Rain, and no, I'm not talking about the rain that falls from the sky. I'm talking about a boy, a soft spoken and kind boy. Everything about him was blue, like a storm that never ended. I wonder if his parents named him rain because of his blue hair and eyes. Not that I could ask his parents since they're no longer with us. Either way, Rain was a slave just like me. We lived on the same plantation. Rain was the life of the plantation, even though no one wanted to be a slave; everyone was happier when he was around. He didn't know what it meant to be a slave because he was about 8 years old, I'd say. The girls loved him because he was adorable, and the men loved him because he was willing to learn any job and help no matter what. He used to whistle while he worked. A tune none of us knew, he said it just popped into his mind one day. He learned everything there was to do; he even learned from a florist we had on the plantation. Then that fateful day happened, the day that we all would like to forget, but it's etched deep in our minds.
One day, the plantation owners came to ask which one of us would like to be their inside maid or butler. Of course, Rain, being the learner he is, volunteered himself. No one knew what happened inside the house, but we all knew it wasn't good. Anyone who went into that house was never seen again. Some of us tried to stop him, but he just saw this as an opportunity to learn more. Then the next day we all saw him off, and that was the last time anyone had ever seen him.
A couple of months passed, pretty slowly since Rain wasn't around, but when we didn't hear anything from the owners, we were confused. Everyone wanted to go see what was up, but we decided to wait a little longer. 2 more weeks passed, and we still heard nothing, so we decided to check it out. When we entered the house, it was quiet, too quiet. We went through all the rooms, and all that was left was the dining room and the cellar. We entered the kitchen and all our mouths dropped. The family who owned the plantation, known as the Victorias, were all dead. Something didn't add up, there were five Victoria's, so why were there only 4 bodies? A sudden rush of relief ran through everyone, like being struck by lightning, or when thunder claps and you can feel it in your body, they were free now. They all instantly left the house. But something was odd, there was no blood, no sign of a struggle, no nothing. The florist walked up to the table and started smelling the food, her eyes went wide and she stumbled backwards. She mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear. I walked up to the florist and asked what was wrong.
"Rain, he…" she stumbled over her words.
"What does Rain have to do with-" My mind then shot back to Rain and the florist talking about a plant. They were avoiding the leaves of the plant. I continued speaking, "Are you saying Rain poisoned them? But that doesn't make sense, he was such a kind boy."
"Yeah, I think so." The florist had a sad expression as if she couldn't believe her knowledge was used to kill someone. "I don't think we should tell the others. What would they think if they knew the kind Rain could kill an entire family?"
"I think you're right," I said somberly. I couldn't believe that the kind young boy known as Rain could do something so horrific. He was only 8. What kind of child would do this?
"We should try to find Rain. He might've run far away, or he could still be in the house. There is still one place we have yet to look." The florist said with a hint of chill in her voice.
"Right, the cellar." I finished her sentence, and she nodded. We made our way to the cellar after searching the house for it.
When we got to the door, we both froze. If Rain was down here, neither of us wanted to see the kind of person he'd become. We took a minute to calm ourselves, I then put my hand on the door knob and twisted it. A cold breeze rushed up from the cellar, it sent chills down my spine, as if someone had dropped an icicle down the back of my shirt. I was frozen for a second, but I regained my composure and slowly made my way down the stairs. Each step creaked the stairs sending even more chills throughout my body. I looked back to check if the florist was following me; she was, but she was moving even slower than I was.
A couple more creaky stairs later, and we were finally at the bottom. The smell made me throw up. When I looked up, I saw something that nobody, not even an adult, should see. Bodies hanging from chains, beaten and battered, naked, and dead. Not even a single movement from them. People were in cages, they weren't even recognizable, that's how badly they were beaten. I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
I looked for Rain's disguisable blue hair and short stature. I wonder if this is what Rain saw. I wonder if this is what made him realize the true horrors of being a slave. I wondered if this was why he killed the Victorias. Rain was nowhere to be found, though. The only thing that was left was a torn piece of clothing that had a message. I picked up the message; the paper was cold, and it had a blood droplet that had dried to a rusty brown color. It was heavier than a simple piece of clothing. It was as if the clothing carried the weight of what he'd seen and done to survive.
"I'm scared. I don't know what I should do. I'm scared, I'm scared. They are going to kill me, just like they did with all these other people."
There was a gap, and then the message continued. It had a much darker and more serious tone than the last time, almost as if Rain had changed from a scared young boy to a sociopath during that short pause.
"They're dead, all of them, I got them before they could get me. Don't bother looking for me, I'll be fine." That was what he wrote. I turned back to the florist, and she looked horrified. I wondered if it was the cellar or if it was the fact that her knowledge had been used to kill people.
"Do you still think we should look for Rain?" I asked the florist.
"I would like to get closure. It'd be nice to know if he used the knowledge I gave him to kill people. But seeing what was going on behind closed doors, I think it was a necessary evil to defeat a greater evil."
"I agree with everything you said. Let's find Rain."