That night, the forest was covered in an unusual darkness. It was within that shroud that Alex, a young boy from the forest, was forced into adulthood and pushed down a path neither he nor anyone else could ever be prepared for. As the darkness began to deepen throughout the night, so did the sound at the door. A rhythmic knocking in a pattern of twos. The sound became increasingly loud, to the point of physical discomfort, until the sound of the beating echoed in the young boy's ears.
"Mum what is?" Alex, now clasping his hands around his ears in pain, asked his panicking mother. While he was trying to hide from the noise at the door, he noticed his mother frantically rummaging around the kitchen looking for knives. He did not know what or who was at the door, but his mother's actions made it clear that it was a danger.
Still in pain, with hands pressed firmly over his ears, Alex felt a tug on his arm, exposing one of his ears to the deafening noise. His mother, seeming unaffected by the sound, was pulling him throughout the house towards the bedroom. Once in the room, Alex was pushed behind a door he had never seen before, and before he had time to question anything, his mother's words made it through the rhythmic beats still pulsing through his head. "Alex, swear to me you will stay here. Do not move. Do not look. Do not speak."
I wanted to reply to mom, but before I had time, the door slammed shut. "It's gone." I can finally think straight with that beating out of my ears. The space behind the door was in complete darkness, making the already concerning visibility of the world outside seem bright in comparison. Without his vision, Alex began to feel the room around him, realizing he could not stand or lay down he had to remain seated, knees tucked into his chest.
As time passed behind the door, Alex realized that the beating was not the only sound gone; all sound was gone. He was completely isolated from the outside world, with no vision, no hearing, and no sense of time. "I cannot stay here forever," Alex thought as the hours or days passed, now feeling the consequences of sensory deprivation on top of having no food or water. But not wanting to break his promise to his mother, Alex stayed in place.
As his world behind the door grew increasingly uncomfortable, Alex began to smell something unusual; it was foul, almost rotten, and as the smell grew over what seemed like a few hours, it almost made him throw up. Still, he stayed behind the door until he fell unconscious, no longer able to withstand the deprivation he was experiencing. When his mind finally slipped away, his head pressed against the door, causing his body to fall out onto the bedroom floor.
When Alex finally opened his eyes, still sprawled out on the bedroom floor, he could no longer hold back the vomit from earlier. He finally understood what he had smelt whilst behind the door. His mother's face, or rather, her head, lay at the bedroom door, her body further back in the hallway. Still weak from the isolation, Alex could not find the strength to stand, so he dragged himself across the wooden floor, catching splinters along the way, causing his legs to be cut from ankle to thigh. Blood spilled out across the room, but his body was too weak and his mind too preoccupied to feel or care about it.
As the young Alex lay next to his mother's corpse, waiting for his own death, he experienced a brief moment of clarity. "No, she died saving me. I will survive" Using what little strength he still had, he dragged himself through the house leaving a trail of thick blood along the way before reaching the kitchen, eating, and drinking then falling unconscious again.
"How long was I out this time?" Feeling much better after eating and drinking, Alex prepared himself to go back to the bedroom. He finally regained feeling in his legs, allowing him to stand and walk, but this also caused him to experience the pain of the cuts covering his lower body. With a lot more clarity than before, Alex looked around the house as he made his way towards the bedroom. Scorch marks covered the walls, holes in the ceiling exposed the dark forest canopy above, and entire walls were knocked down. It was clear the fight was vicious and lengthy, but "How did you put up such a fight?" Alex thought, now standing above his mother.
Deciding he needed to act, Alex decided he needed to bury his mother. Looking down, he felt grief and loss no child should ever experience. His entire life had been spent alone in the forest with his mother. He had never left, never met anyone else, never spoken to anyone else. With his mother's death, his entire world imploded. As he was about to leave to start digging, he noticed something: "Her heart's gone." More confused than before, Alex could not understand why someone would kill his mother, let alone steal her heart. The grief, anger, and confusion building inside the boy's mind could no longer be contained, leaving his body in a scream that signaled a warning to whoever did this to him. The little boy from the forest was just as dead as his mother, and whatever left the lonely house in the woods could no longer be described as a child.
The forest was now significantly lighter than before, though the dense canopy still blocked out most of the sunlight. The ground outside was damp from recent rainfall, and the smell of the fresh forest was a welcome change to the young man who had spent hours around a rotting corpse. He found an old shovel that stood well above his head height and started digging. The old wooden handle blistered his hands, and the rocky dirt cut open the barley that healed wounds on his legs as he crawled in and out of the grave.
The grave was finally finished, and it was time for Alex to move his mother. The smell had grown increasingly foul, almost creating a physical barrier around the bedroom. Using all his strength, he pulled his mother's body out of a pool of blood and an unidentifiable fluid that appeared black and viscous. It took him a few minutes to drag her body to the grave, all the while staring at the hole in her chest and the noticeable absence of her heart. Next came the physically easier but mentally crushing challenge of retrieving his mother's head. Seeing his mother made whole again inside the grave created a small sense of relief, knowing that she could now rest in peace.
As Alex stood above his mother's grave, the forest beginning to sink back into the darkness of night, the first drops fell from the sky as a storm was brewing overhead. It was then, inside the darkness and under the cover of the thunder from above, that the young man screamed out a vow that would set him down a path that would shake the entire continent. "I will find you!" He did not know who it was, where they were from, or what they wanted, but he would stop at nothing to get his mother's revenge.
"It's time to leave," Alex thought, having spent a few days preparing supplies for the journey ahead of him and saying his final goodbyes. Having no contact with or understanding of the world outside the forest, Alex did not know where to go or where to start, so he simply picked a direction. "Right, it is." He did not know it at the time, but this seemingly insignificant decision set him down a path that would impact not just his fate but the fate of an entire continent.
With a slow exhale and focused eyes, the tight bow string flew past wounded fingers and strands of black hair letting loose a crudely constructed arrow darting towards a forest bird perched up high amongst the canopy above a desperately hungry hunter. "Yes finally!" Alex celebrated after 3 days of failed hunting attempts, he finally had food again after running out of the supplies he started his journey with. This last month he had survived hunting what he could. He rushed over to the bird that had fallen to the ground. Barley bigger than his fist and covered in red feathers. Alex did not recognize the species, but he did not care, it was food.
Finally getting a flame going after struggling through the pain of his blistered bleeding hands only exacerbated by the winter winds blowing through the forest. The bird was roasted and for the first time since beginning his journey Alex felt like he was making progress as he was adapting to life outside the little house in the forest. Though the excitement soon ended as the taste first hit his mouth. A sickening taste and smell overwhelmed his senses, the only thing that got the food down was the pain in his stomach after going days without food.
The forest was silent, the only noise was the crackling fire and the hissing of dripping fat from the bird hitting the sticks below, it was moments like this that caused Alex to doubt himself and any hope he had for the future. Would he ever get out of this forest? Who would he meet if he did? Where to start to get his revenge? It was whilst these questions tormented Alex's mind that he finally heard something. "An animal?" He thought then as the noise got closure and light began to creep in from the distance, he realized he had found people.
Alex, nervous about the approaching band of people, quickly extinguished the fire and ran to the tree line to find cover. The light of the approaching group slowly grew until he could clearly see them. Each held a lit torch flames lighting their way. They numbered seventeen in total, each clad in matching black armor engraved with symbols unfamiliar to Alex.
Hidden in the shadows of the tree-line Alex followed the group and their path of light through the forest though their pace caused him difficulty. His legs began to tire, his chest heavy trying to catch his breath. And throughout the hours following the group the temperature of the forest had plummeted causing Alex to lose feeling parts of his body.
After another hour or so the group finally settled down to set up camp. They were out of earshot and Alex dear not get any closer out of fear of discovery. The fires, cooking food and warm-looking tents taunted the cold and hungry child who was forced to stay hidden amongst the shadows of the frozen forest battling the winter winds.
"Keep the fires burning it's going to be a rough night" an older man said looking down at a young girl not much older than Alex.
"Yes father, dinners ready by the way." the girl said smiling up at her father, her silver hair glowing against the darkness of the forest almost outshining the fires of the camp.
The girl sat next to a pile of sticks and logs occasionally throwing new fuel into the fires around the camp.
"Sir how much longer are you going to wait to go get that fool" said a member of the group pointing towards the trees. Causing Alex to jump and put his head back in cover.
"Not much longer the wind will get to him." said the girl's father gazing towards the trees with a worried look on his face.
He was still unable to hear the group and was now too afraid to even look back at the group after being pointed at. He curled up against a tree trying to wait out the night until after about half an hour he felt a tap on his shoulder. The shock sent him scrambling forward through the forest dirt until he hit something. Looking up Alex the legs and then the face of the old man he had saw earlier.