MALEVOLENT HEART | TK

Chapter Twenty Four

I want to be someone you used to hate
Without the memory of the pain
I went too far, now we can't restart
It's like we cut the brakes, tore 'em off the car
Ninety miles inside the dark
Familiar scars, and electric hearts

I know I'm gonna die in this bed I made
And I'm drowning in a dream that I can't escape
If I could wake up I'd hesitate

But it's too late to turn back now
Oh God, I tried but I don't know how
If I could escape it
I'd trade in the blame, you can take it
If I doesn't take me first
If I doesn't take me first

***

The child was looking at them with wide eyes, his irises so dark they almost seemed to resemble an endless pit of darkness that would never reach the light they all tried to push him towards. He was pale, thin, and he had an ill look to him that made the doctors wonder how bad his condition truly was.

Still, it wasn't the physical condition which made them question the child's state and health.

It was his mental instability.

"Do you think he'll be able to recover?" The man asked, his brows furrowed as he stared at the child's distant eyes and his dazed irises. "He's seen and heard too much for a child his age."

The woman by his side walked around the chair on which the child was sitting, her eyes never leaving him. He wasn't moving, he wasn't even acknowledging them.

"He's not neurodivergent. We've run the tests." She stated. "He doesn't show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder either. And yet, he won't talk." She continued, her brows furrowed as she glanced down at the boy. "To anyone. He's been like this for months already. Eating when he's given food, going to the bathroom when he's asked to. He doesn't know what his own needs are but, despite his disturbing behavior, he seems to be extremely intelligent and perceptive."

The child's eyes were distant. They had a honey-like color, extremely beautiful, but they were dazed and so devoid of life that the two doctors found it both heartbreaking and worrying.

"Do you think this is a defense mechanism?" The man asked, wondering if all the traumatic events he had been through had finally staked their claim on the boy's soul.

However, the woman shook her head as she stared at the CT of the child's brain.

It was healthy and showed no signs of illness.

"No." She lowered her eyes, tilting her head to the side as she gazed at the child. A small smile appeared on her lips as she gazed at the child. "I think little Taehyung is just ignoring us. He's throwing a tantrum."

The boy, for the first time, looked at her—truly looked at the woman in front of him and, for the first time in months, his brows flinched.

"Can you leave us alone?" She asked out loud, making her colleague leave as she smiled at the boy. "Hello, Taehyung. You might already be familiar with my face, but I never truly introduced myself, did I?"

The boy did not respond. The woman took a chocolate bar from the counter, opening it and offering it to the child.

"My name is Anna." She said, her smile genuine as she watched the boy gently take the bar from her hands. "Would you like to walk with me in the garden? There is a swing there we can sit on. It's extremely beautiful."

"What do you think, Taehyung?" The woman asked as she showed the child a photograph.

Taehyung's hazel eyes lowered towards it, his eyebrows slightly raised as he gazed at the picture. It was a picture of Anna and a little girl she had treated, that's what she had told him. She had brown hair and extremely large eyes, her irises black and almost void of emotions.