't g-go you kno-know. If m-my mother k-knew s-she would kill m-"
"Aw come on, its not like she is here. We will be back in a jiffy, we are just going to visit not stay for a night you know."
A loud voice comes from behind me, "Come on kids, we gotta go. Time waits for no one."
I gesture to him to come, "It's ok if you don't wanna come, we can give you a ride home back."
He face freezes up and then he vigorously shakes his head, "No-o, I will come wi-with you."
As we both walk back to the car, I make note to my mind regarding kid Brian's expression whenever I mention his home. At first I did try to dig up about his home and his family. But this kid's mouth is shut sealed with a flex tape, he never mentions anything bad about his home rather he mentions absolutely nothing. Which I can make a simple guess his situation is also as bad as mine, but it is a useful rope to pull on when he disagrees.
As we both get into the back seat, as I begin to see a different part of this city. Whenever Brian took me out, we would go with the same common route, roads filled with all kinds of vehicle, shops and restaurants opened, people walking the streets. Now where we were going, it felt alien with seeing very few people.
As we go through a narrow path, just wide enough for Brian's car. We reach a dilapidated 3 store building, with windows being sealed with bricks. He stops in front of a large metal door for vehicle inside the building entrance, as he gets out to open it and comes back to drive the car inside with once again getting out to shut the metal door.
"Where is he taking us, Arwin?" he asks with fear in his voice.
"To meet with his friend." I calmly reply, but even I was getting suspicious. This area from streets to alleyways looks too dangerous for someone to walk alone, let alone for kids like us. 'Could he- no he can't, right?'
Kid Brian whispers in terror, "Do yo-you think he is-s a kidnapper, my mo-mother always tol-told me if I did n-not behave som-somone would take me a-away in n-night."
I wanted to disagree, but even I was getting a bit scared. So I gesture him to open the door, only for Brian to pull the door open as he looks at us, "Why are you opening the door, kiddos?"
Scaring kid Brian back inside as he stutters, Brian looks at me. As even I feel unnerved at postulating he could be a human trafficker. He immediately slams the door shut and locks all car door with his small gadget. He stands outside the door, with an increasingly cold expression on his face observing us, like a butcher picking which chicken to pick and kill. Kid Brian increasingly becomes frantic searching the car for any opening he can escape from and even I can't think of something, something that will get us out of this situation, but my brain feels like someone has poured molasses into it and has frozen my capacity to think.
"Pfft, hahaha." suddenly the tense situations break with Brian's laughter. "Oh! oh you should see your faces."
*Hahaha*
His laughing cools down and he unlocks the driver door and gets in, but kid Brian is still clinging onto me. Brian looks back us, "You guys get scared too easily."
I reply, "And you shouldn't have done that." with anger in my tone
He starts the car once again and drives into the car elevator, pressing the 1st floor, "And you froze up kid, what would you have done if I was a real kidnapper or human trafficker?"
Arwin's lips tightened into a thin line, as he tries to come up with a rebuttal but is beaten by Brian, "Do you even know where you are, or even if somehow you are able to escape, where would you have go? you don't know anything about this street, not before someone like me can find you."
"Then at least it is better to run than-", only to be interrupted by Brian, "Brian do you know where we are?"
He looks back at us or more specifically at kid Brian, who nods fearfully.
"See at least he knew where we were going, you on the other hand didn't know where you were being taken and didn't even have the thought of taking notice of the paths and turn we took. You need to be more carful, be too trusting and you will not even know when you were stabbed in back."
I feel anger rising in me, only for it to get stomped upon seeing Brian's face turning remorseful, he faces straight forward and we see an overhead garage door. Brian lowers the window speaks into smart doorbell, "It's me Ant, I want to fix the steering wheel, it has gotten loose."
Immediately the garage door opens, as he drives slowly inside. We see a typical car repair shop, except it being on the first floor. With a man standing facing us. He had more of a tacky clothing than a normal car repair worker. He also looked considerably younger than Brian, with hair closer to the shade of ginger than brown in dreadlocks, but it could be hair dye.
Brian gets out of the car and clasps eachother's wrist, as both of us stay in the car. He turns to us, "Oh come on, it was a joke kids."
"Bullshit." I angrily reply.
He walks slowly up to the car and knocks on the door window to get my attention, as I was ignoring him in anger. While kid Brian was observing him, "Ok look Arwin, I agree that was bad on me for scaring both of you and I am sorry for taking my frustration on you. You can be angry with me, but Antonio has done nothing wrong for you to ignore him. I am really sorry kid."
I look at his guilty expression, and swallow my anger to exit the vehicle from my side. As kid Brian follows my lead to not be left behind in the car. Walking up to Antonio, while keeping my eyes on Brian.
As the man opens his mouth to greet me, I greet him first, "Good afternoon, Mr. Antonio."
Closing his mouth and raises an eyebrow, "How did you know my name kid-" he intently observes me, then turns his attention to Brian and sighs.
"He did something wrong, didn't he?"
I nod, "Don't worry kids, I will shout at him for making you kids sad. You can count on me for that." he looks at Brian and calls out to him, "Come here you ass, you think scaring young kids makes you look strong? You just look old Brian, I AM old."
I give a studying look to Antonio's face, as he winks at me.
He turns to kid Brian, "And whats your name scared kiddo."
"Bri-Brian M-Mr. Antnio."
He smirks at the mispronunciation of his name, but then realizes, "Aye, Brian he got your name."
He observes kid Brian more intently and then looks back at Brian who was standing behind him, and grabs him by his shoulders and points at him with a smile, "You scared of this guy? Kid, he also used to be a scaredy cat like you. You shouldn't be scared of this guy, you know how much I used to bully him? I always made him steal things for me and since he looked always so scared, he would rarely get caught. Do you kno-"
Brian pushes his pointed finger down, with a tired expression, "Later Antonio, not now-"
"And you scaring the kids is ok?"
He looks at us and apologizes once again, "I shouldn't have done that even if it was for fun, both of you are too young. I am sorry if I scared you too much and taking my anger on you."
With a complicated expression on his face he steps into an open door to our left and closes the door.
I turn towards Antonio, "What happened to Brian, I have never seen him act like this or even be angry."
Antonio smiles ruefully, "Its not for kids like you to worry, you're all to young-"
"You come from the same orphanage as Brian, right?"
He raises one eyebrow with surprise coloring his face, "How did you-Oh! you are that kid he has been talking about."
I ask once again, "What happened to Brian, did he..."
I leave an open ended question, gesturing I could piece together clues.
He smiles sadly before accepting, "He lost two friends today."