He arrived at his doorstep sooner than expected.

Luck was never Laurence’s luxury as misfortune followed him wherever he went. But this time, the Overseers not noticing him was already a big win for him.

He sighed slowly but his eyes caught the sight of “that” swing again. The swing he made for his beloved daughter, Laura. A normal old swing with green vines wrapping around the handle, indicating that it was untouched for ages.

A godforsaken swing.

He wasn’t strong enough to destroy the swing after all.

“But I really should have.”, he thought to himself.

No matter.

He slowly twisted the handle of their door to make sure not to wake up his wife, Laticia.

She was a strong woman and unlike him who only succumbed to despair, not reaching out to her or any of his beloved. She wasn’t the strongest person; she didn’t have any super strength nor unwavering mental fortitude.

But she endured. She suffered excruciatingly yet she endured.

Every single day, she held a strong face and took care of the entire matters of their household all whilst hiding behind a forced smile.

Worst of all, she never complained about her pathetic loser of a husband and she... she never blamed him for what happened. She took care of him, took care of “them”, trying to fill the unfillable void in any way she could.

She had always been like that. A shining wild sunflower, brightening up the darkest nights and left flowery spirit wherever she went.

He knew that his wife was hiding behind a heartbreaking facade and yet, he couldn’t even do anything for her.

No, he didn’t even try and that’s undeniably the worst sin possible for a husband.

So compared to her, he was just mold on the pavement. Useless and unwanted.

And he knew that he had just been making endless excuses not to take responsibility for every mistake he made.

Still, as mold as he maybe and as worst as he can be, he finally had the will to make it right and he wasn’t going to give up at this point.

He managed to head straight towards "the place” without making any unnecessary movements or sounds.

In a secluded corner of his pitiful house laid a poorly built altar with a picture of a young girl nearby. He then lit four candles in a circle manner before carefully placing the dark, greyish gem onto the middle of the candles.

Again, he carefully placed the weird dark blue blob in front of the altar and caressed it with the warmest affection. The blob reacted to his touch and twitched slightly as a response.

Before the altar, on the wall, weird symbols, indicating lines and clouds were sloppily drawn by a hand.

It was seriously prohibited to pray to other existences in the domains of “Light”, but he couldn’t care less about any of those for his sole purpose now was to bring her back, bring Laura back, bring her into his arms from this... weird and tragic state.

Staring at the symbols and the blob in front of him, Laurence let himself drifted into his unwanted yet fondest memories one last time.

There was a swing. A beautifully hand-made swing. A dreadful, horrifying swing.

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“And there she was. Smiling the brightest and giggling like a little angel.

Laura. Oh, my sweetest Laura.

“How could I possibly make you suffer like that? Just because of your old man’s mistake. You had to...”

Making the swing high was his idea.

Of course, the swing was fun. He could let his daughter feel the thrill of height just as his father once did it for him.

His daughter laughter filling the entire neighborhood was fun. Watching his wife smiling with traces of worry in her eyes was fun. It was really fun for him.

He wouldn’t mind his hands getting dirty with all the filths from people’s most private life if it meant preserving their smiles.

He could keep taking those scoldings and beatings from his seniors and hell, he could just keep licking their feet forever if it meant happiness for them.

He felt like he was unstoppable with these feelings because no way in world that there could be a luckier man than him.

Although, a slight mind slip caused him everything.

What led to the slip was a secret information that he had learned by eavesdropping on those disgusting seniors of his.

Fairly enough, it was huge because it was regarding “Revival of the War” and how his Majesty was being controlled by someone else.

The news made every strand on his body stood uncontrollably.

Whether it was true or not, with the smells of war brewing all over everyone’s noses, it was sure to get a significant reaction from the public and granted, he would be the one to earn the most from it.

Their family would be rich.

He could say goodbyes to those ass-struck seniors of his and live a life of his own.

Moreover, he could put both of his girls on top of the swing and never to go down in their lifetime again.

It was exhilarating that even the worst drawbacks from this whole ordeal seemed so minute and invisible.

What caused the slip was his baseless greed, nevertheless.

The ear numbing screaming from his wife shattered his dreams and snapped him back to this awful reality in less than a moment.

In his arms was a disturbingly mangled small humanoid figure staring at him instead of his cute little girl with the brightest smiles and with some gaps between her teeth.

Laura was nowhere to be found. It was just this bloody figure, wheezing softly, barely even alive.

Barely alive is a bit stretched. It was already gone.

He threw it onto the ground out of instinct.

He remembered that he kept swinging high, waiting for his daughter to leap into his arms, again and again.

Then, this.

Why was Laticia screaming, bawling her eyes out?

Why was his wife crying while holding onto this disgustingly weird... thing?

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this, right? We were supposed to have fun.

Smile. Smile beautifully with those traces of worry in your eyes, my dear.

Why are you holding onto this awful thing.

Throw it away. Come on, throw it away.

If it’s a joke, it’s a very bad one. Where is our daughter, huh, Laticia?

Or let’s go look for her.

She was just here. So, she shouldn’t be much far.

Did she no longer love the swing? Did she run away?

Is it because of something that I said?

Of...of course. I’ll make another one. A better one. A bigger one. It was my fault she didn’t like the swing anymore, right? No worries. I will make a better one.

It isn’t my fault that she ran away. It isn’t my fault that she...

It’s a joke, right? I... I, did it? Was it me? No way. I would never hurt you, my dear Laura. Daddy would never hurt you. Daddy loves you so much, you know it right?

I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I'm sorry. It wasn’t my fault. I’m sorry.

Laura? Please. Laura. Laura. Dear. Laura. Laura.”

________________________________________________________________________

The screaming did stop.

But they kept haunting him in the form of echoes of sufferings.

While he was staring at the wheezing figure in front of the altar, he could see some resemblances to her daughter even.

He genuinely smiled.

It was time.

And everything will go back to how it was once before.

The moment he clasped his hands and prayed in an incomprehensible ancient language; he started to hear a familiar voice from behind him.

It was warmer than the tranquility of autumn leaves fluttering down in a gentle breeze.

It had every meaning he had yearned for his entire life and yet it was something he had thrown away easily, as well.

Yes, he had heard it millions of times already and every single time, it eased his mind instantly and felt warm and fuzzy inside but this time, it made him dreadful.

It was his wife, Laticia.