The Orphan

“If you haven’t read Rewinder, please do.”

“Before we float away… there are a few moments to which we will rewind the circle of life that we have traversed. The sins we repent, the happiness, the sadness… every single bit of what made us what we were shall be re-lived. But don’t be deceived When the crossover happens, the veil unfolds… Language.. skin…eyesight… Knowledge. Everything will be at peace. For everyone equal. Everything equal. The real truth.

Eternity”

-Author

“It is like that isn’t it? Life” he stared at the white figure in front of him.

“A simple mirage that fades away only to be rewinded again!” his words stumbled onto something as his eyes lost all hope.

“How do you expect me to teach you innocence when EVEN I don’t know it? I have always been an outcast…a freak… an orphan …A loving brother… A loyal friend…AND YET I murdered him … how can someone like me teach you Innocence?”

He turned and looked. Whatever sat before him was not going to move until he gave her what she required.

“I will tell you my story… I hope you can filter what you require”.

“As much as I could recall… I don’t remember my mother. She must have been in bad condition. That must have been why my siblings and I had to be taken care of at the orphanage. All of us had really confined rooms. We were fed and cleaned by the person who ran the place. I never had the chance to go out of the cell that contained me. We had to make sounds to get the food when starved...

The only person that we saw was the orphanage manager. Since the beginning, I knew we were different .. disabled, and unnatural from him. That must be why my mother must have abandoned us. That must be why we were to spend the rest of our rotting life in the small cellar that confined us.. to eat the food when someone else decides.. to shit and pee where we go to sleep. How he treated us … it's not just! but who will we tell…? Who will ask about our welfare…? And how will we express our feeling when we are not even able to communicate with him?

Without expression, we became lesser beings. Without a voice, we were invisible… with the unnatural deformities, we were ignored… a burden that keeps on repeating a cycle… moaning when the hunger becomes irresistible… getting sick when the room becomes dirty.. only to be shot and squirted with water, That was the man's way of cleaning us and the room. Even now, the filthy stench of the room remains in my senses like a horrid nightmare.

How my sibling's fate turned out to be, I don’t know..! but my life changed that day when a couple agreed to adopt me. That day when They came to see me. The manager cleaned me up well and took me to a tidy room that I had never seen or smelled. The new refreshing smell pierced my senses. The family that came to adopt me… The husband and the wife took a liking to me for some reason…

That day itself, I got out of that hell hole… Leaving my siblings, into my new home.

I wasn’t as lucky as I imagined… The couple already had a son and a daughter. So then I realized… I must not have been adopted as an heir or as the couple's son. I must have been a charity case… To showcase to the world… that the family was doing good.

Even in my new home, violation and inequality existed. It must be my dark complexion… that must have triggered these events. My dark black colour lit up a very contrast to my family (adopted), where everyone was fair.

But I have to accept the fact that it was way better than where I was from.

They took me in and showed me where I was supposed to sleep. They led me to a room decorated with toys and a bed. The wonderful smell, the sweet smell, filled my nose. I thought I was finally getting a space for myself.

But I didn’t. It was the boy's room. Well, my brothers. From this point onwards, I realized I was part of that family. A mother… A father… A sister… A brother. For once in my life, a strange relief filled my heart. The feeling to belong somewhere pave the way for an unintentional and immeasurable amount of love from me to my family. From Then on, I would risk what's left of my godforsaken life for each of them…

There was a bundle of clothes arranged in the form of a bed by the right-end corner of my brother's room. That was my bed. my brother was happy to see me… The first-ever hug that I ever received was from him… on our first meeting… that instant when he grabbed me by our father's arms and hugged me close to his body as tight as he could… my deformity rendered me not so much use with my hands unlike them. But in that instant, I tried as much to copy my brother, putting my hand on his shoulder… hugging him back. That made my family happier.

My sister, unfortunately, had an abnormal disgust or fear towards me. I will not blame her… I knew what my abnormality would cause me. I hoped. It won't take her long to accept me as I am.

The situation was miles better than that from the orphanage. But my family always gave me the lowest priority. I watched as my brother and sister got new clothes and going to out everyday morning… I watched from the window beside the front door as both left for somewhere in a yellow bus.

I had to watch my family eat delicious food and only spare and what remained made it to my plate.

As days passed, my brother became so friendly with me… he even allowed me to sleep with him in his bed.. which was much comfort… I slept well those days.

Days became weeks … weeks became months, and I learned to live with my new home… To be happy.

But some days Sadness pierces its clutches onto my skin. Then I'd lose sleep. I will drag my body with the help of my hands to the window by the door. I will sit by its side staring blankly into the sky.

One of those days… I saw my dad outside… When I checked the door, it was unlocked, so I went out and stared at him. It must be some minutes past midnight. He was using his torch and looking around… “he must have heard some sound and went to look what,” I thought to myself.

That’s when I saw that. Beyond the road, some hairy animal was running towards father. He hasn't realized this… So I screamed with all my strength crying about what sound I could make.

The beast had taken a giant leap into the air to try to bite down dad. But after hearing my sound, dad ducked and the beast lost its focus. It hit dad in his right hand. Scared still, dad ran into the house, taking me in with him; he barricaded the door. When going inside, I looked back out. The beast had disappeared into the darkness from which it emerged.

Then, there was a freakshow that took over when they all got up. There was a slight scratch injury over at Dad's hand.. it seemed like a claw wound. He was happy I was there to distract him. He patted my head.

To change the mood of everyone, the next day… My mom made us her sweetest pie, unlike many days. This day One of the pieces was served for me too. I was happy.

In the coming days, I saw changes in dad. He had quite a recurring fever… For too many days, I saw him going outside and walking off into the darkness of the night. Always he returned after an hour or so. Since the last incident, I have been careful. I wanted to accompany him… but every time, he rejected me and closed the door with me being on the inside.

There isn’t much that a person needs to change. A blindfold and he will slice away his own heart … As long as he won't have to remember it. People are pretending to be good just because of the fear of the memory… The memory of the bad things we might do will haunt us; The memory is the final judgment.

My dad did this for many days… Repeating the cycle and coming back each day with lesser life in his eyes.

One day he went as always. I waited for him by the window… Staring at the road ahead.

Hours passed. That was unnatural. I was getting tense. Then I saw a figure appear across the road. It was directed towards my home… slowly, the shade strengthened to form Dad's shape. It was dad. He opened the door and walked in like a robot. He used to tap my head when he entered, but he didn’t… so I touched him. A mysteriously horrifying look appeared on his face. I fell back. His eyes were red hot-filled with blood. Those bloody eyes gave off a conjunct crimson glow. Since his arrival, a strange enigma filled the house.

Scared still, I followed him. He entered his sister's room.

With a wild cry, he… he.

She was sleeping… his daughter.. yet he.

it was darkest of the night When he trashed his own daughter’s head to a pulp… I was horrified…I tried waking others… but everyone was asleep; a strange enigma was forcing them into unconscious… But that spell, it couldn’t affect me… for I was the orphan… and I am different

I had to do something. I cried in all the voices I could summon. Like a machine, dad was hitting on the fragile immobile body of a little girl. Blood squirted in all directions. I attacked him. I knew if I didn’t do anything, my sister's fate would befall my brother and mother. I couldn’t forgive dad. So I attacked him with all my strength… hitting and biting in whatever ways possible. Suddenly he fell back.

The crimson glow escaped his eyes. He let out a wild scream as he witnessed what he had done.

Somehow then my mother and brother woke up… my mother fainted as she saw what my father had done. The wild sound had awoken too many neighbours and.. as the lights came directed to my home… weeping my dad ran out from the house into the darkness from which he emerged an hour ago.

For the next few days… The house was crowded…grey and shining blue lights and black dresses.. brother and mom were sad, depressed, and suffering. I did too.

In those times, I was helpless. There wasn’t much I could do, nor I could help.

Years passed.

It took time for the family to regain its spirit from the mourning. I remember seeing my father's pictures a few times on the television.

Since then life has changed a whole lot. As we began to forget the darkest part of our life… I settled down in my sister's room. Which still had the unforgivable vibe of death. My Brother and I kill his time… we usually went out. We will go to the park. People would stare at me…yet we ignored them. A girl got my eyes too…she was the same as me, except for the colour. She had a wheatish complexion. She was always with someone that looked like her dad… a pretty obese guy. Always when we leave the house before the road, I stared at the statue… It was just like my brother and me walking… It reminded me that it's common to be different…Nothing to be ashamed of.

Then one day, as we were returning from the park. We took a detour. We marched toward the forest by the end of the town. There I found that little white ball of fur—a cute little rabbit. We then on each day started playing with him .. he would wait for us by the tree … we would bring him fruits and carrots. we will play around till we leave.

Like always, we left for the forest that day. We reached the park has done a bit of walking around. We went to the forest.

There he was waiting for us… to get his carrots.

Brother sat in the grass and listened to his music like always, and I went on playing with the rabbit.

Then something happened… Even now, I couldn’t explain what… some wild static filled my ears. It erupted an unforgivable rage in me… I lost my control completely… I attacked him, the rabbit, just like my father did to my sister. But this time, I could feel and sense what I was doing, but that horrifying void of the sound that filled my ear was in control of me and my rage…one which I never knew existed.

In seconds the rabbit died in my clutches. Blood dripped down my hand nails, and my mouth.. violently still, my uncontrollable rage charged my body towards him.. that’s when my brother realized the horror that just occurred. He tried to push me away, and we both struggled… he gave a blow to my head. I fell back… He was crying. I wanted to cry, but the voice made me attack again. My hands were gripped tight by him to avoid me to attack him… but my insane rage made me bite off a big piece of meat from his hand.. crying, he gave a furious punch.. blood dripping, he got on his feet and took a big rock on his hand and ran toward me.. as I took another leap to attack him.. he hit my head on that rock… after all this…I wanted him to hit me…I wanted to save him from myself… even if it meant killing myself as an option… but the sound still had control over me. So I let out a scary roar and tried to bite him again…scared still… he thrashed my head with the rock….

Then the sound…the wild static it stopped.

I was happy… I could save him … from myself as I did not cause any more damage to my brother.

I knew that was my end… I could feel what was left of my life energy starting to accumulate to leave this vessel once and for all.

I gazed at my brother… he was holding my immobile head in his lap and chanting something… I wished I could understand what he was saying.

Then slowly, those words entered my sense… for the first time, I understood what they said.

My brother was crying, “shadow… dark shadow… please come back… I am sorry…!”

I thought to myself… that must have been my name… well, it suits my dark fur.

As I was floating away from my body, I witnessed a wild glow envelop my brother and he dragged his disintegrating body to his iPod that was a foot away… I don’t know what it was… But It still scares me.”

“Tell me, is it enough?”

“This is all I can tell you.”

He stopped talking and looked at the white figure.

She got up, revealing her silver wings walked to him and gave a pat on his head. As she flew off into the crimson heights of the afterlife … Darkshadow wiggled his tail.