District 42-Chapter 273: Hero part 1
As Ivar and Tein ran toward each other, the Aesir felt the feeling he was always desiring to have before. It was ecstatic and gave him a strength that he could never imagine that he had inside him.
The Aesir felt that, on that battle, exchanging blows with Tein, he could finally reach the level he always wanted to reach.
As he started to pierce and defend with the arrow on his hands, his moves became more and more automatic. That fight seemed to stay in the background as his memories were dominating him.
His vision was getting blurry, everything around was getting dyed in pure white. He felt like the lights of dozens of spotlights were pointing exactly at his eyes.
Ivar’s body never stopped fighting. The exchange was as fierce as ever. His energy wasn’t gone yet, his muscles and bones were functioning at max power. He could still feel the heat of the flames from far away, the impact of his blows, the reverberation of their clash... But any of these things affected him anymore.
He let himself be engulfed by that feeling, by that... peacefulness. He knew that he was probably hallucinating because of the lack of oxygen in the environment and the great effort he was putting into that fight.
His body was already used to it after so many battles he had. Keep fighting was something natural for him now, just as easy as breathing without thinking about it.
When the spotlights reached their peak and made Ivar lose all his senses for a fraction of a second, he completely disconnected from that world.
Ivar, then, woke up in the embrace of his mother. He didn’t know what was happening around, or why she was holding him as strong, but he felt comfortable there. His heart was soothed and his mind aloof. Everything he could think of was in how warm his mother’s hug was.
His body was shorter than it was some seconds ago, but just like in a nonsensical dream, he thought that it was just as natural as anything else. And not just his height, Ivar also didn’t bother to reason why his muscles were so weak again, why his bones felt like being made of glass, or why his mom was still alive.
Then, when his hearing came back after those wonderful seconds of pleasure and fondness, he could hear what was happening.
"I told you to shut up and just sit there quiet!"
"You asked for my services, you pig! You should at least pay me for this! It’s been several times you promise me money and make me go to bed with you, but in the end, you never pay as much as you said, or as fast as you assured me! That’s why I don’t want you here anymore, I have better clients!"
"Better clients? Than me? How many women like you are out there trying to do the most awful things for just some cents and I am still here going after you? If your son can have his milk and bread every day, it’s because of me!" The drunk man who was yelling those things was walking through the room, rounding the bed where Ivar and his mother were on top.
The man was rubbing his hair nonstop, the fury was stamped in his eyes. If not for the sad mask covering his face, Ivar was sure that he was grimacing like some sort of monster.
"You will sit there quietly and do what I ask for, and as for the payment, be patient. Now, take this brat out of here if you want him to not see anything he shouldn’t." He said gritting his teeth, as the last warning.
"No." She was resolute.
The man rushed towards her but found an obstacle going in front of him before he could.
Ivar had jumped out of the bed and was struggling to keep him distant from his mom by hanging on his neck and trying to take him down.
However, he had not the age nor the weight to do that. He was still very weak.
His mother watched in terror while the man got her son and just threw him on the ground. The sound of Ivar’s bones breaking seemed to echo in that place. A scream was midway on the boy’s throat, but it didn’t come out, such was the pain he felt.
Ivar’s mother put her hand between her dress and took out a knife.
"Get out of here."
"Hey, this brat did this to--" Before he could justify, the blade drew an arc towards him and cut him on the chest, making the man retrieve in fear.
"I said to you to get out! And if you ever come back, I will call the boss, he is already pissed off with the lack of your payments. He is needing to cover your debt with money from his own pocket. If he knows that you touched Ivar, he will kill you." The madness on her eyes showed that she was about to pierce his throat with the knife, and just didn’t do it for a greater sake.
She knew that, if she killed the man right there, it would cause a fuss between the drug dealers.
The man left that room without saying anything more and as quickly as possible.
Starting to cry, she ran towards Ivar and took him in her arms.
’He has some ribs cracked, maybe. His shoulder got dislocated and he also broke some bones of the legs. His muscles tore because of the last effort...’ This kind of injury happened so often with his son, that she was already used to diagnose him alone.
"Ivar..." Her voice was choked, she needed to cover her mouth while tears flowed out of her eyes. "Why did you do that, my little boy? I can take care of myself, you know? I was in control of the situation. So why?"
The boy had his eyes half-opened. The pain was making him want to sleep. He was suffering too much.
"Because, when he started to run, you seemed to be scared." His weak voice was still audible by his attentive mother.
She was feeling dejected. She couldn’t keep composed at all, it was a scary situation indeed.
"The pain will lessen in a bit, ok? My little glass warrior." She murmured in an affable tone.
Ivar passed out.
...
A youth was walking through the dark streets of a certain region of District 42.
Drug dealers could be seen everywhere you passed, or people using drugs in the corners and alleys. No one with good intentions was crossing those streets at that hour, except him.
His heart was beating at a high pace, which made it difficult to maintain himself composed and show confidence. The more confidence you showed, the less your chances of getting approached by those people would be.
Ivar, now older than before, was walking in long strides and doing his usual way back home.
He was feeling tired, his mind was somewhat dizzy. He wanted to lay on a mattress as fast as possible and just wait for the other day when he would need to cross District 42 to get into the Castle and work for another entire day for some bucks per hour.
His body, however, used to the danger that those streets could offer, was alarmed. Every single noise he heard or figure that appeared on his side would be analyzed carefully until they seemed to not represent a threat. He needed to do it every day in order to not bump into the wrong person.
"Hey, brat." Someone suddenly jumped out of an alley. Ivar immediately understood that he had a knife in his left hand. His glazed eyes could be seen in the poorly illuminated zone he was, which clearly showed that he was altered.
’Is he hallucinating? Or just too much energetic?’ He was fearing that it may be the first option. If it was, he would have had definitely bumped into the wrong person.
Nonetheless, the next statement of that man made his heart soothe.
"Gimme anything you have of some value with you." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
Ivar smiled in relief, then took out his backpack, his wallet, and his shoes, giving them to the man. He was not willing to give his life because of those things. Also, none of them had a great value. The money that Ivar had, he carried inside his underwear.
The man left without saying anything more. The other shadows that were lurking around began to disappear once they saw that Ivar had nothing more to offer.
Although he was just robbed, the youth was in a good mood because the rest of his trip would be smoother, and also he had decided right on that day to use his worst shoes and don’t carry too much on his backpack.
Soon, he was in front of his home and opened the door.
There, he faced right off the bat a big bed. Laying on this bed was the pale and slender figure of his mother.
