Tales of a Comet (A Kylo Ren Story)

Chapter 2 - Pure Isolation

I couldn't see anything. Everything was muffled by the smoke coming from the front of the house. "Mama!" I kept calling her name, but it was getting harder and harder. My throat felt like it was on fire. I continued to cough as I walked further into the house. Specks kept crossing my vision as I tried to remember where the bedrooms were. I tripped over a bucket and banged my already scraped knee on the floor. I yelled out in pain, but immediately started to cough again.

I started to crawl faster and faster in the direction that I had hoped was towards the bedrooms. Something started to creak when I saw a beam begin to fall from the ceiling. I quickly crawled away from it, but it still hit the back of my left leg. All I can remember was the intense pain coming from my leg in waves and hearing my name being called very faintly by what sounded like my mother. This was the last thing I recalled before I lost consciousness.

--X--

I first heard the tinkling of a bell. It wasn't loud, almost like it was in a dream. That's a pretty sound I thought before losing the feeling of awareness again.

I kept going in and out of consciousness for almost two weeks. During this time, I was healing from the severe burn on the back and sides of my left thigh as well as smoke inhalation and multiple lacerations and smaller burns. I did hear my Papa speak a few times, as well as Zuke and even someone else I didn't recognize.

I tried opening my eyes, but when I did I was met with a bright light. Someone stopped me as I tried to pull my arm up to cover my eyes. The same form shielded the light for me. "Mama?"

"No Nym, it's Zuke", my brother said with a soft sigh. I opened my eyes fully so that I would look at him. He looked different, almost sad and tired.

"Where's Mama?"

"She-"

"She tried to save you, but she wasted her life on you", Ghent said from the corner of the room. He was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"That's enough Ghent. She doesn't know yet", Zuke stated.

"Well, she needs to know what she has done."

"If you so far as say one more word- "

Ghent turned to look at me, which during this time I tried sitting up better, "Mother died trying to save your pitiful life. You ran inside that burning empty house causing mother to-"

Ghent was cut off by Zuke punching him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. I didn't see my other brothers burst into the room or hear them aggressively yelling at each other.

I just felt numb.

I whispered so quietly that I was surprised my brothers even heard me, "I killed Mama?"

There was immediate silence, which was when Zuke walked back over to me.

"No comet, you didn't kill anyone" Zuke said as he came back to my side. He sat on the edge of the bed and began to rock me as I cried.

"I killed Mama?" I whimpered, looking at Zuke. He wanted to deny it, my adolescent self could tell, but he didn't. He just looked at me as if he agreed with Ghent. I pushed him away from me. I began to push everyone away as I cried harder. "Don't touch me!"

"You see, even she knows she's a murderer", Ghent commented. He was smacked in the back of the head by Delmon and taken by the arm by Kael and led out of the room.

I tried to pull my legs into a fetal position, but my left leg was wrapped tightly, causing me to just roll over onto my right side. Zuke left me alone while I continued to cry. I had let my Mama burn while she tried to save me.

--XX--

After the light had faded from the room and my tears wouldn't flow anymore, Delmon came up the stairs to set a tray of food and drink down on the side table by the bed. Without looking at me, he lit a lantern and left, closing the door behind him. This was when I noticed I was in one of the rooms above the shop. Father and sometimes my brothers would stay up here when they were waiting on an overnight shipment.

Sitting up I looked at what Delmon had brought me. I began to nibble at the bread and sip on the liquid when the door opened again by Zuke and someone I didn't recognize.

"Nym, this is the physician who is trying to heal your leg. Let him do his work without troubles, alright comet?"

I just nodded my head, putting the tray back on the side table. "Now just lay on your stomach for me while I work on the wound", the physician said as he helped me roll onto my stomach. He started to pull the bandages off, which brought tears to my eyes, but I stayed silent. I thought taking the bandage off was the worst part until he started to peel the skin from my leg. I cried out once before I lost consciousness again.

--XX--

The physician came every day for three months until the wound was moderately healed. Months of having the layer of skin pulled off daily until the wound was healed enough that I could continue life with only a slight limp. I had other, smaller lacerations from that terrible day, but they healed weeks ago.

Although my physical wounds healed, the wounds that I caused my family were forever raw. Delmon and Kael wouldn't look me in the eyes while Ghent made a snide comment whenever he could. Zuke tried to keep everything normal, but he soon gave up. My father wouldn't even acknowledge my existence. While I was kept in the room above the shop, my father was pouring himself another glass of liquor. My brothers continued to maintain the shop, though it was lacking the life that it once contained.

I turned seven during the time I spent alone in that small room. Nobody seemed to notice, and I grew to not care. I not only became an outcast in my family, but also in town. When I was able to leave the room after months of being in isolation, I found that even the people who didn't know my family blamed me for the fire and for the death of my mother.

Delmon had his first born a few months after that terrible day, but the child was too weak for this world and passed soon after the birth. His wife died a day later. Delmon lost interest in life much like my father did and he joined him and the drink. The feeling of despair and the sense of being so isolated soon grew into a burning rage of anger. This anger was slowly consuming me. With every orbit of the moon and with every new year, I developed a resentment to not only the people in town and my family, but to myself. Hating myself was something I learned to do best.