The Voiceless Bird (Karasu's Backstory)

Car Ride

The rattling of the car is heard again. Karasu sits alone in the back seat, in front of him, his two parents. Karasu's emerald eyes scan the quickly passing trees, the whole world looking like a blur as the sleek black car makes its journey to their home. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. The 15 year old being a mute didn't help the situation at all, the lack of a voice making it hard to even speak up for himself, against them, for them, or with them. The car radio was silent, adding to the tense atmosphere. It wasn't his fault, that he was born mute. It isn't his fault, that his only friends are birds in the park. It isn't his fault, that his parents no longer wanted to try to connect with him, even going as far as to taking away his tablet.

Karasu sighs, remembering the past that was just a distant memory that can never be relived. Back when he would smile with his parents, without a care in the world, with the knowledge of the full support they would give. The knowledge that he was loved. Now, he ponders if they still care for him. Ever since Karasu had gotten honours in the Heiwa School of Ornithology, managing to skip a year, his parents had...been treating him differently, to put it nicely. Karasu stares out the window, and his reflection stared back at him. Black hair, and emerald eyes with a depth of the drowning light. He was wearing a dark blue checkered shirt, and navy blue jeans. The entire time he had been in the school, his parents had always tried to dissuade him from continuing the path he was on.

 
"Why don't you take a break?" "Ah, it's just puppy love. I doubt he can really do well here." "Just let him try, after he fails, he will listen to us."

He never failed. Instead, Karasu had worked his hardest on becoming an Ornithologist. It was his dream. He surpassed many others in the school, topping it, receiving his certificate and a badge. He was ecstatic, and when he got home to his parents to celebrate his success, what he got instead was a harsh barrage of insults.

"How dare you disobey our wishes?! Do you not care about us? We loved you and you do this to us?!" "It won't earn you enough, come on. Why can't you see it?!"

He unconsciously ran his palm across his left hand, feeling the unevenness of the skin, wincing slightly at the painful memories it brought. The cracking of the whip resounded in his ears. The tears rolling down his face in a silent waterfall, as he raised his left arm to shield himself. He couldn't say a thing, just the scrambling of his feet as he tried to get away, but his small build made it impossible to do so.

Pitter patter, the raindrops fall against the window of the car. Karasu glassy eyes refocus back onto the present. He hadn't even realised that it had started raining, and raining heavily. He silently hoped the birds that lives here have found shelter. The rain was calming, no thunder and lightning at all, as if the sky was relieving itself of its weight of its burden. Yet, the rain could never reach the inside of the car, the opposite realms of what is and what is not. Inside, the silence was crippling, and Karasu shifts uncomfortably in his seat, a headache starting to make itself known to him in his head. Suddenly, the voice of his father boomed in the car, as if it was thunder. Cold, and distant. It shook Karasu from his thoughts that always seemed to plague him, and then he moved to get out of the car. He was home, but that was not where his heart lied.