°Orin°
Some memories are so clear, some are clouded over, foggy. All mixing into the amalgamation of just a few days.
Somehow, it was just a few days that decided how the rest of my measly existence would play out.
It started off far worse.
I remember being attacked on the street several times. Just trying to walk home and some random Soulless I'd never met would approach me, start asking me dumb shit.
Then they'd hurt me.
I remember being too defeated to fight back.
I didn't see the point.
But that was after everything.
To really make sense of it all, I have to think far back.
Back to the earliest memory I have...
It's late on the farm, the sun was going down, sky a palette of orange and pink. Silver clouds drifting overhead.
I remember how quiet that place used to be.
I must have only been, what, seven or eight?
Adult teeth half-formed, a bandage on my knee and nose.
I was one reckless kid alright.
Leaned up against the fence, watching the sheep with a mindless grin plastered on my face.
Mother called to me from the house, leaning out of the doorway.
She was so beautiful.
Yet in my memories, I could never make out a face.
Pale skin, dark hair hastily tied up, apron tight upon her dress.
Then nothing.
Even so, I just know that she was the most beautiful woman who ever existed.
I've never doubted that.
We'd settle down for dinner, me, her and Liam, all together.
She'd cook us all a fresh meal each and every night, they were always delicious.
Liam had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. He'd lived close by with his grandma.
But once she passed away, mother happily brought him in to live with us.
I remember saying that it was like the world's longest sleepover.
And she laughed.
I wish I could remember her laugh.
For the most part, she had always been the happy ray of sunshine in my life.
I'd seen her cry a few times.
"You look so much like your father..."
She'd weep, holding my face.
"I wish I could give you more...you deserve so much more..."
"You don't have to be like him, okay? You're a good boy."
"You can grow up and be whatever you want, sweetheart. I just know it. One day, you're going to be so very special. And I'm going to be so proud of you."
Most of the time, I didn't understand why she was crying.
Even now, I can't be entirely sure.
I never knew father, he left at an age my tired mind just can't reach back far enough to recall.
All I know is that he was the worst type of person.
That's all I need to know.
Mother worked so hard on the farm by herself, Liam and I doing what we could.
But we were just children.
We'd stay up late past our bedtimes and make up scary stories, or play hide and seek inside the barn.
We could spend hours of a day just giggling among the haystacks.
