Book II

Episode 69 - Bound Reality ‘‘ Bound Memories"

(Eugene’s past life)

Tik. Tik. Tik. 

The sound of time slowly ticking forward was the only sound audible to the small child lying face down on the icy lap of her mother. The soft scent of her mother’s body wash and the musty smell of mold from her cold dark cell manifested together and further killed her beating heart. Numb. Her heart was numbed. 

Tik...Tik...Tik...

The beaten child carefully propped her head towards the half dented clock completely battered up. As the child fixed her blurry sights on the clock hands, her heartbeat slowly quickened. ‘Ah…’ She thought. ‘Time is still moving forward despite all the odds.’ She was moving forward like the clock hand despite being broken and battered like the clock. 

It wasn’t long before a voice spoke from above. “What are you thinking of my child?” A voice that carried a tint of childishness spoke.

This was her mother. 

Even without the child’s reply, her mother stroked and traced her face softly like nothing ever happened. The warm hands slightly nauseated her a bit.

The small Eugene took her gaze back from the clock and stared at her mother’s gently smiling face. ‘How ironic.’ Eugene laughed inside. The fact that this woman, her mother, is being so gentle whilst holding her in place for her grandmother to mercilessly beat her body with a wooden crane from behind. 

The irony of it all.

It was as if the two were playing house. One moment her grandmother would stop hitting her thighs and calves to take a rest, and when she’s got her energy back will start hitting her at the same place over and over again. 

‘But this isn’t bad.’ Eugene thought. Because they weren’t using salt today. The fact that she didn’t have to bear through salt penetrating through her open wounds made her slightly happy. 

Happy. 

Ceasing the gentle strokes, the childish voice with a hint of sleepiness spoke out.“Mother, it’s dawn.” Her mother was reminding her grandmother that it was time to stop. After all, it’s not like beating her up for 24 was something they wanted to invest in. They still had their own lives and other things to do. 

“Alrighty..” Her grandmother’s slightly old voice sighed in tiredness, cracking her neck and walking past Eugene as if nothing ever happened.

“The morning drama is starting in 2 hours…” Her grandmother’s voice faded away as her mother and grandmother left the cell just like that. The sound of a large door closing was Eugene’s queue to move.

“Skkk..” Eugene sucked in her breath, using her arms to slowly prop her upper body up. With determination, she pulled herself to the closest wall for her to lean against and rest. 

“Haa…” Eugene deeply exhaled in sleepiness. She has no choice but to sleep in this corner today. Looking over at the bloody mess her grandmother made and at the loosened 1-meter rusty chain at the other end of the corner, this place was her best option to sleep at. 

Lately, she has been feeling a bit numb when subjected to numerous beatings. Was it because she was getting used to her old wounds being reopened over and over again? Or was it something else? Nowadays even when salt was used, there would be a slight ting but that was all the pain she could feel.

“Am I even normal?” Eugene’s hoarse voice echoed aloud. 

No one ever replied to her. 

These days getting beat up in open spaces was pretty common and her school completely ignored this. No one in her entire school talked to her anymore after that ‘birthday’ and that was because the teacher that gave lessons about child abuse mysteriously disappeared. It was then that she realized that her family was able to do anything they wanted in this town. Why? 

Because they were people governing this town. 

Before her wounds were publicly shown everyone in this town would stop by to say hi. Although she thought it was weird, her 6-year-old self didn’t think much of it. Praising her and her family was a normal daily life. Hence why, when this stopped 4 years ago she realized. ‘Ah.. that wasn’t normal.’ Greeting her daily wasn’t normal. Praising her daily wasn’t normal. She was only given this attention because of her family. Even when she wasn't given attention and is treated like air.

It was also because of her family.

Not only was her family slightly high in social standings, her family even has a good and noble history, serving this country for generations. People naturally respected them a lot. 

Truly, the irony of it all. 

Once, she came across an old couple openly gossiping behind her back and what they said brought laughter upon her. 

“The child looks like she’s about to die” The older man shouted, only for the lady to go. “Shhh!” Replying to the old man. “There is a reason for everything! For such a noble family like them, they naturally need to have an outlet.”

“Is that so?” The older man had a confused voice. “Naturally so!” The old woman continued. “If that prestigious family was too perfect, they would be monsters! This makes them look more human don’t you think?”

“Prestigious family huh?” Eugene for the first time in years laughed out loud. Her laugh scared the old couple senseless and made them run away from her. The last she heard of them was, “How did she hear that when we were whispering?!” “She’s a weird child! Let’s stay away from her!” 

That made Eugene laugh even more. To think they were whispering when they could be heard from meters away.

People in this town only thought of her family as prestigious not knowing what they do for a living. They might die from a heart attack knowing that the people they look up to were the same people who work for the government. Their job? To kill people.

How she knew was kind of… obvious. Why else would a house have a secret underground place? In fact, 5 cells after her cell were where her family brings in people targeted by the government to torture and kill for information. Sleeping with rotting corpses was a common occurrence. 

How very prestigious right?

Her hundreds of aunts and uncles kill for a living, and they are everywhere in this town. Some might even be living beside you. Ever wonder what happened to the teacher that mysteriously disappeared? 

Well, he’s the first corpse she’s ever seen face to face. In fact, the headless corpse of her teacher has been laminated and is currently staring at her with his eyes wide open at this actual moment. 

“A souvenir” Was what her mother said as she placed the headless teacher on her table shortly after her 6th birthday. 

Eugene slightly laughed as she stared at the headless teacher. This was most likely the most expensive gift she has ever received from her family. A life. To remind her how easy it was to get rid of an eyesore and to remind her of her reality. 

Sealing her naive self years ago, this calm self was replaced by a calm persona slowly built up. In fact, from the hundreds to thousands of corpses she was shown to every day and lived with, she has become slightly numb to dead people now.

She was numb to the point that even when her grandmother locked her up with a decomposing corpse to sleep with for a night, she didn’t particularly feel anything and slept through the night as per usual. The smell of a decomposing body never bothering her one bit.

Once, her mother came to the underground place to check up on her and mumbled.“What’s this? You’re just like us.” Whilst chewing on her finger in anxiousness. The eyes of her mother staring straight into her own eyes were incredibly cold. 

This sentence was something she didn’t understand. How was she ever like them? Was what she always thought to herself. It was only a few months later on her 10th birthday did she finally know the meaning behind her mother’s words.

“Yes, I’m just like you” Was Eugene’s reply to her mother as she watched the crimson sky. 

 (Present world….)

“No…No… It’s not true.” An anxious voice continuously mumbled beside Eugene and eventually stirred Eugene up from her nightmare. 

“... No….” Eugene could 100 percent identify that the familiar mumbling voice came from her roommate. Her roommate whom she ‘hangs out’ with every single day, aka Twit.

Feeling the softness of her quilt she sighed, very reluctant to get out of bed. Nevertheless, she blinked her heavy eyelids that didn’t want to open and squinted her eyes to get used to the dazzling morning light. Turning her head to her roommate who has been spouting nonsense, she jolted back in shock!

In her view, the red eyes of her roommate of 3 years were staring at her coldly. A chilly expression similar to her mother she dreamt of earlier only lasted a full 5 seconds before returning to a dazzled expression.

Yes, a confused expression.

This confused expression is one she should portray and not her ‘roommate’. However, the confusion didn’t last long when her ‘roommate’ suddenly appeared to have woken up.

“Huh?...” The child beside her mumbled, looking left and right, looking as if she was wondering why she was sitting up and not lying down. Before long, the child finally noticed a gaze staring at her and looked back.

“.....” Her red eyes locked with Eugene’s grey eyes.

With a smile, the child shouted! “Sister!! Good morning!” Euria, aka Eugene’s twin sister and roommate of 3 years shouted happily in her groggy voice! Proceeding to attack Eugene by jumping on top of her and giving Eugene her daily hug!

“Sister! Sister! Sister!” Euria’s voice happily screamed in excitement right besides Eugene’s ears. Euria’s small body wiggled further deeper to embrace all of Eugene’s body until the person subject to such a fierce hug could no longer take it.

Eugene raised a small white flag she kept underneath her pillow and waved it around, announcing her defeat.

“I won again!” Euria smiled. Inside, she was sad that she couldn’t hug her sister anymore but slowly got up from Eugene’s body and sat up again.

This has been an ongoing daily attack Euria came up with since they turned two. Whoever gets up first wins, and was allowed to ask the loser for one thing per day. During the first few rounds, Euria naturally lost as Eugene was always the one who got up early, escaping from their bedroom before Euria could start the game. However, after a few rounds, Euria started getting up early as well to attack Eugene but they encountered a problem. They weren’t able to decide who won! With that comes Ramon, the twins older brother who had no choice but to intervene. 

He added a rule that favored Euria. When questioning his ethics he told Eugene that the older twin should concede to the younger one. That unfair rule was if Euria could successfully make Eugene admit defeat Euria would win.

After a few rounds of Euria losing some more, she started searching for a way to make Eugene admit defeat. And that was to Kiss or hug Eugene until she could no longer breathe! The slightly smaller child was then able to defeat her elder sister most of the time with that technique. 

As for where the white ‘I-surrender-flag’ came from, the eldest son of the Veria family Louis pitied the ever-so-powerful Eugene so much that one day he decided to head out to town.

This of course shocked the whole family because the eldest child was one who disliked going out, neither did he have anyone to meet. When asked why he wanted to go to the capital he replied, “To get Eugene a gift.” Before leaving in his dandy looking suit and never turning back for a mini goodbye. 

This shocked the Veria family a 2nd time, including Eugene. Euria was slightly sad from her brother’s words because he didn’t mention her but was nevertheless nonchalant about her eldest brother leaving for a day. 

When Louis came back with a box in his hand 3 hours later everyone froze in shock. He truly only went out for Eugene. Wondering what it was, Eugene opened it up, only to close the lid back again. That day, she stared far away wondering why her life was like such….

The curious family ended up taking the gift out of the box for her, and silence naturally followed. Everyone excluding Euria who didn’t understand the meaning of a white flag stared at Eugene in a pitiful look. 

When asked why the eldest son got such a gift for her, he replied. “So she can give up before dying.”

“Ah!” Everyone exclaimed. Truly, such a clever child! 

They were scared that Euria would take it too far with her games but this indeed was a safe and perfect solution to Eugene’s and Euria’s waking up game. After that day, the surrender flag became Eugene’s most precious ally in stopping the attacks of Euria. Her heart thanked Louis multiple times for the flag that saves her life daily.

Euria’s wish when she won was incredibly normal, “I want to be with sister for the rest of the day!”. If Euria ever loses, Eugene’s normal wish was. “Stay 10 meters away from me for the rest of the day.”

And this was the game that decided their fates every day.

“Oh, sister! Why was I sitting up?” Euria confusingly stared at Eugene once again. Eugene only thought for a moment before replying. “Maybe you were sleepwalking?” Propping herself up from the bed. 

“Sleepwalking?” Euria’s eyebrows frowned, not knowing what sleepwalking meant. Not knowing how to explain sleepwalking to Euria in simple terms, Eugene long hesitated before replying. “ It’s when your body moves while you are sleeping.” Please understand that. Eugene prayed.

“Ohh! How weird!” Euria’s eyebrows went back to its respective place, nodding to her sister, showing that she understands. 

‘Yes weird.’, Eugene stared at Euria. ‘You looked as if you wanted to kill me.’ She thought, her lips forming a straight line.

Euria, getting over her sleepwalking questions, suddenly lifted her small right hand to touch Eugene’s forehead. Bringing her hand down to inspect she pouted. “Sister, your body is completely wet..” She said, before glancing down at her body that just hugged Eugene. Sniffing herself she sighed in relief. “It’s not pee.” Euria silently and unknowingly pierced Eugene’s heart with her sentence.

“......” To her last sentence, Eugene had nothing to say. Bringing her small arms up to inspect she now noticed that her body was completely wet from sweat just like what Euria said. Her nightgown and hair completely sticking to every inch of her body. 

“Did you have a nightmare sister?” Euria questioned, tapping her tiny fingers on Eugene’s thighs waiting for Eugene to reply. 

“..... I did.” Eugene replied. ‘A rare memory.’ Her gaze slightly out of focus when she heard Euria’s next words. “Is it because of our grandmother?” Euria innocently asked, not knowing that she was rubbing salt to Eugene’s wound.

Without getting angry or reacting Eugene remained quiet, ignoring Euria’s question. ‘Yes.’ Her inner mind replied instead.