"What a stupid bastard!"
Suddenly, a furious roar tore through the silence of night, startling the still awake neighbors and stray dogs on the street.
"Fuck!" The originator of the roar, a black-haired young man, dressed only in his boxers, cursed through gritted jaws upon realizing what he had done and looked at the bedroom of his door in annoyance.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Just a moment later, the sound of heavy footsteps thudding toward his bedroom sounded followed by a heavy kick which broke the makeshift lock on the door.
"You useless bastard, you dare disturb my sleep again!"
A six-feet tall, pot-bellied and half-bald middle-aged man barged into the room, snarling. His footsteps were slightly shaky and his eyes a little cloudy, showing he was currently drunk.
The young man, Rowan, looked at him defiantly but as the pot-bellied man rushed toward him, his pupils constricted and he hurriedly covered his head with his hands.
Bang!
Crack!
Just a split second later, a half-empty glass bottle of beer that the man was carrying in his hand smashed onto his hands and shattered into pieces, some of which cut into his forearms.
"Ahh!"
While Rowan didn't even flinch, the pot bellied man cried out in pain as he touched a small but bloody wound on his cheek.
The injury infuriated the pot-bellied man. Then, with his eyes flashing with deep resentment and savageness, he prepared to stab the broken half of the bottle into Rowan's chest.
Rowan, already aware how much this man loathed him, instantly realized he wanted to kill him.
Normally, anyone would feel afraid in this situation, but Rowan's gaze grew increasingly indifferent and cold, and a red gleam appeared in his pupils.
Right then…
"Andy! What are you doing?!" A frantic shout echoed and another figure barged into the room and lunged at the pot-bellied man.
Seeing this, Rowan's heart skipped a beat and he shouted, "Mom, no!"
Just as he feared, the moment the pot-bellied heard her voice and saw her trying to stop him, he became angrier. Turning around, he swung the broken bottle toward the woman, who despite seeing the attack didn't defend and let it stab into her shoulder blade.
Piercing pain made the woman wince but ignoring it, she grabbed his hands and pleaded, "Please forgive him, husband! He didn't do it on purpose."
"What do you know, you slut!" Andy snarled and swung his other hand, slapping her face.
Seeing this, Rowan's expression darkened and the red gleam in Rowan's eyes intensified and spread, almost completely covering his pupils. He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palm, his body shaking from the overwhelming rage.
He wanted nothing more than to slaughter this pig right now but… Looking at the woman, who despite being stabbed and slapped, was still pleading on his behalf, trying to calm him down, he had no choice but to suppress his rage because being a traditional and virtuous woman, who had been taught to revere her husband, see him as her god, he knew she would resent him for a lifetime if he killed him.
He would rather endure this abuse and humiliation than have her resent him.
This woman, although she was his adoptive mother, ever since she first saw him in the orphanage when he was merely two years old, she had treated him as if he was her own flesh and blood and gave him all her love and care.
Because of this, he loved and respected her the most. So, the thought of her resenting him was unbearable to him.
…
Andy raised his hand to slap her again but caught a glimpse of a pearl necklace on her neck and reluctantly lowered his hand.
"Fuck off!" Flinging the hand she was latching onto, he turned to Rowan, who was sitting on the bed with his head lowered and his body trembling, he snarled, "Keep your mouth shut if you want to stay in my house otherwise fuck off. I'm tired of your bastard ass."
Saying this, he stumbled out of the room.
The woman heaved a deep sigh of relief seeing him leave. Wiping her tears, she went over to Rowan and gently ruffled his hair, "It's alright, son. Don't mind him. He is just drunk."
"Hm." Rowan nodded lightly but didn't raise his head. He was afraid his current expression, full of rage and murder, would scare her.
The woman bit her lips, tears once again welling up in her eyes when she saw how scared her son was.
Just as she was about to sit down beside him, take care of his injuries and help him calm down, Andy's angry shout sounded, "Rose, you whore! What are you doing up there with that bastard! Come down here!"
Creak!
Rowan clenched his jaws so tightly that they creaked and blood flowed out of them.
Rose looked at him in concern, feeling her heart clench seeing blood flowing down his hands.
"Rowan…"
"I'm alright, mom. Just go." Rowan cut her off, stood up and walked off to the attached bathroom.
Rose stood there for a few moments before turning around and leaving.
…
In the bathroom, standing in front of the washbasin, Rowan watched her reflection in the mirror in front of him as she left.
She looked so much in pain, so helpless and so vulnerable that he wanted to run over, hug her tightly and tell her that everything was going to be alright and that he would take care of her, but he stopped himself.
He wasn't sure whether he would be able to stop himself from killing Andy if he saw her tears from so close, felt her vulnerable heart beat against his and worst of all, saw the bloody injury of her shoulder that he had stopped himself from seeing.
After pulling out the pieces of glass from his forearm wounds, he came out of the bathroom, found two clean handkerchieves and wrapped them around his forearms before lying on the bed.
As he blankly stared at the ceiling, images of Andry stabbing his mother's shoulder, slapping and cursing her flashed in his mind, reigniting his rage.
This time, though, he showed no outward signs of anger but the gleam of red that had stopped after covering half of his pupils started spreading once again.
Within a few moments, his pupils were completely red.
Right at that moment, the space right above his head rippled and a streak of light shot into his head.
Rowan noticed nothing and forced himself to calm down. He then thought back to his dream—the reason he had woken up shouting and caused this mess.
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