A Twist of Tales (On Hold)

13. Aaravon

AARAVON

Four weeks.

Ma had been dead for four weeks. You could already see grass growing over the dark spot where we had buried her.

It would be a lie if I said that I had managed so far without her.

After we had buried her, we had gone back to the house. I didn't know what to do. And to be honest, in that moment, when everything got turned upside down, it didn't matter to me.

It didn't matter that I had no idea what to do next. It didn't matter that every time I tried to take out that small little diary that Ma had left me my hands would start shaking, making it impossible for me to read it.

That day, Gordon asked me what I was going to do now. I said that I had to find someone, that I would leave the forest. But then, as soon as Gordon had gone home, fear started to settle in on me. Fear of what might happen, if I didn't find this Anselm.

I couldn't disappoint her, I couldn't.

And so I did the only thing that prevented me from failing. I stayed where I was and didn't leave. If I didn't search for him, I couldn't disappoint her, right?

But life wasn't the same anymore, not without her, not without Ma.

Gordon saw my misery and offered me a place to stay. He thought that if I didn't have to wake up in the same old empty house, if I didn't have to face everything that reminded me of her, I would start to recover, to heal.

But now that I had nothing of her left, not even those small reminders, it hurt even more. But I didn't move back to my old home. Because, even though I was in pain, I knew that going back wouldn't help my case.

The best thing for me to do was to start over, to forget everything that happened and move on.

But I wasn't ready, not yet, the pain was still too real. I wasn't ready to forget and move on, and to be honest, I didn't know if I ever would be.

There wasn't much left for me to do. I sold Ryder to a merchant a few days after Ma's death. I didn't know how exactly she died, and I would probably never find out.

But that night, when I had found her, I knew that it was Ryder who killed her. I didn't know how or why, but I knew that it was him. And that was enough for me to sell him, I couldn't bear looking at him without having to see the image of my dying mother, lying on the ground.

"Ah, there he is!" a drunken voice exclaimed, bringing me back to reality.

Turning my head, I caught the sight of a drunken man walking towards me. I turned back to the counter and took a sip of beer, the cold liquid running down my throat.

"I was looking for you, Aaron," the man said as he put an arm around my shoulder.

"Go away, Egon," I said as I tried to shrug him off. "I am not in the mood to talk to you right now."

"Why not, Aaron? Come on, it's not like someone died today, right?" he asked. I knew that he was only trying to provoke me, but that didn't mean that his words didn't trigger something inside me.

I should have known that coming to the inn was a bad idea; Ma never wanted me to go there. But what else was I supposed to do? I couldn't just sit around doing nothing. And going to the inn was the only way for me to forget my pain, even if it was just for a moment.

And now, thanks to Egon, I wasn't even able to do that.

I took a deep breath, trying not to lose control. I sure didn't want a repeat of last time.