109 He Who Unexpectedly Saved Others 2 (1/2)
”Son...” A voice echoed in his sleep.
It was a female voice, sweet and caring, but very distant. As distant as a memory slowly being lost in time...
”My prince! Come here, your sister wants to hear about the King of the Jungle! You join us here so that I won't have to tell this story twice. Haha.”
The voice sounded out near his ears and because the tone was very joyful, he was sure a smile was adorning that voice owner's face when she said this.
All of a sudden, he saw a younger version of him, a naive and lovely eleven-year-old boy. The boy happily went to the smiling woman's side and after hugging her, he sat next to his cute eight-year-old sister.
The next moment was spent by them in peals of laughter and smiles. From time to time, the mother was making faces and gesturing in the air in order to match the scenes from the picture book. The two kids were giggling at their beautiful and kind mother's disastrous acting. Sometimes the boy was making rude remarks, questioning why her lines were different from the book. The mother would only laugh and pinch her son's cheeks.
”My princess, don't ever take after your big brother, okay?” she told the laughing girl.
”M-Mom, I'm just saying the truth. When you sway your hands in the air, you look like a tree, not an eagle!”
”Oh my! The other cheek is not red enough. Come here, my prince, I'll make it even for you!”
”Awww! So cute! Mother is forcefully making brother blush.” The little girl remarked giggle as she watched the woman disregard her brother's protest and pinch his cheeks.
”Cough. Alright, time is precious so let me continue. So after the Lion King talked with the Greatest and Most Handsome Ent, the human kid is finally allowed to stay in the beautiful kingdom called the Great Jungle. There are many animals and mystical fairies there who helped him to grow into a handsome and valiant warrior. Because he's the most valiant among them all, he is the only one clothed in beast skin...”
The scene was just too lovely, as heart-warming as the sunlight gently spilling over the mother's bright expression. Her eyes were full of love as she stared at her kids engrossed by the story.
As he recalled all of these, he tried his hardest to etch every detail in his mind. But later he realized it was just a distant dream. Due to this, he repeatedly wished to just never wake up and to forever remain in that scene. He missed the 'him' of that time. He missed the flood of love and joy he used to receive daily before that particular day...
Unfortunately, as that particular memory played, he was also reminded why this very peaceful scene had devolved into a mere fragment of the past...
The scene playing he was seeing did not change, but after a few minutes, a person arrived and joined them. It was the father. And like the mother, there was also a bright smile on his face. As he faced his family, his eyes alone showed how blessed and lucky he felt for having a beautiful and caring wife, and two angelic kids.
In a sense, anyone seeing this could say they were a happy family. If every family in the world could be a half happy as them, the world would have been way better.
Unfortunately, there was still no perfect family in the world. No matter how fortunate they seemed to be, a problem would still arise here and then. This was also true for this family. Because even if these four people were content on how things were currently going on for them, it was not necessarily the same with the others.
Days after this scene, the apartment unit next to this happy family was occupied by a not-so-newly married couple. And there was a problem with this couple's relationship! The husband was very prone to violence and not a single day passed that he did not beat his wife.
One night, the wife could no longer stand the domestic violence so she fled next door. When his kind parents saw her so black-and-blue, crying and shivering from the trauma she suffered, they became soft-hearted and did not hesitate to take her in.
They fed her and listened to her cries and outburst. Even he and his sister were hugging her and comforting her. They were so moved by her story and tears that when the guy returned from work and demanded his wife, they refused to hand her over.
However, the man was crazier than they had thought. To force the woman to go back, he made serious threats against his family. The man marched into the adjacent unit, and when he went back, a molotov cocktail was already in his hands, saying he would throw it at them if the woman continued resisting.
Back then, he was too young to know how and why things easily escalated into this mess.
He just remembered that the woman was too traumatized. Even the young him could see and it was easy to assume that she had been experiencing this domestic violence for years if she was this reluctant.
The battered wife was too afraid to go back to her husband. So she continued hiding behind his parents. He became a bit worried, but he still believed his parents would be able to solve this conflict.
That time, the six of them were at their apartment unit's front yard. When his father and mother heard her pleading cries, they told him to run into the house with his sister. If he guessed correctly, they still wanted to negotiate or talk it out with the man. However, they wanted the two kids out of the picture so they would be safe in case the angry man did something bad.
But exactly what did the incensed guy do?
It was already too late when they discovered that he was someone with many loose screws in his head. Too late because instead of having a polite conversation with his parents, the man threw the Molotov in their direction. Even now, he couldn't forget the fire that immediately broke out after.
It was a fire that started from him.