Kurtis' new found life quickly went down hill from that moment. It became very clear very quick why looks of disdain had occupied the faces of those present at his birth.
Once the new born enemies had established who each other were, Joden wasted no time picking up were he left off.
As soon as the initial shock had faded and the reality of his situation had settled in, Disappointment and discouragement gripped his heart as Kurtis found himself deep in thought. 'why was I reborn with the two of them? It makes no sense. Does this mean mum was reincarnated somewhere as well? Blaise and Joden clearly recognise me so they must still have their memories ,does that also mean mum still has her memories as well?'
The idea of his mum being somewhere out there as well and still remembering him gave him renewed hope, but soon found himself conflicted as new thoughts and questions demanded his attention.
What about his new mum? He didn't know what to think about her. He assumed she would undoubtedly love him, but would he be able to love her back knowing his original mum was somewhere out there? And what if what was happening to him was happening to her as well and she was also a baby? What then?
He didn't know anything about where he was, or if she was even in the same country as him. How would he go about even looking for her?
These questions only served to worry him more and momentarily make him forget where he was, but he was snapped back to reality with a small knuckle to the face. He turned to see Joden's baby face glaring at him with his chubby knuckle slightly raised in what would've been a funny scene to any one observing the babies from another perspective.
But it wasn't funny to Kurtis.
Joden looked as if he had something he wanted to say but couldn't. As he looked the scowling baby Joden in the face, straight into those light brown eyes, memories of his previous life flashed through his mind. All the memories of isolation, being mocked and jeered at, running beyond what his body could handle just to get away from bullies, having his possessions stolen or vandalised to the point were he would no longer bring anything besides himself to school, being beaten to a pulp for no good reason other than boredom. All of this played and replayed in his mind as he eyed Joden's small baby fist shakily closing in for another strike despite having little control over his body.
Something inside of Kurtis' mental health broke on the fist's impact. He let loose a loud wail of pain followed up by endless bawling in his new baby voice as wave upon wave of loneliness, pain, fear and despair at the thought of having to spend even his new life with his two tormentors crashed into his heart. The tears would not stop as he unleashed on the room the deafening sound of a baby weeping at the top of its small lungs.
Panic fleetingly spread throughout Joden's chubby face, before quickly disappearing as he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
He didn't know what was happening, why he was a baby and why he was even still alive, even he was smart enough to know he had died. He remembered the pain that had racked his body when he had been stabbed, how he could feel and see his blood gushing non-stop from his gapping wounds.
He ,unsurprisingly, blamed Kurtis for the whole ordeal.
In his mind it was all that nerd's fault, if Kurtis hadn't ran into that group of gangsters he(Joden) wouldn't have lost so many of his friends that day as well as avoided being beaten to a pulp for the First time in his life. That gangster also would never have developed a vendetta against the nerd and he(Joden) would never had suffered the pain of getting stabbed and died.
That's why once he had recognised Kurtis, he had wasted no time expressing himself the only way he knew how. He was already dead by the time Gideon had turned his attention to Kurtis and his mum so didn't know how Kurtis was there but didn't care.
As he pretended to be asleep, he could hear the crying of the b*itch next to him and found himself wanting to hit him again.
"Are the children crying?"
"no my king, only one of them"
"which one?"
"the third"
The king grunted in annoyance.
Completely ignoring the wailing child, he turned to his servant. "we have yet to name them have we?"
"you are correct my lord." Answered a servant
"well then, silence the child and bring them through to the other room to their mother"
"Yes milord"
The servant flicked his hand and suddenly silence fell on the room. Kurtis couldn't comprehend what had happened, his mouth was still moving and he could feel the air being squeezed in and out of his lungs as he wailed as loud as he could, and yet he could not make a sound.
The servant whose name was Jeirus, ordered one of the numerous Maids going about their daily routine to push the cot and follow him into the adjoining room.
Kurtis soon realised that somehow he had been muted. No matter how hard he screamed and cried, no one could hear him so he quickly gave up crying and bundled up all his emotions and shoved them deep down, refusing to entertain them anymore in light of realising that no one cared. The fact of the matter was- his mum wasn't here. Aside from her no one would care, his new father obviously didn't, all he could hope for was that his new mother would be at least a little bit like his real one.
Instead he chose to ignore the smirks and mocking glare of his unwanted brothers and focused his limited sight on the room they were entering. He just realised that through all the confusion and everything that had happened, he hadn't taken in any of his surroundings or the appearance of his new father either.
Turns out he didn't have to squint too hard. The room they entered was brightly lit and somehow on entering he found his eyesight immediately improved, he could now see clearly.
It was a bedroom ,30 by 40 metres large and twenty metres tall. The First thing Kurtis noticed was the abundant amount of red and gold. The walls were covered in a clearly expensive red and gold wall paper. In the middle of one of the shorter walls (the one closest to where they had entered from) was a gold and red gemstone king sized canopy bed, also with a red and gold bed sheet and duvet, and beside it was a large expensive wooden table . The room was endowed with a generous amount of moulded gold and red gemstone mini statues. On the opposite side of the bed, on the wall was a set of grandiose gold and brown closed double doors and along the same wall was a row of comfortable sofas. The floor was covered in an exquisite red and gold carpet.
The next thing he noticed ,and what captivated him the most ,was the amount of things that made absolutely no scientific and logical sense and yet were beautiful almost beyond description. Each wall was decorated luxuriously with large moving paintings the size of a tapestry, depicting what Kurtis assumed were stories and memories, not only that but at each corner of the room was a floating crystal the size of a football that emanated a bright White light that lit up the room like a stage. Clothes, cutlery, plates and food floated around the room from one destination to another as servants and Maids walked in and out, not even batting an eye at the supernatural scene like it was a normal thing.
Kurtis' jaw dropped open in amazement and so did Joden and Blaise'.
Their attention however was soon drawn to the woman on the bed, propped up against the wall on a pillow while eating her recently arrived meal.
She was beautiful, obviously in her mid twenties, she had an oval shaped head accompanied by long flowing brown and lime green hair that matched her lime green pupils and almond shaped eyes. Despite her oddly sharp nose, she had soft facial features, full lips and slender brown eyebrows with a tinge of green at the corners. Her body was covered by the duvet but she had long sleek arms and tanned skin.
Kurtis figured she was their mother.
When the woman noticed their approach she stopped eating and looked up, smiling apologetically at her husband who responded by wrapping her in an affectionate hug with a kiss on the forehead.
"I'm sorry" she said while burrowing in his embrace
"Don't be, its not your fault, I should've listened to you and arranged for a pre-birth assessment of the children. Its my fault we had one child more than we wanted."
"I love you"
"love you too" responded the king before standing up straight, and turning to face the cot. "Now we have to name them, any suggestions?"
He was a tall, 6'2 handsome man in his mid twenties with tanned skin and sharp facial features and eyebrows. He had light brown eyes and medium length Black hair with red streaks that also invaded his well trimmed beard and matched the long, rich, red fur robe with a golden outline that he wore. He had a disapproving expression on his face as he looked down his nose at the baby Kurtis while pondering what to do.
"We agreed we would name the First born Ruben after the first King, remember? We were going to think up a name for the second once the First had been born. We never took into consideration having more than one child at a time" answered the Queen
"Jeirus, which was the first born?"
"the one on the right my Lord" answered Jeirus. The servant was a simple man with bland features the only of which that stood out being his grey and light blue hair. He was in his late forties approaching fifty and yet appeared thirty. He was 5'10 and wore an expensive Black suit with a fancy embroidered red and gold insignia where the chest pocket was, a white shirt and gloves which also had a fancy gold insignia embroidered on and smart Black dress shoes.
He proceeded to pick up Blaise and pass him gently over to his master. The king then passed the child onto his queen who got a maid to take away her half eaten meal before taking the baby Blaise in her arms and looking down at him lovingly.
"He's beautiful"
"Of course he is, he's my son" the King said proudly "He has your eyes as well, I'm sure he'll grow up healthy into a wonderful heir"
At this, the queen giggled girlishly, her son did in fact resemble her. "In that case, we name you, our beautiful son, Ruben Carnelian after the Courageous and noble First King"
Blaise or better yet, Ruben, began to emit a bright green glow that matched his eyes and he remained like that for a while as his mother hugged hum tightly and affectionately. His eyes shone a bright sea green colour but the outline of his irises and pupils however shone a dark red.
All remaining thoughts and worries disappeared from his mind as Kurtis starred transfixed on the scene before him. He was shocked and even more confused, struggling to believe what he was seeing, he turned towards Joden to make sure he wasn't just seeing things.
Joden was just as shocked as he was, his eyes had widened and his eyebrows were raised but on his face was a large smile. He was smiling because he was eager for what was happening to Blaise to happen to him too.
Blaise or Ruben had a peaceful and comfortable expression on his face, he also didn't understand the language but he was much smarter than Joden and and had deduced that they had been reborn. Unlike Kurtis, he felt no remorse or sadness at the fact that he had left behind his family and other friends. He hated his mum for her uncaring and pathetic attitude and his sister for always being better than him in every way.
As for his old friends, he had stopped caring for them as soon as they had ditched him and Joden. On the contrary, he was happy and ecstatic at the thought of having a new life and he had seen the look of affection in his mothers eyes when she looked at him as well as the prideful look on his fathers face when he had held him. His mother's warm embrace was something that he had never experienced before and he loved it.
When his mother had announced his name, he heard a voice in his mind as she said it, repeating his new name to him. His body had then experienced a sudden rush of warmth and he felt something coursing throughout it. He felt powerful, healthy. He felt Good. For the First time in a long time he had smiled. An honest smile of pleasure, not a cold and provocative smirk like usual, a proper smile.
Unfortunately, the feeling soon faded, as did the light emanating from his body. Blaise, now Ruben, found himself feeling drained and closed his eyes.
The queen delicately set the sleeping child beside her before turning towards her husband who had a huge and proud grin on his face.
"Which is the second?" She asked eager to see her child.
All the staff had stopped moving when the child had begun to glow. They had never seen a naming of such scale before, the glow the child had given off had been spectacular. None of them could take their eyes off the sleeping child.
Jeirus however quickly recovered.
"The one in the middle My lady" he said as he carefully picked up baby Joden from the crib. All those present were staring curiously at the grinning infant, including his parents
Once again once the child was in her arms, the queen smiled lovingly at him.
"this one has your eyes dear"
"I just noticed, this one resembles me. Hah! It appears we both have a child that resembles us a lot" the king laughed heartily
"Since he looks a lot like you, should we name him after you? Victor is a lovely name after all" the queen suggested.
"Are you sure? I would love nothing more than to have a son bare my name, but if you do not want to you don't have to" despite his consideration, he couldn't hide the enthusiastic spark in his eyes. Literally, a bright red spark of light lit up his light brown eyes.
"Of course I'm okay with it. Well then" she turned back and looked into the eager eyes of her infant who was for some reason, smiling up at her. "We name you, our adorable child, Victor Carnelian junior, after your great and honourable father."
Joden too heard his name echo in his mind despite not understanding the language. Much like Ruben, his body and eyes began to glow too, but instead of the green light Ruben had emitted, he instead produced an equally bright red glow and the outline of his iris and pupils a dark Black.
Unlike Ruben, the newly named Victor junior wasn't smiling because he felt Good, he was smiling in victory and satisfaction. He had figured that this glow meant something Good and he too felt the feeling of empowerment.
The staff again froze in wonder, their eyes were glued to the sight and did not leave until the light faded and the child fell asleep.
At this point Kurtis was brimming with excitement, he figured from what he had seen from Ruben and Victor that the colour a person shone was unique to themselves and couldn't help but wonder what colour he would glow.
His new parents however, were not as enthusiastic. The Queen placed her second child beside her First to sleep and turned to face her third.
Instead of the fond and loving look he had seen her give her First two children, Kurtis was met with a look of disgust and disappointment that the king also donned.
"what should we do with it?" Asked the queen as if the child was a dead carcass on their pristine carpet.'
"Tcchh. I don't know, we can't simply dispose of it, that would be too unethical but at the same time I do not want to name it. That would be acknowledging it as a potential heir and entitling it to our riches. We don't want news of this Child's existence to spread throughout the country. Understand?" The last bit he said while addressing the room at large.
"Of course your highness" responded the servants and Maids whilst giving their Lord a deep bow.
"In that case should we just cast it away? We don't have to dispose of it, we can keep its existence a secret. Then once it is old enough we can wipe its memory and put it up for adoption under fake names" the Queen said in a disgusted tone while scowling at the child.
"Indeed, that seems the best option. You there!" He pointed at a young maid "take it upstairs to the attic and leave it up there until I say otherwise."
The Young maid was barely thirteen and was just an apprentice, she shakily lifted the child out of the cot and nervously began to carry him away.
Kurtis didn't need to know what they were saying to roughly understand what was happening. He recognised the disdainful looks his new parents were giving him as well as the disappointed looks on the faces of the servants and Maids present. It was the same looks his classmates would give him. The same looks that met him when whenever he walked into the classroom or after he would take First place in every test. The same looks he was used to getting from Joden and Blaise.
It told him all he needed to know about his current predicament.
He was unwanted and hated for his existence.
A feeling of dread gripped his body as he was carried away from the room while watching Ruben and Victor being cradled with love.