On Sam's way to school, something strange he had found in the basement the day before, had stolen his mind thinking about it.
Back last night, while reading the book [Wonders of Parallel Realms], the lamp had suddenly extinguished, replacing its light with darkness. The smile, on Sam's face, of having fun reading the book had been replaced by a frown as he tried several times to make it on again, but it seemed it would work no more. Having remembered having another spare lamp in the basement, Sam headed to the basement and kept on looking for the spare lamp for rather some time.
The basement was a typical one; an underground room used for storing coal, busted junks, or stuff that perhaps was going to be yet handy any time in the future, just like this spare lamp. Also, it was built of stone blocks.
Incidentally, while searching high and low for the spare lamp, Sam had found a strange crack-filled stone having an odd symbol that resembled ancient rune alphabets quite much. What made it even stranger was having a hollow right there on the wall that somehow seemed to be fitting the rune stone like a slot, in a way.
'I feel like it's not a coincidence to be fitting,' Sam thought, throwing to the back of his mind the chances of the case being rather wrong. 'What's going to happen if I put the stone on that hollow?'
Becoming excited while sweating, Sam's curiosity had driven him to put the rune stone onto the slot-like hollow, expecting something would, out of the blue, occur with high hopes, perhaps like the opening of a hidden door that had behind it some kind of treasures that would make the one finding them a rich, wealthy person, living no more with worries about hunger and essential needings forever. Nevertheless, disappointingly nothing had come up.
'As if something like a hidden door would appear from the thin air,' Sam thought, letting out a big sigh of disappointment. 'What were you expecting, Sam? That happens only in fantasy. You need to grow up already, man.'
Ignoring all of that, Sam had gone back to looking for the spare lamp, finding it after some tiring time, while still feeling dispirited about nothing happening.
Without Sam knowing, his expectation wasn't entirely wrong as the rune stone started to slightly glow right after he had left the basement, heading back up to his room to place the lamp and carry back on reading.
Hearing dogs barking and growling snapped Sam out of his deep thoughts. He happened to see some stray dogs gathering on someone. They sounded like they were about to rip them off.
With getting closer, this someone's figure kept getting clearer. Unfortunately, he happened to be one of the students that had assaulted Sam yesterday, who went with the name Zain. But what surprised Sam was, that Zain was screaming out and trembling, contrary to his usual picture inside Sam's head.
After spotting Sam near, he started to call out to Sam and beg him to help him out as the dogs were about to jump at him at any moment.
"S-Sam, please, I beg you. Stop this," Zain pleaded, having got quite some hope.
Upon seeing Zain in a humiliating state, Sam felt sorry for him. Even though he had been bullying Sam along with his other friends whenever they happened to pass by him, Sam couldn't just bear watching someone, who used to walk with his chin up, in a miserable situation. Zain deserved it, though.
Therefore, Sam nodded his face, agreeing to help him. By pat on the head, Sam could calm the dogs to not attack Zain anymore before having them go off.
"Good boys," Sam said, talking to the dogs. "You don't have to harass them back even if they've bullied and assaulted you mercilessly as they've done so to me."
Complying, the dogs shook their tails and started to make their way off right after. In a way, it seemed as though they understood Sam.
As the dogs got as far as to be out of Sam's sight, he turned his head back to Zain, only to see him gazing at him with a puzzled look that was quite bizarre for Sam. It was his first time to see this student look at him with such a grateful look.
Zain was wondering about Sam, beginning to have some respect for him now. How could someone, who had been bearing being susceptible to harassment and bullies for months, no, years or so because of somebodies just like Zain himself, yet had never hesitated to help the same person that enjoyed and had fun bullying him?
In fact, he was right. Of course, there absolutely were big chances that if it was someone other than Sam, they might've got delighted and started uncontrollably laughing at him and taunting him, enjoying his miserable situation to satisfy their broken soul caused by the harassment.
"Thank you very much, Sam," Zain expressed gratitude with his head down, unable to look Sam in the eyes. "Despite everything despicable I've made you through, you actually helped me. I owe you a lot now."
"There's no need to thank me," Sam replied, indifferent, gazing at Zain with cold eyes. "I haven't done it for your sake, but for the dogs' that you've assaulted yesterday... Just forget it."
"No, I won't forget this," Zain responded, regretted his doings right after, asking tearfully for forgiveness. "You've returned to me my bad doings toward you with good deeds. I am ashamed of myself. Please, forgive me."
Keeping his eyes on Zain, silently watching him while walking past him, Sam said, "don't even mention it. Well, I don't care about anything you've done in your whole life, after all, more or less what's to me. So, it's better for both of us to just forget about it and save the headache."
Not wanting to see Zain's reaction to that, Sam kept on walking away from him as far and fast as possible. The moment Sam got out of Zain's sight, with his eyebrows being moved together, Sam's legs stopped walking. He, right after, burst out all the stress he had felt during this incident. He was sweating and breathing heavily and fast, whereas his face was rather flushed.
"What was this?" Sam wondered, surprised. "It was really hard to act calm. That took me completely off-guard."
In complete honesty, that was Sam's first time ever receiving a thank, as well as an apology, on top of that, from a student that kept on bullying him for a long, long time.
Unable to believe it, Sam couldn't tolerate one of them; gratitude and apology. But two at once?! That was very bad for Sam's heart. He couldn't take in all of these feelings at once, Sam thought.
Despite becoming quite stressed, Sam also, for the first time, felt his heart skip from the joy of feeling such first-time emotions. To hide his embarrassment, Sam lifted his scarf to cover his smiling, flushed face, not wanting others to notice it.
In the class, a group of students unexpectedly came to Sam, making him feel nervous about the reason for their unusual come. In contrast to what Sam was thinking, the students apologized to Sam before them saying that they had realized their fault; which was them just keeping silent or laughing at him when undergoing bullies. They realized that when Sam burst with rage in the class yesterday.
Well, it wasn't only these students, but also, during break time, another group of few students approached Sam to say sorry. Followed by, another group coming for the same reason.
Group after group kept coming until Sam reached his limit, unable to tolerate the backlash of being apologized to, and not knowing how to react. That was the reason why he instinctively ran away like a bolt to the toilet, locking himself in there. Of course, that wasn't because of despair and hatred like last time. Instead, this time because of shyness and confusion about how to respond.
Flustered, Sam said to himself, "why's this happening to me all of a sudden?! I can't handle all of them at once."
At the moment, the hope of a change to a better life filled with people and friends around Sam immersed him, unaware that not all the students knew their fault and felt regret nonetheless.
After the bell had rung, Sam took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, yet he vigorously walked through the corridor to reach the class with his face brilliantly grinning for the first time while in the school. It was unusual for him, making anyone noticing him oddly wonder what could have happened to make him behave like this.
After getting into the class and approaching his seat, Sam sat at his desk, with his scarf unable to cover his wide grin anymore, without him noticing anything was wrong until he wanted to stand up from the chair, yet he felt like he was stuck to the chair. What was wrong? Sam raised his body stronger, lifting with it the chair as it was attached to him. Right after, some touches of laughter rose to be aloud enough to forcibly enter his ears.
"Hahaha," the student that seemed to be the leader, Zac, laughed. "This moron, Sam, got stuck to his lovely chair." With his friends laughing along as well.
It appeared they were the very same students, that had attacked Sam the day before, planning to take revenge now. Thus they had prepared another trap once again. It was like they had put on the chair some kind of strong translucent glue.
"Again?!" Sam muttered to himself, refilled with despair, with tearful eyes on the edge of crying. "I can't even enjoy being happy, for the first time, to the end? It's my fault. I thought everything will change and get better."
However, compared to the day before, the laughter was far fewer than yesterday that Sam was yet to notice. Gradually, the slightly audible laughter started to vanish, and silence replaced it, filling the class although the teacher hadn't come yet to quiet them, making Sam feel something was off. Quickly, Sam raised his head and twisted it back towards the students who were laughing a few moments ago to see something unexpected take place.
Never having seen such an event happen before in this school, Sam was quite stunned by the students' response to that. All of them were glaring at them with contempt, including their close companion and pal, Zain, whom Sam had helped out from the dogs in the morning while on his way to school, and they together had joined their hands in bullying Sam.
Zain was fiercely gazing at them. It felt like he was ordering them never to play around with people's hearts anymore, noting right after: "you are overstepping your bounds, you know."
With these few words, as well as the gazes of all the students directed at them, they flinched in panic. Their reaction was unusually strange confusing Sam. But what confused him, even more, was that it appeared as if what scared them the most was their friend's words; Zain's. Was he the one having control, contrary to what Sam thought? Sam thought, but this time he was wrong.
Yes, it was right that Zain had been hanging out with them for such a long time, yet never had he complied with them whenever they wished, willingly doing what he wanted and refusing to do what he didn't want to. As a result, some kind of fear had been implanted into their hearts, and this fear showing itself right now, the moment Zain opposed them.
"Wh...what are you saying?" The leader of the group, Zac, asked, trying to act unshakably calm. "Even you?"
"Yes, even me," Zain confirmed, seeing the other directly in the eye, threatened right after. "For a long time, I have been feeling I was very wrong about Sam. He never did deserve what we have done to him. But as an apology to him, even if I'm going to get punished along, I will go to the principal and tell him myself about everything unless you..." then he shifted his eyes to Sam.
Zac understood what Zain meant. With uttering the word 'principal', the bully-addicted students, apart from Zac, had sunk in horror as they started to heavily sweat, thinking how their families' reaction would be if they were to be expelled from the school.
"N-no, don't do that, please," one of them pleaded.
"We beg you," another begged. But Zac kept silent, not knowing what to do.
"Then you should apologize to Sam," Zain advised, smiling to encourage them.
Hearing that was the final push for Zac as he had been thinking about their wrongdoings to Sam for a while. Zac stood up and walked his way past his friends, approaching Sam. He then looked at Sam as he always used to. Seeing this, Sam gulped, preparing himself for anything. The moment the students slightly moved, Sam reflexively jerked back and closed his eyes. However, Sam heard what he had never expected to hear right then.
"On behalf of our group, I ask for forgiveness," Zac asked, with the others, though confused, yet they went along, agreeing with him.
The moment Sam opened his eyes, he got bewildered in disbelief as he saw them slightly bending heads down. The image was as if miracles suddenly descended upon Sam at a time. Unable to contain all of this, Sam kept his silence as he couldn't reply with anything as a result of the sudden extreme confusion that conquered his mind, disabling him from thinking straight or choosing what to say to respond appropriately.
Not hearing any response, only silence filled the air, the students lifted their heads back after Zac did, just to see Sam blankly staring at them in disbelief. Thus, Zac decided it was better to break this awkward silence.
"Honestly speaking, I, too, have been having this feeling of guilty bugging me for quite a while about our doings to you," Zac explained with his rough voice, smiling nervously while rubbing his head. "Yet, I couldn't pluck up the courage to face you with an apology rather than bully till now. So, here I say it again, I ask you to forgive us all, and we do promise to never hurt you again, neither physically nor emotionally."
Hearing those words, Zac's friends were touched by their caring friend, Zac. It was right; Zac was a fierce guy. However, he was also a kind one. That was how Zac was, or at least, that was how he was in the eyes of his friends; they admired and idolized him way freaking so much.
Not wanting them to see his tears on the verge of falling, Sam turned away from them and said, "you really promise to never do it again?"
"Yes, we promise," all of them, now fully convinced, answered at once.
Unable to contain them anymore, Sam's tears forcibly fell from his eyes down his face like a waterfall.
He uttered difficultly to reply: "I f-for..give you."
Becoming emotionally affected, all the students started to smile and some of them clapped as well, moved by the boldly good demeanor of the usual bad guys.
On that day, the times when Sam was being bullied finally reached an end, or that was what Sam thought. But unknown to him, it also was the last time to step his feet into his school.
*****
The sky was crowded with clouds, blocking the path of the afternoon sun's warm light. Drops of water seemed to be gathering in the sky, readying themselves to rain on the land, wetting the greeneries and the people outdoor, but still were yet to fall. Some birds were chirping and hovering over a school student called Sam, reacting to his joyful whistling as he was gladly dancing rather than walking. Still, the birds liked him.
Sam was on his way back home, impatient to reach quickly and excited to tell his mother, Elina, about his today's news in school.
Finally, he would never have to worry about harassment anymore so that he could now make friends and relationships, and even give it a try to get a girlfriend... if a chance allowed, Sam thought.
But these dreamy thoughts didn't last long as a distant smoke in the same direction as his house could be seen ascending, throwing into him an ominous feeling about this.
Feeling the urge to get home as fast as possible, Sam stormed his legs as strong as his muscular limits allowed him to run at a speed that Sam had never achieved before without him noticing as all he needed at the moment was to ensure Elina's safety.
"Huff...huff," Sam panted while running. "I hope this feeling of mine is completely wrong, and my mom is quite very okay."
Hoping nothing had happened to his mother, Sam prayed for the source of the smoke to be not from his house, not even near it, subconsciously ignoring other people's safety as all his concerns now were for Elina.
After arriving home, and the dust blocking Sam's sight had settled down, reaching his way down to the basement, just before stepping on the doorsill, an incredible amount of horror crept into Sam's heart as the atmosphere was filled with the smell of blood, and three terrifying creatures filled Sam's sight field. They looked like humanoid beasts that came out of a fiction story.
They had dark black pupils with the white part replaced with a completely bloody-red one, and a night-like pitch-black skin with white-colored hair, having haircuts oddly resembling the ones the humans used to some extent.
They looked a lot bigger than humans, more than two meters or so, and the body was a mass of swollen muscles. They had sharp claws and fangs slightly popping out from their mouths, but unlike other wild monsters, they had some torn items of clothing covering their nether area as if they had some kind of intelligence to cover them in the first place.
Seeing such unbelievable and dreadful creatures with his very own eyes, Sam deeply sank into a fit of extreme horror, disabling him from budging his body even an inch due to the heavy shaking.
But by focusing a bit, Sam spotted that one of them was lying still on the ground. Was it dead? While the other two; one was totally intact whereas the other was bleeding with red blood while kneeling on one knee to the ground. What caused all of this to them? Sam thought.
In no time while wondering, Sam right then saw a woman filled with shallow cuts leaking some blood was covered with a warming magnificent light resembling the aura from fictional novels as she was fighting the creatures. Sam assumed she was the one who had crippled these monsters and wondered, who was this strong woman?
As if she was answering Sam's question, she turned her head towards him and her face was completely clear to be recognized, bewildering Sam with disbelief.
Yes, she was Elina; Sam's very mother. Seeing such unbelievable things at a time, Sam was unable to believe anything anymore. He had experienced complicated feelings so far today that were new to him, no, far less than one full day.
In the school, he had felt new good emotions as all the students, especially the ones that kept bullying him, had apologized to him, to finally feel hope for a better social life lighting up inside him, yet once arriving home, he felt a horror that never had he ever experienced before since the day he first breathed in this life till seeing these beasts.
Of course, all the harassment bothered him rather than scared him, so, such stuff wasn't considered a fear for Sam.
On top of all that, he now witnessed his mother's extraordinary strength, Sam thought.
Sam started to feel like he was dreaming, slapping his face right then, hoping to wake up from this horrible nightmare.
Alas, nothing had changed. It was neither a dream nor was it a nightmare. It was very real.
Sam had a lot of unanswered questions filling his mind with only confusion. How come his mother had such strength and why hide them? Sam was starting to feel a headache from all the thinking, forgetting there was an unscratched monster before him.
The moment Elina turned her head back, she panicked as her guard got slightly loosened down, opening an advantage for the injured monster yet to take. Without wasting any second, it threw a fist at her that sent her flying back away to crash on the wall.
"Mom!" Sam yelled.
What about the other monster? It shifted its eyes to where Elina was gazing before the punch had reached her. Seeing Sam standing still, the monster changed targets and started to stomp to approach him.
While checking if it was possible to reach Elina, Sam belatedly noticed that the monster had decided to shift targets, sending a fit of horror into him once more that made his legs refuse to move.
Desperately trying to run away, he fell to the ground and started to crawl back till feeling the wall touching his back.
'Sh...shit, these stupid legs of mine won't move,' Sam cursed, grinding his teeth and filled with despair. 'What do I have to do to escape?!' He was sweating like crazy.
Lifting her body from the ground, Elina shifted her eyesight to notice the monster approaching Sam and see the terrified expression on his face, shouting out as loudly as she could: "RUN AWAY!"
But Sam still was unable to move a bit or do anything, so, as the monster got closer to him, he closed his eyes, not wanting to see his end with his own eyes, Elina noticed.
'Am I going to die here?' Sam thought, desperate. 'I don't want to die. Somebody, help me.'
While hoping a miracle would occur for him to survive, Elina, as if she had heard his prayers and complied, pulled her hand back and then threw it closed to smash the injured monster's brain, killing it in one hit before she ran towards her son to protect him as the monster was preparing to give Sam one fatal attack.
Instead of pain, Sam felt some kind of liquid dribbling on his face. To see what happened, Sam started to slowly open his eyes only to get shocked by the scenery before him. It was blood on his face.
"MOM!" Sam cried out, unable to believe what his eyes were seeing.
Elina's abdomen was pierced by the monster's claw as she started throwing up blood. To kill the monster without wasting time, Elina concentrated her remaining power as all the aura surrounding her body shifted to her right upper limb. Then she pointed her hand, throwing it to thrust it into the monster's eye, piercing through it and destroying its brain before she cut its arm that pierced her using her forearm as a blade.
Right after that, simultaneously, the monster's body started to collapse to the floor as hers did. Seeing all of this, Sam was speechless as he was trying to quickly approach Elina while crying.
With eyes full of tears, Sam was watching his mother coughing up blood, unable to do anything to help her as the wound was quite obviously fatal.
"M..mo..mom," Sam stuttered. "I'm so..sorry, mom. This is all my f-fault. I-if just I have run away, then this...this would have n..never happened to you."
Sam blamed himself for what happened to Elina, but it was a parental instinct for a mother to protect her child. Knowing about that, she smiled at Sam, and with having difficulty uttering her words, she replied, "don't bl...blame yourself. It's n..not your fault. You must live."
"How could I live without you?" Sam asked, sobbing tears profusely falling. "Your injury is fatal and I can't do anything. I'm such a useless son, but still, I can't live without you!"
"Y-you are not us-useless. You're my... precious son. You're... s-strong and can... l-live on by yourself."
She coughed up blood again before she continued and said, "I-I wanna tell you s-something... before I die."
Then a light started to cover Elina's body as she concentrated her remaining magical power to delay her death a little longer.
"I-I'm... trying to m-make some... time enough... to tell you ...about m..my secret," Elina explained.
"What is it, mom?" Sam asked.
"First off, remove... that g-glowing stone from the wall," Elina replied.
Seeing the glowing stone, something clicked in Sam's mind as his eyes opened wide.
Yes, it was the same rune stone that Sam had found yesterday. He was the one who had put that stone on the wall.
Surprisingly, it had worked as a part of the space next to the rune stone was warped and flickering, forming what looked like a spherical distortion resembling those dimensional gates mentioned in novels.
Shocked, Sam wondered, 'what?!! Is that stone the key that opened that bizarre thing?' Turning towards his mother, Sam said, "m-mom, I'm the one who put that stone right-"
"I said... it's n-not your ...fault," Elina interrupted. "Even I d-didn't know... that it would work... again 'cause It has worked... only o-once and then n-never worked again... till today. Don't b-blame yourself... and go ...remove it quickly."
Doing so while tears kept on falling non-stop, Sam quickly walked up to the rune stone and removed it quickly to go back and sit next to her in order to hear out the secret she wanted to tell.
"What do you want to tell me, mom?"
*******