"We got separated that day…"

"I was thrown in an orphanage that gathered kids for Anfinrud's experiments. Elois, however… was the victim of Lucas' secret experiment…"

"I could be sure to say Lucas was the one who sent you our jackets and mom's bracelet in a box along with the letter unless he had someone other than mom that day, which I doubt was the case… or maybe he used a fake name for some reason."

"After gathering information from various sources, I found out that Lucas Feldstain…" Owin turned slowly to face his father, "…was the Fixsens' neighbor for years… and Mrs. Ebele's ex-husband."

Alvis let the information sink in slowly, his eyes widening. Silence filled the air around the son and his father in the office.

Owin smiled at his bewildered father, "Mr. Kaven, or even Davante, may know some things about Lucas… and maybe… Baldrick."

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The Red Flower

Chapter. 23

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The room was silent. It felt like time had stopped for a moment, and everything stilled in its place, and they could just settle like this. However, both father and son knew that wasn't the case, and they still needed to do something, say something to fix their situation. Someone has to resolve the heavy tension hanging between them, and that wasn't Elois for sure, Alvis thought.

Was he, the father, nervous? He could be lying to say he wasn’t; he was so scared of what might happen if he talked now; what if he said something totally wrong and broke Elois even more? He must study each word before pushing it out to his kid. He was sitting beside him on the same bed, but his son felt so far away with how he sat back-hunched and doing his best not to run away from his father, keeping a distance between them and trembling silently. The poor kid held back his tears; he looked close to having a panic attack at any moment, which hurried the father to think of something to say soon. "I've heard you got your memories back… I… I understand if it's too hard for you to—"

"I killed many-…"

Alvis looked at his son, confused at the confession. He got even more worried when his son’s breaths became rapid, and his trembling worsened. Elois’ eyes were wide and scared, like a frightened kid of being hated by his parent, traumatized.

"I killed many people- doctors or scientists… all from Anfinrud! And-…" he bit his trembling lip so hard before continuing, "I even killed an innocent girl…"

Alvis didn’t come to see his son breaking even further right in front of his own two eyes. He was about to reach his hand out when Elois finally burst into tears and raised his voice as if he couldn't contain all the demons inside him anymore.

"How- How can I face you- How can I show you my face with my hands stained with blood?!"

"That makes two of us, then…"

Elois halted abruptly; time stilled again. He thought for a moment that maybe he had misheard his father in his outburst, a thing he couldn't or didn't want to believe. Two of us? Two of us?? What was that? He knew the meaning, of course, but it was almost impossible coming from the most harmless and kind man he had ever known. He slowly took the chance to glance at his father with a tear-stained face and eyes wide. "…Wha-…at…?"

Alvis slowly lifted his hand to point at the scar on his left eye, keeping his eyes on the other. "I killed someone too… your father, a man you never imagined anything bad from him, killed a woman." he let his hand fall back on the bed and looked down at his hands and away from his son’s shocked eyes. He smiled dejectedly, ashamed to admit it openly. "Ebele… Davante's mother… right in front of him…"

Elois took in a sharp breath without meaning to; he was immediately reminded of his first day with Davante in the past when the boy held his cup with a calm face, not looking at him as he answered his rude and insensitive questions…

“My father left years ago, and my mother is dead. Yes, she was killed.”

Elois felt like everything made sense to him, yet nothing did at the same time. 'He looked… so calm… he didn't even react when he met dad after so long… no sign of animosity…'

He recalled how Davante looked so dead calm despite everything happening around him. Now that he remembers his young friend’s eyes most of the time, 'Was he… really calm? All this time… was he… hurting inside…?'

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He was reminded again when he asked Davante about the girl, the neighbor he killed. 'Even that time… How many times did you force yourself to look calm and unbothered…? How long…'

"Even though he told me it wasn't my fault, that it was a mistake, an unfortunate accident…" Alvis brought the other back to the present. "Still, it doesn't change the fact that I stabbed her. She died because of me… that also makes me a murderer, right?" he looked back at Elois, who stopped crying. That was one step, Alvis thought. He smiled sadly at his son. "It's nothing to share or be proud of… we can't make excuses for our crimes… but were we really willing to kill?" Alvis observed his son, noticing his eyes drifting somewhere far in the past, "It was a mistake on my part, indeed." Alvis reached a hand to rest it on his son's shoulder, looking at the other with stern trusting eyes, "And I know for sure, my eldest son would never have killed any soul willingly or consciously." he tightened his grip on his son's shoulder when he felt him about to object, "Elois, you are a victim."

Elois stopped with wide eyes like the fact had never reached his mind even once before.

"You were abducted, toyed with by your own mother, played by a stranger, then tossed alone in who knows where to wander around with your nightmares," The man’s voice exposed his hidden anger the more he talked about the horrible experience; hardly holding his feelings back in front of his hurting son. "Were you able to differentiate between reality and those nightmares? Mental states could do much more damage to the person than physical states," he grabbed Elois’ shoulders with little force to force the cyan eyes to look at him, careful not to hurt his son as his body wanted so bad to knock someone out right then and there, "Even if the whole world see you as a murderer, I will never be against you. I will forever help you! Save you! Guide you when you're lost! As long as I'm alive in this world, I will be by your side because you're my son! And also—" he paused for a second to calm down. He looked warmly at his wide-eyed son; voice lowered down almost to a whisper but loud enough to be heard by Elois. "No matter what anyone says, nobody knows what battles you've gone through, right? Let them judge all they want."

He carefully pulled his son into a tight, gentle hug and whispered, eyes closed with a smile, "It was a mistake, horrible mistake, a complicated one at that… but your father's here with you now, along with your brother and true friends. No need to hide or run away anymore. I’ll never lose sight of you again. The scary days, the cold nights… it's all in the past now, son. It's okay to cry. It’s okay to tell me all your fears…” he patted his son’s head so gently when he felt the guy trembling again, trying hard to stop any sound from coming out as he was close to tears, “It's okay, Elois."

Elois gritted his teeth and forced his mouth shut; whatever he felt was just too overwhelming and big to put into several words. Lips were trembling, suffocating; it was so suffocating. But his father’s voice telling him to let it go made him realize that it was too much already, that he had finally… reached his limit, no, maybe he had reached his limits a long time ago. And so his trembling hands gripping the blanket moved slowly to grab at his father's sweater.

One little whimper was like a switch to let out everything he had kept inside for years, cries getting out in loud wails close to a baby's.

Alvis hugged his son tightly as his kid cried it all out, rubbing comfortably on the other's quivering back.

.

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"Alright, so… after your mother's death, your father dragged you to a castle, saying an old friend would take care of you from then on," Ellmer revised carefully. "And you were tortured in there by a said friend and his lackey to make sure of something you never knew what it was. You say the people there are actually vampires, and then with the help of a girl named Emmie, you were allowed to leave the castle from time to time," he paused to collect his thoughts. "From your little trips outside the castle, you encountered some people who tried to kill you, and you learned later they were from the 'Anfinrud organization'. You were able to avoid them all somehow, but they never came after you anymore when you went back to the castle and remained there for years." he paused to make sure he didn't forget anything. "So you never knew anything about Anfinrud or Cavalon or anything at all. All you know is that they want you dead and found out later that your neighbor, Lucas, worked for Anfinrud until he disappeared, but you never really met him even once,” he turned to look at his brother, “Yeah?"

Davante nodded silently before he observed the other. "You… believe me? That vampires do exist…?"

"After everything I've seen from Anfinrud, I'll have to expect the impossible, better for my own sanity,” Ellmer said indifferently, making Davante lost of what to say anymore, secretly agreeing. Ellmer looked at his brother again, “What made you visit the Academy after years of staying in the castle?"

Looking to the side, Davante hesitated, or more like troubled by how to answer that, somehow knowing that the older brother wouldn’t like what he was about to say; the reason also sounded ridiculous even to himself, "That… Emmie… suggested we play a game… I only had to take a look at the flower and go back, but…"

"I find it hard to believe she sent you all the way here just for a silly game…” Ellmer closed his eyes with a bright smile, “I can doubt her, right?" It didn't sound like a question to the young sibling; the older brother had already decided that the girl is an enemy and someone not to be trusted, and any attempt to deny it would not be accepted.

"She… isn't a bad person…" Davante looked down at his fidgeting hands; he looked at Ellmer once again and quickly changed the topic. "You said that Xenos Anfinrud and Ral Cavalon were supposed to be against each other, but their actions didn't really show that, and seemingly they were both acting the same way somehow…"

Ellmer hummed, not knowing where this was going, but he was willing to get on the same line of thought with his little brother, "Yeah… According to Alvis, they were close friends, best friends even. However, they both changed at the same time and cut ties. Everyone believed it was just a serious fight or something."

"Both changed at the same time…?" looking down in thought, Davante kept silent for some time before asking again, "When exactly did they change?"

Ellmer blinked but answered anyway, "Hmm, let's see… he did say something about an abandoned lab…? The last thing Alvis heard from Xenos before he changed was that he would check a laboratory. He didn't say where, and he did ask Alvis to come along, but Alvis refused… so we can assume he changed the same day or after he went to that laboratory."

Davante tried to connect everything in his head with a calm face. He knew the connecting thread was evident; it was there and within his reach, almost close. 'I confirmed that Baldrick and Lucas are the same person based on Karl, Baldrick's sister… and I'm sure he's the game's… owner… and…' he suddenly widened his eyes.

Ellmer watched intently. He knows the other reached something from the looks of it. The silence was something else; it grew heavier each minute, with the younger one’s eyes blinking as he looked intensely down at the blanket.

Finally, Davante spoke.

"We have to expect the impossible, right?"

Ellmer wasn’t expecting to hear his own words coming from his little brother. He said it sarcastically; when it came from his brother, however… it sounded chilling for some reason, and he couldn’t know what to feel at the cold eyes of his brother at that moment; it looked like the eyes of a calm predator finally catching his prey…

Davante calmly looked the other in the eye and raised his hands slightly; one hand pointed out one finger, and the other had three fingers out.

"So we can suspect that one person can play several roles simultaneously."

Ellmer widened his eyes slightly at that.

"One man,” he moved the one finger, “Playing the role of these three,” moving the three fingers next, “Making it seem like each is acting on his own. Someone is controlling both Xenos and Ral while wandering around by the fake name 'Lucas Feldstain'."

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The End of CH. 23