Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 65: Escapist

Chapter 65: Escapist

This level of productivity was something else. I even managed to learn something I had found impossible for the past many years.

Nothing burned, and no one died.

100% Success!

If I’m being honest, my mood hasn’t been great. However, being hyper-focused on learning this and seeing my loved ones somehow helped pull me out of this stupor.

One would think I was learning how to dismantle bombs instead of learning how to fry an egg.

When my parents witnessed the crime scene, I heard them retreat, backtracking stealthily.

So much for having faith in me!

But they didn’t make it out. Ultimately, they were the next unwilling tasters for today’s lesson.

To their surprise, I succeeded, and I think they were even prouder of this achievement than of my past gold medals or championships.

"My baby, how have you been?" Dad asked, scowling without even hearing my answer.

"I swear, I’m fine, Dad! Sure, I’ve encountered a few (not) unpleasant people, but I’m good!" I shrugged at them, trying to downplay the insane amount of demons I had encountered in that short span of time.

But I’m still doing well enough. Much better than I did before. However, that isn’t something that I’d like them to know, either.

I’ve always thought that hiding it from the adults was stupid. If only the victim would open up, the problems would be solved.

Easy to say but very difficult to do, much less follow through.

Hell, I even told Lily to do this. Utter hypocrisy.

It’s easy to judge someone when you’re not the one facing the consequences.

And no one could say that I didn’t try. Reporting it to the adults without proof got me a scolding. So I prepared evidence but then got lectures on benevolence and understanding.

Tell that to someone who almost drowned.

But when my parents realized that something was really wrong, they tried their best to fix it.

They hounded everyone for an explanation but to no avail. And when my ex-grandfather put his feet down, my Dad was ready to throw everything away.

That was when I first heard the other adults calling me a "burden."

Big word for those snakes that were the true burdens of the clan. But young me didn’t know that, nor did I manage to think in that direction.

I was the burden for always being too sensitive, unlucky, and selfish.

Oh, and the best one was being called "spoiled" for getting my parents into conflicts with the elders because of my "capriciousness."

Now that I’m older, I understand that they said those things purely out of their malicious greed.

But knowing did not mean accepting, and I’ve been recoiling from my escapist behavior because of this.

Let’s not kid ourselves about wanting productivity.

Bitch, I’m running away. This was evidenced by my wounded ego hiding out at my parents’ place.

I even cooked.

It’s that bad.

I’d have to call myself out because then I’d be an even bigger hypocrite. I’m already lying to everyone else. Is there any point in lying to myself?

I’ve been running because I hated the feeling of being affected by something simple. I would’ve appreciated an actual punch instead.

Not realizing that I had spaced out too much, the sigh I let out alarmed my parents.

"Honey, are you sure nothing’s wrong?" Mom suddenly asked, her face marred with worry.

It was then that I realized that my Dad had stopped discussing how to cook bacon perfectly.

Ah, shit. So, I had to come up with something.

"Well, it’s not exactly nothing, but I’m not sure how to deal with it."

Dad looked ready to launch off the stool. We had been sitting around the kitchen island, so his movement almost pushed Mom off her seat.

"What happened?!" He asked, extremely alert.

"There have been impersonators attempting to take Lily out of school using my identity."

Mom covered her mouth in surprise and had to ask, "How is Lily?! Has the school given an explanation?"

"She’s fine, that little baby is smart. She figured something was wrong. And luckily, we’ve met before, so she knew me. But even if the abduction failed, she instead ended up getting bullied."

"Has St. Andrews deteriorated this bad? And have they caught those people pretending to be you?" Dad had always questioned the school after I kept on coming home bruised from "activities." So, hearing something like this just solidified his annoyance.

"Security was tightened, and the Sinclairs asked the school for cooperation. The school has always prohibited private security from entering, but they made exceptions because they saw the threats firsthand."

"That’s good, but not enough. What about you? They were impersonating you." Dad folded his arms across his chest, appearing more menacing than earlier.

"I’m sure you noticed the detail following me around. Before, they were just shadowing me, but they’ve been more interactive lately."

I felt bad about these people who had to keep on following me around.

In fairness to them, they tried being subtle about it because having them around would really be counterproductive.

But after that incident, when they almost apprehended a girl asking for the book I had in front of me, I had to put my foot down and stop them from intervening too much.

Lucian didn’t like that, but I compromised by allowing more shadows.

So even now, as I ran around avoiding him, I still had his people following. That’s also why I had to keep on doing things normally.

Being such a chicken shit was already too embarrassing for me. So I’d rather the ground open up to swallow me than for him to hear about the reason for my immaturity.

Also, I’m hurt. And I don’t want to see his face.

My expression was dark. And I think my parents mistook that for my annoyance with tight security.

I could see my Dad swallowing up any threats of adding more than what I had now.

That’s good. I need personal space, you know? Especially now.

Thankfully, my parents felt better after I told them about my most recent experiences.

I’ve long known that they carried immense guilt over being unable to protect me. So if I don’t give them something, they’ll think I’m hiding something again.

Sorry, Mom and Dad.

But they shouldn’t have those feelings. Being the envy of people isn’t a sin. And it was also not my fault for being born to such lovely parents.

The fact that such creatures exist wasn’t something that we wished for, nor were they people we created.

That thought made me a bit happier. My parents were pretty great, and I have a lot of things to be thankful for.