Sel opened his eyes to find an unfamiliar ceiling staring right back at him. He tried to move his body only to feel a sharp jolt run across it, shocking him for a second.
'Wait!!... I can feel??!!' His eyes widened in surprise as he moved the overly-bandaged arm to his face.
' what's going on?' his thoughts ran in his mind again as he struggled to lift his body.
His muscles ached in pain as he slowly rose from the softness beneath and creacked his neck to scan his surroundings.
He was currently in a dark room sprawled on a bed stained red with his blood, the walls were also caked with dry blood, too much to be his and signs of fire. The room was big and dark, with the only source of light being a crack in the ceiling through which he could see a clear blue sky.
Besides the bed were remains of what seemed to be furniture. There was a balcony facing his back whose door was nailed shut for some reason.
'Where am I?... and what happened to this place?' He asked himself, puzzled before his head started ringing in pain as countless memories flowed in in a jumbled mess before realigning themselves to make sense. Five minutes later, the pain receded as he slowly uncurled himself from the floor damp with both his blood and sweat.
He ignored the pain and shakily moved his body to a room attached to the one he was in, propping himself up on the sink there and looking straight at the broken mirror mounted on the wall. There staring right back was an unbelievably smaller body, with black hair, the bangs reaching his eyes, caked in blood and an entirely bandaged face.
His hands shakily moved to the bandages wrapped around his head and began to unwrap them, his painful hands fumbling till all the fabric came off.
His left hand slowly went and touched the mirror as the right pulled off the last of the bloody wraps. His hand slowly traced a bloody line across the face looking back at him.
'This can't be real!!' These thoughts echoed in his mind as he stared at the unfamiliar face staring back at him.
He slowly walked back to the bed and sat on the edge, his head in his hands as he analysed the situation he was in.
'Ren? A father....?? Some kind of rebellion or big fight? Ugh!! The memories from this kid don't make any sense...' He thought as his brain hurt a little more. His inherited memories seemed to face a block at a certain point where everything became fuzzy.
His eyes suddenly turned to the door as they slowly opened to reveal a solitary figure, dressed in soot covered rags carrying a heavy bag over his shoulder. The moment the figure saw him, he immediately let go of the sack and rushed over to enclose him in a tight hug which made Sel wince
The figure heard this and shakily let go before trying to wipe off the tears threatening to fall and half crying-half laughing as he traced the boy's bloody head.
"Th... thank goodness you're alive!!" he managed to finally say as he looked at the boy relief flowing in those eyes of his.
Sel finally took a good look at the man's face, though the sides of his hair were grey and the wrinkles looked more than the one in his memories but there was no doubt that the one he was facing right now was no other than Drey Augistine, Baron of a Thousand Blades, his father.
.....
[One week later]
Sel sat on the front porch of the run down house they were in as he looked at the faint scars surrounding the small piece of land before him.
His eyes turned to a spot to his right with fresh uneven soil.
'So that's where he buried them...' he thought briefly before staring back at the sky. After a week he'd finally managed to let out a few croacks and move around a bit, along with coming completely to terms with the reality he was in. He looked at his smaller fist as he slowly clenched and unclenched it.
'How in the fuck is any of this shit even possible!!' he screamed silently in his head before letting out a sigh in defeat.
"Ren..." a voice came from behind him, carrying a trace of gentleness as sturdy footsteps came closer till he could feel the rustle of clothing as his dad sat next to him.
Fuzzy emories of what had led to their current predicament played in his head.
Blurry images of faces with sinister smiles hidden in the dark, jeers and a sinister sense of betrayal churned in his heart, and a trauma causing his young mind to scream out in pain.
He clutched it and silently groaned before the man beside him gently tapped his shoulder, a warm feeling spreading through and soothing his thoughts.
He looked up at the older figure next to him, the facial features seeming to show what his face would look like in his middle ages.
The man, bus father, shook his head slightly and said in a tired voice,
" Everything's in the past, its best to forget it, son. "
Sel slowly nodded, the action causing a dull pain which he'd gotten used to as he looked back at the front courtyard of the house they were in. Snow painted the surroundings in a serene white as he clutched his thick clothes tighter for comfort.
He watched his steamy breath as it slowly disappeared barely inches in front of him. The words his father said sunk slowly as numerous thoughts filled his brain.
'He's right,' he thought as he let out a sigh, reaching for a cup of warm wayer his father has brought for him and sipping slowly, mirroring the actions of the older man.
'This isn't my old life, let's forget about that, I'll take this as my vacation time, ' he thought as his breath once again merged into the air, the sound of birds singing and gentle rush of water at a nearby spring brought about a calmness he'd rarely felt in his past life.
'That's right, peace and quiet is best. '