The True Begining

Pale... his face was just as pale as their bodies.

Their lifeless, beaten, exsanguinated bodies... lying in pools of their own blood. He had no words, thoughts, or even emotions, after all, he didn't know how to process such a terrible situation. And above all else, it had been the first time he'd ever seen a dead body in his life... the bodies of those he loved. The ones that made him anew, the ones that gave him hope. Just like those bodies, he himself was lifeless too, with tears running down his expressionless face.

At this moment nothing had even crossed Selvin's mind, all of it was blank. His eyes, so full of tears running down his face, so much so that he didn't realize that there were others in the room with him.

With the both of them standing beside the two lifeless corpses... those two people being none other than his parents, the ones that stripped him of the life he should have had. Even with the both of them standing right before him he couldn't help but ignore them, it was as if they weren't there, all in a subconscious attempt to lessen his overall pain.

Finally, his father started to make his way in front of him, eventually looming over him.

Despite his own attempts to believe that it was all a dream, that it was not real... he couldn't help but realize the truth.

Selvin couldn't ignore it any longer, he realized that everything that was unfolding right in front of him wasn't all some bad dream, but instead his miserable reality. At the moment of his realization, his mind broke... nothing, not even his subconscious could protect him anymore... everything became lucid.

A long silence ensued, with Selvin and his father standing face to face with a dreadful atmosphere surrounding them. At this point, Slevin had already lost his will to fight... all the hopes and dreams for the future had been entirely forgotten, and now all that was left in him was an empty black void, depleted of all emotions. Not even the desire to end it all had crossed his mind, he was just completely broken.

With tears still endlessly flowing from his eyes, he couldn't help but ask one last thing "why..." he whispered.

"Why..." he mumbled.

"Just why..." he'd spoken out loud.

"What did I do... what did I even do, to deserve any of this?

Why do you- the both of you... hate me so much?"

He uttered words that should never be uttered by the mouth of a child towards their own parents, yet... here we are. In the end, the answer was clear.

There was no reason, not a single explanation that could be justifiable enough to give a reason to their hate... he knew that and they probably knew it too.

Even so, he still wanted to hear it come from them, so that in a way... he could just accept it and die.

But, he never expected to hear a response such as this.

"Why do I hate you, you asked?"

"You want to know why huh..." he said in an overly annoyed tone, looking Selvin dead in the eyes with a glare full of disgust. "That's simple enough to answer, hell it's the least I can do before I end things forever. You see Selvin, there's something that you should know... before me and your mother got married we both agreed to never have kids in our relationship, we didn't want to deal with such an inconvenience.

Everything was fine and perfect, just the way I wanted it to be, until one day... I found out that she had gotten pregnant... with you.

Immediately we decided to abort you right on the spot, and so we did... or at least we tried to.

The first time we ever consulted a clinic, they wholeheartedly assured us that everything had gone well and that the abortion had been a success, all up until a few weeks later when we noticed signs of her still being pregnant. My wife ended up taking another pregnancy test and lo-and-behold... she was still pregnant with you. We hurried along back to the clinic where we immediately went for another abortion, and a few weeks after that her symptoms didn't let up. Time and time again, the process repeated itself over, and over, and over again... without an end in sight. Each and every time, you always survived, no matter what method we used.

Each time you always persisted and stayed in her womb until birth...

No Matter WHAT WE TRIED!!!

You always found a way to come back.

And for that... I hated you since the beginning... for ruining my perfect life! There were many times when I would lose it and beat you senseless until I couldn't go on any further, hoping you'd die right there and then. There were times I refused to feed you and look after you, hoping you'd give up and die. Yet like always... you persisted on no matter what. And you wonder why I don't love you... how am I supposed to love a thing I never wanted in the first place?"

Silence befell the room, with Selvin finally coming to terms that he'd never be loved by them... coming to terms that they hate him... and finally coming to terms that they wanted him dead, from the day he was born up until now. Even with all of this... Selvin couldn't help but feel relieved... as he thought to himself "so that's the reason... at least now that I know... I can die without any regrets.

And finally... rid them of myself."

With everything that had been going on Selvin had spiraled back into his old habits, becoming the young trapped boy he once was. Blaming himself for problems that were out of his power and that he didn't cause at all. Being with them made him that way yet again... so not only did his will to keep on moving forward die, but so did all the progress he made along the way. He truly was broken, and nothing at such an immense moment could possibly save him. In the distance, sirens could be heard blaring as they drew nearer. Selvin was immune to the noise, prompting no reaction nor feeling from such a thing at all. He cared about nothing anymore, forgetting about everything around him except for them... because in his mind... deep down in his mind... he himself knew that he couldn't be saved.

As the police drew nearer and the sirens grew louder his father could visibly be seen becoming angry. In a burst of rage he yelled out

"He said he'd buy us time!! FUCK!!!"

He looked over to Selvin with a look of pure frustration. "I was looking forward to ending this all today! And yet such a nuisance had to disturb us during the final moments of your life." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath... exhaling all of his frustration away... going back to the same stone face filled with disgust. "As if I'd let such a thing ruin my plans." He says as he bawls up his fist.

"I'll make sure of it... I'll make sure that nothing can stop me. No matter what." As he punches Selvin in the chin... rendering him unconscious as he falls to the floor.

While Selvin was unconscious, he dreamt a dream that he'd never forget. A dream of him being happy, of him being joyous with those that he loved. All while being watched from afar, by a pair of dark gentle eyes. Whilst in the dream he could feel no signs of malice from the thing that was watching him, all he could feel was the warm gentle gaze those very eyes brought upon him as he enjoyed himself for the last time within his dream As the dream faded away and Selvin began to wake up for what would be known as his final day alive, he felt a familiar feeling. He felt that very same dark presence that enveloped him once before, and the same warmth he felt from those eyes just a bit ago.

Words sprang out through his head, words that he wished he'd heard long ago.

"I will... protect you."

And with that one sentence, he would wake back up into the same hell he was in before. Within an old abandoned house, tied up in a chair facing his parents.

It truly seemed to be the end.

Having finally accepted everything, he too was ready for his end. Having noticed Selvin waking up, his father had gotten up and walked his way over to him... with a joyous grin on his face as he stood before Selvin. Taking a deep breath in and out as he thoroughly enjoyed the moment that was taking place before him. "Finally... I can get this over with."

And without a second thought, he started beating Selvin for the final time.

Blood dripping from his fists as he punched Selvin time, and time again. A relentless onslaught with no end in sight as Selvin's vision began to fade away... it truly was the end. And with a final strike to the head, the chair Selvin had been tied within had turned over and broke, releasing him of his restraints.

But even then, he didn't fight back... as he looked to the light for the final time. With the last of his vision, Selvin couldn't help but look around the house in his final moments.

Seeing the old decaying walls.

The old creaky wooden floor.

His mom standing there... watching in a daze.

And finally... a cracked mirror split down the middle.

However, what he saw in the mirror was something entirely different than he had expected. The left half of his face, it wasn't him. It was the dark figure that had been with him all this time.

In the split-second Selvin and the figure made eye contact his perception of reality changed.

Everything had started to slow down, and eventually, everything was frozen... it was just them now. Selvin had felt a dark yet warm presence envelop him. It was the same one as before... from the time he was saved.

"You don't need to undertake this burden anymore." the dark figure bellowed. "Everything that you've done... we've done, it was all in vain. I should have known from the start that it would not have been this easy to find a place to call home. I was delusional in my thinking, and never again will I let my mistakes hurt you. I'm sorry for the miserable life that you had to live because of me, even if you lived it out of your own free will... I can't stand here any longer and watch you get hurt. So please let me protect you from now on. Let me save you."

In those moments Selvin felt joy... true joy.

From the relief of knowing that someone truly cared for him all along... and in that relief, his mind felt at ease. Closing his eyes with pupils full of joy, then reopening them... with pupils full of nothing.

Time had finally gone back to normal and everything was moving as it should be. Everything was, as it should be. Except for two things, the mirror had shattered entirely along with the look in Selvin's eyes... it was dead... it was emotionless. Selvin's father approached him, rearing for a final hit to finish it all. Each step he took progressively made him happier and happier, all until the final step.

He felt a cold shiver all over, his primal instincts kicking in. He felt strange, he had never felt such a feeling before. His body shaked, he felt goosebumps all over, he racked up a cold sweat, and in the end, he still could not describe the feeling at all. It was the very first time he had ever experienced true fear.

He couldn't seem to understand his feeling, looking around in search of an answer, until he finally laid eyes upon Selvin. He finally understood what caused such a reaction as Selvin looked back at him, glaring his father with dark empty eyes. In a fit of anger, his father yelled out "Don't look at me!!" as he went in for a kick.

But in an instance he stopped.

Selvin held his leg tightly, throwing him to the ground. A dark black aura started to form around Selvin as he was getting up, spiraling and encompassing the whole of the room, a feeling of death and despair was all to be felt. Sevin's dad in fear took out a knife and charged at him with full force, but in the end, it was futile as Selvin quickly grabbed ahold of the knife and dislocated his father's right hand. His father screamed in pain but Selvin quickly punched him across the face, dislocating his jaw as he was launched straight to the wall. Knife in hand, Selvin walked over to him with a stone-cold face and empty eyes as the knife swayed back and forth. He knelt down to face the man that was supposed to be his father and looked into his life-deprived eyes.

He was on the brink of death.

He drew the knife and pointed it towards his heart, ever so slightly piercing him, bit by bit.

"For such a heartless man the fact that you even have a heart is ironic, therefore I'll be taking this with me, along with your life. That way no one will ever have the displeasure of ever meeting a man like you again." Finally, he fully pieced through... killing him in an instance, leaving his body to rot away and be forgotten. In the midst of this Selvin felt a teardrop hit the floor, turning around to see his mother crying. Even with tears running down her face, Selvin knew that they weren't tears of sadness, but instead tears of relief. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from her... no, it was exactly that.

She was happy that he had finally died.

Regardless of that, Selvin walked over to her as tears were streaming down her face, approaching her ever so slightly, bloodied all over. In the midst of her emotions she came to an understanding because she knew of what was to come, but even with that knowledge she still felt at ease.

Fully accepting her judgment... her punishment for neglecting her own baby boy. As Selvin stood before her, she directly looked him in his cold empty eyes.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

"You didn't deserve this... not any of this, not at all.

All this pain, all this sorrow, all this abuse... I'm sorry for not doing a thing about it, I'm sorry for not saving you from it all this time, I'm sorry for neglecting you, not caring for you, and never loving you as I should have in the first place... for never loving you as my own son. I failed you as a mother, I don't even have the right to call you my son, I lost that right ever since I abandoned you. Selvin, please know that I'm not asking for your forgiveness, nor am I doing this to forgive myself and to alleviate my guilt. I do this so that you can see that I truly am sorry. I know of what's to come, and I've already accepted it. It's my punishment for not giving you the love and care you deserved, for caving into fear and leaving you on your own all this time."

She placed her hand upon his cheek, ever so slightly soothing it. "I'm glad that you ended up living somewhat of a happy life with grandma and grandpa, but because of my failure to keep him away from you, all of this ended up happening. I should have stopped him from the start, I should have run away with you from the start. Yet I never did, out of fear for my own life, I ended up abandoning my own child. I'm so sorry that it had to be this way... Selvin."

She shed her last tear as Selvin wrapped his hands around her neck. Tightening his grasp bit by bit.

"If only I would have run away with you from the start... maybe then all of us could have lived together happily. We could have been... a-a tr-ue... fam-il-ly." she said while tears ran down her face as Selvin strangled her neck. He tightened his grasp tighter and tighter, eventually shoving her to the ground, in the hopes of ending everything entirely. In hopes of ending his nightmare for good. She never fought back during the ordeal and gently kept her palm on his cheek the entire time. Soothing him everything second or so, as the light in her eyes faded away.

In the end, when the final bit of life had left her body she mustered up all that was left of her, in order to say her final words.

Those words being "I lo-ve... y-you... Selvin..." she whispered as the life in her eyes left, signaling the death of Selvin's family as a whole...signaling the end of his nightmare for good.

After finally ending it all, he thought to himself... about what could have been and should have been.

But even so, it wouldn't change a thing, as he finally saw the world for what it truly was, through his cold empty eyes. No longer viewing it through the eyes of denial, but through the eyes of acceptance, as he realized that nothing ever goes as planned in such a cruel world.

And it was truly so... as he knelt down in a pool of his parent's own blood, and as Jane stood still, drenched in rainwater, as she waited for Selvin to finally arrive.