Departure and a New Home 

Chapter 4: Departure and a New Home 

Simon was once again observing one of his memories while he was sleeping. This time, he saw his past self, who was chatting with one of his friends, Marcus. 

Marcus was an ordinary person with humble origins and quite shy, with some difficulty socializing, but he was very hardworking and had a great passion for programming and things like that. It was he who taught Simon and encouraged him to get started in this business. 

Simon was very close to Marcus, in fact, they both had the same taste in films and series and the same acidic sense of humor, and in a way, it was Marcus who gave Simon the best life advice. They could both be considered almost brothers. 

The conversation ended with them both leaving the diner and Marcus giving Simon a ride. The scene changes, and now Simon finds himself standing in front of Marcus' coffin. He had committed suicide with a shot to the head. Simon didn't cry, he just stood there beside Marcus' mother and his sister.

Marcus was a genius, but he had problems. He had depression and a number of other personal problems. Even though his mother was a good person and did everything she could to help him, she couldn't prevent her son from making that choice, and now she blames herself for it. 

Simon, floating above it all, looked at his past self with some apprehension. He knew what would happen next. 

The scene changes, Simon is in front of the computer. Marcus has never been a confident or talkative person. But he had a girlfriend, or he thought she was his girlfriend. 

In fact, she was just a girl who approached him to steal a project he was working on. Because of her, he ended up losing his job and the chance to change his life, and it destroyed him. 

Simon freaked out when he found out about this, but he knew he couldn't do anything legally. For a moment, he thought about just leaving it aside, but seeing Marcus' mother destroyed made him feel a deep hatred for everyone involved, so he followed other paths. 

Destroying the girl's reputation was just the first step, then it was time to end her family. Simon went deep enough to even rob the girl's parents of their savings, leaving them with nothing. 

In the end, they left, but Simon remained watching her, and whenever she managed to achieve something, no matter how simple it was, he insisted on taking it away, whether it was a job or even her dog. In the end, she ended up becoming an addict wandering around, but even that didn't make her leave Simon's radar, who made a point of cutting off any chance she had of getting back on her feet. 

After all this, he went after the company that hired the girl, and although it was difficult, he had the help of some members of the Dark Web and rival companies to bring everything down in a massive attack. 

In the end, Simon felt empty and started to live automatically, he became terrified of relationships even though he really wanted one. He found comfort in pornography and prostitution. And he relieved himself by destroying the reputations of some people he considered unworthy, giving rise to a strong feeling of superiority and control within himself as he sank deeper and deeper. 

- In the end, I'm nothing but a failure, right... Marcus.

Simon observed all this and then turned to the library, where he stayed for some time before waking up. He found himself in his room, staring at the ceiling, and hearing soft snoring next to her.

Simon turned and saw Milo, a 6-year-old boy, sleeping in the bed next to his. He arrived at 3 weeks old, and although he was shy, he got along well with the other children, including Simon. 

He was a chubby little boy with black hair and eyes, and he looked a lot like Marcus. 

Simon has been having recurring dreams about many things over the past year since Heloise was taken away to Hogwarts. 

That's right, Simon finally confirmed that he was in the magical world of Harry Potter, which was a small doubt he had. But when Heloise received a letter from an owl and then a member of the ministry took her with him, he could truly confirm it. 

He got up from the bed and looked at the clock next to the nightstand, which showed that it would soon be 4 a.m. He went downstairs silently and went to the basement, where a small backpack with some clothes and some money was waiting for him.

Leaving through a small window, he slowly moved away from the house where he had lived for six years. He took one last look at the orphanage before turning around and walking away. 

He loved the place more than he had loved anything in his last life. The peace and happiness he felt here in just 6 years couldn't compare to what he experienced before, and he really wanted to stay, but he knew he would soon commit terrible acts. 

Simon fell deeply in love with alchemy and developed an avid hunger for knowledge. He wanted to test everything Ed and Al knew and more. 

Simon walked for a few meters before sneaking into a passage that led to the sewers. There, he donned a protective suit and headed to one of London's most dangerous neighborhoods, Brixton.

This is a neighborhood considered dangerous and, in some ways, very deprived at this time, being home to the largest British Afro-Caribbean community in London. Although in a veiled form, racism in developed countries has always been blatant, and in England it was no different, so people of different ethnicities were normally kept in more remote neighborhoods. 

The whole local community was actually quite peaceful, but as there are always mitigating factors, and Brixton was no different, it was actually much worse. There were several old buildings that were now used by addicts and prostitutes on the outskirts of the community, which Simon considered a great place to develop and obtain research materials (guinea pigs). 

Walking through the fetid sewers, Simon used a simple map and a compass he made to get to Brixton. The trip was tiring for a 6-year-old boy, but he persisted and after walking almost 6 kilometers, he arrived at the neighborhood. 

Simon didn't go to the surface; instead, he wandered around for a while until he found a building that had access to the sewer. 

Buildings like this used to be old, and although there weren't many, a large proportion of those located in this region were abandoned. 

Simon passed through some iron gates until he came to a staircase that led to a heavy, rusty iron door. He drew a transmutation circle on it before dissolving it into iron powder and storing it in some small stone jars he made right then and there. 

Passing through the door, he found himself in an old and dirty storage room. Around him, crates and junk were thrown everywhere. He looked for a place to take shelter before forging a small house to take shelter inside. 

Simon took off the clothes he wore inside the sewers and threw them down the stairs leading into the sewers. He then entered his new temporary home. The little 2m² room was tiny, but for Simon, it was perfect. He took out his clothes from inside his backpack and also a small, sealed iron box.

He put everything aside before transmuting himself a small mattress and a sheet. 

Simon then looked at his wristwatch, and seeing that it would soon be 6 a.m., he decided to go out and see where exactly he was. 

 ***** 

Meanwhile, at the orphanage, director Victoria was already helping prepare breakfast alongside Martha without even imagining that one of her children had run away from home.