1 Chase

"Its's cold. Am I dead? I taught it was supposed to be hot in the after life." Chase opened his eyes with much difficult to observe his surroundings. "Damn. All I'm seeing is blackness. I guess I'm dead after all" said Chase as he strained his eye to survey his environment.

"Brat, you're not dead yet. Well...you will be if you do not get up from the cold floor though" said a crooked voice that sounded like it came from an old man that was already a foot and a half in the grave. Chase was shocked by the sudden crooked voice. Only then did he realize that he was laying chest down on a hard cool surface which should be the floor the crooked voice was talking about.

Chase summoned all his strength to stand up from the floor and tried to survey his surroundings again. He still saw nothing but pitch blackness, but he could hear the faint sound of someone chewing something which he guessed should be from the owner of the crooked voice. He anxiously asked, "Elder, could you please turn on the lights? and where am I?"

Few meters away from Chase was a man who looked to be in his mid 30s sitting on a wooden chair with a stick in his mouth. The man looked incredibly handsome and he was dressed in a white gown that had no stain on it. There was only this man and chase inside the 20meters square room. The wall the ceiling and the floor of the room was made of hard wood. It had a door and a small window which gave the moon's light a perfect entrance into the room. The room did not have any furniture apart from the chair the man sat on and the stool he placed his legs on. The man was sitting at a corner in the room as he studied Chase who was struggling to stand in the middle of the room. Chase was a 12 years old kid and he had black hair that reached half of his back and his face could be considered the most handsome if selected among 1000 competitors. The downside was that he looked dirty with mud and dried leaves stuck on his little skinny body. It was obvious that he had not eaten for several days. His pupils were the only things that looked weird on his body. They were light grey and seemed almost transparent with clotted blood around his eyes area.

The man finally answered still with the crooked voice after observing Chase for few seconds, "Why is it so surprising to you that you see only darkness? don't you know that you're fucking blind?... And you're deep inside the forest in my house." The man sounded as if he did not care that his words might hurt the little kid in front of him.

Chase felt as if he just got shocked by an electric pole. He whispered, "no... that can't be... I..I ... I'm a genius... I..I..c...can't be blind... haha..haha..." He talked to him self and suddenly started laughing like a crazy kid. He ran towards the direction that the crooked voice came from and hit his foot on the stool that the man's legs were on and fell down in the process. Still, he ignored the pain and crawled on the floor towards the man till he felt the man's legs. He held on to it and began shouting at the man, "hey!... you're joking old man right?.. I...I can't be b..blind!!... please tell me that you're just joking old man!!...sob..sob..." He soon began crying after his crazy laugher. His tears mixed with the mucus running out from his nose making him look more disgusting than pitiful, at least in the eyes of the man.

The man could not stand the sight of Chase who looked like a monkey from the slumps dirty his flawless legs and white gown with his mucus and mud. The man quickly tried to push Chase away without much force and shouted, "Hey brat!... what the fuck!... why are you sounding like you got blind just recently, from the look of your eyes, I can see that you've been blind for at least 2months, so you should have been able to accept the reality by now so s...Hey! let go of me already!!..."

...

After 30minutes of crying on the man's leg, Chase finally calmed down and slept off. The man carefully picked chase up from the floor and placed him on the chair. He then went outside the room and later came back in with a blue cloth and a thick blanket for sleeping. He then placed the cloth on the floor and placed the sleeping chase on it. Then he used the blanket to cover the kid. The man couldn't help but admire Chase's cute face. " Hmm... brat you're quite good looking. But I was more handsome when I was your age..hehe". He then worked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

As the man closed the door, he worked out and sat on an inclined chair that faced towards the moon. The man looked at the moon for a little while and closed his eyes lost in thought as the cool breeze of the night assorted his face and his black hair responded to the wind's assort by dancing to the rhythm. It was a calm night in the forest and one could occasionally hear the sound of animals running or making little noises and the the sound of the surrounding trees swerving towards the wind's direction. The little house behind the man looked small and lonely as it was surrounded by the dense trees in the forest. Apart from the room that Chase was in, there was another room at the left of it and a shade at the right with a fence around it which served as the kitchen.

After few hours, the man whose eyes were closed suddenly opened them and his face was greeted by the morning rising sun. He smirked, " This brat sure sleeps a lot". At the same time Chase came rolling out of the room and landed with his butt on the neatly trimmed grass that surrounded the house forming a contrast with the dense forest that surrounded it. Chase forced himself up with his two arms hanging horizontally in front of him as he tried to find his directions.

The man who was staring at the sun without any signs of discomfort suddenly said, " Follow my voice and come towards me." Chase heard the now familiar crooked voice and staggered towards the direction the voice came from. The man tilted his head a little as he watched Chase stagger towards him. The man couldn't help but ask Chase, "Brat when last did you have a bath?" Chase who was still staggering towards the man replied, "I was dumped in this forest a week ago. So I guess the last time I had my bath was..a week ago?"

The man who was literally a cleanliness freak suddenly stood up and grabbed Chase by the collar and immediately disappeared from his previous position together with the still perplexed Chase. The man arrived beside a small lake with Chase still within his grabs few seconds later and directly threw the poor kid into the lake. Chase who was still unaware of his change in environment was shocked when he felt that he was in the air and soon after, "Splash!...." He directly landed into the lake. He hurriedly settled down and began to float. The man's voice came from the shore, " Hurry and wash up. You don't expect me to bath you because you're blind right?"

Chase could still do things as simple as pouring water on his body even though he was blind. So he proceeded to wash his body. The man sat on a rock beside the lake and watched the little Chase as he took of his clothes and poured the water on his body getting rid of all the dirt. Chase who was immersed in the cool and refreshing river soon began splashing the water around, after all he is 12. The man suddenly smiled as he watched Chase who forgot about his blindness and concentrated on having fun. "Maybe I can teach him a thing or two and if he satisfies me, I will let him inherit your martial arts." There was a sudden overlap of another figure with Chase's figure in the eyes of the man.

Chase who was playing finally got tired and shouted to the man that was by the shore that he was done. The man simply said with the same crooked voice, "come towards the voice." Chase obeyed the man and swam towards the man's direction. When he got out, he was naked but he was not bothered by it. "His mind is a little too pure" thought the man. Chase suddenly asked the man, "What's your name Uncle?"

The man stayed silent for 10seconds and finally answered with a smile. "It's Mason Lu. You can call me Master Lu." The man looked at Chase and asked, "What's yours kid?"

....

"It's Chase Cloud.....I was abandoned so I guess it's just..........Chase."