Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Frozen Heart - 1. Chapter 1 - The childhood years
Before he could read, Maximilian spent his days immobile, devoid of any emotion. He would look while not really seeing, listen while not really hearing, touching while not feeling. He would stay like that four hours, he would always be in a dark corner of the rooms at school, his gaze locked on some place infinitely far away. Most kids started to avoid him, they were afraid of the boy with the cold, blue eyes, they were uncomfortable around him. They avoided the short boy with hair as dark as night that was kept semi-long to cover his eyes partially. When he was finally able to read, he started working on reading every single book in his Aunt's library. His reading level shot sky-high for a boy his age, and his grades soon joined it, raising to straight A+s. Maximilian did not work to show that he was intellectually superior to his classmates, it simply was the only thing he could do. His Aunt didn't have a TV and he had no toys to play with.
A few times, teachers debated on whether he should skip an entire grade or not. Maximilian was born in December, and his total lack of expression and communication, rendered it hard for those teachers to really evaluate his mental state, and whether he would fit in with older students. Every time it was decided that no he would stay in the grade he was in currently. From time to time a new student, or an adult would try to get him to talk to them a bit. They would be very nice, and sweet, and pretend they cared about him. Silence was the only answer they ever got. Maximilian even got into trouble a few times for said silence, but after a while the principal of his school understood it was a waste of time to punish him. He asked for his staff to ignore the boy, of course this may seem cruel and unworthy of a man whose mission is to help children in any way he can. Teachers protested violently, and tried even harder. What a waste of time that was... For a whole month they tried furiously to "help" him, what they did not understand is that to be helped the person must at first want to be helped.
The only person that succeeded in melting a little bit the barriers of Maximilian's heart was a boy in 3rd grade. He relentlessly kept talking to Maximilian, he had understood that it was the only thing that might work. Asking questions was pointless. And so he talked, and talked, and talked to Maximilian, for hours he would talk. At school there wouldn't be a minute where he wouldn't talk to him if he could. After a whole month, Maximilian gave in, he was tired of the noisy boy that was invading his thoughts, he was tired of all the talking.
"Don't you ever stop talking?" he finally said. That got the boy quiet immediately.
The boy looked at Maximilian with gleaming eyes.
"You do talk" he said before hugging Maximilian tightly.
From then on, the boy was given permission to call him Max, a first since THE day. Slowly, the barriers around Max's heart melted away. For the first time in his life, Max had a friend, he started to smile and talk a bit more. Dare I say he was even happy! Then the boy's father was promoted and he had to move away.
The last day Max was with his friend, he felt betrayed, and the barriers that had been lost were put up again. Maximilian added those memories to the ones he kept locked away. For days he was even angry with himself for having been so careless as to let them down even for a minute.
And Maximilian's life continued...
Please tell me what you think so far!
- 19
- 3
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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