Chapter 1: Found

Him

It was dark, completely dark. Not even the light from the moon can pierce through the room. The room was as if dead, despite having one living being sitting at the far end corner. From one look, he looked nothing far from a doll, or a statue, as he was frozen and had been like that since the past hour.

Fear was surrounding him like a cloak and he dared not move a muscle. Even the act of breathing was terrifying. His eyes were closed shut, and he saw the same darkness as to when he had them opened.

He had his arms around his head as he squatted down at the corner, lingering in the shadows of the walls as much as he could. It had been his favorite spot lately, and he found himself comfort and solitary at the very same spot almost every night and day.

He was trembling, though it wasn’t cold. The windows were closed, and the fan was moving at a slow speed. The air barely reached where he was. Nonetheless, he was trembling in terror, because of what was happening outside.

He had his hands covering his ears, trying to block all sorts of noise from entering his earlobes but it was near impossible. There was nothing he could do to make the voices stop. There was nothing he could do not to make the screaming and shouting from entering his brain. They reached him no matter what.

It was like this every night, and he was supposed to get used to it already, but he can’t. He can’t help hoping that one-day all of this will be over, and the life he knew would return.

He sighed as he scooted closer to the wall. He was never afraid of the dark, which was why he was fine with his room being pitch black. He could’ve switched on the light, but he chose not to.

Being in the dark, he found comfort and calmness within himself. He saw nothing, which was a good thing for him. But he can’t do anything about the noise though. He enjoyed the idea of being close to the shadows, who often kept him company.

They never knew if he was crying, or if he was scared. The shadows never seemed to mind. All they did was being there with him when he needed them. When he was getting too scared, they’ll envelope him to a hug. When he needed someone to talk to, the shadows always stayed to listen. And when he cried, the shadows let him be.

They were his best friends, ones unlike any other. They stuck to him through his worst moments.

He suddenly flinched in shock, after hearing the sound of a woman’s voice shouting at the top of her lungs, followed by a man’s, who roared just as loud. The voices were coming from outside his room, presumable from the living room, where the shouting and screaming always occurred every night.

They never bothered if he was in there. They never cared if he was listening. They never bothered how he felt. All they cared about was throwing painful words at each other as if it was nobody’s business. They by no means minded if he heard them or cried in his sleep because of them.

Sometimes he hoped that anyone would come in and save him. Or at least take him away. He had no idea for how much longer did he have to tolerate all this. What did he ever do to be treated like this? They were torturing him, and he was hurting, but no one, not a single person in the world, wanted to help him.

He gritted his teeth as his ears unwilling attended to the heated conversation outside. It was always the same conversation every night, but something told him that that night, it was somewhat different and major.

With clouded thoughts, he heard the woman’s voice again. Oh, it was his mother.

“How could you do this to me? What do you take me for?! I am your wife! You promised to never hurt me but you keep doing it all over again. Didn’t you know how hurt will I be? I trusted you! And to think that you kept denying the truth when the fact was already out in the open?!”

Curiosity hummed through him, as he barely understood a thing she said but he was dying to know what it was about. He was never interested in his parent’s arguments before, but that night he was keen to know, especially when he heard the sorrow in his mother’s voice. Before, it was coated with anger, but that night, her voice was filled with remorse and despair.

 “What would you have done differently even if I told you?! Nothing! You could’ve done nothing. And this is the reason why I never intended to tell you, because you would lose control like this.” Then came his father’s voice.

“How can I not?! How did you expect a wife to react once she finds out that her husband has been seeing another woman out there, or to put it precisely, his second wife!”

“I expected you to understand. I expected you to listen to my side of the story first before you jumped into conclusions.” He heard his father sigh. “I know I hurt you so badly, and no matter how much I say I’m sorry, it won’t change what has been done. But I can’t help it. Being away from home many times because of work and-”

“And it wasn’t your fault that you fell for her. You married her then and had a kid. For years, I’ve been wondering what went wrong between us. You’re away more often, and you’re hardly home. We’re drifting apart but it seems that I’m the only who’s hurting. Who would’ve thought that you’re in much better shape than I am?”

The boy sighed, and retreated to the shadows. He opened his mouth to scream, but the only thing he heard then was the sound of his own voice sobbing. Tears lined his cheeks as he hugged his knees.

This was too much for him to take in. After hearing the truth from his own parents, he now knew why they spent their time quarrelling every time they saw each other. He knew that his father was away a lot, due to work, he said, and now he understood why he wasn’t home as often.

His father didn’t love him anymore. His father didn’t love his mother anymore. He didn’t want them any longer.

He held the sides of his head, trying to suppress a scream from coming out.

This wasn’t fair.

He just wanted them to live happily with each other. He wanted them to stop fighting. He wanted them to come into the room and hug him, assuring him that the fight was nothing and that they’ll stay by his side as other parents would.

But they never came for him.

He was, after all, only five years old.

Her

The dusk came, and she continued walking along the alleys that now were already too familiar for her. She hadn’t had a chance to change her clothes, as she didn’t bring any when she escaped. But a change of clothes was the least of her worries at the moment. Her main concern was finding some food to eat for the night.

She had no money left with her, and it only meant two things: Steal, or eat other people’s leftovers.