Amethyst 2. Embark ✓ [Editing Now]

18. Weak

Something was very wrong.

I could sense it as Aris walked over to the car, opening the front door and slid into it.

All was quiet for a while before he spoke in a barely audible whisper. "She has two kids."

"Aris?" Nia asked, her eyes wide with concern. "What?"

Aris was deathly quite for a while, before his shoulders started shaking uncontrollably as he broke down.

He wailed. Tears streaming down his eyes. Deep, ragged bretahs escaping him as he struggled to breathe. Sobs racked his entire body.

I felt a pang in my heart as my suspicions were confirmed.

"She...she said...she has a family there," he spluttered, tears punctuating his speech. "She said she didn't...didn't...want....to-" he sniffled loudly. "Me."

He was barely comprehensible over his loud cries. His face was agonized. His green eyes dark, hollow. Like an unending chasm had opened behind them.

"She said...she said my dad forced her to have me," he lay his head on the car seat as sobs racked his entire body. Stuttered. Like he had been holding it back since forever.

His spirit sounded broken.

And with that, something inside me broke.

"Aris," Nia whispered, her eyes glistening as she leaned over and hugged him close. His body trembled, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably as he cried. Like something inside him had died.

I wrenched my eyes away from him and gazed outside the window at nothing. It felt like someone was squeezing my own heart.

"She said...she...doesn't...have space-" Nia gently stroked his back as he started crying impossibly harder. "She's my mother! How could she say that? How can I not mean anything to her? How can I be so easy to dispose?"

He took in a deep rattled breath, the agony in his voice tangible.

I closed my eyes, feeling my heart spiraling into a chasm as the pain in his voice seemed to penetrate through it.

"They look so happy..." his last words ended in a whisper. "How the fuck can she be happy when she abandoned her son like that? What the fuck do I do now? I have nowhere to go."

It seemed like Nia was at a loss for words. She hugged him close. Gently patting his back. Moving to and fro as she tried in vain to soothe him.

"She has her family Nia," he said, each of his aching word laced with agony. He looked tormented. Defeated. "She has a happy family. I have nothing. Not a fucking thing!"

His voice ended in broken whisper again as Nia glanced at me helpolessly. Her own eyes welled with tears and spilt as she held back a sob. "I'm sorry Aris. You don't deserve this..."

The air in the car felt suddenly solid. I opened the lock and stepped out, unable to take the stifling heat. I slammed the door hard behind me, rage burning my insides.

I gazed at the buiding for a while, envisioning walking up to them and making his selfish bitch of a mother see some sense. I didn't care why she left him. I didn't care that she had been unhappy. Nothing gave her the right to shatter Aris' life like she had.

In that moment, I could envision the entire house burning. Tongues of flames entwining with each other in a passionate dance of death as they annihilates the home that had broken Aris' heart. It would be fair. The pile of bricks held no importance for me when compared to his anguish.

I balled my fists and forced myself to look away from the building. I could feel the swirling warmth of the Starlight in my chest and was afraid I would burst into flames any moment.