It was burning like Hell. The whole village burnt down into ashes, bringing pitiful souls along with it. The fire was huge. It was eating the forests nearby. The roaring noise of the fire sounded like screams of burning pain. I was standing in the middle of the field of fire, spaced. It was like I was in some kind of possession of a devil. But there was something more; tears were flowing down my cheeks and dripping off from my chin. My clothes were all ripped out and cuts all over my body. My village was destroyed by an uncontrollable evil. All of my neighbours and friends were killed and even my parents. I was holding the dead body of my mother in my arms. Her eyes were open but there was no life at all in her eyes. But the most unbelievable thing happened was that, it was my entire fault. I burnt down my village, I killed my neighbours, I killed my father and I killed my own mother. This is my story…
About ten years before that tragic incident happened, I was born in a peaceful village located in the middle of a quiet and calm forest. This village was perfect. Everyone loved each other. Anyone would’ve lived here peacefully and harmony. Located at the end of the road was a wooden house; small yet just the right size for a couple who just received a new member. They named me Exiore, Exiore Silence. I have light skin, soft light brownish hair and clear light blue eyes. All of the villagers are congratulating my parents. My father was pretty famous in the village for his humble behaviour. One morning, my parents are bringing me for a walk in a stroller.
“Oh! He’s beautiful!” a woman complimented as we passed by.
“Such a cute baby!” another woman complimented as we passed by.
“Congratulations, Julia, Rob…” a man congratulated them with the wife, carrying a baby girl in her arms.
“Congratulations to you, too! I’m sure your daughter will be a beautiful young lady one day!” said Rob, my father.
“Well, your son will surely be a strong and humble young man just like his father” said Xerry’s mother. Xerry is the baby girl the woman is carrying. She has smooth light skin, silky black hair and shining green eyes.
My father became embarrassed by the compliment gave by Xerry’s mother. He scratches his head with his face turning red and followed by a laugh.
“I sure hope so. My son will make the Silence’s name up to the top of the world!” said my father again as he holds my mother’s shoulder. All my mother did was smile with proud. She looked at me, sleeping soundly in the stroller with a smile that is filled with love.
Time flies by, before I knew it, I was already five years old, celebrating my fifth birthday with my parents. A birthday cake with white vanilla icing and chocolate sponge, decorated with creamy pink flowers and five candles light up, standing straight on the cake. I was very thrilled until I can’t wait to blow the candle but before that, my mother said, “Wait Exiore!”
So I stopped myself from blowing and looked at my mother’s face with curiosity.
“You have to make a wish first!” she said with a giggle. I was a little surprise. I never thought we can make a wish before blowing the candles of our birthday cake, I thought.
“Oh! Okay! But I don’t know what I want to wish for” I said, putting my finger on my chin, thinking.
“That’s okay, take your time to think” said my mother.
“Why won’t you wish for toys or something that you really want?” my father gave a suggestion. I thought long as I stare at the flames on the candles and finally, I found what I wanted.
“I know what I want to wish for” I said. I speak my wish in my mind and then, I took one big breath and blow the candles in front of me. I managed to blow two of the candles but three of them were still lit. My parents laughed.
“You have to blow harder, son” my father said. I took one big breath and blow. But surprisingly, when I blow, the flames of the candles became a huge flame. My parents were shocked and feeling suspicious. I was closing my eyes as I blow and when I stopped, all of the candles were put out. I opened my eyes and was thrilled. I look at my parents with a satisfied smile but their faces were shocked and pale. I became confused.
“What’s wrong? Did I miss one candle?” I asked as I looked back at the candles. My father was speechless as he looked curiously at me while my mother tried to change the subject.
“Nothing, dear! Now let’s have some of that yummy-looking cake” she said as she cut one slice of the cake and put it into my plate. My father was still staring at me with full of suspicious in his eyes.
My mother brought me walking around the village one afternoon. It was a fine weather; not so hot yet not so cold. I enjoyed looking at the houses and people around the village. From the looks of my mother’s face, she also enjoyed it. Then I saw some kids chasing each other, heading towards a field. I was eager to join them. I looked at my mother’s face, hoping that she would allow me to play with them. She nods with a smile. I hugged her and off to join my new friends.
At the field, I was playing catching a ball with my new friends. My mother arrived a little while later and she sits a distance away, watching me from her spot. I noticed that she was there. I smiled at her, showing that I was having a great time.
“Hey, Exiore! Head’s up!!” one of the boys called me after he tosses the ball towards me. I heard him but when I turned around, the ball hit my head until I fell down to the ground. My mother was a little worried that I would get hurt. The other kids also worried. But then I laughed because it was rather hilarious. They all glad that I didn’t hurt. I took the ball and tossed it back to them. One of them caught it and tossed it to another kid. That kid tossed it to another and then, to another.
Meanwhile, my mother was thinking about the strange thing happened earlier; when I blew the candles and made a huge flame out from my mouth. But even so, she tried to forget about it and keeps on watching me, playing with my new friends.
“Catch!!” shouted one of the boys, tossing the ball to another boy. He caught it and tossed it to me, shouting, “Here, Exiore!!”
I raised up my arms to catch it but suddenly, flames were shooting out from the palms of my hands and totally burned the ball into ashes. The boys were shocked. My mother stood up with surprised. And I was gazing at my hands, shocked but still without a clue on what just happened. My palms were smoking after those flames shot out.
That evening, my mother and I returned home but when we arrived, one of the boys I played with was with his parents, waiting at our house.
“There! That’s him! He burned my ball!!” said the boy, pointing accusingly towards me as he starts to cry. Both I and my mother were surprised. Then, my father approached us with anger.
“What did you do!!?” he shouted to me. I was too scared, I didn’t know what to say. But my mother defended me.
“It was an accident! Exiore didn’t do anything!” she said.
“Then how did my son’s beloved ball burned!?” asked the boy’s mother.
“Our son said that your son has burnt his ball by shooting fire out of his hands!! What are you raising there, a devil!!? Come on, let’s go! I’ll buy you a new ball, son and don’t even think of sharing it to that Devil’s Child!” scorned the boy’s father and they just left.
My father was so angry, he wanted to slap me but my mother grabbed his hand before it reached me.
“Stop that!! I told you, it was just an accident!” she said. My father takes back his hand and pointed towards me, shouting, “Then if it was an accident then who would have done it besides him, huh!!?”
“He didn’t do it on purpose!! It’s not his fault!” my mother added. All I can do was hide behind my mother’s legs, terrified by my father’s rage.
“Next time keep you eye on him!! I don’t want anymore trouble report by the others just because of his stupid accidents!” he shouted again and slammed the door after he entered his bedroom. My mother felt very sad, hearing what her husband just said. Normally, he would never be this angry before I discovered my strange abilities. I felt sorry for my mother.
And that was the start of the life struggles I had to face. Five more years passed by and I turned ten years old. People are starting to hate me, calling me names and scorning me for no reason. Ever since they start to know about my strange abilities, they named me the Devil’s Child. Of course, no one enjoys being called like that. Every time they call me by that dreadful name, I feel like blasting them with my fire but my mother always told me…
“Exiore… even though people always teasing you about being different than other people but you have to leave them… you’re not weird, you’re unique and never let those horrible insults take over your emotions...”
I have no choice but to let them continue insulting me. I always walk around the village alone to clear my mind but nothing is different outside or even at home. My father will never stop shouting and yelling at me with his curses and disappointments for having me as a son. In fact, he doesn’t even think of me as his son anymore and he always blames my mother for it. But I can’t do anything about it. At least he still allows me into the house but most of the time he locked me in the storage room.
One day, I was having a nice long walk around the village. I looked at the ground as I walk. Then, I noticed something up front. When I take a look, it was a group of boys who once played with me, catching the ball. I knew they were planning something to humiliate me. It happened before several times.
“Oh look! It’s the Devil’s Child!” mocked the boy, standing at the front.
“Oooh! Careful! He might shoot us with his scary fire powers!” another boy mocked me. I was getting annoyed and angry but all I can do was be patient.
“Why won’t you just go to hell where you belong!!” shouted another boy.
“Hey… it IS where he belongs!” said another boy and they all laughed out loud. I almost get lost control of my anger as I grasp my hands tight and greeted my teeth. Then, one of them threw a pebble towards me. It hit my forehead. The other boys followed after throwing several rocks and pebbles towards me. I block my head using my arms from the pebbles. They kept on throwing. It was very painful as some of the pebbles and rocks hit my head, chest, arms and even eyes.
“Go back to hell, you Devil’s Child!!” shouted one of the boys as he threw more rocks. But then, suddenly…
“STOP IT!!” shouted a voice of a girl, coming from in front of me. I was surprised. The rocks stopped coming and when I take a look to whom the girl was, it was in fact, Xerry. She is also ten years old by now. She was protecting me from the boys by standing in front of me.
“Don’t you people have something more important to do than teasing him all the time!!?” she shouted.
“Oh yeah! And what are you gonna do about it? Tell your mommy?” teased one of the boys as the others laughed out loud. I can see that Xerry was getting angry. She fetched a wooden chair and smashed it onto the ground until it break into pieces. It scared the boys and they all ran away. Even I don’t know where she got that chair.
“Serves you right!! And don’t ever let me catch you bully him again!!!” shouted Xerry. I was very impressed by her courage. She turned towards me with a smile and helped me up. She flapped away the dusts and sands covering my clothes.
“Are you okay? Those guys are really mean to you! I don’t know what’s the big deal? Super powers are awesome!” she said. I felt very glad hearing that. That was in fact, the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me, besides my mother.
“So you’re Exiore, right?” she asked me.
“Uhh… yeah…” I answered. Of course, everyone in the village knows about me. “-and who are you?” I asked. This was the first time I met Xerry.
“My names Xerrilyn… but you can call me Xerry! Mind if I call you Exxy?” she introduced herself to me. And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Everyday, Xerry will come over and invite me to play with her. I always became thrilled whenever she came. I would immediately rush outside the house. We spent most of our times together. Playing, talking and having a fantastic time. We always laugh together. She was my first, best and only friend I had. In fact, she even spent most of her time at my house. One time, my mother was cooking lunch and Xerry and I helped her. I always helped by boiling the water with my fire abilities. And when there’s an electrical failure, at night, Xerry and I will play shadow puppets. I would light up the house using my fire abilities. I can manipulate the fire into strange shapes and Xerry was very impressed with it. My mother always accepted her as a part of the family as she always comes by. But only when my father was working. It happened before that she came and my father was in the house. She got sent home immediately after and then, he will yell and shout at me. But now, he even used whips to whip me and anything he can get his hands on to beat me up. Not just me, but my mother got also beaten up whenever she tried to defend me. He even injured me. I got a scar on my right cheek because of his whip.
My mother, Xerry and I went to the market one day. Xerry always had interesting stories to tell whenever she is with us.
“And then when I was five I lost my first baby tooth but when I was six, I lost someone else’s baby tooth! I didn’t hit his head on purpose though… it’s his fault for opening his mouth that wide!” she talked. My mother and I laughed by her humour. We went to buy some fish but the stall owner doesn’t want to sell them to us.
“Why would I want to give my fresh fish to the Devil’s Child!!? Go away! I don’t want my fish to be eaten by you!!” scorned the stall owner. We can’t do anything about it so we went to another stall, selling vegetables and yet, the same thing happened.
“My vegetables to this monster!!? I’d rather let my vegetables wither than be eaten by him!!” scorned the stall woman. We went to the meat stall.
“I will never sell my meats to the devil!! I don’t want to be a part of his sins!” scorned the butcher. So then, we were on our way home without any groceries.
“Oh…. These people are so rude! Why can’t they be nice to Exxy for once? He hadn’t done anything bad!” moaned Xerry.
“We just have to let it be, Xerry… someday, those bad people will know what comes to them” said my mother. I remained silent listening to them.
As we walked home, I began to recall the wish I made on my birthday five years ago. My wish… My wish was to have a very happy and harmony life with my family and all my friends but from the looks of things now, my wish never did come true.
“And so I told that boy, hey why won’t you just use the pencil and then he said, the pencil told him that its head hurts from all that writing which is weird because I never knew pencils can talk…” Xerry was talking about her stories long as we walk. Then, someone threw a rock right onto my head. My mother and Xerry were angry at that person.
“Hey!! Stop throwing rocks, will you!!? Can’t you throw anything nice like marshmallows or pillows once in a while!? It’s always rocks, rocks, rocks!” yelled Xerry at that person as he ran away. My mother was busy looking at the bump on my head when we don’t know that someone dropped a heavy cement block on purpose onto us but the block is falling towards Xerry. I spotted it and quickly pushed Xerry away. I raised my hands towards the block and shoot out flames to parry the block away. Unfortunately, the block fell onto a stall. The owner managed to get away but the flame burnt his stall. He was furious and started to curse at me. I felt regretted but I only wanted to save Xerry. My mother tried to defend me but she, too got yelled.
“If I were you, I’d burry that devil with my own hands!! You better replace my stall or else I will get that monster!!” yelled the stall man. All my mother can do was apologizing for ‘my’ mistakes. I felt troubled but Xerry tried to comfort me by holding my hand and smiled at me with her warm smile. I felt a little glad seeing her smile.
It was still not over. When my mother and I reached home, we got yelled by my father. We didn’t manage to buy any groceries for dinner and that’s why he was furious.
“What are you trying to do!!? Let me starve to death!?” he yelled.
“This is all your fault!! If you weren’t born, none of this would have happened!!?” he yelled at me, pointing accusingly towards me. All I can do was hid behind my mother.
“I don’t even know why I got married to a woman like you! You probably had an affair with a devil before and that’s why you gave birth to this!!” he yelled at my mother. I can see that she was very heartbroken after hearing those awful words from her husband. Tears were flowing down on her cheeks. I wished I could do something but I can’t.
Without me noticing, the villagers are planning to get rid of me once and for all. And I meant by killing me. That night, they villagers formed an angry mob and gathered in front of my house, carrying pitchforks, torches and anything sharp or hard in their hands. They are yelling and shouting my name, I mean the name Devil’s Child.
“Let’s get rid of that devil once and for all!!”, “Go back to hell, you devil!!”, “We don’t want our village to suffer any longer because of you!!”, they are yelling those words. Both my father and mother get out of the house to find out what was happening. My mother let me stay in the house where it’s safe. I peeked what was happening from the window.
“What’s all this!?” my father asked.
“We are going to kill that devil of yours once and for all!!” yelled one of the villagers. My mother was shocked and entered the house, immediately hugged me. I became very scared.
“What took you all so long!!?” said my father. My mother and I didn’t believe that he actually wanted them to kill me. He entered the house and approached us. My mother hugged me tighter.
My father grabbed my arm and pulled me away from my mother as she refused to let me go. She was weeping and begging to my father, “Please! Don’t do this, Rob!! He’s just a little child!!”
“I don’t care!! Because of him, the Silence’s name is no longer have any dignity and respect! He deserves to die!!” my father yelled and managed to pull me away from my mother.
“Mommy!!!” I cried as I was being dragged out of the house. My father tossed me right onto the ground. I was starting to cry, scared and terrified seeing the villagers, surrounding me, trying to kill me. My father grabbed a pitchfork from one of the villagers and approached me.
“You shouldn’t have existed to this world, you devil! You don’t deserve to live any longer!” he said and was about to stab me with the pitchfork.
I screamed with terror but suddenly, my mother jumped in front of me and she got stabbed. I was even more terrified, seeing my mother stabbed by my own father. The villagers were surprised and so does my father. My mother looked at me, forcing her last smile.
“You idiot!!” yelled my father. “Fine! If you want to join him then die!” he added. He pulled out the pitchfork from my mother’s body and she began to fall to the ground.
“I’m sorry…. Exiore…” her final words and then, she died with her eyes open. I was disbelieved. My emotions were unexplainable. I grasped my hands tight, greeted my teeth and crouched down onto my knees as my tears dripping to the ground.
“See that!!? This is your fault!! People die because of you!! And now, it’s your turn to disappear!” said my father and was about to stab me with the bloody pitchfork. But I couldn’t hold it anymore and right before he stabbed me, I parried the pitchfork away with my flames. He was surprised and so do the villagers. And next, I get on my feet, put my palm on his chest and shoot out a powerful flame. The flame flung my father far away and also burnt right through his body, making a hole in his chest. He died as soon as he landed on the ground. By that time, my anger was unspeakable. I couldn’t control myself.
I started to shoot my flames towards the other villagers and burning their homes to the ground. Every one of them got burnt to death. They were screaming in pain and terrified by me. Some even got crashed by the falling down buildings. I killed everyone I see. But after that, I approached my dead mother’s body and carried her into my arms.
And that’s brought us back to the beginning of my story. I was in the middle of the field of fire with my mother in my arms. Everyone else has died because of me. I destroyed everything with my very own hands. I looked at my mother’s lifeless face. My tears dripped onto her face. But then, I heard some footsteps from behind. I thought it was another one of those heartless villagers. I was about to burn him with my fire but when I turned around, it was actually Xerry. Her eyes were looking very terrified as they look at me. And I finally come to my senses. I felt like a real devil. I acted carelessly and because of my mistake, everyone died. Xerry took a couple of steps back from me. I noticed that she was terrified by me. There was only one thing I did. I put my mother on the ground, shut her eyes and then, I ran away from the village without looking back. I didn’t know what Xerry was doing but I was hoping that she would burry her for me.
I’m sure that I was already far away from my village. I was running through the forests. I was so busy running, I didn’t notice that I was very exhausted. I collapsed in the middle of the path. I heard a pair of footsteps and opened my eyes. I saw a tall man standing next to me. But before I get to know who he was, I fainted.
However, the man was kind. He brought me back to his house located in the forests. He took care of me without caring about what the horrible things I did. He helped me in mastering my powers. And each day, I was getting better and better. My master was a wise man but he didn’t managed to live long.
“If you want to redeem yourself, you must do what is right…” his final words before he passed away years after.
After my ‘master’ passed away, I started to travel the world when I turned thirteen. For three years, I was getting more famous. The reason I travel the world is to gain experience and also try to help the people in need. Some people showed their respects to me but here are still rumours spreading that I was the Devil’s Child.
And now, I have turned sixteen. I’m just arrived to a town. I was walking along the streets looking for someplace to stay. But suddenly, I heard a girl’s scream. I searched for the scream and found that she was chased by a group of men. The girl looked like in her early teens.
“Stay away from me!!” she cried as she ran as fast as she could.
“Come on, honey! Play with us for a while!” said one of the men.
“We won’t hurt you!” said another man.
I blocked their way, trying to help the girl. The men stopped running and stopped, wondering what I wanted to do.
“Don’t you people have anything more important to do?” I asked, sarcastically. The girl stayed behind me.
“Oh? Trying to be the hero, eh? You mess with the wrong man, kid! Let’s get him!!” said the leader of the group and they started to charge towards me. And just one wave of my hands, my flames surrounded them. They were shocked and so does the girl as they turned their heads about, looking around the flames.
“What is this, witchcraft!!? Let’s get out of here!!” shouted the group leader and they all ran in fear. With another wave of my hands, the flames disappear. Luckily, no one was there to witness what just happened, except for the girl that is. But then, I heard the girl called me, “ Exxy…?” I was surprised. Only a good friend would call me by that name. So I replied, “Xerry…?” She gave a thrilling smile but I was still confused. However, our friendship was reunited.
