THE HAPPY DAY
Ray POV:
It’s a beautiful day, you do not get those around here. It’s sunny and happy. You must be thinking how can a day be happy? Well, it is for me. There is no unwanted noise around, no shouting, no yelling, and definitely no beating. I am alone and at peace, and that is what makes this day so happy. No one is going to hurt me, beat me, abuse me, or make me starve, for no fault of my own.
I am 17-year-old Ray Slaughter. My beautiful last name is apt for what people call me here; family slaughterer or the family killer. It took me almost a decade to even realize why they called me that, as no one talks about it. Until one day, I heard the beta and his family say something to a visiting Alpha that I was the reason my family died. I was devastated that day, completely broken. I kept thinking, what if that really happened, that I really killed them, but one day a letter showed up in the tiny cupboard. I called my home to explain how it wasn’t my fault and what really happened. I don’t even know who wrote that letter and why they would even bother helping me. They might die if the Alpha realized it. They helped me, but still, that letter gave me hope, a lifeline I needed to survive. As you will have realized by my ramblings, I am a pack orphan- “A Slave”.
Maybe somewhere else in this world, I would have had a beautiful life or maybe a normal life, but here it’s a curse to be an orphan. Orphans are slaves. You are a pack slave till you turn 16 or mature according to the supernatural law. Then you can choose to leave this place or work somewhere else and earn some respect and money. At 16, others got to choose what they wanted to do, like to be a warrior or a kitchen omega, but not me. I will forever be a slave. It’s sad, unjust, and plainly cruel, but I deserve it. According to everyone, I deserve it, and it’s my penance for the crimes I have committed. I don’t think I have the right to complain about it, even if it is not actually living but barely breathing, I can’t complain about it. I am alive and that’s all they think is enough. I have food, clothes, and a roof, and I am not rotting in some dungeon, so I should be grateful. Grateful to be breathing.
I can never complain, even if I am just thinking about it and not saying it out loud. I can never say it out loud, I know that for sure. I don’t want to know what would happen to me if anyone found out about my dark thoughts. Deep down I knew it would be my last day on this planet earth. That’s for sure.
Let’s go back to discussing the happy day and not think about morbid things. So finally, today is a happy day as I am alone. Everyone is away at the boarding school. They have gone for the graduation ceremony of the future Alpha Blaze Lane. Alpha Simon Lane’s son, Blaze Lane, is graduating today from some expensive boarding school for high-ranking pack members. And would be the new alpha in 2 years when he turns 20. I just hope he is a better person than the current alpha and his followers. I know they are called a team; beta, gamma, and delta. But not them, they are all my abusers and my main tormentors’ followers. I just hope Blaze is different from them and finally changes this pack for good.
Well, you can only hope. Hope is what keeps me going. However, for me, it’s all about today and the peace it brings me. These happy days are very few and far in between the sadness which is my life. Don’t get me wrong, I am not lying around and doing nothing. No, I have so much to do, a long list of endless chores like always, but at least today no one will harass me while doing those things. So, I clean the whole pack house like it’s a diamond and make it shine.
I woke up at 3 am today as everyone was leaving early. Made breakfast for the pack and the rank members. I hid after that, so they didn’t have to see me on such a good auspicious day. The ever-loving Luna Scarlett, Blaze’s stepmother, reminded me of this throughout the week. While she found reasons to hit me and snap at me. The main reason was that I looked into her eyes. You will think that after so many beatings, I would get some common sense and give in, and not stare at them or look them in the eye. Well, I can definitely say I don’t have common sense as I cannot seem to learn that.
They have tried everything, beating me, punishing me, starving me, and anything that will break my spirit, but even after all this I still stare right into their eyes. It makes me sometimes ask if I am suicidal. But I am not suicidal, I not only want to live, but I want to live freely and not be a slave.
I don’t remember much of my childhood other than what everyone has told me. They have told me that one day the rogues attacked, and the whole pack was fighting them. They told me that I was the reason many people died that day. They say I heard a loud growl and my mother’s voice while she cried in pain, and I ran to her. But I was just 5 years old and could not do anything. In that confusion, when the rogues tried to kill me, Luna Rose intervened, and they killed her. My older brother, my dad, and my mom all died that day. That is why the whole pack hates me and calls me the family killer. I have a huge scar starting from my neck leading up to my tailbone as a reminder of the painful memories from that day. But I still don’t remember it. This is just the story that I have been told over and over again for the last 12 years.
