The door creaked as it opened, its cheap hinges struggling to handle its weight. A young, tired-looking man slouched through the doorway. His clothes were dirty all over. He had hair that would’ve been obviously blonde, if not for the soot that dirtied it to its very roots. The man leaned on the doorpost while panting.

“Honey I’m home.”

Einar’s mother immediately walked over to the door and hugged her fatigued husband.

“Vedel! I was worried sick! Why are you home this late?” She asked, holding his face between her hands.

“We stumbled upon a new system of caves while mining out the last of our current vein. I was tasked with exploring it.” Vedel explained whilst sitting down in his chair.

“Those damn corporates.” She sighed. “They’d have you slave away until your death if it was up to them.”

“It’s not all bad Alicia. If I find a new vein I’ll get a promotion for sure!”. His words sounded hopeful, but Einar could tell that his father didn’t believe his own words.

His lack of complete fluency meant that he didn’t fully understand his parents’ conversation, but he understood enough to fill in the blanks on his own.

‘So Vedel works in the mines.’ He frowned. ‘Then how come I was born in some kind of workshop?’

After emptying a bowl of bland-looking soup, Vedel finally spoke up again.

"How's Ruen? I’ve barely seen him last few weeks due to work.” He asked, a slight look of sadness hiding behind his tired eyes.

“He’s doing well dear, and don’t worry, you can always make up for the lost time when he’s old enough to actually remember it.” Alicia answered.

‘Little do they know I can already remember it.’ Einar chuckled, garnering a slight smile from his father.

Vedel walked up to him and picked him up, holding him close to his chest. The stench of sweat and dirt made Einar move his hand in front of his nose and cough out of reflex.

His father looked perplexed for a second before laughing heartily. “Well, aren’t you a rude little fellow?”

Einar chuckled along with his Vedel, laughing and the absurdity of the situation. It was the first real joy he felt since his death. His father’s laugh was deep and loud. It was one of those laughs that was infectious, one that could fill an entire room with sound, and share its happiness with everyone who heard it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Vedel handed Ruen back to Alicia. “He’s a smart little kid, isn’t he?” He said. “It’s almost like he understood what I said.”

“Don’t be silly dear, he’s a few weeks old. He probably just thought your laugh sounded funny.” She replied.

“I guess you’re right.” Vedel sighed, scratching his head.

Einar started laughing loudly, well as loud as a baby could anyway.

“See, he’s just a happy kid.” His mother said, not understanding the irony.

Einar had trouble not bursting out into laughter again. Luckily for him, it was late, and his mother thought it was time for him to go to bed, saving him from dying of laughter.

******

The next couple of days weren’t much different. Vedel returned home late every day, working like a slave in the mines in the hope of earning a promotion. He still wasn’t around much, but he did seem to make an extra effort to pay some attention to his son.

Einar didn’t care much for the attention, he wasn’t a child after all, but he could respect the effort Vedel put into it. He knew from experience that balancing your work and your family was one of the hardest things in the world. One of the many regrets he had in his previous life was not spending more time with his daughter. Back then he had told himself that he could always make up for the lost time later, but later never came. He died before ever truly getting to know his only child. It pained him to no end that he would never get the chance to see her again.

That’s why he had decided to humor all of his father’s jokes, chuckling at the weird faces he made and trying to look as happy as possible when they played together. He saw himself in Vedel and wanted to make sure that the man didn’t end up with the same regrets as him.

Now was exactly one of those moments. Vedel was playing with his son on the bed, making weird faces and tickling him. Alicia was in the kitchen cleaning up the pots she had used to make dinner that evening.

It was peaceful.

That was the only word Einar could’ve used to describe the air in the room. Though he didn’t see Vedel and Alicia as true family, it was moments like these that made him temporarily forget about his troubles and regrets, allowing him to relax even if just for a minute.

Due to this, Einar couldn’t be more annoyed when loud knocks reverberated through the door. His parents both looked at each other, gesturing at the other to ask if they knew who it could be.

Visitors weren’t very common, so there must be some reason for the sudden arrival of one.

After a few seconds of back and forwarding his mother suddenly turned deadly pale. She mouthed a few words to his father that he couldn’t quite catch, but judging from the fact that Vedel also had a ghastly expression on his face, Einar concluded that it couldn’t be good news.

‘What in the world could have them react like this?’ He pondered.

Alicia collected herself first and hurried towards the door. She hesitated for a second, taking a deep breath before reaching out and opening the door.

In front of her stood a small, balding man. The only hair he had left lining his head like a wreath. He had a sharp nose and deep-inset eyes.

“Good evening miss, I’m sure you know why I’m here.” He put up a smile that didn’t extend to the rest of his face. Calling the man a wolf in sheep’s clothing would’ve been an understatement. At least a wolf only hunted the sheep for food, this man instead looked like he enjoyed doing whatever despicable thing he was about to do.