These are Zare’s memories, a recollection of what happened that night.

“Why can’t you just be like the other kids? At least they listen and do what they're told!” A woman screamed at a younger Zare. Why was he always being compared to other people? Was his best not enough?. Sadness was not the emotion that met the little boy.

Zare couldn't remember it clearly. All he could remember was his screams of anger mixed with her screams of pain.

The memory shifts

Inside an office, three people were looming over him, one in a suit, one in casual attire, and the last one wearing some sort of uniform.

“Did you do this?” The principal asks him in the office.

“Did you hurt her? My wife? You fucking monster!” A man raises hand in a fist preparing to hit a younger Zare.

The memory shifts once more

“Stop! Please… I don’t wanna play anymore…” A little boy on the ground cries, his nose bleeding severely. Zare stares emotionless.

The memory shifts

“We’re sorry kid but you're being moved again” A man kneels and puts his hand on the little boy’s shoulder.

The memory shifts

“It’s good that you're being moved, we never have to see you ever again” A group of kids point at Zare angrily.

The memory shifts

“Don’t worry Zare, your new home will be a fresh start for you. Your new family will treat you with all the love in the world. We promise!” A nurse joyfully explains to him.

The memory shifts

“Lies.” He whispers to himself. “All lies just to make me feel better” He continues. “Why do they lie to me like this?” He asks himself as if expecting an answer from someone. Suddenly a voice answers back within him, the years of loneliness has created a twisted coping mechanism for Zare.

“At least they're trying, but it isn’t enough is it?” The replying voice is still within his mind, not talking through his mouth. Not yet.

Deep within Zare’s mind the fragments of memories swirl and contort leading to an amalgamation of thoughts. Hours of memories that one may consider to be the worst kind was something Zare had too much of. Mocking him, insulting him, haunting his mind nonstop.

“Will it ever end? This hell that God gave to me? Why?” The little boy asked into the darkness, he was met with silence. He closed his eyes to sleep.

The memory shifts one last time

Zare now stood over the corpse of a dog, a bloody stick in his right hand. A little girl on the ground sits behind him, bruises on her legs and a notable injury on her left arm. Her arm was bitten, blood poured out with each second and her flesh was mangled, what made things seem worse was whatever dog Zare killed had its mouth frothing black bubbles, not normal.

It was snowing that time, it lightly fell and the temperature was only beginning to drop. They were in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees looming far above them. The dog’s corpse lays lifeless with an open hole on its chest, bleeding still. Zare holds the bloody stick dripping with blood, his face having bloodstains disturbed by his sweat. He killed the dog or whatever this thing was, but it seemed as if he was late to whatever happened earlier.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner” Zare answers as he struggles to breathe in the environment around them that was getting colder and colder.

“It’s ok… See? It’s just a bite, I’ll be fine in a few days” The little girl weakly answers back not knowing the level of risk she’s in however Zare knew better.

“In a few days? We don’t even know what exactly got you. For all we know that thing could have rabies. Come on, let’s control the bleeding and get you help” Zare begins to take off his jacket to offer as a bandage for her wounds but the little girl did not agree to his action.

“No Don’t! You'll get colder, it’s snowing already so don’t risk yourself getting colder for me. You know how winter works around these parts. You’ll lose your arm” She exclaims.

“I don’t care, we need to stop that bleeding and get you help immediately and besides I know this place better than you, you were gone for hours and I found you in minutes” Zare snaps back, taking his jacket off and wrapping it around her injured arm to try and stop the bleeding.

“You're wasting your time on me… Even if we get back I doubt they’ll care about this” She sniffles, tears welling up on her face.

“Don’t worry if they won’t do anything about it then I’ll make sure they do” He replies back confidently, then continues.

“I’ll even call for the hospital to make sure” He finishes.

“O-ok… I hope mom and dad listens to us though…” She whispers.

“They… will” Zare lifts the little girl onto his arms. The idea that their ‘parents’ would even listen to them is a joke of an idea for him.

For Zare this is the 3rd time he’s had to move families and each one was worse than the other. The families he was in were only taking him for either drug money or an extra pair of hands inside the house without ever caring for him. This time it was both.

Carrying the little girl in his arms he began walking home as the falling snow slowly began to pile up, the day was coming to a slow close, and the world around them started to get even colder. The little girl shivered from the cold and once in a while winced and groaned from the pain of the bite, in order to comfort her Zare held her tighter and tried his best to warm her up while walking faster to make it back home. After a few minutes of walking through a dimmed snowing forest they made it back home. Zare did know the place better than she did.

“We’re here…” Zare says with a warm smile on his face.

“Yay…” The little girl replies weakly, shivering from the cold.

Zare sets her down and helps her up the stairs onto the porch in front of the door. The porch was in poor condition, the wood used was beginning to rot and the door looked as if it was broken into too many times with scratches and numerous marks, to think this was the front door to their home made Zare question whether or not wherever adopted them passed the background check or whoever conducted it didn’t care at all.

This was it, the hardest part was upon him, so taking a deep breath he knocks 3 times. At that moment he began formulating a plan in his head.

Knock. Explain everything that happened and beg them to call for help for her. If they won’t do it then I can call for her instead, I just need to steal the phone.

Knock. Clean her wound and disinfect it so the damage isn’t as bad as it is. If they try anything I’ll steal stuff for her.

Knock. If they won’t do anything that needs to be done for her then I swear I’ll-

The door swings open. A scraggly old woman looks at them both angrily, behind her was an equally scraggly old man sleeping on the couch as the TV plays a bidding show. The woman eyes both of them down, Zare returns the silent exchange with a glare while the little girl maintains a sad expression constantly breaking eye contact against her. The old woman wore a worn out shirt with barely readable words on the center and jeans that had fluids spilled onto it, her pants were discolored because of it. The old man on the other hand wore a white button that was yellowish in color and had shorts on, it was black in color but had white streaks here and there. Zare could note the unpleasant smell they gave off.

“She needs help, she got bit by a dog… or a coyote” Zare explains

“You're both late” The woman says while ignoring what Zare had to say.

“Because she got attacked by a rabid dog or coyote- that doesn’t matter. She needs help. Please” Zare explains a little further while pushing the matter at hand.

“Huh… show me” She demanded as if she didn't believe what he had to say.

“What-” Zare’s left eye twitched. “What do you mean ‘Show me’? Is this bitch being for real? What the fuck is wrong with her? This bitch-”

“Here…” The little girl takes the wound up jacket off her arm as she winces in pain doing so to show her the wound.

It was bad. The wound was showing signs of infection in only a few minutes, the bite was swollen and black liquid began oozing out with her hand slightly shaking from the coursing pain. The woman gave it a disgusted look and gave a long sigh.

“Fine, get in” She finally gives in to them both moving to the side.

Finally, both Zare and the little girl walked in the house. It was desolate and dark for something that is called a ‘house’. The inside was a mess with trash and junk scattered everywhere, a pileup of takeout food could be seen on the kitchen counter with what seems to be rotten food from last week. The old man on the couch was asleep and the TV was now playing static. Next to the man was a table with needles and a tray with what seemed to be a green substance with cigarette butts. It smelled horrible on the inside for the most part, Zare would rather have been outside in the cold, at least he could actually tolerate the freezing air when it came to breathing. Finally after a few seconds spent silently judging the inside, Zare speaks out regarding the little girl’s condition and to get her the help she needs.

“We should call an ambulance for her, I think the bite is infected and has rabies on it” He says in concern.

“You ‘think’? It’s fine, she’ll live. Just wash it up” The woman dismisses him as she couldn’t care less for the little girl’s health let alone being hassled to call for an ambulance or drive her to the hospital.

“No she won't. It’s bleeding bad and it has-” Suddenly Zare was struck on the face by the man who was sleeping earlier on the couch.

“That’s no way to talk to your mother boy” He grumbles.

“Zare-!” The little girl calls out in fear for him.

Suddenly the old man grabs the little girl’s arm and roughly inspects the injury. She yelps in pain from his doing.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Nothin a little hot water n alcohol can fix” He chuckles, agreeing with what the old woman said earlier.

“N-no… That won’t be enough… She’s infected with rabies for sure. Can we please just call an ambulance for her?” Zare holds his nose closed as it bleeds. The little girl begins to cry as the pain from her hand and seeing her step brother getting hurt is all too much for her to bear at the moment.

“Hmmm, you gonna pay for it then boy? Keep in mind the only reason why we keep you shits is for the money. We don’t wanna waste another dime on you ungrateful runts” The old man laughs to himself. The old lady chuckles as well. Zare glared at them both. The little girl closes her eyes. The old man lets go of the little girl and walks closer to Zare’s face giving him a malicious grin. “Whatcha gonna do about it boy?” He asks mockingly.

This was always how it was.

It was always this way.

It was always torment after torment when it came to him.

Zare would pray and pray and ask and ask but God never replied. Just like back then and now? It wasn’t any different.

To him, it meant justice was fake. People could be evil and get away with it.

It meant that no matter how much he tried to stick to something, it just didn’t matter.

Snap.

Suddenly in rage, Zare swung his arm striking the old man on his face, knocking him back a few feet onto the ground. Amidst the commotion the old woman backed away to the kitchen but Zare lunged at her, pinned her down and began beating her relentlessly. At that moment in his anger and own violent thoughts he began to cry. His mind went silent and everything lost noise for him.

Tears streamed down Zare’s face then he began to question himself at the moment of his violence “Why am I crying, am I not doing the right thing?”

The little girl stayed silent. Crying to herself as she was powerless that couldn’t do anything but watch.

The old woman in desperation started hitting and scratching Zare fighting back as much as she could. Zare pushed on however, not letting up from his assault. Tears still streaming down his face.

In the background the old man slowly rose from the ground, then walking slowly and quietly he snuck behind Zare as he raised his hand holding his fist preparing to strike him down.

The little girl stayed quiet still. Tears began to go down her face. Shutting her eyes closed out of fear. In the end she couldn’t scream out for him.

The old man swung. Her mouth opened but it was too late.

Thwack! Thud.

Zare was down. In his mind he drifted off into the abyss. The last thing he could see was his step sister screaming for him before being hit by the old man. His eyes went shut, he was in darkness once more.

A dark room. Everything was so dark that looking down at himself he couldn’t even see his own hands but could feel them, he couldn’t scream either.

“Am I dead?” Zare thought. It felt as though he was floating in space. He looked behind him in this abyss and saw a little girl crying. He couldn't recognize who it was. It looked as though they were crying.

“Wake up” A familiar voice was heard then Zare could feel his eyes ache.

Waking up, it was cold, moist, and dark, the setting felt too familiar for someone like him. The atmosphere felt familiar with its musty air and dark lighting, he soon realized that he was in the basement of the house.

He began to question things. How long was he out for? How did he get here? What exactly happened? Zare suddenly held his head in pain, he couldn’t remember what happened before. He faintly remembers someone’s arm having blood with a vicious tear on it…Then it clicked.

Zumi, she was in danger.

Zumi was the name of the little girl that was with him, she was in need of immediate medical attention and if he can’t get that for her in time then she’s… Zare would rather not think about it.

For once he was in genuine panic. Rushing out of the basement he searched the house for the little girl, his step sister. Suddenly a voice stops him.

“Where the fuck do you think your going?” A familiar voice shakes his soul, like a dark hand reaching over and gripping his heart and causing his head to ache a bit from the strike earlier. It was the old man.

“Where’s Zumi?” Zare asks in a panicked and dismissive tone, being more concerned with his step sister’s well-being rather than the situation at hand where another fight between the two could happen at any given moment. The old man notices Zare’s unwillingness to fight and angered by this, he wants to see him angry like he was last time, he wants to start something once again for what he’s done earlier. He wants to provoke him to get a good reason to do anything to him.

“She’s gone, we sent her off outside to quiet down” Said the old man mockingly hoping to get something out of him.

“What?” Zare’s left eye twitches again. Confusion and anger races within him. It worked, he’s got something out.

“She kept complaining about her fucking arm so we sent her ass out to shut her up” The old man clarifies further. “Like time out”

“...What…How long?” Zare clutches his fist and grits his teeth.

“She’s been out for… I don’t know, we were gonna send you out to get her” The old man tries shifting the blame to Zare, to which he responds in silence. Zare deep in thought began hearing the voices one more.

“What?”

“She’s dead… We were too weak”

“Why would he do this?”

“Because we couldn’t do anything”

“I… it’s my fault”

“No, it isn’t, we couldn’t do anything against them… against him”

“I don’t wanna… no…”

“You must”

“I hate you” Both Zare and his inner voice said in unison.

In that moment Zare loses it. Humanity to him was defined as a catalyst to insult him at this moment. Lunging low, Zare tripped the old man causing him to fall on his back onto the back of his head. The old man screamed in pain and was unable to move as he called out for help. Zare stuffed the old man’s mouth closed and dragged him to the basement, next was the woman. She was asleep in her room and didn’t notice the looming figure over her. At first he put his hands on her nose and mouth forcibly closing them and watching as she struggled to breathe, it took almost a minute for her to jolt awake and panic.

Using both hands he laid his weight on her neck, she already missed out on a lot of air so it didn't take too much for her to go unconscious. Both the man and woman woke up in the basement tied to chairs and in front of them Zare stood in front of them visibly tired with mud and dirt on his hands and feet, finally Zare spoke.

“Where… Do you think she went? I searched the house and she isn’t in here” He asks calmly.

“Let me go you fucking ungrateful shit” The old man replies.

“I will if you tell me”

“And if I don’t?”

“You will” Zare kneels and grabs a pipe, he taps the pipe on the old man’s legs then repeats once more.

“You will”

The old man widens his eyes in fear and the woman beside him begins to beg for forgiveness at the same time. Zare didn’t care for what they had to do, he only cared about what they could answer regarding Zumi, he asked one more time this time angrily.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!”

“I’m telling you we don’t fucking know! We sent her off to a group of people!” The old man replies hurriedly.

“What?”

“There was a group of people wearing these robes and they went on about our sins and shit and they said that they won’t purge us if we give them the little girl so we gave her to them” The old man answers in fear, closing his eyes and looking away.

“That’s all we know we swear!” The old woman adds onto his point.

“Haha… you gave her off just like that? When she had a fucking…” Zare stares at the pipe then grits his teeth. Fuck them.

He swung the pipe, breaking the old man’s legs. The old man's scream hurt Zare’s ears but it was something that he needed to hear from someone like him and the angry rambling from the woman sounded muffled to him, he didn’t care as he swung once more this time striking the face of the woman creating large gash on her face causing her to bleed everywhere and panic at the injury. Zare wanted the old man gone first.

Ten minutes, it was ten minutes of constant beating with a pipe. The old man’s face was destroyed as his entire lower jaw was on the floor next to his feet, surprisingly he was still breathing.

“Had enough?” The old man seemed unresponsive.

“Hey” The old man glanced upwards.

Zare struck again and again causing the old man to fall over, a blood puddle began to form as he crushed his head by beating it relentlessly. The old woman cried silently as she witnessed her husband die a horrible death. As Zare slowly calmed down he slowly turned to her.

“Next” He whispers.

Dropping the pipe, he walked over and grabbed her head and pressed his thumbs onto her eyes. She began to scream in pain but Zare kept pushing his thumbs deeper and deeper.

“You were worse, you always were after her. I’ll make sure to spare you the trouble and take away your sight so that way you can feel what I’m about to do to you much much more” Zare explains to her.

“Stop… let me- AAAAAA-” Her eyes were crushed and blood poured out.

Zare grabbed the pipe once more and began mainly beating her arms and legs, with each strike blood poured out of where used to be her eyes. The screams she gave off were constant from the pain of losing her eyes and receiving the hits from him. After what seemed to be hours she stopped screaming.

She bit her own tongue off.

Zare stood “victorious”.

The whole time Zare did not once show emotion. Not once did Zare flinch at the things he did nor witness. He moved like a blur with his methods to the point where his mind perceived it as such. In the end Zare cried and began what was many more to come as the voice in his head speaks to him too.

“What have I done?”

“They hurt her… they hurt us”

“I’m a monster”

“A monster through and though”

“Why did I do this?”

“We had to do this Zare”

“I could've ran out and looked for her”

“No, we were too horrible for that, in the end we were a monster. In the end we valued our own rage over her”

“What am I doing right now?”

“She’s gone Zare, let her go”

“I… can’t” Zare in a desolate state of mind cries into his hands.

Zumi was dead. Zare was going insane at the weight of his actions and the death of the person he loved dearly. In his lowest point, his mind buries the thought of her death deep into his subconscious. Staring at the corpse of his actions, his mind begins to race in delusion as his rage slowly turns and contorts into regret.

He could not bear it.

As a last ditch effort his mind immaturely labels it as “self defense”.

“Coward” The voice of Zumi echoes within his mind. Zare glances at the door forming a broken smile in the hopes that it was her.

She was not there. He stares at the door a little longer and looks to the right towards the window. He imagines the police lights flashing through, his life being ruined, his life being destroyed but isn’t it destroyed enough from what he’s been going through?

“Coward”

Her voice rings through with each minute that passes. Zare grabs his wallet and wears his best clothing for the cold outside world.

“Coward”

It was nighttime as he exited the house and the snow had already melted off. This meant one thing for Zare which broke his mind further. Falling to his knees and crying one last time, mourning one last time, and remembering one last time. “It’s true” He thought to himself.

“She’s dead. Zumi is dead” His hopes shatter and his mind is sent to one more feral frenzy of emotions.

A torrenting storm, his mind in a pitch black storm with him being thrown around at high speeds. Zare forcefully walks forward and with each step his mind clouds further and further and he begins to mumble different words and noises. Unable to properly cope with the loss he begins talking to himself hoping that it would help him deal with the pain.

“I can't believe we did that… It’ll only take a matter of time before were caught and we’re fucked”

Zare walks out of the basement and into the kitchen. He uses the telephone to call 911 and states his address only saying the reason being “emergency”. He grabs his belongings and walks out the house all operating in a fog. He traces his steps back to the corpse of the dog. Zumi’s corpse lies next to the dog, clothes ripped apart and her body beaten with bruises all over, in fear he blinks and her corpse is nowhere to be found, the dog still lays there however. He looks down and notices many footsteps around him, upon closer inspection it was his own footsteps, he lets out a chuckle. He tried to look for Zumi all this time but failed.

The long figure walks forward, red and blue lights behind him.

The recollection ends.

END OF CHAPTER 2