Chapter 11: Family
Yela and Kara walked along together in the dim caverns. The older girl tightly yet tenderly held her little sister's hand in her own.
“You! I turn my back and you were gone again!
The little girl stuck her tongue out of her mouth.
“Sisss it's boooooringggg.”
“So I went to play! And I got to see Cole.”
“I don't care if it's boring you could get hurt!”
“And if you get hurt…Cole might get hurt.”
“What does big sister mean?”
“...It's nothing Kara, don't worry.”
“Hey! Remember Mom said she was going to get us some fruits!”
“Yeah!!! I remember! Sis you have to give me yours too, it's only fair.”
“What do you mean it's only fair you little munchkin?”
Yela started to ruffle the little girl's hair.
“STOOOP YOU'RE MESSING IT UUUUPPP!!!”
“HAHAHA THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!”
The girls laughed and played as they went along the caverns, their laughter and joy echoing through the stone prison. Suddenly, a small rock was thrown in their direction, stopping their fun.
A group of children stood in one of the caves near their pathway.
“It must be nice to have something to eat.”
“We haven't eaten in days!”
“My dad said your mom was a whore, that's how you girls were safe huh!”
“My parents got swept up in the flood while you girls probably stayed in one of those towers!”
“I bet your mom had to do many dirty things so you guys could sleep there!!!”
Another rock was thrown, hitting Yela in the arm as it bruised her. The little girl yelped at the pain. Tears threatened to come out of her eyes but seeing as they prepared to throw more, she instead pushed through the pain and moved to take action.
Yela grabbed Kara’s hand, pushing her forward while trying to run too.
THUNK!
A rock hit Yela in her ankle as she fell down to her arms and knees. Kara stopped running and started crying. Two more rocks hit her sister on the back and on her head.
A rock sped at Kara but Yela put her hand in it’s way, the rock bounced off her hand as her small dainty hand started to bleed.
Yela grabbed her sister’s body into her embrace, shielding her from any pain. Rocks rained down as it battered the little girl’s flesh and bone. Every sound of her sister being pummeled made Kara sob even more intensely. She felt her chest tighten so much and her throat lock so tightly she couldn't breathe.
Yela endured the pain while tears flowed out of her eyes too. She was in so much pain but she still felt so glad she could protect her sister from it all.
Suddenly, the rocks stopped — no they simply weren't hitting her anymore. Two skinny arms and a frail body covered her small figure as she looked up to see his blonde hair…and his pained look.
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Cole saw the girl with tears in her eyes, looking up at him. To this, he simply flashed her a smile, before using his hand to turn her head away from him.
At that very moment a rock hit the back of his head as it started bleeding. The smile on his face threatened to disappear, but as the girl swung her head back in worry, he put a warm smile back on his face. Four more rocks pummeled into his bony back, the smile refused to fade. This was nothing, the pain was nothing.
“Everything's going to be okay…You're going to be okay. You're safe...”
He turned her head away once more as he grit his teeth and embraced the little girls even more tightly.
THUD! THUNK! THWACK!
Three more blows pummeled into him.
Yela started to tremble and quiver, the pain in her heart started to hurt more than the bruises that bled from her body. The rocks continued to rain down.
“Hit the coward! Hit him hard!”
“I heard about you from my parents! You sold your friend out, but protect them?!”
“You're probably messing with their mom too huh!”
The three were silent as they endured the physical and emotional pain that came fiercely and relentlessly. It came and came and the group of children started to run out of rocks.
Cole was battered and bruised on every inch of his body. His head swayed back and forth as he started to see double. Blood came out of his head profusely as he held on adamantly to stay conscious.
‘DON’T FALL, DON'T FALL, DON'T FALL, DON'T FALL!!!’
His eyes threatened to close and his body started to become limp, yet through pure power of will he kept himself from doing neither.
Resolutely,
‘I won't let you girls get hurt.’
The last rock hit Cole’s head, yet, there he remained.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL DOING.”
A furious mother with black hair screamed as she found the scene. A boy so battered and bruised that wherever the eye could pass, his skin was black and blue.
She saw her two daughters sobbing so hard that their clothes were wet from the oceans of tears. Her youngest daughter was physically fine, but her oldest had spots like a zebra all over her body. Vivian looked at her with so much sorrow and fury, that her red eyes threatened to become all black.
The mother took a rock from the ground and swung it hard at the group of children. It beamed at them, hitting a certain black haired boy in the head before he dropped to the ground. The children stood there in shock when another rock was thrown into them, hitting a girl on her leg as she squealed and fell to one knee.
Vivian, Yela and Cole looked to see that it was a small, trembling little girl who threw the rock. She picked up another with reddened and tear filled eyes as she quivered from anger and indignation. Throwing another, the children snapped back to their senses and started running. The rock hit a boy in the head, as his friends dragged his droopy body.
Vivian also picked up some more rocks as she beamed them into the crowd. Yela hesitated but her small, bruised, trembling hand also reached to a rock. Grasping it in her hand, she prepared to raise it, but then a large slender hand held her own. Yela felt the warmth of it touch her skin, as she dropped the rock.
Vivian stopped Kara from throwing anymore, before speeding to both of her daughters and tightly embracing them. The mother got down on her knees to fully hold the girls in her arms, comforting them, and herself. Their sobs and stifled gasps of air echoed through the caves, the poor family cried into each other with the girls burying their heads into their mother’s chest while she rested her lips on their hair. Stars fell from her face, raining on her daughters’ hair. Suddenly, they heard a thud. Cole had collapsed to the ground.
…
Zan sat up from the floor. He looked around himself to see four blank stone walls and a steel door staring down at him. The hand awoke too…if it was sleeping at all. Maybe simply resting? Zan didn't know, for he simply had never met a reanimated hand. When he sat up it crawled to his left shoulder, facing forward.
Zan glanced at it, thinking about his dream…or maybe vision…
The hand, perhaps feeling the odd look from the red haired boy, turned itself to face his direction.
“...”
“...”
They shared a brief…look…and a moment of silence with each other. Of course they shared a moment of silence! How could it talk? Or hear?
‘What has my life come to…’
RUMBLE
The boy was hungry once again. With impeccable timing the door opened slowly and what met him was a monstrosity of untold horrors. It was the pig headed man, but his eyes were dull, lifeless and completely black. On his bottom stumps were two furry legs ending in hooves, on his upper stumps, two arms were sewed together onto his flesh. One was gray and large and the other, black, bony and malnourished.
The thing held a tray of food in his hands sporting ten steaks, thirty slices of some kind of thinly cut pork, fifteen eggs, ten cups of rice, seven bananas, five whole carrots and three gallons of water.
The food looked magnificent, but Zan was not so sure that he still had an appetite.
The thing clumsily put the contents on the ground, as it lugged over to the exit.
As he exited, Zan tried to take a look outside of the door. He saw nothing but darkness, which was weird as his eyes were quite acquainted with it. This darkness was different…like it was made of water not the absence of light. This darkness…had substance.
Suddenly a sweet voice appeared from behind the door.
“You eat a lot sweety, more than what I calculated you would you know…”
‘Crazy fucking woman…’
“I met your…son.”
“I can tell!!! You guys are so close already, he never wants to play with the others, not even touch them.”
‘Others? Your other things are fucking weird!’
Zan reared his head once again to look at the hand, and it turned to face him too. They seemed to come to an understanding for a brief moment, before looking at the brunette hiding in the darkness once again.
“So…what do you want from me? Why are you keeping me here? You haven’t killed me yet.”
“Oh, why would I kill you honey, you look just like what my baby would have looked like if he grew older.”
“No…instead…I’m going to make sure you stay with me forever. I won’t lose you ever again! I’ve brought you back but I still have to make you guys just like before…”
“What the fuck…”
Zan took a piece of steak and took a large bite out of it.
…He figured he might as well finish his food.
The hand turned to him, it was impossible to know what it was thinking. If it was thinking anything at all. Perhaps it was wondering if Zan was not right in the head too.
“Finish your food first honey, and then I’m just going to do a few experiments on you…”
“You…what?”
Zan choked on his food, before jamming three slices of bacon in his mouth.
“That’s right, I told you, didn't I? I have to make sure I won’t lose you ever again.”
THUD! THUD! THUD!
At that moment, three large monstrosities could be heard walking over.
The ground quaked under their terrible weight. Zan’s eyes could not see through the intense darkness but he somehow knew whatever awaited in the shadows was no less hideous than what the pig headed man had become.
The strange boy opened his eyes wide and started to devour the food in front of him…