Kingdom of Lies (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 9 [part 1]

I arrived at the yellow house, and between sobs, I went straight to the small room I shared with the twins. I closed the door behind me and sat on the bed. I wanted to pack up my things, but I realized that I had nothing of my own, everything I owned at the time I had borrowed from Cara.

My whole life was borrowed.

I was furious, angry about this situation. Why had they told me those things? What need to invent those lies? Why hadn't they left me alone?

I had to leave? What would I say when I saw Russell again? How would I confront him when he was convinced of a lie?

I didn't know what to do.

There was a knock on the door and the noise startled me. If I had to decide, I had to decide right then. I invited whoever was on the other side to come in. I expected to see Russell, but it wasn't him.

'Are you all right, Milaia?' Fredrick peeked in.

'Yes, I am, I'm fine.' I lied

'Can I come in?' He asked again.

I slowly nodded and watched him come in and close the door behind him. He came towards me, and without warning, sat down next to me.

'I said I'm fine.' I repeated due to his strange behavior.

'I know you're not. I can see the pain in your eyes, only those of us who go through something like that realize it.'

His words brought tears to my eyes. It was true, the expression was recognizable. The empty eyes, the fake smile. We shared something that no one else had. We had both felt our hearts breaking.

'Russell told you what happened to me?' He asked in a whisper, ignoring my crying.

'No,' I wiped my face with my arm, 'I figured he'll do it when he was ready, but he didn't say anything.'

I had shared my whole life with him, it was easy to talk to him, I recognized him as a safe place, I felt him as a part of me.

I had to stop thinking like that, otherwise everything would keep getting worse.

'Four years, three months and nine days ago I went hunting with my father. He was the real hunter in the family. He had taught Aaron and Rich, and that was my turn, later on, he would do it with Russell. He never did, though. We walked through the woods very carefully. However, something wasn't right, it was in the air. The twins say we all have an intuition of knowing when something good or bad is going to happen, I felt it that night. We didn't get very far before some guards from Bieno intercepted us.'

He lowered his head and took a deep breath, his hands shook, his body retracted into the painful memory.

'We could not fight them. My father kept asking them to let me go, but they did not listen. The more he fought them, the more they beat me. There, in the middle of the woods, they tortured me in front of him.'

He touched his face, pointing to the scar impossible to hide.

'They cut so deep that no healer could fix the wound. I screamed in pain, and they wouldn't stop. They didn't stop until my father stopped screaming and fighting. They put us in a wagon in handcuffs. I didn't feel my body from the pain I was feeling. So, I didn't feel when my father started to let go of my chain. I don't know how he did it, I don't remember anything well, all I know is that at one point I was next to him in the wagon, and then I was falling on the grass. I stayed still until the morning. They found me in a deplorable state.'

I didn't know what to say. What could I say? Nothing I said could make up for what Fredrick had experienced. There were no words that could heal those wounds.