?? years ago
Alkabatra.
Alkabatra, the maximum security prison for the damned and vicious vile beings.
A hellish, unruly place where almost all inmates had committed crimes that required a death sentence.
That was where I was headed.
The chopper dropped me off several miles away and told me where to go.
I had to climb the snow filled mountains to reach the prison gates.
I shuddered as I felt the cold December winds biting down my skin. Even my thick fur coat couldn't help me feel any warmth.
I gritted my clattering teeth and shook my head.
I had to do this.
No matter what.
I couldn't help but grin to myself.
Finally I would not just meet him but even get to work with him.
Doctor Ernestein Schrader.
The man I respected and admired. He was a brilliant scientist that everyone in the science field looked up to.
I first met him when he was a child of only twelve years but getting a chemistry degree with us who were much older to him.
Despite being like him and skipping a few grades too, we were different.
I considered being just seventeen and almost getting my degree in chemistry a great achievement but my jaw dropped in amazement and shock when another one brighter than me who was just twelve became my classmate.
He was a brilliant man with an extraordinary brain. The questions asked by the curious child only showed his superior intellect and sometimes even deeper understanding of the subject than the professors themself.
I frowned as I remembered an incident from back then.
He came one day covered in bruises and a bloody lip but he never showed pain or fear or any emotion at all.
He was often bullied by jealous classmates who despised him for being better off than them but he just quietly took the abuse and looked at them with the same blank expression of nonchalance.
I always found that sad yet somewhat disconcerting.
It was unsettling how he observed his bullies....like he was studying a science experiment and looking for a solution.
I befriended the child.
A part of me respected him.
A part of me wanted to keep him safe.
However...
There was another part of me that wanted nothing more than to run far away from him.
I found his dark eyes uncanny. Like he was hiding something dark and disturbing deep inside him.
But I shook my head and smiled at him as he voluntarily assisted me in the laboratory when I struggled with the experiments.
That was the only time I saw him express any emotion.
The usually blank passionless expression was now one of childish excitement and eagerness.
His large curious eyes thought of several different solutions to solve the same problem.
"See! I told you it would work!" he beamed clasping my hands happily as the solution turned blue to my amazement.
I would look at my book in confusion and ask him astonished .
"But Ernie... How? The steps were completely different in the book!"
He would eagerly explain the process to me flailing his arms and while his voice rised rapidly in an eager voice...
....and I felt the cold and empty dark eyes of his were only my imagination.
Little Ernestein was just a misunderstood and brilliant child.
We became friends quickly despite the age difference. We were connected through our love for science.
We both benefitted from our friendship. I would protect him from the bullies and he would teach me what I didn't know.
I was a large and strong man who could always get the upper hand in a fight.
However despite sharing the same amount of love for chemistry and both of us having to suffer through the dreaded compulsory literature classes, all the classes we shared were not the same. While I had an additional interest in robotics, designing, physics and mathematics, he chose computer programming, biology, physiology and neuroscience.
He took an additional extra credit subject of psychology while I chose combat sports.
And sometimes when he would skip his classes and wordlessly stood beside me simply holding my hand, I would skip too and we would walk together without saying a word.
Because no one dared to hurt him when he was with me.
He felt safe and used me as a shield to protect him and I felt a strong sense of protective instinct to protect the fragile prodigy beside me.
I sighed and looked at the snow covered mountain ahead of me.
I trudged and pushed myself ahead as the snow pelted my face and the wind threatened to push me in the opposite direction.
I wouldn't stop here.
Not now.
I had to see Ernie again.
No matter what.
I felt excitement course through my veins as I remembered why I was here.
I was going to work with Ernie...no... Doctor Ernestein Schrader on a collaborative project consisting of only the best among the best.
But Ernie was now no longer the scared child I once knew but an adult of twenty five years and a bright record.
Doctor Ernestein Schrader was now considered the best of the best scientist, had made several fascinating discoveries, his inventions were creative and exceptionally innovative....
...and I was going to work with him on a classified military grade project for the government.
I wasn't told much other than what I needed to bring, where I had to meet and the promise of dire consequences if this ever got out.
My mind kept on wandering to my past memories of him and I welcomed them as a distraction to the harsh December weather.
I felt a wave of sadness wash over me as I remembered our parting.
It was a day like any other except the fact that I had not seen him for several classes.
I shrugged it off thinking he stayed at home due to feeling unwell but I had a really bad feeling about it.
I met him during the organic chemistry lecture and the room froze as there was a collective gasp as he entered the class.
"Sorry for being late Miss Maria" he said simply and sat beside me.
"Y... You need to go to the hospital right now." The professor said shakily but firmly.
"Oh don't worry about this. I am fine really..." he said casually shrugging his arms.
I couldn't contain my tears as I saw him covered in bruises. His left eye was swollen, black and half closed. His shirt was drenched in blood and dirt, his left wrist was twisted in an unnatural angle and his neck had a mark on it like someone tried to strangle him.
I felt a cold fury slowly build up inside me and my heart ached as I saw him smile at me with a swollen lip covered in blood.
"Walk with me." I said and walked out of the class without looking back.
I knew without looking that he was following me.
"Who did this to you?" I asked with an eerily calm and controlled voice that sounded strange to me.
The quiet footsteps stopped behind me and I was met with silence.
I was about to repeat my question when a quite voice spoke softly in a tone of complete understanding and resignation.
"It's not that bad. I have had much worse."
I felt weak and knelt beside him as I looked into his bruised face and wept openly for the first time in my life.
The lump in my throat prevented me from saying a word.
"I don't understand. Why are you crying?"
He looked at me in genuine confusion and asked curiously.
I never understood why someone so intelligent couldn't understand something so simple.
I never understood why he quietly took the abuse without saying a word and endured all the pain in silence.
"W..why do you have to deal with this? Don't you feel sad, or angry or hurt." I clenched my fist and fought for words.
"No." he said after a while.
"Pardon?" I asked confused.
"I understand pain. It hurts when people hurt me. But I don't understand sadness or anger. It just feels pointless. If you fight back...it only hurts more. If I stay quiet and still, it ends quickly. They get bored and leave me." he explained in a calm voice.
He looked at me curiously and asked
"I don't understand why you are crying. You are not in pain or hurt. So why do you cry?"
I looked up at him, pointed at my heart and said slowly
"Sometimes pain is not physically felt. It can hurt much more here too.
I cry because my heart hurts when I see your pain. I can't always protect you even if I will always try to.
You never cry even if you are hurt. You never fight back or shout for help. That makes me sad. But you know what....sometimes it's okay to cry. "
He nodded slowly in understanding and smiled.
I got him treated in a hospital despite him insisting how unnecessary it was. I skipped several days and spent it in the hospital as he went through surgery for his broken wrist and a few broken ribs.
I sat by his side as he lay on the hospital bed pale and weak.
He looked better than before but was still healing.
"Hey Kay... Can I ask you a question?" he asked with his eyes closed.
"If it is something you don't know, how can I even attempt to understand?" I asked in a weak attempt at humour.
He laughed in his peculiar childish manner reminding me that he was just a kid despite having the highest ever recorded IQ.
"You can ask me anything Ernie." I assured him quietly when his laughter subsided.
He opened his eyes suddenly and looked at me with such serious eyes that I found quite startling.
"Kayser. If I become better than them one day, Will I be able to fight back? Can I stop them? Is it possible...to make sure no one ever hurts me ever again? If they don't hurt me will I stop feeling pain? Can I make it possible so that no one hurts me again? If... I get my revenge... If I make them pay for everything they did...will I feel happy then?" He held my hand weakly yet firmly as he looked in my eyes and asked me with serious bright eyes.
"Yes. You can." I smiled gently at him.
The answer was obvious and ridiculously simple.
But those three simple words.... I would regret one day... Not knowing it had a hidden darker meaning behind them...
He beamed at me with a genuine smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners yet.... I saw something dark flash in his eyes but it was gone quickly and I dismissed it.
"Thank you big brother.... I knew you would understand." he said with relief as he plopped down back to the bed and shut his eyes.
I was surprised and filled with joy. "Anytime little brother. I understand."
"You are the only one who does." he muttered and slowly fell asleep.
I sat beside him with the book in my hands as I felt like a guardian angel...
....like a big brother who would always protect him no matter what.
Days passed to weeks... Weeks passed to months and months passed to years and we both grew close as brothers.
I later learned that he already had several degrees and that was the first time he stayed till the end coming everyday without skipping.
Despite not being related by blood....we still thought of each other as family.
But one day he simply disappeared and I never thought I would see him again.
On the day of our graduation, I found out his house was burned and all his family were dead.
Thought he was dead too.....
It broke me when I thought someone so bright could be gone just like that.
I didn't simply lose a classmate...or a friend.
I lost my little brother.....and the pain was unlike anything else as it consumed me, breaking me down.
Ernie...he couldn't just go like that. I refused to accept it. Praying, hoping and wishing nothing more than him to come back and be safe.
Only many years later, I saw him in the newspaper as a very much alive and an immensely successful scientist.
I felt my wish had come true and relief and happiness flooded me like a giant wave in the ocean that would drown me.
I laughed in relief and broke down crying.
I didn't know whether I was crying or laughing anymore.
I just got back my little brother whom I thought I wouldn't see ever again.
Ernie was alive. He wasn't dead. There was nothing more I wanted.
And I couldn't be more glad.....
I was the happiest man alive.