The second day of school has finally come to an end. Even if there were fewer subjects a day, Royce was still exhausted because they were pretty advanced, he could barely keep up with the lessons. Was he really the eldest son of a known scientist?
Royce was walking down a dark street, all alone. He stayed late at work again, but it was needed—how else would he get money to support himself and his little sister?
He also couldn't stop thinking about the embarrassment he felt when his friends found out where he worked, and they also had to witness Royce work too...How embarrassing was that?
---
"...Soo, you work at...," Johannes paused.
"Mcdonalds," Cameroon answered for Royce.
"Seriously, what did you expect? A 5-star restaurant?" Richard scolded the two, pinching the top of his nose bridge. Richard looked at Royce. "Sorry about these two, they always have big expectations."
The group stared at the building in front of them, the golden arches gleaming off the sign.
Blushing, Royce opened the doors.
Royce really did not want to be dragged into this, but what could he do? Now they were probably going to make fun of his choice of work. McDonalds' wasn't even all that bad, though. Plus, it was the only place he could work at since the others didn't accept him.
---
Moving on with that embarrassment that he didn't want to recall, this day was no ordinary day to Royce. His new friends know who he really is but unexpectedly, they actually accepted Royce for who he is, and not only that, but even Royce himself wasn't expecting his mother to be that famous for his friends to be surprised about it too.
Royce sighed; it must have been because of his mother's inventions. Her reputation began to rise when she created a particular discovery, and her ego even got worse because of it.
He can't blame her, she just wanted to prove to her parents that women can still be a scientist. It ended badly for her mentally however,
Not that he was talking trash about his mother, his aunt, who is also the older sister of his mother, told him the real nature of his mother.
As gentle and pretty she may look, she's twisted in reality. Exact words of his aunt, but Royce never really noticed since he was just an innocent child who thought his mother was a cool person because she could invent things.
Looking back, his mother was actually kind of gentle to Royce. Honestly, Royce doesn't remember much of his childhood or how his mother acted toward him during that time.
Royce's memories of his childhood were... blurry. He can't remember most parts, only a few.
Pretty weird, but Royce thought it was normal, not everyone can remember their childhood fully, right? Plus, it had been a while since he was a child.
~~~
A man stood in front of a small child, seeming panicked and alarmed. "Scarlett! Stop! He's your own child! Why are you doing this to him?! I've had enough of staying silent the whole time you conduct experiments on a poor child!" he shouted at the woman.
"Oh? You're fighting back? I never knew someone pathetic like you would actually fight back. I only married you because of pity...," Scarlett said in her witty tone, looking her husband up and down in disgust.
Scarlett chuckled, "Whatever, yell what you want. You're nothing but a weakling in my eyes." She grinned.
Scarlett eyed her eldest son who stood behind, peeking out with his big eyes beside his fathers' shaking legs. She smiled gently at him. "Royce, come to mommy and you'll be safe. Don't listen to him, okay?" she cooed.
The child didn't know who to believe, but his mother had always got him toys and brought him joy, as long as he listened to what she said...
He slowly walked to his mother, hands trembling.
"Good job," his mother said, now covering him from sight of the man. "Be a good boy for mommy, alright? Soon, you'll be like mommy." She smirked and looked back at her husband.
In complete shock, the man yelled, "I can't believe you would do something like that to your own son! Listen to me, Scarlett, using humans as your lab rats is not acceptable!"
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, Mr. Good. And guess what? I don't care. Leave the house if you want to, in the end, you'll be crawling back to me, begging for a place to live in. No one wants you anyway, you're just a no one."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The man froze. She was right, he had no other choice but play as the father figure or else he'll be thrown on the streets again.
"Aww, how cute. You're like you again, now shoo," Scarlett ordered.
The man hesitated, but nodded and left the room, leaving behind Scarlett and their child.
Scarlett looked at the scared child and smiled at him. "Because you're such a good boy, mommy has a gift for you! But first—" Scarlett carried the child somewhere in her room full of her equipments.
Scarlett grabbed something on her table, a bottle filled with suspicious looking liquid. The bottle had cute animal designs on it, which the child liked.
"Can you drink this for mommy?" Scarlett asked as she handed the bottle to the child.
The child didn't hesitate to take the bottle from Scarlett; he was focused on the cute designs of the bottle and paid no attention to the contents of the bottle.
Scarlett smiled and started patting his head, "Such a good boy you are, Royce."
"You're going to be indestructible. Make mommy proud of you in the future," she said as she kissed the child on the forehead and then hugged him closer.
She grinned. "...You will continue our legacy, prove it to everyone we're better than them."
---
"Scarlett! Scarlett! Stop! Royce can't handle it! Stop the machine!" The man yelled as he tried taking out Royce from the machine, however, all the metal straps that caged Royce in could only be opened once the machine was turned off.
Scarlett groaned in annoyance, trying to stop the machine. "I'm trying, alright!? Did you think I wanted this!?" Scarlett yelled.
"Useless machine!" she yelled in anger as she finally managed to turn off the machine.
Scarlett rushed over to the machine that finally let go of Royce. "Is he alright?" Scarlett asked her husband who held the tired child in his arms.
"He's... he's doing fine I guess... his heartbeats are slower than usual, however," he said while laying his hand on the child's chest.
Scarlett took out something from her pockets. It was a gadget that analysed blood, which detects the abnormalities of the person. A wonderful gadget of hers.
Scarlett took the child's hands and put the pointy side of the gadget on the child's finger, causing it to bleed.
In an instant, Scarlett got her results on the screen of the gadget. Her eyes widened at it and looked back at her son and held the pointy part of the gadget to the child's arms, piercing it to it.
"Scarlett! What on earth are you doing!?" her husband yelled.
"Silence. You won't understand a thing anyway..," she muttered as she dragged the sharp gadget on Royce's arms, making quite a big wound.
Royce whimpered as he tried not to stare.
The man was about to yell, until something miraculously happened—the wound started to heal by itself. The two were astonished by what happened.
"I see... No wonder, this is going to be a great discovery..," Scarlett grinned as she tried to take the child from her husband.
However, he didn't budge and didn't let go of the child.
Scarlett glared at her husband. "Give him to me," she ordered, sternly.
The husband sighed and let go of Royce, guilt hitting him like a train as he gave the child to Scarlett. He knew that Scarlett was up to no good, but he chose life instead. He didn't want to see Scarlett get mad at him.
And on that day, Scarlett Rose was known as a great scientist for discovering a type of immortality, although, unfortunately, everything always doesn't end well for everyone.
---
"Mom! Mom! Wake up!"
The young boy shook his mother who lay injured on the floor. Tears formed in his eyes while he continued to shake his mother.
The fire spread like wildfire. In a blink of an eye, the mansion was already turning to ashes. Royce stayed inside the burning house—he knew that he could at least try to save his parents.
"Save yourself... Royce. Protect your little sister, protect my experiments and bring back the honour of our family. Your auntie can help you two, give this to her when you meet her," his mother said in a low, trembling voice as she took out a piece of paper from her lab coat.
The mother smiled weakly at Royce, her brown eyes gazing at him. "Remember Royce, those who will dare to challenge our family will suffer. You are the eldest son of Scarlett Rose, you are a member of a family known for their incredible inventions and discoveries. Protect the honour of our family and make me proud of you as I watch you from the other side."
"I love you," she said her last words as she lost consciousness.
~~~
Royce can't really tell if his mother was really evil in the first place, she was actually kind to Royce when he was a kid. He wondered why people always talked about negative things about his mother.
Royce's train of thoughts was cut off by someone tapping on his shoulder.
Royce snapped his head to see a familiar face, it was Jonathan.
"Jonathan?" Royce asked, and Jonathan nodded as a response.
Jonathan started taking off his blue jacket and put it over to Royce. With his head down, Jonathan spoke in a low voice, barely loud enough to hear, kind of trembling, "You looked like you were cold, Richard said I should help people if I can... so I put my jacket on you."
Royce was confused, but he was indeed cold the whole time, however, why was Jonathan here? He was also surprised that Jonathan even spoke in front of him. Or... at all.
"I always have my night walks around this street... It was a coincidence that I found you here," Jonathan explained.
Royce noticed that Jonathan was fidgeting the whole time he had his head down. "Are you on your way home? I...I can also walk you there." Jonathan added.
Royce nodded, he couldn't bring himself to decline his offer. He actually seemed like a sweet guy, even if he looked intimidating with his height.
---
Scarlett Rose:
Scarlett Rose: [https://img.wattpad.com/140b968b2f803050b06cf808fe236e689daf23a9/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6c4c694648523546636a473048673d3d2d313236343530313639372e313731303637616564336539353565303330343032393833313634372e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
The Husband
The Husband [https://img.wattpad.com/a475a60ae61a3c122e3f474135e423ec11b0e902/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f686d51467a577a50766e706669513d3d2d313236343530313639372e313731303637623066353262383939623731303836333138333839332e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]