It's so good to see you again! =D [Rene]

What a productive couple of days it had been, Harmond thought as he walked home through the cemetery. There was no particular reason he was going home this way; he just enjoyed the cemetery. Not that there was anyone buried there that he cared about enough to visit.

He strolled through. He was in a pretty good mood. But he needed to hurry home to make sure his wife was handling the Cuir kids properly. And by 'handling' I mean 'being inhumanly cruel to.'

Rene had no real reason to be in the cemetery. He just felt like being there. His thoughts and memories were starting to get a little less crazy, and he noticed, if he even could notice, that he was less twitchy. He cracked his neck anyway, until he noticed another clio in the distance.

Will I be having some fun tonight?

(Nope! ^_^)

He drew nearer to the clio until they were both close enough to see each other. The other clio looked slightly familar. Where did Rene see him before?

Harmond looked at the only other clio in the cemetery. He almost thought he was mistaken, at first, but when he looked at the young man more closely he was sure of it...It was none other than little Rene, his former ward. This was going to be interesting, now, wasn't it.

His eyes narrowed and his mouth twisted up into a cruel smile. "Well, well," he said coldly. "If it isn't my little Rene. I never thought I'd ever see you alive again."

So he did know this man. Rene titled his head to the side and studied the clio standing before him. He leaned forward, his eyes squinty. It looked like Rene wasn't wearing his glasses and couldn't see.

"Rene doesn't remember you," he finally said to the clio.

Harmond's cold smile disappeared and was replaced by an angry scowl. "Why are you talking like that, you stupid child?" he hissed. And the disgusting thing didn't even remember him. Harmond had raised him when he could have left him to die, and the ungrateful brat didn't even recognize him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Rene flinched and fixed his posture. Who was this man? And why was he talking to Rene like that?

"It's very rude to talk to clio like that," Rene said, in a creepy, sort of weird polite way.

Harmond lashed out and in one swift moment had his fingers around Rene's neck. "What did you just say to me, boy?" he said softly, but evilly. If Rene had forgotten his place then it was Harmond's job to put him back in it.

Rene glared at the man for a moment. If he was capable of normal thought, he'd be thinking, "W.T.F?" but he wasn't. Instead he was thinking, I'ma kill this bitch in a less ganstery way. Snarling, Rene grabbed the arm that was holding his neck and dug his fingers into its flesh. A large chunk of snow lifted from the ground, morphed into a spear like shape, and turned to ice. It floated up until the point was inches from HAMBOM's face.

Harnessing the power of the sun (Aites have the lame same power as Sunny D), Harmond grabbed the icicle with his free and and crushed it. His other hand tightened around Rene's neck. He hurled Rene to the ground and stepped on his head, shoving his face into the dirt.

"You might want to remember me very fast, you pathetic little nothing," he snarled angrily.

Pathetic little nothing. Pathetic little nothing.

Those words repeated inside Rene's head over and over again. He was once insulted, beaten, and tortured when he was younger. But those memories still ceased to exsist inside of Rene's brain. Even though his face was in the dirt, he was able to form many sharp icicles, and he aimed them all for Harmond.

Harmond.

If Rene could have opened his eyes up wide, he would have. This man, this cruel man, was the man who raised Rene when he was younger. The man who beat, tortured, raped, and insulted Rene. Rene feared this man, a lot.

(Not for long!)

The icicles dropped and so did the rest of Rene's body. He was defeated.

Harmond's sadistic smile returned when the icicles dropped to the ground. Now he remembered. But...he wasn't going to forgive Rene for forgetting him that easily.

He reached down and grabbed Rene by the hair and pulled him to his feet forcefully (SOUND FAMILIAR??). "So now you're going to give up? You always were a such weak little coward." He laughed cruelly. "But you were putting up a bit of a fight earlier! Do you want to fight me, Rene?"

He quenched clenched his fist.

Rene squeezed his eyes shut and gasped through gritted teeth as Harmon lifted him from the ground by his hair. Rene stumbled backward, just a little, he was obedient to Harmond now. Just like he always was when he was younger.

Harmond wrote:"Do you want to fight me, Rene?

Rene shook his head "no" slowly, frowning. He remembered everything now. He remembered Aska, Harmond, the torture, the abuse. His posture was straight now, no more twitching, no more cracking, and Lilybell was still for the first time in years.

"Good," Harmond said firmly, satisfied with Rene's submission. "Because you know you wouldn't win. You know I would crush you. It'd be just like the good old days, wouldn't it, son?"

He laughed in a soft, cold voice. Oh how he had missed this. Well, he'd have plenty of time to relive the old days with the new kids. But still, he was feeling a tad nostalgic, and decided to spend some more time catching up with Rene.

Rene flinched again. He didn't want it to be like the good old days. He wanted Harmond to be gone. He wanted him to leave him alone. Rene's heart started to pound faster. What if he wanted to take Rene back home? He didn't want that to happen. How did he even escape the first time? Even though Rene was quite capable of fighting back, his memories from the past prevented him, and Harmond made him revert back to the scared little child he once was.

"Please," he whimpered. "Please, just leave me alone." He knew his plea's wouldn't work. He had tried them so many times before, and they never worked. Usually, they just made things worse.

Harmond laughed. Leave him alone? Hah.

"So I see you settled as Ughdarras," he commented. The fact that Rene was now a different Eilemaiden made Harmond hate him even more. "After I took you in, fed you, clothed you, gave you a roof over your head when not even your own parents wanted you. You just abandoned me. How is that supposed to make me feel, Rene?"

He took a step forward, an evil glint in his eye. Sometimes these little mind games could be even more fun than physical torture.

"I wanted to get away from you," Rene mumbled under his breath. Rene stood there, staring at the ground. Harmond barely fed Rene. There would even be periods where he'd lock Rene up in a room and not feed him for days. And clothing, Rene was either naked half the time, or wearing clothes two sizes too small. Rene blinked back tears. Remembering the past weakened him.

"Well that's too bad, because if I have my way we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other from now on," Harmond said in a sneering voice. He stroked Rene's face with his hand, then without warning he reared back and punched him as hard as he could (which was DAMN hard,) knocking him onto the ground.

"Oh, it's getting late," Harmond noted, as if he hadn't just punched Rene's face in. The sun was going to set soon. "I'm afraid I should be going now. It was great catching up with you, son."

He walked off, careful to step on Rene, and whistled a cheerful tune.

Rene let out a yelp of pain, as he fell to the ground. Will the abuse never end? He spit out what looked like one of his molars and blood. He yelped again when Harmond stepped on him. Watching him leave, through his anger, fear, and despair, Rene noticed that his blood was floating. Was he doing that? Was he maniptulating the water in his blood? You bet he was.

[END.]