Saviour

The promise

I wonder why I didn't take him to the hospital, maybe I was scared that whoever tried killing him would come for him there. Although taking him to the hospital and getting professional help would have been the best yet I risked it and took care of him by myself. Taking his shirt off I saw stab wounds, they weren't deep but he still did bleed alot. Taking out the first aid professional kit, I started sewing him up. Only then I actually wished I went to med school but I was also thankful that I took professional first aid classes.
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                                                                     11 years ago
Mom and Dad are fighting as usual. But it's getting more heated than it noramlly is. From hot words they came to violence and Dad hit mom and mom hit him the plate. I sit under the table watching when Dad suddenly calls out to me, but I don't respond because he hits me too when he's mad. I sit there silently as he screams my name and mom curses at him to stop. Finally Dad notices my feet under the table and pulls me out as I scream.
"No daddy!!! No!!! I'm sorry!!!!." I don't know why I apologize to him as he beats me up. Every time I just see mom sitting in the corner crying as he beat me up. I hate dad and I hate mom too, she just screams at him to stop but doesn't do anything.
That evening Dad had planned more than just beating me with his punches. After a few blows he drops me to the floor and started walking somewhere. From my swollen eye and blurry vision I see him reaching for the bat placed by the counter. Even though I thought I had no energy, fear drived me and gave me enough power to run out of the house, I heard him screaming my name but I didn't care, I ran and reached the spot which I deemed safe, the river side, I don't know why I thought it was safe. It was least safest spot, an open space but I liked it here. Why? Because I made a friend here, when no one else would ever approach me in school or anywhere else, I made a friend in the most unexpected place. A nameless boy whom I named clover. 12 year old like me. He sat by the river way before I discovered the place. The first day I came here I was covered in bruises and so was he. We sat apart from each other but when I stared crying he walked over to me to give me a handerchief, an offwhite handkerchief with baby pink flowers on it and smiled at me with his bruised face and a broken teeth, he wiped away my tears with his dirty hands but didn't say anything. He didn't need to say anything. His warm gestures were more than enough to stop what trickled down my cheeks and put a slight smile on my face too and from then on it became my sanctuary, the river and the platform on the top of the stairs where we gazed at the stars admist the fireflies.
Slowly I discovered that clover was an orphan, not by fate like the other kids but by choice. A choice his parents made because they couldn't afford him. This is why the other kids at the orphanage bullied him, making fun of him, saying he was a child no one wanted and a bad omen, but that was not the reason he had bruises. He had them because he fought back.
A time back when both of us started having little bruises and then none. Why? Because we would run and come to the river as soon as our eyes open during the vacations and as soon as the last bell rang during school. He went to a different school than I did but it didn't matter since we spent all the time we could togather, only going home when the night was dark, ate whatever was left and went to sleep.
A year passed like this and we had grown awfully attached to each other when one day when coming back from school I saw a stall of keychains, I was going to ignore it when a particular key chain caught my eye. A three leaf clover. I stood staring at it and then ran to the vendor.
"Excuse me mister how much it that?" I pointed at the keychain.
"2 dollars."
"2?!?"
"Yeah kid, I know it's a keychain put not just any key chain. It was especially made by a priestess keeping in mind the meaning of it."
"Hmmm?"
"She made quite a few of these,Ya know what a three leaf clover means?"
"No..."
"It means love. And the keychain, if u give it to the person you love, he will never leave you."
"Okay, give it to me please!" I don't know why I believed his ridiculous story but the story didn't matter that much as much the clover did. I wanted to give it to clover and secrectly wished that the story the old man told me was true.

I was late as it was so I ran faster not caring about my surroundings and I ended up bumping into another vendor who sold keychains. The three leaved clover chain which I had tightly clutched into my hands slipped out of my hand as we both fell to the ground and it broke a little from the edge. My knees and elbows got bruised but the vendor helped me up. He also picked up the chain and after looking at it he said, "oh no! It broke a little kid, it won't work it's exact charm, want me to give you a new one?"
"No thankyou." I said as I snatched the keychain from him and began running again. I wish that I had gotten a new one then, maybe then clover would have stayed...

I reach the river but he wasn't there so I run to the top if the stairs and there he stood fidgeting over something. He got startled as he saw me, I wondered why but didn't ask. Like usual he didn't say much and we spent our time enjoying the company of each other with me talking non stop and him listening to whatever nonesense I spoke.
When it was time to leave and the fireflies danced around us with their flickering glows I pulled out the keychain for him.
"For you. It has a meaning behind it but I'm not gonna tell you about it. You have to find it yourself."
He stared at it for a while and then looked at me, "But I have nothing to give you."
"It's okay, you already gave me alot." I beamed at him.
"No."
"Hmmm?"
He was fidgeting again. Maybe something was troubling him.
"How about a promise?"
"Promise?" I asked.
"I know you always wanted a warm house to return to instead of a dark cold one and want to eat warm food and have a cozy bed."
I was confused at to what he was trying to say but was also expecting something. My heart raced as he said,
" I promise I'll give you that in the future and be your family. Right now I don't possess the power but I will in the future. That is... if you want to be with me in the future..."
He shifted shyly, looking at me and waiting for a reply. It was the first time he spoke so mucn in just one go. It made me so happy, maybe this was the happiest I had ever been, "Ofcourse!! I want to be with you forver!!" I yelled and then blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed but Clover smile clamed me down.
"Goodbye." I said ," Tomorrow okay?" He didn't reply just smiled, a rather sad smile.

It's been a week since clover didn't show up at the river. Fed up I finally visit the orphanage when I find his picture hanging up along with the pictures of the other children who had died in an accident.

A few days passed when my father finally divorced my mother. Mother was a nobody anyway, she had no where to go, she had no education and no way to feed me, the only reason father married her was due to his lust. No doubt mother was very pretty but that's all she had. so I lived with father. He didn't beat me since he married a much more capable women who kept him in her control. I was invisible to them but thats what I wanted. I wanted to be invisble to everyone.
After middle school I left home and went to high school in another city. Got myself a small apartment and worked for myself just to get past this life.