The Arch War (The Dark Archez #1)

Prologue

Wraith

(Some years ago)

Boom!

Crack!

Pow, Thud, Crash!

There’s a lot of noise going on downstairs.

Today wasn’t a good day for me because it marks a week since my treacherous parents let my newborn baby brother die of starvation.

I had tried my best to keep him fed but it was hard to keep both him and myself alive when our parents hardly kept the kitchen stocked with food.

They’d always go out and feed themselves, never bothering to bring me or my brother back anything to eat.

Earlier today while I was playing with my toy cars I saw my dad bring in an unconscious woman and drag her inside the basement.

He didn’t see me because I made sure I was out of sight, hidden from him.

Once he was gone I tried to go down to the basement to check on the woman but he made sure to lock the door so I couldn’t enter.

Now as I rub my tired eyes I walk downstairs to see what all the racket is.

Glass is everywhere on the floor, the flowers Mom bought herself are crushed and the petals are scattered in various places.

I jump at the sound of a loud boom. I then see a man dressed in black leather clothing rush past me, not paying attention to me.

I think it’s because I’m too short and he’s too tall to recognize someone my size.

I follow close behind him and discover that the basements door is gone.

Now I can go check on the woman except the tall man enters the basement and if I go in behind him I’m destined to be discovered by him so I stay hidden.

“You wannabe hitman motherfucker, where is she?” a mans voice I don’t recognize asks.

It sounds like he’s in the living room. I then hear whimpering and those whimpers sound.

.. familiar. Mom! Moving from my hiding spot I run over to the threshold of the living room.

I hide behind the plant Mom has put in the corner.

Peaking through the leaves I see a giant man with a bunch of tattoos and long brown hair that falls to his shoulders hovering over both of my parents.

My father smiles a bloody smile at the giant man before he says,

“I killed her.”

The giant man smacks my father with a gun. My fathers blood decorates the tan carpets in the living room as he falls to his side.

“Ghostin, you find her?” the man shouts.

It’s silent for a moment.

“Not yet!” another mans voice sounds.

Looking down the hall I see the tall man emerge from the basement.

Is his name Ghostin? I feel my heartbeat increase along with my breathing.

Even though I’m mad at my parents and couldn’t care less if they lived or died because they didn’t give a shit about me or my brother I am still becoming a little scared.

The giant man places the gun against Mom’s temple.

“You have five minutes to tell me where my wife is or yours dies.” He states.

Wails come from my mother as she stares at the giant man.

“Please don’t kill me!” she begs through her crying.

Rolling my eyes I cover my ears because her wailing is hurting my eardrums.

“Shut the fuck up woman!” the giant man says through gritted teeth.

“I told you, Fabian told me to kill her so she’s dead, I follow my boss’s orders.” Dad said.

I’m so focused on what’s happening in the living room that I don’t notice the tall man crouching down in front of me on the other side of the plant.

He too has a lot of tattoos from what I can see but for some reason he doesn’t scare me.

Instead I feel something like security when I look into his eyes.

“Hi.” I squeak.

He smiles and waggles his fingers at me in a wave. Next, he grabs me by my arm and hauls me from behind the plant. Mom is speaking Korean when she notices me in the tall mans grasp.

“Wraith, son, please save me, I’m your mother!” she cries.

“And Iason was your son before you let him starve to death.” I speak back in Korean.

“Please, I-I didn’t mean to, I love both of you.”

“You could have fooled me.” I shrug.

“English, speak English!” the giant man said.

“This is my home, I have the freedom to speak my native tongue with my son.” Mom says in English.

“I’m not your son!” I shout in English.

“Then who are you?” the giant man asks. “Do you work for Valentino?”

“Who is Valentino?” I frown.

“The man I work for, son.” My father huffs.

I look at the giant man.

“I’m too young to work.” I state.

“Are these your parents?” he asks.

“They may have birthed me but they will never be my parents again.” I grind out looking my mother in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’ll take better care of you, I’ll give you another brother.” She pleads.

I look at the giant man as tears fill my eyes.

“I don’t want another brother, I want Iason back!” I shout through the pain in my throat and chest.

“What do I do with him, Prez?” the tall man holding me asks.

“Has anybody found my wife?”

Is his name Prez?

“Uh, not that I know of.” Tall man says.

Giant man cocks his gun and shoots my mother in the head. Her dead body falls limply to the floor. I thought seeing my parents dead would hurt me, but nothing hurts more than when I saw Iason’s dead body in his baby crib. Now that I see my mother dead I feel a small smirk touch my lips.

Another man enters the house in a frenzy.

“We found her Prez!” he said. “But... she’s dead.”

Something dark, like dark clouds surround the man they call Prez and he shoots my father in his balls. My father screams in pain as he holds his crotch, crying like a baby.

“That’s for killing my wife.”

The giant man kneels in front my father and places his gun in my fathers open mouth.

A bullet is then release into his brain, silencing his horrendous, dramatic cries.

Finally. All this noise is a lot on the ear drums. Seeing my parents dead bodies on the floor of our living room snaps something in me, something dark, and I welcome the comforting darkness.

I don’t see this as a loss but as freedom.

The chains they had over me are finally broken now that they are dead.

“The kid?” tall guys asks.

Giant man walks over to us and kneels in front of my face. He studies my face, looking to be in thought for a long moment.

“How would you like to be my son?” he asks.

I think about it for a second. I am too young to be on my own, I’m still in school, and have no idea how the real world works. I just know how the little world I’ve been accustomed to works. So in response to his question, I nod.

“I’d like that.” I said. “Will you feed me?”

“I’ll buy you anything you want, what’s your name?”

“Wraith Jang.”

“Nice to meet you Wraith, I’m Guilford, Guildford Nacar.”

“So why do they call you Prez?” I ask as tall man sits me down on my two feet.

Guildford smiles. “Because I’m the president of the motorcycle club The Dark Archez, and you are the newest member of the club... well when you turn eighteen that is.”

“So in ten years?” I ask.

“If that’s when you turn eighteen then yes.”

I smile. “Cool.”

I grab his hand and drag him out of the front door.

“I want a burger.” I announce.

Guildford chuckles.

“Then let’s go get you a burger, little man.”

***

It turns out throughout the years my father had been in debt with a Mexican mafia boss named Valentino.

To pay off his debt he worked for the man which is why that woman was brought into the house that night.

That woman, Josephine Nacar, was the wife of my now adoptive father, Guildford Nacar, and mother to my adoptive sister, Frani Nacar.

We call ourselves twins because we were born on the same day of the same year.

The only exception is she’s older than me by eight minutes.

Valentino and Guildford have some unsettled beef with each other which is why my real father had been subjected to kill Josephine, to get to Guilford.

Guildford obviously retaliated but Valentino just doesn’t know when to back down so the war between both men has been going on for some time now and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.

Since Guildford is the President of a motorcycle club Frani and I are treated like royalty in leather instead of prissy silks and satins.

Frani and I both got tattoos when we turned sixteen, I got a tattoo of a rose on fire on the side of my ribs while she got her mothers birthday underneath her breasts.

Hers is obviously homage to her mother while mine is homage to me welcoming my dark side after breaking free from my abusive, uncaring parents.

They didn’t care about me or my brother which is why he starved to death.

They also handed him off to me like I was the one responsible for his existence when he was alive while they went out to feed themselves, party, and have sex whenever they’d like.

Before he came into the picture they use to hit me everywhere on my body and I’d go to bed aching and bruised almost every night while hungry.

So the fire on the rose on my side doesn’t resembles something dark, to me it resembles the light in my life and my freedom.

When we turned seventeen we got into bikes and Guildford gifted us our own bikes.

No one could wipe the smiles off our faces when we finally got our motorcycle license and were able to ride our bikes into the night, all night, until the suns rays began to fork the sky.

That was one of the best nights of my life.

When we turned eighteen we finally joined the motorcycle club and became an Arch member of The Dark Archez.

So, in honor of that we both got a tattoo of the clubs symbol, a dark angel.

Frani got her tattoo on her side while I got mine on my back.

It wasn’t too big nor was it too small, it was just right, and I still had room on my back to get more tats which I loved.

Life after Guildford legally adopted me couldn’t have gotten better.

.. at least for me, I couldn’t say the same about anyone else. ..