3 Chapter One: Traumatizing History

The day I regained my memories I was waiting in the Great Hall for the arrival of my new sibling. From what my father has said, I knew it was going to be a new brother. I was seated on a couch situated in a partitioned part of the dining area of the Great Hall. The dining area and private area were separated solely by a pair of red curtains.

I was the only one present of my family.

Other than my personal servant, no one else accompanied me to this room to wait for my little brother. My father was escorting him here personally, my mother was sulking in her room, and my sister was doing heaven knows what.

I sighed to myself. Mother had shut herself away from us immediately after hearing that father had had a bastard son. She refused to accept the reality that he had cheated on her with another woman. I'm honestly not sure whether she was upset because she loved him, or because her pride was hurt. It was difficult to tell with her.

I smoothed out a wrinkle in my dress. My sister and I permanently made the switch after turning nine. We proposed it to our father on our birthday to higher the chances of his approval. We confessed that we had been switching places frequently for a year, something he already knew apparently, and begged him to allow us to continue. We had to tell him because he was the only one who could see through our disguises every time. With his approval, we would be able to hide the truth from the world for a long time.

Knowing we would have to switch at a young age, my father couldn't exactly put off his decision. And seeing as how he found little issue with our plan, and he couldn't exactly stop us, he agreed. Of course, we never told Mother.

I knew that eventually we would have to quit playing each other's roles or else big consequences would occur, but I refused to think of that future for now. I wanted to enjoy this while I could.

I heard them before I saw them. Two sets of footsteps entering the Great Hall. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and stood to greet the new member of my family.

As they opened the curtains, I curtsied with as much grace as I could muster. Looking up, I smiled warmly and prepared to introduce myself. "Hello. My name is Melody. I'll be your new si-"

I cut off as I saw my half brother. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I first met him. It was the first and only time I had felt something apply such powerful magic on me. It was suffocating. My vision went dark in an instant, blocking me from even seeing my new brother. I passed out after that.

The darkness had swallowed me, but I still felt conscious. It's... hard to explain what happened after that. It's confusing for me even now. It was like... watching a play. The scenes of a life I never knew played in front of me, but they felt so familiar. But, they didn't feel like me. It felt more like a dream where I played out the life of someone I made up. When I woke up, I knew that that person wasn't me, but I still had memories of living such a thing, though they were only memories of a dream. There was feeling of familiarity, but also a feeling of disconnection.

Coming back to reality, I felt like I had spent 16 years in such a nightmare. And it was definitely a nightmare. The life of this person was so filled with misery. In the end, he had even concluded his life himself, by his own hand. I felt tears drip from my eyes. I could still feel the sense of suffocation and despair he had felt. My breathing hitched as I started to sob. I never wanted to feel that way again. Never again. Never.

The mantra repeated in mind over and over as I shivered and sobbed. It was... traumatizing. I may feel like I spent 16 years in that world as that person, but it was, as I mentioned before, like a dream. No matter how long it felt like you slept and what you experienced, in the end you couldn't grow up from watching a long movie. I was still just 11 years old who lived a cushioned life. I couldn't handle the intensity of the emotions shoved onto me.

Nothing else registered in my mind for what felt like a minute, but was actually around half an hour. I couldn't hear my family calling my name, or even the doctors and nurses trying to figure out what was wrong. I just curled up into a ball and refused to do anything but cry. Everytime it felt like it was going to stop, another memory would resurface and it would start anew.

Finally calming down, I started to realize what was going on around me.

"Owen, Owen please! Tell me what's wrong! What's going on?!" My father sobbed as he knelt by my bed.

I slowly came around and saw the others in the room. Other than my father, Melody was also in hysterics and a group of doctors conversed in the corner of my bedroom. There was only one other person in the room. And that was my new little brother. He seemed to be only one or two years younger than me and was standing awkwardly to the side, rubbing tears away as he guiltily watched me.

My breathing started to stabilize and my father sensed that I was calming down.

"Owen?"

Tears welled up in my eyes again as I jumped into my father's arms for a hug. "Papa! Papa, It hurt! It hurt so bad!"

A surprised expression was quickly replaced by a relieved one. Tears filled his eyes as he hugged me tight. "It's over. I don't know what happened, but I promise it's over. You're fine. Everything's fine."

I don't know exactly how long I hugged father, but I must have fallen asleep. This time, I had only happy dreams.