Chanyeol closed his eyes. Darkness engulfed him immediately. It wasn’t the darkness of the world surrounding him, but the darkness that lingered in his mind and in his heart. He hated them to the point where he couldn’t breathe when a single thought of what they had done crossed his mind. What right did they have to take everything away from him? Who told them they were allowed to hurt him so much? If darkness is what they wanted, Chanyeol would never cease until that darkness was engulfed by flames. His flames.

He slowly breathed in as he moved the flames against his fingers. He let his fire do as it pleased, dancing around his hands with the encompassing shadows cast by the trees. His mind thought back to his parents. How they had cared for him, fed him, but mostly how they had loved him. His mother had never been one with words but rather she let her silence speak more than what a single breadth of noise ever could. She was always so warm. No matter how much his father had yelled at her for being too soft on him, she never broke. To her, Chanyeol would always be her little boy. His father on the other hand was a man with too much words. Chanyeol can’t do this, Chanyeol can’t do that. That’s a woman's job. Chanyeol knew his father loved him. Deep inside he knew that no matter how many times his father had stabbed his heart with his words, he loved him. And of course, all of those fighting lessons had paid off. Afterall, even though both of them were no longer there, everything they had taught him had stayed with him. How to defend himself if someone were to try to kill him, how to give someone his last piece of bread if they were hungry. Although he had spent most of his time with his mother’s softness, it was his father’s ruthlessness that had stayed with him the most. His mother probably didn’t know it back then, but nothing good could ever come out of him being nice to strangers.

Chanyeol let out an exasperated sigh. He was tired, yet somehow this quietness felt nice. Afterall, quiet was good. The farther away he got from the capital, the safer he was. Deep inside though, Chanyeol knew he couldn’t run away forever. Sometimes, he could hear them in the distance. Loud screams before complete silence took over. It had been a while since that had hap