The fear of loss… It can destroy people as much as the loss itself.
Zane had already lost what he loved even before knowing what love was.
His parents.
He only had Milo now and now that he knows what love was, he would not lose her.
Right now, in the dim moonlight around wild plants, winds brushing him like unseen fingers, he sat in front of a bag covered in dust and mud.
The bag belonged to his parents.
He still remembers how they were hastily packing their things and leaving before the Sentinels came and started butchering them without any notice.
Zane would give anything to go back in time and ask his parents why they were killed and did they know Sentinels were coming that's why they were packing things?
Zane stared at the smiling man and woman in the photograph and wished for a technology where photos could speak.
There were no children in the photo.
No Zane.
No Milo.
Just two smiling people as if the world never touched them.
Zane remembered asking about the photograph once.
A long time ago.
"Silver-Wash Paper." His father had said. Smiling.
It had something to do with chemicals. Something with lights.
Zane hadn't understood.
He still didn't.
But he remembered the way his father's eyes had lit up while explaining it. And his mother laughing softly beside him.
That… he remembered.
He held the photo in his trembling hands, gripping it.
They weren't strong.
His father could lift small things in the air.
Coins. Cups. Little tricks.
Just enough to make people clap during their road shows.
His mother… She could control the wind.
Not storms. Not destruction.
Just… small currents. Gentle ones.
They were ordinary.
Like most of the Gutterborn.
And yet… they had been killed like they were something dangerous.
Zane smacked his head with the photo.
"They left me. How stupid I was to think that."
A memory resurfaced.
Not in detail but enough to shake his heart.
His small hut.
Voices.
A bag being packed.
"We'll be back soon."
"We're doing this for you."
He remembered crying.
Screaming. Clinging.
But they had still left.
And he had hated them for it.
For a long time.
They told him they were going to a different continent for two years and they couldn't bring him with them.
He was only three at that time.
"They said it was for my future..."
Zane's voice was low now. Almost bitter.
Back then, he hadn't believed them.
They had left him in the local orphanage of Cinder Row and as per the rules, the children had to earn their food themselves. It only gave shelter to them.
Zane had no power at that time so he chose brickhauling.
He lifted loads heavier than himself day after day. It was either this or sleeping with the orphanage owner and other adult males.
He worked rigorously for a three year old and earned his food.
He hated his parents daily.
But one day, he heard the truth.
A passing conversation.
Careless words from someone who didn't think he was listening.
"The recent kid that came here, his daddy and mommy had given me money to take care of the child for two years. But I still make that nugget work. They were crying that their employer didn't allow them to take their kid with them. They said they got a job that will change their lives. It was too much money to refuse. But I know they will not come back. Haha. They left the kid to have fun themselves!"
Just like that, Zane's anger shattered.
Not disappeared. But changed.
After that day, he waited.
He didn't even confront the orphanage owner about why he was making him work if his parents gave him money.
He waited for the owner's words to be either proved wrong or right. If his parents came, then they went for the money for Zane's future and if they didn't come then they abandoned Zane.
As little as he was, he needed clarity.
So he patiently carried on lifting bricks for two years.
After two years, they did come.
He remembered the orphanage door opening and his parents rushing to wrap him around his arms.
They both apologized and cried and Zane clinged to tears as well.
But they didn't come alone.
A little girl was with them.
Milo.
She hid herself behind his mother and peeked at Zane.
"It's your sister." His father had said.
Zane was confused and curious and then Milo had smiled.
"You were cheerful from the start." Zane shook his head.
For a moment, everything felt normal again.
His life returned to him.
But only for a moment.
He remembered it.
The way his parents rushed.
The way they packed this bag and kept checking for footsteps.
They knew something was coming and they weren't able to outrun that.
They told Zane and Milo to hide in the hole and in a matter of a few seconds, both siblings saw their parents' heads rolling on the floor.
Everything had turned to normal only to get worse.
Zane was five, Milo was two.
After one whole day, they came out of the hole and wished it was all a bad dream.
But it was their real life now.
They burned the dead bodies of their parents along with the bodies of other residents who died that day.
The orphanage where Zane stayed for two years was also burned to the ground with children inside by the Sentinels.
No orphanage opened after that.
They called it a raid and one of the reasons the Gutterborns who survived that day drowned themselves in alcohol was to forget the horror they witnessed.
Since that day, Zane and Milo came closer as they looked after each other.
And now if someone barged inside his house to harm Milo, he would convert the whole Dwarkam to an orphanage.
The photograph trembled in his hand.
"They came back… only to leave forever."
Silence swallowed his words.
For a few seconds… he just sat there.
Not thinking. Not moving.
Just… existing.
Then slowly, he placed the photograph back inside the bag.
Carefully, as if returning it to a grave.
His eyes lifted toward the darkness beyond the trees.
Somewhere out there… answers existed.
Why they left? What was the job? Why were they killed? And why… they knew it was coming.
Zane's fingers curled slightly.
"…I'll find out."
He rubbed his eyes, slapped himself and finally did the thing he had come here to do.
The bag had many sections and he checked the big one in the middle first.
He rummaged through the clothes and found only them in the section.
He then opened the zip of the section to one side of the bag and it was empty.
He checked the section on the other side and that was empty as well.
"They only packed clothes? We were poor, I know. But surely we should have something more. I didn't even find the money they went to earn."
Zane checked once again to all sections of the bag, even for hidden compartments but he found nothing. Nothing other than clothes.
He lifted the bag and shook it.
But nothing fell.
He held his hair.
"Waste of time."
He threw the bag in annoyance.
TUN!
A sound came.
A metallic sound.
His ears perked up.
He sensed no one around him so it meant it came from the bag.
He held it again in the air and dropped it once more.
TUN!
The same sound reverberated again.
He repeated the same thing one last time and the result was the same.
The sound kept coming every time he dropped the bag and he had enough brain to figure out the source.
It came whenever the bag made contact with the ground. Whenever the bottom of the bag made contact with the ground.
His eyes lit up and without any second thought, he flipped the bag.
He found nothing out of ordinary from seeing it but as soon as he felt the bottom with his hand, he felt something.
Something hard.
Something small.
It had no zip.
It had nothing for him to open and see inside.
But he won't let his curiosity die.
He looked around and found a stone with a pointy end and razored it at the bottom of the bag.
Surprisingly, in only one motion the cloth tore open as if waiting to reveal and in front of his eyes, Zane saw it.
The one that made the noise.
An Abyssal Black Key with an oval shape on both ends.
He didn't know whether he should be happy or disappointed.
He touched the thing with little to no enthusiasm but as soon as his skin made contact with it…
[ Do you want to merge the Rusted Lockpick with the Memory Key? ]