Chapter 72 - A Breakable Friendship : Part 2

"...mother?"

The world didn't make any sense.

This was the lesson Cain learned when he first found out about his fucked-up family. He never forgot about it. Never had been allowed to forget about it.

Anything nor everything ever made any sense was the first thought that came to him. The world was bright, yet the scarlet liquid that was surrounding his mother was too dark to be under the sun.

It did not stab his vision, no. Rather, his surroundings appeared much sharper, achingly clearer than they usually were. The forest was always cursed as it became too quiet at the mother and son pair.

She was someone vicious, a criminal, a murderer, but she was a mother.

A mother that Cain would wait for her to appear. A mother that he had hoped was there through his whole life.

Now that she wanted to be there, Cain pushed her away because she was a criminal and she was dying-

Oh god, she was dying.

The blindfold that she would always wear had been thrown away, leaving a pair of grey eyes that were staring at Cain in a daze.

The beautiful grey eyes slowly went dim at the final bit of life inside her. Her head fell off to the side slowly as her long black hair, little by little, fell out. The hair that was alive and tried to hurt him a month ago.

Ah.

This wasn't-

"Mother?" Cain's voice cracked, shattering the silent forest.

The teen let both of his knees fall right beside his mother and held her in his arms. He held her like she was broken glass, a beautiful glass.

"What happened-" He choked, tremblingly trying to keep her eyes open as the grey eyes slowly moved to stare at his face.

"We need to go-" His tongue felt like chains tied it. He just could not get the right words out.

His breath was ragged. It was as if he was dying too.

"-the hospital and treat your- your-"

Why couldn't he talk properly? What was happening? This didn't make any sense- why anything did not make any sense?

"Where's father? I'll call him- don't-" Cain's voice heightened as the white part of his eyes started to become bloodshot.

"-don't close your eyes." His lips trembled slightly when a short intake of breath followed the pale lips.

"My son." She croaked softly. Another hair fell off her head.

"My son." Then another hair fell off, slowly withering away from her.

A sob raised upon his throat as he choked on it. A single tear started to fall from the side of his right eye. The teen was unable to control when another tear and more started to fall down too.

His mother must be searching for Raziel. She must have wanted to see him right now. But he needed to go to the hospital first and found father and then-

"My son." She repeated her word again, still staring at him with dim grey eyes.

"Your son Raziel? I'll search for him. Just don't close your eyes." He could not hold the uncontrollable tears that had flown like a river on both of his cheeks.

He never had his mother's love before. Maybe he did when he was little, but it was so vague. Cain had always tried to grasp every single memory of her and tried to recall her smile.

But now, everything seemed to play in his memory—every single pat on his head and words of reassurance that she would come back soon. But the smile was still vague, and he needed to see it again. He needed to see it more.

"My son." His mother brought a hand close to his face and weakly wiped the tears from Cain's eyes.

"My son." She said it again, and Cain realized she was calling for him.

Cain held her hand that was holding his cheek, letting it stay there. "I'll call father. I'll search-"

"My son." Her voice was weaker this time.

There were only a few hairs left on her head as they kept falling off and withering away along with her.

"Yes, I'm here. Mother, please-" Cain gripped her hand tighter, desperate.

"My son." A tear fell from her grey eye, yet the eyes were too dim for some more tears to flow.

And then she smiled.

A smile so genuine that it stabbed Cain's heart, causing some lumps to prevent him from breathing. The smile was trembling, trying to stay intact as it tried to give away the best kind of smile for the teen. For the last time.

"Cain, my son. My son. My son." She kept repeating the word like a mantra—a mantra of regret, sadness, guilt, and false hope.

"My poor son." The last word was spoken like a whisper, but Cain almost could not manage to catch it if not for the dead silent forest. Her beautiful hair withered away for the last time, falling and gracefully landing on the ground.

Cain did not know what was going on. He just knew he did not want this.

He did not want his mother to be a criminal, he did not want her to die. Yet, the air was adorned by the smell of iron. The pool of blood mixed with hairs stood there as the source of the smell.

Panic slammed into him at the last second.

He quickly lowered her body to the ground, careful not to hurt her more.

He did that even though he knew that she could not feel any more pain because she was-

"Mother? Can you still see me?" He asked even though he knew the answer. The grey eyes were staring at him, but there was no trace of life behind them. They just looked at him with a tear stain on her cheek.

"Please, mother, can you hear me?" He begged to whatever god was up there to hear his prayer. This what not what he had wanted.

But then again, what did he want for the outcome of his family when he had run away from them?

"Please- I don't know what to do. Mother, what should I do?" He asked her again, hoping for an impossible answer from her blue lips.

His eyes became too blurry to even see his mother's lifeless eyes again. He moved his shaking hand to her eyes and closed them. He kissed his forehead and let tears fall onto her face as well.

And then he ran.

He ran aimlessly without an intact mind. He just ran and let tears fall behind from how fast he moved both of his aching feet.

But then he tripped over something and crashed onto the ground. His head bumped with a rock and created a way for blood to go down the side of his face.

He did not notice it when he looked back and froze when he saw what he had tripped over.

Who he had tripped over.

"Father?" He croaked and felt dizzy so suddenly. He felt like he was on the verge of puking as he saw his father's lifeless body and the etching blood all over him.

His father's stomach was adorned with many knives wound, almost tearing his stomach open. One of his legs was bent over the wrong way as it almost separated itself from its body.

He was not given the time to react properly when he heard a familiar pained scream not too far from his place.

His brother's scream. Raziel.

His instinct took over as he ran again, ignoring the pain within his feet and his bleeding head. He pushed some branches on his way, trying to get there on time, he must be on time or else Raziel would-

He almost tripped again when he finally arrived and stood in front of his brother and...

-his best friend?

"Alfred? Raziel?" He confusedly asked in between the concussion he had right now. The adrenaline was the one who was keeping him standing.

Alfred gripped Raziel's hair. The veins around the youngest Vergessene's neck appeared, trying to hold the pain off.

Cain noticed the wound on his little brother's waist. How could he not notice it when a dark liquid stained Raziel's clothes, completely changing the colour.

"What- what's happening?" His mind became dizzy as he tried to take the surreal situation.

Nothing made sense. Why was there not even a single thing that made sense?!

"I told you your best friend was dangerous." Raziel gritted through the pain with teeth that had been stained red.

"He killed both mom and dad."

The venomous statement made Cain frown in confusion. Who killed his parents? Was it Alfred? Was Raziel talking about Alfred? His loyal best friend?

"Shut up." Alfred spat and gripped the youngest Vergessene's hair even tighter.

"You promised- you promised me that-" Cain tried to get a grasp on words and deepened his frown. Why did the chain keep locking his tongue? He just could not get any proper words out of his mouth.

"I promised you I won't tell anyone about your family." Alfred coldly stated with a tone that Cain never heard before. "That doesn't mean I will not kill them."

His best friend was always playful and wrapped around the innocent sun. He was always cheerful and scared of horror movies. His best friend that he knew hated blood so much.

So why did Alfred bathe with the thing he hated the most?

"...why? Why would you do that to me? To my family?" There was so many questions within Cain's head, but that was the only words that managed to come out in this moment.

"You weren't- you weren't supposed to kill them." His blue eyes stared at Alfred, yet, the hazel ones did not stare back.

"You don't need to know why." Alfred said with coldness that could freeze the whole forest.

The red-haired teen brought a knife up in the air without even giving a single glance at his supposed to be best friend. "Besides, I'm doing this for your own good too, Cain."

Cain could not utter a single word to counter his best friend's statement as a knife stabbed the side of Raziel's neck.

Cain also could not hear anything as a scream went out of his throat, ripping the silence of the forest.

His brother was killed by the hand of his own best friend.

The best friend that knew how much Cain loved Raziel.