Polaris

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"You're so funny." She covered her mouth with her hand, and smiled at me, patting my head. "I'll bring you to Luci now."

I gave her a questioning look, but she only smiled mysteriously, before hopping off the last step on the stairs, and extending her hand to help me. I quickly took her up on her offer. After all, my legs couldn't function that well after what it had endured the past few years.

After exiting the large empty area where the stairs met, Blair pulled me towards a corner, and we started walking.

After a dozen twists and turns, I was dragged into a huge space, with a giant flat screen TV mounted on the wall, and a ceiling to floor window, showing off the vast expanse of the garden.

I widened my eyes in awe, and noticed Luka seated there elegantly, his leg crossed over another. The TV wasn't turned on, though. He seemed to be looking through some papers, deep in thought.

"Luci." A sudden call made me exit my daydreams. Blair beckoned to Luka, immediately garnering his attention. He whipped his head up, and noticed me, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

"You guys already met?" He asked. Before I could reply, Blair did.

"Yeah. I see why you would do what you do." Blair snickered mischievously.

Luka scrunched up his eyebrows a little, and his face tinted red. I giggled at his face, but I was still confused why his face turned red. Blair pulled me over to the sofa, and sat me down. Taking a seat beside me, she turned on the TV, and asked me what I wanted to watch.

I lowered my head and bit my lower lip. I couldn't answer her. "Um, anything?" I tried. Blair sighed softly, before pressing on a few buttons, and a show started to play.

"Harry Potter should be fine, right?" Blair said. I nodded my head quickly. I didn't know what wasn't fine, anyways.

We sat there watching the show and I was becoming pretty invested. But the little seed of discomfort quickly grew in my mind, telling me I shouldn't be here. Being so comfortable.

The little fluttering feeling in my stomach turned into a twisted mess.

Breathing a little heavily, I excused myself to go to the washroom, but I immediately got lost. Sensing my breathing quicken, I entered the nearest door, a black one with a silver doorknob.

The inside was dim, so I turned on the light with a switch, and grasped in my pocket for a glass shard. Cutting just really helped me to calm down. The pain took my mind away from my thoughts.

Breathe, Blaine. Breathe.

I looked at the glass shard, my vision a little blurry. I was seeing double. I should find a place to sit down, but when I looked around the room, I only saw a massive black table in the middle of the room, with two ceiling to floor shelves at each of its sides, stacked with countless books.

Where was I, again..?

On the table, there were a stack of documents neatly placed at the side, and it looked like the one Luka was reading just now. On the middle, there was a sleek laptop that was turned off, and the table was decorated by a vase of flowers and a photo frame. I couldn't see the photo, since I was opposite of it.

Curiosity taking over me, I walked to the seat, immediately plopping down and letting out a sigh of relief. I spent a few minutes reorganising my thoughts, and getting my eyesight back. I still felt extremely lightheaded, and I definitely couldn't trust myself to walk in a straight line.

After blinking profusely, I took a good look at the photo frame. It looked like an old photo, a little yellowed and clearly aged. However, it seemed to be taken care of a lot. Squinting closely, I could make out a roller coaster in the background and a child, with a head of red hair right smack in the middle of the picture, the main character. Beside him stood a young teenage girl, with her hand on the child's head.

Beside the both of them, there was a teenage boy, with his arms around the girl's shoulders, with a aged man behind all of them, with a scar running down his face. The picture depicted them all with a smile, obviously happy.

What a foreign concept.

Looking at the date carefully written at the bottom right corner in cursive, it seemed to be a picture from 9 years ago.

I felt the little seed of discomfort turn to pity. For whom?

Me.

Why didn't I have a normal family?

Why couldn't I be like them?

Having fun and laughing and doing things together?

Why do I always get beat up?

What did I do wrong?

Without me knowing, a tear dripped onto the table. Soon, it turned into a river of tears. I was wiping them desperately away, trying not to get any on the table.

So useless, useless. That's all I am.

Useless.

The many horrible experiences flooded my mind again, my hands subconsciously moving over my head to protect myself. I clenched tufts of hair in my hands, almost as if I was going to rip them out.

No, I'm not there. I'm here. I'm safe.

Right?

I whispered to myself, trying to calm myself down. The tears only blocked my already blurry vision. No, I needed to get these thoughts out of my mind. My eyes scanned the room for any quick distractions.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the binder, and in my hazed mindset, I immediately pulled the binder towards me.

Opening it, the many strings of words and numbers caught me off guard.

And then I saw.

"Recipient: Luka Rizel
CEO of Noir Inc"

What?

The door slammed open, and the red head of hair immediately told me who it was.