>>Hael ( Age-13)

I closed the door and went back to sleep that night. Their conversation had ended after Helena just gave up on her and left.

The next morning The Queen came to be while I was in the library.

"Hael," She sat down next to me in the far corner where no one came to bother me.

"Yes?" I closed my book that I wasn't even reading. I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened to me yesterday. I kept feeling like I was getting betrayed and the only thing trying to keep me strong was my mind.

And the only solution my mind had was blocking out feelings. But still, there was a limit and I felt awful.

I would watch my mother from the corners of the palace as she spent most of her days either sleeping or crying or staring into space. I wouldn't go up to her or even attempt to start a conversation because she never acknowledged me anymore

But

All the other elves loved their children. I saw them loving their children, playing with them, talking with them, laughing with them.

So I could tell something was wrong with me. There must be something wrong with me, why else would my own mother not even talk to me?

"I heard what Laila did," The Queen said, "I mean I had a talk with her about why she did it."

"..." I looked at her

"She, along with some other elves seemed to have misunderstood when I said I'd make you two a pair. I wasn't talking about marriage, I was just talking about making you two partners. The purpose was simply to get you out of your shell."

"..." I looked away. There was no point in it anymore, I wasn't going to leave the palace again and I didn't care about this 'Laila' who almost killed me or the other kids who bullied me.

"I see," She sighed, "You're not interested," She stood up, "Well, it won't happen again," She began to walk away, "I'll try to do something about it."

As if

Years have passed and my situation hasn't changed. Perhaps that's not her fault, she's an elf and human years mean nothing to her. But I couldn't say anything to her. I simply watched her back as she left, because she was the only person here who would come and talk to me.

She felt like the only connection I had to the living world and I didn't want to complain to her.

Deep down, I didn't want her to stop talking to me or behave the same way my mother was behaving with me, so I kept my mouth shut.

***

It was one of those nights where I went to sleep thinking about my mother. I saw something today. I saw a mother playing with her triplets from the window of the library and I couldn't help but stare. It was when I was leaving that they caught my eye, otherwise I don't sit near the window to ever look out of it.

A knot formed in my stomach and weirdly enough, I felt like I wanted to cry when I saw them.

While I watched the boys play with their mother, watched them jump on her as she laughed and caught them, then swung them around, a few tears rolled down my cheeks.

Huh? I touched my cheeks to check what was happening. I was crying?

I had no idea I could cry like that. I thought there was something wrong with me but something so small made the tears stream endlessly.

I sniffled as they laughed, their chuckling felt like it was poison to my ears. I bit my lower lip to stop the pain in my heart but the physical pain did me no good, it wasn't able to stop my aching heart.

My mother couldn't bear to look at me anymore but other moms weren't like that.

My heart felt heavy and my chest felt constricted. I felt like I wasn't wanted. I tried to wipe my tears away but they wouldn't stop coming. I kept wiping them but they kept coming and kept staining my cheeks

Over and over and over again.

I cried for an hour, then when it felt like all my tears had dried, I looked at the triplets leaving the place with their mom. Only when they left did I find myself calming down.

It made me realize how badly I was hurting.

I tucked myself in the bed calmly and I thought I had calmed down when the images on that family with triplets flashed in my mind, making the tears come out again.

Why am I crying? Those people have got nothing to do with me. Why am I crying again? They're not even in front of me this time!! I pursed my lips as my cheeks flushed.

I tried to stop the tears but they came out endlessly. It made my head hurt and at some parts it felt like it was difficult to breathe as well.

It was that night where my emotions came out and I felt lost. My chest tightened with each ragged breath, the pain of my loneliness threatening to suffocate me in its relentless grip. I tried to push the tears back, to choke back the sobs that threatened to escape my trembling lips, but they came unbidden, unstoppable, like a torrential downpour in the midst of a storm.

And as the tears flowed freely, I felt as though I were drowning. Each sob tore through me like a knife, leaving me raw and exposed,

I couldn't explain what I was feeling but it hurt so bad that I cried myself to sleep, wishing my mother would come and spend time with me. That I too would have a normal family.

And that I get the validation that I am not strange, that all I need is a proper family for me to be happy like other people.

***

It was in the middle of the night, right when the forest is silent and even the owls aren't hooting either.

"Hael," She shook me violently, making me fall from the bed, "Wake up!" She whispered but her voice was full of anger, "Wake up right now!"

I was already up before I even fell

"Mom?" I looked at her from the floor and blinked at her in confusion, "Mom!" She really was there.

!!!

Has my wish been granted!?! That was my first and only thought.

"Come with me." She presented me with her hand.

I was confused, it was dark everywhere, the only thing illuminating the place was the faint moonlight.

I reached out to her without thinking. What was I supposed to think? She was my mother. The same mother I was hoping would come to me and she did!

But I didn't even get to put my hand on hers when she roughly grabbed my wrist and began to pull me. I was pulled up from the floor and not given any time to process anything as she dragged me with her.

No shoes, no jacket, the night was chilly and I was uncomfortable being barefoot but I didn't say anything. I was secretly praying that she was taking me somewhere where we could be together. I prayed that she would be like that mom I saw during the day, who loved it when her boys hugged her, loved it when they kissed her cheek and laughed when they laughed.

But mom took me out of the palace and kept dragging me away from it.

Where was she taking me in the middle of the night?

I didn't question her. I held it in. I held it in till the point we got out of the elve's forest.

Something felt wrong

Her grip on me had begun to hurt but I didn't want to question her. I was afraid that if I said anything wrong she might leave me, and like before, she would ignore me.

It was when we reached the part of the forest where we couldn't even see the elf houses that she used a teleportation spell.

The wind got stronger and the ground illuminated because of the spell, this was when I looked at her in fear.

Something's wrong. Why is she taking me away when no one is awake? What is she planning on doing?

My heart rate rose

B-but maybe it's not something bad. She's coming with me after all!! Maybe we're going back to our house!

The light flashed, forcing me to shut my eyes and cover them with my arm. But as the wind died down, Mom grabbed my hand with which I was covering my eyes and began to drag me again.

I noticed the trees, they were smaller and thinner. That meant we were far away from the elf territory but we weren't in the forest near our cottage. We were in someplace new, a place I didn't recognize.

It was hard to keep up with her when she was being so rough but that's when something sharp grazed my foot

"Ow!" I winced, wanting to stop and check it out. She didn't stop nor did she let me. She dragged me along, "Mom," I tried to talk to her and tell her I got injured.

"Don't," But she refused to listen to my protest and I zipped my lips. I could tell my foot was bleeding, I was more afraid of her abandoning me again.

I didn't say a word, I just kept walking with her, leaving a bloody footprint behind me.

***

There was this weird stench that tickled my nose when we were approaching the edge of the forest. The scent of blood, injuries, sweat and suffocation. I didn't like it even before we got out and the view came clear to me.

!!!

As we exited the forest we came to an army camp

Wait, what is this? I got an ominous feeling, a gut feeling that something bad was indeed happening. I shot my head towards my mother but she was looking at someone.

I turned my head to look at the three men who walked over to us as we stood at the edge of the forest. Simply by looking at them made me feel sick and I grabbed Mom's hand tightly and scooted closer to her.

She spared me a glance, then yanked her hand free from mine, making my heart drop.

"Hello, pretty lady," The burly looking bald man said, "Is that the kid you wanted us to take?" He looked at me, making me feel scared.

"Yes," She moved away from me, making me feel further bad.

"Mom," I looked at her but she ignored me, making me bite my lower lip in nervousness.

"Lady, are you sure you want to give him to us," A thin blonde man said. I couldn't shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at my gut like a hungry beast. The air was thick with tension, the sharp tang of metal and sweat hanging heavy in the air.

"Mom," I looked at her in horror, "Dont," I had no idea what she had talked about with them, but the whole thing gave me a weird feeling. An ominous feeling.

"I don't care," She pushed me towards the men, "Just get him to the humans. He is one, he should live with his kind."

"Mom," I turned to look at her when the burly guy grabbed my shoulders, I tried to protest, "Wait," to beg her not to leave me alone in this strange and unfamiliar place, but the words caught in my throat, choked by the lump of fear that had taken root within me.

She turned around to leave without sparing me a glance

"Mom! Don't leave me!!"

Panic gripped me as I watched her disappear from sight, into the forest, my hands trembling with the desperate need to follow her but the men who stood behind me wouldn't allow it.

No! She can't leave me here! This place is wrong! Something is very wrong here!!

In the state of panic, I tried to cast magic, picturing it in my head as she did it,

....

But I found myself strangely powerless, as though the very essence of magic had never been there. I couldn't do it, I had never done it before, so it was definitely not happening here, out of nowhere.

"Mom," I called out for her, my voice a feeble cry in the chaos of the camp, but she was already gone

It was when she abandoned me for good that all my hopes vanished

I realized something I should have realized long ago

That hope only brought distress and misery and you never get your wishes granted.