Seeing him turn his gaze, she understood that he was at his lowest point again. So, not wanting to weaken her intention to appear strong in front of him, she sat down beside him on the bed and stroked his hair. 
This made him look at her with annoyance, and she laughed at her son's irritated but it was endearing for her. Xiao Zhan doesn't like it when someone plays with his hair. This habit of his since childhood still as it was. 
“Do you need anything?" Mrs. Xiao got up and asked while helping him sit on the bed and fix the pillow behind him. 
“Water” He whispered, coarsely. 
She picked up the bottle she had brought with him, poured some water into a glass, and then gave to him to drink. He took the glass from her hand and emptied it in one go. It was as if liquid had been poured on the dry and thirsty sand in the desert and absorbed without leaving a drop as evidence. 
“What is the time?” He asked. 
“It’s quarter past 7o’clock.” 
“Please, stop that color from coming in. I don't like it. It hurts." He pleaded, rubbing his hands nervously. 
He felt that the red glow peeping through the window was burning not only his eyes but his whole being. He hated the feeling, hated it to the core. 
Red…. What was once the source of his happiness was now nothing more than a torture for him. Even his little remaining sanity now flew away in front of that color. 
It always triggered the biggest nightmare that happened to him in open eyes. The memory of that night, the tragic night that changed him and his life forever. He didn't want to think about it, didn't want to remember it, but he couldn't help when his entire existence became grave of painful memories buried in his heart. It kept coming to him, even if he unwilling to remember. 
“A-Zhan” Mrs. Xiao whispered nervously as she watched her son go into a panic attack. Yesterday's incident shook her to the core. She had seen him fall into depression, panic attacks and sometimes try to harm himself, but yesterday's anger was scary to her weak heart which was already wounded by the suffering of her only son. 
Weeping silently in her heart, she moved to the window and lowered the window pane to suppress the source of her son's distress. The light inside the room dimmed and darkness engulfed it. She returned to her son and took him in her arms, hid his face in her chest. He let his pain pour out of his eyes like a dam had broken. She patted his back as she wept with him. Still keeping her composure, she said a few comforting words to quell his agitation. 
“Mama, why does it hurt so much? When will all this end? I don't want all this pain. It hurts...it hurts a lot. They are killing me every day."  He started wailing loudly in his mother's arms. 
“Shhh….calm down A-Zhan. Calm down. Everything will be alright. You will be okay soon.” Mrs Xiao said in a broken voice. She didn’t want to appear shattered in front of him at this moment. But her motherly heart was betraying her. 
“Nothing will be okay mama. Nothing will be. She is not here mama. She left me. She left me alone.” Xiao Zhan whimpered throwing himself more into her embrace. 
“No, my child. Don't say so. Trust the mercy of God. He will fix everything.” She said comforting him. Lifting her hand from his back, it rested on his head and slowly her fingers began to stroke his hair. 
“Do you know mama? She.. always used to join.. join our hands together and watch them… for a long time. When… whenever I asked why you do this… she used to say… say that she wanted to see the red… red… red thread that has tied our fates together with each other.” Saying this, a soft yet painful  smile spread on his lips which vanished instantly.