ARIES POV
Jay finally retreated to her room, her face pale and her steps heavy with exhaustion. Once I caught the sound of her door clicking shut, the atmosphere in the living room shifted instantly. It went from chaotic family bickering to a cold, suffocating tension.
The house was eerie. Keigan and Keiran had finally gone silent—either asleep or smart enough to stay out of the blast zone.
Keifer walked back down the stairs, his expression unreadable as he buttoned his cuffs. "Jay is asleep," he said simply, his eyes scanning the room.
I nodded, but I wasn't looking at him. My eyes were locked on Jare, who was sitting on the edge of the armchair, looking like he wanted to jump out of his own skin.
"Explain, Jare," I said, my voice dangerously low.
"Explain what?" Jare snapped, his eyes flashing with a mix of guilt and annoyance. "I told you, the tire—"
I didn't let him finish. I lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar of his fresh shirt and slamming him back against the chair. My knuckles brushed the bandages on his neck as I gripped him tighter.
"You son of a bitch," I hissed, my face inches from his. "You know exactly what just happened to Jay. You saw her eyes. You heard that scream."
Keifer didn't move to stop me. He also knew what happened
"What happened to her?" I demanded, shaking him. "And why does she have that blood trauma?"
Jare tried to look away, but I leaned in harder. I've lived with this mystery for years. I still remember the day Jay ended up in the hospital—the day the light in her eyes changed. And I remember Jare showing up to the emergency room, his clothes so soaked in blood he looked like he'd been through a meat grinder. When we asked what happened, all he said was, 'Don't make her remember anything.'
"Talk, Jare," I growled. "You've protected her by keeping her in the dark, but you just saw what that 'protection' does. It's rotting her from the inside out. If you don't tell me what happened in those months she was gone, I swear to God, I will find it out myself"
Jare's jaw tightened, his eyes watering slightly—not from the collar around his neck, but from the weight of whatever secret he was carrying.
"You don't want to know, Aries," Jare whispered, his voice cracking. "If she remembers everything... she won't just be 'traumatized.' She'll be gone. The Jay Jay we know will be replaced by the thing they tried to turn her into."
I felt a chill go down my spine. I looked at Keifer, and I saw his eyes darken to a pitch black
I looked over at Percy. He wasn't the loud-mouthed, self-obsessed guy from ten minutes ago. He was standing in the shadows of the hallway, his eyes cold, distant, and filled with a haunted knowledge that made my blood run cold.
He knew too. They all knew.
"What else?!" I yelled, the sound echoing through the massive house. I didn't care if I woke up the whole neighborhood. "All of you know, don't you? I'm her fucking brother! I deserve to know what happened to my sister's life, damn it!"
I shoved Jare harder against the seat, my vision blurring with rage. The silence in the room was deafening until Jare finally looked me dead in the eye.
"Why don't you ask your mother, Jeana?" Jare spat, his voice dripping with a bitterness that caught me off guard.
The name hit me like a physical blow. My grip on his collar slackened for a split second before I tightened it until my knuckles turned white.
"The fuck? She isn't my mother! My mother is Gemma!" I roared, my voice cracking. "Don't you ever use that woman's name in front of me"
Jeana was the woman who gave birth to me and then handed me over like a piece of unwanted luggage because "it was too hard" to raise me. To her, I was a burden. Mama Gemma was the one who picked up the pieces. She was the one who gave me a name, a home, and a reason to keep breathing. She was my mother in every way that mattered.
"Jeana has everything to do with this, Aries," Jare said, his voice dropping to a low, jagged whisper. He finally shoved my hands off him and stood up, smoothing his shirt with trembling fingers. "Fine if you want to know then hear it Jeana sold our sister to some fucking men because of some debt she had we reached there in time before they could do anything bad but that doesn't mean she didn't have trauma the only reason i'm telling you not to remind her is because I don't want to lose my sister"
The air in the room felt like it had been replaced with lead. I felt sick—physically sick.
"Jeana sold our sister…" I whispered, the words tasting like poison.
I looked at Jare's bandaged hands and then at Percy, who was staring at the floor, his jaw tight. It all made sense now—why they were so overprotective, why Jare looked like he'd been in a war zone, and why they were so terrified of Jay remembering.
"Jeana's husband hurt her," Jare continued, his voice cracking. "That blood… she saw too much of it before we got to her. That's where the trauma comes from. So if you want her to stay the happy, stubborn girl who pulls your ears and calls you names, you keep your mouth shut. If she knows, Aries… she won't be our sister anymore. She'll just be a victim. Please."
I nodded slowly, my hands still shaking with a mixture of grief and murderous rage. "I won't tell her. I promise."
I looked at Jare's hands again. The "tire" story was long gone. "What happened to your hand, really?"
"Underground," Keifer spoke up. He hadn't moved from the doorway, his eyes dark and calculating. "Percy and Jare started an underground network. They hunt traffickers. They rescue women and children before they can be sold. They're doing it because they never want to see another girl go through what Jay went through."
I looked at Percy. The loud, self-obsessed, "Aries baby" facade was gone. This was the real Percy—the one who used his chaos as a shield to hide the fact that he was hunting monsters in the dark.
"So," Percy said, his voice flat as he looked at Jare. "Is he joining, too?"
Jare looked at me for a long beat, searching my face for any sign of hesitation. Then he nodded. "Yeah. He is."
"I'm joining, too," I said, my voice finally steadying. The anger that had been directed at Jare was now focused on a single goal.
"It's a lot of blood, Aries," Jare warned, his eyes hardening. "It's not like the movies. It's messy, and it's loud, and it stays with you."
"I'm not scared," I countered, stepping toward them. "If this is how we prevent another Jay Jay from happening, then I'll walk through as much blood as I have to. I'm in."
Jare let out a long breath and reached out, gripping my shoulder. Truth was, we were all broken in different ways by what happened to Jay, but tonight, we were finally on the same side.
"One rule," Jare said, leaning in close. "Don't tell Angelo."
I nodded immediately. "I know. If Kuya finds out we're running a vigilante trafficking ring, we're all dead."
"Worse," Percy muttered, a ghost of his usual self returning. "He'll make us do paperwork for the rest of our lives."
The heavy, serious atmosphere of our "secret pact" shattered in a heartbeat.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream ripped through the house, coming straight from Jay's room. My heart didn't just skip a beat; it nearly stopped. We didn't even exchange a word—we all scrambled for the stairs. Jare, Keifer, and I practically shoulder-checked each other through the doorway, expecting a hitman or a kidnapper.
"Jay, what the hell are you doing?!" Jare yelled, breathless, as he skidded into the room.
Jay was standing on the bed, her face pale and her eyes wide with pure, unadulterated terror. The second Keifer stepped into her line of sight, she didn't hesitate. She launched herself off the mattress.
Literally jumped on him.
She wrapped her legs firmly around his waist and her arms around his neck like he was her only lifeline in a sinking ship. And Keifer? That motherfucker didn't even flinch. He caught her with practiced ease, his hands sliding down to support her weight—his palms landing right on my sister's butt.
"Hey! Hands off her butt asshole" I snapped, despite the panic, but no one was listening to me.
"There! Right there!" Jay shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at the floor near the nightstand.
Jare leaned over, squinting. "There's a spider there..."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That ain't a spider, bro, that's a whole fucking tarantula!" Percy screamed. Before I could react, I felt a heavy weight slam into my spine. Percy had mimicked Jay, jumping onto my back and clinging to my neck like a koala on meth.
"ASSHOLE! GET OFF MY BACK!" I roared, staggering under his weight. "And a tarantula is a spider, you dumbass! It's just a big one!"
"It has hair, Aries! Why does it have hair?!" Percy wailed into my ear, his legs squeezing my ribs. "Kill it! Keifer, use your King powers and execute it!"
Keifer ignored us, slowly turning in a circle while holding Jay, who was currently burying her face in his neck to avoid looking at the floor. He looked down at the spider—which, granted, was the size of a dinner plate—and then looked at us with the most judgmental expression I've ever seen.
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🌸💗 SHOUT OUT TIME 💗 🌸
Thank you so much everyone for completing the target 🌼💗✨
But today's soft little shout out goes to
DemonSlayer_9628
for spamming comments and helping finish the target 🌸💬🤍
You're adorable for that — thank youuu 🌙🫶✨
NO TARGET THIS CHAPTER BTW🥰🥰
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