The Cataclysm: Ripple

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 

Erich sat in pain on the crude emerald-green couch staring off out in the clear blue skies.

"Don't you think it's time to know your limits?" Agnes said.

The soft tinkling of the wind chimes seems to irritate the crippled boy even more. The nurse fastened the wire gauze covering the boys wounds and scratches as he let out a small grunt.

"Getting real tired of this." Agnes said.

The young boy took in a huge breath, his clear brown eyes loomed across the room. The peach, tinted walls covered with cupboards filled with plastic gloves, bandages and whatnots.  "You just don't know how it feels being this way, better trying than sit and cry about it". The boy reached for his clutches and limped out of the office.

The nurse watched the young boy out, his small shoulders slackened as if carrying small weights of his own.

"Of course I do.", she whispered to herself. "I'm your mom"

Erich Parkins suffered a problem no one has ever had before. He couldn't walk when he was perfectly capable of it. Erich was born normal, in fact his body was stern and fit for his age without any effort whatsoever.

There were no abnormalities in his legs or brain but he simply cannot walk. So he always relied on clutches to go by.

Erich and his mom tried everything they could to help Erich walk again; from doctors specialising in fractures and neurology to Chinese chiropractors. But none of them could find any problem in Erich. They couldn't fix something that was never broken in the first place. Some of them even concluded that Erich had something people would call "the perfect" human body build.

There were no problems for Erich to walk in terms of his physical and mental state. So why couldn't he walk?

Erich and Agnes in desperation even went to some voodoo magicians and asked for help. They said the devil has claimed his legs as punishment from his past life but in the end they were just obvious frauds who were after they money.

Knowing that he could do something that he couldn't at the same time tortured Erich.

His weakness had always attacked his ego, constantly making him feel inferior to other kids his age.

The boy never gave up trying to walk. It was almost a ritual to put his clutches aside once in a while and embrace a new injury. Erich's frequent visits to his mom's office after his experiments always made her worried for the poor boy.

There was no one in town who didn't know Erich. Well-known for flashy experiments, this time he got a bit creative and tied metal bars on his legs as support. It was no surprise that this attempt went in vain again.

Agnes Parkins always fought internal battles about that topic. Left with no choice but to helplessly watch at her sons' desperate attempts and his worn-out spirit as Erich came home covered in injuries. Agnes lifts an old photo frame of Erich and her when the boy was still 5. Erich Parkins and Agnes Parkins were not related by blood.

Erich owes his whole life to Agnes. Erich doesn't really know much details since Agnes habitably avoid the topic but 17 years ago, Agnes lived with a man named Mayren Claust, her husband. But one day, Agnes came home with a horrible news that turned her life upside down. She couldn't make a baby.

Shortly after hearing the news, her husband left Agnes and disappeared from her life forever.

Agnes was devastated by all her loss in just a few days time, it was too much for Agnes to bear. She cried for weeks under her pillow and felt herself being ripped to pieces.