To His Hell and Back-Chapter 155: Incongruent Memories-I

"Hehe," Little Bella had laughed an adorable small chuckle. She didn’t answered the question or confirmed what her mother had done, instead choosing to laugh as if she knew that if she had confirmed how her mother had hit her the man before her would be enraged and walk to her house, knocking on the door to demand for answers.

The man seemed taken aback, "You were hit. Why are you laughing?"

"I wasn’t hit mister," answered little Bella. Her pronunciation was still a little off but it sounded adorable regardless.

The man muttered under his breath, "What kind of a mother would ever hit their own daughter." He then turned toward her, "If you have enough of your mother, I suggest that you leave her for good."

Little Bella’s smile seemed to have faltered a little as she shook her head in reply. For the little girl, her mother is her entire world, how could she ever leave her mother? Besides, her mother had always been weeping and she looked more tired than her, always so sad and in pain so little Bella never blamed her mother, instead she felt a guilty as her mother had said how giving birth to her and Ariel was the reason why she had shed tears ever day.

"You..." the man whispered upon seeing her refusal to leave her abusive mother. "You are dumb."

"Mister you say bad word. Not good, bad," Little Bella said, upset that she was called a dumb by the man when she always tries not to become one.

"Oh yeah?" The man sighed, leaning backward, "What kind of smart girl would stay when she is in hurt and pain?"

Little Bella began to pout. She can’t explain but the man in front of her wasn’t being fair to her and that was the only thing she could tell.

"I bring this, but now it’s mine!" Little Bella showed her hand that was holding more petals and seeing it, the man grinned.

"What? You wanted to give me that flower but now that you realized I’m mean you don’t want to give it to me- where did you get that flower?!" The man’s words changed upon seeing the blood red petals with black dots in its inner petal. He took the flowers from her hand which made little Bella to smile wide and as he was about to throw the flower petals, his eyes caught her smile and his fingers stopped itself from crumpling the petals into tinier pieces.

He pursed his lips. "It was a gift for me?"

"Yes! Flowers are pretty, old grandma says herbs."

"This isn’t herbs silly," he sighed as he sat back down, holding the petals and then stuffing it inside his pocket, "Never touch this flower with the black dots inside it. "Thankfully you have her blo-," a silence ensured while the current Bella caught his slip up very well unlike her younger self. But the man brushed it over, knowing that little Bella couldn’t understand his words well. "It’s poison."

Little Bella looked at the flower and giggled, "It’s flower, not poison."

"It’s a flower that can turn into poison. Don’t you know that it has the same name as you?" The man questioned as he pointed to one of the petals. "It’s called Arabella. When touched by fingers in the morning nothing would happen but at night it will cause your fingers to rot. Well you don’t know what rotting is, so just you know, touch this at night and big ouchie."

"I don’t like ouchie," little Bella said with a pout.

"Then don’t touch it."

"Not happy with gift?" Little Bella then asked him, subtly hiding her curious gaze. She looked as if she was going to wail if this second person she had shared her gift with would be mad or even throw away the gift but the current Bella saw how despite being shocked by the fact she was holding poison, he hadn’t threw it away, as if he was also afraid of making the young girl sad.

With that much information she could tell to some extent that the man in front of her wasn’t someone who would hurt her.

"Happy," the man answered and watched as she giggled. "Go play, I’ll watch you but go back when the sun is down." frёewebηovel.cѳm

"Hehe," little Bella then left his side for a few steps, playing with the flower and the butterflies in the place while he set his back to the tree bark, frowning as he pulled out his hand that had been crossed around his stomach. Only when he pulled away that Arabella noticed the wound that was still bleeding, being pressed by his arms that was filled with calloused and wounds.

Many questions popped into her head. Like why she didn’t remember about this man or why this memory had flood inside her head. She couldn’t understand who this man was either and why he had been nice to her younger self but seeing his bright green eyes, she could tell he wasn’t a normal human being.

He must be a sorcerer.

But why was he nice to her younger self? He looked more like a warrior and that was due to his metal plates around his shoulders and his thick arms and those old cuts that had turned into scars all over his hands. He also sounded brash with a voice that was too hoarse but looking at him who was watching little Bella, he seemed rather like a guard than someone dangerous.

When the night appeared, the man spoke to little Bella, ushering her to go home and though she was sad, little Bella slowly dragged her feet away from the forest, bidding him goodbye. Arabella watched how her little self dawdled, fearing to go home but from afar she saw Ariel, a little older than her with a wide smile of relief upon finding her. Then hand in hand they walked back home while the man from the forest had followed them until he had made sure they had entered the hut.

He then sighed and turned away and although Arabella could follow little Bella again, she felt she should follow the man and sure enough when he returned to the forest, someone had stood at the spot he had sat earlier.

It was a tall man with long silver hair and bright green eyes, alongside a woman with the blonde hair and the similar green eyes who had narrowed her gaze and looked at the hooded man with a frown of disgust.

Morpheus.

This was Morpheus.