Breaking Family Ties

By Negative Cation

Prologue

I don't know the exact moment I realised things were different for me. There's no date, no precise memories. It just sort of – happened. My life had always been like that, it just took time to figure out that not everybody's was.

I was born into a Family. That sounds strange, I realise, because of course, everyone is. But where I'm from a Family is something else. It's not biological – not the people who gave birth to you, although they're part of it. It's who you belong to, what you belong to. It's what you are.

Oh. I'm not good at this, telling stories. It's not what I do best, but I'm going to try, because this is something I need to do. Someday, someone's going to want to know what happened. I doubt they'll believe me, but…

Family.

When I was little, I didn't play with most of the children in my nursery school. I played with the other children from my Family, the other Forrests. There weren't any others my age, so I stuck around with the ones slightly older than me, or those slightly younger. It started in nursery school, as it always does, and it continued in primary school and then in high school. I knew I was really different when I went from primary school to secondary school. When all the other children were struggling to fit in, to make friends and not feel out of place, I already had a group to hang out with. All the other members of the Family went to the same secondary school. We were part of it's history, one of its myths. We scared our classmates and inspired awe at the same time. Because of who we were, because of our background.

In my secondary school years, I realised, too, exactly what it meant to be in the Family, and I realised I didn't like it. It felt wrong, I felt trapped. I'd never had to make friends by myself. Never had to make decisions. And I didn't like it. I didn't stood for and I didn't like what they turned me into.

I guess I haven't exactly explained what they were yet. Like I said, I'm not good at story telling, but I'll give it a shot. It's kind of like being in the Mafia. Organised crime except crime never felt like the right word. They were powerful, they had control, connections, everywhere – politics, business, even education and healthcare. And it wasn't always for the best. It wasn't always for money either, before you jump to conclusions. It was just complicated.

The more I understood, the more I wanted out – and the more I realised that that wasn't a real possibility. So I did everything I could to put distance between them and me, but it wasn't easy. The hardest thing, maybe, was getting started.

A/N: This is just the prologue – I realize there's no indication of romance of any kind yet. That will come, if a little slowly. Please don't stop here – read the first chapter at least, because this really isn't a proper indication of what the story's about…

- N.C.