That day the sun was more radiant than other days. In turn, the night before was the darkest of all nights. The wounds under the bandages caused unbearable stabbing pain and the tears that were shed had already dried up completely. Only a sad smile of relief remained.
The sound of the wind rushing past his ears....
The radiant light of the sun that gave him hope.....
A heart so fragile that it had broken into pieces....
Alek Gusev turned out to be an unfortunate child. Like many people in the world, that was his destiny. However, this time his destiny was overseen by the greatest entity in existence in this reality.
That day began like any other.
***
"May I help you?", said the boy with the fancy glasses.
Alek, he had turned fourteen already. He was slowly ceasing to be a child. His look, the way he acted, everything about him showed that the child he once was was dying. The one he had offered to help was Maria, one of the mansion's maids.
Maria arranged her dark blue hair to look at the boy and shook her head.
"No need, master. This is my job."
Alek smiled subtly. "I insist. I don't have much to do. I'd like to help a little."
Maria was cooking a very common dish in this country. Borsch, a traditional beet soup. Since it's summer, she wanted to serve it cold for Alek and his mother. Now, with Alek offering some of his help with that kind smile, she couldn't refuse.
"Wash your hands."
"Right away", he nodded. Like a bolt of lightning he walked over to the sink and wiped his hands. He approached the woman after that and picked up a beet and the knife.
"Let me help you."
"Uh. Yes. Go ahead, Maria."
The woman took Alek's hands and guided him to hold the knife the right way. A few minutes after working hard in the kitchen, the food was ready. Not only the soup, many other dishes lay served on the table.
"I don't understand how food can taste better when you help me. It's delicious. It looks like you're going to take my job."
"Hahaha. It's not that big of a deal. You made most of it, you're the expert, after all. I just diced the occasional vegetable."
"Well, when you help me, everything just tastes better. Is it magic? Hahaha. That would be a good explanation."
"There's no such thing as magic, Maria. When there is no explanation for an event, people usually relate it to magic and those fanciful things."
"There you go with those complicated explanations. You know I didn't finish school."
"And yet they still pay you very well, don't they?"
"Hahaha. Seems like it."
When Alek forgot everything, he was able to smile and talk naturally with others. When he forgot that he wore those bandages over his body, for a moment he felt free. By forgetting the pain he constantly feels, he can breathe calmly. And, by forgetting who Alek Gusev is, Alek Gusev could be happy.
That's exactly what was happening. Every morning Alek looked in the mirror, until that moment, he could only wish to forget who he is and move forward. When he saw those silver eyes reflected back at him, a feeling he had never felt before made an appearance. It was hatred and disgust.
Suddenly, two voices were heard. With serious expressions, Jasha and Biserka sat down at the large lunch table. Maria saw Alek's expression turn darker at that. The smile he had a while ago was completely wiped off his face, being replaced by a distressed and uncomfortable expression.
Without another word, he moved forward, leaving the kitchen. He didn't say goodbye to Maria as he usually does. Instead, he looked down, taking a deep breath of air. He touched his chest painfully and entered the dining room of the mansion.
Jasha and Biserka, who were silently looking at each other waiting for the food, noticed Alek's presence, however, they did not say anything about it. So, shyly, Alek sat in the chair farthest away from his parents and waited in silence.
When the food arrived, they all ate in silence.
Alek had not realized that his father had returned. It was almost a year before he saw him again. It was at exactly the same time. When he finished eating, he said thank you and went to his room. He didn't dare look at his parents. Even looking up from the floor was already impossible for him.
***
That night screams were heard. And, unfortunately, Alek, who was on his way back to his room after dinner, was nearby. He felt a sense of deja vu, because somehow he had already experienced something similar in the past.
The door to his mother's room was open. Biserka's angry screams could be heard louder. Jasha was there too, for some reason Alek never wanted to know. And just as he expected, a loud slap was heard, then a bottle breaking and the woman's screams. She was complaining about something, but for some reason Alek couldn't hear them. It was as if his ears were blocked.
He peeked through the door and saw his mother and father struggling. Biserka wanted to stab Jasha with the broken bottle, while Jasha was doing his best to knock the woman to the ground, which he managed to do very easily. Once this happened, Jasha raised his fist and punched Biserka in the face. She groaned in pain, at the same time Alek's vision became blurry. The last thing he saw before he ran out of there was his mother looking at him as blood ran down her nose.
When he reached his room, he forgot to close the door and immediately hid under the covers of his bed. He covered his ears tightly and closed his eyes. He tried to erase that image from his mind, but it only became clearer the more he tried to forget it.
At the same time Sakura, who was watching everything in silence, let out a couple of tears. She reached her hand to her face and wiped the tears away, but they were still coming out.
'These tears... they're not mine...', as if she could see through the sheets, she realized that Alek wasn't crying. He was desperately trying to hide all his emotions deep inside, but as a result, that inner pain that Alek was hiding Sakura could feel it, which at the same time showed as tears overflowed from the corners of her eyes.
Someone who hides all that he feels?
It was a long few minutes in the same way, but Alek couldn't calm down. He was trying not to hear anything, but outside someone's quick footsteps echoed. Sakura looked at the door and remembered that Alek forgot to close it. So, among the darkness of the lights out hallway, that woman appeared.
'He's not to blame...', was what Sakura wanted to shout at that woman. 'He's not to blame!', but that was this boy's destiny. There would never be a way to change that.
Alek heard someone in his room and pulled the sheet off him to see who it was, but opened his eyes in fear when he saw his mother. She had a swollen right eyelid and blood in her mouth and nose. In her hand she held a different bottle than the one she used before.
"Mother...?"
The woman approached Alek raising the bottle. At that moment Sakura heard someone speak inside her mind.
'Ah... again...'
The bottle shattered the moment it hit Alek's head. He fell onto the sheets as his head began to bleed.
"Mother... I-", he couldn't even finish speaking, as Biserka grabbed him by the hair and threw him to the floor. "Mother, forgive me. I- Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The tip of his mother's heel stepped on his hand. "Mother, forgive me! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Forgive me!"
There was no mercy. Biserka stepped on Alek's hands again and again as Alek cried and screamed for forgiveness. The tears streaming down the boy's face mingled with the blood dripping from his head.
Sakura didn't want to see the expression on Alek's face, but she was still seeing him. There was fear, sadness and pain in the boy's expression. Again that voice in her head echoed.
'I don't understand... I can't understand...'
It was Alek's voice. It was his thoughts.
'What did I do wrong, what should I do to stop this?'
The boy's brittle voice....
'It hurts me.... It hurts me too much! Why do you hit me! Why do you always do this to me!'
Sakura kept silent at the thoughts. Every hit Alek receives she could feel it as if it was a memory. All the accumulated sadness, all the hatred that was growing in his heart. No, he didn't hate his mother. He could never do that... Why could Sakura know that? Well...
Please... I want to see you smile again. I want us to go to the park together with father and have a fun family time. I want to go to school like a normal child. I want you to be proud of me. I want to graduate from a good college and I want you to be there to celebrate my achievement. In my life, no matter if I cry, I want you to be there to tell me that everything will be okay. When I feel down, I want you to come into my room to give me a hug. All this time I've wanted that... All this time... always... always...'
Lying on the floor, covering his face with his hands to protect himself from his mother's blows. No matter what he did to defend himself, she was bigger, stronger. The woman's long fingernails buried themselves in Alek's face, the hard blows made him cry out in pain. Even if he apologized, if he asked for forgiveness, she wouldn't stop. The only thing Alek could see on his mother's face was anger and hatred. That beautiful smile that for him was already a distant memory had been erased forever.
She then put her hands around Alek's neck. With her voice shattered, she finally gave him a reason for all this cruelty.
"It's all your fault."
'It's not', Sakura repeated to herself.
"It's all your fault!"
"It's not!" shouted Sakura, but no one heard her.
"If only this hadn't happened. If only you hadn't been born I'd be happy!"
'No... what have you done', Sakura finally broke down. She fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face because, at that moment, she heard Alek's thoughts....
'Ah... I see... so that was it...', he felt his vision dimming, his breath choking forever. He had finally been given a reason for all this nonsense. Alek finally understood what he had done wrong. 'If I hadn't been born... mother could have lived a better life... I see...', he closed his eyes whispering in his thoughts. 'It seems it's all my fault... it always was... all this... I did all this. I made mother unhappy. I hurt her and didn't let her smile again... I finally understand...'
The thought that sealed his betrayal of his own history, of his own destiny...
'If I die... mother will be happy...'
A sigh of relief was heard, and after that, the whole scene faded....
Sakura found herself submerged in the ocean of blood again, hugging herself and trying to soothe the pain. All those emotions the boy had had finally hit their breaking point. That night Alek's heart broke into pieces and his iron will drove him to make the worst possible decision.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes to a blinding light. The scene had changed again.
The next day after that night. Out there the birds sang their daily melody as Alek Gusev looked out the window. He had just woken up, bandages on his head and hands. It seemed that the maids had done their usual job, cleaning his wounds after every beating his mother gave him.
This morning was different...
Alek's mind was empty, there was no thought at all. His gaze was dull as he looked at the radiant sunny day outside. He removed the bandages from his head and hands, realizing that the wounds had already closed, though they left the trail of dried blood. Without another word, he got out of bed and changed out of his blood-stained clothes. Once he put on his shoes, he left the room as Sakura followed him.
She said nothing, as what she had seen earlier left her speechless.
Alek left the mansion and arrived at the garden of the south wing of the establishment. Once he was there, he looked at the height of the mansion's roof. A shiver ran down Sakura's spine and the memory of when this all started came back to her mind.
'No way. No...'
She understood that Alek was measuring the height of the ceiling and making sure that, if he threw himself from the top, he might die instantly.
'Stop...'
Alek didn't hear her. The boy walked looking for someone specific. When he got a few meters away from the place, he came across a man who was cleaning the windows on the third floor.
"Can I borrow your ladder?", he asked.
'Stop...', and Sakura could already see the outcome of this.
"What do you need it for, boy?"
"I just want to 'get' one thing down from the roof."
"Uh. If so, I could-"
"No. This is something only I should do."
The man gave it some thought. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes. Besides, the maids will help me."
"I see. If so, then they are fine."
Having finished the negotiation, Alek grabbed the ladder with both hands, but it was very heavy. Still, he found enough strength in his weak body to lift the ladder. He returned to the same place as before and climbed up to the roof.
It really was too high. Though thanks to the height, Alek could see part of the city.
"This day is brighter than usual...", the tone of his voice changed. A soft tone, very different from the emotionless tone of voice from earlier. "Ah... it's very high...", he slowly walked towards the edge of the roof.
The strong wind...
A radiant day...
A depressing context...
Alek closed his eyes and felt the wind whistling near his ears.
...
...
A couple of tears fell...
...
...
"Hehe...", they were Alek's tears. "I'm too scared... I'm too scared, but... but if it's for you, mother, I'll do anything."
'Please stop, Alek. Don't... don't...'
Alek turned around, as if looking at Sakura. She opened her eyes...
A smile was what she saw. A smile as radiant as the sun that lights up this world. A beautiful smile accompanied by this child's tears of sadness.
"Mother, be happy. This is my gift to you. If I had not been born, you would be happy. I took away your happiness. That was my mistake. It's my fault. But right now I'm going to make up for my mistake! So please don't forget me!"
"Noooooooo!" Sakura ran towards Alek as he dropped backwards to the ground, but she couldn't reach him. It was then that she heard the boy's last thought.
'I would have liked to see you smile, if only one last time. Goodbye, mom. I love you with all my being'
...
...
A wet thud was heard, and blood splattered on the floor. A pool of blood quickly formed and the life in Alek's eyes began to fade.
Sakura looked down from above. She looked at that horrible and depressing scene. And suddenly, everything went dark once again. A mysterious female voice shouted.
"You fucking idiot brat!"
Sakura opened her eyes and found herself lying on the ground, right on top of a warm wet pool of blood. Up in the sky was something strange. At first it looked like a giant glowing golden hand descending to earth, but then the slender glowing golden body of a girl formed in front, hovering above her, no....
Sakura realized that she was now seeing through Alek's eyes. Suddenly, that golden adelescent-looking entity began to scream.
"How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you ruin the story I wrote for you! This wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't part of your destiny! You broke your destiny! Do you want to betray me! You are my creation, my humble protagonist written with love! A mistake like that is almost impossible to fix! If there is one traitor there will be more like you!", that golden being arranged her long golden hair to one side before continuing to scream. "You must never die. You are the hero of the story I wrote, the messiah of this world. This makes no sense!", with a sigh, she seemed to calm down. "Ah... but I can fix it, I think. Still, this warrants punishment. For Alek to survive, I must not interfere completely, that would be anticlimactic! Now that I remember, other worlds have their heroes with very crazy powers.", she smiled, an idea had come to her mind. "Yes, that will do. You will live, Alek, this will be my gift to you. In exchange for this... your ability to feel emotions will be gazed upon. That will keep you from wanting to kill yourself again."
The golden girl walked up to Alek and kissed him on the forehead. Sakura looked at this without being able to say anything.
After that, the first act of the story ended....
-Twin Towers of Iselma-
She looked at him. Assassin was standing on top of the tip of the Moon Tower. Gray thought about what happened last night and sighed. She took her time getting ready and, holding Add, took a long leap to reach him.
As she approached him, she again let out a few tears in response.
To be continued...