Darkness within

Eon enters the portal to the magic world. He sees no one in the village on his way home since it is still early in the morning. "I would not say that I am glad to be home. I am sure they even not notice I was gone." Then he continues his way to their house. He sneakily enters his home and closes the door without making any sound. When he turns around and is about to go to his bedroom, his parents are in the living room, sitting, and looking at him.

His father, Fero, stands. "You were gone for almost a week. Care to explain?"

Eon is shocked. He did not expect this to happen but he composes himself and responded. "Did something that made you care about me?"

Diana, her mother, rises from sitting in their wooden tree chair and shouts. "What did you just say?! We were worried about you! We cannot find you anywhere! You even stopped attending magic school. And that is how you will reply to us?!" Then the windows break because of the strong winds that appear when his mother is angry.

"Really, Mom? Both of you were worried?" Eon laughs half-heartedly. Then he looks around to see that everything is in gray color. Before he could ask, his father speaks. "Your brother died."

Eon falls silent. He cannot find the right words to say. His silence makes her mother upset. "You can't say anything? Your father said your brother died!"

"What do you want me to say?" Eon looks at his mother with no emotion. "I'm sorry, it must be hard for you?" His mother quickly approaches him and slaps him. "How dare you! How dare you say that to me?!" Diana starts hitting Eon in his chest. The ground starts to shake so Fero immediately hugs his wife to stop her.

"I know it has been hard for you, Mom. You lost your dream child. But you think it was easy for me? You and dad hardly acknowledge my existence and when my brother came, you completely forgot I exist." Emotions that had been kept for a long time are bursting. "You expect me to mourn? How can I? You did not even let me see nor hold him. Why? Afraid he will become powerless like me? You literally made me feel like I am a contagious disease."

Her father tries to come close to him. "Son..." It starts raining outside. Someone has felt sadness.

Eon could see that sadness in his father's eyes. But he steps back. "But you know what? I realized what is this fuss all about. You lost your dream son so you decided to think about your powerless child. It would have been better if you continue to treat me like nothing. I'm used to it." He did not wait for his parents to respond and rushes to his room.

Eon locks the door. Then he sighs. "What did I say those?" He regretted every word he said to his parents. It is not the right timing but he feels relieved. All of those emotions and words were building up inside of him. Eon just explodes. He presses his back on the door and slowly slides down to sit on the floor. He leans back his head and closes his eyes. "They should have ignored me like they always do." Then he sighs.

An hour later, Eon opens his eyes and looks for his magic pouch. It is a small bag but its insides are huge enough to fit anything - big or small. He starts to move around in his room. He is packing his stuff. He could only think of Selena. "She is the only one who truly loves me no matter what I am."

Eon carefully closes the door of his bedroom. He checks the living room to see if his parents are around. "Good. They are not here." He continues his way to the front door. Little did Eon know that his father has seen him and follows him to the portal.

Eon enters the portal. Fero is shocked to discover that his son had found the portal to the humans' world. Only the elders and the higher fairies knew the exact location of every portal. Fero goes back to their house to gather important things and then he will follow his son.

On the other hand, Selena arrives at their house. It is disturbingly quiet. She calls her mother, "Mom? Are you home?" She then goes to her parent's bedroom and sees her mother sleeping. Selena comes closer to her mother and gasps in horror when she sees the bruises.

There were bruises on her mother's shoulders, right cheek, and when she checks her thighs, Selena finds fresh wounds. Selena covers her mouth to suppress herself in crying but her tears cannot be stopped from falling.

"What happened to you? Mom?" Selena cannot control herself and let her sobs out which made Ria woke up. Her mother's eyes widen to see herself.

"What are you doing here? You should not have come back." Ria stands up and drags Selena by the arm.

"Mom! What are you talking about? Did Papa do this to you?!" Her mother did not answer and keeps dragging her.

Selena refuses to leave. "No! I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what happened!" She removes her mother's hand from gripping her wrist.

Her mother looks at her with an angry face and lashes out at her. "This is all your fault. You should have listened to your father. You should have listened to me. We hardly have food to eat and have no money for necessities! Instead of helping us, you go ahead and insist on what you want! You only think about yourself!" Ria is crying hard while holding her chest. She then enters the bedroom again and leaves her daughter alone.

Selena is dumbfounded. She wants to reason with her mother but she knows it would be useless. "My mom is suffering because of me." Selena thought. Tears start flowing from her eyes. She cannot control her feelings. Selena starts to recall the times when her family was happy and love each other. She remembers her parent's smiles and laughs. She sits down on the floor and cries harder. Minutes later, Selena lays down and just stare at the floor.

"If I leave, Mom would get hurt even more. If I don't, I will not see Eon again." Selena's eyes are flooding again with tears. She has to choose. Her heart is breaking because she has to pick the one she must lose. Selena keeps crying and after a couple of hours, she falls asleep with tears in her eyes and a heavy heart.

In the forest, under the big oak tree, Eon is waiting patiently for Selena. He cannot wait to see her again and asks her to run away with him. Eon is smiling while looking at a bouquet of white roses in his hands.

Meanwhile, Selena is found laying on the floor by her father and carries her to her bedroom. It is already dark when Selena woke up. She gets up and goes to the kitchen. There she sees her mother preparing the table for dinner. Her mother calls out, "Come, let's eat." Selena and Tony sit down and start eating. They are eating quietly when her father broke the silence.

"Prepare yourself for tomorrow, Selena. We are going to town. You are going to meet Magnus." Selena's father is talking while eating and did not bother to look at her.

Selena stops eating. "Why? Who's Magnus, Pa?"

"Your future husband." This statement made Selena's mind goes blank. She did not protest this time. She finishes her dinner and goes back to her bedroom.

Selena is looking out the window and into the forest. She wants to go to Eon but she made a decision. "I think it would be best if I would not see you anymore. And the best way to save you from pain." She starts to cry again and continues talking while looking at the forest from the distance. "Do not wait for me anymore. Please. This time, I won't come to you. I wish you will forget me." Selena then covers her eyes with her palms and whispers, "Please don't wait for me."

Even when night came, Eon is still waiting for Selena. He lays down on the shed to rest and is hopeful that his love will arrive any moment. Eon's eyes are showing drowsiness. He tries to fight it because he wants to be awake when Selena arrives. Hours had passed, he could no longer cope with sleepiness. Eon falls asleep in the shed.

The next morning, Eon wakes up and found that Selena did not come last night. He starts to feel worried. "Where is she?" He decides to look for her. So Eon starts his way to the path that Selena was using. He arrives in a wide and empty field. He looks around and when he sees there are no humans, he completely let himself out of the forest. Eon starts to walk straight and comes across the road. "Hello? Is anyone there?" He cries out hoping to find someone that could help him locate Selena's residence.

Selena, however, prepares herself to leave for town. She wears a floral dress and nice white sandals. Her father, Tony, is smiling widely - excited for the meeting. Selena could not even smile but she cannot do anything. She chooses to save her mother from any pain, that is why she agreed with everything her father said.

Selena then rides a tricycle that her father is driving. She is just looking straight ahead and did not see that Eon is on the side of the road. But Eon saw her and calls out to her. He runs after the tricycle and tries to shout loudly so that Selena could hear him but to no avail. Tony sees Eon tries catching up to them but he thinks that Eon could be a weirdo so Tony steps on the tricycle's gas to accelerate the speed.

Eon stops running and breaths heavily. He could only look at the tricycle fading away. "What is happening, Selena?" He sadly thought. Then Eon decides to go back to his track and determines to find Selena's house. With the help of the villagers he passed by, Eon successfully locates her house. He looks around and realizes that it turns out that the house is near to the forest. "No matter, I do not care if I had traveled far, it was worth it. I found his home. I can see her and talk to her."

Eon goes to the back of the house and waits for Selena's return. He sits down on the ground and did not realize there is a window above him. He is smiling genuinely because of excitement. Hours passed by, it was afternoon when Eon drifted to sleep. He had put a blanket on the ground and lays there.

When Eon wakes up, Selena is beside him. He quickly gets up and hugs her. "You are here. You're finally here." He holds Selena's hands and kisses her. "I have been waiting for you."

Selena looks at him and puts her palm on his cheeks. "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting." Eon shakes his head and exclaims, "No. It is okay. The important thing is you're here." Selena smiles.

Eon suddenly wakes up and looks around. It was already dark. "Just a dream. I thought it was real." He is about to get up when the window above him opens. He hears two people talking so he starts to crawl away from the window when he heard Selena's name so he stayed.

"This will be your outfit for Selena's wedding tomorrow. Magnus picks it up for you."

He could no longer hear the rest. He becomes deaf from what he heard. "Selena's wedding?" This question keeps ringing in Eon's ears and mind. He could not believe it. "This can't be true. I have to see her." Eon searches for another window, hoping it is for Selena's room. On the other side of the house, he found an open window. He sneakily comes closer to it and peaks inside. There he sees Selena standing in front of the mirror, wearing a white wedding dress. He stares at her for a while and decides to leave unnoticed.