Ralph, Nicolo and Lucian all were sitting inside Lucian's living room. Lucian was watching TV while sitting on his sofa, on mute. While Ralph was explaining security systems to Nicolo, on another sofa, just a little far away from Lucian.
Amidst the explaining, Ralph turned towards Lucian and said, "Lucian, for some amount of time, you're not allowed to leave our sight. Wherever you go, I'll have to be with you."
Lucian looked towards Ralph and said, "What? Everywhere? Even to the bathroom?"
Ralph answered, "I mean we will stand outside the bathroom of course, but even then we should be at least allowed to hear the sounds, who knows, you might be using secret phones or something."
"That's weird", Lucian looked towards the TV again.
"I know it is. But this is what it means to be under surveillance. I'm sorry, but we'll just have to do this.", Ralph insisted.
"I get it. No problem. I'm willing to prove my innocence. I'm tired of all this too.", Lucian said in a soft voice.
"See? Now you should revise all of this yourself and understand the system better.", Ralph ended his explanation and gave the laptop to Nicolo.
He then just stared at Lucian. Possibly zoned out. As he realized he was zoned out, he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
?, 2013,
"Man, this is so tiring. I should take a little nap for now.", a kid was sitting at his studying table. He closed his book and stood up. But some footsteps were coming from outside.
The door opened.
"Ivan? What are you doing? Didn't you just sit to study? And you're already done?", his mother said in a rough tone after opening the door.
"U-Um Mom I'm tired.", Ivan's voice got nervous.
"What are you talking about? Your father and I invested so much money in your special studies for you to just rest all day?", his Mom was standing still.
Ivan was silent for a bit, the same as his mother. Then he just went back to his studying table and opened the book again.
"Look Ivan, you're exceptional and you should know it. You should not waste your life trying to live like normal people, people like us.", his Mom finally moved and went back to the door, closing the door to go out while saying, "Imagine the amount of money you can make if you study hard and reach your full potential, Ivan".
"I understand", Ivan muttered words, while holding the book tightly.
"Can I come inside?", a girl's voice was heard from the door after a few minutes.Unlike the previous time, it wasn't his mother.
"Yes, you can.", Ivan said looking at the door.
"Ivan! Want to play chess again? I really liked it. The last time we played it was literally 2 days ago!" It was his sister.
Ivan smiled at his sister and said, "We'll play for sure! Bring the board! Let's see who is the better player!"
His sister quickly went outside and brought the chess board and immediately sat on the floor. Ivan did too.
5 minutes later, a little scream was heard from Ivan's room.
"Hey hey, shhh. Come on, don't scream now.", Ivan said as his sister screamed out of frustration.
"Why are you always winning? When will I win?!", his sister finally stopped shouting and said in a childish manner.
"You'll win next time. Promise!", Ivan's sentence started fading as he quickly started looking around, trying to hear something.
The footsteps. They were hearable again.
"No!", Ivan muttered to himself.
As soon as the door opened, a wooden piece of kitchen equipment came flying from it and hit Ivan on the face. It hit him so hard that he started bleeding a little from the corner of his right eye.
Ivan quickly held that bleeding area and started weeping in pain.
"You piece of shit! Didn't I just tell you to study? You and your trash sister!", a scary figure threw words at them, that looked like their Mom.
"Mom I-I just played one match-", Ivan tried to explain.
His Mom didn't try to hear anything and just went towards Ivan. She hit his sister hard enough to throw her out of that area.
After that she just started slapping Ivan on his face repeatedly, ignoring his bleeding.
After a few seconds, she finally started talking.
"Don't you know about our financial condition?! We were in a situation where we couldn't even eat 3 times a day. And then you were born! You were declared a Genius by your school teachers and…"
As her slappings became weaker, Ivan finally got a chance to speak, "Mom! I know all of that already! You've repeated that already hundreds of times! I'm just tired!", Ivan shouted clearly.
His mom suddenly stopped and stood up from her half-sitting position.
"You know huh? And you still do this, right? There's no point in being tired. Your scholarships are the best thing that happened to us, and you? You are just wasting those? What are we wasting our money then? Food, clothes. What are they for?", his Mom was interrupted by Ivan as he said, "But Mom-"
"Just shut the hell up. I'm going to tell your father about what you are saying. Right, I'll do that.", her rough voice became rougher as she rushed out of the room.
Ivan's sister was sitting in the corner of the room, with her hands and legs compressed. Her hidden face had sadness and grief all over it, but no fear though, as if this kind of situation was pretty normal for her.
Ivan was heavily hurt, physically. His hands were still on his eye's corner, and he came with that, towards his sister.
"Sister, look, you're not trash. Okay? You don't need to be special to be good, is that alright? These people? I thought about it repeatedly, and I don't wanna think of them as our parents. They are just-", Ivan stopped and stood up. He went towards his books.
As he was reading those books, the pages were getting wet.
In the other room, a masculine voice could be heard.
"See? He is just not listening to me.", Ivan's mom said to his father.
"What do you mean not listening? Do you know what we are talking about?", he took a break and continued, "Ivan's sister! She is no use to us. It's a great fortune to have an academic prodigy as our son! Don't you remember how poor we were? This is a chance to change our fortune! And you're saying he isn't listening?!", his father raised his voice a little.
He drank a whole glass of pure alcohol.
"Why don't you try it then? He isn't listening to me!", his Mom raised her voice too.
"Is that it? Right I'll do it.", he prepared another glass.
And drank it too.
Current time,
Now that I remember those times, no, that specific day, I feel relief that I ended it all. I was 14 and my sister was 10 back then. Even though she is not with me now and I'm still working under someone, not freely, it's still better than my 'Family'.
That day, my drunk father came into my room and beat me almost to death, or at least that's what I remember. I tried to protect my sister from him and quite well succeeded. I remember it clearly, the way he broke the glass bottle on my head…
And my Mom? She was just standing behind, probably enjoying the show. I realized quickly in life that not all people deserve to be parents. My parents just saw me as a tool for their fortune and my sister as just a liability.
I graduated through High School at the age of 10. I was considered a prodigy. What happens when a prodigy is born in a poor family?
Yes.
?,2018,
Ivan had a knife in his hands. Full of blood. And there were two bodies beside him.
"Come on. Let's go, sister! We'll move to another city! I can do it! A better future for us!", Ivan said as he forwarded his hands towards his sister.
His sister said nothing and just let Ivan hold her hands.
?,2020,
After around 2 years of hard work, I'm finally a detective, professionally. And my alias is, Ralph. And my sister? She is living in her own house now. And she has her lover too! Well that's what she told me.
I'm so glad that I killed my 'Parents' and moved to Clorida. It's one of the best cities in this country. It's better than Domes, the city I was born in.
Current time,
I had to withstand another 5 years in that house full of abuse before I could finally be ready to kill them. It was necessary…
At Gary Loxley's house,
Gary was scrolling through a bunch of messages on his phones, and after reading a bunch of them, his jaws clenched as he said, "I'll have to take things in my own hands now…..