Hero

HERO

Her name was Shay, Shay Reynolds. Hero silently mused as he caught sight of the new girl sitting across from him at the dining. It was what they call the place where they eat their meals at the orphanage.

Bunk Beds, it was the term for their sleeping quarters. Classroom: the place where Madam Olivia, the hired teacher, would have reading and writing lessons with them. The baths, it was both the shower and the comfort room. Lastly, there was a playground and the director's office. Those were the common places that one needed to know and which Hero was imagining to teach the newcomer.

Hero had been at the orphanage his whole life. He had watched most kids come when they were abandoned or most often orphaned and go when they get adopted.

Hero didn't understand what getting adopted meant before. He asked Madam Olivia about it. For the sake of having a reference, Madam Olivia had used Henry as an example.

Henry was one of the quiet and talented ones. He was kind, unlike the other kids in the orphanage.

Hero liked Henry. They had become fast friends a few days after Henry was left at the orphanage's care upon his parents' passing. No other relative wanted to claim him.

Henry could play the piano. The director assigned him to play the grand piano every Sunday for the mass service held at the mini chapel beside the orphanage. He would often teach Hero how to read notes and guide his hands on the piano's keys after the brief mass service.

Hero was a fast learner. Eventually, he was able to master playing the piano. It was also coincidental as Henry left a few weeks after that.

He was adopted, Madam Olivia explained. Henry never said anything to Hero about leaving. So he was confused. He didn't know why his friend had suddenly gathered the few belongings that he had and went with the two strangers who visited the orphanage twice or thrice a few weeks before he took his leave.

In his opinion, the kind and quiet ones were usually the kids who got adopted. Henry might be the last of them.

Madam Olivia said that he now has a new family.

Family. Hero wondered what it would be like to have that.

Madam Olivia had taught them that a family is usually composed of a mother and a father, and kids like them, who lived in the same house and cared for each other.

They were shown pictures of kids like him, smiling broadly and seemingly enjoying the company of two grown adults.

Madam Olivia added that kids like them deserved to have a loving family and live in a happy home.

Hero often caught himself wishing to be in a family and live in a happy home. But some of the kids say that they were better off in the comfort of the orphanage. They said that some adults are mean and have an awful temper. Sometimes these ill-tempered ones end up hurting them, and the results were always nasty and painful.

Those hearsays from the other kids dismissed Hero's desires to be adopted. He refused to leave the orphanage.

Fortunately, none of the visitors who would come to the orphanage ever looked his way.

Either by luck or fate, Hero was not going to complain.

The newcomer, Shay, Shay Reynolds, as he heard the other kids say her name, came from a wealthy family.

Hero's concept of rich was mostly influenced by the pirate books he had read.

Whenever he heard the word 'rich,' he immediately thought of treasures, lots of them, inside a huge chest box hidden somewhere safely by the people who had them.

It was the reason why he was drawn to the new girl.

He was curious.

If this Shay Reynolds was from a rich family, what was she doing in the orphanage?

Hero wanted answers, and so he began following her around.

It was then that he noticed a certain sadness that seemed to bounce off of her.

It was called an aura. Madam Olivia had told him when he tried to explain the strange feeling he was having while being around Shay Reynolds.

She had an aura of sadness wrapped around her. It was this aura that made the other kids begin to bully her. They say mean things and sometimes push her around.

She reminded him so much of Henry.

She was quiet.

However, Hero had also sensed that Shay Reynolds was merely holding back. He noticed that even though she wasn't fighting back, she has this resolve hidden under her stoic expression.

Hero had gotten more curious about her.

He started fighting the battle, which she refused to partake in against the other kids.

At first, she ignored his efforts to catch her attention. She actually seemed annoyed by his presence.

Eventually, she did soften up to him.

It was that day, Hero mused.

It was that ordinary day when a strange man in a white coat had visited Shay.

Hero found the man to be oddly-dressed, but Shay Reynolds seemed to recognize him.

His curiosity was reaching its limit.

Determined, Hero trotted after them as they entered the lounge, it was a secluded room beside the director's office intended for visitors.

But the director caught him and prohibited Hero from fully following Shay and the strange man.

Hero opted to follow but waited for five minutes before disobeying the director's orders.

He walked in on them just in time to see the strange man placing back what he knew was a syringe inside a white box with a red cross on top.

Thinking that he must have hurt Shay, Hero casually strode towards them and boldly looked at the man.

"Who are you, mister?"

Hero mused. Back then, the strange man was merely the man in a white coat for him.

But now, he was his sworn enemy.

Marcus Zephanie, the cunning man whom people thought saved humanity.

If they knew the truth, they would hardly call him a hero.

They'd probably resent him and wished he never lived.

And Hero will make sure that the whole world would come to know of that truth. He will make sure that Marcus Zephanie will pay for everything that he has done.