I turned around to see the hand that halted me.
The man was a police officer wearing a peaked cap and black vest with the word 'police' engraved on the upper left of his vest. He looked at me from the top to bottom, with his sharp eye gazing at me trying to scrutinize me. He asked "This is not a place for kids, go home."
I faced him and looked at him straight in the eyes and said "this is my home, my name is Justine Luxeffer and I live here."
He paused, his eye meeting my gaze as if contemplating if he should let me know of the events that transpired within my home, after a few seconds. He finally spoke the words "follow me." He gestured for me to follow him at the side of the road where many authorities were standing by, awaiting for further instructions.
"what happened to our house and where's my parents?" I inquired, a hint of irritation and panic present in my voice.
The cop looked at me and said "you'll find out soon enough kid, and I'm not good with these kind of shit, that's why I'm leading you to someone who can tell you." he spoke calmly like this was just an everyday occurrence for him.
As we continued to walk, I tried to keep my cool and think calmly of what could've transpired. What happened to our house? was my parents still inside of the house? are they safe? why did something like this even occur?
The police suddenly stopped walking, and I bumped into his back because I was too preoccupied with my thoughts. Right in front of him stood a towering man, at least two meters tall. He wore a red cape and a black medieval helmet, his body was covered with a metal suit, and engraved on his right chest was a symbol of a spiral with two swords piercing the spiral, making the symbol look like a cross within the spiral.
The authority saluted to the tall man and said "Sir! I believe this is the child of the perpetrators." he gestured to me and the man looked at me with interest, as if scrutinizing me and deciding what to do with me. He gestured for the police to leave while I stayed there waiting for him to speak and to tell me what happened.
Alas, breaking the awkward silence lingering around the two of us. The man finally spoke, his words heavy and indifferent towards me not caring of what I would feel and think.
"My name is Vital, a platoon captain of the Canadian armed forced and also a world ranker. I'm saying this to you even though I doubt that you'll understand my previous words, so let me be frank with you child."
He paused for a moment as if awaiting a dramatic effect.
"I killed your parents child."
The words he spoke was cruel, no consideration to me at all. Like flaunting and bragging in front of a nobody, believing himself to be the noble and righteous one while I am nothing but a piece of dirt in front of him. Before I spoke, he continued speaking not minding my slowly crumbling face turning into one of rage, the tears slowly making its way out of my eyes.
"Those lowly fools were a bunch of criminals, who stained themselves with blood willingly. They made deals with the villains which can be considered an illegal act that allows us to execute them personally without any prior notice to our superiors since there's no need for us to explain ourselves and because they associated themselves with a villain, they were automatically stripped of their human rights."
Every words that came out of his mouth were sharp, and the intent to make me understand the situation was present even if he was indifferent. He got straight to the point, not making any excuses and redirecting the topic to another.
It's cruel yes, but I understood why he did that and that was to forcefully make me understand of what happened at the time. I get why he did that, but deep in my mind still lingered the images of my parents enjoying dinner together as a family. Their smiles and sincerity, values, morality and integrity, everything they taught me, I don't believe they did what they were accused of doing and I refuse to believe it.
I looked at the world ranker named Vitol, anger present on my eyes and yelled "My father and mother aren't capable of doing that!"
"THEY ARE RIGHTEOUS! THEY BELIEVED IN THEIR OWN PRINCIPLES! WE! US! OUR FAMILY HAD PRINCIPLES!"
He stared at me, pity present on his gaze and countered me with the words he spoke.
"child, remember this." He looked at me straight in the eyes, his gaze stern and filled with certainty, then spoke "Having principles does not necessarily equate to being a good person. I personally know a few individuals who turned to the dark side even with their unbreakable conviction."
"that's all I will say to you, I have conveyed you with the necessary information of the current events." He turned around and walked away, not bothering to look back at me anymore. He gestured to one of the authorities to take me away.
Everything was a blur, that was the time when my parents died and I was made to blindly believe that they really associated themselves and worked with the villains. I was foolish, I discarded my doubts and it led me astray, turning to the beliefs they taught me and the selfish wish I had to keep their memories alive by living my life abiding their teachings of righteousness.
Only to find out at the very end that they were innocent and simply framed for these crimes.