What a load of crap

Chapter 2. Rebirth

Slowly walking down the stairs, Noah thinks hard again, about the possibilities.

'Tomorrow is the solar eclipse...

I'm really crunched for time if I want to prepare for it, aren't I?'

Noah is snapped out of his thoughts by his wife.

"Good morning, dear!"

She smiled at him.

"You're finally up, I was getting worried."

"Honestly, I keep telling you not to stay up so late."

'Noah, don't you feel sorry for me?

Why did I get stuck with a dead man like you?

We can drop the family charade. Do you really think we ever gave a damn about you?'

Noah looks at her without saying a word.

'Family, huh?'

A kid who is seemingly waiting at the dinner table looks behind the chair he was sitting on.

"Papa!"

Noah narrows his eyes at the two blondes before him, smiling at him.

"Are we going to the park today?"

The boy asks his father with a smile.

'Papa, you are pathetic.

I thought you were better than this.

How disappointing.

Go and die alone.'

"Abel, you know we can't. You're still sick. How about next weekend?"

The woman wipes her son's face, still smiling at him.

'I made a lot of mistakes

One of them was having too much faith in something as pitiful as "Family"'

Once again, Noah is snapped out of his thoughts by his one and only wife.

"Dear, are you okay? You seem distracted." She asked her husband.

Noah feels the medical choker on his neck and rubs it a bit, looking away.

"I'm fine." He stated flatly.

"I don't see Neo. Where is he?"

The woman looks at her husband in confusion.

"Neo? He's probably still in his room...

Why do you ask?"

'WHY DO I ASK?!'

He looks at his wife with a bit of anger.

"Were you planning on letting him starve?"

His wife seems surprised by this.

"Huh? No! Of course not.

But, he always skips breakfast..."

She looks away nervously by her husband's new attitude.

Noah rubs the back of his head.

"And you never tried to convince him otherwise?

That's quite irresponsible for a mother."

His wife (I honestly forgot her name) puts her hand on her cheek.

"But... I-"

Abel suddenly hugs his mothers side.

"Papa, why are you angry at mom? It's not like my brother ever listens!"

Noah looks at them and sighs.

Noahs wife looks at him timidly,

"I've tried. You know how stubborn that child is..."

Noah turns around and starts to head up the stairs.

"Ah?

Dear! Where are you going??"

Noah looks back at his wife and other son.

"Looking for my son. Where else?"

"...Son Huh.

Weren't you the one who said to ignore him? Why the sudden change of heart?"

She looks away, daring not to look into her husband's eyes.

Abel, who was still holding onto his mother, starts to talk.

"Mom, dad is strange.

He didn't hug me. Didn't talk to me. Didn't even ask how I'm feeling.

And Neo? When did he suddenly care about that piece of trash anyway?"

By now the light that was once shining in Abel's eyes was now gone, leaving the boy looking like a dead doll.

-tik-

"Current heart rate level is YELLOW

please take a deep breath and keep calm."

Noah feels his medical choker on his neck in shock.

"You sure are a noisy one, I almost missed your voice function."

'I lost control a bit just now...

It's just that seeing their faces... flipped a switch in me.'

"It's alright, Noah. They haven't done anything yet..."

"Focus on the task at hand."

Taking a deep breath in, Noah continues walking down the hallway.

Finally reaching a door that's at the end of a long hallway, Noah hesitates on opening his sons door.

"The child would be 12 years old right now, wouldn't he?"

'For my entire life

I have shunned my son, Neo.

Even thought I know he hasn't done anything wrong.

In the end, I still couldn't save him.'

"He... probably hates me.

But I still need to talk to him..."

'For once, I want to try and make things right.'

Noah opens the door to find a seemingly empty room.

"Neo?" He calls out.

Looking towards the bed, he smiles a bit.

'Is he asleep? He's still a child, afterall.'

Reaching his hand out, Noah tries to touch his sons head.

"Neo, wake up, it's mor- n i n g—"

Noah was harshly flipped and landed on his sons bed, face first.

"Oh, it's just you." Neo says coldly.

Sitting on his fathers back –who sweatdrops– he pulls his mask down a bit.

"What are you doing here?"

"...waking you up?

Can we have this conversation while you're not sitting on me?"

They both hear a yawn, before a feminine voice calls out,

"Hey Neo, who's the old man?"