When I was younger, my mother would tell me, "Remember this time. Because when you're older you're going to regret it." She would tell me that all the time. That was one of the first things I ever remember about her.

So just as she said, I did. I remembered every single thing. Every minute detail, anything that happened, anything that was said, I remembered it.

I remembered my fourth birthday, where the church forced me to sit on a raised platform as people came to see me. They would come up, and wish me good health, but they would stare at me like an object. Never really as a person.

I remember when I was six and I had fallen and scraped my knee. I cried, but my mother just said, "Pick your chin up, stop crying. As a noble and as the chosen you must be strong and you must not cry." Just as I listened to her before, I listened to her again.

But what I remember the most is that one day. When the ground was covered in white, and then eventually red. I remembered how I was excited, since it rarely ever snowed, so I went out. We made a snowman, my mother and I did.

But then the snowman fell apart and the beautiful white, turned into a dark scarlet red. I watched as my snowman I was so proud of, turned red. And when I looked up, my mother came on top of me, falling. Grabbing my shoulders she told me, "You should never have been born."

And just as my mother said, I remembered. And I regretted it. I never forgot, I never stopped hurting. Eventually I was just numb.

Even after she had died, she made sure she still reminded me of how much she hated me. How much she wished that I had never happened. How I never should have been born.

A few months later..

When I was younger, my mother would tell me, "Remember this time. Because when you're older you're going to regret it."

I believed her. I listened to her. And I regretted. I would look back and my heart would go numb.

I can still remember the smell of burnt flesh. I can still feel the heaviness of the magic left in the air, the hand, clutching my shoulder. The breath on my face.

I stayed cold for years. It was just me. Me in my frozen castle. Me on my frozen pedestal.

But now, after them.. I feel warm.

I remember the snow on the terrace.

The red of his jacket.

But what I remember most are his words. "I want you to live too."

When I look back, I still remember.

But now, its not too bad.

Now I see, maybe it wasn't just me in her sights, maybe it was the rest of the world too. The cruel world that maybe should have been destroyed.

Now I am out of my frozen castle. Now I am off of my pedestal and out of my cage of ice.

Now I won't run away, now I refuse to run away.

But most importantly:

Now I am not alone. And now I am warm.

This was just an idea I thought of when I was trying to get to sleep. I almost had this as a general story, with no real specification on who is talking, but then I thought Zelos would fit this role. I think it turned out pretty well. Though I am typing this at one in the morning, so who knows?

Review! Thoughts and criticism would be awesome.