River & Revenge

04 | valak's abandoned daughter

Rosalyn was like a pest. He wanted nothing but to get rid of her, but she had been the only one to offer help and politeness for her was an obligation.

"Do you like the house by the way? I added lights in the room last night, they're nice, aren't they? They were cheap too!" She grinned, her thin lips stretching wide and further sickening him but he had no time to express his hatred. He hated the way she looked, he hated the way she talked but instead of every cruel word he felt she deserved, all she got was a smile.

He couldn't afford to chase her away.

"Not bad," he kept his answers short.

Past the large metallic gate, there was a small front yard, feather-like grasses covered the entire area. A bunch of wildflowers grew out of those unwanted plants, acting as a sight of beauty to one's eyes. Even with his shoes on, the grass tickled his exposed skin near the joint. He groaned when a bunch of them tangled at his foot, glaring and kicking them away, stepping on the white flowers along the way.

He threw my foot around more, getting rid of more unwanted plants that came his way.

"It belonged to my father." She said, almost weeping.

He wasn't sure how to comfort her. If that was what she needed at all, and neither had the will for it.

"Why didn't you live here then?" He questioned instead and she fell into silence.

"He kicked me out."

"What a shame." He whistled to himself.

"Do you want to know why?" He stared at her for a moment. She may have made him nervous but he knew how to reciprocate that. Anxiousness was dripping from her face when she kept blinking, attempting to look everywhere but at him. He had learned the trick years ago—the key was to keep a poker face, not blink and think about something funnily cruel.

He had thought about Ander trapped in the attic with the vicious rats when his mother had come home drunk, and he thought about Rosalyn falling from her very own window when she didn't give up being nosy. Worked like a charm.

She looked away, as quick as a cat.

He wasn't interested in her question, but he knew she was interested in opening up to him. At her query, he stopped walking. He knew he couldn't be too straightforward with her but feigning to care was something he was incapable of. "Rosalyn, when you saw my name in the newspaper a few years ago, what did it say?"

He was certain she had something in mind. She should be far away from him, anyone with a rational mind would abandon him at the main gate, wishing him a painful death as a goodbye but here she was, willing to confide. Was she that lonely?

"That. . .that. . . did you really do it?"

"What do you think?"

"You don't look that cruel. It was a false accusation, wasn't it?"

"Looks can be deceiving." He shrugged and she fell out of words, he knew she was itching to know more.

"Is River your real name?" She breathed in and he tilted his head, curious where that question came from.

"No," it was a lie.

"Oh."

He was certain she lacked common sense, half the population knew his identity, and his alias wouldn't be the one published nor plastered all over the media when he had been hunted by the authorities for seven months now.

"Ander said it was."

Ander had been a pain in his ass ever since they were kids. He had tried befriending him, the unknown boy who out of nowhere had become a part of his life along with his mother's new boyfriend but he was chirpy, too chirpy for his liking. Always running after him with his mindless bobbleheads and ratting him out to Mom when he threw them on fire.