After September 23rd

Victor's Memory Fragment

"Outcast"

From the moment I was born, I always assumed the only species that existed were the Luciferis. My sister was a Luciferi, and so was my mother, I didn't know my father but who cared about him, he was just another man too busy to visit. My neighbors are also Luciferis, and everyone in town is too. The scary soldiers that protected my village had to be Luciferis as well.

I was wrong. Six years old, don't have abnormal strength, whatever abnormal means. They don't have better senses than other boys or girls their age. They're not monsters who can become stronger when they feel scared.

"You have to take him! Anywhere, I don't care where, but that thing is not human! Look at his eyes, that strange hair color of his!" Mother Choi begged the officer who brought me in to take me back.

I stared at my red sneakers swinging my legs from my bed.

"I'm obligated to bring that... that boy here," He said, "Doesn't matter what that thing is,"

"He claims, he's a Lu...a Luciferi..." Mother Choi continued.

"Take him to the infirmary, check his blood, if he bleeds red, he's human, like us," said the officer, "If that thing bleeds light blue... I'll dispose of it,"

I raised my head and looked over at the door. I bit my hand as hard as I could, my blood was red but I knew I was a Luciferi. As instructed, Mother Choi checked my blood, and it was red. She was relieved but I refused to say I was human.

A month later, I heard the nuns of the orphanage openly talk about an unlucky couple who wanted to adopt and ended up with the outcast of the orphanage by mistake. Mother Choi, as much as she wished to get rid of me. She pitied the couple and relentlessly begged them to let her choose someone else. In May, the couple came to take me with them.

"Mother Choi, here's Jae-sang," A nun announced.

"Perfect... come here,"

I obeyed.

"I want to present you to, Mr. and Mrs. Courrier. They're the lovely couple who adopted you... to have you as their son,"

The couple looked rich; they were both pretty people too. The man is Korean, with brown hair and brown eyes, serious looking and cold. His wife is not Korean, I don't know what country she came from. Her eyes were blue and her hair blonde, almost white like mine.

"Hey Jae-sang," She smiled, "I'm Beatrice Courrier, I was looking forward to meeting you,"

"Oh,"

"I heard so much about you," She smiled and took a crochet penguin out of her purse, "In fact, I was told you love penguins, so I got this for you,"

"A penguin," I smiled.

"Mm, do you like it?" She asked and offered it to me, "It's all yours, you can name it whatever you want!"

"I do,"

"Ahem, you say thank you," Mother Choi scolded me.

"Sorry... thank you,"

The couple turned to look at the mother Choi, with a frown.

"Please don't pressure him, Mother Choi, we can take it from here," said Mr. Courrier, "The legal work is done, so we'll be on our way,"

"Do you want to hold my hand Jae-sang? Or Mr. Courrier's?" She asked.

"I can walk by myself," I shook my head.

"Okay, come on, let's go home," She smiled.