Wanting My dear Iris

Chapter 4

4 YEARS LATER

It was a stormy night. The thunder outside clapped violently as the heavy downpour thrashed against the window. While the maids and servants were busy controlling the onslaught from invading the inside of the mansion, Iris held Mr. Golem which was now half her size and patted bare feet all the way to the familiar door of her younger brother's bedroom.

She had long foregone the formalities of knocking when it came to Noah and simply barged inside without warning. As she expected, he was huddled in one corner of the bed with his body wrapped inside the quilt protectively. Iris wasted no time and pulled the curtains over the window to conceal the stormy weather then joined the little boy in bed hugging his trembling body.

"There, there," she whispered in her familiar comforting voice and he could feel the tension gradually leaving his body.

He poked out his head from under the sheets and Iris saw a gorgeous red shade on his pale cheeks. "You don't have to do this every time it rains you know," he mumbled but made no move to push her away.

Was he embarrassed? She thought and suppressed the uncontrollable urge to coddle him for his cuteness. She smiled feeling bitter-sweet about how he had grown out of his prickly porcupine phase from when he first arrived. Now, he was just this adorable angel who would eat all her horrible cooking without a single hesitation and follow her everywhere like a baby chick following it's mother.

She playfully ruffled his soft hair. "Does it look like I'm forcing myself?"

His eyes bore into her but as soon as the sound of thunder echoed outside, he quickly clasped them shut, curving his body into a fetal position. He felt soft hands firmly cover his ears and then a gentle melody of an old nursery rhyme surrounded him. He opened his eyes to see his sister having a good time by herself singing with great vigor. He observed her for as long as he could and when he saw how invested she was, he couldn't help but laugh.

Surprised by himself he looked at her again but this time a little differently. He knew he was staring, it seemed like all he's ever done since he came to this mansion was stare at her and each time he saw her in a different light. They were both lying in his bed in flimsy night clothes and he was painfully aware of his heart beating loudly in his chest.

How does she always manage to do that? He wondered as he continued looking at her who was singing without a care in this world.

She had been lifting the weight on his heart ever since the day they met. His gaze wandered over her small frame, she was so delicate and yet so bold. It refreshed him every time he saw her trying so hard for his sake.

On a stormy night four years ago much like this one, his life had changed forever. He wished he could forget but the nightmares didn't let him. The sound of horns blaring and tires screeching on the pavement followed by the harsh cry of two cars clashing into each other, he remembered the firm grip of his mother that had enveloped him with no care for her own safety and his dad's frantic veering of the steering wheel to decrease the force of impact.

But it was too late.

The scene was unfolding before his blue eyes and it was over in a flash leaving him red with blood but it was not his. It was the blood of his parents sprayed on top of him during the collision. He waited there trapped in the toppled car within his dead mother's embrace thinking at first that she was just sleeping but soon realized that that wasn't the case. There was no warmth in her arms which held him and he felt no movement when coaxed her for a response. His father was the same and soon the reality of his situation came crashing down on him like an avalanche.

The moment he realized, he had screamed. He had screamed at the top of his lungs and with tears in his eyes for someone to save them. He had screamed desperately until his voice grew hoarse and his throat clenched up. But not a single soul heard his deathly cries. It was a remote area where the accident had occurred and the young boy was left in the rigid arms of his dead mother for an entire day.

When the rescue team pulled him out of the wreckage, they did not expect him to have survived, after all, everyone who was involved in that accident died tragically. But Noah was alive and breathing and there wasn't a single scratch on his body.

They all said the angel's protected him, that it was a miracle. His empty eyes stared at the wreckage and he knew it wasn't the angels.

Those 12 hours in the embrace of his dead parents seemed to have changed something inside of him. A black thread had wrapped itself around his heart until it was completely walled off. Not long after, Noah fell unconscious and remained in that state for 3 days. The entire time he was unconscious, he dreamt of the darkness subtly taking root in his heart, morphing it into something hideous, something unrecognizable. A flip had been switched.

He opened his eyes and the image of his sister greeted him. She was chanting earnestly and trying her best to distract the boy from his frightening trauma. But little did she knew, the boy wasn’t actually running away from his nightmares that had long become a part of him. He smiled and this time the curve of his lips held a slightly sinister undertone.

My sweet, naïve Iris. If you continue being this cute, you’ll make it harder for me to control myself.