"honey, please don't leave us! I love you!" 

"Well i never wanted kids! Farewell!" 

The slammed as her knees came into contact with the ground, her blue eyes cascading down from her eyes to her cheeks like a waterfall. Her husband had not only divorced her, but taken everything from her, but...

Staring at a brunette white bundle , she whispered, "I'm sorry aiden, but you'll have to grow up without your father you deserve. I'm sorry I won't be able to provide the life you deserve... " 

Life took a drastic turn for the now single mother,  her two storey bungalow had to be sold, both mother and son moving into a studio apartment, her working two jobs just to get by. 

As the years went by, Aiden lacked the luxury of stylish clothes, having to purchase them from the dollar store or hand me down sales, during Christmas, his house lacked the cheery colourful vibe, mouth watering turkey replaced with a small bowl of porridge. And most importantly... 

"Mommy, everyone brought their daddies to school today. Why don't I have a daddy?" He asked one afternoon after coming from kindergarten. 

"Honey, can you please don't talk about this again?' she asked, hinting sorrow in her tone. 

As for life later in high school ... 

"Hey! That's my lunch money!" 

"Than why don't you ask your dad for some? Oh wait! You don't have one! And your mom's broke!

Laughter reverberated across the cafeteria, the usual response to Aiden's list of bullying without an end, first for having a single mother's whose barely getting by , and the second... 

"Hey nerd! Do my homework or I'll give you a knuckle sandwich!"

"Okay, okay, just please don't hurt me!" Aiden begged. 

Despite his poverty, he was always top in the school without fail, spending majority of his time either revising his school books or reading books , literature or facts, fueled by the drive of breaking out of poverty, dreading to see his mother return late, her skin pale, her blue eyes layering with black eyebags, along with... 

"Mrs green! You're late at your bills again!"  

"Yes, I'm sorry! Here's your rent..." 

One afternoon... 

Knock knock. The attention of the class turned to the middle aged woman standing at the door, her black hair with streaks of gray, dressed in a formal knee length lilac dress, standing at the door of the classroom 

"May I see Aiden green?" She asked.

______________________________

"Aiden, I'm afraid your mother has passed away after being hit by a drunk driver ... " She explained. 

"What?! " He reacted. 

At that moment, it seemed that his only torch in a world seeped with darkness had burned out, leaving him ensnared in a world of internal torture. 

After dismissal, with his bags packed, he was transferred to an orphanage. 

"Oh look! We have a nerd in here!" A huge redheaded boy around his age taunted, cracking his knuckles. "Wanna fight?" 

"But mom says violence is never the answer..."

"Oh your mommy says?" One of the redhead's friends sniggered. "If you don't fight us, you're weak!" 

"I'm not weak, I'm strong!" Aiden proclaimed. 

Two minutes later... 

"Ouch!" Aiden screamed, his head landing with a thud on the pristine white wall, crimson liquid flowing from his nose. 

"Ha! I won!" The redhead, presumably the ringleader of the bullies, proclaimed, his huge hand in the air in triumph. 

Eventually the cycle of bullying by them went into a continuous circle, for months, one evening, after they tore his orange stuffed lion, a rare Christmas gift from his mother into shreds... 

"I can't take it anymore!" He thought, packing his ragged clothes into his bags, before tiptoeing out of the door, into the darkness of the night. 

 Spending his first few weeks on the streets begging and even retorted to stealing to survive, while attending school, which seemed more like stepping into a nightmare. 

Overtime, his heart, once a warm summer's day, became a winter's night. Every person who messed with him either went missing or... 

Ding dong! 

"What's this?" A woman thought as she spotted a brown parcel on the ground , checking it... "It has no address..." 

Opening it... 

"Ahhh..!" 

"What's wrong honey?" A man her age exclaimed, rushing to her side. 

"It's... Our son's head! In a box!" 

"Aaaah!" He shrieked. 

And as for the murderer ... "I'm sorry, but we couldn't find any evidence of who murdered your son..." 

On the surface , he was a typical nerd, an obsession with academics and a passionate bookworm, scrawny in appearance. But under the surface... 

"Go ahead and mess with me ... But it won't end well for you..." 

One evening... 

Urgh! I can't believe I got bullied again! He thought. How should I slay... 

"Hey! Are you okay?" A gentle voice asked, interrupting his thoughts. He turned around to see a girl around his age, dressed in a sleeveless green floral dress with pink rose patterns. Her long chestnut hair, tied in a braid adorned with a pink ribbon, cascading down her back. 

"I saw those boys being really mean to you."

"Urm... Yeah! Thank you!" he trailed off. Is someone being kind to me? He thought. 

"Wanna be friends?" 

"Really?" He asked, his heart racing in excitement. 

"Yes, " she replied,  "And my dad gave me more than enough allowance for a week. Wanna get some ice cream from the ice cream truck?" She asked, pointing to a white ice cream truck with colourful sprinkles and a huge pink ice cream on a cone on the truck's roof. 

"Yes!" 

"By the way, I'm Claire." She introduced herself. 

"And I'm Aiden!" He responded, before heading to the ice cream cart. 

For the very first time ever since his mother's death, his heart cracked open, allowing love to flow in, becoming the warm summer's day once again. They would meet up almost every day, and Were over the moon when discovering they're in the same school! 

I need to change, he thought. She doesn't deserve a  demon for a friend. 

Years passed by in a blur, and when they were young adults... 

"Claire..."

"Yes Aiden?" 

"I have something to confess..." 

"What is it?" Claire asked 

"I think I'm in love with you..." He confessed, his face a bright shade of crimson. 

"Really, me too!" She replied. 

"Would you be my girlfriend?" 

"Yes!" She replied.  

When recieving the results of their university leaving exams ... 

"(Gasp!) What did you get?" 

"Straight A's! " Claire replied, her eyes glittering with excitement. "I'd better tell my parents! What about you?" 

"Same!" He replied. 

Shortly after, they would start their own computer business, but as the success of the company grew, so did the amount of time Aiden spent on working, barely having enough time to spend with claire. He often came home late... And so did she... 

But that's not all...

"Hey Claire,  what are you looking at?" He asked her after one of his countless late returns, when noticing her giving her phone screen multiple rapid taps. 

"Urrr... It's nothing!" She stammered, keeping the screen protectively from his gaze. 

She would often claim to go out with her friends, and... 

Sniff. Sniff. 

"What is that smell?" Aiden asked , plugging his nose, when she returned home in a dark black dress above her knees one night. "Is that cologne?"

"Urm... Yeah! I just went shopping with my friends at the mall and we visited a perfume store!" She stammered. 

One evening... 

I should take some time off to spend with claire... Aiden thought, holding a bouquet of lilies, Claire's favourite flowers as he approached their house. 

"Hey, did you see the guy Claire was with yesterday?" 

Aiden turned to see Missy , Mackenzie, and Doris, whom he nicknamed the 'gossip women' of their neighbourhood, huddled together, their eyes glued to Mackenzie's phone screen. 

What guy? We haven't been spending time together for months! And she doesn't mix with other guys than me! Aiden thought, scratching his head. 

"He's pretty cute! Look at those abs!" Missy commented while staring at the screen.

Abs? But I don't even have abs! He thought. 

"Aww... They look so sweet when their holding hands together!" Doris exclaimed. 

Holding hands?! That's just even better! Something's not right... 

One night, as Aiden opened the house door after work... 

"... Look, I really want to break up, I don't want to continue this anymore. " Claire's voice echoed to the entrance. 

"Seriously? You're going to ditch me for a guy whose not even half as good looking as me? He doesn't even have abs like I do!" A man's voice replied. 

"He may not have abs, but at least he's hard working, while you're still using your rich dad's credit card! Besides, he's a good person , and I don't want to hurt him..." Claire replied. 

Aiden followed the conversation... To the living room. 

"Claire?! What are you doing?! And who is that?!" Aiden exclaimed, gesturing to the chiseled man with sun kissed skin and six pack abs besides her, a transparent wine glass half filled with red wine in his muscular hand, Claire holding another. 

"He's  just a friend!" Claire claimed. 

"I thought you said you introduced me to all of your friends! " 

"I- I just met him!" Claire stuttered. 

"Oh please! Can you stop lying?!" Aiden snapped, his voice dripping with invisible black venom. 

"I've heard rumours all around the neighborhood about you being with a muscular guy holding hands, seen at romantic areas, and Doris posted a photo of both of you sharing a banana split and giving that look on our neighborhood's platform!" 

"Look Aiden-" Claire started. 

"I don't want to hear it!" He interrupted, "ever since I met you, I vowed to change my wicked ways, just for you to have the friend you deserve and I worked day and night just so I could give you a good life, and this is how you repay me?!" 

"No, I -" 

"You know what, save it!" He hissed. "And we won't just be breaking up, but..." His hand held a shiny, polished silver kitchen knife. 

_________________________________

"Today's news: a woman named Claire Rossum and her lover, Harry cyan, have been found dead in their living room... Appeared to be stabbed brutally all over their bodies multiple times. And according to the authorities, the murderer is unknown, as they are unable to find proof of the culprit.. " 

Aiden rested on the luxurious red chaise lounge, calmly sipping his coffee, a condescending 'u' shape formed on his lips as he grabbed the remote and turned the huge TV off, the huge rectangular screen going black. grabbing a red notebook, he flipped to a page with the words in red, 'revenge list', "two down..." He muttered to himself... Crossing Claire and Harry's names with a red fountain pen, before it went to the name under Claire's, 'mr green',  writing the words on its left: 'die a slow and painful death by drowning...'

Time for a family reunion...