Cantro Twenty-Five: Tears in the Family:

I should’ve seen what was coming for our children. Because I didn’t catch on in time, Bayu, Irani, and Lust are all gone. My wife and son left me. Later on, Lust left me too.

How did this happen? Forbidden love. Illness. Corruption. But which came first?

Let me explain what happened.

Irani had been close to his sister ever since she was born. At first, everything was fine. Just a brother protecting his baby sister. Bayu and I didn’t have to worry about it. Why would we have to worry about anything?

But then they got older. Age and hormones are never good mix. Left unchecked, things get worse. I had other things to worry about. Running a kingdom and all. I tried. I really did. I love my wife and children. I tried to hard but everything fell apart. It started with my son.

Bayu was the one to notice. As usual, I brushed off her worry.

“She’s getting too close to him,” she told me in private after dinner. I shrugged and shook my head.

“She just loves her brother,” I said. “Let her be.”

“That’s just it,” Bayu said. “She might love him too much.”

“Don’t be silly,” I said. “She’s just a little girl.” I wouldn’t believe that as they got older. At the time, I was more focused on the living realm. It kept changing a growing with the times. A strange fear gripped me at the thought. Was my kingdom going to be left behind?

Maybe that was why I didn’t notice how close my children had gotten.

It first came to my attention through rumors. The demons all talked about prince and princess in a romantic relationship together. I didn’t want to hear it at first. Irani was too pure for something like that. He was an angel after all. An angel living in Hell. Bayu was very protective of her son. But she couldn’t keep him safe from the sickness.

It was the sickness that made things worse.

Now, this I first noticed. It started with his eyes. I noticed small red rings around his irises. Irani would complain that his eyes hurt. Sometimes, he would see in specs of in his eyes. I think he was seventeen at the time. I pulled himself aside to have a look into his eyes. I had a good guess about what was happening. I did my best to treat his eyes. At the time, it was good. I managed to treat the early symptoms the best that I could. If Bayu found out what was going on, she would take Irani and possibly leave me forever.

No, I couldn’t have that happen. I had my family back and I wasn’t going to lose them again. I had my doctors treat Irani in secret. I thought I had it under control. I would treat his illness and make him more immune to Hell itself.

I hadn’t counted on the forbidden love in his life making him sicker.

I couldn’t figure out why his symptoms were getting worse. I ran the tests one day and noticed that higher levels of poison in his blood. This didn’t make any sense. I did my best to keep the poison away from you. I had to get to the bottom of this before it was too late. I called my son to my private office. This had to be when he was in his twenties. I think it had to be about twenty-one or twenty-three. I want to say twenty-one. Yeah, let’s go with that.

“You wanted to see me?” Irani asked. I had a serious look on my face.

“Please close the door behind you,” I said. My son looked worried as he closed the door behind him. I paused to gather up my thoughts.

“Why have you been getting sicker lately?” I asked. “Are you still taking your medication?” Irani froze. He started to look away from me.

“Are you?” I asked again. He dropped his head. I sighed and shook my head.

“Irani, why? I don’t understand,” I said. “What is going on with you?” He wouldn’t answer me. I started to think back to the rumors that had been hearing around my kingdom lately. I didn’t want to have to come to that. But I just had to ask.

“Are you sleeping with your sister?” I asked out right. I really hoped that it wasn’t true. I hoped that he would get offended and tell me that it wasn’t true. I even started to pray that it wasn’t. My son instead dropped his head. My heart sank.

“No…” I said softly. “Irani, you didn’t…”

“You wouldn’t understand!” my son shouted. My face turned bright red. I gritted my teeth as I growled.

“I wouldn’t understand?!” I asked. “I wouldn’t understand?! Tell me why the hell I wouldn’t understand?!” Irani looked like he wanted to sink into the floor and disappear forever. I sank back in my chair as I struggled to say something. My son right but about what I didn’t understand. But I had no idea how bad everything was. Once I found out, everything was destroyed in an atom bomb. If I did, then we would all still be a family.