"Is that really what happened aunt?" an eleven-year old-boy wrote on paper and showed the woman doubtfully. He opened his eye widely at what this middle-aged woman was telling him. "You think I would tell you something that ridiculous? Of course, it's a true boy. Now you have to sleep, you have school tomorrow."
The middle-aged woman gently tucked James kissed him goodnight and turned off the room lights before leaving his room. James closed his eye for a minute, opened them and sat up from his bed.
A lot had happened since he almost died ten months ago. James could indistinctly remember himself being carried by a lady as she ran out of a building that seemed to look like a hospital, looking at his face and saying words that were indiscernible to him, before slipping into unconsciousness again.
"Why can I not remember what the lady said last?" James mumbled to himself. He reached out for the glass of water and drank all of its content, then dropped the glass back to the mini-table. Ever since the close-death incident, James could not speak again as a result of his damaged larynx. Although thankfully his mute disability did not affect his hearing, he still finds it uncomfortable not to express himself through words.
Enjoying the silence of the night, James thoughts drifted to the woman again. He remembered the moment he had woken up in a half-demolished house lying on the ground. His ears were not working that well, but his eyes could detect faint blurry lines of two people dancing. It was a man and lady dancing. They were using pocket knives to dance. Wait, no they are not dancing, they were fighting.
When James saw blood splatter on his clothes, he began to panic. The man then slashed on the woman's leg, causing her to drop to the ground. After making sure she could not get up, he said some indiscernible words to her, before approaching where James lay. Because he was approaching James, James could faintly see his face outlines. He was smiling at something.
The man started talking, but James could not hear what he was saying, but his blurry eyes were able to follow his lips to know what he was saying. It was like "I never thought…. Find you here…... take the chip…... not kill you, yet". Oh no, the ma wants to take the chip and kill him. Sensing the man's motive, James tried to stand and run away, but his body felt like a brick, he could not even move any of his muscles. The man then walked away from James and brought a power tool. James was beyond horrified, so he turned his head slowly at the slowly bleeding woman lying ahead of him for help.
"Help!" James tried to cry out, but only air whooshed out from his lungs. The man saw what he was doing and laughed hysterically. He looked in the woman's direction and spoke something James gleaned on. "You think she could help you, that's pretty sad. You know once upon a time, I once loved her, but she did not return that love and instead, shattered my heart, but don't worry lad, this would be painless, you would not feel a thing."
The man then powered on the nail driver and moved it closer to James' head. James wanted to cry out loud, but since he could not do so, he closed his eye and braced for the pain and his ultimate death.
Then there was a loud bang, and the man dropped to the ground. James opened back his eyes and saw the woman with a stick with nails on the end. She smiled at James but dropped to the ground again, she was in a terrible state. The wounds on her body were so severe, James could slightly see her bones despite his poor vision, but somehow, she was still able to stand up and carry James and led him outside the half-demolished house.
When James approached the exit, he could see several other bodies that had been riddled with bullets lying in awkward positions everywhere. It could not be this woman that did this, could she? James turned his head and stare at the lady's very distressed face.
Suddenly James felt very thirsty. He had never felt this thirsty before in his life, and it also seemed his health condition was not improving at all. He slipped into an unconscious state before waking up again, but this time, he was on a stretcher. The woman that carried him was lying on the ground, probably dead.
That was all James could remember until he fully regained consciousness in a hospital. Thankfully he still retained his memories, which was a huge relief. A month later, James was transferred to a family of three in Canada who was kind enough to take care of him, and so that was it till now.
James asked his new foster mother about where Martha and her family was faring, but all she could say was that she did not get enough information from them but assured him they were okay.
Although James did not buy it, there was nothing he could do at the moment, so he just waited until he was mature enough to visit them. All of his gadgets including his laptop and his credit card was still with him thank god, except for his smartphone, which was destroyed by John.
All of his freelancing work was paused for a good ten months, so he might have to do a bit of work to properly resume it. He still had school to go to tomorrow, which was a new school in Canada. He had just gone to three schools without even completing a single grade. Wow.