My mother named me Conn, after one of the children of Lir from the Irish mythology. The agonising story about Lir's children, who were doomed to live as swans when sunlight appeared and turned into their human form when the light of a full moon shined upon them. I heard about her love to swans from the moment I was born, she'd always tell me that they symbolised purity and innocence.
My name is all I have left of mother.
Ever since my mother passed away, I've had this curse following me around; a curse that only brings me war. My whole life I've been told to not be weak--to keep swimming in the sea, even if there are sharks craving the scent of a nobody.
But the day I found mother breathless, her face pale and her palms cold, something changed within me, as if a piece of me disappeared with her, the purity and innocence she gave me throughout my name was forever gone.
Father decided it was a good time to leave, to start again, somewhere far away from mother's grave. He picked New York. I thought at first that I'd fight his decision when I first heard the news, but then it hit me; nothing mattered anymore.
Father missed mother everyday, to the point where he enrolled me in the same private school they attended at my age. I didn't fight that decision either, but I wish I had because everything turned upside down at Swan School. The school mother chose only because of its name.
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Swan
Mystery / ThrillerConn's mother had just passed away and his father wanted to start a new life somewhere else. All he had left of his mother was his name; a name from a mythology about the children of Lir.
