MARSH𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗢 | Theirs (BL)

EIGHTEEN

(I just realized that my chap13 is now below chap18😭 which I tried to rearrange the chaps in the table of contents, TF it didn't even changed😭😭🤧🤧it won't even change🤬🔥😭🤧) ewan ko ba bat ba na papunta ung chap13 sa ibaba nng chap18, takte, d tuloy sunodsunod ung chapter🤧😭😭😭🔥

MARSHMALO | THEIRS

Li's uncle greeted him with a worried expression as he returned home in the early morning hours. "I was so worried about you! What happened last night?"

Ignoring his uncle, Li made his way to the staircase. "I'm asking you a question, young man!" Rhys raised his voice. Li stopped in his tracks, poking his tongue inside of his cheek before turning around to look at him. "Are you really that worried, Rhys?"

Li took a step forward. "I am really worried! What if something happened-"

"Stop with your act! You pretender!" Li shouted at him, rage in his eyes, making Rhys taken aback, feeling lost, hurt, and exposed. "Elli-"

"I know you're not really my uncle, so stop pretending," Li gritted.

"L-li, let me explain -"

"You think I'm an idiot? My uncle had a mole on the right side of his neck, and his name is Reign," Li said. "You think I'd forgotten? No, because I remember it all. Since the day my mom introduced him to me when I was 10, I was already there. Elliot wasn't aware of it when I suddenly took over." Li's eyes widened, tears flooding in.

Rhys was at a loss for words, unable to find the right thing to say. It was foolish of him to use his own name instead of fully pretending to be Reign and using that name, but he couldn't. He thought Elliot had forgotten about it because Elliot seemed to have forgotten, just observing how he reacted when they first met. But he didn't know that Li remembered everything. He didn't know about Li...

"Li-"

"No, don't talk to me," Li said coldly. "I've had enough of you, all of you." With that, Li went straight upstairs, entered his bedroom, and slammed the door closed behind him.

He immediately rummaged through his dresser drawer, obviously looking for something. "Where is it..." He cursed under his breath. "Where the heck is it?!" He almost threw his clothes around as he searched for something.

His nostrils flared, stomping his way to open his door and head out. Once he opened his door, Rhys stood in front of him, holding his hand up with the cutter in it. "Are you looking for this?"

Li looked at him before glancing at the cutter again. "Give it to me," Li gritted, attempting to snatch it away from him but only making the older man hold it high, out of reach.

As much as Rhys didn't want to bother him further, he had to do something. After learning that this kid had a personality disorder, Li might be even worse off than Elliot.

Li jumped, attempting to reach it but failed. "Give it to me right now!"

"And what are you going to do with it? Hurt yourself with it? I'm not going to let you," Rhys said sternly, turning on his heels and heading downstairs, leaving Li clenching his fists and jaw in frustration.

In the middle of the living room, suddenly, a crash was heard upstairs. Rhys's head shot up, and he immediately went upstairs to see what had happened.

"Li!"

The full-length mirror in Li's room was cracked, with large pieces scattered on the floor as the lamp lay broken beside it. Li held a piece of the mirror, allowing its edge to cut his wrist. It was clear that Li was even worse off than Elliot.

_

"Seriously..." Li ended up sitting down in the living room as the older man cleaned up his mess. He looked at his bandaged wrist, thinking to himself, 'It doesn't look bad at all.'

Meanwhile, upstairs, Rhys let out an exhausted sigh. That kid was the worst when it came to hurting himself. He felt lost, guilty, and saddened at the thought of why he even did this when he could just tell him the truth. He wanted to cry right now; it felt like he failed to take care of his boyfriend's nephew.

There was stained blood on the wooden floor of the younger's bedroom, but he couldn't look at it as memories flashed straight back into him.

He tiredly headed downstairs.

When he came to the living room and saw Li staring at the black TV screen, he walked over to him and sat down beside him. "You know..." Li started, tiredness in his voice. "Sometimes I want to end myself... I feel like I failed at being something - at being someone..."

Rhys listened and glanced at him. "He cried and I listened, he tried and I watched him... It was kinda like that... There's something wrong with me - or with Elliot... Like I shouldn't have existed in him, or more like he shouldn't have existed like that."

Rhys looked at him as his voice lowered, "He's so fragile, scared of everything while I... me..." Li gritted his teeth, but then his grip weakened, breaking into sobs. "Why do I feel so... betrayed?" He laughed at his own words. "So angry, so scared, so pathetic at everything... why? Why..."

"Because this is all his fault," Li said darkly. Rhys furrowed his brows. "What do you mean, 'his fault'?"

Tears streamed down Li's face. "My father," he said directly. "Mr. Keys's?"

"They're not my biological parents. Keys is not my real surname," Li said. Rhys looked at him in shock. "Elliot doesn't know anything about this, only I knew."

"He was there with me - with us... as if he planned it all along, to watch me grow, to watch me suffer - crying in despair, pathetically crawling to plead to stop all of the pain."

"Then Uncle Reign came... he was young yet so protective... we only got to see each other for weeks, then he never came back to see me." Rhys could feel the pain in his voice, strained.

"While my foster parents never told Elliot that he was just adopted because seemingly he can forget things so easily, he thought his real parents came to rescue him - because I'm the one who was there when our foster parents adopted us - Elliot wasn't aware of anything, so that's what he thought. He thought they were his real parents..."

"I'm sorry..." Rhys managed to say, his voice heavy with sympathy.

"Elliot was so naive... so innocent and pure, but ended up getting hurt again. It was all because of him, our real father who introduced himself as Mr. Keys' friend...? I found it a very bad introduction. I hate how he manipulated them, tricked them..."

Rhys placed his palm on the younger's back, comforting him.

"In the end, he was finally caught and sentenced to life in prison."

"I remember how he was so disappointed when he thought he could make me cry that easily... I took over that time - Elliot forced me to take over without realizing it himself."

"Yet his disappointment was enough to make me smile in victory. As if he couldn't get enough of it, he was so, so disappointed - the last time he tortured Elliot, it was me, it was me all along whom he tortured before he was caught. I remember laughing at him..."

"I felt nothing..."

REWRITTEN 🖤