Chapter 1: A Cruel World

If there ever existed a fair world where there was everlasting peace, eternal love and true happiness with no pain or tears in sight, it would be the parallel universe of ours. Our world where we desperately cling onto the hopes of a better time around the corner, always dreaming about an ideal situation for ourselves, as we desperately try to climb out of the bottomless pit we've dug with our human greed.

But you wouldn't have thought there was any trouble in this world as you stared at Diem's never-ending smile that reached across his lips.

Even though everyone would consider him to be a very joyful boy, Diem was actually rather cynical.

He knew how the world worked and what the world truly was.

The world consisted of the poor who just kept getting poorer and the rich who just kept getting greedier.

The life of the poor was a gruelling one. To work hard and get paid little. Save, save and save some more with the little coins they were getting. And when it wasn't enough they had to take risks to make ends meet. Children within those families had to grow up faster than they should have. Few made it out but most never had any happy endings like the fairytales described.

Whilst the life of the rich was extravagant and highly sort after, it was neither a walk in the park. Always trying to one-up each other was the conduct of the rich. Always trying to get more when they already had stored tons. Always trying to find their happiness in money and objects whilst always finding one complaint. And their children weren't better off learning the ways of the world when they were spoilt. Treating others as merely money figures on whether they should be held on high or be trampled upon.

Diem saw this world's fragile state and knew it should change but could never really see that ever happen.

He silently sighed as he tucked into his meal.

`It's difficult being stuck in between both of these vastly different world's.` he thought.

"I can't believe your sister ditched tonight to visit one of her friends. I don't understand why she would do that?"

Diem's mother unwrapped the apron around her waist, took it off and set down the oven mitts and sat down at the table with her bowl of fluffy white rice and crispy, seasoned chicken leg.

Diem knew why and he was sure his mother did too, he was already getting a migraine from the arguing that was going to erupt upon the front doorstep.

"She's just seeing a friend she hasn't seen for a long time. That's all," he lied.

His mother wasn't too convinced by this.

"But I'm sure she left on bad terms with this 'friend'"

And this was also true because Diem could remember the day when Rosalind came storming into the house, bawling her eyes out, screaming about her hateful friend and how she'll never see her again. Well, that was a lie.

Diem shrugged and continued eating his food. He didn't blame her bailing so why did it matter.

"You must be in a rush to go somewhere," she said bitterly.

Suddenly, he wasn't so hungry anymore. He was already out of his seat before his mother had realised her mistake and none of her calls could make him return to his seat.

Diem wandered up and down the hallway staring at the pictures upon the wall.

They should have told a story about a happy family life, the wonderful wedding of two crazy love birds, then a lovely picture of their adorable firstborn and then the addition of another child, who would turn out to be a slightly annoying sister who relied on him more than on her parents. That's what should have been there but in all of the pictures a man's head had been torn off or scribbled on and the wedding picture wasn't even there.

The divorce hadn't even been settled yet but it might as well have been. His mother and father who had once been a loving couple had suddenly turned on each other's throats and even Diem couldn't understand why.

Diem heard the tap turn on for a few seconds before his mother came trotting through.

"Ready to go?" she said, softly, her eyes asking for forgiveness.

Diem hated being stuck in the middle of the two of them. He wanted to remain neutral within this war but they always wanted him to pick a side. He eventually learned to ignore them and then they would stop.

Diem could only nod before they left the house got into his mother's rickety car that barely passed the regulations and chugged along to his father's house.

Every few seconds, he would glance at his mother, who seemed to be in a silent argument with herself. She constantly kept looking out the windows and checking the time. She seemed very antsy tonight as if she had seen a ghost. His mother was normally weird but tonight she seemed like she had escaped from a mental institution.

Angrily, she growled, "He's not going to die."

Shocked, Diem looked up at her and she gave him a reassuring smile, "I don't mean you, honey."

But Diem could tell she was lying from the frantic expression underneath the mask. This definitely did not subside or ease any of his worries at all but instead enhanced them.

'Why would I die though?'

Unfortunately, he didn't get time to process this when all of a sudden he felt weightless. Diem didn't understand why until the battered, old car fell hard upon the floor with its roof skidding across the floor and the tyres spinning uselessly in the air. Then everything went dark.