A gust of wind blows, shaking the trees gently around them. Three children, looking around them to get a sense of where they are, dragging their feet, trying to walk further than their tiny legs should. They are holding each other’s hand, following their mother, who is leading them somewhere.

  “Where are we going, Mom?” the eldest child asks, looking to put a stop to the quiet walk they have been doing for a while. He cannot stand the silence.

  Again, silence. Just another gust of wind blowing, shaking the trees around them. The mother is unflinching.

  “I’m tired, Mom,” says the youngest child, straining her voice. She walks forward, letting go of her siblings’ hands, and she reaches out to touch her mother’s hand.

  Suddenly, in a quick motion, the mother flicks her wrist, and the youngest feels a sharp pain on her face. A small amount of blood is trickling down the young girl’s cheeks. She slows down her walking.

  “I’m sorry, Mother,” holding back her tears, the youngest puts her wrists over her face to cover her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t you cry! You know seeing you sad makes me sad, right? Would you make your mother sad?” says the mother in a very sweet and soothing voice.

  “Ye-yes, Mother.... I’m….. I’m….. I’m….. so sorry.” Tears running down her cheeks, and snot running down her lips. She cannot control her emotions, just her walking pace. She desperately tries to wipe her tears and snot away with her sleeves.

  ***

  After a little while, they finally arrive at their destination. The three children have no idea where they are, only that their mother stops walking and finally looks back at them after such a long walk. She is smiling widely, sweetly, and gently. The three children notice a building, which looks like a big house situated in the middle of a clearing in the forest.

  “Where are we?” whispers the middle child.

  “I don’t know….” the eldest replies, while rubbing his sister’s belly, the only way he knows how to comfort the quietly crying youngest child of the three.

  “See that building? It looks like a………. castle?”

  “What’s a castle?”

  “Uh… you know…. a place where nobles live?

  “Nobles? Those rich people?”

  “Kind of, yeah, someone like that.”

  “Looks just like a big house to me.”

  “Yeah! The big house is the castle! It’s their home.”

  “Just because it’s big doesn’t make it a castle, dummy!”

  While the brothers whisper to each other, the youngest one stops crying. She notices that there are a few towering, big men clad in black armor outside of the house.

  “Who are those people? They look scary…” She points at the armored men.

  “Who?” the eldest asks.

  “Those people!” the middle child answers, pointing at the armored men.

  “Be. Silent,” the mother speaks in a sweet and soothing voice. “And stop pointing your fingers!”

  The three children quiet down as one of the black-armored men approaches them. The very ground itself seems to rumble a little with each of his steps. As he gets closer, it is becoming clearer and clearer that the armor he is wearing looks like scales. The three children are straining their necks looking up to see the man’s face. Underneath his dragon-like helmet, the children can see that his eyes are glowing red like blood, menacingly, as if he is seeing a couple of prey within his sight. He looks down at the three children.

  “Are these all?” the man speaks, with a deep guttural voice.

  The children flinch as his voice shakes their very heart. All three of them feel the urge to cry and tears welling up in their eyes. They immediately look down to avoid his gaze.

  “Yes, these are all mine. They are such sweet, sweet children. I’m sure they will be sweet too. Hehehe,” the mother speaks with an excited voice, smiling widely while patting each of her children’s heads.

  “This one bleeds.” The armored man points to the youngest child, his eyes staring deeply into her blood on her cheek.

  “Y-yes, she accidentally walked into a tree branch. Clumsy, yes, that one is.”

  The armored man glares down at the mother. A silence that seems like an eternity passes by.

  “.......Very well.” He lifts his left arm and gestures to the other armored men, making a circle with his index finger.

  “Take these inside.”

  “A-and your… promise?” The mother bows to the armored man, trembling, her form is awkward, almost as if she is ready to run.

  “Ah, but of course.” He reaches for his pocket and pulls out what seems to be some sort of a vial containing green liquid.

  “Here, worm. Choke yourself to death.” He throws the vial at the mother. The mother frantically catches the vial mid-air, like a dog being thrown a treat, and she runs off into the middle of the forest. The children, bewildered by this exchange, can do nothing but stand still.

  “Greetings, spawns.” An armored woman approaches the three children as she is taking off her dragon-like helmet. Her skin is very pale, her hair is long and seems like midnight, and just like the armored man, her eyes are glowing red.

  “Your miserable existence leads to this moment. You will take joy in it.” She lifts her right arm and swings her sharp steel-clawed-glove across the youngest child's face making a gash on her face.

  “Argh!” The youngest child falls down face-first from the sheer force of the armored woman’s claw. Blood is leaking out from her face.

  The armored woman reaches down and grabs the youngest child by the back of her neck and lifts her up.

  “Looks like this one is ready!” says the armored woman, with a wide grin on her face. Then, she, in an instant, pulls her closer and sucks her cheeks. Her right hand tightly grips the youngest’s neck that it starts to bleed from the armored woman’s sharp steel-clawed-glove digging in.

  “H-hey! Let h-her… go!” The eldest child tries to muster courage and put a stop to the harm his sister is getting. “Get y-your hands off her!”

  The armored man punches the eldest child, “Silence, worm!”

  The eldest child loses his consciousness from the hard punch he got. Witnessing his brother lying motionless on the ground and his sister being held by the neck bleeding, the middle child is like a stone, just standing still without any hint of moving muscle.

  “Don’t damage them, these are for the long-term.”

  “Haha! Did you just not strike down one?”

  The armored man walks closer to the middle child and punches him straight in the neck, knocking the child out.

  ***

  “Urgh…..” The middle child wakes up, feeling a sharp pain in his neck. His vision is blurry.

  “Where….?” He looks around, trying to ascertain where he is. He reaches forward and touches what seems to be a wall. He then stands up by using that wall as a support. The pain in his neck makes him wince. He leans against the wall to take a breather, and let his vision clear. When his vision clears, he notices that he is inside what seems to be a small room, three sides of the room are just damp stone-brick walls while one side of the room leads to a bigger room but is barred with barbed metal bars.

  “Hello?” He intends to stick his head out of between the barbed metal bars but stops once he sees how sharp the wires are, and that they have traces of blood in it.

  “Mom?” he asks, raising his voice.

  “Mom?!” he says, louder this time.

  “Mother?!” he yells at the top of his lungs, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Mommy?!”

  “Cease that noise!” a loud guttural voice coming from the other side of barbed metal bars yells at the boy. “I ought to rip that throat of yours!”

  The middle child jumps back and cower in fear, crying in silence.

  “Mom…..” he quietly calls for his mother. “Where are you?”

  Only now he realizes that he is alone in this small room. He squints his eyes looking at the other side of the barbed metal bars, the bigger room, trying to see if there is any hint that his brother and sister are there. On the other side, he only sees what seems to be a table with sprawling chains on top of it. Crackling noise can be heard and there is light with an orange hue in the bigger room, signifying fire. He holds himself as he starts to feel cold in that small room. He wishes to be close to that fire. Then he hears a noise, a loud noise. He perks his ear, trying to get a better sense of what he is hearing. He is perplexed, just what is this noise he is hearing now? It sounds like someone is slurping something but he cannot see who is making that sound.

  “Haha! This is a good one,” says a low, guttural voice, softly.

  “Do not empty it all. Remember that this – or rather – these are for the long-term. We will not have another for a while.” Another voice joins in, this voice is more masculine than the previous.

  “Feh! There are the other two! You will not spare me from this!”

  “Enough! You are not the sole Vdellas here!”

  “Haha! If only our ancient lordship sent us some of hers, we would not have to resort to collude with some of the local worms!

  “Be that as it may, save one for our countess!”

  “Yes, yes.”

  The boy is trying to understand what the two voices are talking about, but to no avail, he does not understand.

  “I know I should’ve learnt to read! Maybe I will know what words they are using,” he whispers to himself, frustrated.

  Despite being curious about what the two voices are talking about, he feels too tired to think, so he curls himself on the cold ground and falls asleep.

  Suddenly he hears a sound coming, waking him from slumber. The sound, clinking sound, is getting closer. He pulls away from the barbed metal bar and goes to the furthest corner away on the other side of the room, bracing himself on what may come his way. Then a figure finally comes into his view, visible from the small room. The figure looks to be a pale white-haired woman in a white, sparkling, and rather homely dress. Each of her steps makes a clinking sound, she is wearing a pair of sparkling red glass shoes. He looks up at her face, her red eyes glow slightly in the dark, and a face that smiles really wide, he has never seen anyone smile that wide before, not even his own smiley mother.

  “Greetings!” the woman speaks to him, with a voice that is sweet as it is devoid of emotion.

  “H-hello?” he replies back, unsure but is trying to be polite.

  “Is…. this….. untouched?” she speaks to the man behind her.

  “Yes, my countess. Not a hand, pure.”

  “Then you have yet to confirm?”

  “We have yet.”

  “Hehe, good, I like surprises.”

  The man behind her walks forward to the barbed-metal bar and pulls it open. It is not even locked. The pale woman, still smiling widely, walks forward and pinches the boy’s left ear, pulling it violently.

  “Aw! Please stop, it hurts!” The child cries as he is being dragged away by the smiling woman. From room to another room, the smiling woman keeps pinching his ear. It is beginning to bleed as it slowly rips. “Please….. It hurts….”

  The smiling woman, unflinching in her steps, is not slowing down despite the boy’s plea.

  “Please, miss, I-I will come with you, don’t pull my ear, it hurts.”

  Nothing he said seemed to budge this smiling woman.

  After dragging the boy across another set of rooms, she let her fingers go from the small boy’s left ear. The boy on his knees, wincing, holding his left ear gently as he holds the pain.

  He looks around him, he sees an empty room, its walls decorated with fancy ornamentation that forms what looks like a dragon. The smiling woman turns to the boy, this time, she looks at him straight in his eyes. She raises both of her arms over her head making a circle, only now the boy notices her sharp nails. She holds her arms up for a long time with no sign of the slightest of movement, and her eyes seem to lock on to the boy’s eyes. This gives him chills, he averts his eyes, he has never felt something like this before, this dread. The smiling woman keeps looking at him, he can feel her eyes despite not looking at that disturbing, smiling face anymore.

  Then, he hears what seems like something moving at him with incredible speed, and he feels a sharp, stinging pain on his back.

  “Ah!” he screams.

  Again and again, he feels excruciating pain on his back along with that noise of something moving fast. Someone is behind him, holding a whip, striking him again and again. The boy’s back bleeds and his blood splashes from the whip onto the smiling woman. More and more blood splashes all over the room, but it seems that someone behind the boy aims the whip in such a way to specifically splash the boy’s blood onto the smiling woman, who now is more akin to a statue being splashed by blood.

  ***

  After whipping for a while, the smiling woman’s body is covered in the boy’s blood, her white dress now crimson. The boy is crying, lying down unable to move from the excruciating pain.

  “Will this suffice, my countess?” a low guttural voice behind the boy speaks.

  “This…. will suffice, for today. Perhaps, we shall see.” The smiling-woman finally moves. She looks longingly at her nails. She seems disappointed.

  “I assume this one is….”

  “Not of the blood.” She turns around and exits the room. “Most assuredly, not”

  The boy is lying on the floor. He feels his consciousness fading, and his eyes are getting heavy. The man quickly kicks the boy in the stomach.

  “Do not sleep!” The man grabs the boy’s hair and drags him out of the room. After walking through several rooms, they arrive again in front of the small room barred with barbed metal bars. The man opens the barbed metal bars, and throws the boy inside.

  “Brother!” a voice whispers. It is the youngest child, she is in the small room. “Hey, you are bleeding!”

  “Hey….” The boy, despite the excruciating pain, is glad to see a familiar face. “I….” he tries to speak but he cannot hold his consciousness much longer.

  ***

  ***

  The boy wakes up after a while, now his sister is beside him lying back on the wall.

  “Hey….” she says, worried.

  “Where…. where is Tal? Have you seen him?” the sister asks the boy.

  The boy’s back is sore, he feels dry blood on it and on the ground on which he lies. He looks at his hands, also stained with dry blood, his blood.

  “You’re not bleeding anymore so… I left you like that.” The sister points at him.

  “Did they hurt you?” The brother, still lying on his back, looks at his sister, trying to see any sign of damage.

  “N-no… They didn’t…”

  “So have you been here in this room… all this time?”

  “They… they take me out sometimes…”

  “Sometimes…? Wait… how long was I asleep?

  “I think… 3 days?”

  “Oh… 3 days……… 3 days!?” the boy yells.

  “H-hey! Be quiet! But y-yes, they also made me feed you while you were sleeping. I just put gruel into your mouth though…”

  “Oh… and?”

  “And what?”

  “When they sometimes take you out… What did they do?”

  “...And that woman… the woman in white… the one that is always smiling…”

  “...Uh-huh?

  “She sometimes takes me out and hugs me for a long time…“ Her eyes stare off into the ceiling. “...Then they put me here again,” she says, casually this time.

  “She hugged you?” The brother, showing a perplexed expression.

  “Y-yeah.”

  “Huh…? Maybe she loves you?”

  “That’s what I thought too, so I said to her, ‘I love you too’. She didn’t say anything, though.

  “She didn’t say anything back?”

  “But I said it so many times too.”

  “Does mother know these people?” the sister asks, her body suddenly jolting up.

  “I have never seen a person so pale before, and their eyes are like… glowing.” The boy tries to sit upright, but lies down again. “I don’t know if mother knows any people like this.

  “W-well, have you seen Tal?” The sister's face turns into a scowl.

  “No… I haven’t.”

  “I haven’t too…”

  Silence permeates the room. Both the brother and sister lie silently as they listen to the crackling fire of the torches outside of their cell.

  “Let’s pray.” The sister breaks the silence. “Let’s pray to the Gods.”

  “Which one? I don’t remember.”

  “Well, mother always say that in times like now, we should pray to the Gods for help. To all of the Gods.”

  “O-ok, what should we say?”

  “Let’s pray so that mother can find us here. …And so that we can get back home together, all of us.”

  The sister kneels and puts her hands together, the brother gets himself to sit upright and also puts his hands together. Both of them then press their joined hands on their forehead.

  “Oh Gods, we wish for our mother to find us and bring us home.”

  “Oh Gods, we wish for our mother to find us and bring us home.”

  “Oh Gods, we wish for our mother to find us and bring us home.”

  Both of them, praying over and over again.

  While praying the brother notices an unpleasant smell. He glances around the room, he sees a pile of feces and what seems to be stains of something wet that leaves a mark at one corner of the room.

  “Ew… gross.” He covers his nose.

  “S-Sorry…” She twirls her thumbs. “Some of them are yours anyway. I didn’t know you can still poop and pee when you are sleeping… so, I only take your clothes off after the first poop ones.”

  “Where are my clothes, then?”

  “Here, but they are all torn up.” She hands him his clothes, his chiton, which are torn on the back.

  “W-Well… better than nothing.” He puts on his torn clothes, which provides some sort of comfort, some warmth.

  A familiar footstep is approaching, it’s the armored man. He is holding a bowl of gruel and approaches the cell the children are in. He throws the bowl inside, at the sister, and walks away as the bowl is still up in the air. The bowl then hits the sister’s head, spilling some gruel onto her face and on the ground.

  “H-here’s the food.” She tries to hold back her tears. “Let’s eat…”

  “.........Ok.”

  The sister picks up the bowl of gruel and sits herself down beside her brother. She puts her hand in the bowl and grabs a handful of cold gruel.

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  “Here.” She puts her hand up towards her brother’s face.

  “It’s okay… I can do it myself.” He tries to move his hands. His entire body is trembling.

  “No, it’s fine… Let me feed you.” She smiles.

  “Thanks.” He opens his mouth and she presses her hand which holds a handful of gruel against his chin. He slurps up some of the gruel, the most bland food he has ever tasted, yet, it is now the most delicious one.

  He finished the entire bowl quickly, then his head jolted up. “Wait, what about you? The bowl is empty.”

  “I-I already ate.” She looks away from his eyes.

  “Really…?”

  “...Yeah. I think… Now that we have eaten, they will probably take us out again. …They were so angry that you were not awake before.” She twirls her thumbs together. “They said they need you to be awake.”

  “Awake for what? …To hit me again?” He twitches at the thought.

  “Did you do anything wrong? Mother always hits us when we did something wrong…” She looks at her brother.

  “...I don’t know. But that lady, she hugged you right..?”

  “Well… Well, let’s apologize!” She perks up. “Mother stopped hitting us when we said we were sorry and then she always hugged us!”

  “O-kay! I will try!” He holds his hands up and puts them together, trembling. “Oh Gods, I am sorry for whatever I did that made them angry, please let them be kind and forgive me…”

  The sister also puts her hands together.

  “Please, let them forgive him… A-And please let them be kind and let us meet our mom!”

  “Please!”

  The footstep of the armored shoes is getting closer again, only this time it’s not the armored man.

  “Out! Out!” She splashes the siblings with a bucket of cold water. “Be awake and out!

  “Ah!” Both of them yelped, surprised by the cold water.

  The armored woman opens the cell, grabs the brother and sister by the arm, and yanks them out of the cell.

  “Stop it… it hurts…” The sister cries.

  “D-Did we do something wrong? …Please forgive us!” The brother begs the armored women.

  “Your existence is wrong.” The armored woman looks at him, grinning.

  Holding the siblings’ arm tightly, she drags them like a couple of twigs across the hallway.

  “S-stop…” The brother struggles, trying to unclench the armored woman’s hand on his wrist.

  “Aw…. uh….” The sister gave up, and is offering no resistance.

  “Squirm, o’ worms! The armored woman tightens her grips on the siblings, bruising their wrists in the process.

  “Ah!” Both of them cry out, pain all over their wrist.

  She drags them inside a spacious room. There is a lot of blood in that spacious space, on the walls, ceiling, floor, blood is everywhere. The armored woman throws the sibling flying across the room, it is as if they weigh nothing. They crash onto a wall, the brother lower down, the sister higher up. The sister slides down and crashes hard on the ground, breaking her knees. Her mouth gapes open silently. She is experiencing a pain out of her realm of imagination, a pain that she never felt before, the pain of broken knees.

  “Aw…..!” The brother holds his head, he had hit his head on the wall. He notices his sister lying on the ground, trembling and noiseless.

  “Hey… Hey! Are you o-”

  Someone kicks him as he calls out to his sister, it’s the armored man. He grabs his hair and drags him to a chair. He puts the boy on the chair, grabs a dagger, and without a pause, starts slitting the boy’s left wrist. The moment the boy opens his mouth to scream, the armored man covers the boy’s mouth. The armored man slits a long, straight line from the boy’s wrist to his inner forearm, the boy struggling in pain all the while.

  “Hmph….!” The boy squirms and squirms until the armored man is done slitting him.

  “You are sure that you elected to be cautious to not damage the nerves, correct?” The armored woman walks closer to the armored man.

  “It is you that must be reminded! Who do you think killed the other one?!” The armored man raises his fist to the armored woman.

  “That was just a simple blunder.” The armored woman shrugs her shoulders.

  “A blunder, nonetheless!” The armored man picks up a small round steel container and presses it to the boy’s left arm, waiting for his blood to drop into the container.

  “Now, what manner of incompetence are you displaying now?! Get it done with the female one!”

  “Patience, you ancient!” the armored woman replies.

  She gets over to where the girl is and slits the girl’s left wrist, just like the armored man did to the boy. She grabs a container and waits for the blood to flow into the container. During all of this, the sister is unresponsive.

  Once the containers are filled, the armored woman drags the siblings and heads toward a dark hallway leading down. She drags them down a flight of stairs not caring that both children are hitting the stairs hard. They are simply objects being thrown about, leaving trails of blood all over the flight of stairs. She then throws them into a cell by the stairs. This cell has no light whatsoever. A dark cell for the crying boy and the unresponsive girl.

  ***

  After a while, the boy has stopped crying and the girl is staring at the ceiling. The boy still slightly bleeds from the slitting. He is struggling to sit upright and he winces at this pain he is experiencing.

  Despite barely being able to make out the outline of his sister lying on the ground, he calls out to his sister, “H-Hey… Are… Are you up?”

  He waits for a response.

  “I-I I’m scared of the dark.... Please talk to me…”

  Still no response. He slumps back against the wall. He notices that the wall is made of stone, bricks of stones. Some of the bricks of stones feel uneven. He rests his head on the brick that slightly juts out. It makes for a good enough pillow.

  “Oh Gods, please… Let them love us. Please make them kind to us. And… forgive us for what we did… wrong?” The boy prays while looking at the outline of his sister whose body is still not moving.

  “Please let it be over, oh Gods.” His eyes are starting to get heavy.

  “Oh, Gods! What did we do wrong… We will be good kids and do what you say…” He trails off and falls asleep.

  He faintly hears birds chirping and opens his eyes. Although the room is still mostly dark, he can see better now that there is some light coming through from up the stairs by the cell. He does not know how long he has been asleep, only that he is hungry.

  “Ugh…” He holds his stomach. “Oh, Gods, let your graces be flown unto us and… and… how did it go again? Let… your graces be flown unto us and nourish us upon this very ground.”

  He gets up, his legs trembling and his arms sore. He walks closer to the metal bars, these ones have no barbed wire like the other cell, and holds the metal bar for support.

  “Hello… Hello! P-Please… give us food! We… we will do what you say… and be good kids!”

  His voice is hoarse, so hoarse that the boy is coughing violently, and he kneels in response to the burning pain in his throat. On top of hunger, it seems he is really thirsty too. He stares at the ground while holding onto the metal bars, aching pain all over his body.

  “Plea–” he coughs again. “Please…” Again, he coughs. “Please.”

  His mouth waters, his saliva dropping onto the ground. His eyes are getting heavy again, the hunger and thirst are so great that he lies down on his side, curling himself in an effort to dull the pain.

  “Oh, Gods… Oh, Gods… Can you not hear me…? Please get us home…” His voice gradually gets quieter as he continues praying. “Oh, Gods… Oh, Gods… Oh, Gods… Oh, Gods…”

  ***

  The boy wakes up, again. This time he hears loud noises coming from above. The noises he is hearing are unclear, but certainly loud. He hears grunting, screaming, yelling, and metal clashing with one another. He stands up, grabbing the metal bars for support.

  “Hello! Is anybody there? …We are down here! P-Please help us...!” he yells, but between the dry throat and the dull pain in his stomach, he is unable to do so. Still, he tries again.

  “Hey…! Hello! …Someone! P-Please! Ple…a…se…” He slumps over, his head against the metal bar.

  The noises are gradually getting quieter, until the only noise the boy can hear is his own breathing. Then, his head jolts up. He has yet to hear anything from his sister, not even her breathing.

  “H-hey… How long are you going to sleep…?” He looks back at his sister. He cannot see anything other than her body outline that seems to sprawl awkwardly on the ground. Both of the girl’s legs seem to bend in a weird direction that should not be possible.

  “Aw…!” His left arm feels a sharp pang of pain. He had forgotten that his left arm is still wounded from the slitting. Now that he remembers though, his body is now convulsing sporadically.

  “Ugh…” He winces and sits down, his back against the metal bar. He touches his wrist. He taps the wound, “Aw…….!” That was dumb of him, he thinks to himself.

  With nothing to do, he sleeps again, despite all the sharp and dull pain he is feeling.

  ***

  ***

  The boy drifts in and out of sleep for a long time, each time it happens his energy is getting drained. The light outside, coming from up the stairs, appears and disappears, signifying that days are passing by. He feels worse and worse being awake, so, all he wants to do is to sleep again.

  “Ugh…!” He sits upright and looks over at his sister. “H-hey… Are you hungry?” He reaches his now bony hand over to his sister.

  “Hey…” He pokes his sister. “Hey…!” He slaps his sister. No response.

  “Please… Please don’t leave me alone here… Wake up!” He slaps his sister again.

  “You know, mom will get angry if you sleep this long, right…? He kicks his sister.

  “I.. I am… so… so… hungry…” Then, just then, a thought occurred to him. A simple thought, a simple solution to a simple problem. A simple act.

  The boy gets closer to his sister, mouth open. He bites into the flesh, it is harder than he thought. He bites harder into the flesh, moving his mouth all the while, like a rabid animal. Blood is spewing onto and into his mouth, it tastes like iron, just like when his mother put a dagger in his mouth, exactly like her dagger. Then, he manages to bite a chunk off. He chews on it, he bites into it, he tears it with his hands, he chokes on it, he swallows it. It is the worst thing he has ever tasted in his life, yet, it is also the best thing he has ever tasted in his life. Thus, he continues to eat, and eat, and eat for a long time. He cannot stop, his hunger must be sated.

  ***

  “Oh, thank you, Gods!” Tears coming out of his eyes, his stomach finally feels normal after a long time.

  “The Gods heard me, haha… The Gods, they have heard me!” he screams out.

  “Oh, but! I forgot to pray!” He slaps his cheeks and holds his hands together. “Oh, Gods. Thank you for this gift. We humble subjects of your divinity shall… uh… shall nourish ourselves with this gift you have bestowed upon us and we will be able to toil in your name… once again. Amen.”

  “The Gods heard my hunger, and they fixed it!” He looks at the mangled body before him. “So why… why didn’t they hear you too..? He cries. A comfortable sense of drowsiness washes over him. The boy lies down, he hugs the small, mangled body tightly, and falls into a deep slumber.

  ***

  He wakes up, feeling refreshed, he immediately stands upright. He approaches the metal bars. Now that he is feeling rather well, he notices that a single bar at the bottom is a bit bent, and the color of it looks different than the other metal bars. It seems rusty, if it can be moved, then it will open a gap wide enough for a child to crawl through. The boy looks around and starts feeling the wall. There are bricks of stones that are jutting out slightly from the wall. Now that he has strength he tries to pull out the slightly jutting out bricks with his fingertips. Although struggling for a little while, he claws out multiple bricks of stones overtime. The boy’s nails are chipped from the effort. However, determination is possessing the boy. He picks up the biggest of the stone bricks and begins to strike the rusty bar with all his might. With each strike, he hurts his fingers. At this very moment, a heavy brick of stone that he struggles to lift, a dull sense of pain in his fingers, and the mangled body behind him are not his concern anymore. All he is thinking at this moment is to destroy this rusty metal bar.

  With a loud crashing noise, the single rusty bar comes off. Now, there is a wide enough gap for a child to crawl through, perfect for him. He crawls through the gap but then his hips are stuck on the metal bars. It seems his hips are slightly bigger than he thought. He pushes himself, trying to force his way through. With enough force, he manages to push himself to the other side of the cell, suffering abrasions on his hips, but that does not matter to him, he is out.

  “Oh thank you, Gods!” he mutters to himself. “Oh thank you… Gods…”

  He runs up the stairs that are beside the cell. He goes inside the room where his sister's and his left arm were slit. He looks at his left arm, and an ugly scar from his wrist to his forearm is visible, then it starts to hurt as if mocking him. “Ouch….!”

  He looks at the door across the room. The door itself is open wide and it is covered in blood splatters that look fresh. The boy cautiously approaches the wide open door, and there he sees a body lying on the floor near the door on the other side, a body that looks familiar to him. The boy goes into the other room, where the body is. The body wears a black armor, and there is a pool of blood around it. He cautiously walks closer to it.

  “Eek!” the boy yelps upon seeing the body more closely, a headless body. Blood all over the neck of that body, and not far from it is a head with no body. The head has long hair, a black hair that looks like the night itself. It bears the face of the armored woman.

  “Haha… Haha…! Ahahahahahahaha! The Gods saved me! They saved me from this bad woman!” He kicks the woman’s head, the head rolls away, he walks toward the head, he kicks the head, the head rolls, he kicks it again. He then feels a gust of wind blowing. He turns to face the direction of where it is coming from and he sees another door, wide open.

  “The Gods opened another door for me!” He runs toward the open door, it leads to a room with ornate chairs gathered around a single table. The room itself smells like blood, even though there is no blood in sight and every nook and cranny seems clean. The boy, however, does not care and keeps looking for another door to go through. He finds yet another door, this one is a double door, it looks like it had been broken in from the other side. The boy runs through that double door and finds himself outside.

  The boy takes a deep breath. It has been a while since he has breathed in such fresh air. He takes a step forward, and his barefoot feet slip a little. The ground is slippery, and he steps on what looks like a large pool of blood. Multiple bodies lying down motionless before the boy. The bodies all wear the same black armor. The boy looks over at each one of the bodies. Some of the bodies are headless, some of them have holes in their chest, some of them even have arrows sticking in their head. The boy has never seen an arrow before. He crouches down on one of the bodies and takes out an arrow. He stabs the arrow he is holding to a body’s knee joint. The stab wound that the arrow makes is not deep, so he stabs that knee joint again and again until it is deep and bleeds some more until he is satisfied. He then stands upright and starts to walk away from the vicinity of the lonely house, into the forests.

  ***

  The boy walks, he keeps moving his legs forward but it seems that the trees around him are following him, until he hears that sound, the sound of water streaming, a river is close. He heads to the direction where he is hearing that sound from and he finds a small river. It is so crystal clear that you can see the bottom of the river, the riverbed, littered with round stones. He scoops up some water with his hands and drinks it. It is the best water he has ever tasted, so he drinks it again and again until his stomach feels bloated. After having his fill, he begins to walk alongside the river, following downstream, while holding his stomach. He comes across a small village near the river. He is surprised and relieved. The houses in the village are made of mud bricks, wood, and stones, a familiar sight for the boy because his house is also the same. He had thought that he would never see something like it ever again. He sees people wearing chiton up and about doing their business. Some are in the river doing laundry, some are on the riverside sitting and chatting, and some are cutting wood. The boy approaches them and makes himself visible to the villagers.

  “By the Gods, look at that disheveled child!” A woman in the river points her finger at the boy.

  “He looks positively awful!” A man on the riverside jolts upright.

  “Hey, boy! Are you all alone?” another woman speaks out.

  “Y-Yes… May I ask where I can find food in this place?” The boy walks even closer to them. As he gets closer some of the men’s expression gradually turns into a scowl and some of the women are tensing up. Some of the men even pull out a dagger from their robes.

  “Hold, boy!” a bearded man speaks up. “Swear! In the name of the Gods, where did you come from? Answer this, honestly… I will know if you lie.” He points his dagger at the boy.

  “Huh? Oh… I… I am…” The boy trails off. He seems unsure how to answer. His arms flail about. The men and women are watching him rather intensely, after all.

  “Answer!” a woman cries out. “Answer!” she cries again, louder.

  “Look at all that blood on him!” another woman adds. “And don’t you think his eyes are-are-are k-kind of red too? L-Like those Vdellas?!

  “I-I-I-I… I am… I come f-from… from… from the h-house.” The boy lowers his head. “But… But, I-I am not from there actually, I am from-”

  “The house? The house deeper in the forest…?” The bearded man squints his eyes.

  “Yes…”

  And in a heartbeat, one of the women in the river quickly climbs up to the riverside and swipes a dagger from one of the men, and throws it at the boy.

  “Away with you!”

  The dagger narrowly misses the boy’s face. He falls down on his back. The men are yelling and running toward the boy. By instinct, the boy quickly gets back up again quickly and runs away from the river and deeper into the forest. Not long after, he is out of breath, but he keeps running until he can no longer hear the men who are chasing him.

  The boy sits down near a tree to catch his breath. He is holding his chest. His heart beats so rapidly that he feels as if it is going to burst out of his chest. His body is drenched in sweat. And his feet hurt from running barefoot. He lifts his legs and sees that some gravel is stuck on his feet. He plucks these gravel one by one, each feels like a sting as he removes them. Now, his feet are full of small bloody holes. He thinks they look ugly.

  Once he had his rest, he decided to try again. He walks again to the village. When he is close to the river, he hides himself in the bushes and scouts the area near it. It seems that currently there is nobody around the river. He approaches the river cautiously, gets himself in it, and cleans himself as best as he can. Washing the blood and dirt away from his body while carefully keeping his eyes and ears up for any sign of someone around the area.

  The boy’s body is now clean but he is all wet. He walks furtively into the village, glancing around the nearby houses. He is looking for dry clothes. The boy can see a young woman in the middle of hanging up her laundry. One by one the young woman hangs the clothes on a suspended rope, and one by one the boy analyzes which of those clothes fit him.

  “Martha!” a man’s voice rings out from within the house.

  “Yeah?” the young woman answers. “What is it?”

  There is no further reply from the man. Thus, the woman stops her activity and goes inside the house. This is the chance for the boy to borrow some clothes. The boy grabs a white chiton, it looks sparkling, whoever washed it did a good job.

  “I am borrowing this.” the boy mumbles to himself. He hastily puts on the chiton that is a bit large for him, and quickly walks away from the house.

  As the boy walks further into the village, he gets passing glances from people. The boy greets them with polite smiles and continues to walk forward, doing his best not to look suspicious. He arrives in the market area of the village. It is not as bustling with people as he had thought, the market seems rather empty. The boy thinks this is a good opportunity to find food. He approaches one of the stalls in the market.

  “Hello, do you sell food?

  “Food? Can’t you see, kid? All I got here are luxury goods.” The man at that particular stall smirks.

  “Oh.” The boy turns his back.

  “Wait, at least buy something if you can, kid!” The man taps his wooden stall.

  “Why?” The boy turns to face the man.

  “There’s gotta be somethin’ you like here right? C’mon! Real cheap!” The man taps his wooden stalls again.

  “Real cheap?”

  “Course! The price real cheap for youngins like you!”

  The boy stands there for a moment looking at these goods that he has no idea what to use for.

  “...Hmm. But I’m hungry… and I don’t think these can be eaten, right?”

  “Ay! Fair enough. Just come back when you know what you want later, eh? Doubt a kid like you got an eye for these potteries anyway.” The man crosses his arm. “Say, I never seen you ‘round Antro.”

  The boy is silent for a moment, then he opens his mouth, “I’m not usually buying. So…”

  “Huh.” The man shrugs. You’re lookin’ for food right? What kind of food or ingredient?”

  “Anything that can be eaten.”

  “Try old Lobo. He sells fish and meat.” The man points at the stall two stalls away from where they are.

  “Okay, thank you.” The boy bows his head and walks to Lobo’s stall. There, he sees an old man with grey balding hair. His eyes are quite intense.

  “Hello, I would like to buy a food.” The boy looks nervously at the old man.

  “Sure, what food?”

  “Uhm… the ones that can be eaten?”

  “Well, sure. All of these can be eaten. Which one do you want?”

  The boy stands there dumbfounded. He does not know which one is fish and which one is meat.

  “Then… This one?” The boy points at a fish.

  “Sure. Just that one? That’ll be 5 Gryd.

  “5 Gryd?”

  “Yup.”

  “What’s 5 gryd?”

  “Well, the price of this fish.”

  “Price?” The boy’s expression is that of utter bewilderment.

  “Oh, Gods, have mercy upon me.” the man whispers to himself. “Price. The stuff you trade in exchange for something? The coins, yes? Your mother sends you here to buy some food, right? Then did she give you some gryd to buy it?

  “Uhm… No. She didn’t.”

  “I’ll be! Get back to your mom and ask her for 5 gryd and then you can buy this fish if you give me that 5 gryd. You got that?”

  “O-Okay.” The boy reluctantly walks away from the stall. He now wonders how he will get 5 gryd. He gets out of the market and sits himself on a wooden fence. Several people walk in and out of the market. The boy observes that the people who are going in the market have nothing in their hand while those that are going out are carrying several objects. He approaches one of the people who are going in.

  “Excuse me, how do you buy?”

  “What’s that?” an elderly woman answers.

  “How do you buy here? With gryd?”

  “Oh, yes. That’s correct. With gryd we can do our buying.”

  “How do you get gryd to buy?”

  “What do you mean, eh?”

  “What is….. what is the price for 5 gryd?”

  “You work, boy. That is the price for gryd.” The elderly woman squints her eyes. “You… I’m afraid I haven’t had the chance to see your face around here before. Whose child are you, sonny?”

  “I’m…….. I’m Martha’s son.” He makes sure that his eyes do not meet the elderly woman’s eyes.

  “That so?” The elderly woman looks closer at the boy while he desperately fights his urge to run.

  “Ah, yes. I do remember seeing that good white chiton at Martha’s.” The elderly woman walks away and into the market. “Get back home, child. It’s almost evening.”

  The boy is now unsure of what to do. He is hungry and does not have a place to stay. So he wanders around the village. During his walks, he sees all kinds of people, elderly, young, and middle-aged. They all walk rather quickly now that it is dusk. But then, he sees a man in white robes. The man speaks loudly.

  “Hark! Sin is the scourge of the soul! Repent! Dear men and women of Antro! Repent and the Gods shall purify your soul!” The man stands in front of a church while preaching to passersby. His arms flail violently as he speaks. Curious, the boy walks up to him.

  “What is sin?” The boy looks up to the preacher, and the preacher looks him in the eyes.

  “Sin is any act that defies the Gods’ good graces. Sin is the act in which you debase yourself to lower than human. Sin is in your blood. Sin is your very soul! To exist is to sin!” the preacher speaks loudly, and what he speaks rattle the boy. Something about that word disturbs the boy, something about sin, something about soul.

  “Repent! Therefore, repent! And repent! And you shall receive their mercy! You shall have salvation!”

  “Why… Why do I need salvation?”

  “So that you won’t be plunged into hell!” The preacher suddenly brings his face close to the boy. “You don’t want to go to hell, do you?” the preacher whispers into the boy’s ear.

  “What is hell?”

  “Hell is where the nonbelievers will be punished. Eternal torment for the abandoned souls! Where the unloved ones go!”

  At this moment, the boy has heard enough, so he tries to walk away. However, the preacher grabs his skinny arm, and holds him in place.

  “Are you a good boy? Good boys won’t go into hell. Good boys will receive Gods’ love!” the preacher whispers closely into the boy’s ear, smiling from ear to ear and yet, his eyes do not seem to smile along. The boy shakes his arm firmly and the preacher lets his grab loose, and the boy runs away.

  After running so much in a day, the boy feels exhausted. He is still hungry but now his priority is to find a place to sleep. The sun is now replaced by the moon. The street is empty, darkness is covering the village, and only dim lights from torches can be seen. The boy heads toward the biggest clusters of dim light. When he arrives, a rather big building made of clay, stone and wood is before him. Outside of the building there are two attractive blond women who dress lightly, showing a lot of skin and much of their voluptuous figure.

  “Hey now, Tria. Look over there.” One of the women, a woman in pink, points at the boy.

  “That’s not something you usually see around here and at this time of day,” another of the women, a woman in purple, replies.

  “Hello, do you know a place for me to sleep?” The boy walks closer to the women.

  The two women look at each other, and then smile at the boy.

  “Oh, my. You can sleep here, boy.”

  “It’ll cost you a fee, though.”

  “A fee?”

  “Yes, for a cute boy like you…”

  “We will give a special price.” The woman in pink hunch over a little and pats the boy’s head. The boy flinches at the sudden touch.

  “What is the price?” asks the boy. “I don’t have gryd.”

  “You don’t have gryd? My, my.”

  “If not gryd then… how about a taste?”

  “A taste? What taste? Sweet taste, sour taste, bitter taste…?”

  “Oh, haha. You could say sweet.” Both of the women are grinning. Their expression bothers the boy, but he is exhausted and he wants to sleep as soon as possible.

  “O-Ok. Sweet taste, then?”

  “Haha, what is your name?”

  “I-I…….. don’t know?”

  “You don’t? Hmm, you have such mesmerising eyes, like a deep-colored cherry, and that hair, delicious purple. How about we call you Targarina? Like that one flower, yes?”

  “I don’t know… I don’t know any flowers.”

  “You are the flower! Haha, go on inside, sweet boy… sweet Targarina…”

  Thus, the two women lead the boy inside the building. The boy is wondering why the two women are smiling so much and why they are getting closer and closer to him.

  The sun rises again. The street of the village is slowly being populated by people and the vendors are getting their stalls ready to sell their goods. One vendor, an elderly man who sells fish and meat, is in the middle of preparing his stall when a boy approaches him.

  “Hello, mister. Is one fish still 5 gryd?”

  “Yes, it is still 5 gryd. But I’m currently getting ready, so sorry, could you wait a little then come back?” The elderly man realizes that it is the same boy that was asking for food yesterday, but he notices something is different about the boy. The boy now bears hickeys on his neck and arms. The boy also has dark bags under his eyes. The elderly man is thinking about saying something but then the boy speaks.

  “Ok.” The boy walks away from the stall. He wanders the marketplace from stall to stall, then he comes across a narrow alleyway. He goes into the alleyway and finds a white-haired woman lying face-down on the ground. She is bleeding profusely from her back.

  “Hello.” The boy comes closer to the woman. “Hello?” Something catches his attention, even when the woman is lying face-down, he can see that the woman is wearing a shiny golden necklace and beautiful earrings. The boy bends over to take the necklace by ripping the string, and he yanks the woman’s earrings so violently that it cuts her ears. The boy examines the earrings. The earrings are wire earrings and are shaped like a kite. They are made of gems, reflect light beautifully and have a nice color, a color that is similar to the boy’s eyes. He thinks they are so beautiful, the boy does not think twice and puts them in his ears, ignoring the pain of piercing them in. With the golden necklace in his hand he gets out of the alleyway.

  The boy comes back to the elderly man’s stall. Smiling and tucking his hair behind his ears, he shows the golden necklace to the elderly man.

  “Hello, will this do for the fish? I don’t have gryd.”

  The elderly man is apprehensive, he can see the bloodstains on the golden necklace the boy is holding. The elderly man raises his hand and points up at the sky with his index finger.

  “Do you swear by the Gods that you have this golden necklace rightfully?”

  “Yes.” The boy stares at the elderly man blankly. No hints of what the elderly man is looking for, no hints of guilt.

  “Those earrings too?”

  “Yes.”

  The elderly man sighs. He grabs a basket full of old meat, the ones that are over a day old. The elderly man grabs a chunk of meat that is being swarmed with flies, and puts it on top of a spread of big leaves. He wraps the meat with the leaves and hands it over to the boy.

  “This is not the fish?” the boy asks him.

  “No, but this is what is worth that golden necklace.”

  “Ok!” The boy takes the meat and extends his arm to give the golden necklace, but the elderly man stops him.

  “No. Keep the necklace.”

  “If you say so.” The boy turns his back to the elderly man. He is about to walk away.

  “Before you leave.”

  The boy turns his head to the elderly man.

  “Know this, child.” He points up at the sky. “The Gods, they watch you, always.”

  The boy is still for a moment, then he walks away from the marketplace. As he walks, he hastily opens the leaves that are covering the meat. He bites into it and rips a small chunk off it. He eats the meat until there is nothing left but the leaves. He then throws the leaves on the ground and heads out of the village. He follows the river, and looks up to the sky.

  “If you are watching me right now, Gods… did you watch me last night?” He undresses himself and goes into the river, carefully washing his clean body.