The boy woke up in a startle. He shot up, hugging his arms and curling up into a ball. His newly formed scabs and stitches tore and came undone by the sudden action. He bled and a wave of pain assaulted his healing body but he ignored it. This pain was no match for the anguish and fear rampaging in his heart.
In his mind, he saw a pit of fire. He was in the depths of the pit, the centre where the fires avoided like there was a spell cast around where he stood. The fire flickered and danced about, taunting him with their intense heat.
Opposite to where he stood, bathing in the flames was a fiery fiend. He consisted solely of charred flesh, like a devil or a walking corpse, an abomination, a crime against nature, that which was rejected by the world itself. Replacing his eyeballs in the eye sockets were glowing red flames that somehow distinguished itself from the other fires in a disturbing, soul shaking manner. The fiend stared at the boy with his glowy eyes and an eerie smile stretched across his cracked charcoal face.
He lifted his arm and pointed a bony finger at the boy.
[LiGHt AnD dArKnESs ArE twO SiDes oF ThE SaMe COin. YoU wILL NeVEr EsCaPe IT. iT IS YoUr DeStINy! YoU WErE BoRn To CrEate aNd deStRoY, EVeN if yOU wErE tO fAcE ThE lIgHT, YoUr ShaDow wILL RemInD yOu Of ThE MONSTER ThaT yOu ARE! It WiLL HaUnT yOu ForEVEr! AL! BERT! mY DEmoN iMPS!]
The boy stood in place, his knees shaking and trembling as the jarring voice echoed in his ears. His heart pounded in his chest, the sinking sensation getting stronger with each beat. He hugged his arms, nails digging into his skin as he desperately tried to suppress his fear.
Suddenly, a hand emerged from within the fiend's chest. A gaping hole was made in the charcoal body and it crumbled into dust just like that. Behind the falling dust was a shadow, a boy enshrouded entirely in a shadow in this otherwise fiery world. With a face identical to the boy's, he stared coldly and ruthlessly at the boy.
The boy stared wide eyed, frozen in place. His shadow continued to glare at him, staring disapprovingly. The boy's mouth opened and closed stupidly, stammering for words that refused to form. He took a step back only to clumsily trip over his own feet and fall flat on his bottom. Falling out of the invisible barrier, the boy was swallowed by the ravaging and starved flames. From start to finish, his eyes never left his shadow's lifeless, impassive eyes that more closely resembled black marbles.
Just then, a hand gently shook the boy's shoulder and jolted him back to reality. He opened his eyes again, the scenery changing from a sea of flames to the peaceful, quiet hospital ward that was devoid of colour.
"What's wrong?" The owner of the hand inquired with concern.
The boy flinched, jumping at the touch of the intruder. He turned with great vigour and speed, just like a wounded and frightened animal. However, his eyes were calm and without a single ripple of emotion. No, actually, there was. A sliver of fear and maybe even blood-lust made it through the cracks.
"Is there a problem?" The intruder asked again, unfazed.
The intruder was a doctor. She had golden hair and eyes, wearing a white coat, a comfortable shirt underneath it and a stethoscope hanging around her neck. Pinned on her coat was a name tag that read: Cynthia Lopez, Healer.
"It's not good to hurt yourself like that, okay?" Cynthia gently reprimanded. "Good kids don't waste the efforts of the doctors and nurses that make them better. Am I understood?"
Cynthia was smiling, she was smiling but there was a dark aura that seethed out of her right now. Terrifying! She was too scary! The boy had no choice but to nod and release his tight grip on his arms. There were dark red stains of blood where his hand was along with other places where he had reopened his wounds.
"Good boy. You're a child who listens well, aren't you, Albert?" Cynthia relaxed and charmingly smiled. She pat Albert's coarse hair, praising him.
"As a reward, I'll partially heal you." She held his left hand with her two. "I'm not supposed to be doing this, but you were a good child, so..."
Cynthia smiled and her eyes glowed golden. The same golden glow transferred to Albert. Starting from his hand, its warmth coursed through his body. The pains that assaulted his body lessened a little but was replaced by the itch of a healing wound. Even after Cynthia stopped using her ability and let go of his hand, Albert still felt that persisting itch. It was like thousands of bugs gnawing his skin. There was no pain, but that constant feeling of something crawling all over you was enough to drive one insane.
"All better, be careful not to open your wounds again, alright?"
Albert slowly nodded. He felt as though she had done this on purpose. She purposely only healed him a little, forcing him to deal with the enhanced itch of a healing wound, something he felt was worse than the pain itself.
"Now, where's your thanks?"
He opened and closed his mouth, stammering for the words that just refused to form. To thank this devil for torturing him...He just didn't want to! Dammit! He didn't want the first thing he says after waking up to be dishonest words that went against his very existence!
Just as he was wrestling his inner dilema, Albert caught a glance at the vase of flowers decorating the bedside table. They were brightly coloured flowers that had presumably been cut from the garden by someone who didn't know a lot about flowers. They weren't cut properly in a diagonal at the stem and the flowers were jammed in, casting shadows over one another and already starting to wilt.
Ding! A great idea popped into Albert's head. He grabbed the colourful flowers and his beady black eyes turned into a glowly vivid green. The garden flowers started to perk up, gaining vitality and even spouting more flowers. They had speckles of the rainbow on the petals, unique and beautiful flowers.
Albert straightened his arm and shoved the bouquet directly in front of Cynthia's face. He didn't speak but his black eyes said it all.
"This is your thanks?" Cynthia chuckled. "Well, they're quite beautiful so I'll accept them."
Albert let out a sigh of relief on the inside.
"Then, I've got to go back to work now, see you again, Albert."
Albert nodded. In the split second that she opened the door to leave, Albert happened to see another person standing outside the door. The man was clothed in a black suit and stood with his back tall and straight. He wore black sunglasses and looked like the stereotypical bodyguard.
Cynthia nodded at him in greeting and he nodded back. She also whispered something to him and quickly closed the door, leaving Albert alone in the hospital room.
By himself again, Albert looked outside the window, turning his head 45 degrees like he was some kind of profound master. 'Albert...is that my name?'