Chapter 20

"Oliver?"

The redhead was worried about the boy who covered his eyes with one arm; he was crying silently. Chrystal just wanted to cheer him up and ended up making the boy cry; maybe she shouldn't have mentioned his mother.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you."

Oliver clenches his teeth tightly, holding back sobs, trying in vain to stop crying. He promised himself not to; he had been making it for years, but... the pain was as great as when his mother left. It hurt, even though she was now up there looking down on him. He never told what happened that night; he could never tell anyone how terrible he felt for being the one who brought misfortune to his mother. No matter how hard he tried to remember his sweet and tender mother, he was only tormented by images of that night, of Collette's cold and terrifying lifeless body.

>>Oli…ver<<

The boy opens his eyes, letting out a small sigh when he feels Chrystal Daly's body over him, wrapping him in her arms. He was stunned, not knowing what to think or say; his brain did not yet understand what was happening, but that act diminished the pain and loneliness in his heart. His face contracted and hid in the redhead's shoulder.

She didn't know if she understood him or not; of course, she should understand, she lost her family, and she was silently telling him that she understood his pain. Her thin hands ran over Oliver's hair, trying to calm him; she heard the boy's sobs in her ear, felt his tears in the bulk of the jacket and the spasms of his body. He was broken.

Oliver felt a warmth in his chest that he thought he had forgotten; he didn't want to separate from that embrace, but Chrystal had been the whole time without moving, and he thought he was crushing her... He couldn't stay hugged to the red-haired girl all night.

"I killed her," he murmurs, detaching himself from the young woman, wiping his face with the back of his jacket.

"What are you saying?"

Chrystal didn't expect such an alarming answer as that. Actually, she didn't expect Oliver to speak until dawn, and his answer took her breath away.

Oliver sat stretching his legs out, once again looking up at the sky.

"I had a very different life than yours; I would have liked to live like you; I never complained, I just imagine what it would have been like to be someone normal."

He let out a sigh of repressed memories; he was afraid she would abandon him in the forest, but if he didn't tell her now, he would never do it again; he would never retake courage, even if his life depended on it.

"My mother was amazing, the best person I ever knew... whenever she left our shelter, as she used to call the place where we lived, we would play hide and seek, she used to say that I should keep quiet so that no one would find me until she came back. One day everything changed, and that was the beginning of our nightmare.

One day one of the guards on duty heard me sneezing, and upon noticing my presence, he took me to Mr. Craig and my mother; they argued, and I spent the next few days in a rather small and dark place. I cried a lot those days; I was afraid I would never see my mother again; I thought I was going crazy with every passing second. I hated... I wouldn't say I like the dark; even though I was always surrounded by it, I am terrified of being unable to see.

When I thought I could not resist any longer, two guards took me out of that place and took me back to my mother; I remember that the light of a huge room blinded me for a few seconds, but the voice of my mother calling me, running towards me made me act fast. Now we would live there, in that nice and huge room of different shades of white and brown, it was the best cell I had ever been in.

Living underground is suffocating; everyone's cells were small and cold like the whole place; I didn't like it, so when my mother said that this room would be our new home, I could do nothing but be happy, I could run free and know things that only existed in fairy tales. It took me a short time to realize that my mother had paid a high price for keeping me alive, marrying that man, and putting up with... everything he did to her.

Colette was a powerful and brave woman, she was my role model, she was cold and tender, however, with Mr. Craig... they fought so many times that I lost count, she always tried to behave well before his eyes to avoid problems, but she never liked Mr. Craig, she still loved my father, and that bothered him a lot, that and the fact that I looked so much like him...

I used to sleep in the closet, my mother didn't like Mr. Craig to see me, I didn't like to be in his presence either, but there were several occasions when his fights woke me up, and I couldn't stand by and watch that man hurt her. It was stupid for me to go out and defend her because he has always been taller and stronger than me, and at that time, I was only six years old; I still preferred to take his blows instead of my mother.

Those were four difficult years, I learned to read the clock and the seasons, my mother and I did many things together, and we never went back to the cells underground. My mother was fed up, she hated Mr. Craig as she never hated anyone else, and she repeated it constantly in his face, he had ruined her life, and she didn't want him to ruin mine, so she created a plan to escape to the place where she planned to live with my father: The Gold Star.

In those four years, my mother made friends with one of the guards in charge of bringing us food and gifts that Mr. Craig used to send to my mother. That guard loved us and supported my mother in her plan to escape.

>> "Unless I ask you to, don't leave my side even for a moment. Right?"

The auburn-haired woman finished adjusting the small cloak she had sewn for her son. She lifted her face to look him in the eye to make sure the boy was understanding.

"Do you remember the plan?"

The little boy nodded; he was nervous and sad; he didn't want to leave without the others.

"Why can't we go get the others, mommy? Mr. Craig and the guards hurt them too."

"We talked about it, Oli. If we can escape, they can escape with our help from outside. I need you to concentrate on us now; I need my brave boy."

Oliver looked once again at that beautiful and torturous cell; his mother was right, they had to escape first, or that monster would end their lives. His mother deserved her fairy tale ending; she deserved to be happy, and so did he.

"I'm ready, Mommy"<<

The plan was set in motion in the wee hours of the morning; my mother had altered Mr. Craig's coffee so he wouldn't wake up until the next night, when Mr. Craig was home, the security was lower, at two o'clock in the morning a change of guard would occur having five dead minutes at the back of the house. The friendly guard, Emer, would have the doors open and distract his companions as long as possible so that we could run to the outside world. Outside we would have transportation waiting for us like your motorcycle to get us away from hell as fast as possible.

I never knew what happened; I don't know what part of the simple plan failed... maybe Mr. Craig did know my mother well and knew that she would try to escape at some point. I don't know, my mother panicked when a dozen guards were running after us, she never wanted to get me off her back even though she said that if things got complicated, I would have to run alone, she didn't allow it, I guess because she didn't want to be one second closer to that person.

When Mr. Craig regained consciousness and was told what had happened, the terror I felt from his expressions was the most horrible thing I could feel. But not my mother; while I was shaking and trying to control my breathing, my mother had a look of courage on her face; it was a mask to hide her fear and give me hope.

Mr. Craig yelled many things at her, it was the only time I saw him look at her with real hatred, but he never hit her. Mr. Craig was also fed up with her and wanted to make her suffer so that she would understand that the rest of her life would be spent with that madman, destroying the only thing she had left of my father.