9 Lives

Chapter 15, Bitter

I did meet Rafael in the garden the next morning. I'd actually put in some effort to look decent for once. It was the first time in years I'd put on a dress. It was a simple black babydoll dress, and I'd put on black platforms to match. I tried to braid my hair just like Nadia would braid it. Two French braids, but I never learned how to do that.

Jacob had told me that when my parents realized I was gone the morning after I ran after Fluffy, they rushed to the police station and reported me missing. After that, they took the car and drove all over town looking for me. He told me that they were devastated. I remember asking him why I couldn't go back home to my parents and Nadia. He had explained to me that I'd be putting them in danger by doing so. Dougleman could take them hostage and torture them, so it was better for them that I didn't go back home.

Obviously, I was devastated. I wondered if they would be in agony for the rest of their lives, not knowing if I was dead or alive, never knowing what happened to me. It would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Jacob sensed how I felt and offered to erase their memories of me, to make them forget I was ever born. He just needed my permission to do so.

I'd allowed him to do it, and my family forgot all about me. It's better that way. Here, I made my own bonds and created my own family. All fifty of us here considered each other to be family. So for these reasons, it didn't take me too long to recover from never seeing my family again. I knew they were safe.

I ended up leaving my hair down.

Rafael was there by the water, waiting for me. I walked toward him and let my hand out for a handshake, but he just looked at it and made a face. I put my hand down and rolled my eyes. 

I looked him up and down. "That was unlike you. I didn't know you had no social skills."

"You're unlike yourself. I like this look on you." He smirked at me.

"I put in some effort today."

"I can tell. There's something I want to show you."

He motioned for me to follow him and I did. We walked along the water until he paused and kicked the sand. It sounded strange and hollow. He got down on his knees to move the sand over with his hand, and beneath the sand was a metal slab with a handle and a lock. He took a key out of his pocket and unlatched the lock before he opened the door. I looked down at it, and there was a ladder.

"Is it safe for us to go down there?"

"Of course it is. Why? Are you scared?"

"No, it just looks old." I let myself down into the hole and climbed down the ladder. There was just darkness and a wooden door. I waited for Rafael to get down and unlock it. This time, he took off a necklace hidden underneath his shirt. The necklace was a simple chain that had a key attached to it. He unlocked the door and opened it, holding it open for me.

It was unreal. It was a garden with bushes as walls and a ceiling, and the floor was so filled with flowers that the grass wasn't visible.

"Watch out for the roses, they have thorns." He closed the door behind him.

"What is this place?"

"My mother and father built it when they were alive."

When they were alive. His parents weren't alive anymore.

"Oh . . . do you mind me asking what happened to your parents?"

He looked bitter. "It's a long story. My elder sister ran away from home to be with some sailor that she met on a trip. She "loved him." Nobody knew where she went, so my mother went insane looking for her. You see, my mother had a very close bond with my sister. My mother was gone for months looking for her. But when we got the news that she had killed herself because she was unable to find my sister, because she thought she failed as a mother and a human being. She blamed it on herself, as she wrote in a letter that she meant to send to my father, and she planned to kill herself. She was so sensitive. She overdosed on pain killers, taking a whole bottle of Ibuprofen. It was my father's turn to go insane, and I got to watch him die. He overdosed and alcohol the night after he found out about her death, and I watched him struggling to stay alive after drinking 14 bottles of beer. I was only eight years old at the time. So, you see, because if my sister, my parents died and left me in this hellhole of a mansion with 13 maids who eventually all left me by the time I was 12. It was like hell. I knew I had to do something with my life. When I met Derek, Jacob, and Seph, they complimented me on my sword fighting skills, which I've been practicing since I was four, and suggested that I start an academy for young boys. They told me about the nine lives when they found out about my ability to communicate with snakes. Ever since then, I trained young boys who knew about the nine lives. So here I am now. So before you say that you're sorry for my loss, just know that I'm better than ever and I have 50 new family members by my side. You lost your family as well. They're not dead, but you'll never see them again. Even if you do, they won't remember you. When I turned 13, I met you, and I saw my old self in you. I wanted you to overcome your hardships and become strong. We don't mourn in this mansion. We turn our hardships into opportunities. That's why I felt so attached to you because that's just what you did. You're a quick learner, you learned sword fighting and how to use your powers in just a few months. You never gave up. So . . . I admire you."

I didn't realize that I was crying until he wiped my tears off of my face. I looked into his eyes and saw that he was crying, too. We'd both lost everything but endured the pain of it. Our hardships gave us strength. 

Through bitter memories, I gained a prominent ally.