1 Chapter 01 - Life back on Earth

∆Rewriting in the process∆

...

Somewhere in the void.

A soul in the form of a ball of light shone weakly like a candle in a storm.

Its light was dim and weak as though it would vanish any time soon.

It flickered weakly, as it fought the harsh and crushing pressure that the void brings to it.

For how long has it fought for survival is unknown. But one thing is for sure, it does not want to disappear!

And so the soul endured and fought for its dear existence.

How long? No one knows.

For time never exists in the void.

The void was meant to be empty, dark, and endless.

But this anomaly of a soul appeared out of nowhere and has not given up since.

This is odd, as this was the first time this has ever happened.

And such oddity could invite unwanted attention.

Attention from a being far from a mere mortal's comprehension.

A being that with its mere presence, could shake the void with ease.

A being that the void acknowledges as something far greater than itself!

And a being that could end this lone soul's existence with just a thought.

Boom

The void shook.

The lone soul trembled as a presence that brings more pressure than the void appears not so far from it.

The poor dying soul flickered weakly, refusing to succumb to the pressure from the unknown being's mere presence.

It fought.

It tried.

And it had survived till now.

This weak and dying soul simply couldn't let things end after everything it has been through!

And so it struggled.

The lone soul fought the crushing pressure and surprisingly stood its ground!

Its light became brighter and stronger for a moment as it stopped the pressure from crushing it.

But it did not last long.

It seems that the soul has finally reached its limit as it became unsteady and weaker than before.

Its light appeared to be slowly turning similar into a transparent and will soon be devoid of light.

Any moment now and this tough lone soul's existence will soon be devoured by the cold and cruel void.

But before that could happen, a tear suddenly appeared in the void.

The tear slightly opened and a pair of mysterious eyes peeked from it.

The pair of eyes traced its gaze around the dark and endless void until it eventually stopped its mysterious and powerful gaze to the now dissipating soul.

The soul appeared to have exhausted every last ounce of its strength and was now disappearing into existence.

Its dim light became even dimmer as some of its parts started tearing away and disappearing one by one.

Seeing this, the being behind that tear decided to take action.

Its pair of eyes started shining with bright colors. It was so bright it even illuminated a part of the void!

Which is ridiculous, as light couldn't even exist in the void!

The light then gathered close to the tear and was eventually sent down into the form of a beam of light.

The light shot forward and hit the lone soul, slowly encompassing it.

The soul that was moments away from disappearing slowly reassembled itself.

Its weak light slowly shone brighter.

It became steady and looked more lively.

Soon, the soul was back to how it looked before!

Steady, bright, and full of life!

The being behind the tear pried its eyes into the state of the soul. Its feelings were a bit complicated as it just helped a soul with a circumstance never seen before!

Looking at the soul steadily hovering without any issue throughout the void, the being couldn't help but have its interest piqued.

And that, by a mere mortal's soul!

Moments later, the pair of eyes peeking from the void slowly closed, an amused glint subtly appeared on its eyes before it was completely shut.

The tear followed after as it slowly closed, leaving the void to its usual state.

But before the tear could completely shut, a voice was heard from within.

[[Strange one. I'll observe you for now.]]

A deep and distorted voice was heard.

For whose voice it belonged?

Remained unknown.

...

"Uggh". The soul groaned, regaining its consciousness for the first time since it appeared in the void.

The soul's appearance has changed a lot ever since the being behind the tear left it in the void.

It started in a form of a ball made of light to a humanoid form made of light!

"It's so dark. Where am I?" The soul asked itself, wondering where it currently was.

The humanoid soul looked around, curious about its surroundings but it didn't see anything aside from the fact that its surroundings were completely dark and devoid of life.

"What is this". The soul mumbled to itself as it hovered aimlessly throughout the void.

It drifted around for quite some time, wondering what kind of place the void was.

It's unknown how long the soul explored the void, it could be a year or even hundreds of years as it asks itself the various question about what kind of place this was.

It took the soul quite some time, but finally, it came to a stop to ask the most important question to itself.

"Who am I?"

Boom

It seems that question triggered something inside, as the soul visibly shook while clutching what appears to be its head.

"Uggh". The soul groaned as a sudden influx of nineteen years' worth of memories started resurfacing.

The soul became dazed, as it witnessed its nineteen years of life all over again.

...

My name is Aron Maxwell. Son of my beautiful mother, Sarah Maxwell, a Filipino.

I have a father, but I don't see him as one.

But to short things up, he's an American. Met my mother, dated quite a while, got married, and eventually made me a couple of years after.

I was born in a country called the Philippines.

We had a nice little house, which I grew up in and learned to loath as years passed.

Well, if you were living in a house filled with almost nothing but awful memories, you'll hate it.

For example, there was no day where I couldn't see my mother with new bruises on her body every morning.

Even though she always tries to hide it by wearing some baggy clothes and makeup on, the fact that I could hear her restrained cries every night is enough of an indication that she was being abused by my drunk father.

The night when I turned six, only my mother was home with me as she made a small celebration for my birthday.

My father was still at work at that time so I decided to confront my mother and ask her about my father.

I did it with my father not on sight, because I was afraid of what he might do to me once he heard me questioning his actions.

My father is abusive, and the only reason I'm still safe from his beatings is that my mother protects me all the time.

My mother was surprised at my sudden question, she was silent for a moment as she looked down with her bangs hiding her eyes, which made me nervous that time.

But then she raised her head and showed me the most beautiful and reassuring smile that I've ever seen.

She told me in a gentle voice that everything is going to be fine.

She said that my father was originally a great man, it's just that he's been stressed a lot at work that he couldn't help but take it out on them.

My mother promised me that everything will soon return to normal and that my father will eventually become the great man that he used to be.

As a naive six-year-old kid, I simply nodded my head with a smile and believed that my father will soon be back to normal.

Not knowing that it was nothing but wishful thinking.

My father became worse.

Way worse than before.

If back then he only used to beat my mother for a minute or so while he curses about how his life becomes so miserable.

A month after my sixth birthday, he became much worse.

Every night he started beating my mother for more than a minute and could last up to half an hour before he gets tired and go back to drinking.

Every morning, I could still see my mother with bruises, but this time, with horrible wounds!

She would still greet me with the same motherly smile she has every morning without fail despite her beaten-up face.

But I couldn't just ignore it anymore, not after I keep seeing the same thing every morning!

I haven't mentioned it but I was born with a good head on my shoulders, so even though I'm too young to understand the reason why my father always beat my mother, I'm smart enough to know how much of a trash he is.

And so, after a couple of months after my father started turning into what I could describe as a monster, I finally decided to confront him myself.

One night when my father arrived at our home, drunk, he started beating my mother as soon as he closed the door.

While he was at it, I was on the stairs, completely frozen as he continue to beat up my mother in the living room.

I was terrified. Even though it took me a couple of weeks to gather enough courage to try and confront my father, in the end, I still cower.

I mean, I am just a six-year-old kid! What do you expect?

I was still at the stairs, hesitating whether I'll confront my father or not, as hearing him cursing and beating my mother from upstairs is much more different from hearing it up close!

Gathering my remaining courage, I decided to take a peek into the living room.

And what I saw...

Erased every one last bit of hesitation that I had.

Seeing my father punch my mother right in the face while holding her hair so she couldn't escape, completely blew my mind.

Before I could even react to what I saw, my body already moved on its own, and before I knew it, I was already right beside my father.

With all my strength, I clenched my teeth as I pushed my father out of the way so that he'll let go of his hold on my mother.

I succeeded, my father stumbled a step and had let go of my mother's hair.

Looking at my mother, I almost cried, her face is so swollen!

With the sadness upon seeing my mother's beaten-up face, came the anger directed at my father for doing that to her!

I stood in front of my mother as I spread my arms wide to stop my father from hurting her any further.

That time, I thought that he'll come to realize how wrong he was once he saw his son coming out of his way to protect his mother.

But boy was I too naive.

I realized that in an instant when our eyes met.

This guy, don't give a fuck!

As soon as he regained his sense of balance, he unhesitatingly took a hard step forward and delivered a punch, packed with most of his strength right into my guts!

I couldn't do anything.

Against a full-grown adult's punch, my six-year-old body couldn't bear the force of it, resulting in me throwing my dinner out right in the living room.

I fell to the floor while clutching my stomach in pain.

The pain was too much for me to bear at that time that I even transitioned from being conscious to unconscious!

But that monster didn't stop there.

Seeing me curling my body to the floor as I clutched my stomach in pain, he simply snorted and picked me up from the floor by holding my neck.

He put both of his hands to my neck as he stared right into my eyes. I couldn't completely remember most of what he was saying that time, but I vaguely remember how he keep ranting about how his life became so miserable after he married my mother.

He yelled out his hate and frustrations to me while slowly tightening his grip on my neck. I couldn't breathe, all I could do that time was to keep on flailing my feet in an attempt to hit him so that he could let me go, but he just tightened his grip in return.

My vision begin to get blurry and I thought that I was definitely going to die any time soon if he keep choking the life out of me!

But my mother wouldn't let that happen.

She mustered every last bit of strength that she has to strike the monster to who knows where.

But the next thing I know was that I found myself gasping for air while my mother stood in front of me, trying to protect me with her body.

My stomach still hurts like hell, and I feel like throwing up so I just laid there motionless to the floor.

I feel like losing my consciousness, but that monster is still right in front of us so I couldn't get knocked out yet!

I couldn't move, so I thought my father will start beating me and my mother soon.

But after a couple of seconds has passed, we're still fine.

Confused, I weakly raised my head to check what that monster was up to.

But to my surprise he's down to the floor while holding his genitals as his face were completely morphed in pain.

I was surpised as I didn't expect that to happen, but seeing him like that made me feel a little bit of relief.

I feel my consciousness slowly slipping away, but I endured it.

At least...

Before help arrives!

And just as that thought passed by my mind, my consciousness started slipping away immediately after.

But before I do, I saw another silhouette in the living room.

Smiling, I completely lost my consciousness.

smile to greet me nothing but your mother's cries as your father beat her every day for no reason, you'll eventually learn to hate it.

•Flashback•

Date: October 14, 2019

In a street somewhere in Japan. You can see a young and handsome man with a shoulder length curly black hair tied in a simple pony tail with a sharp and brown coloured eyes, he has a skinny build and wears a simple white shirt, which is somewhat old but still clean and ironed, match with a black jeans and white and blue rubber shoes.

He was all smiles and was humming a random song while skipping a little. The man's name is Aron Maxwell, who is now somewhat giddy, for he finally made his first girlfriend and fortunately the last. He is now 19 years old and in his 4th year of college in Japan, he was living in an apartment with his mother near his school to not waste money for transportation.

Aron Maxwell was originally from the Philippines, but his mother migrated to Japan for a better life and brought him there to continue his studies. Well 'almost' a better life, because when his mother build a restaurant for their business, they were hoping that it was the start of a better life. But fate suddenly moved to change their lives.

Their restaurant was framed of food poisoning by the neighbouring restaurant owner across the street. Their business was originally good for it only take them around 6 months to renovate it and make the restaurant a lot bigger.

But some things doesn't always go all too well. The "customers" or the so called "victims" was brought to a hospital to be admitted because of sudden pain on their stomachs as well as feeling nauseous all the time, and there, they got the "evidence" of food poisoning and accuses them, which resulted the restaurant to be closed for good.

Of course his mother tried to deny all the accusations to them, but the neighbouring restaurant owner was rich and have connections, for their business was already there for many years so they clearly stood no chance.

Then they got into many debts, which resulted in them losing so much money. Maxwell's mother then got sick because of the build up anxiety and stress.

So Aron have no choice but to take part time jobs to atleast put some food in their plate, he also need to take care of mother as she was sick and too weak to move around like before.

Also, aron may not look like it, but he was actually ranked 1st in their school as he was considered a genius, he aced through all the subjects like it was nothing and got many awards for quiz bees and such.

Now he was in his 4th year of college and on the way home, he was really happy to make his dream girl and crush since high school his girlfriend now. When he went inside the apartment, he yelled. "Tadaima!" Living in japan for many years made him accustomed to the language, this can be credited to the idea of his mother to only speak japanese even when they are inside the house and it was usually the mother and son duo's way to practice their japanese accent and grammar.

While Aron went inside, he found it odd for his mother not to reply so he went to the small living room and found it empty with the TV still on. Aron frowned because his mother usually shut the television off, If she don't want to use it just to lessen the bill for their electricity.

He then went to the kitchen and to the bathroom only to found it both empty. So he checked the room of her mother next and it was also empty. If Aron only find it suspicious before, then now he was dead worried. Aside from his grandparents who live in the philippines, his mother was his only family and he never consider his father a family.

When he was a kid, he usually hears the sobbing voice of his mother to the bathroom and he would always see his mother with bruises all over her body the next day, that's why he come to hate his father for all the beating he did to his mother. His father was an American to where he got his last name Maxwell, he used to be a soldier and retired at the age of 30.

He then went to philippines for a change of environment to where he met Aron's mother in a bar working as a bartender so.... yeah we'll skip that story. Aron was sweating cold and wondered where his mother went off to, because lately the debtors often visit to collect the money, though they pay the money in the right time and day, but the collectors often come even if it's not the time to collect the money yet and Aron always see those ugly bastards yelling and making a scene while letting out vulgar words to his mother, which angered him so much.

He then went to his own room to check if his mother was there and when he went in, he exhaled the air that he didn't know he was holding. It was like a heavy stone was remove from his chest.

Aron's mother though sickly pale and somewhat skinny due to being sick was still a beauty in her own right, she has a black hair with shade of brown and a beautiful brown eyes and pointed nose which only added to her beauty, she has a small rounded face to match with her matured body which showed a cute and matured aura around her. His mother was there standing just in front of the door holding a plate which has a cake in it with a candle lit up.

She then said in a gentle voice. "Happy 20th Birthday, mthem y son". She greeted as she gave him a gentle smile.