"Why is it always like this for me?"
Alex couldn't help but ask himself that same question every day. He was underappreciated, and essentially worthless in the eyes of everyone he's ever known. Having grown up in foster care, surrounded by neglectful caretakers and horrible "brothers and sisters" that would change all the time, Alex failed to care for himself under the negative onslaught that he always went through.
To him, he was a nobody, and nothing could change it. Every hope was dashed aside, every loving word was a lie, and by now, he couldn't even muster up the courage to attempt to change their minds any more. They never really listened anyways.
Alex had just snuck through his first floor window, struggling the whole way out. He was an extremely thin boy, only 17 and so close to being on his own, at least officially.
"Three more days. I just need to wait three more days, and I can finally leave without consequences."
Even in the dark of the night, with sparsely planted streetlamps,, you could see his ghostly pale figure walking on the sidewalk with a stick in hand for him to lean against like a cane.
As he walked, he stopped a few feet from the bushes next to a darkened alleyway. He could hear soft whimpering from underneath it, and saw a slight glint pooling out from the leaves. As he came close and knelt with his phone light in hand, he noticed blood staining the fur of a small dog.
It was bleeding from multiple wounds and attempting to crawl away from what it saw as dangerous.
"Wait, wait, it's okay. Please stop I'm going to try and help." Alex said, hoping to coaxe the dog out.
Just because Alex had stopped caring for people, doesn't mean he could turn his back on those that did nothing wrong to him. Alex slowly put his hand out and gently tugged the dog part way out of the brush, only to notice it had already stopped moving. There was no breath that came out.
He sighed, with a single tear rolling down his cheek as he was attempting to get up. But that's when he felt a searing pain in his lower back and heard the snap of his spine being severed.
"ARRRGGHH!"
He couldn't help but scream from the unexpected assault, falling forward onto his face and attempting to hold his wound. All he could hear was his heart beating and blood rushing to his head, along with the faint sound of laughter coming from above him.
Alex slowly flipped over, only to notice that he was bleeding from his gut, as the silhouette of a hooded man came closer to his face. He could practically hear the man's sinister smile through his erratic breathing, all while he felt the knife puncture his chest, again and again.
The blood filled his lungs, a seemingly endless torture that he couldn't escape from. He couldn't scream anymore, only allow his tears to fall freely as he was slashed and hacked at all over his upper body. The laughing grew louder and higher in pitch, like a cacophony of the same people who always looked down on Alex were back for more.
The light was starting to fade from Alex's eyes, making the hooded figure stop and frown at him. If his eyes could be seen, they would show disappointment, as though watching a show that should have kept going, but was stopped before the best part.
"It feels so much better than these dumb animals that I usually get. Too bad your worthless a*s can't put up a real fight." The hooded murderer said.
These were the last words Alex heard. They were nothing more than an affirmation of everything he had been told throughout his miserable life. He spent his final moments on Earth cursing himself, the world, and his own mother and father for having given life to something so useless and weak.
***
It felt like it had been days, hours, maybe even years since he came here. This nothingness that he had entered, held him tight and kept him severed from everything and everyone. This horrible purgatory is where Alex is now. It isn't that it's dark there, it's just that there's nothing to see. Aside from your own half translucent form, at least.
All he could do is move forward. Never stopping, never growing hungry or thirsty, just constant movement. He had cried out it in fear at first, but now he remained silent, assuming to be in a specially made hell, one specific to him. Either that or this was just what death was. Nothing but a way to force out a man's insanity.
That was when he saw the light. Nothing too spectacular, just a white spec in the distance. And from it, he could hear the faint call of a woman.
'Closer. Closer. Please...' Alex thought.
He stretched out his hand, attempting to move faster, hearing the woman's voice slightly clearer this time.
"Are you ready for a new life? To be part of a better world?" She whispered. A slight hint of sadness could be heard if one paid close enough attention.
"Yes! Please, anywhere but here! I'm so alone..." Alex cried out.
There was no noise as he became enveloped in light. There was no pain, no malice in its loving embrace. Only the woman's voice broke the heavenly peace that settled over him.
"Then welcome, child. Welcome to Ancora. May you find all the happiness that you searched for and more."
Alex felt soft, warm hands guide him further from the void and out to what he hoped beyond hope would be a beautiful future. One where only the best awaited him.
It's just sad that his hopes were going to be torn apart in front of his very eyes.