Axel Knight was 15 years when he saw something he wasn't supposed to. He witness the murder of his entire family.
It was a very beautiful evening that day and his grandmother, Florence Knight had arranged for a lovely family dinner for everyone including Ian Knight, his uncle who was away most of the time.
Ian was a wildlife photographer who spent more than half of the year travelling across the world to film and capture amazing natural phenomena. And Axel remembered how he liked to boast about his job and rub it in his brother Kanan's face.
Kanan was Axel's dad, a chemist in one of the most reputable and sort after pharmaceutical companies. He liked to brag about the magic of chemistry to his children and when he had accidentally come across some questionable ingredients on one of the company's painkillers, he had decided to go public.
The company, Royale Pharmaceuticals had in turn pleaded guilty about tge incident and had immediately pulled out the painkiller from the markets. They had done this as conditions to keep Kanan from going public and Kanan had been content that they had at least stopped supplying such harmful drugs to people.
He also asked the company to pay insurances and compensations to victims of the drug which they happy agreed to.
Axel smiled when his mother Daphe walked in with dessert.
"I knew no one if would leave without having some of my world famous cheesecake"
Everyone immediately frowned
"Mom, your cheesecakes are the worst!",
"what?, that is really painful to hear but that is a lie!", she countered easily with a smile.
She took a piece of cake and made sure to feed every single person present smiling as she slipped a piece into her own mouth.
All of a sudden, the sound of gunshots rang through the room and like a bad dream, blood poured out everywhere.
Axel stared with wide eyes as one by one his family fell onto the floor, their bodies being swallowed by their own pool of blood.
He heard the footsteps behind him and before he could react, pain seared through his head. His visison blurred instantly and he felt his body fall slowly into a dark abyss.
Everything was different from the moment he woke up in a white room with a hospital gown on.
He saw a lot of unfamiliar faces surrounding him and they he began to ask for his family.
"The doctor will be here with you soon Mr Knight, in the mean time please relax", the nurse had replied.
Axel was beyond relaxing at that point, he had a churning feeling in the put of his stomach that something had happened but he couldn't recollect anything, no matter how hard he tried.
"how-how long have I been passed out?", he asked.
"You were in a coma for 235 days and its a miracle that you're still alive. The two bullets that hit you missed your vitals by a small inch but still complicated the surgery because of internal bleeding"
Axel could barely hear a thing of what she was saying, his brain became cloudy as he tried to recollect any information about the night before.
He took a deep sigh and brushed a hand through his hair.
Just then the doctor entered the room.
"how are you doing Axel?"
Axel nodded briefly.
"since there are no complaints, I will do a quick check up on you"
Once again, Axel nodded
A quick examination was conducted and the doctor nodded briefly at Axel.
"everything seems fine", he smiled
The doctor turned around to leave when Axel's questioned stopped him midwalk
"what about my family?, when are they coming?"
The doctor's smile instantly fell
"I'm sorry so but....they didn't make it".
A painful scream wrenched from his throat and a tear fell down his face.
Since then, Axel Knight had never been the same.