Lykaios

Faolan needed only to hear the bell’s first reverberating chimes to be packed up, out the door, and headed down the hallway. This is how it was every day. He didn’t want to stay and listen to the bustle of his classmates chatting as they packed up, nor did he at all look forward to hearing, smelling, seeing, and immediately judging whether or not their words, scents, or body language suggested any possible threats, or offered any sort of exploitable openings to his so-called “survival instincts”. So, like he’d done for the past month, he hastily left as soon as the bell even hinted its blessed tune.

But today something was different. Today, he chanced to turn his head to the left rather than keeping it straight, catching a glimpse of the sky through the windows. He found himself staring, musing up at the clouds as they swam along the boundless blue above, which was actually a darker shade of violet today. He didn’t even notice as tears fell from his eyes, nor would he have felt it had someone bumped into him on their own way out. All he did feel was that he’d not stopped to gaze at the sun, the sky, and the clouds in...who knows how long. He’d missed it, the sensation of sunlight on his skin, missed the sight of a sunset as it transformed the great blueness of the sky into a swirl of orange, red and violet, and he’d missed being able to wake up early enough for the sunrise, and being able to see the vast, deep blackness of night turned to day. But now, he couldn’t even look out this window without his eyes and head burning in agony. In fact, he’d missed everything about how his life used to be; before all the hunger, before all the hideous desires and depraved needs that gnawed at him, turned him into a caged beast. Missed it terribly.

If anyone had told Faolan that he would one day never again be able to see the sky alight with beams of the sun, he would have spent the whole of his days outside, looking up. As he thought on this, Faolan’s silent tears turned to bitter weeping. Like clockwork, his accursed instincts tightened his chest and all but forced his tear-ducts closed. For, it wasn’t wise to show such weakness—especially with so many of his peers just around the corner. Faolan’s expression of despair grew into a scowl, and he stalked off with his fists balled, and his heart full of nothing but aimless rage.

It was with great bitterness that Faolan reached into the back of his mind, recalling with uncanny clarity how this mess began.It all started three years ago, and, to the best of Faolan’s recollection, on a day when a beautiful mix of blues, purples, and oranges danced in the skies...