A rainy night it was as a young boy ran through the forest. Panic written on his wet face, the boy gasped for air as he tried running as fast as he could. Whatever the child was running from, no one knew but it seemed like all it spelled was total doom.
Rumble!!!!
The dark sky light up for a second due to lightning before the thunder roared. But within that second that the sky lit up, something could be seen behind the child. It was a figure with incomprehensible shape made out of total darkness.
Just a glance at the... whatever it was, was enough to send unimaginable shock to one's soul.
The boy also seemed to have sensed this so he tried and tried, pushing himself to the very limit. Unfortunately, no matter how fast, hard he ran and ran, he couldn't escape the damned darkness.
" Please...l-leave me, why me?" The boy screamed at the top of his lungs as tears mixed with water rolled down his oval face. His crystal blue eyes welled up endlessly.
Maybe the darkness after him heard him and that's why he could hear strange whispers in his right ear...the left ear seemed to have gone deaf but the boy didn't pay this any heed.
" Why try so hard to avoid yourself. This is your fate..." The whispers sounded before suddenly vanishing.
The boy halted his steps all of a sudden, panting vigorously so nice he was out of breath. His knees gave in to the fatigue that he had accumulated on his body all the while.
At the moment, the young boy was in a state of shock but the rain kept pouring down from the dark sky as if totally aloof to the child's predicament. His snow white hair was dripping wet with rain water, shock written on his beautiful face.
"N-no...this can't be...real." He stuttered, obviously perplexed with a hurtful expression on his face.
The moment he finished that statement though, he came to an abrupt realization. At first, the child was able to see the trees surrounding him albeit vaguely but now there was total darkness surrounding him.
He turned around to search for a way out but nevertheless, it was all to no avail.The little boy then sat down on the black ground and hugged his knees, totally frightened. It seemed that time was stopped all of a sudden.
" Embrace me!!!" The darkness whispered again before entirely devouring the boy whole.
" No don't. Leave me alone, go awa-" James woke up suddenly while screaming in terror but he stopped abruptly.
A shiver ran down his spine when he recalled that hideous nightmare. James subconsciously hugged himself, beads of sweat flowing down his temples.
Bang !!
" What the-"
" Goodness James, what's with you nowadays? Is everything okay?" A small girl of about ten years old budged into James' room at that moment. James was visibly statled so much that his heart almost jumped out of him.
One must know that a person could easily be scared after experiencing such a nightmare.
Seeing James still in a daze, the girl approached him and sat down on his small bed facing him. She was worried about him by the look on her face.
" Just a bad dream... don't worry much about it, Jane." James tiredly replied to his little sister.
" Okay then...better hurry up, or else we'll get late." The girl replied energetically in a childish manner, a smile on her face.
James smiled before asking, surprised, "uh...late for what!?"
" Gosh, James. What kind of brother are you that forgets his sister's birthday?" Jane reminded her brother angrily.
"..."
" Well then, I'm going to wait for you. I'm outta here...humph!!" She was amused upon seeing James dumbstruck but since she didn't want him to know,she excused herself with a soft snort.
James watched his sister go out of his room. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth as he had figured out the motives behind his sister's actions.
' Such a mindful little girl.' He pondered as he prepared to get out of his bed, wondering how Jane had tried to distract him from his negative thoughts.
" Shit...how the hell..." James cursed as he almost fell down when he tried standing up. He realized that his legs hurt like hell. ' Was that really a dream?' For a moment, the teenager was struck with a horrific realization but that seemed way too ambiguous, so he decided to shrug it off.
Moments later, James walked out of his room and greeted his mother and sister who were busy preparing breakfast. His mother looked at him strangely today...maybe it was Jane who had told her about James' problem.
" Are you okay, dear?" Sandra, James' mother, couldn't help but ask.
" I'm perfectly fine mother. Just thinking about school." James replied with a reassuring smile. He didn't want to see his mother worried since she had many responsibilities already.
" Oh, I get it. The holidays are soon coming to an end and next week is when you're going back to school..." Sandra was still speaking when her voice trailed off. It seemed as if something was wrong.
" Is everything okay mom?" It was now James' turn to ask her.
" Oh...I meant to say that you're turning eighteen years old within a few months...Ah! Forget it, we'll talk about it later." Sandra replied to her son but her mind seemed to be somewhere far.
' Wow... What a strange way to start a day!' Jane helplessly thought as she shook her head.
Minutes later, breakfast was served and the trio sat together happily as they dined on their morning dishes. Ofcourse, Jane was the one talking the most, bringing up different interesting topics and more. It was also obvious that James dotted on his sister very much by the way he lovingly looked at her. What never occurred to him was how Sandra looked at him worriedly from time to time.
James has lived all these years with his mother and little sister. Since childhood, he had never ever got to know anything about his father, not even his mother would tell him about it. All he knew was that he looked very much like his late father. Time went on, the duo lived a life of hardships one after another, moving from place to place since no society couldn't accept James for whatever he was.
Many people in the world are very afraid of strange things and James was something alien to many people. James, a boy of otherworldly beauty with snow white hair, crystal blue irises and a perfectly smooth chocolate skin was so strange to these people.
Wherever James went, people would start acting strange. Some were so obsessed over him whereas others were so envious in an abnormal way. This was one of the reasons as to why the mother and son duo usually moved from place to place.
At some point in time, they reached a place where all troubles seemed to end ...well, for a short time after an encounter with a stranger.
' Let's leave the past to the past.' James thought as he looked at Jane who was busy drawing some pictures in her sketch book, a happy smile on her pretty face.
Jane was a pretty girl and she looked more like her mother. Her irises were hazel in colour, her brows were thin but thick and her lashes were pretty dark and naturally long that they fluttered whenever she blinked. Her face was small and round with a small pointy nose and pink lips and her olive skin was smooth and flawless. What a beauty she was!
As if noticing his stare, Jane raised her head to stare back. The smile vanished from her face, replaced by a stony expression.
" What's with that stare?... Hahaha" Jane tried imitating James but she still ended up laughing since she found it funny herself.
James shook his head with a faint smile on his face and walked out of the house to enjoy the mid morning sunshine.
" What a dumbo, he can't even call me cute...humph!" Jane mumbled to herself disappointedly when James ignored her.
James, oblivious to Jane's disappointment, sat on the porch and watched his mother watering the flowers in the front yard.
Sandra's movements were flawless and gentle, giving off an aura equivalent to that of an angel. Her figure was perfect, attracting many passersby and some neighbors. Thing was that no one wanted to have any contact with this family and so they could only admire from afar.
Sandra was already a mother of two children and it could be seen from her first child, James that she was quite old now but somehow looked younger.
James watched, her silently and he couldn't help but smile because this was the moment when his mother looked so happy besides having meals together.
" James Tuan, longtime no see." A voice pulled James from his thoughts and he couldn't help but look at the small gate ahead.