This hasty mire brought back pleasant as well as unpleasant memories to the front of this scenery. Instead of a concrete slab poked full of holes only to be relented by the sound of gear rubbing against each other, it was a sterilized lunch hall where a covered guard stood at every corner with a frown. Judgmental sneers to pass you by. They all wore blue pants and shirts buttoned down the center with a collar that only those snide enough would flip up to imitate Dracula.
It was here that Kage could see their positions were flipped. He sat unconscious on the floor, beaten to a black and blue mess, while another cornered his legs and laid it down on him. The person was a boy four years older with a feral appearance. His face protruded out like a mutt while his teeth were sharpened by the use of a pocketknife. Each fist that banged on Kage's skull rattled the boy's red hair. Hair that had been tangled by swathes of dirt. Eventually the fight ended with Kage's left eye shut closed and chin a sliced mess. The boy had gotten up, seizing the crowd with his wild stare. Nearly twenty other poor saps found themselves stuck in the recesses of this jailed facility. The size was larger than expected but would serve a grander purpose.
All Kage could see in his right eye was a hand from the heavens extended out for him to take. He grappled onto it with a sigh, it had been his lost for another time.
"Dammmmn! Kage you be looking like my mom after mah dad got back from getting his cigs."
"Fuck yeah, what Burton said. The two of you will be getting in so much trouble this time."
Kage measured his own damage on the wild boy. His shirt was torn and there were evident purple splotches covering his rib cage as a cut swollen left cheek began to swell. He had done more than ever before, yet it still hadn't been enough to land the opponent flat on his ass.
"Aaargh! Fuck!" Cursed Kage as the boy's spindling hands ruffled about in his hair. A wound had opened back up on the top just beyond his hairline.
The red-haired boy poked at the wound with his nail. "Woo wee, that's a deep one there. Ptooey!" He spat out one of his teeth to the shined floor splattering it with a few splashes of blood. In a second the tooth that had been knocked out, grew back just the same as before. He slapped Kage on his back causing him to go sputtering to a garbage can forced to vomit out some radioactive material.
The boy came to a crouch by his bent head whispering, "We're getting closer, Kage. Soon enough and we'll be right over that wall, into the prairies."
Kage's slitted eye, with tears shining ready to be loosened, gave a sharp hint of a smile beneath the bile. "Will we then be done? I can see her again, won't I? The dream will move forward!"
He put his face on par with Kage's, letting out a choked laugh, "Oh yes, just wait and we will have the spoils. This dream will be made reality as the forces of God push us onward." As the boy's red hair waggled away from his eyesight a harsh pound on Kage's back rattled him to sanity, "Let's get ready for the next step. Then, we can plan even further." The kid's finger dug deep into the palm of Kage's hand; the twirl of a scarlet seed that shall bloom into an eldritch masterpiece.
"Alright… William." He did the same to William's palm; the second which shan't be reneged on an inscribed sacrament.
Together the strands push and pull like the pads to a couple of kittens, groping at one another, fighting for dominance.
His teacher… his first friend… and where the minuscule, wandering idea grew from his nutrients into his everything.
'Oh, how the days pass us by…
Aren't I correct,
Kage?'