Column (Ch-3 Recalling the past)

Written by Silver Crown Edited

Chapter-3 Recalling the past (2)...

A little moment I got for reminiscing my past life was interrupted by a blue-robed man. There are two other people following behind him. One of them being the one who whipped me at the deck. These men chose me and two other boys by grabbing our arms. We got pulled out of the cabin and dragged by them into a certain place.

They gather boys from the cabin and assemble in the corridor. Together with them, blue robe men dragged us into the cabin below steerage.

They tossed us into a room filled with fish and other sea creatures. There is no need to explain how fishy and stinky the room is. This room stored marine creatures, mostly fishes and prawns that we captured throughout the voyage.

They gave us a bamboo basket for each of us.

"Grab these and go to the feeding room" a man ordered.

I picked up some fish and put those dead sea creatures inside the basket.

We carried them into a room called the feeding room. Inside the room, many fearsome beasts were being caged in what looked like black iron bars. There are a variety of different species confined in each cage.

I don't know why they kept so many beasts inside this layer. Do they operate a zoo at their sect? What was the name again? Sea sect? Aquatic sect? No. They said It is the 'Oceanic sect'.

I pour what is inside my basket from the gap between the iron bars. While I was minding my own business, I saw a scene that scared me to the extreme.

A Creature with similar features to Gorilla with white fur grabbed one of my colleagues who was pouring the food. The creature pulled him by grabbing his hand. In a matter of seconds that creature's claws sank into his flesh with a gush of blood spilling toward me.

While my colleague was pulled into the cell, his other hand grabbed one of the bars for a brief moment.

It only lasted for a brief moment because when he grabbed the bar, his fingers were cut in an instant after getting in contact with the bar.

The only remains of him I could see were the cut-off tips from his four fingers that dropped on the floor. I was stunned and got rooted to the spot. Animalistic aggressive noise was playing as a piece of background music for me.

That white fur Gorilla glared at my face through the gap between two bars.

"Here's Johnny"

"Ahhh.!!!!"

It must be my hallucination. Why would a gorilla say something like that? I staggered back for a few steps.

My fear couldn't contain inside me and flowed out as yellow liquid in my pant.

I heard someone snickering at my miserable condition at my back.

My hands are shaking and some stomach gas puked out of my mouth. Unknowingly I was kneeling on the spot while covering my mouth. I started to throw up violently but it was just air from my stomach.

I was puking so much that I couldn't breathe anymore and started to feel suffocation.

I hammered my chest hoping to breathe and control my body's reactions.

Someone throw a wet rag at my head which cooled me down a bit.

He then ordered /threatened me to wipe the floor I messed up or he will throw me inside that cage.

I moved my shaky hands and grab the rag. My hands are moving on their own shakily wiping the floor. During the time I was cleaning the floor, my ability to think was completely shut-down. I don't know what I was doing and why I got here.

Memories flooded and resurface in my mind. Which shifted my focus, alleviating a fearsome scenario I have seen. I have seen other people's death but it is my first time seeing such a gruesome death like this.

My current mentality is affecting my memory so all I could recall and see were a bunch of unpleasant memories.

It was about my life after my graduation, I was running here and there to get a job. I've gone to many job interviews and tests but I couldn't get a proper job.

It's not about salary but my evaluation was at an all-time low. Being rejected for reasons like not having experience, needing higher academic quality, and some outright declining after giving some hope. They didn't even give me a chance to prove myself.

Alcohol and cigarettes became a daily diet for me which is holding regret inside my stomach. I was so desperate, I contacted my buddies but their offer was a mild slave contract. Unsurprisingly I have to work at a shady construction company, with an average salary. I became what was supposed to be a site engineer.

However, all things piled over my head.

I have to do the odd jobs for my boss, if necessary become a foreman, connect material suppliers, have to fill up incomplete line drawings with my imagination and when things go south, I have to fill up by myself, unpaid OT and 24/7 in situ solving the problem here and there.

It was a very challenging time of my life, I have to quarrel with laborers in some cases, have to beg suppliers to give credit for supplies, and have to mooch on labor for the meals.

I vividly remember how much I struggle to learn knowledge that I disregarded after one night of cramming for an exam.

It takes a couple of years of experience to reconstruct my unsteady foundation with a firm and steady one. Learning step by step through trial and error through hardship.

I became a slightly bigger dog under the baptism of stress and strain.

While my living condition became slightly stable, an event that pushed my life in another direction arrived.

My mother's death. I was ringed by my genius brother. I remembered my conversation with him just like yesterday.

I couldn't believe him as the times he tricked me into something were too many to count.

"I know I haven't come back for a long time but you shouldn't joke like this."

"Java this isn't a joke this time, I'm still unable to believe it too. I saw her yesterday alive and kicking. She only told us she felt a little dizzy" he said.

From my cheap cell phone, I heard he was sniffing and crying.

I drove to the HQ and requested leave. At that time, Boss was in a bad mood, I guess I destroyed his time with his secretary.

He said he could hire anyone to give my position and then he started preaching his scolding scripture for my past mistakes like any other day. After hearing his unkind words, I feel suffocated. I was working like a cow for him and his company. Yet, for them, I'm just a removable pawn that can be replaced anytime. I came into his office due to my personal affair but I ended up settling my matter with him.

I have quite a temper at that time, I smashed his office and got fired, and as a bonus, I got confined for some days inside the jail.

I couldn't make my mother's funeral in time. I watched my father silently weeping while sitting on a chair. One of my big brothers led me into a room where my mother's ash pot is kept. Things happened so fast that I forgot how to cry. I silently watch my father scattering ashes into the river.

Not too long, only about three months after the mother's death, father followed his wife and went to the afterlife. He died on the hospital bed due to dry liver disease because he was consuming cheap alcohol (spirit) for a long time.

When he was in death bed, he explicitly reminded his sons not to drink and smoke like him.

My parents' departure left us a house and quite a bit of property. My siblings started to divide inheritances among themselves. Then it became quite a drama. A harmonious family got broken as soon as the pillar is gone. The incite from others worsen our house's domestic affairs. Our siblings' relationships started to falter under constant dispute for the portion of inheritances. At some point, they are unable to sustain anymore and the sibling relationships finally snapped.

I wasn't willing to participate in their dispute so I just gave up my portion. While I still maintain some sort of communication with my siblings but it isn't the same as before.

I don't have a place to call home anymore. To make matters worse, I was jobless, depressed, and broke again. However this time though, I know how to start again with my experiences.

I started a construction company with some friends and juniors who are willing to follow my lead.

After fifteen years of struggle, I became a big fish but that wasn't too long before I got screwed up again.

I shook my head to stop thinking about unnecessary things. When I was aware of what I am currently doing, I was already near the bloodstain of my colleague.

Then I realized who the unfortunate victim was, and tears flowed down and dropped onto the floor. The victim is someone from the same cabin as me. I knew him. No, he is the one I acknowledge as my younger brother.