Find Happiness My Noah

*Warning: Blood and violence*

Being weak is a sin.

He stabbed the man in the chest. Again and again.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The young boy sitting atop the dead body yelled. His screams shook the walls of the cellar, and the very souls of the ones hiding in the shadows of their cells. Warm blood stained his hands and cheeks. His dirty grey shirt painted a crimson red by the dead man's blood.

"Noa...Noah...stop..."

A pale and trembling hand reached out from the darkness behind him, and clutched the back of his shirt.

She was a woman in her late twenties, breathing her last as she laid in a pool of her own blood. Dirt and tears stained her beautiful face. The golden light from the overhead bulb reflected in her brown eyes.

They looked tired. Not a single hint of hope in them. Instead, they held sadness. Pure sadness at the sight of her only child staining his hands with the blood of her culprit.

"Noah...My Noah..."

Tears fell from her eyelashes, and down her cheeks. She hid her face, pressing her cheek to the hard ground beneath her.

"Die...D-die...Hic!"

He let go of the knife, and it fell down on the ground with a slight thud.

Noah got off the man, but his shaking knees couldn't keep him up. He fell down on his rear.

He felt nauseous at the sight of a dead human. His guts felt like they were twisting inside his body.

"Blegh!"

He placed a hand on his mouth, his face turning pale. He turned to his side, and threw up what little he had eaten a day ago.

"Blegh! Blegh!"

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Horror gripped him. His hands were dirty.

Blood.

There was blood on those little fingers. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks, and trickled down from his chin.

'Oh Noah...'

Malenda dragged her bleeding body towards her boy, and pinched his shirt with what little strength she still had.

"My baby...Come...to mama..."

"Hic!"

He turned away, and shook his head.

"N-no! I'm dirty, mama. Hic! I'm a bad boy now."

Her heart ached at his words, and she bit the inside of her cheek. She looked up at the stone ceiling.

Just like birds in a cage.

'Oh Lord! I beg you.'

Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision.

'I beg you. Let my Noah see the light of life.'

Noah sniffed. It was suffocating. The blood. The darkness. The rotten smell of that dead man.

'Why? Now, I have become a killer! Mama will hate me-'

Arms wrapped themselves around his tiny shoulders, and his eyes widened.

"Mama will...always loves you."

Her whisper shook him. She put her tired head down on his shoulder.

"Mama..."

With shaking hands, he grabbed her cold arms. She could not feel her legs anymore, and the room felt like it was spinning around, darkness getting closer and closer in her vision.

"Noah..."

She whispered ever so softly, and it made his heart sink in his chest.

"Yes, mama."

He answered. Silence followed those words, and he hugged her closer to him. He was only 12, but he knew what was about to happen.

The world was a cold place. That was something that he had heard an old man say when they were riding beside him in a wagon.

He could clearly understand those words now as he felt his mother's warmth leaving her body.

"Mama... needs to...go."

He pursed his lips, his throat hurting from the lump that had formed at the back of it.

"Yes, mama."

A gasp came from one of the cellars, following it was a sorrowful cry. Someone was crying for them.

"Find...happiness...my Noah. I'm sorry...mama couldn't...give it...to you."

Silence came next.

He could no longer feel her breath on his shoulder.

"Mama?"

He shook her arms.

"Mama! Please a little while more! Mama!"

But she wouldn't stay for a while longer. He brought those lovely hands up to his lips, and kissed them.

"Please..."

He begged as tears roll down his face. He couldn't hold them back any longer. He couldn't pretend to be strong anymore.

"Mama..."

He clenched his eyes shut, her face appearing in front of him. Her lovely face, her warm smile, her arms that were calling for him.

"Waah!"

He cried out loud.

"Waah! Don't go, mama! Don't go! Noah will be left alone!"

Muffled cries left those dark cells, but none of them were as heartbreaking as his, and how could they be when he was the one who had lost his everything.

"Waah!"

Heavy footsteps sounded from behind the heavy metal door that had encaged them. The next moment, it was thrown open.

Bright light fell upon the body that laid in the middle of the room.

"Oh Lord!"

Noah heard a man said, and he opened his eyes. That knight flinched at the look in those eyes.

Bloodlust.

That's what it was.

"Step aside, Fred!"

The knight was pushed aside by his fellow, making way for an elderly woman. Silvery grey hair, and piercing golden brown eyes. She was a noble, undoubtedly.

Her gaze fell upon him, and he placed a hand on his mother's head, pulling her closer. She took a step towards them, and he snarled.

"Stay away!"

He growled, shielding his mother with his small body. She stopped, her gaze holding pity and regret.

She knelt down on the ground, and took off her sword from her waist. Noah watched her throw it across the floor. She then raised her palms in front of her.

"I won't hurt you, I promise."

She got no response from the boy who only chose to glare at her from across the room. She sighed, and chose her next words wisely.

"I'm your grandma."

"Don't lie! Don't!"

He shouted.

"We don't have a family! They are all dead to me!"

His words wounded her, and she clenched her jaws.

"Hey, you little brat!"

Her knight cried from behind her.

"Do you have any idea that how long she had been searching for you?"

"That's enough, Meyer. Don't scare the child."

That's what she had said, but the body lying beside him, and that cold look on his face told her that there wasn't much in this world that could scare the boy now.

Darkness can't scare those who have decided to accept it.

'Then, I shall make use of that darkness to pull him out of it.'

So, what she was about to say next was something that would give Noah a new purpose to his life.

"Avenge your mother, child."

His eyes widened. She extended her hand out to him.

"I, Countess Laurent, will be your sword. I swear this on the name of my late son who failed to protect you two."