—Year 5019—
Ferret always hated this part of being a demon.
You never sleep. You are forever damned to remember things you wish never happened when closing your eyes. Like right now.
"Give me that!" An old, hairy beggar with crooked teeth beats a young child to the ground. They fought in a tight alleyway, covered in the slushed waste thrown in the streets by peasants. If others saw the two ragged bums fighting for a crumb of moldy bread, they would have cheered them on for a good show. Fortunately, they weren't. Too busy dying from sickness and burning the dead.
Ferret wakes up battered and barely alive. Now that he thinks of it— was he ever alive?
Then he comes by. A blond angel with the bluest eyes. A tall man, so out of place from this dirty sinkhole of a district.
"What is a noble doing here," Ferret spits out with blood leaking from his mouth.
"Well my little Ferret, I'm everywhere. A bit over here. A dab over there..."
Ferret didn't care; he just wanted to know what the guy wanted from him. He overheard from a passerby that nobles kidnap children to either replace their heirs who died from the Black Death or sacrifice them to quell God's wrath.
"Well, boy, I want you to wake up."
"What?"
"I said wake up! You're hallucinating in the middle of a fight!" Then, this kind and noble angel back hands him with a slap!
"Rrrraaawwrrrg," the most horrible stench that can be imagine brings Ferret back to the real world.
Tied upside down from vines by this freakishly mutated plant, he watches calmly as the monster dangles him closer to its mouth.
"Hmmm," the plant begins to groan in pain. Its bud-like body jerks away, swinging its vines. It sends Ferret into the air, while its body starts to turn brown, rotting. The monstrous plant withers away until it's fertilizer for the soil.
With ease, Ferret floats to the ground like a feather. A skill obtained by eating the soul of an annoying seagull from his last mission. Now, the new fertilizer is his latest meal. Of course, he didn't worry about trivial things. Too busy trapping himself in old memories.
"My name is not Ferret anymore. It's X," he tries to assure himself.
That's right, he no longer goes by that man's name for him. He is free. With that thought in mind, X walks forward. His ride scrapped by the mutant plant; he's definitely going to be late for the opening ceremony.
Unfortunately, another obstacle comes from around the corner, a sniveling noise. Possibly from a child. X would have changed direction if he can, but he knows going back will only lead him to fighting more mutant plants in this infested ruin. Not forgetting the annoying flesh-eating ghouls, who will probably eat him if he walks east. The stupid zombies will come for his brain in the west. At least he has comfort in going north before the night brings out the mutants. He marches forward through the abandoned streets.
Around the corner, he sees a disturbing scene: a nappy haired child sitting terrified in the pool of her parents' blood. This scene intrigues X. He moves closer to examine the crime scene, while maintaining some distance. He does not appreciate getting anymore dirty than he already is.
"H-help me," the black girl cries softly as her body trembles. Her tears running down uncontrollably.
X does not care about her; he continues examining the people. The man has several bullets in his chest and a knife wound in the gut. Yet, the woman has several bruises on her body like she was struggling against something. There is also one around the neck, the perpetrator evidently tried to choke her. Lastly, she also has several bullets to the chest.
"How amusing," X examines the man's hands to see if he possibly strangled the woman. In most cases it's like that in this world, and this case was no different. Something happened but what exactly went down? X saw no gun or knife and the way they lay nearly on top of each other, there must have been a third party. It's definitely not a simple case. Why did they come to this abandon city, are they really the kid's parents, and why were they killed but the child is still alive?
"I'm afraid I do not have the time for this," X reluctantly pulls away before facing the girl, "You should leave too. This area is known to be crawling with mutants after dark." He walks away, leaving her to her fate. He was planning to eat her soul, but he didn't have the hunger for a child's soul like other demons may have.
Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter. Maybe he should have eaten her soul. He contemplates on it, as he listens to her sniffling and clumsy footsteps following behind him. He can smell the stench of desperation from a mile away, or was that just her terrified face a while ago? It didn't matter, X turn corners, dodge mutated beasts.
And still, he hears her following him. It didn't take long until he finds an opportunity to escape her. He jumps over a wide gap, ready to leave until he hears a scream. "Idiot girl." He looks down at her, as the small child struggles.
She grits her teeth as she holds back her sobs and tears. Her body all bruised and scratched up from following him, but she persists.
"What do you want from me?" He asks the tiny menace.
She doesn't answer, just keeps on moving. Her hands bleeding even more cuts as she climbs the jagged walls. Her eyebrows dips into a frown of concentration. The young man begins to feel irritated, why try so hard to get close to a total stranger, he steps on her hand as soon as it grabs the edge of the cliff.
"Why are you following me?" He slowly crushes her hand like an insignificant bug.
She does not dare speak; she continues to survive with a reddish tint slowly creeping on her face. A tattoo of black spider webs slowly appears on her face. A thought flashes by in X's mind, a passage in the harem novel.
"The villain face was horrid and scarred with zombie poison in her veins shaped like spider webs on her face." How did she survive through the zombie infection with her mind intact? How did she get bitten? And is it the reason why she destroys the world in the future?
He contemplates just killing her, so the world will not be destroyed, but he figures something else will just take her place. As he thinks of an alternate solution, X continues to push the girl's head back down the hole with his foot.
"Please," he hears a tiny whisper.
"What?" The girl wasn't mute?
"I want to survive!" The girl finally burst with tears and snot, a truly disgusting sight to watch, but
X is not focusing on that.
I want to survive. Where did he hear that line before?
—Earth, Year 134x—
"Boy, I told you once and I'll tell you again. I do not kidnap children." The nobleman looked back at the unruly child with a look of exasperation between his brow. "Why do you keep following me? Do you think following me will lead you to a pot of gold or something!" The man made an exaggerated gesture with his hand to make a point.
The messy boy looked up at the strange man. Although he was even more dirty from following the man, the angel had not a speck of dirt on him. He truly must not be human. "I want to survive," the boy said, "I'll do anything! Just get me out of this hell hole!"
The man looked at him for a minute then narrow his eyes at the boy. "Really? Even if it brings you into a real hellhole."
The boy didn't know what he signed up for. Who he signed his soul to.
—Not Earth, present —
No, X cannot figure out where he heard that phrase before.
"I want to survive," the girl keeps repeating.
"Really? Even if you end up selling your soul to the devil?" He asks.
"I'll do anything! I promise, just save me!"
And, so he does. He grabs her bloody wrists and says, "Remember your words today, little girl. Demons hate to be cheated, especially, when it's a promise." With a tug, he brings her into a princess carry. Her arm wraps around his neck, her body still shaking from the near-death experience.
They continue to move to their destination, City E. A place well known for its trading and exportation hub.