(Y/n)= Your name (fake name/alias). Because the children who grew up in Wammy's House don't use their real names.
(Y/r/n)= Your real name. Isn't written in the story too often but will show up occasionally.
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✞ (Y/n)'s P.O.V ✞
I feel the warm heat of the fire against my skin as I stare at the building in front of my eyes, it's a building I've never seen before in my life, why is it here, why am I here?
The embers float around the falling debris of the building that looks like it had been burning for some time now as a cross on the roof crumbled and fell to the ground, the architecture has me believe it is a church, but why is it here, in the middle of nowhere?
I turn to notice a woman is standing about a meter or two away to my side. her hair the lightest colour of blonde I've ever seen... And her eyes, the amber-gold colour of honey even as they glow in the reflection of the roaring flames from the church.
Who... Is she? Have I met her before...?
But I could recall no such memory of her. When I suddenly feel something warm trickle down my cheeks from my eyes, am I... Crying?
As I lift my hand to wipe the newly-formed tears away, I feel something grasped gently in my hand, I bring it up to see it is a necklace, a red-coloured rosary. Was I... Holding this the whole time?
My emotions swell like a rough storm in the middle of the ocean, bashing against a boat trying to sink it below the surface and down to the depths. I can't bring together what all of this means.
But every time I look at the church engulfed in the flames, my eyes become blurry with tears as my heart wrenches painfully, in a way I've never felt so hurt before.
✞ ✞ ✞
I awaken with a startle as I try to calm my erratic breaths, calming myself down from the dream I had awakened from, about the... Wait.
What was that dream about again?
My memories of the dream slip away almost instantly as I lie in my bed, staring up at the ceiling above me as I try to recollect my thoughts but to no avail.
With a deep sigh, I sit myself up and toss my legs over so my feet dangle over the edge of my bed, my toes only a few centimetres from the ground below me. Before I could stand, I hear a voice from the bed across the room from me.
"You were tossing and turning just before... Was it a nightmare?" She asks as she rubbed her tired eyes, her voice slightly hoarse from waking up.
"O-oh, I'm sorry if I woke you" I apologised to her as my feet twiddle against one another guiltily. Despite the room being rather dark I can see the features on her face is not an expression of anger, but an expression of concern.
"(Y/n) what's wrong? You're... Crying" Linda points to her own cheek to emphasis her words. Surprised, I reach up to my cheek where I feel the dampness, she's right. I am crying.
"D-do you want to talk about it?" She asked me, sitting up from her own bed above mine as her worried eyes look into my (e/c) ones.
"I... I don't remember what it was about" I tell her. "But it felt like I was right there, like it was really happening..." I scratch my head gently as I try to wrap my brain around the dream, why did it make me cry? I've never woken up in tears like this before...
"Y'know, you've only been living here for five days now so you're probably still adjusting to things" she points out, a logical point. I was brought to Wammy's House only a month after my 8th birthday and I'm still getting used to the pace of how things go around here, it's only makes sense that I'm nervous about being in a new place with new people and surroundings.
"Yeah, you're right" I agree with her analysis, but as I was thinking about getting some more sleep before I have to get up, the pale light filtering through the blinds catch my attention, it is already daybreak and the orphanage likes to have us all up early so I'd only get an hour sleep at the most before they have the caregivers knocking on our doors. Deciding there's no point in trying to get the extra shuteye, I get up with a stretch.
"I'm gonna head in early, I heard from Roger that they're serving bacon and eggs for breakfast today" I smile before getting changed out of my pyjamas and get ready for the day.
✞ A Few Minutes Later ✞
As I make my way into the cafeteria I smile and wave as I walk past a head of white hair sitting on his own in the corner, his attention focused away from his food and more onto the toy robot he was holding. I remember him from my first day here, although he isn't much of a talker he's the smartest kid in Wammy's House from what I've heard from the others here.
My curiosity stirs whenever I see him, I want to befriend Near but from what I can tell he likes to be alone, I don't want to make him uncomfortable so I take a seat next to a few kids I recognised from yesterday.
If I'm being honest, another reason is because another kid picks on me every time I try to talk to Near, Linda told me his name is-
"Ow!" I groan as I feel a fist bump into the back of my head as I turn to catch a glance of blue eyes look down on me in distain as he passed me, I turn back to the plate in front of me with a scowl before piling a bit of everything onto the fork before scoffing it down.
"Mello giving you a hard time again?" My eyes shift over to a girl sitting beside me with black hair and green eyes, I don't remember her name but she looks older than me by a few years. I don't reply due to my mouth being full but I give a slow nod before swallowing.
"He's always rough on the new kids, by the end of the week he'll leave you alone" she tells me, although I'm unsure if she is reassuring me or just telling me to deal with it. But I pay no mind as my focus veers off in the direction of the boy with the blonde hair and the blue eyes sitting across from a boy who refused to put his game down while he ate. Despite the fact that Mello has treated me like dirt since I arrived here, something in me wants to know more about him. Kind of like Near.
I think I want to be friends with him, but... He doesn't give me the time of day. Why do I want to be friends with someone who has it out for me anyway? Something tells me it's because he reminds me so much of another boy I knew from the orphanage before Wammy's. He was a trouble maker with a mean streak, but he had a few close friend who he cherished, maybe he's like that too?
I finish up my breakfast around the some time as everyone else and Rodger comes on to announce it was time for exams, followed by a sigh from everyone in the room before we all began walking into the direction of the exam hall as we prepared ourselves.
✞ An Hour Later ✞
I bite my lip gently as I roll my pencil around in my hands, my mind focused on the last question of the exam as I pay it again in my head as I visualise the scenario in my head for the fifth time.
'Patrick and his wife Sarah were on a vacation to Hawaii where they were snorkelling, however Sarah was discovered dead after her leg was caught in some rocks and she drowned. There is no physical signs of trauma on her body, Patrick has an alibi because he was buying drinks and the stand worker backs up his claim. But the detective arrests Patrick after making a phone call to his travel agency, how did this call solve the case?' I take a deep breath as I run the scenario in my head again as I keep thinking of how the detective could figure out an 'accident' was really a murder with just one phone call to a travel agency of all places.
I think to myself as I tap the pencil against the desk as my brain felt brief out by all of these riddles and questions, at least this is the last question...
"Quit it" I hear an agitated voice from beside me as I notice that Mello is already finished his test part, he's really fast... I apologise to him before I move the pencil from the desk to my bottom lip as I focus back onto my question.
'Hmm... Maybe Patrick booked two tickets to Hawaii for him and his wife... But only bought one return ticket?' I ask myself, I decide that's the best solution I can think off and I finish my test with that, however I didn't have as much time as I thought I did because the caretaker in front of the room tells us all that our time is up and to hand out papers in. However I've come to notice that I take my tests slowly instead of rushing through like Mello and a few others do, I notice Near finishes his tests towards the end too, I guess he is a slow test taker too? Slow and steady wins the race after all.
"Thank you everyone, remember that lunch will be prepared in the cafeteria at 12" she dismisses us from the exam hall and everyone is getting up and stretching their limbs and heading out to go do what they enjoy doing and I follow them out of the exam hall. Some kids went outside to play soccer and others stayed indoors. However I find comfort in the library on most days where it's quiet, however I didn't expect to find someone in there already, I recognise him from this morning and the few other days I've been here. A boy with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes.
"Oh! I didn't know someone was already in here, you're... Mike right?" I ask him, he stops playing on his game console for a moment to turn to look at me. "It's Matt".
"S-sorry!" I stuttered an apology as he turned back to continue playing his game, I know he is a close friend of Mello's but he seems like an okay enough guy so I decide to stay in the library with him. But to keep things from being awkward, I decide to start a conversation to keep the air from being stiff. "What are you playing?" I ask as my fingers run along the spines of ever so books on the shelf to decide on which one I want to read today.
He seemed a little hesitant to respond, but without taking his eyes off of his game he tells me the name's title followed by more silence. As I finally grab ahold of a book that piqued my interest I talk over to the same table he is sitting at.
"I know that game, I remember this girl named Susan at the orphanage before I came here used to love that game, that's the one with the bounty hunter girl, right?" I asked him, he doesn't say yes but gives a small nod to imply I am right.
"Susan used to tie her hair up into a high ponytail and go on 'bounty hunts' when it was play time, she was really nice though" I tell him, although he doesn't seem too intrigued with my story when it dawns on me. Am I annoying him?
An anxious feeling creeps inside me as I decide to take a seat across from him and open my book to the first page, "sorry if I'm being annoying, I'll be quiet" I laugh softly before I turn back to the book.
"No, it's fine. Mello is the only other person that really talks to me... So I'm thankful" he replies, I turn my eyes up to meet his focused back onto his gameboy. "A lot of people here think he's a bad person... I know that might be what you think too, but once you get to know him he's not as bad as people think".
My eyes widen ever so slightly at his words. My mind ponders. It would be nice if I got him to stop giving me a hard time and I'll start to fit in more around here.
Should I give it a shot?
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Hello and thank you for reading the prologue! I hope you all liked the introduction to the remade version of HeartBeat and I hope you guys stick around for more chapter in the near future 😊