The illuminiscent moon light revealed a figure laying on an infirmary bed, with beads of sweat trickling down his face ... Even though he seemed to be asleep,the look on his face made it completely obvious that the dream he was having was an extremely unpleasant one.
He tossed and turned from time to time, his breathing ragged.
In Ashen's dream, he found himself surrounded by a large number of students..
The eyes of the students radiated with malevolent glee, and looks of scorn and contempt..
Their bearings cast a fearful, traumatizing feel upon him as they launched scornful remarks incessantly upon him, simultaneously pointing hands at him ...
"What a loser, he smells so bad "...
"Yeah, I can't believe he still manages to come to school everyday ... He's so lean ... "
"Stay away from him..."
"I heard his parents died on his birthday... How can someone's luck be so bad..."
"Trash will always be trash... As expected..."
Ashen tossed and turned on the bed as the experience in the dream grew more intensely agonizing ....He breathing was extremely audible, his accessory muscles constantly contracting and relaxing... Inasmuch as he was still in the dream, tears stream down the visible face of Ashen,lying on the bed .. The bed sheets were all crampled and soaked in sweat.
The traumatic dream was making Ashen shake visibly on the bed like someone who was being electrocuted with electricity.
In the dream,the crowd of students had suddenly disappeared , as Ashen suddenly found himself appearing in a vast dark space, the faces of his parents suddenly floating before him as tears trickled down their face, coupled with looks of disgust for Ashen "You are the reason why we died Ashen... Our blood will always be on your hands... You are the reason why we died Ashen, our blood will always be on your hands.... You are the reason..." The voices of his parents incessantly grew louder and more hateful in the dream
In the dream,Ashen looked at his hands , painted in crimson ... Tears ravaged his eyes, the evidence of the trauma he was experiencing ..
Lost in confusion, pain, rage and despair, Ashen in the dream clutched his brown hair maddenly, and started pulling it apart ... .. until...
!splash!....
"Young man... Young man wake up!" Cold water splashed on the face of Ashen, releasing him from the grip of the horrific experience of a dream ..
The familiar voice of the Healer old lady rung in Ashen's ear, as he woke up with ragged breathing.. then under the gaze of the old lady, he managed to calm himself down and replied .. "Yeah yeah old lady no pressure... I'm up"...
"Are you okay boy?" The old lady asked, concern tinged on her face and in her voice as she stood beside Ashen's bed with the mug that previously contained the water she splashed on him to wake him up .
Ashen stared at himself, completely drenched in sweat, tears and mucus evident on his face as mouth ...
He sighed then muttered to himself "As usual, these horrifying dreams keep robbing me of a good night's sleep... Gotta hand it to the old lady for waking me up before more horrible dreams followed..."..
Ashen then turned to the old lady and replied with a scoff " let's skip the part where I pretend and tell you I'm doing okay , which you obviously won't believe...."
The old lady "You dead?.... "
"Wish I were..." Ashen sighed..
The old lady sighed, said nothing, turned around and left the room.
As she closed the door to the room, she muttered to herself "Seen lots of kids come here with some sort of trauma, but whatever happened to this kid ... really messed him up "..
****
Ashen reached for his phone lying a few reaches away from him and proceeded to check time ...
"4: 35 am... I suppose it's the worst day of my life..."
Ashen decided to skip school today...
It had been his tradition for the past two years...
On his birthday, Ashen would visit the scene of the incident that claimed his parent's life....
Ashen had no money to hire a cab, so he proceeded to the destination on foot after buying some cup noodles with the small amount of 5 Neramas he had decided to use to get something to eat the evening of the previous day ...
Since after the bullying incident, he woke up at the infirmary the previous day and fell asleep only to wake up on the morning of his birthday ... He had gone without food for quite a long time... He needed the energy to trek to the destination of the incident that claimed his parents life...
CB mall used to be in New Alexandria city, the same place Ashen and his late parents used to live, where Ashen currently lived, and schooled.
After Ashen's parents died, he could not afford to pay the remaining amount of money his parents owed the real estate agency who owned their house, therefore ,he settled for the small apartment he currently lived in..
After an hour of trekking,Ashen finally arrived at the ruines of CB mall around 5:45 am, panting heavily and drenched in sweat as it was currently summer, and the atmosphere was quite warm after all .. The world of Frea were experiencing extremely warm temperatures...
Ashen reeled in his inner turmoil and melancholic emotions, then proceeded to the first memorial stone where some of the names and pictures of all the people who were victims of the massacre of CB mall were respectively engraved and painted...
Ashen glanced at the painting of his parents clearly. Young Colheart could not hold back anymore...
Thump... He fell on his knees, tears flowed ceaselessly, his hands shook frantically as he stared at his mother..
He clearly remembered how the woman with black hair and black eyes would always read him bedtime stories and make the best meals... especially that fried rice..
He remembered how that man with black eyes and brown hair ,whose looks he took after, would spend time with him playing games and watching the animations Ashen loved with him...
He remembered the happy expressions on his parents' faces as they waved him goodbye on his birthday after dropping him off at school, promising him that they would be at home waiting for him with a festive atmosphere... He remembered how they told him they were going to the mall to purchase foodstuffs for his favorite fried rice....
He remembered the unexpected silent and empty house after he returned home from school...
He remembered how he waited till 7pm, and then bored out of his mind, he turned on the television, only to find out that his parents names and pictures , and that of other citizen's names and pictures , were listed on the televisionNews channel Aironews, as deceased victims of the the CB mall incident...
Ashen kowtowed 3 times before the memorial stone , tears evident in his eyes...
He sighed, then with a shaky voice spoke " Mum, dad, you died because of this unfilial son, and I couldn't even come to your memorial stone with any gift for you...I'm sorry for being such a dissapointment to you ..... If only there was a way I could go back and rewind time to prevent you both from dying because of me... I'm tired of living mum and dad ... I'm tired of it all... I have nightmares every night... I have been battling with a Post Traumatic disorder after your death... I have dreams where you both blame me for your death, where the bullies at school also bully me andcall me worthless in my dreams ... Heh... I don't even remember the last time I even took a shower... I'm tired of this life...".... Ashen's voice had turned choky , he had cried to a point where tears no longer came out ... His screams echoed throughout the environs,drawing the attention of a pretty mature woman with long curly dark hair and warm brown eyes who occasionally frequented one of the memorial stone to pay homage to her deceased husband... She was a famous dual awakener, Sophia Patel...
The woman sighed "I guess I'm not the only one who took it pretty hard... poor kid.. An adult as myself is finding it hard to move on, how much more a teenager... Maybe I should console him or something... Let me stride there and have a chat with him.... Huh...the hell?...Am I seeing things... ?".
Sophia was shocked at the sight she had just witnessed... so shocked that she thought she was seeing things..
However, the subject in question,Ashen was so consumed in his tears that he didn't realize that something paranormal was happening to him...
A crimson hue suddenly surrounded him for a about fifty seconds, then changed to a brown hue, then changed to a deep blue hue, then changed to a light blue hue then lastly,to a white hue
"This child just awakened 5 elements?.....how?.....just.... How abnormal is his unique constitution for this to happen ..Even those of us who awakened dual affinities are hailed as prodigies... Just how....?"... Sophia muttered in shock as she slapped herself multiple times to affirm to herself that she wasn't dreaming.
" I just wanted to go there and have a talk with him to console him since he's a kid and the loss of his loved ones hit him more harder ,but now... I can't let this kid waste his life wallowing in self pity... His potential cannot be wasted "...
With that , Sophia proceeded towards Ashen, who was still kowtowing to parents and blaming himself in tears for their death ...
"If only... If only... you had not gone to the mall because of me.. you wouldn't have ..."
"Your parents ?" Sophia interrupted Ashen as she squatted near him...
Ashen startled and glanced at her warily, and took a few steps back ..
"Hey kid I won't bite ...relax..." Sophia sighed , stood up and backed away a little..raising her hands up ..
"What do you want ?" Ashen spoke warily, his voice shaky...
"I overheard you talking about how you've been bullied and how you blame yourself for your parents death.... Look kid .. I lost someone too kid... Trust me I know how you feel.. I lost my husband... But I don't blame myself for his death... Look kid, your parents didn't die because of you... They died because of Oblivion's hand .... Those depraved fuckers who will stop at nothing to destroy everything...!" Sophia's voice was tinged , tinged with extreme pain and hatred for Oblivion's hand. It was pretty much obvious that she was burning with fuelling rage and desire for revenge against Oblivious hand herself...
Her voice echoed in Ashen's head like some sort of light bulb... This was the first time someone had told him that he was not the reason why his parents died... That's right... Ashen mused inwardly...
Had Oblivions hand not attacked the mall, his parents would not have died....He wondered why did he never see things from that angle....? And how his thinking could be so flawed.
He previously had assumed that had his parents not gone to the mall because of trying to prepare something special for him on his brithday they would'nt have died... However, Sophia's words made him realize how flawed his thinking had been... Oblivion's Hand was the cause of his parent's death , not him.
All those PTSD nightmares he had about his parents blaming him for their death... They all happened because his psychology was flawed... He blamed himself for something that vile terrorist organization did ..
Those deranged savages were the ones who murdered his parents, not him...
Ashen sighed as though something had just fallen from his shoulders... as though a literal weight of guilt he had been carrying over the years had been taken of his back ... then he let his guard down, and seemed more relaxed in front of Sophia... even though he still kept his distance from her ...he was still a bit apprehensive about being too comfortable around a total stranger...
Sophia realized the relaxed demeanor of Ashen in her presence and continued , as she walked towards him...
"Those bastards are responsible for the death of your parents and the death of my husband... They are responsible for the death of everyone whose names and paintings are on these memorial stones ... Stop blaming yourself okay?..."...
At the end of Sophia's words, Ashen had broken down into tears, he had fallen completely on knees...
However before he fell down , Sophia had embraced him a warm and tight hug, caressing the young man's hair ....
"All this while... My thinking was flawed, I thought I killed them...." Ashen sobbed, he sobbed out all the weight he carried, all the guilt he carried for the mindset that he murdered his parents.... He sobbed it all into Sophia's clothes...
"Oblivion's Hand killed them kid, not you... Don't blame yourself for your flawed thinking... Grieving is not easy... Even those of us who are adults sometimes end up making the worst judgements when we are traumatized... How much more you, a kid..." Sophia's voice rung softly in Ashen's ears again...soothing his broken heart ..
She was a stranger, but he didn't care anymore.. It felt okay for someone to be there for him, to let him realize that he was not the murderer of his parents, even though the person was a total stranger.. So Ashen sobbed into her clothes ... To Ashen,Sophia was the first person to make him realize that he was not at fault his parents died ...
This stranger had made him realize that, he had punished himself for two years for something he did not do...whiles the people, those fuckers ,those psycopaths... Those deranged terrorists, responsible for incident roamed free... This thought turned into extreme rage for Oblivion's Hand...
"If only I were an awakened... I ... I...would not rest until Oblivion's hand is destroyed... " Ashen's voice was resolute as he spoke, but he sighed, probably thinking he was not an awakened, so there was nothing he could do to avenge his parents by eradicating that terrorist group.
Sophia, hearing his voice ,chuckled lightly, removed him from her embrace, looked him in the eye and spoke "But you are an awakened kid.... If I am to tell you how monstrous your unique physique is, you would not believe me... You awakened in the midst of your mourning... Initially your crying drew my attention ..since we were in the same boat, and grieving for our loved ones.. I felt it was necessary for me to come and cheer you up... That was when I realized that you had awakened 5 elements...You are an elementalist who has awakened 5 affinities"
" Heh.. don't kid me ,five elements ..? If you want to tell a lie ,tell a believable one" Ashen sighed incredulously ..
Sophia realised she had to reveal her identity to the kid... It looks like she had no choice... "Look up the name Sophia Patel ...then look at me carefully, do you really think I have any reason to lie to you kid..."
Ashen took out his smartphone and looked up the name Sophia Patel.
Bang!...
His smartphone fell down and cracked....
However he did not care about that...
Sophia saw the look on Ashen's face, and she had to admit, his look was priceless...
"You... You really are the dual awakener Sophia Patel... Just....how?..." Ashen was shocked... However he pieced things together and realized that it all made sense.. Sophia's husband, also passed away two years ago in the massacre of CBmall... so it confirmed what she said earlier about her husband dying to the CB mall massacre....
He just found it hard admitting that he had awakened 5 affinites... However he knew that with Sophia's status ,Sophia had no reason to lie to him...
"But why did I not notice it... If I have awakened 5 elemental affinities?"Ashen asked.
"Well,you were too consumed in your crying to notice... Anyway very soon,people will start to show up as the sun is starting to come out... Let's bounce out of here..I don't wanna be dragged into signing autographs for the rest of the day.." Sophia relayed.