When the police took Russell home he could barely feel anything.
He still felt trapped in that warehouse being tortured.
The next few weeks were tough.
It took Russell a week just get out from his room and another two weeks to go out in public.But he still suffered from panic attacks.
After the loss of his wife and daughter Russell's father started devoting himself to work and rarely came home.
His elder brother Arian was the one to take care of him.
Time passed, Russell slowly but surely started to heal, though he no longer was the cheerful bright eyed child anymore.He rarely showed his emotions and his smiles started to become more fake.
As if he was smiling for the sake of smiling.
He also started to take martial arts lesson.
When he turned 16 Russell asked his father if he could get an apartment and move out.
His elder brother was in college.And his father still rarely came home because the business was thriving and they had eventually reached the title of one of the ten most influential and powerful families in the world.
So, using that as an excuse Russel was able to convince his father to let him move out and live on his own.
A year had passed since then.
Then suddenly in his head he heard a voice.
"You shall be a perfect vessel for him."
And with that life of the original Russel had ended.
And the "Russel" from now had woken up.
'Fascinating wasn't it "Russel"?
But it's not quite over just yet.'
Azrael said to "Russel".
'After all a soul merge is done with two souls.
Now that your turn has ended it's his turn now.
So, sit back and relax "Russel"-
Sorry, Rhys."
****
When Russel woke up again he was a kid again.The last thing he remembered was a voice in his saying he was the perfect vessel for someone, after that something called a soul merge had begun.
Suddenly memories came rushing.Memories of when someone was controlling his body.
Anyway, he focused on the current situation.
He was in a body that was not his. It wasn't even a mature body, It was a child's body.
He tried to move his body but couldn't.
'No, I can't control this body it's moving on its own.'
Russel realized quickly that he was just a spectator who was watching the life of a boy from his perspective.
'It's like watching a movie' Russel thought.Just that you were watching from 1st Person.
As Russel continued to watch the boy,whose name was Rhys Greenburg,from his birth to his 8th Birthday.
A lot of things had happened in these 8 years.His mother and father had started having problems from when he was 5 and ended up divorcing when he was 6.
Rhys ended up with his mother due to her higher salary and stable income.
But the only predictable thing about Life was its unpredictability.
His mother got fired from her job and the next thing he knew she was waitressing in tiny diner close to their home with a severe drinking addiction.
They had to give up their home and move to a tiny apartment.And if that was all then maybe Rhys wouldn't have had to live while counting the number of breaths he took or trying to minimise the sounds he made in front of his mother.
His mother started dating again.
No not dating what she was doing was closer to selling her body and decieving her boyfriends with an illusion of love.
Or in simpler terms Gold-Digging.
Due to this she was gone most of the time but the times she was home was hell for Rhys.
His mother started drinking and hitting him to relieve her frustrations.At first it was the occasional slap when she was drunk, which she apologised for.
Then it slowly got worse.
At first it was the apologies stopping.Then it was hitting him more.After that it was using a knife on him.Sometimes it was shallow sometimes it was deeper.
At the age of 7, Rhys knew how to use bandages almost proffesionaly.
His father knew.Of course he knew.He had come to visit occasionaly after his remarriage 1 year later from the divorce.He knew and he did nothing about it. He was guilty of course, which normal father wouldn't be?
He wanted to take custody of him, but that meant taking him home to his new family which was equivalent to taking the past into the present. His new wife knew of his past marriage, but she never knew how bad Rhys' mother had taken it, which in turn meant how bad Rhys had taken it.
While his father was guilty about what was happening, he was also happy with his current life.He and his new wife were in love and they had just found out she was expecting.So, yes Rhys' father sacrificed his child's wellbeing for his own happiness.
Russel whose childhood had been traumatic had never wanted to strangle two people this much in his life or after life,since he was already dead, until now.
One rare day, when his mother was sober and in a good mood, some idiot must have given her something expensive in the name of love probably, he asked her why she was torturing him.
Idiotic? Yes.Unnecessary? Also yes.But remember Rhys was still a 7 year old child.The next thing he knew his mother had slapped him so hard that his head started ringing from the inside.
His mother would have killed him on that day if his father had not chosen that specific day to visit.
His memories were a bit of blur after that slap.All he remembered was his mother strangling him to death, smiling and mumbling something.He didn't hear most of it.But thge one sentence he did stuck with him for life.
"You want to know why I hate you?I torture you? It's because I fucking love you Rhys.I loved you enough that I fought over your custody with that bastard of a man. Its because I love you that I decided not to chop you up and sell you to some fucked up business.Its because I love you that I didn't fucking throw you out of this house like the worthless garbage you are.Its because I love you that you're even alive, you ungrateful little brat."
She was full on laughing now.
"I love you Rhys thats why I hurt you."
It was where the misconception that stayed with Rhys for so long, even after his death, was born.
"Pain was just another form of love"