"Are you kidding me! I don't want to bring you along!" Matthew was pulling his hair, snarling. "Gaia, why are you always so annoying!"
Opposite to him, Hazel blinked innocently. "If you don't bring me with you, I'll tell mama."
Groaning loudly, Matthew's shoulders sagged. He banged his head against the wall in frustration. "Fine! You have to pinky promise you won't tell mom though!"
"Deal!" Hazel cheerily accepted.
Matthew cursed inwardly, lamenting his lack of foresight. 'How could I forget about her! Dang it!'
Moments earlier, Matthew was plotting his daring escape from his house. The plan was simple, since his mother had just left for work, all he had to do was walk out the front door, but he had been careless. He had forgotten the type of devil his sister was.
She sat in the shadows of the kitchen, hands clasped together expectantly with one leg over the other. Had Matthew not adopted his unconscious use of mana sense, he would have been none the wiser.
After that, it was just a downward spiral as he got further entangled in Hazel's indestructible web of malice.
"Remember, always hold my hand, never let go, and always listen to me, okay?" Matthew rolled his eyes, locking the front exterior surface door of his home.
Hazel smiled innocently, hugging the clay dolls she created. "Okay, stinky."
"I'm not stinky!"
Matthew grumbled as he led his younger sister out from the narrow alley their home was situated in, giving the area a passing glance. He had to give it to his mother, she had a great eye for security. The moldy walls adjacent to him stretched high, were windowless and blocked all views say for the path Matthew and Hazel walked down. It was quite isolated as well and held in sound quite effectively. He could see why his mom decided that here was the perfect place to live, despite it being literally located at the very edge of civilization. It was kind of nice...relative to everything else, of course.
The moment Matthew stepped out from the alleyways, he was hit with the nostalgic scent of urine, feces, rot and crushed dreams. Or was that just more feces? Never the matter, before Matthew was a vast kingdom of poverty, dirt and dust.
Shoddy wooden buildings were abound, sickly old men limped down the streets, impossibly skinny children lay on the ground barely breathing, witch-like hags with warty noses sat next to their hats, pleading for money, small vermin skittered across from place to place, and brutish thugs strutted around, abusing anyone and everyone to feed their egos.
'Welcome to the Slums.' Matthew's grip on Hazel's hand grew tighter.
Today was Monday, and for those not in the know, Monday was a very important day. In spite of the puke, the defecation, the general nastiness abundant around him, Matthew had a bright grin on his face. Hazel was humming a light tune as she too was smiling.
"Matthy, when will we get to Grammy Mery's?" She looked up at Matthew, her green eyes dewy and full of anticipation.
A bit of drool leaked from Matthew's lips. "Soon."
It had been a good few months since the last time Matthew ate some of Grandma Meryl's black rocks, and it just so happened that he now had the time to go and get some.
The only problem was...Hazel. Everything had its price, and although Grandma Meryl's black rocks were dirt cheap in comparison to everything, making clean money in the slums was a hard task. Matthew had saved a little bit of money, and he was considering going to get some slushies afterwards, but with Hazel here he would have to buy some for her. Sadly, he didn't have enough to buy black rocks for the two of them.
What a conundrum! Matthew fussed over it endlessly in his mind.
There was only one solution to this dilemma. Kill Haze- lose Hazel. Lose Hazel. But that only brought up a new problem, how?
His big brother instincts were screaming at him to just buy her the damned candy and split it between them, but what did they know? Matthew had nearly gotten killed by a colossal spider, not Hazel. He was the one who snuck into the world's most infamous crime hotspot, not Hazel. He was the one who was suspended, while Hazel was diligently studying at school!
...
On second thought, maybe she deserved the candy more.
'Bah! I'll think about this when I get there.'
it wouldn't matter anyways if he had to share with Hazel. That was because this would have all been for naught if he didn't even get a black rock.
Just ahead of Matthew and Hazel was a long line of fellow slum'ees, each one of them dirty, skinny but also gleaming with desire. The object of such strong desire was a few metres away from them.
Grandma Meryl, an ancient woman with more wrinkles on her face than hairs she had on her head, was a figure of somewhat renown in the entirety of the slums. She was the only one to make and sell premium sweets, all from the small confines of her rustic shed she lived in.
The old woman sat cross legged in front of her home, and beside her was a large, porcelain pot with a huge mountain of obsidian stones that practically glowed with golden light. The drool stockpiling in Matthew's mouth unleashed itself like a flood.
And now came the hardest part, patience.
The mountain was growing smaller, and the line wasn't getting any shorter in spite of that. Matthew was pulling out his hair, whilst also fighting to keep Hazel from running up and stealing a black rock.
Finally, after a long while, he had arrived at the front. Just on time, too, there was only one black rock left!
Eyes brimming with stars, Matthew rummaged through his pockets to fish out the rewards of his many chores and begging for money. 3 whole illims, enough to buy one black rock and a slushie.
Matthew rummaged through his pockets for the 1 illim required, but before he even could, a caustic voice bellowed from behind him. "Outta the way." Then, he and Hazel were shoved aside, the coins he had so painstakingly saved flew everywhere.
A large man with a tattoo of a horned serpent, followed by his posse of thuggish individuals with the same, stood menacingly in front of Grandma Meryl, scowling. "You're late on payment, hag."
The ancient woman barely moved, opening a single eye with silent confidence. "...HUH? WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
The big thug frowned. "I said you need to pay up! Orvo wants his DAMNED money!"
A young man emerged from behind the curtains of the Grandma Meryl's shack, like a younger version of her. "What? We already paid Orvo last week, you can't expect us to have that much money again!"
Before he could utter another word, the large thug grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out, lifting him up into the air.
"I do expect it, and I better get it."
Matthew gritted his teeth, grinding them silently. Everything in his body was screaming for him to show these thugs what for, but they were Orvo's men...
'Damn it.'
The young man choked and sputtered in his grip, desperately trying to pry his hand off of him, but the difference between a well fed pig and a starving runt was too apparent. Soon, he turned blue and passed out. The large thug dropped the man, who's body fell limp. In a loud voice, he declared:
"You've all been having it too damned easy as of late! Your wallets fat, your spirits high, breeding like rats! There are ten times more of you as there was last year, and as such, protecting you all has gotten too tough. In response to this, Orvo has reasonably ordered for protection taxes to be doubled and to be paid earlier! If you don't have the money, you'll be removed! Is that clear?"
The crowd of peasants around the thugs whispered amongst each other, carrying rampant worry and helplessness.
A brave, high pitched voice spoke out.
"That's stupid, mama already gives you dummies a lot of money, and you want her to give more? If she did that, we wouldn't be able to eat yummy foods!"
The large thug craned his neck around to see which stupid idiot dared speak out...only to be met with a small child, clutching a clay doll.
The man cracked a threatening smile. "Little girl, you shouldn't speak to your elders like that, unless you want to be punished."
He reached down for her, but before he could get anywhere near close, a sharp spike ruptured through the ground beneath him and pierced his hand. Matthew pulled Hazel away, tightly hugging her.
"Touch my sister, and you die."