After his father finished the story, Itami fell fast asleep.

Looking at his son's peaceful face without worry he felt his heartache knowing that this time would soon end and that his son would go through many trials in the coming years.

After momentarily pausing he got up from his son's bed and turned off the light

" If only it didn't have to be this way, if only I was a ------ ". And before he could finish that sentence his head was severed from his body rolling on the ground.

Itami's pov

Waking up I'm normally greeted with the smell of my mother's cooking or the sound of my father's pencil tapping pretending like he's not writing.

However, today I was greeted with one thing instead of my usual two, and it wasn't pretty. It was red. All I saw was red.

Third person pov:

Once Itami saw the blood that painted his room he ran outside hoping that his parents were safe, but what he saw was everything except what he wanted.

When he took his first step outside he saw his fathers' head on a pike with his eyes gouged out.

As soon as he saw this tears unknowingly poured from his eyes.

Hoping at least his mother was safe, his eyes darted around looking for her, but what he saw next made him angrier than seeing her corpse ever could.

He saw his mother tied to a tree with various whip markings, cuts, and bruises on her body.

Holding in his vomit at his mother's mutilated body, he ran towards her to get her down.

Once he loosened the ropes' grip on his mother he checked to see if her heart was beating, fortunately, it still was.

Now that the worst was out of his mind he went back to his enraged sick self and vomited thinking about what he just witnessed.

'Who would do this? Why would they do this? They didn't have anything valuable to speak of, not to say that they were poor, they were just a regular middle-class family living in the forest.

As Itami keeps running unrealistic scenarios through his mind, he hears his mother start muttering something, so he leans close. "Ru-un," she says.

Immediately his eyes widen realizing he is in danger, but suddenly something hits the back of his head, and before he realizes what happened he's knocked out.

(Somewhere in a random cave in the wilderness)

Itami's point of view

Waking up again for the second time today wasn't any better.

Unlike in my dad's fairytales I didn't come back to my normal life, and a hero didn't come and save me. No, I woke up to see my mom with a rope gagging her mouth and lifeless eyes.

I'd never seen that look before. It looked like someone pulled her soul from her. Normally my mother's eyes were fiery, a beautiful blend of red and orange that matched perfectly with her crimson hair and youthful smile, but right now one would find trouble relating her to her past self.

Her long blood-like shiny hair that she was proud of, now was cut short and dull, and it seemed like she was no longer afraid of them doing the same to her. It seemed like she had lost all purpose in her life.

Looking at her like this I didn't know what to say or do.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I think she hasn't noticed me awake either or has chosen not to acknowledge my presence, so I just sat there and let time pass me by.

2 hours later

Currently I am very upset, and disappointed.

In the last two hours I tried multiple times to reach out to try and free my mother from the rope binding her, but every time she would fervently shake her head no.

Seeing this I didn't understand why she was adamant about this, and every time I tried to quietly ask her what was going on she would ignore my questions.

Slowly, I started to get sad thinking that my mother didn't want to talk to me anymore or that this was all somehow my fault, but after a while that sadness turned to anger and frustration.

However, this isn't what a hero would do. A hero would save the day and inspire mother into talking. Unfortunately, my anger kept building up inside.

Finally, I yelled at the top of my lungs when my rage reached its breaking point "Why won't you answer me! Why! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that we're captured and they're taking us somewhere. We should be figuring out a way to escape, not moping around!"

Then I paused because of the words I was about to say, and my lips quivered.

"Mom, wake up please! Dad is gone, you're all I have left. You can't do this to me! You can't leave me!" As I was saying these words a stream of tears climbed down my cheek and I resolutely stood up and made my way to my mother's side.

I ripped off the cloth covering her mouth. "Mom, please! just tell me you want to live!.

Then for the first time in over two hours, she spoke to me. "I want to live," she said, "but not as much as I love you." It took me a minute to process those words, but in those few seconds, I was knocked out for the second time that day.

Third pov

When Itami woke up this time he felt a distinct ringing in his head.

'Maybe the person who knocked me out this time heard my yelling and decided to be a little less gentle. Well, if knocking someone out can be considered being gentle in the first place'.

Once he got out of his stupor, he realized he was chained to a wall upright, and a man in a crow mask was staring at him while sitting in a wooden chair.

' Is he the one who killed Dad? Is he the one who left those marks on mom?'

'What's he going to do to me?'

Thinking this immediately started his futile relationship with the chains.

As soon as the masked man saw Itami started to struggle in his bindings. He sent one of his crows to give him a greeting.

Seeing the crow fly towards him at insane speeds Itami started to struggle even more, but before he could do anything a gash appeared on the side of his shoulder.

Although it barely grazed him, it felt like his insides were burning. While under this unbearable burning sensation, Itami desperately tried to break the chains off of him.

Then the man spoke, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Well unless you like torture".

Thank You for Reading. as always if you have any critiques, opinions, or things you want me to add or edit please let me know. Know I will not listen to every request, and I can't compromise certain things.