AN: We are on the final chapters of The Crimson Tyrant arc, just one more chapter and we will be going to the next!!! So that would mean that I'm almost neck to neck on my Twst Wonderland stories: A Twisted World is getting close to The Keyholder, yay!! I hope that you guys luv the new chapter, leave a like and leave a comment!!
The sound of an old movie starting as the image of film tape rolled up in view in an old fashion. Slowly the film faded away, replacing it with a scenery of an average yet fancy two-story house with rose plants growing around the yard as a gentle breeze passed by making the plants sway softly. The scene slowly zoomed into the window, showing shadows of figures there before going fully inside. The room that the figures were in was the dining room with a large table in the middle that was set up fashionably well and had four chairs with two on one side.
On one of the chairs was a little boy with a familiar hairstyle who was sitting happily as he stared at what looked to be a birthday cake but more plain looking with an eight candle on top. What was next to the cake was a piece of fish with small sides. Standing on the other side of the table staring at the boy was a woman, whose face was covered in darkness that all you can see was her body from the neck down. Standing farther away from the two by the wall was a young girl with long rabbit ears, watching them in quiet, dared not to say anything that could tarnish anything.
"Congratulations on your 8th birthday, Riddle." his mother calmly said while the boy, who was Riddle, was still looking at the cake. "For this year, your birthday cake is a sugar-free one filled with nuts. It's made from soy flour with lots of lecithin since it's good for the brain."
"Thank you, Mama. But, um, I..." Riddle spoke as he twiddled his thumbs. "Just once is okay, but... I want to eat a tart filled with lots of red strawberries..."
"My, how can you say that! Desserts filled with sugar like that are basically like poison for the body!" Riddle's mother shouted, making the two kids jump. "Just one slice will make you exceed your quota of calorie consumption. Come now, this one is filled with docosahexaenoic acid and icosapentaenoic acid. It's much healthier." she said, gesturing to the food that was on the table and let out a sigh. "Ah, but the recommended calorie intake for an 8-year old is... It's only 600kcal for one meal, so don't eat more than 100 grams, understood? Am I understood?"
Riddle looked at the table with downcast eyes while the girl looked at him with worry, feeling his sadness from a distance as his mother stood tall with crossed arms waiting for Riddle's reply. "...Yes, Mama."
— — — — — — — — — —
"I've always wanted to eat tarts filled with red strawberries."
Riddle's voice spoke as the scene played out, showing Mrs. Rosehearts and Riddle walk outside passing by a pastry shop run by the Clover Family. Riddle slowed his pacing when he looked at the desserts and caught sight of a strawberry tart that was placed on display, by the baker, next to other desserts. His eyes brightening at the sight, watching as the light hits the strawberries, making them sparkle in delight.
"Just like the one displayed on the shop window of the bakery that we pass by."
— — — — — — — — — —
The very next day, Mrs. Rosehearts was teaching her son in the library while the girl stood by the bookshelves, watching them in silence. Her ears twitched from time to time as she took quick peeks towards the window, wondering what was going on outside. Riddle was sitting by a desk with books stacked up on the side, listening to his mother giving her lecture on the book in her hands while taking notes here and there.
"That is all for your lessons on classical magic. Read the next 50 pages required for your next magic lessons tomorrow." Mrs. Rosehearts said, closing the book and handing it to the girl, who humbly took it, to put it back on the shelf. "Now then, you have 1 hour for yourself before your next lesson begins."
"Yes, Mother." Riddle said.
"Mother has something to take care of for a while with Mrs. Clocksworth, so I will see you in one hour." she said, heading towards the door, not before looking at the girl with supposably a stern look on her face, giving her an order. "Make sure that you watch him, Elizabeth. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mrs. Rosehearts." the girl, Elizabeth replied with a slight nod.
Seeing that the woman gave her a nod and walked out of the room, Elizabeth looked back at Riddle, who was now reading one of the books and taking notes. Elizabeth had many open opportunities to talk to Riddle or even tried to reason to him about his mother, but no matter how many times she tried she was scared of the consequences that may fall to them. She couldn't tell her own mother about how they were being treated, because she works for her as an assistant, meaning that would be risking her job. So all she could do was just stand there and watch the woman, sculpting her own son as a perfect child.
— — — — — — — — — —
"I was always surrounded by lessons I had to finish. If it was possible, they would have extended my lessons longer."
Memories showed Riddle sitting in his seat at a young age 'til it stopped at him at age eight, going from book to book, day by day. Elizabeth stood there, watching him from a distance as she felt her begging her to move forward.
"But, something like that was "normal" for me."
— — — — — — — — — —
During that time, a knocking sound was heard coming from the window, making the two look over. They looked at each other with confused looks on their faces when they heard the knocking again. Elizabeth's ears twitched as she heard someone talking quietly outside, from what she could guess sounded like two children, who are males; one sound nervous and one sound joyful.
"...Someone's knocking on the window?" Riddle asked her. "Or was it just a bird...?"
"I...I don't know..." Elizabeth quite said as her ears twitched. "But...I did hear someone talking...outside..."
"Someone talking?" Riddle questioned, before getting up from his chair and heading towards the window.
"Wha—What are you doing!?" Elizabeth frantically said, rushing over to his side. Without answering her question, Riddle opened the window, showing a boy with a surprised look on his face and holding a soccer ball in his arm.
"Oh, they noticed us!" the boy said, moving back a little, leaving both Riddle and Elizabeth in shock.
"Hey, hey~ Let's play together~!" another boy said, as his head appeared, scaring the two and made Elizabeth slam the window shut close, hitting the boy in the face. "OW!"
"Eliza!" Riddle shouted in shock, seeing the girl still had her hands on the window.
"Che'nya!" the first shouted from the other side of the window, watching his friend fall on the ground, while holding his face in pain. "Are you okay?"
"That hurt..." Che'nya groaned out, rubbing his nose. "Didn't think she would do that."
"You really need to stop doing that..." the boy said.
"Where's the fun in that?" Che'nya grinned, making the other boy sigh.
"W-who're are you two...?" Riddle stammered a bit, once he opened the window again while Elizabeth peeked out with a small glare while holding a book in her hands.
"I'm Che'nya~" Che'nya introduced himself and gestured to the other boy, who calmly waved at them. "And this one's Trey~ Let's play croquet together!"
"Croquet...?" Elizabeth questioned as her ears twitched.
Che'nya was grinning from ear to ear as he pulled something out from his overalls."Here!" he tossed it to the two, scaring them again when Riddle caught it in his hands.
Elizabeth was getting ready to hit whatever it was in Riddle's hands but then stopped when the both of them saw what it was, making her drop the book as the creature looked at them with a cute expression on its face. "It's a..."
"A hedgehog...?" Riddle finished, looking at the hedgehog.
"He wants to play with you two, too." Che'nya said, watching the two adoring the hedgehog.
"Eh...Th-that's impossible..." Riddle rejected, looking back at the books that were on the desk. "I'm doing self-study right now, so..."
"Self-study? So that means, you get to choose what to study, right?" Che'nya said in a laid back tone. "My grandad told me that playing is basically a kind of study."
"Play...is learning...?" Riddle said quietly.
"I—" Elizabeth wanted to correct what Che'nya was saying, but she saw the look in Riddle's eye, seeing how they were sparkling with life, she kept her mouth shut.
"Won't you guys come down just for a bit?" Trey asked them.
"Well, um..." Elizabeth was having a hard time trying to find the right words as she looked at Riddle, wondering what he would choose.
Riddle was looking back and forth at the cute hedgehog, who let out a cute noise, and to the books on the desk before shaking his head and picking up the hedgehog, giving it to Elizabeth and looking back at the two boys. "...I-if it's only for a while..."
Trey looked at him with a smile as he reached his hand out. "Can I ask you two for your names?"
"My...my names Elizabeth, Elizabeth Clocksworth." Elizabeth introduced herself with a soft smile that made Trey blush a little.
"I-it's Riddle..." Riddle said, reach out and take Trey's hand. "Riddle Rosehearts."
— — — — — — — — — —
"Playing with Elizabeth, Trey and Che'nya was very fun. We played a lot of things I didn't know how to play. Both of them taught me a lot."
Trey and Che'nya were running ahead with Elizabeth following next and Riddle coming up from behind, playing with the soccer ball in an open field with smiles on their faces. Trey and Che'nya had shown them different kinds of games to play such as playing croquet with the hedgehog and flamingos, to which Elizabeth was against thinking that it would hurt them. Climbing up on trees and playing with cards.
Ever since that day, when Mrs. Rosehearts left the two alone, Riddle and Elizabeth would sneak out and play with Trey and Che'nya and always came back before she realized that they were ever gone. Elizabeth looked at Riddle, seeing how happy he was enjoying the company of the two, made her heart fill with joy that she quietly made a vow to never leave him and stay by his side instead of staying behind him.
"During my one hour of free time, I always snuck out of my room without my mother's knowledge."
— — — — — — — — — —
The four were in a park by a bench having a conversation. Both Riddle and Elizabeth sat on the bench as Che'nya perched himself behind them on top of the bench while Trey stood in front of them.
"Whaaaat! You've nyever eaten a strawberry tart, Riddle!?" Che'nya shouted in shock.
"Nope. Mother says it's poison for the body, so I'm not allowed to eat them." Riddle said, sadly.
"Hoppers, did you know this!?" Che'nya asked Elizabeth, getting close to her.
"Yes, I've known about this. Can I have some personal space please." Elizabeth said, pushing his face away from her. "And don't call me that."
"But it fits mew..." Che'nya pouted.
"Well, of course it's bad if you eat too much." Trey said before getting an idea. "Hey, I live in a bakery, so let's go and have some right now~"
"Bakery...? The one with the green roof over the store windows?" Riddle asked.
"Already know it, huh?" Trey laughed. "That's the one."
"Oh I know that store!" Elizabeth smiled. "One of my older siblings always gets carrot cakes from that place."
"Those sweets are the cat's meow!" Che'nya said with a grin.
"Ugh!" Elizabeth cringed, clutching her stomach. "That was so corny, it made my stomach turn!"
"Hey!" Che'nya shouted offended while Trey laughed at this.
"Uhm..." Riddle tried to answer as he remembered what his mother told him. "But, I—"
"Just one slice will be fine." Trey ushered.
"I wanna eat a whole one~!" Che'nya said.
"Well..." Elizabeth fretted a little, looking away from the boys. "I wouldn't mind eating a slice of carrot cake..."
Riddle looked at them, wondering what to do, seeing that he was out voted on the idea. But he kept thinking about trying a strawberry tart for the very first time. Without a warning, Trey and Che'nya grabbed both of Riddle's hands, pulling the boy off the bench.
"Wah—" Riddle cried out.
"Let's go!" Trey said as he and Che'nya pulled him along with Elizabeth following behind.
"Hey wait for me!" Elizabeth called out, catching up with them as they headed to the bakery.
Once they got there, Riddle was amazed at the many desserts that were there, from top to bottom of the shelves, to the tables, and to the window. Elizabeth sniffed around, smelling all of the desserts that were there, before coming to one which was a carrot cake that was whole. They were greeted by Trey's parents, who were amazed to see them, and Trey gestured them to his room so that he could get them tarts. After a few minutes of waiting, Trey came in, after talking to his siblings, holding a tray with plates of sliced tarts for each of them.
— — — — — — — — — —
"The bright red strawberry tart on top of that white plate...To me, it looked more dazzling than any kind of jewel I've seen."
Riddle stared at the tart slice with astonishment, seeing how it looked up close in all its glory. Slowly, he grabbed a fork from the table and picked up one of the full strawberries that was on the tart and ate it. The three looked at him when they noticed that he stopped moving and saw that he was in a world of bliss after tasting the strawberry that made him smile, making the others smile as well and eat their slices along with him.
"The one bite I took was so sweet, and it was so delicious unlike anything I've ever tasted before...I finished the entire slice while savoring every bite."
"I lost track of time..."
However things took a wrong turn when Mrs. Rosehearts entered the room and found that neither Riddle or Elizabeth were in there. Soon after that, she had found them in the Clover's bakery, eating the tart which made her anger rise even more and stormed inside, scaring everyone, including Riddle and Elizabeth more, knowing that they're more in trouble than the others.
— — — — — — — — — —
"How could you! Not only did you skip your self-study, but you also ate something so sugary!?" Mrs. Rosehearts shouted, causing the two to flinch as she was scolding Riddle and turned her head to the window, seeing Trey and Che'nya peeking from the fence. "So those two tempted you into doing it? I shall never allow you to play with the both of them again!"
"I'm sorry, Mother!" Riddle cried out, grabbing his mother's skirt. "I'll never do it again, so please forgive me...!"
Elizabeth looked out of the window, seeing the two heartbroken kids watching them from afar, before the curtains being closed, blocking the view from the outside. Looking back, seeing Riddle kept begging and pleading to his mother as tears were showing at the corner of his eyes. It has been so long since this has happened that she couldn't bear to watch and listen to this anymore.
"Quiet! You're the one at fault because you broke the rules." She said, pushing him out of the way before letting out a sigh of frustration. "Ah, I knew I shouldn't have given him time for himself. He must be trained more to become more perfect..."
"You can't do this!" Elizabeth shouted, getting the two's attention to her. The bunny girl had her head down while her hands clutched onto her skirt, wrinkling a bit from her tight grip.
"What was that?" Mrs. Rosehearts demanded.
"I can't take it anymore...I kept quiet for far too long..." Elizabeth started as she glared at the woman. "You can't keep treating Riddle like this!"
"And what rights do you have to tell me how to raise my own child?" Mrs. Rosehearts said, glaring at the girl. "I gave you strict orders. You were told to watch him and see what happened, he ate something that wasn't meant for him, he went sneaking off, not working on his studies!"
"So that means he couldn't live his life as a child!?" Elizabeth shouted. "It's better out there than staying in here, looming over him like a shadow and telling him what to eat or not!"
Riddle looked at Elizabeth in shock, not once had he ever heard her shout or talked back at his mother. She would just stand at the corner and watch him while he was learning whether his mother was there or not. He thought that all she could do was to stay behind him, stay silent, and follow orders that his mother gave her.
"That is enough!" Mrs. Rosehearts shouted, glaring at her in anger. "You are going to do as you were told!"
"NO!" Elizabeth shouted back. "I won't listen to you anymore! I WON'T LISTEN TO A WOMAN WHO IS BEING A COMPLETE TYRANT TO HER OWN CHILD!!!"
Just as she said that, it left the two Rosehearts stunned with different emotions. Riddle was left a gasp, looking at Elizabeth as if she had grown a second head, but to Mrs. Rosehearts, she was furious, so furious that if you could see it her whole face would've been completely red. The woman angrily marched over to Elizabeth, who looked up to her with a frightened look on her face, seeing her hand raised up in the air and then flew down, making everything turn black.
SLAP
Elizabeth was now safely in the arms of one of older siblings as two of them looked at her in worry, seeing the poor girl holding her cheek that was now bruised with tears rolling down her cheeks, making it sting from contact. Riddle peeked down from up the stairs, looking at Elizabeth silently crying. In the other room, they could see two shadows of women from the walls; one being Mrs. Rosehearts and the other who appears to be Elizabeth's mother, Mrs. Clocksworth.
"How could you do that!?" Mrs. Clocksworth shouted in anger. "What gave you the right to do that to my daughter!?"
"She was getting ahead of herself." Mrs. Rosehearts plainly said. "I was putting her in her place."
"By slapping her!?" Mrs. Clocksworth shouted, making the kids flinch. "Is that why she's been looking so distant from me!? What else have you been making her do!?"
"That is none of your business what I am making her do!" Mrs. Rosehearts shouted, getting close to Mrs. Clocksworth. "She was to follow my orders and my rules just like you do!"
"Well, she won't be following any of your orders or rules! And neither will I!" Mrs. Clocksworth shouted as she marched out the room.
"Where do you think you're going!?" Mrs. Rosehearts shouted.
"I quit! I'm never working for you ever again!" Mrs. Clocksworth said, throwing her name tag on the floor and headed to the door. "Come along children, let's head home and tend to Elizabeth."
Riddle watched as they left, his hand slowly reaching out to Elizabeth, silently begging her not to leave him, but the girl didn't take notice as the door closed behind them, leaving Riddle alone with his mother. Trey and Che'nya looked from afar, watching Elizabeth being carried away with a pained expression on her face, making the two boys sad and walked away after taking a final glance at the house.
— — — — — — — — — —
"I broke the rules, so even those fun times were taken away from me. That's why, I had to listen to every rule that Mother said."
Riddle went back to his room and looked out the window, seeing Trey and Che'nya walking away in one direction and the Clocksworth family walking away in the other direction. His mother came back, holding a book in her hand, signaling him that it was his study time. Riddle didn't say anything and did as he was told.
"Because my Mother, who was known by everyone in town, will always be right. But, you know, Mama..."
Days went by and Riddle kept looking back behind him to see a familiar person there, but only saw nobody there and let out a quiet sigh as he continued on writing his notes. The tower of books grew more and more, covering up the entire room. Unknowing to him, Elizabeth walked by with some of her siblings, she looked at the window where Riddle with a crestfallen look on her face before walking away.
"I wonder why? For some reason, my heart feels so heavy..."
Days have been turned into weeks. Weeks have been turned into months. Months have been turned into years. Years have past, showing Riddle now of age to where he has been accepted into Night Raven Collage. His mother was proud of him for his achievement, but deep down he could feel any happiness in it. He took one final look at his mother before stepping in the coffin on the carriage.
Once he stepped out of the coffin, two people were left in shock seeing him after all this time; Trey who was in second year and Elizabeth who was in first year and a trainee of being the Heartslabyul Assistant. It wasn't until later that Riddle challenged the Heartslabyul Dorm Head and won, making him become the new Dorm Head.
"I want to eat a lot of tarts even if it's only on my birthday. I want to play outside a lot...I want to make lots more friends."
Riddle watched, seeing everyone enjoying themselves, hanging around with their friends and classmates, even seeing Trey and Elizabeth talking to each other made him want to walk over to them and join in the conversation, but in his head, he could hear his mother telling what to do. How he longs to be with his friends again, to be with other people. But his mother's voice overpowered everything, he followed every rule that was there and punished those who break them.
"Please tell me, Mama... What rule should I follow to make this sadness disappear...?"
He could feel himself slipping away into darkness as the images slowly faded away right in his very eyes as he slowly fell to the ground succumbing in consciousness once again after seeing his childhood right before his eyes before an image of his mother showed walking away as he desperately reached out for her as everything faded away.
— — — — — — — — — —
"RIDDLE!!!"
To Be Continued...