Chapter One: A New Beginning

  His body jerked awake as if pulled violently from the depths of a nightmare, his heart pounding, his breath shallow, and sweat coating his skin. He scrambles for his bearings, disoriented, with his eyes scanning the room. His headaches were as if he’d been running for miles, his chest tightening, panic rising.

  As he looks around in a daze, everything feels wrong. Something isn't right. A flash of vivid, terrifying images overwhelms him. Two hooded figures loom over his parents, who are chained to the cold stone walls. Their faces are twisted with mockery as they laugh cruelly, mocking the family's helplessness. The boy’s breath catches in his throat as he hears their voices, barely audible through the darkness.

  "We love you."

  The words hang in the air, chilling in their finality, just before the men deliver a swift kick, and his parents’ bodies go limp, their lives drained away. The scene pulses with dread, too surreal, too real. The boy reaches out for them, wanting to scream, but before the sound escapes, the vision flickers.

  His eyes snap open, and suddenly, the world is calm again. He’s in his room, safe, surrounded by the warmth of his family. He can hear his mother’s soft voice calling out to him, her arms holding him close. The memory of what he just saw lingers like a nightmare, but he can't make sense of it. The boy shakes his head, tears welling in his eyes, whispering, “It can’t be real”

  But the feeling stays with him, a shadow hovering over his heart, one he can't escape.

  Elvigen wakes up in his room, terrified. His mind is racing all over. He can't tell if it was a dream or reality. Even though it felt like a dream, was it truly? He can't even tell reality anymore. Was this all just another nightmare? He thought it was, but the fear was too real, too suffocating. Was the nightmare real? Or was this just the aftermath, the world trying to crush him with doubt?

  He scans the room, noticing that the light seems dim, which makes him think he's still in this cold shack of stones. But he doesn't know. He scans it one, two, three, four, five times, and after a while, he's sure it's his room. And it's the same place he grew up in and made lovely memories with his parents. But he thinks, “Is it my room? Am I awake?” Terrified at this point, all he can feel is fear and doubt.

  He's 100% sure, but yet there's still a doubt in the back of his mind. As he scans the room, he notices everything is where it is. His bed is against the corner of his room, the closet is opposite the bed, and the door is in the middle. As he tries to get up, he notices that he's clenching the bed, almost making it shake out of place. And he can even feel his palms hurting from gripping it too hard. As he leans over, he clenches it even harder, putting more pain on his body. A deep void filled him with a sense of worthlessness, stretched down endlessly. He can hear the mocking men's laughter in there. He tries to step out, but his body repels as he curls up into a ball, covering himself. The mocking laughter echoes in his mind, growing louder with every second.

  As he's about to cry, tears flooding his room, he hears the most beautiful thing he's heard in a while. His mother's sweet voice said, “Elvigen, I made breakfast, come down and get it while it's hot.” His mother's voice is calming, like rays of sun shining onto him, or the smell of a new flower. It's beautiful and comforting to Lelouch. He lets go of the bed a little bit, but he's still clenching it and shaking, just not as hard as before.

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  He hears his mother say, “Elvigen, breakfast is ready. Make sure to come down.” He could tell his mother was more concerned this time, yet he was still too shaken. He still can't get the courage to get out of bed. The fear has rooted him in place, too scared to see his mother after failing to save her. His body feels like it’s chained to the bed, as though the weight of his failure is too much to bear.

  As Elvigen sank deeper into his bed, he heard his mother call out again, her voice tinged with concern. “I hope Lelouch didn’t have a nightmare, but from how he’s acting, it looks like it.”

  His mother, worried, began heading up the stairs to check on him. Hearing her footsteps, Elvigen thought, I can’t let my mother see me like this. Fighting through the lingering effects of his nightmares and the trembling in his limbs, he forced himself to get up.

  Just as his mother’s hand reached the doorknob, Elvigen opened the door. His mother instinctively wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a warm hug and gently rubbing his head.

  She noticed his body trembling against hers, his hands shaking uncontrollably. She felt a tear roll down his cheek even after holding him for a moment. “I’ve never seen Elvigen in such a bad state,” she thought. “He must have had a terrible nightmare. I’ll give him space for now.”

  Realising his mother was hugging him, Elvigen hesitated before leaning into her embrace. The warmth made him feel safer, and for a brief moment, he thought he might cry. He could feel a tear escaping down his face. But then, a surge of self-consciousness overtook him.

  He quickly pushed his mother away. “I’m fine. I -I-I just woke up late,” he said, almost looking like he was going to cry, brushing past her as if nothing had happened. He starts heading to the stairs fast, almost running down, and then his mother thinks of just letting it go, but from the way he is acting, I may have to do something for now.

  She headed downstairs and brought breakfast from the kitchen to the table. When she finally sat at the table, something felt off like the air was heavier than usual. She glanced at Elvigen, trying to guess what was wrong. Usually, he'd be cheerful, rambling about his dreams those fun, hopeful stories she loved hearing. But now, he sat silently, poking at his food without eating, shaping the food into a monster.

  The mother glanced worriedly at her husband, then back at Elvigen, trying to decide what to do. She knew she needed to find out what was wrong, but before she could speak, Elvigen broke the silence. Elvigen broke the silence. He looked up, his voice unusually formal. 'Thank you, Mother, for breakfast. But I’m not hungry. I’ll eat it later.'

  Before she could say a word, Elvigen stood, pushed his chair in with quiet precision, and left the table. She froze, unsure of what to do, before turning to her husband with growing consent.

  As Elvigen walks outside, he closes the door gently, trying not to seem suspicious in front of his parents. As he stands in the front yard, he looks up at the sun, noticing the golden rays shining down everywhere. It's quiet, and peaceful, with clouds dancing around it. In the background, he can hear kids having fun in the water and on land, with their laughter and screaming being the centre of attention for noise.

  He can also hear people talking, and birds singing a lovely melody. But he can't focus. As he's stargazing, he notices a bunch of hills covering the horizon, and what looks like a castle, or maybe a town. He can't quite tell from where he is. And as he's looking at this peaceful land, he feels out of place, like a weed in a flower bed.

  He doesn't quite know what to think of it, and he can’t think straight, his mind is too focused on not alarming his parents. And just as Elvigen is overthinking it, he sees out of the corner of his eye a group of kids no bigger than nine walking over to him but he's too focused on stargazing.

  One kid noticed Lelouch and asked the group “Should we ask if Elvigen wanted to join”. The kid looked around and decided to invite him and one of the kids said “Hey Elvigen, do you want to hang out?” He thinks about it and spends a minute or two pondering on it and he thinks “I want to be alone, but from how happy they look and the fact they have fun I should try joining them. I can always leave if it gets boring”.

  They look at him and notice his body is still the same as when they asked him, but just as the kids think he doesn't want to hang out and decide to walk away. Elvigen says “Hey guys, yeah I'll hang out with you for today.” So Elvigen ran over to the group and he noticed everyone was giggling and laughing. Before one kid says he'd lose. “What took you so long, were you stunned by my beauty?” The kid who had just teased Elvigen was named Freya. She had blonde hair and was slightly taller than the rest of the group. With a big smack on her face. another kid claps back at Freya. “You have a face that only a mother could love.” Said John While running forward. Again Freya says “you're build dragon egg” John stop for a second and then say “Oh yeah” *in an annoyed voice* “At last I'm not as tall as the clouds” As Elvigen is walking with the group, he's glad that they don't treat him like an outsider. Then Elvigen said “Hey I know you guys are flirting but where are we going to go”. Both John and Freya “Oh real funny” with nig smile on then face then Elvigen fell to the ground laughing until he couldn't breathe . And then the rest of the group followed.