WATER IS THICKER

They were brothers.

Who? You might ask yourselves.

The two of them, Billy and Jonathan, they were ‘brothers.’

Billy and Jonathan always did everything together. They were inseparable.

One could imagine them to be like twins in nature, but of the fraternal kind in appearance.

The Ordains family treasured these two with so much love.

Billy was twelve and Jonathan only ten when the tragedy happened that separated them.

The sun was almost setting and as always they would play one last game to finish off the day.

They were playing hide and seek that day, Billy was the seeker whilst Jonathan hid.

Their playground was the backyard forest of the Ordains mansion. It was a vast forest which 

sheltered all kinds of creatures.

They played under the watchful eyes of two nannies. 

The boys were already used to the presence of the nannies that they seemed invisible at times.

Billy went deeper into the woods that day as he searched for his brother. 

He started shouting, “I have found you!” in the hopes to scare Jonathan out of hiding. The deeper 

he went the more the nannies failed to follow them. They stopped thirty feet away. Billy did not 

notice this at all.

“I have found you!” he continued the scare in vain hope. It was getting dark already and he was 

starting to dislike the game.

“I have…found…you?” he stammered as he found Jonathan standing in front of him out of the 

blue instead of hiding himself. Jonathan was facing away from Billy. All he could see was the back 

of his head, the dark curls of his head were still neat as ever despite being ruffled a couple of times.

Why wasn’t Jonathan turning to face him? Something did not feel right.

Billy moved a little bit forward trying to have a good view of Jonathan’s face, was he crying? He 

thought as he arched forward bit by bit.

“I hate you!” Jonathan screamed these words with all his might causing the birds that rested on the 

trees of the forest to be startled and fly away making a ruckus of flapping wings.

Billy was confused, who was Jonathan talking to? He looked behind himself hoping to find 

someone maybe the nannies but there was no one there.

Who was Jonathan talking to? Billy pondered with himself.

Again Jonathan said the words but this time a name was attached to them.

“I hate you Billy!”

The words carried such a venomous conclusion that they indeed pierced and hurt Billy’s heart. 

What did Jonathan mean by this? 

“Jonathan what do you mean by this?” Billy asked as the confusion and pain seem to burden him.

Jonathan continued to face away from Billy for a little while without answering.

“I blame you for this.” He then turned and finally faced Billy.

Jonathan’s face had a bleeding wound done by chaotic hands. In his hand he held the stone that he 

used to hurt himself.

Horrified by what he was seeing Billy took off his jacket and made a rush to stop the bleeding. He 

could only imagine the pain Jonathan was in.

“Stay away from me!” Jonathan shouted as he made a hurried step away from him.

“You ruined everything by coming into our lives. Could you not have stayed away?” Jonathan said 

this as his black eyes became even darker with madness as they looked at Billy shamelessly.

“You are not even an Ordains but you keep on sticking around…You are the one who did this to 

me and you will pay for it!” Jonathan continued as he shouted these words at Billy who heard them 

and got more heartbroken.

Billy knew from the start he was an orphan. He was adopted by the Ordains. His mother was very

sick and she thought the Ordains would be able to look after him but this was proving to be 

difficult. He understood Jonathan’s pain that his space was invaded.

“Leave us!” He said this with such firm that they did not sound like words that would come from 

the mouth of a mere child.

Billy did not know what to do, tears could only pour themselves out onto his cheeks. He had knew

that the Ordains were nice people but he did not expect such hatred from the boy who showed him 

kindness the day his mother left him in their care. He was the only brother he loved and trusted.

They had been brothers for five years now. What had changed their love for each other all of a 

sudden?

“Jonathan come here to me.” He thought maybe drawing him away from the forest would clear 

things up.

“Leave us. I hate you!” Jonathan repeated.

“I will tell them how you hurt me and don’t think they will ever forgive you. You are not one of 

us. You are not my family. You are just adopted!” The little sweet boy Billy knew was instantly 

gone. This was not the Jonathan he knew at all. Where did that boy who laughed at his stupid jokes

got to. Billy now seemed to be missing the old Jonathan as the new one scared him with his hardheartedness. 

Billy made staggering steps as to whether he should stay or leave. Where would he go? The steps 

he made soon turned into a pacing step and later it turned into a run. He ran deep into the forest. 

His unwillingly carried him along the forest. Billy hoped to never see Jonathan and the Ordains 

ever again.

Cold tears discolored his red cheeks. Never looking back to see Jonathan’s smug face, he only 

afforded to imagine he was running to his mother. He wanted his mother very much badly. Why 

had she not called him? She promised to come back for him once she got well. He felt his heart 

stab with pain all of a sudden after this thought.

The further he ran into the forest, the darker it became and the creepier…