𝐒𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 - ★彡[ᴀʟʜᴀɪᴛʜᴀᴍ]彡★

𝟑𝟖 - 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇

My mind felt fuzzy like I had been wading through an endless stream of diluted muddy water. A murky scent filled my nose and before I knew it, I was trapped in that room again. My father was in front of me, naked and bloody and dirty and bruised almost beyond recognition.

    This scene replayed over and over again. The relief in his eyes when he had spotted me hadn't been because he got to see me, but rather that he could trade away my own life for his own.

    Why was I even born in the first place if both of my parents would only use me for their own personal benefit?

    The vision in front of me blurred, shifting into a gray opaque ceiling. My limbs felt numb and paralyzed as my mind regained full consciousness. With lidded eyes I turned my head to see the blurry figure of a man.

    "Al...haitham?" my voice was weak and my eyes had not yet adjusted to the light but I could still tell that without a doubt, he was the one sitting beside me.

    "You're awake," he spoke in a soft sigh that was tinged with relief, "I'm glad that you're alright. You've been out for thirty hours."

     Thirty hours? I felt groggy as if I had slept for days on end yet the time that passed whilst I was lost in thought very well could have just been an apparition of my own mind's creation.

    "How are you feeling?"

"Not the best, not the worst."

    "I see."

    The visions of my father's corpse filled my mind once more. Terror rendered my body taut and tense as I remembered his tortured expression and the splatter of blood that had stained the floor, the eerie scarlet and—

    I felt something cool and gentle brush against my hand. "(Y/n)." His slender fingers intertwined with mine in a gesture of kindness and sincerity. "It's okay now."

    "But it's not; my father is dead. Even if he thought of me as nothing but a nuisance, I can't simply erase the memories of the times we spent together," my voice cracked even more as tears welled up in my eyes. "To see him like that—naked and tortured and suffering—even if he was a despicable human being, I can't just simply move forward and accept that he deserved it."
    The times we had spent as a family when I was hardly old enough to remember were probably some of the most joyous moments in my lifetime. We played with my stuffed animals together, we went on walks in the woods every morning, and so much more. Was all that just a lie?

    "Whether or not it was a lie cannot be said with absolute certainty," Alhaitham said slowly, "even so, if they lead you to becoming the person you are today, then they hold just as much importance either way."

    His words were incredibly kind, so much so that I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes. "Why do you still care about me?"

    In a world where not even my own parents cared about me, I found even the tiniest shred of kindness he granted was as monumental as hiking up a steep cliff. Even if he was cruel, a few moments of kindness would be enough for me. Yet recently Alhaitham had been bestowing upon me such care that I found myself unable to properly respond, as the last time I had received such earnesty was when I was a toddler.