18 - BURN

Bittu’s back slammed against the wall before his body slid and collapsed on the floor. His eyes grew open as wide as they could from the impact, but his sight was still blurry. Blood rushed through his sedated veins, and with every fraction of a second, his sight bettered.

The young man in green, Edgar, was walking straight toward him like a beast whose shackles were on the verge of breaking. The peeping heads that were looking in slackened jaws couldn’t recognize him at all, as they couldn’t quite get a full view of his face.

However, that wasn’t the case for the one lying on the floor.

The moment he regained his sight, Bittu’s eyes grew as wide as they could. “It can’t be…” Time slowed down from the extreme tension he felt upon slowly but surely recognizing that face. How could he ever forget that face which cost him an eye? However, it wasn’t anger that rose in his heart but far from it. A strand of cold sweat trickled down his already sweaty temple. Even though he had drunk so much, his mouth went dry at that moment. His trembling lips parted with much difficulty. “Y-You…” Even though he recognized the person, he couldn’t believe that it was Edgar. How could that boy be so strong? It was impossible. This line of thought rang in his mind and cast away all the drunkenness off his face. “I-Impossible. You should be dead.”

“How can I die while you’re still breathing?” Edgar’s voice cut his heart sharper than a sword could and instilled fear deeper than he could imagine.

At that moment, Fabby walked out of the room, and when her eyes lay upon, her hope turned into something else entirely. That long overflowing messy green hair, how could she forget that. It was no doubt her father’s. She ground her teeth and ran ahead, tightening the grip on the knife she had made sure to pick up after letting it go only moments ago. “How dare you come here!” she ran up at him from behind, with redness creeping in her eyes. “Die, you scum!”

However, as she got closer, the image of the one in front of her didn’t quite match with the one she initially thought it was. And just at that moment, that fellow turned around to face her, and not only did she stop in her tracks, the knife in her hand fell.

“Sis!” Edgar was about to smile, but that smile stopped midway, when he saw the big bump in his sister’s belly. His expression froze. Veins throbbed in his face.

“Haha,” Bittu tensely laughed as he got back to his feed. “I’m your brother-in-law now, little shit. If you want to kill me, then go on,” he walked over to Edgar and then up to his sister, “but then the one growing in your sister’s stomach will have no father.” Seeing Edgar tilt his head down and clench his fists in silence, Bittu didn’t want to stop. “But knowing you… You may still kill me because I’ve lived a worthless life where I was only good at drinking alcohol,” he picked up the knife swiftly, with his feet, “which is why I’m going to take my family’s lives first.” He suddenly stabbed in Fabby’s belly, startling everyone. “Hahaha!” He laughed evilly and stabbed her a few more times. It all happened so quickly Fabby couldn’t stop him, but then she grabbed his wrist and shouted her brother’s name while pushing the drunk away.

“Eh?” Bittu, given how drunk he was, couldn’t stop himself from getting thrown back by Fabby’s push. However, what stunned him wasn’t her strength but the fact that she wasn’t bleeding. He was sure that he stabbed her three times, yet she wasn’t bleeding. He looked at his knife, but there wasn’t blood on it. He looked back at Fabby, who put her hands underneath her long shirt and pulled out a mass of cotton wrapped to look like a pregnant jump. Bittu’s jaw hung open in disbelief. His eyes broadened like that of a buffalo’s.  “Y-You fooled me all this while!”

A few months ago, on one afternoon, when Fabby was stricken by fever and was resting in her room, a fully-drunken Bittu broke into the room and attempted to rape her, but she banged his head with a stick and made him lose consciousness. By the time he woke up, she cooked up a story for him. And with her story, she not only fooled him but every single one in the village. It was because of that story, Bittu stopped trying to get into her pants through violent means. All these past few months, she had waited for the hopeful return of her brother. Even after many months, there were no traces of him. He wasn’t the type who’d abandon her without leaving, which only meant that he was probably dead, so she was willing to join her brother sooner or later. And today, that day had finally come, thanks to Bittu constantly stressing her to the limits.

Coming back to the present.

Edgar, who was confused and puzzled until now, slowly but surely found his way back to this world. His shoulders were no longer slumped.

“B.I.T.T.U!” Even though Edgar just came to senses, a fit of anger swallowed up his senses again. He grabbed Bittu by the scruff and lifted him with a single hand, stunning everyone, especially his sister. Just how strong did Edgar get? Was he the same Edgar as before? And he was no longer limping and seemed perfectly alright.

“P-Please spare my life!” Bittu begged even though he was facing away from Edgar.

“Spare?” Edgar’s voice was as cold as ever. His other hand reached out for Bittu’s face, and his fingers gouged out the only remaining eye and crushed the eyeball in his fist.

Bittu howled in pain. “My eye! Ah! My eye!”

When Edgar let go of him, he crawled on his butt and moved away to the nearby wall, while screaming out of his lungs. He now had no eyes. He now could no longer see the world. But he kept looking for his eyes, and because he couldn’t find it, he kept looking for Edgar’s feet and eventually found them.

“Please give my eye back. Don’t put me in the dark forever.” He begged from the bottom of his heart, his head resting on Edgar’s feet.

But the damage was already done. The eye was long squeezed into a pulp. And it was highly unlikely for a weak blind man with no backing to get his eyes back, for it would require a lot of influence and wealth. Especially, given the place he currently was in, it was just impossible that he’d ever get out of the Shushui mountain range. So, Bittu’s future was all set in stone with that one move, like a wood tossed in fire. All it could do was burn.