Nathan could barely feel his own body.
He was constricted.
He could barely move, but he was able to look around as he was dragged around in this sticky cocoon.
He was unsure of what happened, but one thing was for certain.
He was now in a cave, and in front of him was a disturbing monster- one unlike anything he had ever seen.
It was a spider, which walked on two legs like a human, covered in bandages, wielding weapons and tools and wearing a backpack made of similar thread on his back.
The appearance of the monster in front of him shook him to his core, and made him want to shout out, scream, and run.
But he had no will to do so.
Before, his life was nothing less than hell.
Mrs. Fera had let something slip, which he certainly didn't want to hear.
"There was one almost ready for sale."
"Products."
Nathan was one of these products.
He was the one, ready for sale.
He had a feeling that this was the case.
That there was something more to this hell than mere production, and excessive amounts of labor.
It was a factory that produced not equipment, but people.
It produced well trained, and obedient workers who weren't needy.
Little food and water was given to them. Even what they were given, they had to cook for themselves, and almost anything they had they made for themselves. They had to share things from a small stash, and were never allowed to have fun or take breaks until the excessive quotas were fulfilled.
It all made sense now.
This was a camp to create the ideal worker.
A worker that obeyed without question.
A worker that provided themselves with their own necessities, and didn't need much to survive.
A worker who could be pushed to work around the clock without giving in or dying.
How much would these workers be priced at?
They would be priceless, to any company which would be willing to use any method in order to make more money.
These workers were long term, reliable investments, sure to pay out.
That was who Nathan was.
Knowing this, even though his hands were trembling at the sight of the spider in front of him, he wondered to himself.
'Is this really that bad?'
'Is this really any worse than before?'
'Perhaps this is better.'
'If I am eaten here and now by this.... thing.... then perhaps it will be quicker and easier.'
Nathan calmed down, and his hands stopped trembling.
He was able to look the beast in the eyes.
Rather than seeing a monster about to consume him, he was able to see it as a savior, about to rid him of his suffering.
'But what of the other children?'
Nathan's fears returned, as he thought of the others.
They must be frightened.
Terrified.
What would he do about them?
No, there was nothing he could do.
He was trapped in this cocoon, which seemed to be made of a material stronger than steel.
The other children were the same.
All that was left was to beg for a quick death.
No, perhaps not.
The spider that had kidnapped the children.... he seemed intelligent.
He was speaking to Mrs. Fera, and while he acted and shouted like a beast, perhaps he could be bargained with?
'But what could I possibly offer to the spider?'
Nathan had nothing to offer. Even if he offered his own life, that was already in the hands of the monster. It was nothing of worth.
If he offered information, that would be even worse. Assisting a monster to consume the people of the village, just for his own survival, or for that of the children here?
He couldn't do that.
Then what?
Perhaps the spider had a sadistic side that he could manipulate?
'Maybe.... just maybe....'
It was then that Nathan remembered the last words of the spider to Mrs. Fera.
"The monster has taken over the mine, and is hiding there with all the orphans. Don't forget that part!!"
Why would he say something like that?
Why would he give away his location, and even encourage Mrs. Fera to come back with more people to defeat him?
Most importantly, why did he even keep Mrs. Fera alive? If he was intelligent enough to speak and communicate, then surely he would have killed her, no?
Nathan smiled slightly as he remembered the monster eating the fingers of Mrs. Fera.
'Well, at least she got what she deserved in the end.... heh heh.... even if I die here, at least I know that this monster is fair. He punishes all, good or evil. I suppose that's what it truly means to be a monster.'
'To cause chaos and destruction to all, with no regard to things like good or evil.'
Nathan found himself snickering to himself.
'Everyone is equal in front of a ravaging beast.'
But why did he keep Mrs. Fera alive?
Was it because of stupidity, or because he was a simple beast?
There was no way!
If he was indeed a simple beast, he wouldn't be able to speak as he did! Even if that was ignored, a beast would eat the food in front of them!
There had to be a reason.
Could it be?
Could it be that the monster was using her in order to gather more people?
Could it be that this monster was confident that it could win against an entire force of people, gathered to hunt it down?
Could it be, that it was using Mrs. Fera as a tool to lure in new prey?
Nathan shuddered.
If that really was the case, then either the monster was extremely overconfident.... or....
It was extremely powerful.
Nathan hoped it was the former.
He could not possibly imagine the strength of a being which would be able to defeat an entire force of people who had prepared themselves and gathered for a hunt.
Nathan had never seen a monster before in his life, and was unaware of anything beyond his duties in the orphanage.
However, right now one was in front of his eyes.
Nathan looked up in terror, but on seeing the monster, felt a slight sense of comfort.
'Well, I suppose this is it. However.... perhaps if I can make a miracle occur....'
Nathan wasn't sure if it would work.
It would likely be a pointless struggle.
A useless effort.
However, if this monster was intelligent, and if this monster was twisted enough to wish to witness the scene of a tragic hero, then perhaps Nathan could pull something off.
Nathan spoke up to the monster in front of him.
"If I allow you to eat me, then could you allow the other children to go free?", Nathan pleaded.
The spider looked at him strangely, and spoke with a slimy voice.
"If I were to do that, then you all would lose value as hostages, no?"
----
Coran did a check to make sure that all the torches had enough fuel to keep going for the rest of the night, and even wrapped some bandages around each one to keep them lit.
As he was doing this, he spoke in a low tone to the children who were tied up on the ground.
"Let's see.... first off, I think I should establish a few things."
Coran finished up one torch, and moved onto the next.
"What do you all think of me? And what of my slave here? Please do not worry. Know that your answers will not effect your fate in the least. I merely wish for an honest opinion."
Coran tied up the last torch, and stuck it into the ground, before turning to Nathan.
"You, heroic boy who seems to not understand anything. What do you think of me?"
"W-what do you mean?"
"Am I a monster? Am I a human? Am I a spider? Am I an animal? A beast? What am I? I've been trying to answer this question from the day I was born."
Coran said this while twiddling his human fingers with a bandage, showing off his humanlike characteristics to the children.
"I.... I don't know what you are. How am I supposed to know if you don't even know! But why would that matter? Aren't you just going to eat us? Please.... just get it over with! Don't torment us like this, if you're not going to let anyone go!!"
"Oh be quiet with that. I never said I would kill you quickly. I suppose I did say I would consume you. Yes, I did say that. Well, that doesn't matter. Just forget about that for now. I had no plans to eat you from the start."
"What!?!? You're lying!! Are you messing with us to get our hopes up???"
"Oh, that is something which my masters taught me was very wrong. Getting people's hopes up is something that is completely unacceptable."
Coran put his face next to the face of Nathan, who was wrapped in a cocoon, and he licked his own fangs, as a drop of poison dripped from his mouth, sizzling and creating a small crater in the stone floor which it landed on before quieting down.
"I have no intention of doing something like that. You all are now the property of the antiheroes. You remain property.... slaves. But your masters have now been switched out. I suppose that woman didn't like that term.... slaves. I suppose she had something against it? Perhaps she was ashamed to admit it? Perhaps she was trying to put on a front to others, by using fancy words and a smooth tongue. Who knows. But let me tell you this. You all will soon be rejoicing. You will rejoice, that you can call yourselves slaves. Slaves, to my great masters."
Nathan bit his lip, and gulped as he tried to move his head further from the spider in front of him, but the obstruction of the cocoon which he was trapped in prevented him from doing so.
"But where was I...."
Coran stood up and once more paced around, looking at each of the children's terrified faces.
They couldn't stand him.
They couldn't accept him.
Yet, something was strangely off.
They didn't look at Coran with anywhere close to the same fear which they showed toward that woman.
It was as if they were scared, not of Coran, but of the consequences of being taken away by him- of being punished by that woman.
"That's right. What am I? Take a look at these hands. At this hair. At the way I walk. At the fact that I can speak with you all, and communicate as if I were a human. Just what am I? I am not a spider. But I am not a human. Am I both? No, I would say that is wrong as well. Then, what remaining answer is there?"
Coran looked around, hoping that someone would answer, but received nothing but pitiful stares.
"I am neither."
Alicia, at this point was sitting in the corner. She seemed to be simply waiting for orders.
"Look at her as well. Is she a wasp? A human? Look at her eyes. Look at those human eyes. Those aren't the eyes of a wasp. What do you think? From a human perspective, they might even be beautiful."
Alicia seemed to blush and was wriggling in her seat upon a rock.
'He... he called my eyes beautiful....'
"But, what are we? What are we??? We are neither, so what is left? I will tell you what is left. We are that which was not supposed to be. We are the unholy spawn of both human and monster. We are something which does not belong anywhere."
Coran walked over to a young child- a girl who was 7 years old.
At being approached so suddenly, she seemed to be holding back tears.
Coran held out his human hand.
"Look. It isn't so scary if you don't look at my face."
The girl stared at the hand.
It was 100% human.
She looked at the hand alone, and stared at it, completely avoiding any other part of Coran.
She didn't want to see the monster.
"But my mother and my father were both monsters. I am not the unholy spawn of a human and a monster. I am the spawn of monsters alone. How did I gain humanity, then?"
Coran held his hand up, looking around it as if he was inspecting it.
"I once held the same emotions that you all might be feeling. Fear towards those stronger than I. Compassion towards those in the same position as I. And the will to right the wrongs of an abusive situation."
Coran remembered his sister, and how they comforted each other during the time that his mother abused them and looked at them as disgraces.
"I have emotions. I don't exist just to destroy. I don't exist just to harm. I'm sure some of you here can understand. If someone were to lay a finger on my sister, I would run across the world to destroy that person. If someone were to insult my masters, I would take a sword to the chest, just so that I could spit out a few last words defending them. There are people I have that I want to protect, and those that I wish to serve."
Coran walked over to another child, a young girl of the age of 4, next to a young boy of the same age and patted them both on the heads using his human hands.
They were scared at first, but as they looked at his face, they no longer felt scared.
Coran was smiling at them.
It was not a devilish, menacing smile.
It was the smile that only a parent could show for a child.
"My masters.... they taught me who I am. They showed me that I am not a human, that I am not a monster, that I am not an abomination. They showed me that I am merely a being with a master to serve, and a purpose to fulfill. That is all, yet that is worth more than any mere classification could ever do for me."
Coran looked around at all the children.
"You children.... why is it, that while you all seem so scared.... while you are all on the edge of tears.... while you all should be so scared that you should be screaming and crying, that you are instead just patiently listening? Why is it, that not a single one of you has shouted out for help? Was it because you were scared of what I would do to you? No. That isn't why."
Coran stood up.
"It was because you all have been in a situation where screaming won't do anything. You all know that complaining will not help, but only hinder. You all know that sticking your head out like a nail will only encourage the one holding the hammer to put you back in your place. This has been instilled in you to the point where it is the same as breathing. Crying has been removed from your list of possible reactions to a situation. But you all are not completely devoid of emotion, yet. It seems that you haven't been under that spell for very long, or you would have been more brainwashed and emotionless than you are right now. Can anyone tell me how long those conditions went on for?"
"Three months.", Nathan stated coldly.
"Ah, only three months.... that makes sense. With three months, you can weed out the bad apples and begin to instill the mentality, but you can't destroy a person's mind in a mere three months. People are stronger than that. I survived 5 years while being onslaught by the insults and the torment! Of course, my torment was much less intense than yours. Still..."
Coran frowned.
"The very fact that this was going on displeases me. I am certain my masters would be just as disturbed. Then, I will ask you something else. Did anyone here ever consider telling someone else about this?"
"We.... we told a few people.... they seemed to be disturbed and went off, telling us that they would do something about it....", a 10 year old boy said.
"And what happened to these people?"
"I... I don't know. Nothing happened. Maybe they forgot?"
"No, they didn't forget.", Coran replied.
"How could someone forget something like that? You know what happened? They didn't care. They cried fake tears, and pretended to sympathize, before going off on their merry way. Even if they did care, they must have been bought off or silenced in some other way. Isn't this sad? You all are just like me."
"How?", a young boy asked.
"My mother too, treated me as scum. As an abomination. As a monster. Do you all not feel it? The hatred around you? The void in your hearts? You have no parents to love you. I am sure you all understand."
"I... I think I understand....", a 12 year old girl said with a sniffle.
"I'm just like you.... I may look like this, and I may be a monster, but I am not so much different."
Coran called Alicia over.
"You all.... you've never experienced the love of a parent. Through my masters, I have been able to one way or another experience this, and it has given me new life. I am convinced that every child needs a set of parents to raise them. That woman was no mother to you. Not a single person here has parents that cared for them, or anyone like that. Am I wrong?"
The children nodded their heads.
"No, you're not wrong.", Nathan said bitterly.
"Then, what about the other people of this town? You see that they aren't willing to be your parents either. If they were, then they would have adopted you, no?"
Many nodded in agreement.
"So, there is nobody willing to care for you all, aside from the woman who wished to use you all for your labor, at the expense of your mental and physical health?"
The children all continued nodding, tearing up.
None of them had ever been loved.
All they had were each other.
They had never realized this before, but now that it was laid in front of their eyes by this monster, who didn't seem all that scary when compared with Mrs. Fera, they wanted to cry out in tears to vent their frustrations.
Coran then thought back to the words of his master, Theo, and tried to imitate him.
"Then, I will become your father. And this woman here will become your mother. We will now act as one big happy family. And anyone who tries to lay even a finger on our family will regret it."