FALLING | MxM (completed)

Chapter 77

Edite

'Aiden's album release date delayed due to mental health issues.

According to the label, Aiden has been struggling with severe depression for a while now. The artist's condition has been getting worse, resulting in the decision to take a step back and get proper treatments.''

***

Edwin didn't know what was worse. The fact that the label had made an official announcement or the fact that they had lied.

After almost three weeks of having no sign of Aiden whatsoever, the company's CEO paid a visit to the hospital, having a long talk with both Edward and Chad, and decided to make the singer's hiatus official. The fans had been going crazy, making the #WhereisAiden and #FindAiden hashtags trending nonstop, and they deserved some kind of explanation.

But, they lied. Of course, it was for the best. After all, even having 'severe depression' was equal to being mental in the public's eye, even in this day and age. They couldn't go ahead and tell them about the multiple personality disorder or Aiden's career would come to an end right on the spot.

They had talked to Aiden's mother like Edward had wanted to, and even now, after about a week, Edwin was still processing everything. He had thought out of the two of them, he was the one with more drama in his life while growing up, having an unstable sister with parents who really didn't understand why she was the way she was, but hearing Aiden's mother say all those things... he wanted to punch himself. He had let the older embrace him and help him calm down and get back on his feet after his endless crying sessions. He had fallen asleep countless times, alone, while thinking that the older was performing and doing what he loved and enjoyed, while he was alone and cold. He knew it wasn't true, and that Aiden missed him dearly, but like all other people, he thought Aiden was actually finally having it all, despite all the episodes he experienced here and there. And boy was he wrong.

Aiden had told him about his childhood. Not everything, not in detail, but he had. And even the little bit of the older's past that he decided to share with Edwin had hurt him back then. Every time he had dared to think about the things Aiden had to go through growing up, his chest ached. All those times that he had hugged Aiden out of nowhere and got the older by surprise was the proof of it. He had wanted to make all those memories disappear so that maybe Aiden would finally be able to have a peaceful all-night sleep without having night terrors. Only that all that he knew wasn't the reason for the nightmares. Aiden himself couldn't remember the real reason, apparently.

It is a common coping strategy. The human brain erases the painful memories or the ones that had caused fear. Aiden had lost a memory as well. The one that brought Hector to life. He could still hear Aiden's mother's voice clearly...

"Aiden's father and I... we didn't get along well. He was a drug addict and had no proper job. He would disappear for days. Sometimes we didn't have any food, and because we lived in another city than my parents, I couldn't ask them to bring us any either. He was still an infant. He was hungry, crying until he got tired. I didn't have any milk, so I just played with him until he fell asleep. The times he was home, though, we would be moving from one house or city to the other, running away from all the people he owed money to. I had to cover the windows with thick blankets so that it wouldn't show any shadows from the outside so that they would think no one was home, and Aiden could play or watch TV freely. He wasn't a loud kid, though. Somehow all the hushes and shut-ups that he heard from his father made my poor kid silent in his first couple of years of living. And then one day he put us both in his car and drove us to my parents' house. He said I don't want you two in my life anymore and left. I actually felt a bit relieved, but little did I know that the maniac would lose his mind in a short time after that. Aiden was, I think he was around 9?, when one day I couldn't find him when I went to pick him up from school. After searching everywhere, one of the mothers said she saw a man picking won up, and that he had run to him with a bright smile on his face so no one had suspected anything. That asshole kidnapped my kid. He wanted us back, but I refused. He said he would do something that would leave me no choice but to go back to him. Kidnapping Aiden had been his solution. He didn't let him go to school for the next week. He just called and let me talk to him to show he was okay. Aiden was happy during that week. The asshole was treating him really good, like never before, and my baby was over the moon from all the affection he was receiving for the first time from his father. After a week, he got tired of waiting. He called me and threatened to kill both himself and Aiden if I didn't go back. I didn't understand. He didn't even like me, but Aiden's life was in danger so I went to the place he told me to with my father. It was a half-built building way outside the city, in the middle of nowhere. Aiden was in the car. I didn't notice him there first but then when a dog started barking next to it, I saw Aiden inside, trembling and crying in fear. My father made the dog escape and I tried to get my son out but it was locked. He was crying so loudly, saying he was scared and to please let him out. The asshole had left him there alone for hours. After a few minutes of struggling to open it, but to no avail, I screamed for him to come out already. I knew he was nearby, watching and enjoying it all. He was crazy. He enjoyed watching other people suffer. He walked to us like he had done nothing wrong with a smile on his face, opening the door and hugging Aiden in his arms tightly. When Aiden stopped crying, he put him down and took his little hand in his giant, ugly one. I called Aiden to come to me and he wanted to, but the maniac tightened his hand and made him wince in pain. I can still see his tiny little face looking up at his father with his scared eyes while having his hand crushed in the grip. Anyway... he told us to talk inside the building. The talking, as you can guess, didn't end well. We ended up fighting. My father and I were beating him and he wasn't exactly holding back either. Aiden was trembling in the corner, watching us and crying to himself silently. He ran into the only room that had a door and locked it behind him. It took us a while to notice the steam that was coming out from the cracks during all the fighting. The aladdin heater caused a fire in the room Aiden was in. We tried to open the door, but it was locked. His father broke it down, and we found Aiden curled up in the far corner, staring at the flames. He went inside and hugged Aiden, but as soon as they were out of the room, Aiden bit him hard. He let go of Aiden and as soon as he was on the ground, he started running. We were on the second floor. My baby was so out of it and scared of all of us that he didn't see the stairs and fell down... When he woke up the next day, he was completely different. He didn't talk, he didn't show any reaction to his name or anything anyone said. He would just keep his distance from us. He would just draw and play around alone. After a while, we took him to a doctor and after months of weekly visits, he explained to me that Aiden wasn't being himself anymore. That was when I first found out about it. But he didn't have any name back then. Max said he's calling himself Hector now?... Well, Hector hated me a lot. He also hated my father. He didn't say anything, but we knew from the way he looked at us like he wished to just murder us in sleep. And one day, all of a sudden, Aiden was back. I don't know what made him come back, but he did and I thought he was okay and that the doctor had been wrong all along. That it was all a shock but... seems like I was wrong. I was just happy that he didn't seem to remember anything about what happened."

Edwin felt the tears that ran down his cheeks again. Every time he remembered those words, he would start crying without any control over it. The need to just run up those stairs and hug Aiden, although he was not being Aiden at the moment, was strong. But he held back. He was still not even remotely close to Hector. They had talked a couple of sentences here and there, but they still ignored and avoided each other for the most part.

"Why are you crying?" He heard a voice say as two skinny legs appeared in front of his blurry visions. It was dark, and he had been hiding in the corner of the yard Lili used to hide back when she was here. He couldn't believe someone would find him there. Looking up, he met the long-haired boy's eyes.

"Joshua, what are you doing here? You should be asleep." Edwin said while raising his hand to wipe his face.

Joshua crouched down, grabbed his wrist in one hand, and rubbed his thumb on his cheeks gently with the other to wipe the tears away. Edwin was taken aback. He looked at the long-haired beauty in front of him who was talking to him for the first time ever after all those weeks and actually caring for him?!

"You shouldn't be crying alone." Joshua said in that emotionless voice of his. That was the thing about this boy. He never showed any emotion in his voice or on his face, as if he was a black hole in the form of a human body. Edwin had read his file, and Joshua had had his fair share of shitty life as well. Almost too harsh for a fragile, soft-looking boy like him.

"Who should I be crying with then?" he sniffled. "It's okay. Let's get you back inside. It's chilly here and you're not wearing anything." The boy was just covered in a thin, light purple robe.

Before he could stand up from his position, his leg was pushed down and Joshua's head landed on his lap, looking up into the sky. Edwin's eyes became wide once again at the action. What was all of this attention suddenly about?!

Seeing he had no other option, he relaxed and leaned back against the stone wall again, looking at the boy that was reflecting the few stars of the night in his eyes.

"Do you think the stars are really what people say they are? That anyone who dies becomes a star so that the ones on earth can always look up and see them?" His voice was no more than a quiet whisper and his fingers were intertwined together, resting on his flat stomach.

Edwin looked up at the sky as well. There weren't many stars there, and he was kind of sure the ones that were showing were actually satellites.

"I don't know, but I think it's a beautiful thing to believe in. That way you can always have them by your side and remember them whenever you look up." He felt Joshua's head move as the boy tore his eyes away from the unlimited black and looked at him instead. Edwin followed suit and their eyes met.

"Do you remember anyone when you look up, Edwin?" He almost looked like a kid with how innocent he looked under the moonlight, looking at him and waiting for his reply as if he knew all the answers in the world.

Edwin hummed and smiled. There were a few strands of hair that were blocking a bit of the beautiful boy's eye that he brushed away. "I remember my sister." He looked back up. A star was blinking repeatedly. "Although I'm not even sure if she's up there or not."

"I think she is."

Edwin caught the boy's gaze again. "Why do you think that?" He asked carefully.

"The room I'm staying at, Hector said it used to be your sister's. I asked him where she is now and he said she disappeared. I think she disappeared to up there, finally finding the peace we all deserve and don't have down here." He pointed at the sky and his eyes lit up, and Edwin could swear he saw a smile before it vanished a second later, like it had never been there.

"I just hope that she's having that peace, wherever she is." He exhaled, looking at the boy who didn't seem to want to rip his eyes away from the nature's ceiling. They sat there for a long time. Joshua looking up and him looking at the boy who had his head on his lap. There was something calm about him like this, unlike the unleashed devil he was during the day.