Crimson Tears
(part thirteen)
"I hate my eye color!" Kaleb cried, kicking the wall and folding his arms across his chest. "And my hair color!"
Tears were streaming down his cheeks. He sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve.
It had all become so routine. Nearly everyday Kaleb came home crying. They had been on the remote terra for months and the boy still hadn't made any friends, at least none that he'd been able to keep.
Eva stared out of the kitchen window, tears trickling down her cheeks. She didn't know what to say to her son. What could she say? They would just be empty words. She prayed every night that things would change.
But they never did.
She often wondered if they were ever even heard.
Kaleb sat on the floor, sobbing. His little brother, Jason, toddled over to him and laid his head on Kaleb's shoulder. Kaleb sniffled again and pulled the fourteen month old into his lap. Jason laid his head on his big brother's chest.
The toddler shared his brother and father's red hair but his little eyes sparkled a dark amber. (Their mother had bright-gold eyes and violet hair.)
The nine year-old's sobs began to subside as his father walked in. He hated crying in front of his father; he wanted to be strong for him, but….
Zacchaeus looked down at his son. Tears were still trickling down his cheeks.
"What happened this time?" he asked softly.
"Gavin's mom won't let him play with me anymore." This was nothing new. "She called me a demon-child."
It was becoming more and more difficult to hold his anger back. He wanted to beat the crap out of everyone that treated his son so horribly. But it didn't stop with Kaleb. Eva wasn't faring much better.
She was the first to hear Kaleb be referred to as a demon-child. And to hear him referred to as a demon.
Why was this happening?
"Kaleb?"
"Yes, Dad?" the boy said, looking up.
"Put Jason in his playpen and go give Spirit his sugar cubes," he replied softly.
"Yes, Dad."
Zacchaeus walked over to Eva and put his arms around her. She laid her head on his chest and began to sob.
xXx
I could've done Dark Ace's early life a number of ways. Like having his parents die when he was a baby, being abandoned by them, being abused or having him have a sheltered life. But all of those seemed a little too cliche for me. So I gave him parents who loved him with all there heart and soul that ried to give him as normal a life as possible. Which, obviously, has been rather difficult.