Yushia’s eyes were downcast as he sat still on his limestone block. Today, he wore a tight purple dress, but unlike the other days, he didn’t seem to mind.

“Yushia?” the woman asked, standing behind her son as she massaged his shoulders. “You don’t seem well, my dear.”

“I’m fine, mama,” Yushia muttered.

Snapping her fingers, the woman watched as Pipi ran behind the set of bookshelves, preparing the yellow drink that included the childish Shijin Ether. His feet waddled over to his master, and he handed the bowl to her with a wicked smile.

“He’s breaking, isn’t he?” Pipi asked, wiping the snot under his girthy nose. “The Vermillion Bird’s wielder is going to break!”

The woman laid her son back down onto the block of limestone, tying his arms down before forcing open his mouth, assisting in his drinking. “Very soon he will.”

As the yellow liquid traveled down his throat, Yushia’s irises contracted. His body convulsed, forced to endure the seizure that came with the drink.

“Tell me, Pipi,” the woman said. “What did you do with those children after you were done playing with them?”

“Of course, ma’am, I disposed of their bodies in the forest,” he replied. “Ah, you mustn’t worry... I remembered. There were Zerkerbears, and I threw all the kiddies at them. I didn’t leave the bodies near the village like last time.”

The woman scoffed and turned back to her son to wipe the foam from his mouth. “You’re such a good son.”

Yushia’s body calmed. His eyes didn’t dare meet his mother’s, not after what she did to him. Deep down, however, he still yearned for the affection—she was the only one who cared, after all. “Mama... What will we do today?”

“Eager now, aren’t we?” the woman untied her son and lifted him off the limestone, cradling him in her arms. She rocked him gently. “Today will be easy for you. No screaming, no crying, and no pain.”

“R-Really?”

“Really. You’ve been very good, so I won’t do anything else to you for the rest of today.”

After a few minutes of gentle cradling, the woman slid her son off her lap and held his hand, leading him across the room to a set of metal ladders leading up a wide hole. She climbed and urged him to follow, and he did so obediently. The woman pushed against a wooden manhole.

It was the first time in days since Yushia had seen the sky. Blinded by the light, he shielded his eyes with his arms and unknowingly slipped off the ladder.

The woman caught her son’s hand and stopped him from taking the fall, however, his body dangled in the air and slammed against the metal footing. She clicked her tongue and yelled for him to keep climbing.

Yushia's vision blurred for a minute but he kept climbing, squinting his eyes as his head peeked out of the manhole.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Blood, spit, urine, and feces rushed Yushia’s nose as he stood beside his mother. Apart from the unpleasant smell, the temperature was cool, a gentle breeze kissing his face and blowing his long, jet-black hair in the wind. He looked around: they seemed to be in a small clearing in the forest.

A small leaf fell from a tree, catching Yushia’s attention. He watched as it slowly glided through the air before finally resting on a circular bed of leaves in front of his feet.

His mother’s hand brushed his back and pushed him forward. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow, my dear.”

Instead of hard ground, Yushia’s body plummeted through the soft bed of leaves before descending down a deep hole. In the split second he could react, he tried reaching for the ledge but couldn’t reach it. His arms instinctively guarded his face right before his body was stabbed by hundreds of needles. The landing, though rough, didn’t hurt as much as he’d thought.

His body felt like slime. The needles he’d fallen on were not needles, but rather, Smapede mandibles. As much as he wanted to sit up, the paralyzing effects of the mandibles made doing so impossible. Unable to do anything, he stared up at his mother’s face, a feeling of security wrapping around his mind as her beaming smile warmed him.

The woman left the pit trap, heading back down the manhole. I do wonder how your Cerulean body will deal with the night’s threats.

Night came in a flash, and Yushia was still resting in the same lying position from his initial fall. The air had become cool, his thin dress hardly keeping him warm. He wasn’t sure what to think of his situation.

The ground began to tremor, and a loud hissing replaced the silence of night.

A small, yet, long Smapede fell inside, just barely visible in the moonlight. Its hundreds of legs crawled on Yushia’s cheek before opening its mandibles and biting down on him, tearing off a chunk of his flesh. His face burned, but the numbness that came from the bite lessened the feeling.

The weak moonlight vanished, turning the hole into a pit of darkness.

Yushia strained his half-paralyzed neck upward, allowing a better view of the hole. His eyes widened when he saw the faint head of a mother Taipede looking down at him. Its size was too large to fit itself in the hole, but he knew of its alternate hunting methods.

Not again, Yushia thought. His body struggled and his voice cracked, moaning when he realized what was going to happen. “Aaahhh... waaaahh...! Mama! Save me...!”

The Taipede’s armored exoskeleton rattled as its seams opened, pouring thousands of Smapedes down the shaft.

Though numb, Yushia’s mouth opened wide as he released a blood-curdling scream. Thousands of Taipedes landed on his back, covering him from head to toe like a blanket. Their tiny legs made his skin crawl, and before he knew it, their mandibles bit down on him, gradually tearing him apart. Some had managed to crawl into his ears, eating through his eardrums.

“Mama!”

The pain was indescribable. Yushia’s mouth opened wide to scream, but he choked on his breath. A Taipede slipped off his nose and fell into his mouth, and before he could spit it out, its mandibles clung to his tongue. He bit the critter in half, but its other half still stuck on his tongue.

For the first time in his life, he felt a sensation like no other as the hundreds of Smapedes burrowed into his skin, bathing in the bleeding craters they had created by feasting on the Cerulean. They crawled their way into every hole in his body—above and below his waist—and raced back and forth to feed their mother.

When all hope seemed lost, his veins finally glowed blue. The thousands of holes in his body began to heal rapidly, forcing the Smapede to stop eating or else they’d die from his rich ether. Then, once the glowing had gone and his body fully regenerated, the Smapede resumed their endless feast.

For a split second, the healing allowed Yushia to move. He reached his hand out but was immediately bitten and numbed again. As the night drew on, they feasted, waited for the regeneration, and continued devouring all over again.

All Yushia could do was endure. Look away, Shiashia...