When The Last Petal Falls | Romance

1. TALE OF THE DOOM PRINCE

PREFACE

I never expected that my life would be trapped inside those terrifying nightmares, something that destroyed my body completely and sucked up my soul. I tried to run from the endless sorrow, even though this miserable fate kept dragging my feet to its gate. I questioned myself -- when life seemed very keen to be my enemy, and I did not have anything in my hand to fight back -- why did not try to give up? I should give up everything from the very beginning and let the story be left untold. Quitting would always be the easiest way to avoid problems. Like the leaves when autumn came, they would certainly fall without anyone noticing... quietly, until it hit the ground, then disappeared...
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It has been 3 hours since I finally landed in this city, Barcelona, once again. The noise was still lingering in my ears, echoing inside my head, and certainly distracting synapses of my brain. Although those 'super disturbing' sounds created a grand orchestra in my mind, strangely, I didn't hate it. I always found peace in this place, maybe because it was far from those people who have always called me 'a murderer'.

I was wearing my lifetime favourite -- black high-waist trousers, a white Celine t-shirt, plus high-top sneakers, with the same colour as my pants – while heading to the place namely 'casa de arbol' in the centre of the town, near font de Canaletes.

It was a café owned by my former Nanny, Naina. She stayed in Barcelona and ran this café for 4 years – when I moved out from home in Canada and continued my study in the UK. I usually spent my summer time in this city with her for several days. She would definitely call me endlessly if I didn't show up.

As I entered the café, many people were there and enjoyed their meals, I slowly walked to the quiet area in the back rows. This café looked like an antique building from the outside but it was very fancy inside. It was designed personally by her, – dominated by off-white painted walls and silver ornaments, typical ancient European and Turkish style – she eagerly put six tables on each side of the aisle. The more people the better, she claimed.

Again, I sat alone in this café, enjoying a cup of chamomile tea – which I bought previously from the next-door stall -- while sorting emails from my inbox. This was the only time when I could finally forget my 'full of emptiness' life and tried my best to act once again as a human. I intentionally picked the table in the corner, so that I did not draw much attention from others and could be totally invisible.

"Lea.. sweetheart, welcome home!" I heard an angelic voice come from the kitchen direction, just right behind my back. I turned my head, looking for the direction of the familiar sound.

"Naina!" I replied to her before receiving a 'half-expected' hug from her.

It was almost 29 degrees in Barcelona and I could tell why she was only wearing a grey sleeveless top and short pants.

"Naina, I can't breathe! Let me go!" I said loudly while catching my breath. It had been a half minute and it was the longest hug I ever received – or the longest time I ever allowed someone to be this close to me. I disliked every interaction with the mundane.

"I knew you missed me, but I was dying there" I murmured sarcastically.

She smirked and grabbed my hands. I stared at her eyes, she was trying to hold her tears back when looking at my face. Her expression could not be described with common words, something we might see from the horror movies. For me, it was not surprising at all – tragedy was the genre of my life -- she was just like usual, neither happy nor sad, she was just worried about bad things that she might hear from me.

"Do you want to eat something, dear?" she asked me, I could feel her voice trembling as she controlled her emotion.

"No, I just want to sit here." I replied.