The protector

Dark

2028, May - June

The shadow was moving his hair from the forehead. Jeong Hyeok tried to react, not wanting for them to touch him.

Dark.

A dazzling light hit his eye. One eye only. They wanted to blind him! He tried to move but he found he couldn't.

Dark.

Voices, around him. He tried with all his might to get out of the darkness, but the dark seized and dragged him back any time he felt he was close to the light. It was strenuous, and nearly impossible.

Ah! Jeong Hyeok tried to shift his arm away. Something was stinging him.

Dark.

There were voices. He couldn't hear them well, or theirs was an unknown language. No. The sound was familiar, yet he couldn't get the words. The shadow was in front of him.

Dark.

Mu Hyeok was looking for him, though he'd found a place he was pretty confident his hyun wouldn't have checked. It was Sunday, the homework done, the practice too, and now they could eventually play in the backyard. Appa yelled at hyun because he was calling him too loud. He ran out of the bush and hyun picked him up, catching him by surprise. He laughed, Mu Hyeok was strong, he did that thing of throwing him in the air and then catching him, as if he was a ball. Omma scolded hyun: it was cold outside, he shouldn't bring his little brother in the garden.

It was always hyun, since he was the older, but the truth was that the rascal was him, he would have stayed in the garden with hyun even in the snow. Mostly in the snow.

"Do you think he can hear us?"

"No."

The voice was touching him. He tried to move. It ached when they touched him. And then the bite, the bite was hateful, it spread the ache all over his arm. Damn them. He tried to move again.

Someone was calling him with a light yet brusque slapping on his cheek. Should he reply? Maybe yes. If he could hear them, it meant he was getting better. Soon he would have been able to react. Whatever they'd tried to do to him, it hadn't worked.

Dark. Warm, soft, soothing dark.

He opened the door. Their place was full of light. She smiled at him. Her hair was still dark, not a single white thread, but she'd promised him she would have left him to watch her while whitening and getting wrinkles. They were all safe. Everything was good.

On one day, the dark was less intense. He could hear voices. He could hear noises.

The shadow touched his forehead and then his wrist. I'm alive! Though maybe, if they would have believed he was dead, he would have been able to escape.

That time, he looked for the dark and immersed himself in it.

It hadn't worked, clearly. Judging by the smell and by what his back could perceive, he was exactly in the same place.