Chapter 16 – I Forgive You?
The thought of seeing those abominations terrified the soon four years old. He wished in his heart not to ever chance upon one of them. Thankfully Renica also relates to his feeling and proceed to the next topic.
"Umm, your aunt, Laura, seems to have some bad emotions in her. I think, they are jealous, a resentment for something or someone, and umm, the most common emotion that I seen on, the deads"
"What is that common ones?" Arston disliked the dumb princess ways on hanging the conversation at the end.
"It's regret…" muttered Renica.
"I think i already know where those came from, based on her stories back then" Arston mumbled to himself.
"I think, regrets are the most cause of people becoming a… umm, like me" added Renica
"What are you regretting then?"
"I''m not sure," Renica looked down to her foot after her reply.
"You sure are smart sometimes, considering your dumb way of speech and your proneness to be one"
"Thank. HEY!!! I'm not dumb, it's just not sure which word I should use, and what do you mean by proneness to be one!?" yelled the little spirit.
"yes, yes, your highness, come here, let's read this book with me"
"No, you're being mean to" Rejected Renica .
"You can have the wrest of the juice if you come and help me read this" Arston cut her rejection and was pointing at the glass of juice which also brought to an end by Renica's jump towards the bed.
The reading thus started where the girl slowly reads it out-loud and the boy writes down the translated words in his own language.
"Hey, what language are you writing in?" The reading girl paused and took a look at what the boy is writing.
"It's English dah.." Replied him nonchalantly.
"Where is it comes from?"
"A messed up sh, I mean a bad place called Mythra" He was about to speak 'sh/t hole' but changed it to bad instead.
"Have you ever been there? Is it far? How bad is it?, is the food taste good there?....." Renica launched a barrage of queries to which, all got ignored by Arston.
"Owh yea, I almost forgot, have you ever learned magic back then?" Arston returned her queries with one of his own.
"I didn't learn it, but I saw people in robes using them, including my mom, dad, grandpa, even grandma… could use them."
"How did they use it?" Arston pressed on with his question, not letting the girl reminiscent of her pass even for a moment.
"Well, they just conjured what they needed of course, you need water, and water they'll conjure.. dah" Renica rolled her eyes to the boy's silly question.
No hand gestures or chanting at all?
"huh? What do you mean ? if you were referring to their hands pointing at the target at times, and also speaking words like 'see that?, 'eat this', eat that' or just laughter, well yea I guess.."
"Ah, I see… "
"You see what?" Wondered Renica.
"Well, you might not like this, but, I think your home, I mean, you were living in a time long…. Very long…. From here" Arston simplified his speculation.
"Owh… okay, "
"Hey, I think I need to go to sleep, do you also need to sleep?" Arston asked the long-face princess if she also have a necessity for sleep.
"Umm, I don't think so"
"Ar, alright, what do you usually do when others sleep?"
"I played in the house, if they have pets, I played with them,"
Arston already can feel the next morning's mess, yet he only leaves a 'please don't destroy anything, move anything to a degree where it causes questions, and keep it quiet okay'. Since his eyes already ordering him to shut them.
Renica plays with the white kitten doll which she named Mr. Kiki for an hour. However, it starts to get boring, so she passes through the bedroom door. She's about to pass through the other two-bedroom doors, yet, her mother's teachings don't allow her to. Thus, she moves her legs toward the downstairs.
There, she starts hearing something, she slowly walks closer to the source of the noise. The noise gets louder and louder, she then can finally hears clearly what the sound were. It's the sound of her new friend's mom, she seams in pain. Not paying any heat to her mother teachings, she rushes pass through the door. Yet, after a second, she passes through back to the dining room.
"Oh no, I must warn Arston"
With such thought in her mind, she swiftly runs back to the room where she had dinner in.
"Arston!!! Arston!!! Wake up! Wake up!!!" Yelled the panic girl while shaking the sleeping boy fiercely
"Huh? What's the situation? Where do you need me?" Arston replied while still in half woken state after having a dream from his previous life.
"It's your mom, she got torched by" Renica panicky said.
Hearing the word 'your mom' Arston instantly fully awake and rushes out from his bedroom. He moves in hastened steps to his old bedroom where he slept for a period of time.
Renica who sees the boy ran downstairs soon follows him, yet, mid-way, she finds the boy in livid expression.
"is your mom, AWE, AWE…. It hurts, stop pulling my ears!!!" Renica was inquiring her friend's mother's condition yet got dragged into the bedroom by the ears.
What Arston heard after coming downstairs was indeed Irvina's voice in pain. But not one from torcher. And even if it's a torcher, the torturer is his dad. A bad memory emerged in his head; thus, he turned his steps furiously.
"You.. you dumb princess!, from now on, whenever my dad is around, you are forbidden from coming out from this room during the nights!" Scolded the furious boy to the confused and in pain princess.
"But, but, your mom and your dad, they, they hurting each other" The princess still showed concerns for her friend's parents' wellbeing.
"For the love of god, if only you're not a kid, just stay here or go play at the battle zone next door" Arston got irritated by the cluelessness of the princess and asked her to play at his sisters room.
"The battle zones? Is there a war nearby? " Asked Renica, still at lost and rubbing her aching right ear.
Arston covers his face with a pillow and screams;
"It's my mom's younger version's room, and my dad's female version's room!"
"Owh… owh, okay"
Renica feels a bit wronged, but, still follows her friend's not so friendly advice nevertheless. She passes through the door on the right of the stairs.
There she sees a brown-haired girl sleeping on the bed, hugging the puppy shape stuffed animal. The girl can be heard talking in her sleep. Some of her sleep-talks are 'serves you right stupid tyrant', 'your ruling will soon come to an end'. The girl in ice-blue gown only paid some attention to the sleeping girl's mumbling, since, she located a tea set and some dolls sitting on the tiny chairs. She played with them for three hours, before she decided to check the other so-called battle zone.
She passes through the door she came from and through the door adjacent to it. Inside, she finds a sleeping ten years old girl with a long fiery red hair. Renica can also heard a mumbling of sorts coming from the sleeping girl. However, she didn't pay as much attention as before, because, she sees quite a high numbers of accessories lying on the table with mirror. She tried some necklaces and bracelets. She likes the necklace which has five red jewels on it, two of the red jewels have the same size, with one larger from its counterpart in betted in the middle of the necklace. She put the necklace on her neck, she then looks up at the mirror.
She's looking at a four years old girl, in long golden blonde hair cascading down to her hips, a pair of pale blue eyes staring back at her, the girl's icy blue gown seams out of place, it could be said that the gown itself came from a different time all together. She touches the necklace on her neck, there some black markings can be seen, ruining the contour of the girl in the mirror.
"Huh, I really am already dead," Renica holds the tears which starting to flow.
She slowly returns to the room where her friend is sleeping. She lies next to the boy, watching his sleeping face for hours.
Arston slowly opens his eyes after a night of rollercoaster ride, he finds a pair of a clear morning blue skies. They slowly blink and the owner of those eyes greeted him.
"Good morning Arston!"
Arston inhales a deep breath then says;
"Good morning to you too Renica, may I know how long have you been lying there?"
"Umm, maybe an hour? Perhaps two?" the girl innocently replied.
"I see, and where did you get that necklace from? I'm sure you didn't have it yesterday, and also it couldn't just grown legs and put itself on your neck"
"Owh, this, I… I… got it from your mom's younger version's room, there are just so many of necklaces and bracelets, and I… I really like" She answered honestly to the boy's inquiry of the necklace's origin while avoiding his gaze.
Arston grabs both of the blonde-haired girl cheeks and move it to face him, he put his index on her lips, cutting her reasoning short. Then says;
"You really do like your 'I like this' and I like it' phrases of yours huh?,"
Renica's lips twitch a little but the boy beats her and continues his monologue,
"I forgive you, but, do you know what you just done?"
Her lips twitches some more, yet Arston presses on ;
"it's called steeling, and the one you stole from will surely accuse her so-called demon queen of mischief as the thief, thus, fuelling another unnecessary war."
Renica was about to say sorry , however, got stopped by Arston again, by saying;
"I also forgive you for that,"
Renica wanted to show her gratitude for her friend's vast heart but she never had the chance to.
"But I can't forgive you for waking me up last night, and watching me sleep for hours!"
And so, a noise of something falling and hitting the wooden flooring on the second floor sounded in the morning, accompanied by a girl yelled of pain which only audible by Arston.
Author's note : Hey guys, i added a sketch of the house on the paragraph comment at chapter 6 (the one describing the house). I think everyone's imagination is different from each other, perhaps even it's hard for some people, including me. Therefore, i made the basic sketch of the house (first floor, second floor, and the overall look/from outside). it's not that detail, but at least it will give you some general idea while reading and hopefully can determine/imagine/picture the background-setting of the scenes. Thank you for reading or viewing!. And also please do leave a comment for me, so i can improve my writing 🙏