Eventually, because the boy would not listen, most of his family became weary of arguing constantly and began to ignore what they all knew. But one of the boy's brothers could not look away, and every time he looked at his brother, he saw only where the anger would take him someday. He could not let him go alone, and he could not keep him from going, but the boy's brother did the best he could, and he never ignored what he knew.
[Ben doesn't have to hesitate; the path of the story is clear to him as he continues, able to smoothly bypass where the truth becomes counterproductive to the point of the narrative. It's simple for him, once the words are flowing, the braid the threads together how he wants them to come out.]
The boy's brother had night terrors. The rest of the family was impatient with this, too, because he was afraid of things that weren't there and they did not understand how he could persist, even admitting as he did once he was awoken from them that they were not real. But the boy could not ignore it, and though it made him angrier and angrier that he could not find a solution, he searched and searched the world, determined that he would make his brother feel secure from these nightmares that plagued him.
One day he returned to find that his brother had had a very severe episode, and it had left him weakened and shaking, and no one knew what to do. So the boy - so angry at his own failure, because he still had no solution, no recourse - ran there as soon as he heard, and he crouched down and he took his brother's hands and felt them stop shaking as he did, and he asked what he could do, what he could possibly do.
And his brother answered, "Don't leave again." The boy argued, because he must go, he must find how to help his brother, he must. It was consuming him, and his brother could see that, and it made him in turn determined to make him listen.
"You make me safe," he said at last. "But you must forgive yourself to see it. You must believe you are good enough." And the boy wanted to argue but his brother had hold of his hands, and would not let him go. Further, he continued, "When you're gone, if you leave me for good, if your anger consumes you, you will not be here to nake me safe. And then I will have no one to protect me from the night terrors."
[Ben falls silent for a moment, letting it all sink in, letting the inferences between the lines become slightly more clear. Then he smiles - a small, shy, currently somewhat shaky expression, but nonetheleess.]
The boy could not believe this was true. He did not believe in himself. But his brother did - his brother does - and it is, for the time being, enough.
[ Spam ]
[Ben doesn't have to hesitate; the path of the story is clear to him as he continues, able to smoothly bypass where the truth becomes counterproductive to the point of the narrative. It's simple for him, once the words are flowing, the braid the threads together how he wants them to come out.]
The boy's brother had night terrors. The rest of the family was impatient with this, too, because he was afraid of things that weren't there and they did not understand how he could persist, even admitting as he did once he was awoken from them that they were not real. But the boy could not ignore it, and though it made him angrier and angrier that he could not find a solution, he searched and searched the world, determined that he would make his brother feel secure from these nightmares that plagued him.
One day he returned to find that his brother had had a very severe episode, and it had left him weakened and shaking, and no one knew what to do. So the boy - so angry at his own failure, because he still had no solution, no recourse - ran there as soon as he heard, and he crouched down and he took his brother's hands and felt them stop shaking as he did, and he asked what he could do, what he could possibly do.
And his brother answered, "Don't leave again." The boy argued, because he must go, he must find how to help his brother, he must. It was consuming him, and his brother could see that, and it made him in turn determined to make him listen.
"You make me safe," he said at last. "But you must forgive yourself to see it. You must believe you are good enough." And the boy wanted to argue but his brother had hold of his hands, and would not let him go. Further, he continued, "When you're gone, if you leave me for good, if your anger consumes you, you will not be here to nake me safe. And then I will have no one to protect me from the night terrors."
[Ben falls silent for a moment, letting it all sink in, letting the inferences between the lines become slightly more clear. Then he smiles - a small, shy, currently somewhat shaky expression, but nonetheleess.]
The boy could not believe this was true. He did not believe in himself. But his brother did - his brother does - and it is, for the time being, enough.