Raven of the Storm

I.Deceiver

"Reach for the stars." I have grown tired of this slogan. Ever since the Empire settled on Mars, I have seen this written on all the posters and heard it in all the propaganda ads. It's purpose was to give hope to all the citizens on the newly established colony. But in a place like this, hope is the last thing you'll feel.
My name is Victor Rabenmann. I'm the son of two failed scientists, Maria and John Rabenmann.
Born in the slums of the colony, I have always lived a rough life. If I ever went out I would always carry a knife in order to protect myself. I would always need to watch my back and move fast so I don't catch the attention of other.
The situation at home is even worse. Everytime I get home I try to stay as quiet as possible. If my dad gets drunk I always need to wear more clothes so the beatings are not as bad but with my mom I can't do shit. If I make the slightest mistakes I always get ciggarete burn and marks all over my hands and my back. God, I wish I could take that beating stick of hers and stick it down her throat...
But every night I look at the sky and find hope. I look at the stars and how the ships fly and I'm amazed but how much humanity has come. Everytime I look at people coming from Earth, my soul gets filled with hope that I'll get to see our home planet. See the streets of the Empire and look at soldiers passing by in their armour. Feel safe for once
But since our government decided to break away from it, the situation got worse. The mobs and the gangs are getting bigger. The drug dealers are everywhere...and I wish I could clean the streets of these scum.
Recently, I have found a new hope, a new reason to smile. A white dove made its nest at my window.
"Hey there little one!", I said to the white bird,"Want something to eat?"
The bird looked at me with fear at first, but when it saw that I didn't mean harm, it had a calm look. I took some bread from the kitchen country and gave it little pieces. I felt my heart warm up as I saw it looking at me with those big grateful eyes.
"Hope", I have thought to myself. "I have found hope".
Tears of joy started running down my cheeks as I was smiling. Seeing it eat from my hand and trusting me was enough to make the cold feeling go away.
The next day was the beginning of the school year. As I was getting dressed up, I felt fear build up in me. Another year of fights, loneliness and anger was starting. Why can't I change anything? Why won't they stop? Even though I keep beating them, they always come back to make my life worse. At least I can be happy that I'm the best in my school. I get good grades and I'm always on the first place.
Yet I always feel like it's never enough. I get home only to get beaten, burned and cut. I always try to be a good son, do all my chores and smile. In the end it's never enough.
So here I am. Class 11D of the Martian Academy of Science. The bright sun of Mars was shining upon us. The last days of the Martian summer are always hot. God, how I wish I was in my room at home. Wish I was feeding my new pet. I should get a name for her.
After our principal gave his same annual speech, we were called into our new class. Our teacher gave us some shitty motivational speech, the usual, then she said something that made me look up from my book:
"Class, I have an announcement to make. We have someone new in our class. Please welcome your new classmate. Come in!"
A girl with bright green hair entered the room. My eyes met with hers. My heart jumped. Then, with an angelic voice, she spoke:
"Hello! I'm happy to meet you all. My name is Loreley White. I hope we will get along well!"
And there she was. Loreley White. From the start I fell in love with her. She had a beautiful face with freckles sprinkled all along her soft, white skin. Those big blue eyes were sparkling with hope and energy. Her long green hair ran down all the way to her shoulders and made her look like an ocean.
The moment our eyes met I felt an electric shock down my spine. She was looking at me, the ugliest son of a bitch in the whole room. Then I heard our teacher say:
"So, Loreley, where do you want to sit?"
"Near uhhh.."
Then she pointed at me. My heart sank.
"Near Victor?!", the teacher said in a shocked tone.
"Yes, near him.", she said looking at me and smiling.
The whole class started to laugh. God I was so angry. I couldn't hold back and I shouted:
"The fuck are you laughing at?!"
Then I felt like everything was falling down. This girl just saw me acting like the rabid dog I am. Cold drops of sweat started forming on my forehead. Not again. I was fucking up everything again.
"You just laugh at him because you are all secretly jealous at him because he is the best student. You shouldn't be surprised that I stay with him and not with a bunch of snakes."
This bitch has just made the worst mistake of her life. For all the years I have known those bastards, they have been a bunch of fake bastards that jerk off and backstab each other.
"Silence!", the teacher shouted.
Then she sat next to me. We started talking about all kinds of stuff. Music, art, just basic shit. We spent all day together.
"Hey Victor, want to go out tonight? I want you to meet my friends. I bet you will all get along."
Not sure what to answer I just sayed "Yeah, I've got all day free".
"Meet me at the Mayflower park in 3 hours. And don't worry. It's gonna be fine."
We said our goodbyes and we walked home. God, this was happening. For the first time in 17 years I was making friends. I ran up the stairs to my apartment and unlocked the door. I was alone. I had all the time in the world to prepare. I shaved myself, brushed my hair and tied it up, prepared my clothes and quickly took a shower. As I look in the mirror I saw my scars on the neck. They were from 3 days ago...
I didn't want them to know. Sometimes when my dad gets angry, he beats me with his whip and always ties it up around my neck trying to strangle me but everytime I'm on the verge of falling unconscious he lets it go. There were red striped all along my neck.
I quickly went and searched through my mother's drawers. There it was. Some old cup of foundation. Thank God it matched my skin tone.
The big moment came. I arrived at the park and there I saw her. She was gorgeous. Her blue eyes were shining as she was laughing along the other guys. There where 3 of them. I was feeling a cold chill come down my spine as anxiety filled me up to the brim.
"Hey Victor! Come here!", she said.
Her voice suddenly made every ounce of fear dissapear.
"So, gang, this is Victor. My new classmate and friend."
My heart was racing. Someone called me their friend for the first time.
"Victor, these are my friends, Johann and Timothy. And this tall guy here is my brother, David"
"Come on sis, I ain't that tall", he said in a raspy voice.
I didn't like him from the start. He was shady and had a strong smell of ciggaretes and something weird. The other guys seemed fine.
She suggested going to the arcade that was near the park. There it all began, our friendship. We spent hours playing games and laughing. We tried every game there and then we went out to the amusement park. We went on every ride and she stayed with me on all of them. I was...falling in love.
Her sweet melodic voice was charming me. Her laughter was filling my heart with joy and happiness. I was...happy. I was smiling.
After that we went on the lake to watch the fireworks. At The beginning of every school year, the Martian government organizes fares and shows on every settlement, having a show of fireworks at night.
There she was, with me.
"Look Victor! It's starting!"
Bright coloured flames started filling the sky. As the fireworks were flying up, I was staring at Loreley. Her blue eyes were filled with joy while her pretty face was lit up by all kinds of colours.
"Isn't it beautiful?", she asked me while smiling.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen..", I replied.
She was talking about the fireworks. I was talking about her.
After it all went down, we went to the place we met up at and we all said our goodbyes. She grabbed my arm and whispered:
"I had so much fun today. Let's go out again another time."
She kissed my left cheek and smiled at me. It was the first time I was being kissed.
I went home with a big smile on my face. As I opened the door, an arm grabbed me and slammed me inside. It was my mother.
"Where the fuck have you been, you sack of shit?!"
"I wa-"
She kicked me in the stomach with all her force.
"I don't want to fucking hear your excuses! You're just a piece of shit! Do you think they like you? They don't! You're useless. An useless. Sack. Of. SHIT!"
"Please stop!"
I screamed in pain as she was hitting me with an iron bar. She was beating me with all her anger while calling me different things.
After she was done, I crawled into my room and started crying with my pillow on my face. I had bruises all over me.
As I was trying to keep quiet, I heard pecking at the window. It was the dove.
I quickly grabbed the bread I hid under my pillow, opened the window and gave it some bread. It looked at me and jumped onto my arm. It looked at me with its gentle eyes and I felt the pain go away.
"You're my little angel...you're my..Angel."
I grabbed Angel and held her to my chest. It snuggled up and made a little purring sound. It was trying to comfort me.
I had bruises all over me and tears in my eyes, but at least, I've got my Angel.