"It"s him."
Whispers strewn into the damp air flew into ears.
"The sole survivor of the Aquatic Beast Section."
"To survive in that mess? Isn"t he incredibly lucky?"
"But only a single person survived? Weren"t all the beasts killed?"
"That"s the real mystery. The aquatic section is the last section in the farm. By the time the rescue section arrived at the Aquatic Section 30 minutes had already pa.s.sed. But here the real mystery starts…"
"Why the stop? Say it quickly!"
"The entire area was filled with the dead bodies of humans and beasts combined. Humans were killed by beasts, but n.o.body knows who or how killed the beasts."
"And only this kid survived? Isn"t this suspicious?"
"What do you mean by suspicious?! Looks at that kid. Does it look like he had a hand in it?!"
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"I"m not wrong, though. An unknown cause of the beasts" death and only a single survivor. It"s too suspicious."
Words flowed into Eth"s ears, but he was unable to comprehend their meaning.
The last thing he remembered was being eaten. Then he regained consciousness when he was floating in the middle of those corpses.
"Blergh!"
Eth bent over and retched. Even thinking about that horrid scene was making him shiver.
From there, everything felt like a blur to him.
"Eth"s family", Mrs. Isabell and Bell, came to him and tried to console him.
Fortunately, he didn"t have any serious physical injuries and healed quickly. But the same couldn"t be said about his psyche.
His rehabilitation lasted for six months. Miraculously, Eth was able to get back to his day-to-day behavior within the first week.
The only problem he faced was his frequent nightmares.
He would mutter things during his sleep like "I didn"t do anything", "Is everyone with me dead?" "Only I survived."
Other than those nightmares, he reduced his contact with others to the minimum and rarely spoke.
It was only after 6 months ended that the doctors sent Eth back.
On the day of his return, the doctor in charge of Eth advised Mrs. Parker.
"In many cases, the patient"s personality changes after going through a traumatic experience. In Eth"s case, it seems the trauma comes from his self-blame."
"Self-blame?"
"That was the most we could find out. It is shameful to admit, but we weren"t able to make him open up to us. If possible, I will like if you take it slow as he fits back into his home."
The doctor gave his card to her in case of emergencies with Eth and returned.
"Isn"t the movie "Two Piece: Blue" releasing today? I think a certain someone will like to watch it. What do you think?"
Mrs. Parker talked about his favorite series, but even then Eth showed no reaction.
Scratching her cheeks with one hand and controlling the steering with another, she wondered what to do.
"As I thought, movies are no good. Let"s go to the Amagi Amus.e.m.e.nt Park!"
She thought that open air and playing around will help him loosen up. Playing a calm and relaxing song, they drove to their destination.
***
-Bang!
The shot fired from the toy gun accurately hit its mark awarding the shooter with a perfect.
"We won!"
A young woman with flaming red hair cheered as she hugged a little kid.
"You"re good."
"Of course. It was these skills that mesmerized your uncl-cough cough. What gift should we pick for our dear little Eth?"
Albeit barely, Eth started talking to Mrs. Parker.
It made her happy. Seeing her plan being successful, she pulled him to every ride and game she could see.
She was too happy and let a weird comment slip just now.
"That one."
Taking the soft toy that Eth pointed at, both of them sat at the nearby bench.
Mrs. Parker stared at the beautiful sunset as both of them continued sitting in silence.
After a few dozen minutes pa.s.sed and Eth was sitting in a relaxed position, she decided to talk to him.
"Is there anything you want to talk about?"
"!"
Eth"s body jerked and tightened his grip over his little shorts.
"It"s okay if you don"t want to talk about it."
She slowly spoke, so as not to startle him. Eth had gone through a traumatic experience and required time to readjust.
"Isn"t the sunset beautiful? In my hometown, a sunset is called the time of new endings and beginnings ."
Mrs. Parker kept talking to Eth slowly, all the while she caressed his head as he lay on her lap.
Her words held no meaning. She only wanted to keep talking to Eth and make him feel comfortable.
Slowly the time trickled down and she could feel her leggings damping. Ignoring the m.u.f.fled sobs, she only continued to caress the culprit of the sobs.
"I am*hic* sorry*hic*."
"It"s okay. You don"t have anything to be sorry about."
"If only *hic* I wasn"t *hic* unlucky."
"You are my lucky charm. Ever since you came into our family, every day was filled with laughter. Bell also loves you."
"If only I wasn"t *hic* there. It was because I was there *hic* no one survived."
"You are safe. That is all that matters to us."
Mrs. Parker didn"t understand why Eth was blaming himself. But she continued to answer him firmly yet sweetly.
As the warm hand caressed him, Eth continued to bawl his eyes out. Tears containing his fear, anxiety, and guilt fell from his eyes.
The game that children played "Eth is unlucky" had driven a deep wedge in his heart. No matter how much he denied it subconsciously, his thoughts always came back to it.
He was unlucky.
And
People stay away from unlucky things.
This was why Eth begged Bell to not tell anything at home. He was afraid that Mrs. Parker will also want to stay away from him.
If not for the pictures, he couldn"t recall how his parents looked and his memories of his sister were already fading away.
This was why he only talked about his sister in kindergarten. He didn"t want to forget her, too.
Whenever the caretakers invited parents for meetings, he was the only one who stayed until the end, all alone.
It was at this time he met Mrs. Parker. A neighbor whom his parents had asked to look after their son and Isabell"s mother.
From then the happiest period of his life began.
He no longer ate cold bread in the morning. No matter how much he overturned in sleep, he always found the blanket covering him in the morning.
Even when he forgot to polish his shoes, he would always find them shining before sunrise.
He will occasionally find a piece of chocolate in his lunch.
These little things brightened his whole world.
When everyone started calling him unlucky and avoiding him, Eth thought Mrs. Parker will also do the same.
He believed that as long as she didn"t know, everything will be fine.
"I"m sorry. I"m sorry *hic* sorry."
But his hopes were shattered.
Grey and others who showed him kindness were all dead. Even though there were hundreds of people who were there, only he survived.
Only the area he was present in didn"t have even two survivors.
The three people who didn"t hesitate to talk to him were dead.
"I"m sorry. I..I"ll leave."
He didn"t want to stay with the family who had treated him nicely and bring them trouble.
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