Chapter 1
The child was hiding in the shadows. He was lurking, searching for his target. Like a lion, silently approaching the unaware gazelle. He stealthily moved forward. He had become an unknown element in the city, an unpredictable variable.
The majority of the city’s inhabitants were constant; they included servants working for nobles, some merchants, and a few elites. What they all had in common was that they were powerless in the face of the people standing above them.
Houses in the city were often small and made of wood, except in the wealthier parts of the town, where houses were made of stone and brick and were designed not only to house the families living there but also to accommodate the staff who worked for them.
Inside the poorer parts of the city. There was an area where, at night, life became abandoned. Not only were there no people walking the streets, but the people who were there were all moving silently, hiding in the shadows.
In that same area, there was a house. The house was neither small nor large; it looked as if it had been a well-made house with careful details and much care, but none of that could be seen now, as the passage of time had shown its cruelty. Making the once pristine house no more than a building that told the people who saw it that this area had long ago been prosperous.
It had been abandoned and was now used only for shady dealings that couldn’t be conducted in more public places. Despite not being a large house, it had a decent-sized basement. This made it a prime spot for criminals to hide their illegal activities.
The sun had already set, and the moonlight gave the area a distinctive look with an eerie atmosphere. Combined with the rumors about what was going on in that place, the house looked even more harrowing to people who passed by, both day and night; it made them walk by faster. This applied to both regular citizens and criminals dwelling in the district.
Outside the house, two guards were stationed. The one to the left looked considerably older; he was shorter than the other and also a bit on the heavy side. He has had this job for many years and has gotten used to it, and therefore, not much could surprise him.
The junior guard was new, and the nervous energy he gave off made it no secret to anyone who saw him. He was skinny and tall with long limbs.
This made the duo contrast strongly; in other circumstances, they would have looked comedic standing beside each other to anyone who saw them.
Despite the house being notorious as a dangerous spot, a small boy could be seen in the area. He glanced around the corner to the two bodyguards, and when he saw them, he broke into a big smile, beaming. It was as if sunshine was permeating from his face. He started humming a song and skipped towards the building.
The two guards quickly noticed someone approaching and went on high alert. It was dark out, so they could only hear the quick footsteps approaching.
Tap, tap, tap.
They later saw a young boy coming towards them. He was rather short, even for his age, and his hair was dark black, long enough to reach his neck. His skinny build, innocent look, and childish behavior made the guards immediately lower their defenses.
“Beat it, this is no place for you,” The senior guard told the boy.
“What, why not!” The boy said dramatically in protest, putting both hands to his cheeks and showing a shocked expression.
Both the guards stood silent, confused by this child. They then looked at each other, hoping the other would do something.
Finally, the senior guard spoke again:
“Just leave, this is no place for kids.” He was too tired for this; he hoped the boy would leave soon. He spared no pleasantries as he used his hand to shoo him away like he was a stray animal.
“Don’t be mean, I just want to play.” Now the child was pouting. He was trying to give them the look of a sad puppy. This only irritated them because the expression was so over-the-top. It even made the older guard click his tongue in annoyance.
The boy took the elder’s hand, holding it in his own.
“Please don’t make me leave. I don’t want to be alone.”
The senior didn’t know how to react; he wasn’t used to dealing with kids. Especially not a child as eccentric as the one before him.
The junior guard saw how uncomfortable the senior guard was and told the boy:
“Knock it off”. As he said this, he pushed the boy away. Distancing the boy slightly further away from the senior guard.
To his surprise, the boy still held his hand.
The guard was exasperated by the child’s stubbornness at this point.
“Oh well, I guess playtime is over now. Guess I will have to be alone again.” The boy said in a dramatically sad tone, shaking his head in regret.
The senior guard then awkwardly tried to comfort him:
“Why don’t you go home and play with your parents? I bet they are worried now that you’re out this late”. He placed the only free hand he had on the shoulder of the kid, trying to comfort him. He had a strained smile on his face.
The boy then took out a knife without any warning. Both the junior and senior panicked, while the junior reached for the sword, and the senior was about to use his free hand to intercept the knife before he could get stabbed.
But to both their surprise, the boy raised the knife and stabbed the side of his own head. Effectively ending his life on the spot. His face was still smiling, but now with a more sinister energy emitting from him.
The junior guard’s mouth gaped open in shock. He let go of his sword, pulling motion, letting the sword fall back into his scabbard.
‘Did this boy just walk up to them and commit suicide. Because we didn’t want to play? What is with that boy! Or should I say was now that he is dead?’ The junior guard contemplated.
The boy fell to the ground, letting go of the guard’s hand, and there was no blood coming out of his head. Confused by this, the junior guard nervously approached.
The boy then opened his eyes and shouted:
“Surprise!” The smile was still plastered on his face, his eyes full of life. But now that smile only signaled danger to the guard. He had never felt such fear from anyone, especially not a kid.
The boy then took out the knife from his head, completely unharmed.
Unbeknownst to the junior guard, he had fallen on purpose and had never been harmed.
“The look on your face, you must have thought I was a psychopath or something. Well, I might be a bit on the weirder side, but that has nothing to do with it.” The boy said firmly, then he crossed his arms above his chest and let out a huff, showing his defiance against those claims while still holding on to the bloodied knife.
“How are you not…” The junior guard stopped in the middle of his sentence because, as he looked at the senior guard, the second shock hit him.
Blood was pouring out of his mouth, and he then fell to the ground dead. The blood was coloring the street red, leaking out from the side of his head with a large wound, forming a circle that kept expanding.
The junior guard looked at the senior, then at the boy. Then it clicked; he understood. The boy must have done this.
‘It can’t be a coincidence that he stabbed himself in the head and came out unharmed, but the senior died from a stab wound to the head without a knife coming in contact with his head or even anywhere on his body!’
As he was contemplating this, the boy rose to his feet and then tilted his head.
“Well, this is awkward. What do we do now?” He asked, playfully scratching his head. Letting the silence sit.
The knife was still in his hand, hanging to the side. Letting blood trickle down to the ground.
The junior guard couldn’t believe that what he assumed was an innocent child could have done this.
“Wh-What have you done!?” The junior guard shouted, a shout filled with both anger and fear; his legs were shaking despite his attempts to remain still. It was as if his legs were not his own and had independent free will.
Before he had even realized it, the boy’s hand was holding his arm.
This put him on even higher alert; he pulled out his sword from the scabbard that was holstered on his waist with his right hand.
‘He must be an awakened. His power seems to be able to transfer self-inflicted injuries, but he probably must be in physical contact with the person he wants to transfer it to. Otherwise, it’s weird for him to go out of his way to hold onto us.’
While it was common knowledge that people with mysterious powers existed, most people knew little else about how those powers worked or who had them. And since most awakeners stuck together, the common people were also more isolated and less likely to meet any of them. Dividing the awakeners from the common people.
Even if they knew how it worked, they wouldn’t know who an awakener was unless the awakener revealed themselves. For all they knew, their neighbor or the stall owner on the street could be an awakener.
The guard swung the sword, but stopped right beside the boy’s neck. Hesitation hit him. As he did this, the boy started waving the hand with the knife to get his attention.
The guard focused his gaze on the knife as the boy slowly started moving the knife toward his own neck. He felt a sense of impending doom.
‘What a twisted child, what is wrong with him!?’
“Stop, or I will behead you.” The movement from the boy was slow, slow enough that he could converse with the boy. The boy was playing with him! While he was no stranger to unethical behavior or despicable acts, he had never hurt a child before; it was a hesitation built into most adults. Even when their own life was in danger, a normal adult would always hesitate to harm a child.
But what surprised him was what the boy replied:
“Do it, I don’t care if you kill me or not.”
The man’s hand started to shake, and the boy’s knife was coming closer. It was now at the height of the boy’s shoulders.
“You made me do this!” the man screamed. His hand was shaking, but he still managed to swing the blade.
Time slowed down. He didn’t know when or how, but he instinctively knew that he was dead. That time was slowing down for him, to let death catch up. That he had been killed. The guard looked at the boy and saw that he was smiling?!
His head was falling from his neck, descending towards the hard ground.
‘This can’t be. What did this boy do?! No, that is no child. That is a monster!’
The head finally hit the ground and rolled a couple of steps with its momentum before it stopped.
Standing above the corpse, the boys’ smiles disappeared. Now showing a look of disdain for the two men.
“Fool, why did you assume the injury had to be self-inflicted? The moment you let me grab you, your death was assured, either I would have killed you, or you would kill yourself”.
He found it more interesting when they killed themselves rather than him hurting them directly. It also gave him a feeling of delivering karma to the people who had tried to kill him. Them being killed by their own attacks, was there a greater form of karma or justice?
He squatted down next to the corpse and looked at the lifeless eyes of the junior guard.
“You wouldn’t care if I took this right?” He asked the corpse, but there was no response from the corpse. This made the boy begin exaggeratedly nodding.
“Thank you, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.” He said to the corpse, taking the sword as if he had gotten a response from it.
He stood up, giving them a last look before he was about to head to the house.
‘People like them deserve no mercy; those kinds of people don’t deserve to have anything!’
Thinking about them and what had happened to him, he trembled, his eyes now showing burning rage.
‘I will kill them! I won’t let a single one escape! I will hunt them down, make them suffer. Anyone who protects them is just as guilty, and so are the people working for them! The complacency from others is what allowed things to happen.’
The boy breathed heavily, fast. Then he slowed his breathing, trying to stabilize it. He slowly breathed in and exhaled, calming himself.
After standing still for a moment, recollecting himself. He looked forward.
Then the boy smiled as if nothing had happened. He then started humming and danced his way towards the door of the house.
