［ house of cards. ］

[ eight encounters 1/4 ]

That night was a rainy day.

Down pours the rain as it floods the streets and dampens the pavements, soaking the clothes of people as they make their steady way back to their humble abodes. It was rush hour a while ago, but there were still signs of hectic life on the crowded walkways even after two hours.

If someone bothered to walk the opposite direction of the sea of humans, they'd find themselves getting pushed away or, perhaps, getting lifted up by the shoulders of two businessmen and get carried off to somewhere else. That was the main reasons why no one was braving their way through the swarm of people, especially at a time like this.

Actually, it would be no one, if it weren't for that one youth braving against the current. But of course it would be a youth. After all, youths would be the only people of a generation who would commit such daring acts. But a youth who would commit such an act must definitely have his own motive to do so.

And this reckless youth has nothing but one.

The rain pours and pours and pours. It is now nine thirty in the night when the teenager stumbled onto a clearing with fewer people walking around. He had absolutely no idea where he is currently, for he had just kept going blindly against the current of human beings until he had long lost sight of his destination. But he doesn't even have a destination to begin with. All he wants is to get as far away from his home as possible.

He had walked out far away from the bustling streets and into a road where the ground next to him was grass. He was close to a bridge.

The night sky dyed the river prussian and navy blue, but the image was distorted due to the water surface being disturbed by raindrops. The youth didn't matter; all he wanted now was a place to take shelter, and under the bridge seemed like a good idea.

So the teen with the black umbrella and the black hoodie went down the flight of stairs planted on the field of grass and landed onto the cement surface, and walked towards the bottom of the bridge. It was very wide, so there held a plenty lot of space below the bridge, that the teen almost wondered whether there were signs of life below the bridge or not. He'd like to live under a bridge one day, but he'd doubt his ability to live independently. After all, he has his nagging parents, bugging him all day long to get good grades and stop skipping classes and bullying people and live a decent life. After all, that was what most parents do.

And the youth, like most youths, has his own reasons. Take the bullying, for example. All he ever did that could be considered as bullying was shout in the face of a boy who was in the same year as him. He was a bully too. He had bullied way more people than the youth did. But the outcome undeniably went to him.

He wished his parents would understand. But being separated by a gap between generations, he knew his wish would never come true.

Breathing in the musky air below the bridge mixed with the smell of rain, he had trudged his way under the bridge already when he looked up after feeling down for a while. That was when all of a sudden he saw something unbelievable.

"What the... "

There in front of him was a shack. To be honest he doesn't know what to even call it. It looked like a shack only because it looked partially disassembled, but it was made out of cement and fibres and steel and bolts like how a house was built. It was about three times his height, but he wasn't so sure how wide it is. He estimated that it was the size of his room, and his room was not small but not big, either. This house looked just right.

The teen, although not looking like it, was overjoyed. It seemed like God had heard his wishes and had given him a home to live for intervals when he doesn't want to go to school or when he doesn't want to see his parents. The only concern: is there anyone living inside?

So he cautiously walked towards the door. It was made out of wood, and it looked like the only neat and tidy thing around. The doorknob was painted bronze and looked a bit new, as if the house was built not long ago.

With his heart in his throat, he twisted the doorknob and opened the door.

Lo and behold, the interior looked nothing like how it looked outside. It was small and a bit cramped, but it looked welcoming and spacious somehow. There was a husky air to it, as if the house was waiting for someone to open it and live in it. There were no signs of life inside, and it doesn't look like someone lived in it neither.

And because of that, down fell the pitch black umbrella as the exhilarated teen ran towards the long wide couch closest to him and pounced onto it, kicking the door shut as he began running. With the midnight sky now faintly visible with stars since the rain had cleared up, the young man fell into a seemingly endless slumber.

He didn't know that shortly after that he would have the most unforeseen encounter in his life.

❧

He was at his worst tonight.

The small, pitiful shadow of a teen limping could be seen wandering past seas of humans. In it, he looked ordinary enough, only, if you were to stop and look a bit more carefully, you would see a few black bruises dotted around his face, eyes and neck, tainting his pure white hands and legs. His left ear was bleeding slightly, and he was also clutching his right arm tightly as if it was excruciatingly painful. All in all, he looked like he had just survived an accident.

The young boy's eyes were glazed over, as if he paid no attention to his surroundings. He walked around aimlessly like a zombie, guided by the people around him. He had no real idea of a destination.

He just wants somewhere that he can rest for the time being. Somewhere warm, somewhere cozy, somewhere where he can be able to heal his wounds with no people judging him or hurting him or doing horrible things to him. The air was cold and cool because of the rain that had fallen a few minutes ago, and his nose became clogged with the moist, damp air after the rain. He felt heavier, then lighter, as if his body wasn't his. His eyelids fluttered, blurring his vision, and for a few minutes he thought he had succumbed to his injuries.

The next thing, he found himself facing the hard concrete ground under a bridge. He had somehow walked out of the crowd, dragged his flimsy, tired body down a flight of stairs, stumbled a few more steps, tripped, and fell down. Breathing heavily, his eyes directed him towards a beautiful prussian blue sea sprayed with white dots, reflecting the now clear night sky.

The corners of his mouth raised weakly. He had always wanted to die like this, facing a pretty view like the sea he loved when he was a kid. Only, it was a pity that he had to depart so soon, as he had only lived sixteen years of his lifetime. As he felt his heavy eyelids closing, he wondered if it was okay if he could just die like this.

Suddenly, he heaved his body up as he got up to his two trembling feet, now covered in more bruises, cuts and scratches. His vision, despite blurred, made out a small house in a distance, and he remembered that he wanted somewhere to stay, somewhere where he can just lie down and sleep and forget about the world for even just a while.

"I can't die yet.."

With that in mind, he trudged closer to the house in a snail's pace, but he was filled with so much longing that he didn't even care about anything at all. At long last he reached for the doorknob, his entire weight slamming against the door, knocking it open. And with that, the musty smell of a fresh new home, now coated with the faint smell of rain emanating from a black umbrella on the ground and a figure laying on the sofa, welcomed the teen as he gave in to his tiredness and content, and collapsed onto the carpet at the entrance, the door closing behind him.

At the same time, the thuds from the teen as well as the door opening shook the other teen awake, and he glanced towards the source of the noise. To his horror, he saw a boy about his age on the ground, seemingly lifeless, with bruises around him as well as seemingly serious injuries.

"Hey, are you alright?!"