Heading home as the sun slowly descends in the horizon, it is like walking on air. No more fear or worry, only peace and contentment. We arrived home around in this evening, nearly having spent the whole day in a family time in a quiet and empty park.
As the rest do their own thing, I reach toward to nearby telephone; prepared to call Chief Walker regarding the retirement of my job from the police department. Though, before I made it happen, Eve stopped me from doing so, “are you sure this is what you wanted?” The voice coming from my back was like a knife.
Not daring to turn, I spoke in firm conviction, “yes, I am. I’m tired of facing this darkness that always throws its shadow on our path. I believe it is time to let go of those dark memories that haunted my mind. I need to start afresh, leaving everything behind with everyone here.” I sighed in relief of letting the burden of holding it all within.
She sighed, understanding the pain of wanting to leave everything behind, “I see…if this is what you really want, then there is nothing else to be said. For whatever decision you create, we will always be by your side.”
With her final words, the sounds of her fading footsteps; the wind blows and the ambiance become dark like ink. My heart is now filled with excitement. A new chapter is beginning. A brand new life is waiting for me.
Dialing the numbers, I place the wired phone to my ear. With a single ring, a deep and tired voice answered. The first thing that came out of the man’s mouth is, “Hello?” Trying my best to control the breathing of my body, I say in a calm voice, “Chief Walker, this is Adam. Sorry for bothering you, but I have something important to say,” as much as possible, I try to keep my voice calm and cool.
After a pause, he responded with, “What? Are you still on duty or is this one of those stupid prank calls?” As the Chief of Police, he is known for his sarcasm and jokes.
Luckily for him, I am being serious.
“It’s not a prank call, and lastly; I am being serious,” I respond with urgency in tone and expression. As soon as he hears my response, he starts to get annoyed.
Not wasting another word, he mutters and sighs, “spit it out then, I don’t have a lot of time,” Walker sounded like a grumpy old man. Perhaps it was the fact that he is in the middle of solving some case. Whatever it is; I did not expect him to be this impatient.
Heaving a sigh once more, “I want to retire.” The statement resulted him to go into an awkward silence. He did not expect such a response from me, having caught off guard.
The awkward silence passed for a moment until he spoke again, “kid…you sure this is what you wanted? To leave the police department? Make no mistake, we won’t hold you back from leaving here. If anything, you are always welcome to return to work anytime you want…”
Sorry man, but I have already made my mine. I am leaving. I am retiring; and like I told myself, if anything, I am still willing to return to work whenever the time comes. That’s all. There is no point in lying anymore.
“Thanks Chief, I, uh, really mean it. But I still side with my choice, that this is where I should be. This is where my future lies. It would not be fair if it were anything less than this,” I tell him honestly.
Walker sighed once more, “well, okay kid. I understand. You have your reasons and so does this department. We will be losing a good detective but I guess that we can handle it somehow,” he says with a little smile on his face. After that, the line was silent for quite a while before he added: “If you change your mind about this—you are still always welcome to come back and join us.”
The call then got hanged up, leaving me to be alone with my thoughts.
“I need to get a glass of water,” I quietly told myself, getting up from my spot to go to the kitchen as I felt like needing a drink to settle my nerves.
As I reached the kitchen, the aroma of delicious food greeted my nose. A tray of steaming hot, garlic rice mixed with stir-fried vegetables, served with fish filet; the smell of it makes my mouth almost water. The rest of my companions were already dining on their plate at the table.
“Lad! Come seat with us, dinner has been served!” Clover, our member of the family, called out to me, waving his hand in my direction.Rolling my eyes with a smile on my face, “sure, whatever,” I answered with a tired and annoyed expression. As soon as I sat down on the chair, I started to dig in the food, taking great pleasure in the flavorful and savory dish.
While enjoying the taste of the delicious meal; everyone is normally having a good laugh with each other like they haven’t seen each other for a long time, making me feel an emotion that I lingered long in the past—happiness. Even though I knew that it was a good thing that they were laughing, creating a nice aura about them and a warm feeling emanating from the atmosphere.
It is wonderful to be able to hear their laughter, which is different from the usual snickers and chuckles of the people in the station; it is soothing and calming to the ears.
This made me stop whatever I am doing.
I always believed that this world is like the one in movies or television series, filled with endless possibilities; most of them being miserable. However, now that I imagine it, this is one of the rare times I have been in a pleasant environment like this.
The idea made me smile. My lips curled upward in a small grin. There was nothing better than this—laughing with people whom I care about. No one can ever tell if there is anything that will happen to us tomorrow, but the fact is that we have to live with that uncertainty.And because of that uncertainty, it made me ease all the worries and stress in the back of my head in how to deal with everything; knowing that there is nothing we can do except trying to enjoy what we have today and forget about the worry of what will come next. Forget about fear and doubt. Forget about the pain and anguish.
“Daddy! Mama told us that you are actually retiring from work. is that true?” Lilim asked, with a cheerful voice, making me raise my eyebrows in a bit of surprise.
Oh, wait. Eve must have presumably told them about it.
“How can we financially support ourselves, human?”
“Yeah, what the big lad had said, arty.”
Their questions made me sigh, not surprised at the fact that this is the first question that came to their minds, “one at a time, people. But to answer my daughter’s question, I am retiring but there is a plan to get an affordable income or better,” I explained to them.
Clover asked, “lad…” his eyes squinted in suspiciously at my plan, “if it revolves around using my gold, then my answer would be no,” he finished with a frown. Everyone appeared to be quiet; it was like they were listening to what he had to say. Clover continued to stare at me.
However, I laughed; making everyone stopped in their tracks and stared back at me as my sudden reaction. “A plan? I think Eve did not tell you about it. There are many choices in regarding to get good income for us to live comfortably, but I had another idea. Winning the lottery is possible…right Clover?”
My eyes directed at him, waiting for the reply of his response. When he shook his head and chuckled, it is like someone poured ice water all over him, “winning the lottery?! Lad, we should have done it long time ago when we first met! Of course, I can make it win for us!” He clapped his hands together with excitement.
Smirking, I continued, “faeries are capable of granting wishes. So if you may, could you grant yourself a wish to see the future of the winning numbers?” My tone of voice was casual; though, inside my heart was pounding in relief.
The midget gave thumps up, “I gotcha my boy, yer fears is gone now, it is like the devil is exorcised from your body and soul, eh?” he snickered, rubbing his hands together while grinning like a madman.
Thank fucking goodness that the leprechaun will save our financial problems. Having him with me instead of kicking his ass out of the house was a good thing to begin with.
Eve chimed in the conversation, “after we got the money, what do we need to do next?” Her face scrunched into an expression of confusion.
“We will move to a secluded home not far from this city, perhaps a cozy and built house?” I answered her question; the rest of the group nodded and agreed.That is all that needed to be said, but Lilim had other ideas, “we are going to have a new house?! That is so cool, daddy! What would it look like? Will there be a room for me to play and run around? Are there people for me to kill and devour? A kitchen for me to eat food from?” She began to babble about the details of the new house.
Ignoring the part of eating and killing people, Eve then reprimanded our child, “Lilim, let’s not bring about killing and eating innocent people in this, okay?”
Lilim pouted, crossing her arms in annoyance, “why not? It’s fun.”
Her words made Clover uncomfortable and raised a brow at the young girl’s answer; he was surprised at how a kid like her can say such disturbing things, “what are yer saying laddie? Ya can’t simply do those things,” he huffed out, frowning at the little girl.
She tilted her head in response, “why not? Lilith does it, so why can I not? There is nothing wrong with it. I am hungry and I love eating people!” Innocent as she was, Lilim still had a sadistic nature of wanting to eat people—it was not a surprise though since she was raised by horrible parents.
Hearing that name almost me fall into depression if it weren’t for the presence of them. Thankfully, I had the stomach to hold my inner trauma in check, “Lilim…you cannot simply kill and eat people. Just because she does it does not mean you should too,” I explained to the girl like a father should.
“Why not, daddy?” Lilim replied with a questioning tone; her eyes widened in impatience, “I have done this many times!” She retorted loudly.
Clover did not overlook, he was more disturbed at this fact, “wait, what the bloody hell? How many times? You are only ten and already capable of such evil acts?!” He turned his shock toward the child, unable to believe his ears.
For the others, they were all equally remained their posture and display. They didn’t know what to say or even think about this. However, I had to speak on behalf of the group; “listen, daughter?” My tender voice was enough to take the child’s attention.
“What, daddy?”
Closing my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, “please stop what you do, Lilim. This thought of seeing killing and devouring innocent people is ethically wrong. Look at me and see me—see how we can be more than the once we are. We can be like you and us as family, eating normal food and not resorting to these types of things.”
She pondered to herself and after a while of silence, she finally said, “okay, father. I’ll…try not to kill or devour people,” Lilim’s voice sounded distant and fragile; it almost broke me and Eve’s hearts to hear the sad tone of hers.
But what must be done is done. Teaching their children as the parent is job to make them grow up right and understand the importance of morals and ethics in becoming better people.
Although, I am not a perfect human being; I still think best for our daughter and being her father, I hope to make her a far better person than I am.
“Now that is out of the way,” changing the topic to the real purpose of this talk, “anymore questions?” I asked curiously.
