Chapter 217: The past (e)

While standing behind the clueless Vincent and looking at him with nefarious intent, the crimson one smiled and thought up a plan to take over his body forever.

It was intelligent, and as it was a matter related to evilness, it didn't take long for it to come up with a way to snatch Vincent's boy.

It had come up with a mastermind, one that required pulling a lot of string, inviting unnatural disasters, and making civilians fall into chaos.

The young man failed to notice the hideous smile on his friend's face, and by the time he turned towards the crimson one, it was no longer smiling.

"Let's go." The young Vincent grabbed it by the arm and dragged it to his playroom.

Vincent, who was experiencing these memories of the past, was lost in a daze. He was sitting on the water surface with a frown expression on his face. Vincent wanted his younger self to open his eyes and see the truth, but not even a word left his mouth. Moreover, it was not like he could change anything, even by shouting his throat dry. After all, everything he was experiencing was something that had happened in the past.

The next piece of memory played in his mind.

The young Vincent was lying on the bed, a very big one. A crimson figure was standing next to him.

"My firth birthday is coming, did you prepare a present for me?"

After letting the crimson one take over his body, the young Vincent loses consciousness and doesn't remember what happened. The soul swap can last for at least five minutes and at lost two hours. In that time, whatever the crimson ones did, he wouldn't remember. Last day, it had taken over his body, and as his birthday was coming, the young Vincent wondered whether his friend had got a present for him or not.

"You said you loved sleeping, right?" Said the crimson figure as it sat beside him and caressed his face, causing him to feel ticklish.

The young Vincent laughed and escaped the crimson one's touch before saying, "Because it's peaceful and quiet, different than the buzzing sounding daily in and outside the place."

He was young but not deaf nor blind. Although his parents had tried to hide many things from him, he still noticed that others treated him differently. They alienated him, treating him like a fearful existence. He never understood why, as no one told him the truth. He was bitter but not too sad. He had many people by his side, from his parents and young friends to his angel, the crimson one.

"Guess what; I will let you sleep for a long, long time."

"Really?" He sat up excited and looked at the crimson one with round, innocent eyes. The young Vincent was surprised to hear that. He never managed to sleep more than two hours a day. It was an abnormality he was born with, and even the doctor said that there's no way to fix it. So he had always wanted to sleep like an average person and had even wished for it many times, and now hearing its words, Vincent believed his wish would finally come true.

"No more chatting." The light in his eyes was too much for even the evil crimson one. His innocence was blinding it, so it couldn't help but flick his forehead, and due to pain, he closed his eyes.

"Go to sleep."

Those words worked like a magic spell, and the young man fell asleep almost immediately.

The crimson one stared at Vincent's younger self for a couple of minutes in absolute silence. Then, its opened jaw salivated, and it muttered, "Only five more months left, heh. On your fifth birthday, I will give you the biggest present in the world. I will help free you from your greatest burden. Did you know? Ever since you were born, death had started chasing you, and later on, you also started walking towards it? But if you die, I will too. We don't want that. Anyway, it's all your fault, so you've to fix it. But you're too ignorant to do anything about it. And I don't want you to determine my life anymore. So I will help you out, put you in an eternal slumber. While you remain asleep, I will fight for a perfect life."

By the time the crimson one finished saying his piece of mind, the candle lights in the surrounding had flickered. Shadows of the cabinet, drawers and all the other stuff in the room wriggled, expanded horizontally, sprouted vertically, and took the shape of several men.

The crimson one turned towards them, a look of expectations on his face.

"My lord, the preparations are complete." Said one of them while kneeling before the crimson one.

It handed a document to the crimson figure. It read the content and revealed a smile. Everything was in its place, and it just needed to give an order to begin its grand plan.

"Good. Go back and do not come looking for me ever again, less someone becomes suspicious."

The shadow race didn't have physical bodies and looked no different than blobs of shadow with two eyes and a mouth that they could create as they liked. They were the best race for gathering information, spying on others, and many paranoid beings also used them as the sole mean of long-distance communication. They could blend in with the shadows and make it impossible for others to detect them. Still, the ninth king wasn't someone to be messed with. If he became suspicious because of a slip-up, everything it had worked so hard for would go into the dustbin.

"Five months!"

Right at that very moment, everything turned blank. The nine seals finally responded and started to stop the inflow of memories, saving Vincent's brain from exploding because of an overload of information.

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Hi guys, this is currently the last chapter of Vincent's past. Of course, there are many others, but the rest of his past will be be revealed later, and then everything will make sense. For now, I hope you guys can indulge yourself in the mystery and have fun.