Two weeks passed.
And a worse two weeks King could not remember. Prior to the loss of Viera King wouldn't have thought things could get worse, with Viera gone there was no one to look after him.
It had been two weeks since he had last brushed is teeth, washed or changed clothes. He could no longer find the motivation to clean up the attic, instead the dirt piled up and the bucket of faeces began to overflow causing the stench in the grim room to worsen.
All this was a constant reminder to King of what life was like without Viera and only served to add to the agony that had caused an immense cavern in his heart. It had gotten to the point where he could no longer find it in him to move from the browning makeshift bed.
In the space of two weeks he had somehow managed to get even skinnier, his dirty purple hair had digressed into a filthy mauve and his eyes were now so sunken they seemed to be trying to bury themselves in the numerous black bags he had developed beneath his eyes from nights spent up crying.
His teeth where now a disgusting brown colour and his skin appeared brown from the dirt that caked it.
He was now living on a single meal a day.
The only upside (if there is one) is that he hadn't been visited by Ruben and Victor since then but at the same time, he also hadn't seen Kayla.
He was more alone now then ever.
'Cmon Kurtis, you have nothing left... I should... I should've killed myself a long time ago...'
These thoughts spiralled in his mind as he lay there motionless. It wasn't the first time he'd had these thoughts, they had begun to emerge more and more as of recent. He couldn't even bring himself to refer to himself using the name Viera gave him.
The thought of reuniting with Viera in the after life appealed greatly to him and was it not for the lingering hope that Kayla was his original mum, he would've succumbed to these dark thoughts.
"..."
The silence in the room was torturous.
BANG!!
The attic door was violently flung open and in stormed Three men in the tell tale uniform of the house servants, led by the man King recognised as Jeirus.
Except for his grey and blue hair that grew to now provide a permanent curtain for his eyes, Jeirus looked the same as he had back then.
Flanked by the other servants, he approached the bed and looked down his nose at the pitiful figure of King cowering beneath the ragged covers with a look of disdain evident in his glare.
"Grab him"
Those where the last words King heard before he felt an overwhelming pressure force him to lose consciousness as his eyes rolled back up into his sockets.
**********************
"Your honour..."
"This disgusting specimen...This inocent poor.....truly...horific"
King could pick up various words amongst a jumble of mumbling and noises as his conscience slowly returned to be greeted by a searing aching pain throughout is body.
Slowly he opened his eyes and allowed them to adjust to the sudden burst of light that met them.
"It's waking up"
King was confused.
He looked around him, he was in some sort of court room surrounded by people, many of which he did not recognise.
But the ones he did filled him with a feeling he had long gotten used to.
Dread.
All eyes were on him ,as he seemed to be the focus of attention, he was situated in the middle of the large circular room.
Off to his right, sitting comfortably with smug looks of triumph on their faces with the sole exception of the girl among them sat three people. Ruben, Victor and Kayla who had a worried look on her face as she looked anywhere in the spacious room apart from at King.
At this point Kings heart had begun to beat at an incredibly fast rate, his breathing hastened, turning course and rushed as he forced air in and out of his lungs.
His skin turned itchy as sweat barraged across it but as he went to scratch his forehead he then realised that he couldn't. He looked down and saw that his hands where encased in a solid block of a cement-like rock that had the whole lower half of his fragile body swallowed in its unrelenting grip.
His eyes widened in fear and his body began to shiver constantly as his breathing came out in short desperate bursts that sounded like bullets.
He was having a panic attack.
"someone calm him" said a low voice King vaguely recognised
At that moment a soothing aura washed over him that immediately calmed him, his breathing returned to normal and he lifted his head in the direction of the vaguely familiar voice.
At the front of the room was an elevated desk behind which sat the first dark skinned man King had seen in this world, elegantly dressed in majestic lilac and Prussian blue robes he wore a stern and strict look on his face that complimented his royal blue and black hair and eyes.
Standing beside the large desk was a man in a fancy red suit and a dazzling crown made of white gold and diamond with red jewels imbedded throughout atop his black and red hair.
King instantly recognised this man as the one to have spoken despite having only ever seen or heard his voice once in his lives. It was his father.
Seeing this man standing there, composed, confident and proud after what he did to Viera made King want to rip him to pieces.
His seething anger was visible on his face as he looked this man dead in the eyes. His stare was returned with a cold glare as this tense stare down continued for a while before his father's eye brows creased in anger.
"you dare look at me like that?" he uttered, releasing a frightening and dominant aura that pressed down on King's shoulders, causing him to slump forward as if he was bowing before him.
"That is a more suitable pose for vermin such as yourself" his father stated before turning towards the dark skinned man. "your honour I ask that you proceed as fast as possible, I am a busy man and cannot afford to waste too much time on such atrocious procedures"
The dark skinned man noded respectfully towards him and turned to face the many people present in the room.
In a low and composed voice he anounced.
"All the evidence has been presented and witnesses as well as the victim have made known there view" he lowered his eyes to the slumped figure of King below him as he slowly raised the large mallet on the desk in front of him. "I hereby anounce the verdict. Jullius Norden has been tried, since he is far below the age of adulthood the death penalty is out of the question however, his punishment will be... Exile from the empire, to be released into the eternal Jungle"
Kings ears immediately perked up and his eyes widened in panic. Jullius Norden? who's that? Verdict? Death penalty? Exile? The eternal Jungle? 'don't tell me...' he began to think before..
"For the following crimes of : Trespass of property, Theft, Vandalism and most importantly... Sexual harassment of a member of royalty..."
Simultaneous with the sound of the mallet slamming against the desk, a sudden realisation hit King like a loose truck as he whipped his head up to meet the gaze of a certain girl.
A single tear trickled down his cheek.
'Those green eyes, I should've known...'