Man thought he was God. We created
life… mistreated it and we paid the
price...
-Anonymous
“You are not alone boy…” a voice echoed. “Awake your time has yet to come…”
The boy awoke with a start in the grimy living room. His clothes were soaked with sweat and he felt unimaginable pain throughout his entire body. Even the smallest of movements triggered it. Besides the pain, he was even more afraid of the voice that awoke him. It was soft but powerful, vibrating the very core of his being.
As the boy was pondering upon the voice he received a vicious kick to his stomach. Causing him to hurl the bile from his empty insides. His father stood above him, a nasty smirk adorning his face. “Hmph… You lil shit! Better clean this mess up before you get another.”
The boy was barely able to move, his entire body felt like it was pierced by thousands of needles. He could feel the eyes of his parents on his back as crawled to the kitchen for some cleaning supplies.
“Hurry up boy! We haven’t got all day to wait on you being a sniveling bitch!” His father roared. Stomping over to the boy he dragged him back to the living room throwing him into his own bile. “I have a better idea… you haven’t had breakfast yet have you?”– his smile returned to his face at the realization–”Well you might as well recycle. Only naughty boys waste food!”
The boy turned an even paler shade, looking from his father and back to the bile. He reached a hand out scooping some up with his finger. The stench was overpowering and he trembled as he brought it to his mouth. Just as it was about to cross his lips, his father stomped his head into the puddle of bile.
“Haha you bitch, now it wouldn’t be fun if you ate it like that now would it.” he laughed. “How about you eat it like a lil doggy… *woof* *woof* haha!”
The boy was helpless as he licked the bile off of the floor. Tears flowed from his eyes, his parents mocking laughter rang through the house.
“Alright enough of this, we need to go if we wanna make the train.” his mother said to his father.
“Sure babe, I just got a lil carried away.”
The boy's mother turned to him with a stern look, “Now boy we are leaving for a few days. You will spend the time in your room.”
“And don’t try any funny business or there will be hell to pay.” his father added. “Now git and be a good lil boy, maybe daddy will get you a treat.”
The boy was roughly shoved into his room with a few bottle of water, some old military rations, and a plastic bag.
“The plastic bag is for your personal needs, wouldn’t want to have to clean up another mess now would we.” His father cackled as he slammed the door and bolted it.
The room was desolately quiet, an aura of anger and sadness rolled off the boy. Eventually, the emotions dissipated as the boy broke into woeful sobs. ‘Why!!!’ he screamed in his mind, cursing his pitiful existence. Tears cascaded down his face as he pounded the door vigorously with his fists. But to no avail, the door wouldn’t budge. The boy collapsed on his side in despair, curling into a fetal position. The boy lay weeping for hours till exhaustion claimed him to slumber.
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The sea was a vibrant azure, the sun radiating off the waters like a light glistening on a lustrous crystal. The image felt familiar… Soon an island came into view. Magnificent structures spiraled up into the sky caressing the heavens. A wondrous combination of metal and light. At the top of the most statuesque structure stood two seraphim like beings on a balcony. Their appearance was alien and ethereal. Robed in beautiful silver clothing with lines of light coursing, through. They embraced each other gazing over the city like two gods, observing the earth from the heavens. The image rippled to a ghastly scene of destruction. The elegant city now lay in ruins with pyre and death about it. Black ships dotted the once beautiful sea. The inhabitants of the city fled screaming in terror, boarding large auroral ships. Soaring into the sky like shooting stars… forsaking the once resplendent city now… desolated.
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A sharp pain abruptly woke him from the mysterious dream. Sitting up and looking around his gaze fell upon a little red ball lying next to him. Curiosity overcame him as he gingerly picked up the ball. It felt soft and smooth in his palm.
“Hey you going to throw that back or what?” a voice called from the window. Looking up the boy made eye contact with a youth sitting on the window sill. The youth had fiery red hair and bright orange eyes, it was by far the strangest thing the boy had ever seen.
The youth’s eyes widened as he observed the state of the room and its occupant. “Wha… hey are you ok kid?” he asked in a worried tone.
The boy froze, no one had ever asked him if he was ok before. He looked away from the youth, the ball suddenly becoming much more interesting. They sat in silence for a few moments.
“My name is Aidan. How about you?” the youth asked in a gentler tone. Concern for the boy filling his eyes.
The boy looked back with a complex expression. Pointing to his mouth in an attempt to signal that he couldn’t speak.
“Your mouth? Ohhh, you can’t… speak?” The youth said with astonishment. The boy nodded his head in confirmation and went back to staring at the ball.
Aidan put his hand under his chin taking on a look of intense thought. “Well, it seems you are in quite the dilemma my friend.” opening his eyes to observe the room again. “How about I get ya out of here. Doesn’t look too pleasant down there.”
The boy shook his head vigorously remembering his father words. It’s not that the boy didn’t want to escape. But the fear of getting caught always won over the desire to try.
“What are you afraid of? Why on earth wou-”
“Found you!” a feminine voice roared.
“Ah, shit!” Aidan cursed. “Look, hang onto that for me and don’t you worry I’ll be back.”
Aidan jumped down from the window, his hurried footsteps signaling his departure. The boy looked down at the little red ball gripping it tightly to his chest. Someone had actually been nice to him and even gave him something. A foreign but warm feeling sprouted in his chest. He couldn’t help but start to cry again. It seemed the voice was right, he wasn’t alone after all.
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“Damn that woman! Always coming at the worst times!” Aidan seethed in frustration.
Before he had come across the strange boy he had been running from his elder sister. She was responsible for him mastering his abilities in preparation to lead the family and represent their faction.
‘Ruthless monster’ he loathed. She was always unnecessarily violent not hesitating to break his bones in their “training sessions”. The chase had been quite literally halfway across the city, resulting in him ending up in the ghetto.
In an attempt to slow her Aidan used a training drone. But the monster sent it rocketing a few blocks down and into a window. Luckily he ended up losing her in some air traffic in the next street down.
Circling back he went to retrieve the drone, god knows what would happen if he went home without it. That's when he found the strange boy.
It was something that Aidan wouldn’t forget. The room was absolutely filthy and the smell that came from it almost made him pass out. But the image that would haunt him forever was the state of the boy. He had a ghastly pale complexion and no muscles, just skin and bones. Riddled with nasty bruises and dried crusted blood. Dressed in filthy rags that seemed to be covered in throw up or the like. His visage held one of the most despondent looks he had ever seen, his eyes held no life in them. Completely dead inside.
A great amount of pity and sadness welled up in him. No human being should be in this state. He attempted to find out more, but the boy was mute so the conversation was himself talking and the boy nodding.
He wanted to get the boy out, but when the subject was brought up a look of pure fear filled his face. Aidan was shocked, he wondered what on earth could terrify someone to the point that they wouldn’t even dream of escaping.
Not much else could be found out with the arrival of his sister. He intended to come back for the boy, and getting caught by his sister would result in him being bedridden for weeks. Luckily the drone has a tracking device in it so he could easily return.
Back to the present, the chase wasn’t going so well. His sister was right on his tail spilling various profanity at him as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Cold sweat coated his back and his hair was standing on edge.
“Shi!!-” Aidan yelled out as he missed a jump falling down two stories. Smashing into a dumpster at the bottom his vision went white.
*BOOOM* his sister smashed into the concrete creating a small crater. She walked out of the dust with a deadpan smile on her face.
“Hii!!” Aidan yelped in fear. He felt the grim reaper's scythe at his throat.
“Alright, you little shit…”–She cracked her knuckles producing a grotesque popping–”Time to go night night~” a terrifying gleeful smile filled her face. Causing Aidan to cringe in fear.
“Wait, sis can we tal-” before Aidan could finish his sentence she flickered from sight, delivering a lightning quick punch to his face. Blood sprayed from Aidan’s nose as he was sent careening backward, landing butt up completely knocked out.
“Really now was it so hard to just be a good boy and train hard.” She giggled over his appearance. (AN: RIP my homie Aidan :c )
She scooped Aidan up and flickered again, heading home with her troublesome brother.
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Night soon enveloped the city. The boy sat in his meager room illuminated by the moonlight. Turning the ball between his hands, he thought about the events of the day. The voice, the dream… what did it all mean? He also hoped he would be able to see Aidan again, he yearned to feel that strange emotion again.
Thinking back to the dream he wondered why it felt so oddly familiar. It was almost like he had lived there once. It was more like a distant memory than a dream. He couldn’t help but crave to go there… to see that dazzling sea, to speak with the beautiful beings on the tall building. He wondered why he had never had a dream like that before. Usually, his dreams were nothing but nightmares of his parents. The boy assumed it was linked to the mysterious voice he heard. All of this was just too much to process for the time being.
He set the ball down and wrapped himself up in the small pile of blankets he slept in. Scooching over to the corner of his room he glanced up at the moon. For once in his life, he felt himself drift peacefully to sleep.
“The hour of our fated meeting has come at last… human...” a voice murmurs.