ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ, Sookai

001

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SOOBIN

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"Soobin, Soobin!" my mother called out, voice stressed with panic as she ran after me, arms scooping me up and wrapping around me protectively.

Younger me pointed at the forest, eyes big with wonder, scoping for what I'd seen. "I saw something mama! It was glowing." My ten-year-old self beamed, not understanding her worry.

Kids explore all the time, why was the one place that interested me off limits?

"I know, but I've told you to stay away from here," she gently reprimanded, placing me down on my feet now that she was sure I was safe.

This wasn't the first time I'd been enticed by the creatures hidden within the plants, whispering their sweet songs into my ear like an evil temptress.

I frowned, looking back at the evergreen forest as my mother led me away and towards the safety of our small home. My hand in hers.

When we reached our home, greeted by its boringly beige walls, a folded piece of paper tucked under the slit of our front door caught my attention.

My hand slipped from my mother's, and I quickly ran for it before my mother could stop me and collect it herself. I pulled it from where it's snug between our door and smoothed out the creases, intrigued to see what it was about despite my limited education.

My lips fall open and the surrounding whites of my eyes pool around my irises.

A poster of a lost boy. His features delicate and soft, a terrible sketch really, yet I recognised the boy to be a Scythed Child-a child without a father. Fatherless children were belittled and shunned by society, along with whatever is left of their broken family. A father is believed to help a family stay strong, ones without are ranked lowest on the hierarchy. Lower than me.

Who knew that our future king, Hueningkai would be the only exception, tragically losing his family at such a young age and in practice to take over the throne already.

I also remembered the boy's face from a few days prior. A woman frantically cried out for anyone to 'Find her baby boy,' but no one bothered.

She'd gone crazy.

Her son died in a house fire a day before she went around handing out the posters she worked awfully hard to make.

Her shaky hand hadn't done their best in replicating his features, but everyone knew who he was. He was a scythed child, bullied by other kids, avoided by parents who would swiftly move their children away from him and his mother when crossing paths. As if simply being near them was bad luck-a curse one wouldn't risk.

It was the first time anyone who worked for Hueningkai had come to help. They stopped the fire but what was once her house was near to nothing and no longer a home. There was no chance of survival.

My mother steals the sheet of paper from my hand, scolding me for being nosy. She's protective like that, hiding the truth like doing so would cause more good than harm.

Though, it was reasonable, she didn't want me to see anything upsetting. Like a poster about a dead boy, for instance.

/

The bright sun wakes me up earlier than usual, shining through the hole in the wall (that we call a window) and blaring onto my face like the world's most annoying flashlight.