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The Red Flower
Chapter. 17
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Years later—
A teen was walking between the crowd in the street when suddenly two men died simultaneously on either side, causing chaos all around. The teen stopped in his tracks to look at the two bodies just like the crowd was doing, but with a blank face.
He then walked away from the crowd and toward a secluded area; he pulled out a small device with six pictures on the screen and all marked 'X' in red, "Finally done for today—"
He suddenly got a call from Armand, and he clicked his tongue; he picked up, "What now? Don't tell me that bastard wants to see me?"
-Young master—
"It's Javi, Armand."
-…Xenos would like to see you.
"Call me Javi to cheer me up a little."
-Young Master Javi.
"Okay, bye." he hung up with a long sigh.
"Little Shadow~ Good work for today, as perfect as always," Xenos said, as casual and relaxed as always. Javi hummed, looking unbothered and resting both hands in his pockets. The man chuckled and hopped down from his desk; he walked with a smile Javi knew all too well. Nothing good came from that smile.
"Aren't you happy? I've sent you a new mission, and it will be the last."
Javi blinked, frowning at the man in disbelief. "Last…?"
"Yes, your last mission in this organization. How about you check the data sent to you?"
Javi reluctantly pulled out the device; he narrowed his eyes at the serene picture. "That's… a child…"
"Yes, all my previous tools failed in this mission, but I have high hopes for you." Xenos smiled as if the praises would please the teen. Javi looked back at the screen. "You… all the targets were from wealthy families and old men, why him…? Besides, only his name, age, and his place are shown in the information section. What’s with that?" he frowned suspiciously at the man in a red suit.
"This is considered a top-class mission. I won't give any info about this one. All you have to do is kill him for me, and you're free for the rest of your life. Easy, right?" Xenos maintained his relaxed smile as if he was talking about the weather.
"……" Javi didn't know why he was hesitating after all this time; he looked back at the picture, a pale boy with black hair and icy blue eyes, age 12…
'This is just a mission like any other one… once I kill him… I'll…' He stared at the boy's face, sitting in a garden, and his face looking… so pale…
'……No… something about him… I can't just…'
"And what if I refuse?" he glared coldly at the boss before him, wanting to punch the smile away from the man’s amused face.
"Of course, a very deserving punishment," Xenos smiled at him like it was something obvious; someone like Javi shouldn’t even ask such a silly question.
Javi let go of the device, unbothered as it crashed to the floor, turned his back to the other, and casually walked to the door, "Then kill me by tomorrow if you want. I’m out."
He didn’t bother to turn to look at the man’s reaction, not even when he heard a cold, “As you wish.” Before the slam of the door closing behind him.
.
.
“Damn… this is so stupid. What the hell?” Javi mumbled to no one but himself as he walked in the empty street, “Seriously?!” He abruptly kicked the light pole hard, causing it to sway slightly; he clenched his teeth as he kept his foot against it.
'To be honest, since the beginning, I've felt something… no, everything was just so stupid and wrong. What exactly was my role? A spy? Then why didn't that 'supposed father of mine' do anything until now?!'
He grabbed his side fringe with his gloved hand, 'I get that our organization had something against Xenos, but what then?! They took data from my damn brain, but they did nothing—'
"—SO WHAT WAS THE POINT?!!!" he kicked the pole harder and managed to bend it a little, holding back from kicking it again and sending it to the ground. "So everything I've done was just for nothing!! And only to kill a kid?! That's it?!! Don't mess with me!!"
"Why are you fighting with a light pole?"
Javi instantly stopped at the voice behind his back. A moment of silence before he turned to see Edmund standing there and giving him a questioning look with arms crossed over his chest, looking all wealthy as always. Javi raised an eyebrow. "I've always wanted to ask, are you my stalker or what? Isn't it enough that we live together under the same roof, my dear cousin?"
Edmund frowned. "I came because I was worried about you, you ungrateful jerk!!"
Javi closed his eyes and put his hand on his forehead dramatically. "Oh! My precious Edmund~ I can't express how touched I am right now!!"
Edmund kicked the other's leg. "Shut up."
Javi dropped the act and stared at the other. “Alright, so what do you want?" he started walking with his hands back in his pockets. The cousin glared, looking irritated for a second before he answered as he followed the other, "Uncle asked about you since you were still outside even after finishing your meeting with Xenos this morning, yet I find his stupid son fighting with a pole at night."
"We can fight people, animals, and all, so why can't I fight a pole? Bullets fight through the air to reach their destination, so everyone and everything are fighting with everything. You need to improve your observation skills," Javi smirked at the cousin by his side. "Yeah, thanks. I don't need useless knowledge like yours," shot back the grumpy cousin.
He scoffed, "And that's why you can't ever grow taller than me."
"What's that got anything to do with my height? Also, stop bullying others before life kicks you fair and good."
"Personally, I don't think life would side with any of us, so forget it." Javi shrugged with a lazy smile.
"Why so sad?"
"Life."
"Dramatic."
"Only for you~" he ruffled Edmund's hair with a teasing smirk. The other slapped his hand away while mumbling grumpily, "The hell is with that…"
Both didn't notice that they had arrived at their home. Armand was standing by the gate and quickly rushed to his young master, who blinked at the troubled look on the usually calm and collected butler.
"Young master! You have to—"
“Armand?” he stopped and waited for the man to get close, secretly nervous as Armand never looked that distressed.
“You can talk to your dear master later.”
The butler looked at the smirking cousin as he had just noticed he was even there.
“Dad told you not to interfere now, didn’t he?”
Javi looked back and forth between the glaring butler and the smirking cousin, not understanding what was going on as he stood between them and noticed the heavy aura suddenly surrounding the two.
The butler collected himself and closed his eyes respectfully to his young master, back to his stoic face, “Master Ral wants to see you in the basement. He said it’s an urgent matter.”
Javi observed the man some more, walking past him as he whispered, “I’ll hear you out later. Okay?”
The man whispered without turning back to look at his young master, “Just be careful, please.”
Javi frowned slightly as he walked past the guards, ‘It’s only gathering data from my memory as usual. Why be careful?’ he went to the elevator, ‘Is it because my father’s the one to do it instead of the guards this time?’ the elevator door opened and revealed stairs down to the basement; he casually walked down, his steps echoing in the quiet place, ‘It’s still the same stupid helmet they use on me, so nothing’s different. And I black out every single time. Only to wake up in pain. They never do anything with the data, though. Otherwise, they would have done something to Xenos already.’
He stopped at the last stair, looking down in thought, ‘…are they even against Xenos…? From what I heard from Armand, he and dad used to work together in the past, so maybe… they aren't really against each other…? But then what is happening now?'
'Everything's weird… this family, Xenos… and that isolated orphanage… everything’s weird…' he walked to a door at the end of the corridor, pushing his index finger to the security system to identify his fingerprint.
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The door opened with a beep, and he found his father standing in the room with the helmet in his hands, which looked like an experiment lab; he smiled once he saw his son. "Welcome back, son."
"Strange, usually you let the guards do it for you, dad." He walked toward his father while taking off his sleeveless blue jacket, leaving it on the hanger before walking to the familiar chair with straps. He sat on the chair, uncaring. His father moved to set the timer and stuff whatever it had; Javi didn’t bother to know the stupid thing’s functions.
"Well, today’s different." his father pushed a button, and his son got tied to the chair immediately.
"Say,” Javi stared at the father, unfazed even with the straps keeping him defenseless and in place. “Who're you?" Javi stared deeply into the other's eyes. "Yes, I know you are my father by blood and all, but I don’t remember anything of you from my childhood. I don’t even know my mother. All I remember is being locked in a cage. It’s as if someone washed away all my memories." He smirked at the stilled face of the man before him, “Tell me again, what happened to my mother? ‘Died from an accident’? Somewhere in my memory, I remember blood and a woman’s cries from a distant room. You can lie to anyone in this house, but not me.”
His father stared in silence for a long moment, "Impressive,” he sounded amused despite the stoic face, “I was right to play with you." he walked closer to his son, bending down and calmly lowered the helmet and on the teen’s head. "Now listen, Javi—" he whispered as he smiled at the frowning teen, "All these astounding theories will be gone once you wake up, and I'll be your dad again,”
Javi clicked his tongue and was about to close his eyes when the man was about to fully cover his eyes with the helmet, but… he got a glimpse in the mirror to his right, the man with him…………
Was someone else…… black wavy hair and round shades… smiling at him as he whispered……
“The dad whom everyone respects and obeys~"
He widened his eyes.
‘…huh?’
“Good night~”
A jolt… and everything's black.
.
.
After great effort, Javi opened his eyes tiredly. 'It hurts… damn it hurts… my body's crying for real now, ugh…'
He stared at the floor of his plain room for a while, 'Something… something happened… I can't remember anything… damn, it hurts even to remember my name…' he tried to raise himself from the bed, only to fall helplessly on the floor with a weak groan, 'Ouch, okay, it really hurts this time… was it really just retrieving data like always?'
He crawled toward the drawer, pulled some painkillers Armand always leaves for him, and gulped two. He leaned his back to the bed and rested his head back on it, 'Out… I want to go outside… out of this fucking house…' he stared blankly at the ceiling.
“I… I want to see the ocean…”
.
.
After several hours he could walk just fine, still sluggish but much better. He showered, changed his clothes, and hurriedly went to the gate before anyone got to him.
"Javi, you IDIOT!!"
He stopped in his tracks at the sound of his one and only cousin yelling and rushing behind him; he smiled in an attempt to hide his irritation despite not yet turning around to face his mad cousin, "What, my dear cousin who loves me so much and can't leave me alone?"
"How stupid are you to reject the most important mission of Anfinrud's organization?!! Are you serious?!!"
"Huh?" he was so confused for a second, but he quickly remembered. He tilted his head back a bit while looking done with this matter already, "Ah, Davante? I guess that was his name? Yeah, no, I'm not harsh enough to kill an innocent kid, I guess."
"Are you kidding?! So you can kill almost everyone in this country, but kids are a red flag for you?!"
“Oh,” Javi turned his head to look at his cousin with cold, mocking eyes. "Do something about it then, or are you all talk?"
Edmund widened his eyes, stunned as the person in front of him dared to mock him openly for the first time.
"You said you also work as a spy, yeah? Go ahead and kill everyone, then." Javi turned and casually walked out the gate, not bothering to hear an answer from the other.
Edmund glared hard at his cousin’s distancing back, clenching his fists by his sides. "This family will go down because of you, and you don't care?"
Javi only kept walking silently and away from the miserable mansion, ‘I’m the one who will die today, not this cursed family…’
.
.
The teen sat alone by the sea and wrote something on the sand with his index finger, staring at the word before a coming wave washed it away as if laughing at him; he stared at the faded ‘Friends’ and scoffed, slapping the water playfully, “Meanie!”
He sighed, slowly turning around to look at the only house by the beach, looking the same and unchanging, gloomy and… ghostly.
'So… why are you here, Javi?'
Javi didn't know why he was in front of the orphanage's door. Maybe because he was curious, perhaps worried, or maybe… just because. He took a deep breath and carefully knocked on the door. It was so silent, however. 'Are all orphanages as silent as this one…? I can't hear a single kid's voice…' he weakly called out, voice trembling a bit, “Is there anyone here…?”
Silence.
‘Maybe I should knock again…’ he slowly moved his trembling hand to the creepy door, standing cowardly from a distance. Suddenly, the door was pulled open, and a very old man with wide-open eyes that looked odd appeared in front of him. Javi jumped with an embarrassing yelp, stepping back a little away from the man, smiling nervously while sweating bullets with wide eyes. "Oh— uh-um-H-Hello! Hello! I um- wanted to-uh, wait! I-I— The-the-the kids!! I want to see the kids, if possible!"
The man only stared with wide eyes that could pop out at any moment. He silently turned his back to Javi, walked back inside, and left the door open. Javi blinked with a lost smile. 'Huh? What? So can I come inside? I can, right? I think, yeah, okay…' he slowly took a step inside, pulling the hoodie tighter around his head and revealing only his face. He waited quietly for the old man to say something or show him around. But he only stood still with his back to Javi in the middle of the dark passage with closed doors on either side.
Javi gulped, glancing around the place as he hadn’t yet witnessed or heard a single kid’s voice. 'Okay, this is… scary… my life shouldn't be a horror movie, please… should I leave…?' he glanced around with a nervous smile. 'I can't see or hear any child…… what is this place? Was it possible Bren and Owin lied to me?? No, no, I don't think so. Is this still an orphanage?'
"u-um… the kids—"
The man quickly turned around with his wide eyes and startled Javi; maybe his heart stopped for seconds, he thought.
"None."
"W-What?" Javi flinched at the gruff, raspy voice.
"Kids. None."
He slowly stepped back out the door, smiling nervously, "What…?"
"Every failure. Goes one."
His smile dropped; Javi heard a weak ringing in his ears, froze in place with wide eyes, and his fingers felt so cold and numb. "What…"
"Javi Cavalon. Every failure. Dies one."
Javi stopped breathing for a moment.
"Javi Cavalon. Game over. None kids."
‘This sound…’ the beeping gradually got louder; Javi focused on the man’s eyes, only then noticing the faint flashing red light in them. He quickly jumped back.
He was sent flying by the sudden explosion inside the house and fell down on the ground, twitching and trembling a bit; “Wh-at…” he numbly pushed himself up and looked down in shock, "You mean… to tell me… I… killed some kids when I tried to save some of the targets…? Then I killed them all because… because I refused to kill one kid…? Are you… you can't be serious… you…"
'Then… from the start… I couldn't protect anyone…? Owin…? Bren...?'
The colorful memories of his smiling friends slowly lost their colors.
He felt his phone vibrating, pulling him back to his senses. He blankly pulled his phone from his pocket to find the familiar name of his butler. He clicked the answer button in a daze, “Arman—”
-Javi!
He snapped out of his shock, alarmed at the evident distress in his butler’s voice, and the line wasn’t even clear as the voice constantly kept getting cut off.
-E— h— Don’t come back!— ---
Doot— Doot—
He widened his eyes, stumbling his way to the shore to see smoke coming from their mansion not too far.
"No…"
He forced his legs to run even though he didn’t feel them at all.
He arrived at the mansion to find the whole place was set on fire… He stared at the house in horror.
‘Armand…’
He ran toward the gate, swiftly jumping high and over the flames, stepping inside the burning mansion and looking around. The whole place was set on fire; however, there weren’t any corpses, and the place was oddly empty.
"Armand! Edmund?!" he coughed as he ran upstairs to the second floor. “Armand!” He was startled when he noticed the burned corpse of his… uncle, down on the floor and leaning back to the door of his father's room. “Un… uncle…?”
He froze; behind the slightly open door of his father’s room, he could see a man smiling at him with black round shades and a white lab coat. The man slowly turned and walked further into the room, disappearing into the darkness inside.
The teen remained still even when the man was no longer there.
'I remember now…'
'I've seen that man before… in prison… even in the basement… my father,' he walked slowly toward the door of what was supposed to be his father’s room, 'Dad… what about dad…?'
"JAVI!!"
Javi regained his senses and quickly turned around with a relieved smile at the familiar voice, “Armand!” only, he was met with a bloodied man, nothing like the always professional and healthy butler; he widened his eyes at the man’s right hand, which was already burned and skin plucked to the point he could see the bones beneath, along with blood dripping from the butler’s forehead like a river. Javi’s smile dropped at the sight before him, even more when he became aware that his butler was trapped in a room behind fallen furniture and chandeliers still burning. It was impossible to get out from there alive, Javi thought with panicked eyes. The way was blocked and everywhere was on fire, and… Armand was so wounded he probably wouldn’t be able to move; Javi thought that it was already so hard for the man to stay standing by the blocked door just to see him.
"Armand… Armand! Wait, I-I'll get you out of there!!" he took a step forward, thinking that he could somehow carry the other out and survive together.
"STOP!!"
Javi halted, lost and scared.
"Run…"
"Armand—"
The butler looked sternly at his young master, “I told you not to come… run… just run and live… none of this is your fault…” he was hardly able to speak, “Protecting a child… was never a bad thing… don’t ever blame yourself… you hear me…?”
“Stop!” Javi started walking hurriedly toward the man, “I’m coming n—”
Armand smiled with glistening eyes at his young master when a loud sound came from the ceiling above him. "All I want for you is… to live with a genuine smile… I love you… my lovely nephew…"
Javi widened his eyes, but before he could react, the ceiling fell on Armand, and… he was nowhere to be seen anymore; just like that… he… was gone.
Javi stood in his place, unable to move. His head yelled the words he heard just seconds ago from his butler…'live’. Yes, Armand told him to live. Armand…
He could hear nothing but loud ringing in his ears as the word echoed in his head.
‘Nephew…?’
He wondered why he felt cold… wasn’t the place on fire?
‘Nephew…’
It was so cold his body couldn’t even move…
‘Nephew…’
But Armand told him to get out of there…
“Just live, Javi.”
‘I have to move…’
The distant murmurs pulled him out of his daze as he noticed his feet standing on the sand, meaning he was out of the mansion; he stared blankly down, ‘When did I run outside…?’ he slowly raised his head, following the source of the voices, he wasn’t expecting what was in front of him not too far.
He spotted Edmund and two other guys. Two guys… a raven head, looking mad at Edmund with his friend trying to calm him down. Two guys… two familiar guys…
"Owin… Bren…?"
The three of them turned to look in his direction. The two friends smiled in relief at their childhood friend looking safe before them.
Javi slowly walked toward them, face shocked and unbelieving, “You… are alive…”
"IT'S THEM!! THEY ARE THE ONES WHO SET THE WHOLE PLACE ON FIRE!!! THEY KILLED OUR FAMILY, JAVI!!"
Owin and Bren turned to look at the suddenly shouting cousin, glaring in shock before Bren pulled a dagger, “You—!”
Javi widened his eyes at seeing his past friend charging to kill his cousin. His vision was slowly changing; though he wasn’t aware, he didn’t know how his cousin ended up losing his right leg and looking up back at him in fear; he didn’t know when did he pull his gun out and why it aimed at Edmund or was it at Bren? He questioned. He didn’t understand why he ran toward Bren, who looked shocked at what happened to Edmund; he didn’t know why he hadn’t stopped when Owin stood in his way to protect Bren from him.
No…
No… I was afraid to let another person get killed because of me. I only wanted to protect Edmund and ended up failing as always…
And I panicked, and as stupidly as it sounds… I blamed my only two friends for Armand’s death…
I took Edmund and ran from the house. I kept repeating “Please help” and “I’m sorry” like a mantra even when a stranger with the same hair color as Owin showed up with an umbrella and told me to follow him as we clearly needed help.
And I followed behind Elois, not really hearing anything he said, as the sound of rain was the only thing loud in my ears.
I really… wonder… why did I believe Edmund’s claim that night…?
Javi opened his eyes groggily to find white walls around him, but it felt comforting and safe. 'Hospital…?' he suddenly jumped up. "Edmund!!"
"Over here, sleepy head."
Javi turned to his side to find his cousin sitting and eating an apple as if everything was normal.
"Edmund… I…" Javi could not say anything while looking at his cousin’s… prosthetic leg. Edmund waved his hand dismissively. "Don't care, whatever happened yesterday… seriously, you were trying to save me. I can't really blame you in that situation, so don't be dramatic. It pisses me off when you get dramatic, so forget it. You were already dramatic enough."
Javi honestly didn't know if he should go along with the joke or… he turned to look at his own hands silently.
“Besides! The doctors in this academy gave me this cool prosthetic leg! I can also control it as I wish, just like a real leg!! They are no joke!"
Javi looked at the leg, still didn't know what to say, but he smiled sadly and looked to the side. "That's… good."
"If you'll look that way all the time from now on, I'll punch you every day, morning and night."
"Okay…" Javi said, voice so lifeless.
"Good, good." Edmund took a bite from his apple. "By the way, we're students here from today on."
Javi blinked, nodded, and accepted whatever his cousin decided for the both of them, thinking that he had no right to refuse anything from the guy anymore since he had ruined everything more than enough in one day.
Did I believe him out of guilt…? Or because I was too lost…?
Armand used to guide me whenever I was too lost to do anything…
Armand is dead.
His mind kept reminding him day and night.
'I wonder why they didn't take it from me…' Javi thought while holding his gun and looking at it. He sighed and hid it back in their shared wardrobe. 'I'm not using it again, but I can't throw it anywhere…'
He went to sit down on his own bed, staring at the sunlight in a deafening silence and slowly lowering himself to lay on his side. He took hold of his blue necklace in his fingers and looked at it. Sunlight was reflecting on it, and it looked so… beautiful. “I wasn’t your master… you liar…”
“You’re going to see something veeery big and blue! So blue, just like your eyes and necklace. It’s so beautiful.”
He could still feel the gentle pinch on his cheek as he choked when the tears relentlessly ran down, “Arm-nd…” he choked again, gritting his teeth to stifle his cries, “Is dead…”
He hid his eyes with his trembling fist as he allowed himself to cry in silence alone in the room, just this once.
When I was behind the bars…
I wasn't aware of anything when I was locked in there… had no conscious while killing all the targets…
But outside the cage… I was aware…
I made mistakes… I did stupid things… I laughed and cried… I killed people I don’t know…
I can’t call myself a murderer… yet I know I cannot be considered innocent…
His days went on with him joking and laughing around his grumpy friend and his sighing cousin.
I will live. I’ll try my best. I’ll live with all my sins on my shoulders…
I’ll be a better person…
And time moved on peacefully. It was all good for a while, and I almost forgot my reality…
Until I realized it was him.
Davante looked in his direction when he noticed him staring, black hair, ice blue eyes, and pale… so pale. ‘It’s really him…’ he felt relieved for some reason, maybe even fond, as he ruffled the kid’s hair teasingly, watching his face contort in slight, suppressed irritation. Javi smiled in relief; the last target had grown up and was safe. Looking at him, he was glad he didn’t kill him; he felt even protective of him.
“You should worry about yourself first. Owin is Elois' little brother, and he's in this academy.”
“Your friends weren't the ones who killed your family.”
“Don't trust Edmund Cavalon.”
Ellmer’s words echoed loudly in his head as he ran straight to Davante and confessed everything. Only calming down a bit when he noticed the panicked face of the usually calm and stoic teen looking to the side. He turned to look at what scared the teen… “Ah…”
‘But before I decide who to protect…’ he smiled awkwardly at Elois, his friend’s face scarily calm as he glared at him.
“What did you say just now?”
‘I got a whole history to clear up first…’
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The End of CH. 17