chosen

He ran and ran and ran, deep into the woods, past the trees and bushes, feeling the tears fall down his checks, until he tripped and fell and could run no more.

He lay there for a while until he started hearing a slight rustling and flapping from a near by thorn bush. Moving closer out of curiosity, he peered through the branches. There was something trapped inside, he knew. When he reached in with both hands and slightly pulled the branches apart, something black and full of feathers darted past him. He let out a small cry of surprise and fell backwards but when he looked up, he saw it had only been a black bird, now sitting and chirping happily on a branch above him. He looked at the bird and laughed, sitting up and hugging his knees.

After watching the black bird, he then saw a faint glow coming from further in the forest. Looking round to see what it was, he saw a small ball of light. Green and gold it was. His naive six-year-old mind ached to reach out and touch it...and when he did, the light zapped itself through his fingers. He jumped and gasped, feeling it go through his hand, his arm, up to his shoulder. It had hurt, and he'd screamed...

It had taken hours for his aunt to find him there like that, laying unconscious on the forest floor, a scar on his shoulder. They had always assumed it was from being cut by the thorn bush but in that moment, Emily was too relieved to have found him to even acknowledge it much. Her biggest worry had been that her brother would find him before she did. It had taken her long enough to calm him down so that he wouldn't hurt her. Having realised that he'd run off had only fed that anger even more. The gods only know what he might've done to the boy if he had been the one to find him.

With Oscar safely in her arms, she vowed not to let his uncles rage touch him once more today. That she would keep him close and protect him, and take the hits for him if need be.

He didn't remember the ball of light. He didn't remember how he got that scar. All he remembered was the blackbird in the thorn bush.