Never Fated To Be |✅|

Chapter 1 : Enter, My Dark Childhood

You might find me quite weird.
I like the smell of my own sweat. At least it's better than the smell of blood or rotting dead bodies.

When I was very young, I had been treated like I should've been dead, like I should've never existed. I really shouldn't have. My mother died while giving birth to me. After that, my father and my relatives abandoned me.

I was taken in by a couple who didn't have anything or anyone to live for. They resided in the depths of a huge dark forest situated on a high hill. And so I was used to living alone and living in the dark since I was three. But I never saw the couple even once. They always left me alone. I was given food but never allowed to see the face of the person. It was like the couple was forced to look after me but never look at me. And since I was so small and didn't have the senses to actually understand or know anything, I didn't realise why my existence was hated and feared so much.
That was until I turned ten years old.

One day, when I was sitting on a bench in the backyard of the house, I spotted a boy who looked my age among the trees.
Finally! I thought back then, Someone I can look at!
I was satisfied by just looking at his face- small, fair and beautiful. He had a mop of tousled hair on his head, the colour same as mine- pitch black.

I was given these old torn cloth dolls to play with and spend my time. I wasn't given much education except some books that helped me learn the basics of reading, writing and speaking. I roamed around the forest sometimes when I got bored capering with those dolls and going through the books again and again but I wasn't allowed to stray too far. There was a fence not far away from the backyard. That accounted as my limit.
But that day, before I could decide to go into the woods and meet the stranger, the pretty boy walked right up to me! He came near my spot where I was sitting in the open backyard of the house and smiled at me!

That was probably the first time I saw someone smile. Scratch that, that was the first time I saw someone whom I could remember. And I was glad the person was my age and didn't know me.
But little did I know that if he had known me and my condition, he probably would've run away screaming or never walked up to me at all.

And so I didn't care. I was overjoyed. He was like my prince charming who (though he did not have a horse) had come to me to make me his friend.
'Hey, what are you doing here?' The boy asked.

Although there wasn't anyone around the place, I still looked behind me to make sure he was talking to me.
'I am talking to you.' He said, though there was no hint of impatience in his voice.
'Hi, . . . . I . . . live here.' I stammered in answer.
'Here?' He said and scrunched up his nose. His eyes roamed around the whole house as if it was a creepy witch's mansion with black crows and scary statues like the ones in Disney movies.
Okay, maybe it did kinda look like one of those mansions but it wasn't that scary. Or maybe it kinda was.

'Yes, I do live here.' I said, 'And you?'
'I am Rick. I live down there.' He said and pointed down the hill and at the highway seven kilometres away from the bottom of the hill. It led to a city but there were a few houses near the highway too.
I gasped,
'How did you come here?'
'I was adventuring through the forest and lost my way. But now since I reached the top, I can see my house and I'll easily find my way back.'
'Your parents allowed you to venture this far?'
'They don't live with me. I live with my grandpa. My parents work in the city and live there too. So they don't know I'm here on this hill.'
'Don't you have any other friends?'
'No, I moved in a few days ago. So I haven't really got a chance to make any friends. But, we can be friends, right?' He looked straight into my eyes and I was immediately on cloud nine. My heart was overflowing with happiness and I had the widest smile plastered on my face.