Rise From The Ashes

Chapter 8 - Glass Heart

"What is he doing? He's been there for a whole day."

"Is he even alright?"

The boy is sitting on the grass facing the cliff, resting his head on his knees, both hands are hugging the knees. His eyes are gazing towards the distance, but they are vacant and sad looking. Mouth slightly gaped open as if in a daze. Blank face without any significant expression, just like an empty vessel without soul.

"Why don't you approach him then?"

"No way! Let's just throw a pebble at him and see if he reacts!"

"Good idea!"

One of them pick up a pebble from the ground and preparing to throw it at the boy. The others soon grow more curious and move to pick a pebble for themselves.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

"R-Run! It's Johan!"

Someone yells from a distance at them, causing them to run in fear. The figure comes in to the scene, panting from running.

"Those kids..." he says as he looks up to them. "Lose the sight of any of them just for a while and they'll go mischievous."

His attention is now focused on the sitting boy. The boy is seemingly aware of both his presence and the kids just now, but choose not to care.

"Umm... Hey. You are the boy whom Andy brought a week ago, right?"

The boy, still sitting on the ground turns his head slightly to face him. He has bags under his eyes caused by the lack of sleep. Bandages can be seen wrapping his forehead and plasters are found placed on some parts of his hands.

Their eyes meet with each other. It lasts for a while however, as the boy choose to ignore him and return to his brooding.

"Hey! I'm just asking!" Johan looks annoyed at his reaction. "Are you angry or something?"

Johan moves to approach the boy, wanting to have a closer look on him. To his surprise, the boy buries his face between his knees.

" ... Go away." The boy speak without even bother to turn. His voice is muffled and grim.

"Are you sure?" Johan answers, unconvinced. He stops walking as he said those, now only being separated just by a few footsteps left. "I'm just trying to help you here."

"There is nothing you can do to help me."

"There is," Johan takes a slow, but brave step towards him. "You need someone to talk to, or at least sit there beside you. Am I right?"

The boy goes silent. Face still buried between his knees. Seeing the boy has calmed down, Johan takes another step.

"Don't worry," he says as he walks carefully towards him. His eyes continuously focused on the boy, watching his every movements as if the boy is a dangerous creature and needs to be tamed.

"Leave me alone." The boy's muffled voice comes out again, but this doesn't faze Johan, more like encouraging him to press forward. This one needs a serious help, he thought to himself.

"I'm not going to judge you or anything, I swear." Johan says emphatically. "You can trust me. I'm a good friend."

The boy finally turns to him again, releasing his grip from the knees to the ground before he spats the next words angrily.

"I SAID, LEAVE ME ALONE!"

For the first time in his life, Johan runs out of words to speak. His feet instantly stops walking as those words were being spoken. The boy returns to hold his knees again, more tighly this time and buries his head between them. A muffled sound of sobbing can be heard.