In the foggy mirror was a child no older than nine years old, with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. A face I saw every day and would continue to see for days to come. Not a man in his 20s, with dark hair and blue eyes, but a young child who had yet to see the horrors this world had to offer.
Exiting, I checked the window.
It was still dark.
This was my schedule, I started my day early with basic exercise. Surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as one might think, it was like playing on a new save file. I was even able to do handstands, although it was hard to maintain balance. But I hoped, I could continue doing them, even after I went through puberty.
I would exercise in the living room when Ambra was not home, which was this particular morning.
She hadn't come home yet, as spending my morning undisturbed was becoming rarer. But Axel, who would do chores immensely helped me make efficient use of my time.
I picked up the tablet, a gift from Brian when I turned four years old. This tablet was the only thing I owned.
***
The ringing of door bell broke my focus as I looked up, frowning. Axel opened the door. When I saw Brian step inside, I smilingly waved at him, only for my smile to fade as I noticed the person behind him.
Ambra entered, looking worst than I ever had seen her. Her eyes were red, dark circles that could pass for smudged mascara. A suspicious white powder covered her upper lips, while the strong smell of alcohol pervaded the house. She staggered, only held up with Brian's support as he passed her to Axel and asked it to take care of her.
I immediately got ready to leave, only for her to drunkenly speak.
"Where are you taking him? To an amusement park? Hic You never took me anywhere, when I asked. Hmph, you are just like other men, use woman like me and then throw us away like a used tissue. Hic"
Brian stood a bit straighter, eyes narrowing. Only then did he notice me and gave me a sad smile. He motioned me to come quietly.
"That twat will also grow up to be like you, Hic. Atleast you are teaching him to be worth a damn, might as well take that scourge from me. Useless, that kid."
Thud
She slammed her fist against the bed, "Hic. Haha, what will Mrron think when his kid turns out to be junkie like him as well, haha trash both of them, hic. All men are trash."
Cold anger rose within me.
But what could I do? Scream at her? Call people from child protection to give myself up for adoption?
Nothing, I could do nothing.
For now.
Only for something to enter my field of vision, a clenched fist.
Brian's expression had twisted, his calm demeanor was gone. He looked like he was about to kill someone. But just as he was about to shout. I grabbed his fist, drawing his attention and shook my head.
It was not worth it, atleast not now.
He reluctantly swallowed whatever he was going to say and slammed the door shut. I flinched unintentionally. We both got into elevator, my hand still grasping his fist.
"I am sorry kid, that you had to hear that. No mother should ever say such things," he said with a guilty expression.
"No, I am okay. If I become sad every time someone says mean shit to me, then I will never have the time to improve upon myself."
Brian nodded in agreement, as he patted my head, "Good mindset to have, but you are too young to cuss."
I gave a slight nod, as I got into the vehicle and we picked up kid Brian on the way.
"Um-m Sir, I have to go home by 12pm. If I don't the-then my mother would get suspicious. S-so if you could dr-drop me to the garden, I would be th-thankful," said kid Brian hesitantly.
"Okay kiddo. And when should I come to pick you back up in the afternoon?"
"I-I... sir you don't have to-"
I cut in, "Nonsense, you should come back with my uncle in the afternoon. If you don't, then you will fall behind in learning."
He immediately turned to me, shock coloring his face, "Wh-what are y-you talking about?"
"Don't you want to learn together?" I asked, turning to face him, "It would be better for us to learn together."
I continued, "And before you say no, at least try. Who knows? You might even like it."
'It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I am pretty sure Brian will be able to convince Antonio.'
"I-I can't, what if sir-Mr. Ant-Antonio says no?"
Brian interrupted, "Nah, kid. That's why I am here. I will convince him. And don't say no, you might not know but learning under someone is a rare opportunity. As long as you show promise and stay dedicated, you will succeed in life."
He continued, "And he has offered you food. So, he is already half convinced to take you in. Don't worry and don't waste this once in a lifetime opportunity."
"Not many people get one."
His words finally convinced the hesitant kid to accept the offer. He muttered a quiet thank you, as his eyes welled up with tears, which both I and Brian ignored.
We finally reached Antonio's workshop, as I prepared myself for his homework he given me of 'Why should I teach you?'.
A seeming simple question with multitude of answers. An answer which changes depending on who was asking who. And the only way to answer it correctly was to understand the person questioning.
'Why was he asking that? What has he seen in me?'
I felt the car going up the elevator, feeling childlike nervousness and excitement flowing through me. Exiting the car I politely greeted him, as kid Brian mimicked me.
His garage appeared just like yesterday, tools littered around. But his personal room looked a lot cleaner, as boxes were labelled and put in the corner of the room.
"Come on in kids! Did you guys have breakfast? I was working on a project and didn't have the time to eat, so don't feel ashamed. Oh and Brian—"
Both Brians turned towards Antonio, noticing this Brian Noose wrinkled his nose.
Antonio continued, "Oh come on, it was fun... at first... Okay! okay."
"I am sorry kid, I meant the old man, but you know what? I will just call him Noose and you Brian, so you don't get confused. Noose outside with me, you said we needed to talk."
After sometime they came back inside, as we started eating. I finished my smaller portion, and waited for others. Breathing in and out, waiting for him ask me questions about what I knew, or maybe he would start from the basics.
He hands me a USB drive, as I look up, confused.
"It contains basic knowledge for software and hardware, from definition to types of hardware used in all kind of technology. Once you finish that, tell me, okay?"
I puzzlingly looked at the USB drive, and nod confusingly, "yeah?"
"Great!" he immediately got up and searching one of the boxes. Taking out a board and metal box containing something as it made clinking noise.
'Oh, is he going to go over the basics, now? I wonder how is he going to teach us, wait does he has experience in teaching? I mean-' My mind pulls a full on break when I saw what he had bought over.
A table-top board.
A fucking, table-top board game. As the metal box contained fake paper money and pieces.
I looked incredulously at him and then at Noose, expressing my concern if he was pranking us.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. I gave you things to learn and when you complete it, you can just come here and I will give you the next task to complete."
"Oh! don't tell me, you thought I would coddle you, didn't you? Haha." He replied, all too pleased with himself.
I turned towards Noose, as he ignores me, and starts taking out game pieces, "Brian, do you know how to play this game? Arwin? If you don't know, we can teach you."
Both me and kid Brian nodded, although it was hard for me to follow what game both them were playing, I took it as a test and a chance to take time contemplate on his question.
At first kid Brian lost hard, unable to understand rules. By the time he understood basics, he played good for a noob, but would try to buy every house he came across bankrupting himself.
Rookie mistake.
I on the other hand played strategically, analyzing what Noose and Antonio would buy so I could defeat them. But Antonio was unpredictable, buying or making deals with kid Brian at a very low price always ganging up on, me and Noose to clear us out of the game early, only to then lose to kid Brian. Noose also played like me strategically and both of us made quite a good team.
Antonio was the only one who picked the weight on the opposite team, but goddamn he played good. He would always get number he needed on his dice, to the point I was wondering if he had rigged the dice somehow.
I leaned closer to Noose, whispering, "Hey do you think he is cheating or something?"
He looked at me and then at the board, most of his buildings were in mortgage. The one responsible? Antonio.
"No, he is just that good at rolling the dice. He said there is similar trick to tossing a coin to make land on the side you want."
"What! Isn't that cheating at that point?", I whispered too loudly as the cheater countered with the most obnoxious reply.
"Cheating? Nah just git gud boi." as he continued, "If you think I am cheating? Then you haven't met Old Scrooge, hey Br-Noose you remember that old crook?"
"Yeah, that old man was a monster, that goddamn scrooge would strip you down to your underwear. He made many men cry tears of blood, it got to the point that small time gang started hunting for his hidden stash or just for payback."
Antonio explodes with laughter, "Oh! that month was the best." he looked at us and explains, "You see there was this old man who would gamble with anyone and won most of them. There was this illegal gambler's den where he would always visit and took big winnings."
""It got to the point that the ones he robbed clean, started a rumor that he had stashed his winnings in some place. Because anyone who tried to follow him would always lose sight of him. So a whole bunch of goddamn crooks, criminals, and wanna be treasure hunters started a hunt for his stash."
Noose joined in on laughing, "Yeah, to the point even the city officials got alarmed since the city started buzzing with criminals. But none could find his so called 'hidden cache'. He sent all the criminals and small time crooks dancing around this city."
"Wait, then what about the old man? surely people must have tried to kidnap him to get the location." I asked.
"He? Well, he just up and disappeared, went poof like a magician's magic trick. No one knew when he slipped, but I guess he wanted to cause trouble before passed away. He cleaned up the city, by causing chaos." said Antonio as a sad smile crossed his face.
"You knew him, right? Both of you sound like you knew him personally, wait don't tell me... teacher Ant lost to him and so you decided to copy his tricks, giving him a beer or two to get the secret out. Did I guess correctly?"
"Hah, yeah you got most of it right. Just. It was not me, who lost to that scrooge! It was your old man."
"He was so arrogant back when he had just turned 18, you should have seen him back then, he was a different guy altogether. Then that scrooge stripped him of his dignity, and money. He even took B-Noose's clothes, left him in his underwear in the middle of the night. He got nicknamed 'Stripper Brian'." Only to then choke on his own spit as he continued to laugh gleefully, reminiscing those days.
Brian scowled at being reminded, but then lets out a smiling sigh.
Shaking his head, "It was not that bad actually. That old man humbled me, and showed me that there are other ways of defeating a person other than muscles. But this guy lost so much money that he was in debt trying to copy that scrooge, that he caused another wave of loan shark trying to hunt him down."
We play a bit more, as even kid Brian had relaxed to the point of being almost casual. As we listened to Noose and Antonio sharing tales of their young adventure.
"I ha-have to go now, my mo-mother would not let me in if I didn't reach home by 12pm." said kid Brian.
Noose replied, "We have half an hour we can get there in 15 minutes. Well I guess that's it for today, good game kids especially you Brian. You played really good."
Antonio gestured for Noose to pack the game, and then faced me, asking, "So tell me, why should I personally teach you Arwin? What would I get out of it?"
Immediately the comfortable atmosphere vaporizes. It was basically advertisement about why someone should invest in me, and to do that I had to give response in half-truth manner, to promise for a better return on investment.
I decided on a curated answer, "Brian never talks about his friends, and then he mentioned you, so I want to learn under you. I am still young and of learning age, I am dedicated to learning as much I can and it doesn't matter if I get a structured education or just direction where I need to improve towards, I will always find a way. And I could be of help to you when I grow up and, working as your assistant."
This was the best interview answer I could come up as a child without sounding too much like we were having a transaction, and even if he disagreed to teach me. I could always ask Brian for support to self-learn...
'What can I even reach with self-study? Strength and money is what matters in this world, the world of human rights is long gone.' Mentally sighing, I questioned myself whether the reason we played games today was so I wouldn't think too bad of him, when he rejects me.
I gazed up, swallowing my expectations.
"Yeah... good answer kid, too mature coming from a 5-year-old child but Noose did say you were a precocious one. Well I guess that's it and what about you Brian? Wanna learn together with your friend."
Kid Brian froze up, unable to answer, or rather he seemed too scared—to say yes.
---
AN: The old ch "11" was posted on 3/1/2026. This is part 1. This one had 3884 words. Not the longest.
And just so you guys know, "Die" is the singular form of "Dice" which means two or more die. I just learned it again while editing this ch.