Chapter three, bastard child

Rei had been left homeless after the raid, wandering into the city without hope or direction, until he was found that is, by this old man, he said rei could stay with him as long as he did stuff for him, he obliged. Soon he realized what these favours were, he didn’t understand much of what was going on due to his age and lack of education in the subject, though it made him feel violated and uncomfortable none the less. He resided that way for awhile, in Milwaukee where the old man lived.

Whenever the old man left the home he would handcuff Rei to the bed, marking him as not much more then a symbol, a symbol of depraved sex and exploitation. He grew depressed and suicidal over the few months he resided there, but he stayed, for he thought it was his only way of survival. But he came to realize over the time he spent in that awful place, the warmth and food wasn’t worth it.

The wall behind him was white, like a canvas, pristine, the newfound instrument of his liberation.

With rage and hatred, he bites down onto his pointer finger with all his available strength, over and over, until it’s a mutilated bloody mess. With this blood, he paints.

When the old man comes home on his break, he is met by the image of a butterfly on the wall above his bed, in an expired crimson, making a dark brownish red. Due to rei’s anomalous ability to hypnotise through imagery alone, he lets rei free of his prison. Running as fast as he is capable, he takes hospitality in a nearby restaurant, unaware is he, that the place he has chosen, is owned by that same old man.

That scythe, it beckons

How would have he found me? What does he want? I suppose those questions will be answered soon enough. My lord, his hand… what could of happened? And, why aren’t I doing anything, I’m just frozen here, staring at the embodiment of my recent past. He’s crying now, Cathy ran over and is tending to him, he looks horrible.

The young boy was brought into the backroom by her, she yelled for jim to get medical supplies, yet he didn’t answer, without thinking, completely avoiding his social anxiety in that one moment alone, art speaks “here!” while grabbing at bandages that resided in his pocket, in that moment their eyes locked, both were frozen, this wasn’t exactly how art planned on meeting rei again.

Rei stopped crying, like he momentarily forgot his troubles, the look he gave artious… it was chilling, though they didn’t get along back at the manor, for the most part, rei was happy there, he was reminded of that when he met with arts eyes, that look that he gave artious, it was one of complete and udder sadness, rei was almost completely gone, vacant, hollow.

Rei stood up from his hunched place on the floor, all while remaining eye contact, he spoke to art, “how depressing our story, brother, why wont things just go back to normal.”

He ran to artious and wrapped his arms around him, like he was holding on for his life. In a way, he was, the only happiness he had ever known, he wouldn’t let it go, he couldn’t.

The whole time sally was standing behind art, not really knowing how to act

“what the fuck is all this commotion about!” jim turned the corner into the back door, once he saw rei, his expression of anger turned to panic, and as soon as rei noticed who it was, he entered a state of hysterical crying and screaming. Guests in the restaurant looked over to the sounds in concern.

Rei was hugging artious even tighter then before, art looked down to the top of the boys head, crying and yelling into his torso, he took a second, then looked back up at jim, there was silence for a few seconds, until art spoke, ”what did you do to him?” Jim babbled a bit, art cut him off with “how do you know him”, reis cries grew more desperate.

There it was once again, the white void, however this time, the flowers smelt as though they were rotting, he was still in front of the white dome of rustling feathers, but… some of them, some of them were black.

Something grabbed his neck and threw him back to the cold striped floor of the void, it was ford, “dumb kid, I thought I explained myself well enough, do not let the darkness corrupt the light!” art sat on the cold floor, his own hand around his neck, staring up at the grim decomposing figure of ford, silent. “Now you have a choice, spare the child rei, and let corruption overtake him, or prevent that fate with the instrument of your destruction, but be warned, let him live, and you will face him again in your future… as your enemy.”

The forever plains melted away to the kitchen that he now stood, crowded and grimy, rei wasn’t crying anymore, he was… stone faced, emotionless, his aura was different now, it changed from its sweet mysterious self, into something more resembling of the old man Jim. Rei loosened his grip on arts waist, followed by completely letting go and dropping to his knees.

“h-holly shit,” art said mildly panicked, he bent down to rei’s eye level and they shared a gaze once more, rei’s eyes were more intense this time, it wasn’t that they were hollow of faded any longer, its like now, a different person lay behind those eyes. “What have I done to you… no,” art cocked his head up to look at the old man, “what did you do to him?”

Before Jim had a chance to speak, faster then humanly possible, art leapt up to his feet, striking Jim in the jaw and sending him flying halfway across the room, next to the back door, seemingly with more strength then the average person Is able, at least more then a depressed twig of a teenager. This grabbed the attention of sal and caused him to run back up stairs to their room in fear.

Guests of the restaurant grew concern, and some called the police. Art was now on top of the old man, throwing punch after punch to his face, already swollen beyond recognition. He swiftly came to his senses and feared the worst, “Oh fuck, I didn’t kill the bastard did I?”

While swiftly reaching for his chest to see if he could feel a heart beat, he was shoved off the man by rei, tumbling over onto the gravel just outside the back entrance, it knocked the wind out of him, he took a second to regain himself while having his back to the diner, however when he turned around… what he saw can only be described as the udder limit of the human mind, nearly the maximum amount of rage one person can contain, all spilling at once, rei was stabbing the man repeatedly with a large kitchen knife while screaming with the most intense emotion art had ever witnessed. Reis white hair was more red then white at that moment.

Is it destiny or is it feeble honor, honor for something I don’t respect, something I didn’t sign up for.

I heard a familiar metallic struggle, followed by a low rumble. Yellow lights peered through the car cover that faced me,and I knewI had to leave right then and there, but, I was comfortable here, with Cathy… god fucking damn it all.

I jumped up and tor myself away from the gruesome scene in front of me, throwing the cover off of the old car that had come to life on its own, I could here old grungy rock playing from within. I dashed up the wooden stairs lining the outer walls of the building to get sally, he was crying in bed and refused to get up when I asked him, so I picked him up roughly and carried him outside and down to the car, tearing off the tarp, I looked around for cathy, just to say goodbye and thanks or something of the sort, but she was no where to be found, I was reminded of our small time window by distant sirens and the aggressive revving of the car, I jumped in the drivers seat and the door closed behind me, wait what about rei!? I cant just leave him here!

just as artious reached out for the door handle, the throttle pedal slammed down to the floor on its own, forcing them to leave.

“I ask myself, the reasons for the existence of me and my siblings, it seems to be for the good, but now that most of them are gone, how does that leave me? Must I carry on their roles? Or maybe none of them mattered in the first place, maybe I’m a bigger piece to this puzzle then I thought. Im sorry I failed you rei.”

“Do I go try and find the others? In hopes of saving them too? Or do I just do my very best at protecting dear Sal… oh scythe of mine, what am I to do?