It was bright outside; I remember it clearly as though it were only yesterday. I was only six years of age. Six years and already scarred with these images.
It was afternoon when it happened. My parents and I were enjoying a family meal; I had dropped spaghetti all over myself. I remember my mother’s smile; it was as bright as the day. Little did I know it was the last time I would ever see her smile. She helped me wipe it off my shirt, still with that smile that nothing could wipe away. My father was very much similar, although his smile wasn’t the same as mothers. Hers had the feeling of warmth and compassion, the way it should be. My father’s was full of pride and it showed just how proud he was of me being his son. “That’s my boy,” he would always say to people, even if I was playing in mud or crying over a dropped ice cream cone.
Mother had just put the napkin in the bin when a loud crash came from the front door. I was rushed into a closet and locked inside. If only my parents knew that from the little crack between the doors of the closet I could see everything that happened. Two large men came for my mother, but father wouldn’t allow that for a second. He stood in front of her to protect her, he tried to steal their gun but they were too strong. He was smacked in the back of the head with the handle of the gun and was knocked unconscious. The men shot him six times in the head. I could see it all, my panicking mother, and my bleeding father who was now missing the majority of his head. Blood was gushing from him over to the cabinet. I stared in fright at the quantities of blood. I looked up when I heard my mother scream in pain, just in time to see one of the men brutally lift her up and slit her throat. There was blood spraying out all over the place, and eventually she fell to the floor, blood flowing from her neck. Her face was facing me so I could see her expression. There was none. Which is why it was so painful to see. The smile that was always stuck on her face was now gone.
The men just laughed and walked out of the house with me still cowering in the closet. When I realized the men weren’t coming back I unlocked the closet and crawled out.
I sat in the blood, and everything started going cold. Next thing I knew the entire room was covered in ice, icicles were sticking out of the ceiling, my parent’s blood frozen stiff. I cried, and as the tears hit the floor they became part of the frozen nightmare. I crawled and snuggled up to my mother, who was frozen. Even with the cold skin it was still comforting to be in her arms. I was there for a few hours, sulking quietly, until I saw the legs of a tall, dark woman.
* * *
Just then, I blank out, and suddenly I’m four again. I’m standing in the playground staring at a little girl with a red ribbon in her hair.
“Never forget me Lloyd,” she said to me, her beautiful singing voice softly played in the background. She always seemed to enter my dreams right after dreaming about my parents, it always comforted me, “keep this with you, and we will always be together.” She untied her ribbon and gave it to me. “Please, keep this safe. And whenever you feel alone, just sing and I will sing with you.” She turned to walk away.
“Wait!” I yelled. “Who are you?”
“You’ll see me again someday, just sing and keep that ribbon with you.” Her singing faded away as she vanished into the thick fog.
* * *
“Wake up Lloyd!” Ugh, the annoying screeches.
“Piss off!” I threw a pillow at the annoying brat from down the hall who pestered me awake every morning. “How many times must I tell you to stay out of my room?”
“Waaah, Lloyds picking on me!”
“Lloyd!”
Damn it, now he’s got Miss Gerds into this. She’s the meanest of all the care people in this foster home, all she does is storm around the place making everyone’s lives miserable by either yelling at us at the smallest mistake or smacking us for whatever reason she could think of; her evil grin appearing on her face to show her enjoyment.
Yeah, I live in a foster home. It’s a small building found in the City of Seil which is fairly small for a city; it’s usually dry and hot so it’s not really the kind of place someone like me would enjoy. It can be found on the continent of Lishean which is a small island in the far south-western part of the map. I've been here ever since my parents were murdered.
“Lloyd how many times must I tell you to leave Matthew alone?”
“But he comes in here every morning and wakes me up!”
“Well maybe if you woke up earlier he wouldn’t need to wake you”
I gave up and got up to get dressed. I realised what time it was. I had missed breakfast but that didn’t matter, I couldn’t eat in the mornings. It was Sunday so we didn’t have to go to school. I decided to go to Nore’s room to see what he was doing. On the way I walked past Thomas who had Matthew clinging to him. Thomas had dark black hair and his eyes were never clear enough to see. His face always showed the same expression and he wore similar clothes every day. Thomas just glared at me as though I had done something incredibly evil. It was a habit of his. I didn’t quite understand so I just ignored it. When I got to Nore’s room he was playing games, and I didn’t really want to disturb him. He was the same age as me, although he went through puberty quicker, he needed to shave when he was only thirteen. We’re sixteen now and I still don’t need to shave. I can’t talk though; it took me until I was at least twelve until I had visible eyebrows, the burden of having light hair, fortunately it’s like a light brown now. Nore has just about as dark a past as mine; he doesn’t talk about himself much though. Tank would have been up; we call him Tank because he’s really strong, stronger than natural. No one knows his real name. Not even him.
Nore and Tank were my only friends in the foster home. We were all different to everyone else.
“Hey, Lloyd,” Tank welcomed me. He was big and strong but he was a good friend.
“Hey, wanna spar?” I asked. “You may just have a chance to beat me this time.”
“What are you talking about? The only reason we stop fighting is because the care people come looking for us.”
“Yeah lucky for you, Tank”
“As if! Come on then let’s go into the forest and we’ll settle this!”
We went deep into the forest to fight where it was difficult for anyone to see or hear us.
The tension was high, I focused on Tank, I was gonna take him down. I saw he was thinking similar, I knew he wanted to win. I saw it in his eyes. Sooner or later one of us were about to attack.
…Silence… It was so quiet we could hear the birds chirping from the top of the tallest tree.
Suddenly Tank stamped on the ground, his power causing the ground to rise like a wave. I dove to the side and turned myself into ice. I used a path of ice to slide closer to him quickly. Tank smashed the path causing me to fall, while falling I had nowhere to go and I was already heading towards him so I created a giant ice hammer to smash him with. Tank took the hit but then grabbed a hold of my legs and began smacking me into the ground. I had to escape. My ice was beginning to shatter, so I concentrated hard and froze myself to the ground, escaped from his grasp by unfreezing myself but keeping his arms frozen to the ground. I turned my leg into ice and kicked him across the face.
The fight continued for about half an hour. Nore decided to come out to join us to create a three way brawl. I froze and unfroze everything, Nore created and manipulated shadows, and Tank smashed things. As time progressed, day turned to night. We still hadn’t figured out the winner, but we were exhausted. Realising the time we went back to the home.
“Where have you boys been?” Miss Gerds was waiting at the front door. “We’ve been looking all over for you; you know there’s a curfew for those seventeen and under!”
“It’s not like there’s anything dangerous out there.” I pointed out. However Miss Gerds was still not pleased.
“Well you’ve missed dinner anyway. Go in and get ready for bed!”
“What a bitch,” Tank said as we were walking in, a little bit too loud. Tank didn’t seem to care though, he was the type to say what he wanted to say no matter who’d hear it, he wasn’t afraid of anyone.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sure you heard it the first time.”
I didn’t dare turn around. I didn’t want to show my smirk, I saw from the corner of my eye that Nore was in the same situation. We could very easily take her out, but we didn’t want anyone to find out what we can do.
“Someone ought to teach you some manners, boy” She pulled her cane out from its holster on her belt and smacked Tank across the face.
He lunged at her.
Nore and I knew this was going to happen so we were ready. We grabbed Tank and held him back as best we could. If Tank got a hold of Miss Gerds there’d be no trace of her left.
“Go get ready for bed, now!”
We did as we were told and went for bed.
I wasn’t asleep for very long, I dreamt of the girl with the red ribbon again, not to mention I was starving. Going a whole day without a meal can be rough. I head down stairs to the kitchen, through the dark hallways feeling my way around by staying near the walls. I got a light snack out of the fridge and headed outside into the forest to where I usually go on nights like these. I sat down under a tree next to a river. The sound of the rushing water through the night soothed me. All my troubles seemed to wash away as I listened to it. I still felt lonely, though. All I could think about was her. I took the ribbon out of my pocket and stared thoughtfully at it. “Who are you? What is my relationship with you? Why can’t I remember who you are?” I sighed and leant back resting my head on the tree looking up into the branches, my hands lay flat with one clenching onto the ribbon. I closed my eyes and began to sing. As I sang, I felt like there was someone there with me, someone singing with me. I couldn’t hear the other voice but I knew it was there, at the back of my head.
“Never thought a guy like you would ever sing a song like that.” Miss Willow snuck around from the shadow of the tree.
“Miss Willow! How did you know I was out here? I thought I was the only one who knew this place.” I sat up straight, shocked and scared as to what she might do. After all we weren’t meant to be out this late.
“I know many things, Lloyd.” She sat down beside me, her hair blowing with the night breeze, revealing her smooth and young face, the moonlight reflecting off her face. She seemed a lot more beautiful in the moonlight. “Such as you and your friends in the forest.”
My eyes opened wide, I couldn’t believe what I just heard. How could have we been so careless? “I d-don’t know what you’re talking about.” I stuttered, trying to think of a way out of it but clearly failing.
“Come on Lloyd, lighten up a little. There’s a lot you need to know about me.”
“Like what?”
“You’ll find out someday, pretty soon actually.” She turned and smiled at me, the moon making her smile so much brighter than it really was.
I sat there staring at her as she turned back to the river staring deeply into the water. An expression of warmth and deep thought on her face.
“So where did you learn that song? It’s very beautiful.”
“I’m not sure, I’ve known it for as long as I can remember, and for some reason whenever I sing it I no longer feel alone.”
“Interesting.”
I continued staring at her in confusion.
“Like what you see?”
I quickly looked away and blushed. “It’s not like that!”
“I know I’m just teasing you!” She softly pushed me to the side.
“I just don’t know what I should do now that you know.”
“Nothing silly. Everything will be fine, I’ve known for a long time!” She got up and patted her jeans to get the dirt off. “I should be heading back now, you know what Miss Gerds is like when we don’t follow the rules. “You should finish your snack and go back to bed quickly, it’s late and you have school.” And on that note she was gone.
So I finished my snack and went back to my room to go back to sleep.