Days passed,
And every night, I would go and follow his footsteps and hide behind the same old tree that I thought would be a safe refuge.
Why was I doing it?
Honestly, I don't know.
Curiosity was consuming me as if I were in a constant search for something missing, something deep within myself, something I couldn't identify, but I was trying to understand it.
Histori... was interesting and intriguing. He had always been the distinguished brother, loved by my parents and siblings alike, but he possessed a captivating aura of mystery that drove me to watch him.
But I was turning a blind eye to this strange attachment that had become a habit for me. I didn't want to think about it too much, but I always found myself there.
In the same place
And at the same time
In the same spot in the forest
And at the same time at midnight.
And as always, I moved cautiously, feeling that every step I took might expose me.
The whisper of the wind and the rustling of tree leaves were the only audible sounds covering the sound of my footsteps.
I kept a safe distance between him and me so that his senses wouldn't detect me.
Histori had stopped walking and stood in exactly the same spot where the trees curved and scattered like a circle around a green piece of land with no other trees.
While the silver moonlight cast its beautiful light on the green meadow, making it pale in color.
Histori stood, raising his neck and staring at the moon, which was full in the sky, with cold eyes, while the cool breeze caressed his soft black hair.
It seemed like a scene from another world.
A scene that made my curiosity continue to flare up.
The weather was cold as usual. I was shivering from the cold, but Histori was wearing a sleeveless shirt like mine, yet he didn't seem to be affected in the slightest by this bitter cold, as if it didn't touch him.
I continued to watch him, not knowing what I felt as I saw this scene for the seventh consecutive time.
Histori seemed... lonely.
And isolated.
As if he didn't care about this world.
I moved a little to adjust my position, but in an unexpected moment, I stepped on a dry twig under my feet, making a noise.
The sound was clear and harsh amid this complete silence, as if it had fallen into the depths of the night itself.
Histori turned quickly, his red eyes glowing in the darkness as if they were a source of dim light.
"Who's there?" I heard him say, his voice cold and devoid of any expression.
This cold reaction of his made it seem to me as if he thought the one hiding wasn't human.
I cursed him in my mind.
It was my curiosity that had dragged me into this situation.
What will I do now?
If he discovers me, the consequences will be dire.
"Come out. I promise you won't be harmed."
These words of his were a meager source of reassurance. I found myself surrendering to it.
I came out slowly and said, "Sorry... I won't do it again."
He paused for a moment, looking at me with those same cold red eyes, and in a faint voice: "You've been following me for a week. What do you want from me?"
"H... Ho... How did you know that?" I answered nervously and in confusion. I wouldn't have expected that he had discovered me from the beginning. It's truly the seventh day of my surveillance.
"Simply because you're not good at hiding, and yet you have an amazing ability to see at night, don't you? Didn't you notice the twig you stepped on? It was placed by me because you're... a fool who didn't even think of changing your hiding place."
I didn't expect him to use such a trick. His words were harsh and showed me the real difference between the favorite in the family like him and a marginalized, worthless person like me.
We remained silent for moments. The feeling of tension was increasing with each passing second, and my chest was tightening in a suffocating way, as if the air had increased in weight, but suddenly he said to me:
"Do you love the moon like I do?"
"Y... Y-yes..." I answered hesitantly, as if the words were resisting coming out of my mouth.
I was very anxious and didn't know how to form sentences or how to talk to him or what to say to him.
His expression didn't change. He was looking at me mysteriously, as if I were a creature not worthy of a moment of his attention, then he turned and began to return home simply, as if nothing had happened.
But I felt something strange boiling in my chest, something I couldn't explain. "Wait... please... don't go," I said to him in a voice that resembled a plea mixed with sadness.
"I won't tell anyone," was his very dry response, as if he was trying to close an open door.
"Th-thank you, thank you very much..." I said, breathing with difficulty, and felt immense relief, but at that moment, I stammered a little, then continued and said something that had been playing in my mind for a while, "Umm, b-brother, what will you do when you become like father?"
"I don't know, you fool... Do children think about their death when they're born?" His voice was dry, and his words were heavy, full of contempt. Then he added in a harsh voice, "If you follow me again, you're dead."
He looked at me with his red eyes, which began to glow in the darkness. The light was coming from them as if they were small red suns.
I knelt in terror. The words were like a scythe cutting through my depths, and the pressure of his gazes was drying my throat, as if I suddenly found myself facing a real monster.
He was... frightening.
I wanted to run away, but my body was frozen. I felt tremendous pressure, as if I were trapped in a narrow cage I couldn't escape from.
Is he really seven like me?
This is impossible.
His words and his look have nothing to do with his age group.
His speech was like punishment, heavy and brutal, leaving a shocking impact on the listener's soul.
Is he human?
Is he just a child like me?
I tried to get up with difficulty and sat on the ground for a few moments while catching my breath and sweating profusely.
My eyes were lost in the darkness. I felt empty inside.
He passed by and went past me without looking back. He didn't return to the palace but went deeper into the forest and disappeared behind the cloak of darkness and tree leaves.
Where is he going?
I don't know, but the one thing I'm certain of is that it's impossible for me to dare to follow him again.
I returned with hurried steps to my hole and sat on my pile of old blankets and began to think and think and think...
Was I hallucinating?
Was it just a dream?
No, it wasn't.
It was something real... in a terrifying way.
I picked up a book that was next to my head.
I tried to study a little. I wanted to forget what happened.
I knew I would never reach his level no matter how hard I tried, but at least I was going to try. I thought that if I studied and improved my results, maybe their treatment of me would improve.
That's what I thought.
I studied until sleep overcame me, and I fell into a deep sleep, but the words he said to me, those red gazes, remained stuck in my mind, haunting me in every corner of my brain.
The next morning,
I woke up earlier than usual because that silly cat was sleeping on my face.
I gently pushed it away from me while spitting out the hair resulting from its fur as it stared at me.
"Meow."
"What a silly cat you are."
I carried it, and after playing with it a little, I found my mood improving every time I spent time with this cute creature.
It was a short moment of comfort.
Like a break time granted to me by fate in this life full of pain. The cat was the only outlet and the being I found comfort in facing that deadly loneliness.
It was like an opening I breathed through where there was no friend or companion in this desolate basement.
I kept looking at it, then smiled and thought, "What do you think about me giving you a name?"
The cat began to meow and move its tail while I started thinking. I was saying several names and trying how they sounded on my tongue, but they seemed... not beautiful.
Crow?
Ramos?
Kitty?
No, the first two names resemble male cat names, but I was young and couldn't distinguish between their males and females, so I started throwing names randomly, but every name I came up with didn't appeal to me.
And even that cat seemed uninterested and played with the edges of the blanket or bit my toes while frolicking.
Until I thought of something that seemed like a good idea to me.
"My name is Leon, so what do you think about me naming you Noel, the reverse of my name?"
The cat began to meow, and it seemed that the name caught its attention.
After patting it, I carried it and put it in one of the boxes.
And I went back to sleep again.
When I woke up from my sleep,
Silence surrounded the place like a heavy cover wrapping my thin body, and the atmosphere permeated with the smell of the gloomy basement that I had already gotten used to.
The dim light coming from that door at the top could barely dispel the shadows that inhabited the walls of this concrete room.
The basement was like an abandoned cemetery filled with the smell of moisture and mold.
A place impossible for a 10-year-old child to live in.
Where the walls speak with a faint creak heard only by those who are accustomed to solitude like me.
I sat on the edge of my dilapidated bed, which is old covers and blankets I wrap myself in as the dead wrap themselves in their coffins.
My small hands were holding the edges of the perforated blanket as if drawing from it a fake warmth.
Where the coldness of treatment met with the coldness of the weather, forming a coldness I could hardly resist.
I stared at the cold floor where my distorted image was reflected in a small puddle of water that had accumulated from the ceiling leak.
I didn't know what woke me up. The time was still early. Was it a dream with unknown features, or was it the creak of the old wooden door that wasn't used to being opened at this time?
From above, I sneaked with steady steps and left the basement. The palace was very quiet, but I saw the servants who had begun to wake up. There were signs of awakening on their faces.
While I realized that I woke up before my siblings, and I didn't hear the footsteps of my mother who wakes them up every school day as I had become accustomed to.
After that, I heard footsteps near me.
Those monotonous footsteps carried by my father.
Yagami Martinez.
The man who walks as if the earth is stepping on him, not the other way around.
His cold face is almost devoid of expressions, and his appearance never changes.
A black suit, a tight tie, and a look like a stone that doesn't blink.
"Good morning, father," I said in a voice that barely came out of my throat, a weak voice begging and pleading to be heard.
But the man passed as usual. His eyes didn't stop for a moment at the child standing in the shadow, which is me.
As if my existence was mere emptiness encompassing the corners of this place.
My father continued his walk.
He went out through that big gate and continued his descent to the car where his personal servant, Bernard, was waiting for him.
I froze in place.
While my eyes stared at the void where my father had stood.
I no longer knew whether I should be angry or cry.
I turned slowly and returned to my bed.
The black birthmark on the left side of my face seemed as if it was extending.
Wrapping around my soul.
Choking me as the cold walls around me do.
At that moment, I wondered in silence:
If forgetting comes after death,
Is there anything worse than being forgotten while alive?
After about half an hour, I was sitting on the same dilapidated bed and entered a spiral of deep thinking.
Until my solitude was interrupted by the sound of footsteps above me.
Yes, not a day passes without me hearing this.
It's my mother waking up my siblings with the same affectionate voice and warm tone. Of course, I don't hear her now, but... do I really need that to know this?
I carried my worn-out bag, wore my perforated shoe, and went out through the gate. I was trying to avoid my siblings as much as possible, especially Histori.
I really hope he hasn't told anyone about what happened yesterday.
But from the expressions on their faces from afar, it seems he kept his word.
I saw my siblings as usual boarding that luxurious car while the servant closed its door after the last passenger, Arthur, entered. He looked at me, our eyes met, and he smiled at me mockingly as usual.
Before the car's engine roared and took them to their usual destination.
I started walking toward school and saw some of the children in my school, like every day, boarding that yellow bus.
I simply can't ride there because the bus expenses haven't been paid.
A matter of ridicule, isn't it?
Money that fire doesn't consume, they're stingy with it on school bus expenses.
After thinking, everything is not logical because it's deliberate.
But why?
Did I do something bad?
Or does all the fault lie with my face?
I found myself walking as usual. The path to school isn't short, half an hour on foot. I often arrive late, and the teacher punishes me.
It would have been easy if not for the hunger that continues to gnaw at the walls of my stomach with every step.
It was very painful. I could barely resist that violent dizziness that comes to me suddenly.
After half an hour of suffering, I finally reached the school.
I entered it and walked in that corridor. It was empty.
Damn, I'm late then.
Not again.
Damn.
I entered the classroom and looked at the teacher's desk. Fortunately, the teacher hadn't arrived yet. Until I was caught off guard by a blow with a chalk eraser thrown at me by someone.
The children began to laugh while I started cleaning my face with my clothes. It was that fat boy, Jason, again. Why don't they bully him too because he's fat?
It seems that the birthmark on my face is so prominent that it eliminated all the flaws of other people, so people only see it.
The teacher entered and found me still standing and asked me in an annoyed voice to sit in my place. I did that while sitting in my seat, which is the last one.
Those harsh voices and whispers that I receive every morning began.
"Here comes the one with the birthmark."
"Look at that ugly blackness on his face."
"My mother told me it might be contagious."
"Why does he come to school? He's stupid and ugly at the same time, haha."
I tried to act indifferently, but I couldn't. I was in severe pain inside and couldn't hide my sadness.
Until that fat boy who sits right before my seat whispered to me.
He is the main source of annoyance for me at school.
"Hey, you scum, there's a student who will transfer here, so bully anyone here after that, and I'll beat you."
What is he saying?
"I-I can't do that."
"Do you dare to refuse?!"
I swallowed hard until the teacher interrupted us, clapping her hands trying to get our attention. She said in a normal voice, "Today we have a new student, children. Welcome her."
Who would transfer here when we're in the second semester?
I didn't care at all. My hunger was my only concern at that moment. I was waiting for the break with great impatience to eat in the school cafeteria.
I put my head between my arms and rested it on the table while I began to hear the sound of delicate footsteps entering the classroom. I didn't raise my head. I was trying to sleep, but I can't turn off my ears.
That girl spoke.
"Hello everyone, my name is Kiara. I'm very pleased to meet you. I hope we have an enjoyable year."
Beautiful words. Her voice seems lively and energetic, and the classroom was silent when she spoke, but after she finished introducing herself, I began to hear whispers.
"A nice girl."
"Yes, she's beautiful. She doesn't seem to be from our area. Is she from another city?"
"Her name is also beautiful."
Until I heard the teacher's voice: "Dear, choose a place to sit."
I began to hear her footsteps again until they stopped, and I heard her: "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
I didn't raise my head and remained as if I were sleeping on the table because, without a doubt, she was talking to that fat boy who sits before me.
Until I felt a light tap on my arm and raised my head, and a shiver ran through my body because I realized I was the one being addressed.
The girl repeated her words: "Excuse me... do you mind if I sit with you?"
I said with a confused expression after the realization reached me belatedly: "Y-yes."
That girl smiled and sat beside me while I saw all the children, girls and boys, glaring at me with deadly looks.
Damn, what made matters worse was the look of that fat boy and his gang. That made me curse my luck, which even when it's good, it's evil.
I sighed heavily and looked at that girl who, when our eyes met, smiled. She was a beautiful girl. My classmates' words weren't an exaggeration, with black hair and beautiful red eyes. Suddenly, the image of my brother Histori came to my mind because she resembles him in terms of hair and eyes. I found myself staring at her before I stammered and turned red when my mind returned from this unexpected daydream.
She laughed a suppressed laugh and said, "My name is Kiara Roseline, and you?"
"L-Leon... Leon Martinez."