Darius Bernsten 988 words

Darius Bernsten was no ordinary child…he was different…he was gifted. Even though he
was the son of famous mathematician Tom Bernsten and Mathilda Addams, his brilliance
came as a surprise. It was because the world had seen few prodigies that could speak 4
languages fluently at an age of 4, master trigonometry and calculus at an age of 6.

Similar to his intelligence, Darius’ dressing sense was different compared to a normal
teenager. He only wore a tar-like black tux with a formal white cotton shirt, under a dark
navy-blue tie, clamping to his neck tight. Above is his round metal glasses with a glossy
finish, making it look like they are made out of gold. His black hair was cleanly tucked onto
the left side of his head, providing a matured look. His face always looked serious as if a
40-year-old going through a midlife crisis. His eyes would always be fixed upon something
with immense focus, and his lips never formed a “U”.

Everything was pleasant in his life, however, his nightmare started on the 1st of April, 2 days
before his birthday. It was 9 am, the time Darius was taking his usual breakfast: a well done
half-fried egg with one semi-toasted and the yolk of the egg runny like a river. Though out of
the blue, he was informed about his parents’ death by his butler, Martial. Darius’ face turned
from pale to bright red. Even though Darius was rather emotionless, he loved his parents,
they were the one who taught him to be himself, they were the one who loved him the most,
they were the ones’ who gave birth to him. With frustration, Darius yelled at Martial,
“HOW…HOW DID THIS HAPPEN… WHO DID THIS?”. Little droplets of tears were
pouring from his eyes, soaking his white napkin that was placed on his lap. His eyes also
turned the similar colour of his skin, red like blood. Martial paused and replied, “Sir, the
police are not sure, though they believe it is a murder, your uncle has been informed and he is
on his way… Sir please stay calm!”. There was a moment of silence, no one spoke. Darius
decided that he couldn’t wait. He had to find out the truth.

The first thing Darius did was visit his parents' study. He was never allowed to go in. “Darius
darling don’t go in there without my permission” his mother would always say. The room
was always dimly lit, only a warm light shining from the left. In the centre of the room, there
were two identical brown tables made from wood. They were insanely large compared to
normal desks, it felt as if they were of a king or queen. On the sides of the desk there was a
secret symbol Darius seemed to remember but couldn’t recall where he had seen. It was a red
star in the middle with lines protruding from the sides like swords. In the centre of the star,
there was an outline of a book. The desks were awfully disorganised, papers littered over it,
and books lying around as if there had been a robbery. The sides of the room were covered by
bookshelves, where every possible place had a book filled in it. As Darius was scanning the
shelves, he came across the same symbol that was on the desk. He quickly grabbed it. The
red, hardcover of the book read, “Dern Arius ten Secret Society”. Darius didn’t understand
what it was, so he started skimming through the pages of the book. But it was impossible to
understand, it was written encrypted. So, it would be impossible to understand the text
without the key. However, Darius didn’t have that much time, so he grabbed onto the book,
and readied his bag to go to Germany.

Luckily, Darius always had an emergency bag ready, it had 5 days of clothes, some snacks
(especially Doritos), one notepad and an extra pair of glasses. The black Mercedes limo
waited on the front porch of the gate of his home. The leather seats always helped Darius get
comfortable, it felt like he was on his bed sleeping. The limo driver from his seat asked,
“Darius, where to today?”. Phil was Darius’ personal chauffeur and was one of the nicest
people he had ever met, he always had a pleasant mood, and never got mad. Darius replied,
“To Munich University”, the journey would take 3 hours as Darius lived close to the border
of Germany and Switzerland, in Zurich. On the ride, Darius kept studying the book closely,
However, nothing made sense. Even though the name sounded familiar, Darius couldn’t
figure out what it meant, and how it connected to his parents.

As the destination approached, Darius finally understood everything. Dern Arius ten is just an
anagram of his name, Darius Bernsten, and as he realised the name isn’t English but one of
the lost languages. The anagram meant Project kill the world. Darius didn’t understand what
was going on, how did this relate to his parents, was this the reason they were dead? He had
never been this confused before. Suddenly, the limo stopped, and Phil said, “Here you are,
Munich University ''.

As Darius came out of the limo, there was a sudden noise “HAPPY APRIL’S DAY”. There
were Darius’ parents, laughing at Darius’ surprised and sad face. “Mother…Father…How did
this happen?” replied Darius in surprise. Tom and Mathilda said, “We thought we would do a
little prank, so you would get out the house and we could have a family picnic, don’t you like
it?”. After putting up a fake smile, Darius, his mother and his father headed to the nearest
restaurant to have Darius’ favourite food, pizza. The food was amazing, the flavours were out
of the world. But something still kept bugging Darius…what did he actually know about his
parents… who are they… what are they planning?

It is my own work

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