003 – Memories
Time passed for me, it was strange I remember being able to sit in the same position for cycles at a time and it would feel like a blink of an eye.
But my first six months felt like it took forever, I guess that the good is always accompanied by the bad.
Whilst all my needs were taken care of, it came at the high price of constant supervision at all hours.
It was like I thought when I first saw my father, he was rich, filthy rich, and with his passing, the workload that was usually split between him and my mother became a crushing weight for her all on her own.
Their stories were pretty similar, both my parents came from cooking backgrounds, my mom's family owned a simple diner and my dad's family owned a restaurant for generations, neither of them was going to inherit so they went to culinary school and took management course's and that's how they met.
Years later when they were in the same course for management and started working together, and from there the rest was history, they got married and started by opening up their own restaurant.
With a little help from some influential friends they had a raving success, and in just five years they opened 15 restaurants with 2 getting 2-star ratings.
The work kept my mother away most of the time and I had a dozen caretakers around to take care of me, I got the royal treatment of a young master.
In that time I rarely slept, only three or four times to be truthful, I still dreaded sleep, I might have had a good few naps, but who's to say which would be the last, perhaps there was only a limited number of times I could sleep before hell came back.
Or it was all to lull me into a false sense of security, before hell came back worse than ever before, nah, that's crazy it's not possible for hell to become worse, hell is one's wildest imagination personified into a weapon against yourself, the greater your imagination the greater the hell.
Over the first six months I'd been able to confirm and learn a few things, the first being that this world called Earth does not have the energy required for cultivation, I tested it a few times and can confirm that it's impossible.
The good thing that I learnt was that my meditation techniques worked, without them who knows how many times I would have fallen asleep?
The second thing that I confirmed was that this world was definitely not my home world, nor does it belong to the… other realms or plains.
As I sat there with two nannies watching over me something suddenly occurred to me, I couldn't remember the number of realms and plains from my home world, nor could I remember their names.
Both were gone… blank spots within my mind, but I know that I knew them, I was certain of that much.
A light frown crept up on my baby's face as I tried to push harder, the name was there it had to be…
I kept trying to dig, but as I did I could feel a piercing pain in my head, that grew with every moment.
COUGH.
I suddenly broke out into a fit of coughs and tumbled to my side, earning me the gasps of both my caretakers that were on watch.
No sooner than I fell, they were already there catching me and pulling me up in their arms.
---
When I came to I saw Miss Yasha holding me with a worried look, "Are you alright Lulu?"
I nodded slowly, "I… I think so," I muttered softly.
It took me four months to begin speaking the language here, it took me only 2 months to understand it and it would have been a lot faster if my mom didn't send me away with the caretakers every time she had an important meeting.
But I waited for four months before I actively started to say words.
As I nodded my head I felt a warmth in my nose, and the next moment it was like my nose became a fountain of blood.
I felt bad for Yasha and Aisha, both of them started to panic, "Hurry up and call Mrs. to tell her that we are taking Lucian to the hospital," Yasha quickly told Aisha and raced to the car.
---
It didn't take long for us to get to the hospital and we were quickly recognised, it had only been 6 months since I was born, and between my fathers' death that happened on the day of my birth and the fact that I'm rich we were like celebrities in there, I was immediately raced to my family's personal doctor.
At least ten minutes had passed since my nose bleed started and it was still flowing none stop, I was a bit confused wondering how this little body could produce so much blood, and it would seem that I wasn't the only one, even my family doctor Dr. Frantz was left flabbergasted.
When he blocked my nose, the blood filled my mouth, and large amounts started to enter my stomach.
Almost a full half hour had passed before the bleeding stopped, by that time my mother had already made it to the hospital.
Her blonde hair was combed neatly and flowed down her back to meet with her long black dress, I overheard some of the maids talking that since my father died, she threw out all the colourful dresses she owned and now she always dressed in full black.
The moment she saw me she pick me up and started to sob uncontrollably, "My god why is he gone so light!" she demanded answers with shaky breath from the doctor and the caretakers a moment later.
I raised my brow and took a quick look at my body, and damn was I surprised to find that the skin of my little arms was literally clinging to my bones, and my hands had gone so pale and cold they could act as a refrigeration unit.
The doctor could only point to the bucket filled with nearly a gallon worth of blood, as Yasha and Aisha hurriedly tried to explain what happened.
As I looked at the blood, a memory surfaced, a memory that was seemingly trying to escape, but just in the nick of time, I managed to grab hold of it, and understanding washed through my mind.
This was the accumulation of stress on my body, stress caused by my meditation technique, in order for my body to keep up, it needed energy, energy that didn't exist here, to compensate my body started to consume itself and this was the result.
A few hours later I left with an increasingly worried mother who wouldn't release me for a second, the doctor simply suggested a change in diet and an increase in my food portions, but other than that he had no clue what to do.
But I couldn't be cared with that, in fact the doctor gave the only solution possible if I was going to keep up this no sleep policy I would need to eat a lot to compensate my body for the stress I was putting it under, but there was no avoiding the fact that I was going to be a sickly child.
But I had bigger concerns, my memories were fading, and not just a few.
I knew it, reincarnation was supposed to erase all of one's memories, a new person, a new life, only karma can remain.
Perhaps it was for the best, with time my memory would fade, and the old me would disappear only Lucian Niklaus Thatcher would remain.
But I worried still, what if hell came for him, so I had to prepare him for hell or at least leave him a warning.
As I sat in the back of the car clinging onto my mother's arm I looked up at her with widened eyes, "Mom," I called out softly, I hadn't spoken the entire time in the hospital, and it was only then that I realised how weak my voice had become.
"Yes dear," Margot held me close with worry evident in her eye.
I rested my head against her soft chest, it was like a soft cushion meant solely my head, "Can you teach me how to read and write?" I asked a question that likely no other child my age had ever asked before.
Margot fell silent, but as I looked into her eyes, I could see how startled she was by my request.
"Are you sure about that dear, you know it's a lot of work, and you're still too young, wouldn't it be better for you to play with your toys?" she asked with the gentlest of smiles as she continued to cradle me with one arm and ran her other hand through my short baby hair.
My eyes went wide for a second and I almost flinched, hearing the word 'work' it almost gave me a heart attack, especially when paired with 'a lot'.
I closed my eyes for just a second and slowly nodded my head, I may have been lazy, but I always did appreciate the value of knowledge, and learning how to read is like a universal key to knowledge.
Margot smiled as she stroked my head, "Very well I'll make some calls to get you a good teacher,"
I wrapped my small arms around her arm with all the strength this body could muster and shook my head, "No it has to be you Mom," I whispered loud enough for her to hear.
---
Until that day I was just acting the part of Lucian Niklaus, the child who gave Margot a reason to get up in the morning.
But it was on that day that I decided to get to know who this woman was, who was made to be my mother.
You can learn a lot about the character of a person from the way they teach, and I can say with certainty that was the day my true relationship with my mother began, and strangely enough that was the day that my relationship with Jim my father began as well… but that's a story for another time.
- The year was 2043