Un-Chain

"Uteu." Came a hazy echoing voice.

Uteu furrowed his eyebrows. Was someone calling to him?

Opening his eyes slowly in confusion, Uteu watched as a young boy attempt to run up to a man with the same dark red hair as him. The man was wearing a thick brown coat, a green scarf and earmuffs. He was smiling widely as he saw the young boy stumble slightly in his rush.

All around them both was several inches of white snow. The man walked over to a dark wooden bench and cleared the snow on it as he waited for the young boy to reach him.

The boy's foot steps made a bit of a crunching sound as he waddled through the snow. The snow nearly reached his knees, making it fairly difficult to go through. Yet, the boy was determined and he was smiling happily as he went.

Uteu couldn't help but feel like he remembered this from somewhere. The strange thing was that everything sounded a bit muted and echoed strangely to Uteu's ears. Like he was watching them from somewhere else. Like he wasn't actually here with them.

Was this a memory?

Blinking in confusion, Uteu attempted to move around but found himself unable to. As the boy got closer to the man, the scene seemed to have zoomed in.

He was being forced to watch this memory play out.

Now that he could clearly see the two people, he realized that the boy was himself when he was around 10 years old. Uteu tried to pay closer attention to the scene. He wondered if there was a reason that he was revisiting this scene in particular.

As he watched on, he slowly felt himself getting impatient. Seeing how his younger self was still trying to get to what looked like, his father? Uteu took in his surroundings first.

There, ontop of the hill was a familiar small house in the middle of nowhere. The dark wood that made up most of the house, was covered in a thick layer of snow. The sun had risen just moments ago and the snow glittered as it reflected the sunlight.

He turned his attention to his father. His straight back and neatly groomed hair is exactly how he remembered him. He had this confident air about him and a very warm smile that could put anyone at ease.

Uteu had trouble overlapping this version of his father with the one he had seen in his hospital room. They clashed terribly and that thought somehow sent chills down his back.

He watched as his younger self finally reached his father. The boy was panting from the exertion and was trying to catch his breath. The man smiled brightly and ruffled the boy's red locks of hair.

With a still muted echo in Uteu's ears, his father said, "Get used to the snow yet?"

His younger self nodded and beamed a smile right back at his father.

Uteu felt that he was quite gullible back then. How much effort would it have taken for his father to walk towards him instead of making him go all the way over? What "Get used to the snow yet?" wasn't his father just being lazy right now?

No no, there was no way that his father was being lazy. It must have been for a different reason.

"Look, Uteu!"

His younger self looked on in amazement as his father moved his coat to reveal the two identical babies cradled to the man's c.h.e.s.t. They were strapped securely to him to share his body heat. Matching green beanies with a pompom at the top, covered their tiny heads.

"This is Uti, a girl." He gestured to the one on the right.

"And this is Ulo, a boy" He gestured to his left.

His younger self looked delighted to see them. At the time, the beanies covered their heads fully so he wasn't able to see their hair color, but the bright green eyes looking back curiously at him made him feel amazed.

"Are they my brother and sister?" His previous self asked cautiously. He never had any siblings before so he held his breath as he waited for his father's reply. The man smiled gently before he covered the two with his coat to keep them warm. He left room for the two to poke their heads out to continue staring at Uteu.

"Yes, for as long as you want them to be."

Uteu quirked his head at this statement. What could this have meant?

His younger self sat down on the bench and his father quickly copied. Now that they were both sitting, it was much easier for his younger self to see the twins.

"Please take care of my twins for me, Uteu."

His younger self at the time had not caught onto this peculiar way of speaking and readily agreed. He gave the twins a quick peck on the cheek and attempted to make them laugh. His father grinned as he watched Uteu interact with the twins.

Uteu wrinkled his eyebrows, recalling Grello and his father's conversation in the hospital.

Grello had mentioned the likelihood of ONE of Tykol's children being chosen.

Uteu was someone that was all Tykol had left of "Her."

The mention of Undel, the eldest, of being the most likely to be chosen and that the rest of the children had no prior signs.

And then the way Tykol mentioned Undel and Uteu being the ones that were actually his.

He couldn't make heads or tails of it. How could his father say that Ulo and Uti were "his" twins in the past but say Undel and Uteu were the ones that were actually his?

Uteu felt a headache. His father had so much to explain...

Definitely going to punch him in the face. Honestly he never wanted to hit his father before, but right now it wouldn't leave his mind. Somehow the thought of hitting his father comforted him. As if deep down he knew the man would deserve it.

A subtle sound of something light hitting wood drew him out of his thoughts. Uteu suddenly caught sight of something in the corner of his eye.

He tried to turn his head over but could not see what was there. It was barely out of the peripheral of his eyes.

He felt he could see a shadow of a person in the house but Uteu knew that at that time no one was home. His caretaker was out of the house, on an errand. He was the only one at home until his father came home with the twins.

So who was that...?

Uteu grew frustrated, he desperately wanted to know who it was but he could not move to get a closer look. Just a second ago, he was able to move easily. So why now?

What happened after this?

Uteu panicked as he tried to recall. After he felt exhausted from trying to make the twins laugh, and then he had…?

He clutched his hair in frustration. He couldn't seem to remember. It was a long time ago and if it wasn't something impactful, he likely would forget.

Suddenly Uteu felt like a heavy weight was pushing him away from the memory.

The surroundings rapidly faded away as he regained actual consciousness.