Assassin of Smiles: Chapter 4
"Is there life before death?" - Graffito
Disclaimer: I do not own the Ace Attorney characters appearing in this story. The story itself is completely mine. Any connections to real life are purely accidently.
"Mother? What happened?" Kristoph said from his place at the dinner table. His mother was still standing at the same spot as a few minutes ago, when she had picked up the phone.
The phone itself was now lying on the floor, broken because of the impact with the ground when it fell. From when it fell from the hands of a woman.
Ilse her eyes were dilated in shock, her breath stuck in her throat. Every breath she took felt like a stab of a knife.
"Mother?"
"Shut up, child!" she shouted. Her angry voice echoed through the room. "Be silent! Go to your room!"
Kristoph looked at her, silenced by shock and surprise. This couldn't be the woman that had brought life to him. This couldn't be the woman that had tought him those things about respect for others that he knew. This couldn't be his mother.
No, this was a demon.
She wouldn't have shouted at him while he only asked something. She would have answered his questions patiently.
But all this demon did was shout at him, she shouted and shrieked about things he did not understand.
He wanted to get away from her, he wanted silence. A place where nothing could bother him, a safe haven to where the voice of this demon didn't reach.
All that he had was the safety of his room, though. The silencing thickness of the walls and the protection of his locked door. The silencing darkness that would close on into him. The darkness that would embrace him and take away all his worries.
That why he ran. Out of the room where the shouting continued, through the hallway and up the stairs. Slowly the voice became harder to hear, silenced by the comforting distance. When he finally reached his room he locked it, then he took cover underneath the sheets of his bed.
It seemed far too big now, that bed. It no longer felt safe, it seemed to threaten him. As if it would take away the safety of his room, the comforting of the familiar surroundings.
Kristoph softly started to cry. He felt confused and afraid, while the sounds of breaking glass and furniture reached his ears from downstairs.
They didn't stop, those sounds. Not until his eyes slowly closed and his body relaxed. He was taken to the world of dreams. Dreams that would bring him comfort while his body tried to recover from the shredding of tears all night.
He didn't notice the bell that rang during the night not did he notice that the voice of his mother slowly died down into soft crying. The lights and the siren of an ambulance didn't manage to interrupt the dreams of the little boy.
Kristoph also didn't notice the loud knocks on his door or the unfamiliar voice that shouted his name.
No, he only woke up when the early light of the sunrise hit his eyes. It brought him some kind of comforting warmth that slowly spread across his whole body. He had even forgotten what had occurred the night before.
He yawned and sat up straight in his bed, wondering why he hadn't closed the curtains the day before. Then he got out of his bed, though that yet again left him to wonder about something. Why hadn't he changed into his pajamas?
He didn't feel like bothering about it, though, so without complains he walked out of the room and down the stairs.
Once he got there… It was a lot easier to remember what had happened the night before. The hall was a mess, a complete and utter mess. There were hardly any pieces of furniture left untouched by the anger of his mother, that demon.
Most of them were either broken, ragged or just totally destroyed.
This wasn't what bothered Kristoph the most, though… Since the thing that bothered him was why. Why had she suddenly broken down and had become an angry, unreasonable piece of shit?
He didn't know, and this was because she never told him. She would never tell him. He would be left alone in the darkness of unknowingness.
Or at least… That's what he thought. And it might have been better if those thought had become reality. Maybe then it wouldn't have all become a mess, like it was now. Then he would have been bothered about not knowing, while now.. He was bothered because he knew. Angry because he was told that one thing that had crushed the woman he had seen as a symbol of peace.
But he was told.
Once he had calmed down from the shock of seeing the rampage in the hallway he had made his way through the debris of the hallway and into the living room. He had expected to see his mother there, maybe asleep or reading a book. But he had not expected to see what he did, the living room was crowded. He did see his mother, awake, but also men and women in different kind of uniforms -there were some nurses, some cops. There was even a lady in a black suit, a lawyer maybe?- who were talking to her and each other.
A man in his late twenties saw Kristoph standing in the doorpost and walked to him. "Hello, little boy. You must be Kristoph." Without waiting for him to answer, the man just continued talking. "Would you mind coming with me for a little while? I've got a secret to share with you."
Kristoph just looked at him, most kids of his age would be glad to be told a secret nobody else had heard.. But he actually didn't care that much. He only nodded because it would be impolite to tell a stranger that he did not care about his secrets.
"Let's go, then." The man said. "Your room might be the best place to tell you."
Yet again, Kristoph nodded. He led the man to his room without as much as a word.
Once they were inside and had taken a seat on his bed, the man stayed silent.
They both were waiting for the other to say something.
After a minute or two the man sighed softly. "Kristoph.. Do you know what it means when people die?"
"But of course I do, sir. I'm not stupid, after all." Normally he would have been a bit annoyed because the man had the nerve to think he didn't know what such a simple thing as death meant. But something in what he said was bothering Kristoph.. Why would a complete stranger start about death?
"I think it's better to tell you directly, then. I won't bother about the details and facts, nor will I be gentle with you." Said the man. Kristoph nodded.
"Kristoph.. Your father died last night due to the surgery had was undergoing. We do not know how, or why, but it happened."
It took a long time for Kristoph to register the meaning of those words, but when he did.. His whole world came crushing down.
"..Liar." he whispered, his soft voice was a bit raspy. "He can't have died. He promised!"
Kristoph just didn't want to believe it. He couldn't. His father would never leave him alone, the surgery was without risk.. It couldn't be true. Impossible.
"He said that he would stay with me!" Kristoph was shouting now, though all the nameless stranger did was staying silent. Somehow that silent brought comfort, but with comfort came reasoning.. And with reasoning came the bitter truth he could not deny.
His father did die, he left him alone to grow up. His other son would grow up without knowing his father, his oldest with missing the man he could look up to.
Out of all the emotions he felt at that moment there were two that took the upper hand.
Sadness and betrayal.
He knew that this feeling of betrayal would fade because of the passing of time, but this sadness… That burning sadness…
It was nothing like anything he had ever felt before. It made the tears stream down his open eyes without a way to stop them, it made him look like the vulnerable 8-year old he was.
He was just sitting there, crying on his bed with the company of a stranger. Nothing could have prepared him for this news.
After a while the man stood up and lifted Kristoph up in his arms. The child didn't care anymore, he wrapped his arms around the neck of this stranger with no significance to him and cried even louder in his shoulder. That shoulder blocked out all the light coming from the window and left him to see nothing but darkness. He felt like it didn't matter if he saw the light or if he didn't, though. All he could see was darkness anyway.
What would become of his future if there was no longer a father in his life that would advise him in everything and would help making those difficult choices that would surely come?
He needed his father to walk into the room and tell him it was all just a joke. A horrible and cruel joke. His father would be the spark that would change the darkness he saw back into light.
"Papa.." he softly whispered. His voice was soft and muffled, barely hearable actually.
The man still didn't say anything, he just hold the little boy in his arms that started crying yet again. He knew how this boy must feel.. He had been there himself. What he held in his arms was merely yet another child who had lost his father, yet another person he had to tell horrible news and yet another crying kid on this damned earth.
He might have had sympathy for the kid, were it not that he had gotten used to it over the years. And he knew that it wouldn't stop with this child. It would happen over and over again, no matter what.
People died and that was it. He didn't care anymore and would be glad when his time finally came.
"It will be alright.." he finally said.
"You shouldn't lie." The boy suddenly said, his voice had a cold tone to it. "Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. And how I see it.. You are a fool."
The man blinked. Did that kid really just said that..? To him?
"W-what?" is what he said because of that. "You heard me. Now put me down." Kristoph said. That cold tone in his voice was still present.
The man slowly did as he was told and put the little kid back to him feet.
"Now leave."
Yet again he did as he was told. He was astonished… Not even once had someone reacted like this before. Maybe the boy needed time to get it all back together.
Though he somehow didn't believe that himself… The tone in which that boy had spoken to him had been too cold and too harsh to be caused by the death of a parent.
It might have been that faithful day that Kristoph Gavin's true colours had begun to show themselves.