Past Memories

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As soon as the robotic voice finished speaking, the boy felt as if his head was being poked by needles as his memories slowly came back to him.

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Starting from his birth, all the way to his early death at 16 years old.

Ever since he was born, the boy seemed to have bad luck. For some reason, he was called a bastard the moment he was born by his own father. To protect him, the distant figure of his mother disappeared after bringing him to a trusted orphanage.

Before he was brought there, he was at least given a name from his mother, Matthew, that was his name.

A gift from God... doesn't feel like it...

And then on, every day, for the next 16 years, this would be his home. He was a happy child at first but slowly became a quiet child, reading in the corner, with only about one or two close friends with him.

However, unlike his friends, he had multiple disabilities, which made his bones too weak to do any taxing physical activities; as he would feel excruciating pain as if his bones would break and come out of his skin. To make it worse, during his birth, it was discovered that his lungs were inflamed and narrow, meaning he most likely had asthma.

However, with his insecurities, he never told the staff for the first few years.

Whenever he was outside, he had never done anything physical anyway, as he was mostly just talking to close friends about books and cool comics.

Matthew continued to endure the pain spreading throughout his body. Naively thinking he could get over it from the fairytales and books he read, where the main character would overcome his problems with enough determination and effort.

Oh, how cruel life was for this child.

After he turned 8 years old, his entire life had changed when someone with who he had been friends for a long time had told the orphanage staff his secret.

With Matthew's already lonely life, being 'betrayed' by someone had struck him hard. Although he had gotten the support he needed afterward, fewer and fewer people had come to see him after realizing he had a physical disability.

At this point, the only people that came to see him were the staff who took care of him from time to time.

For Matthew, it was hell, even if he was betrayed by a friend, he still wanted to be able to talk to his peers, to feel like he mattered.

The few years that passed were him being homeschooled, where nothing interesting happened at all. Even the friends who were with him since the first day he arrived at the orphanage had been adopted, making the so-called friends and trusted adults in this 'home' he stayed... distant...

As time went on, the orphanage had received more people because of war outside, which Matthew never knew about.

At this time, it was only a few weeks until Matthew would turn 16.

Of course, this never mattered to him since every kid here had a birthday, and the orphanage couldn't just throw parties like this every month, especially in wartime now.

The few times he would come out was to practice their evacuation drills, just in case they were invaded. Every single attempt, was quicker than before, giving everyone a sense of security.

In this safe yet distant haven, after morning drills, Matthew locked himself in his room, knowing that due to the war, many essential items like food and water prices would skyrocket.

He was completely powerless against this, with weak lungs and bones, his entire body would just give up if he joined the army, not to mention the high casualty rates of being in battle.

The weeks passed quietly until it was Matthew's 16th birthday.

Like any other day, Matthew and the other children were munching on rations. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few armed figures entering the town. With them being on the edge of the town, and with children here, he knew that they were one of, if not the first places they'll raid in case they need hostages.

Although he was cold and never trusted anyone completely, the people here were still nice, having taken care of his and many other children for most of their lives, he wanted to help. The children here were also only about 7 or 8 years old, they were still pure, they should be the ones to live more than someone with disabilities like him.

He quietly informed the staff, and slowly lead them into the basement according to their drill practice. However, hearing footsteps behind himself, he quickly closed the trapdoor, throwing a carpet on it before turning around.

He saw a small squad of 5 lightly armed soldiers. They had their country's uniforms, but it didn't seem like they were here to help. Each of them had guns in their hands. One of them even had a grenade on their waist.

"An orphanage huh? Where's the food?" One of the arrogant soldiers spoke.

Matthew faked a few coughs, pointing to the kitchen two rooms behind him.

Assuming that the rest of the orphanage had most likely abandoned a disabled child, they smiled. Only one of the soldiers had a small suspicion but quickly shook it off as there was probably too little time to take everything.

Matthew faked a bitter and hopeless expression on his face as he was pushed aside by the soldiers.

Looking at their faces, Matthew could tell that they were living on limited rations and had very little sleep at all from their bloodshot eyes and pale faces.

'I might have a chance…'

The moment they had all left to the kitchen, Matthew solidified his resolve, pulling out a knife from his pants, striking one of them!

The soldiers, exhausted and hungry, couldn't react in time as one of their own just had their nape sliced open, revealing bone, before spurting blood everywhere, dropping dead.

"You bastard!" One of them yelled.

'Bastard...? Ah, right. It was what father said I was.'

'I did just kill someone, so I might be...'

Without warning, one of the soldiers picked up their gun to shoot at Matthew, but before he knew it-

Thud~

A knife was stuck in his forehead, and their eyes rolled back.

Gritting his teeth, Matthew crashed into one of the guards knocking them into the other soldiers, before taking out the pin from one of the grenades and pushing them into a wall, stunning them.

Boom~

It all happened in a flash.

The flesh of the soldiers splattered everywhere, and Matthew, who was running away, had also been caught up in the blast, knocking him into the wall headfirst.

Crack~

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