Heartbreak and Despondency

I woke up after someone knocked on my door and Lord Xax entered.

He was accompanied by a couple men, and to my surprise, the girl who hated me most.

I was used to seeing them now, but I could not understand what else they possibly wanted from me after last night’s interrogation.

It had to be something urgent though.

He even brought people with him after all.

“How can I help?” I asked sharply, wanting them to leave me alone already.

“When we first met… why did you not tell us that you were a criminal…” said Xax.

Was he serious?

“All of this pointless charade could have been avoided…” he added.

“What the hell are you talking about? What criminal?” I said annoyingly, “I’ve never committed a single crime in my life. No matter how small…” I added as I glared at him.

I was irritated.

I didn’t want to be lumped together with the likes of them.

“Who are you?” Xax asked.

He now carried the same look on his face as the time he was talking about the repulsive prisoners they used to keep in the chambers.

Who am I?

Did he injure his head and get amnesia while I was asleep?

“I already told you who I am! You confirmed it with Dr. Lobaum yesterday!” I answered, angry that he was looking at me like I was some inhuman scum. “What else do you w—"

He flung a folded newspaper at me.

I caught it right in front of my face and took a look at the front page.

“Who are you, and what did you do…” asked Xax quietly.

There it was.

A picture of my face plastered across the whole paper.

It had a sum of money attached to it, with bolded words ‘dead or alive’ next to it.

It was an official bounty passed by the world government to bring me or my corpse into custody, for a reward…

My heart rate skyrocketed.

“I don’t know why I am on here!” I yelled as I looked up at Xax.

“Since we are criminals, we have bounties too,” said Xax, “but as it turns out, if all of us combine our bounties together, it wouldn’t even classify as a drop in the ocean compared to yours.”

“What did you do?” he repeated.

“I didn’t do anyth—”

“HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE DONE ANYTHING WHEN YOU HAVE THE LARGEST BOUNTY ON OUR CONTINENT YOU ROTTEN BAS—”

He punched me with all his might and I flew into the nightstand, shattering the vase in a million pieces.

“Sire! He’s just a kid!”

“I DIDN’T FUCKING DO ANYTHING!” I roared as I teared up.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR AND THE ORACLE’S PROBLEM?”

“I WAS LIVING PEACEFULLY UNTIL THIS AUDIENCE!”

My sanity was breaking down, and tears were flowing down my bleeding face.

“WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?”

“WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT FROM ME?”

“WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?”

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE!”

“JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!”

The room went silent.

I curled up into a ball and sat in the corner, leaning against the wall, sobbing.

Everyone was at a loss for words.

I didn’t know at the time, but Xax felt like shit after hitting me and couldn’t forgive himself; but it didn't matter, the damage was done.

No one said anything, until he finally broke the silence.

“Zenzo, what happened at the Oracle?” he asked.

It was a short while before I could respond to him.

I hated his guts like no one else.

But I answered his question anyway.

“The shitty Oracle said I was unstable… that some attempts to restrain me would prove futile… and that I am sentenced to death…”

The room went silent again.

“The Oracle personally sentenced him?” asked Braun, who was the one who brought this very newspaper to Xax. “In all of my years alive, this is a first… poor... kid…” he said sympathetically as his eyes fell towards the ground.

“Why are you pitying him? He must’ve deserved it if that’s what the Oracle decided!” said another man in the room.

“The kid is twelve years old! Have a bloody heart…” Braun responded. “And, sire, forgive me, but you went over the line…”

No one was talking anymore.

No one was moving either.

The whole room was serene and motionless.

Everyone was looking down at the ground, dolefully, unable to say anything.

“Zenzo… Can I ask you one more question?” asked Xax softly.

I didn’t respond but he asked me anyway.

“Who is this man to you?”

He gave me an article on the other side of the bounty.

As I looked at it, my heart dropped and my mouth went dry.

“no………….......”

My shaking hands turned to ice and cold sweat ran down my spine.

I couldn’t breathe.

I was having a panic attack.

“Hey! Kid! Get it together man! Someone help me g—“

I threw up onto the floor.

I felt something painful fracture inside me and I started crying uncontrollably.

“Get it together, kid!”

“don’t leave me alone…........”

“PLEASE…............”

“GRANDPA!”