Heroes of Xevida

Chapter 4

Aiden fell towards the floor with a loud thud, his wounds hurting all over again. He felt like an animal before the slaughter, as if everything was pitch black and the judgemental eyes of those around him were staring him down inside this vast emptiness.

The only light were things he wished he didn't see. It would all seem better if he just closed his eyes, but it wouldn't change a thing, Aiden knew that very well. He also knew how People viewed him, but he couldn't bring himself to change.

He wasn't strong like Alec, not brave like Aloise. He was meek, clumsy, easily scared, terrified of everything, cried like a river and felt so lost. To not be hurt further he put on a flaw filled mask which he couldn't keep on at most times.

Aiden pretended to be an utter asshole in hopes of people staying clear of him, yet he couldn't stop these tears he despised so much from flowing down his cheeks. "I'm so damn weak", he thought to himself, wiping his face with his arm.

He closed his eyes tightly, clenched his teeth and slammed his fist into the creaking floorboards. As soon as Aiden looked up he was greeted by his mother's face a few inches away from his, scrutinizing the wound on his right eyebrow with tight lips.

Immediately he slammed his head into the wall in an attempt to crawl backwards, away from Klara. The mother just grabbed her son's shoulders and pulled him forward, so that she could analyse the wound again.

Only afterwards did she realise that Aiden's whole body was littered with bruises and scratches. Her eyes began to burn with an emotion the boy couldn't put into place, but he didn't want to ask her either.

He already had a hard time understanding expressions and people's intentions, but asking always made him feel like a fool. "Who did this?", Klara asked, her voice quivering with rage. Aiden shrunk back, he wasn't sure whether she was mad about the bruises or at him.

His mother continued, "Come to the kitchen, now. I need to see this under a better light. Also, I'm asking again, who did this to you?" The boy got off the floor slowly, his stomach felt like someone punched him in his guts, yet he couldn't go up against his mother.

He wasn't feeling well anyways, so this only made it worse. With some slow strides he made his way towards the kitchen and sat down on the chair, then tried to drown out the world around him.

He imagined running along the paths of the country, seeing the ocean or going to the capital, but those were things he never saw in person before. Ardyn was a big planet, so Aiden had a lot to imagine for a boy who only knew most things based on books.

After all, books wouldn't betray you and they didn't care about who they had to teach, unlike people. He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize Aloise had already explained what happened. Klara put her left hand on her cheek and let out a sigh.

Her ring finger rested on her lips as she seemed to ponder for a few seconds. Then the mother rushed into the bathroom where she took a wooden box filled with medicine and gauze from.

Afterwards the green-eyed woman took a bottle of alcohol she made with potatoes from a shelf in the kitchen. She then proceeded to walk over to Aloise and Aiden again, the latter watching her with caution and a raised eyebrow.

“Wait, you don’t plan to put that all over my body, do you? I know that hurts like hell.”, he said and looked at her with a pout. "As if you've ever been there.", Klara replied, then took hold of his head and dabbed a handkerchief full of alcohol on his wound.

Aiden followed up her actions with a jumble of incoherent noises and squeals, but his mother held him in a sturdy grip whenever he tried to jerk away. It was so painful that he didn't even find the energy to object to this torturous procedure anymore.