A Quest To The Known

prologue

The house was almost silent. Almost.

The only noises that echoed through the roughly painted walls were the squeaks of a wooden bedframe and the soft nose blowing of an adult man.

Althought a very frequent noise in the house, this time it was different.

The child in the room next door sat on her bed. Wrapped between her sheets, listening to the sound emitted from five to five seconds by the only person she considered family. No less than two hours ago, she blew her six birthday candles. Surrounded by the people she was close enough to experience that moment with, but not enough to call family. She wished her father was finally happy.

From the sounds that engulfed her, it had not come true.

She thought twice before letting go of the book she was reading, and rising from her seat. She waved her hand in front of her face as black dots covered her vision, dancing as if it was a game.

"Daddy?" He blew his nose one last time and turned to the girl. Her hair was a mess, no doubt from the habit she acquired in her life. Running her fingers through her hair. Her hair seemed to her safe place. Whenever she was nervous or uncertain, she always had, at least a finger, somewhere in it. Whenever she saw no way to escape her evergrowing anxiety, she nibbled on the ends of her curled black hair. "Are you sad? Again?"

His heart broke everytime she said something like that. His job as a father was to make sure she had her best childhood, it was not her job to take care of him, it was the other way around. "No, baby, just thinking."

"People don't cry when they think," Making her way to the bed, tripping once on the blanket a little too big for the bed. "Do they?"

"They're not supposed to... But they do it sometimes. When they think about sad stuff." She snuggled to his side and nodded to her father's words. "I was thinking about your mother."

He had mentioned her name once or perhaps a couple times, she didn't remember. She didn't want to. It wasn't a memory she wanted in her mind. Every time she heard that name, his father was sad and thereupon, she got sad too. "She left us on your birthday, the very first one, on the day you were born."

"Oh."

"Do you wanna know more about her?" To his surprise, she shook her head vehemently. She grew a headache at the mention of her progenitor and she didn't even know her. She used to tell her best friend, Alicia, that she hated her mother.

How could you even hate someone you never knew? Well, you could when the simple thought of her brought the utmost sadness to your father's life. When the mention of her name brought the atmosphere crashing down on him. When he felt suffocated every time he saw a picture. So she decided to erase it all, her face, her name, every piece of information anyone had ever given her.

She simply erased her mother.

But a resolution such as that, was sure to come with a price.