Hearing a door open and rusting of clothes, I tensed up and balled a fist full of the bed sheet in my hands. On the count of three, I have to get up.

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Not a second later, I raised my upper half with all of my core strength and using a lot of help with my arms. The pain scorching through me has not once let me forget that it was there. It spread across my back, having me nearly let out all of my yells.

Just sitting up has me in misery, standing up will put me in a whole nother category. Can I even stand up??

"Your a fucking dumbass, you know that right?"

Wait is that Unique?!

"Oh my gosh! Can you just stop being so mean for once. The whole time we were out there all you did was criticize me, I'm the professional hunter here."

I don't know who that is.

The door to the room I was occupying opened and first entered Unique with a wet metal bucket. Behind her was a guy just a few feet taller than her, he looked to be 5'10. His whole face was practically hidden behind his big bushy beard and his long face length locs.

The loud creakily thud of the bucket hitting the floor, pulled me out of my observation and back towards the running Unique.

"Nunu!" She yelled as her arms gently embraced me. I remained still and kept my eyes on the serene man standing at the doorway.

Unique pulled away and faced me, "How are you feeling?" She asked.

Finally turning away from the man, I looked at Unique. "I-I'm.."

An unanticipating series of coughs responded to my poorly hydrated throat. Unique was quick to exit the room and return with a glass of water.

I gulped it down in seconds, "More." I said nudging the glass back to her and watched her do as she was told. After drinking the second glass of water, I turned to Unique and responded back to her earlier question.

"I'm f-fine."

She rolled her eyes, "No your not, I can tell your in pain by the way your holding onto the bedsheets for your dear life." She sassily said and pointed down to my clenched palms. Then she placed her hands on my shoulders, gesturing me to lay back down.

No no no, I won't be starting over again, so I swat her hands away and glared at her. "We have to go." I said to her.

"Yes we do but not right now, your not healed yet. At least wait for another week before you can get out of bed."

Another week? I've been out for a week!

"I've been healing long enough, Juan and his people are still looking for us I can't hide here." I said before pushing her away from me.

Ok Nunu you got this, just take in a deep breathe and go.
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I lifted one leg off of the bed and onto the ground resulting to the loc'd man at the door to quickly rush to my side, "Hey! Hey! Woah! Hold up now, you can't be doing any activities. Your still healing." He said as I felt his large hands being placed in my shoulders.

My hands acted on its own and weakly punched his abdomen. It had little to no effect on him, and he still had his hands on me. Before I could result to a different method of attack, Unique stepped in.

She pushed the big guy away from me, "There! He's off of you Nunu, but he's also right." She said stepping in between the standing man and I.

Rolling my eyes, I continued to my course and placed my other leg on the ground. This is really good, now I'm that i'm sitting on the edge of the bed, all I have to do is push myself up off and I'll be on my way.

"Nunu your just hurting yourself more, it's best to just hide for a while. Isn't that what we were gonna do anyway? We were running from them to go hide right?" Unique said.

I scoffed, "You of all people know I hate running and hiding. I've done that shit for far too long. Earlier I wasn't running to hide, I was running to prepare myself for the counterattack."

The loc'd man hummed, "Yeah we know, you'd always say running is for bitches." He started as Unique joined him on repeating my famous line.

Unique and I looked back at him, how does he know that? Have I met him before?

"How do you know that? Nunu do you know this fool??" She asked looking between the loc'd man and I.

The loc'd man face palmed himself in frustration, he groaned before looking back up at us. "This now makes the millionth time, I'm cousins with Nunu. I'm family, and I for sure am gonna beat your ass if you continue to deny it."

"...oh here we-"

I began to block out their argument and went to focus back on that conversation I thought I've dreamt earlier.

"...my name is CJ, short for Craig Jr."

So I wasn't dreaming, it was all real. He's alive! Wait-he's alive?

"Boy don't make me cut your nipples off and feed it to these dying fishes." Unique murderously threatened as she pointed a knife at the very annoyed CJ.

"How did you survive that night?" I said, cutting into their heated argument.

"Huh?"

CJ smirked at Unique's disoriented face. "So does that mean you remember me?" He happily asked.

"If I didn't then I wouldn't have asked that question, dumbass."

A small snicker came from Unique before she was quickly hushed after receiving a harsh glare from CJ. "First, respect your elders, don't call me a dumbass. Same goes for you too youngin." He said to both Unique and I.

I rolled my eyes and began to prepare for his lecture. Even after all these years, I remember his stupid lectures about respect, responsibilities, and fucking discipline. He'd give them all the time to manipulate the younger kids into doing his chores.

"...and that's why respect is valued amongst everyone." He finished. I didn't listen to a word that came out of his mouth.

"Are you done?" I asked in boredom.

He crossed his arms, already knowing that I let all of his words slip through my ears. "You know what, I'm tired of trying to teach you younger gens about life." He said.

"Your 9 years older than me, we're in the same generation, dumbass." I deadpanned

A scoff came from him, "Whatever, just don't go anywhere since you still need to heal." He said ending our topic.

"How'd you survive the fire?" I asked again.

CJ put down his tough demeanor and tiredly sighed as he sat down on a seat. He had his elbows on his knees, prompting him to lean forward. As he played with his fingers and knuckles, I watched as the poor guy relive that night through his eyes.

In the moment of silence, Unique and I patiently waited for him to respond.

"Um, I barely got out with my life." He started.

"Since I was practically always at your house, I kinda picked up on some survival skills from Uncle K. So on the night of the fire, I finally put them to use."

"...I remember trying my hardest to suppress the excruciating pain of my skin burning off of me so I can hurry up and untie myself. I successfully freed myself seconds before the roof collapsed on us."

"...it was too late for me to help my family out of the fire, they were already buried in the living room as I barely kept myself up in the Kitchen. From the kitchen's island table I was still able to hear a few muffled screams from my dying family. I badly wanted to go back to help them out but I was too afraid, and my legs didn't correspond to what my brain was saying."

"...and knowing that the house is standing on its last few legs, I had no other choice but to leave. So I left my family and ran away until I fainted miles away from the fire. Later I woke up in a hospital and decided to never go back to the Royals. Although you all were family to me, you all were also a burden. I could never live a life without death if I were to have stayed."

CJ then stood up and lifted his shirt, revealing all of the burn marks. "They're everywhere on me but my neck, face, feet, and arms. This is my everyday reminder of why I'll never return to the Royals."