"The world is cruel and cold.
There will be those who punch a man for their pea-added meals and those who will take advantage of woman for their hand-given kindness.
There will be mothers who will mutter loveless words to their most vulnerable and fathers who will send a flurry of belt whips and punches to their most unsafe.
There will be grand kings who will lop off the heads of their advisors if they so much have a different opinion and opulent queens who will hang the necks of peasants for the uncleanly blood of their lineage.
The world is cruel and cold, but as much as humanity loves their duality and contradictions, there is a world kind and warm.
There will be boys who will thank the hand that feeds them and girls who rule their hand-given kindness with a fist of mighty justice.
There will be daughters who will cuddle their child with arms of cushy pillows and marshmallow kisses and there will be sons who will throw a thousand hands for their own blood.
There will be unremarkable servants who will drive revolution towards the eternally living promise of a better future and there will be dirt-poor people who will climb the stairs to heaven with the purest of minds.
The world is cruel and cold, but there is kindness and warmth.
Thus, the world is kind and warm, but as humanity loves their duality and contradictions, there will always be cruelty and coldness to accommodate." - The Blasphemous Father
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Theo found himself staring into the back of his eyelids, the feeling of the icy ground freezing his bum still on the floor.
At first, the only thing that was being registered inside Theo's mind was the spiky chill that permeated through his skins. Without the proper state of mind to really think about common sense, it took Theo a couple of minutes before he realized he still had a conscious.
Using more effort and determination than he would have liked, Theo forced his frozen-shut eyelids open as the dry, chilly air stung at his eyes.
It was here that Theo observed what felt like a fever dream in the context of where he just was a few moments ago. The streets he faced towards were caked in snow, poorly-made buildings had rotting wood and patches of metal sheets, unfamiliar signs that read in words that looked like gibberish to his eyes---Theo really thought he was in some bad nightmare.
Looking down, Theo found that he was swaddled in a blanket that was more so a patchwork of ripped clothes and dirty rags than an actual blanket. It was barely noticeable too, as the blanket was simply inadequate against the numbing cold of winter.
In search of some sort of purpose or thing to do, Theo struggled greatly to stand up from where he sat. The body Theo was in was not his own, it being incredibly frail and, although it might have been a delusion of his own eyes, having hues of purple blurred into his ashy white skin.
If not for those very definitive traits, Theo might have considered himself a skeleton from how thin he was.
With trembling knees and shaky arms, Theo finally stood up with the help of a wall, once again looking out into the streets as thought it would have given another perspective into his circumstances.
It didn't, of course, but the barren streets and dimly-lit moon looked just a bit more prominent in their presence when standing up.
Clutching his blanket as close as he could to his body, Theo turned around and traced the wall he had been leaning on with his other hand. Simple enough, just one turn around the corner of the wall lead to a rundown door that was leaking a more-than-desirable orange light that gave warmth just by looking at it.
Without any doubt to as why he was outside in the first place, Theo made his way towards the slightly ajar door. With each step he took, Theo felt both a mysterious fear conditioned into his body, but the desire for warmth seemed to overbear such an omen.
One step and the snow crunched forebodingly beneath his feet, Theo's knees shaking and nearly buckling as though they hadn't quite thawed from the cold.
Two steps in and Theo's shaky breath grew more fervent and rapid, his lungs having much difficulty breathing in the icy cold hair.
The third, the fourth, and the fifth step all sunk deep into the snow.
Six steps in and he was already at the door, realizing that the door knob was loose from its base.
Theo opened the door and said with the utmost voice he could muster, "...e-excuse me, can I...?"
Suddenly, a drop of heart.
Inside the small house were two adults, both staring daggers into Theo's very soul as they sat, their oppressive aura squeezing the little air he already had in his kiddish lungs.
Sitting on the left side of the table was a skeletal woman that bore many resemblances to Theo's body, while the person who sat across from her was a piggish man whose sweat and grease could drown an entire ant colony.
"Что, по-твоему, ты здесь делаешь, малявка?" The woman spoke in a rough voice, her mood far from happy as she stood up from her chair to walk over to Theo.
Once more, a shortness of breath, but it was more so a conditioned response than a result from physical labor.
With a quick few steps, the woman towered over Theo like she was going to crush him, raising her hand high above her head. Instinctively, Theo felt himself step away ever so slightly, but an unconscious tingle across his body stole the strength in his legs.
No, it wasn't just a tingle on his skin, Theo's body stung like fire as the warm orange light dispelled the numbing cold from his body.
It was only then that Theo realized the orange light was far more cruel than winter.
Smack!
Without so much as a moment of hesitation, the woman swung down her hand and slapped Theo across the face, the feeling similar to a whip from how bony-thin her arm was.
Chuckling in the back was, of course, the piggish man that delightfully clapped for his newfound entertainment. Soon, that chuckle turned into a roar of laughter as the skeletal woman slapped Theo left and right, each consecutive swing bringing more joy to his cruelly bent smile.
"Эй, хочешь что-нибудь горячее выпить? Ты кажешься довольно холодным, да?" The fat man spoke in a language alien to Theo before spitting a thick liquid on the floor, "Выпей, это моя личная доброта."
Confused and scared, Theo could only stare at the food-contaminated spit on the floor, then back at the fat man.
His already-ugly face slowly contorting from delight to an anger comparable to asura.
The fat man stood up from his chair and stomped the wooden floorboards with authority as he walked over, delivering a weighty punch into Theo's stomach before stepping into another room.
In the short while that Theo curled into a ball on the floor, the piggish man came back out with a plastic box and a demonic grin whose mere proximity sent shivers down Theo's spine.
But it wouldn't be until the skeletal woman began chuckling and setting Theo upright that he realized the cruelty of the pair, a despairing horror filling his eyes to the brim of its spherical capacity.
The piggish man set down his plastic container and grabbed a pinch-worth of thumbtacks into his right hand. Quick to respond to the piggish man's actions, the skeletal woman forcefully opened Theo's mouth as reality began setting in.
Twisting and turning, kicking and punching, Theo struggled with his utmost being in order to escape the fate he was about to experience, regardless of hid body's states. Yet, without much meaning to it at all, Theo's actions were in vain as the strength of an adult far exceeded what a starved, cold child could do.
And so, the piggish man began sharing a snicker with the skeletal woman as he sprinkled thumbtacks into Theo's mouth. Then, once more with her stone-cold heart, the skeletal woman shut his jaw closed and began rattling his skull like a maraca.
As the thumbtacks began finding themselves into nooks and crannies made from their pointed heads, Theo finally came to the terms of his situation, albeit with a mental state that had been minced and mixed with the exotic ingredients of shock, confusion, and disbelief.
Any illusion that this was some bizarre dream or horrible prank was far off from his head.
The two adults' devilish laughter told Theo all he needed to know that this was his life now, regardless of how contradictory it was with his life just a few minutes ago.
Yet, as short-notice did their cruelty spring up, the two adults quickly grew bored and showed no semblance of care for the young boy as their yearly experience of happiness had been used up.
Without a glance of concern shown to the crying young boy Theo was, they sighed and returned to their table.
And so, Theo curled and folded into himself before the sight of another child was registered in Theo's tear-blurred eyes.
Through the very peculiar angle from his position in the living room/kitchen to a doorway inside the hallway that led to the bedrooms, Theo could spot the figure of a young girl that seemed just as thin as he was.
At first, because of his muddled mind that brewed all sorts of chaos inside his head, Theo thought she was simply a pile of clothes stacked on each other to resemble a human.
What kind of miracle child would it take to actually live in this household, after all?
But it was after the young girl had gestured him to crawl over to her room for safety that Theo thought that, maybe, just maybe, he could adapt to whatever hell hole that priest creep named Alex sent him to.
Thus, Theo began to crawl at an agonizingly slow pace, not because he was wary of catching the attention of the two adults, but because Theo was genuinely weak from both the abuse of the adults and whatever circumstances his body had suffered from before Theo took over.
Steadily crawling across the creaking floorboards, Theo made his way across the kitchen and living room. Each time a squeak could be heard as he put one arm in front of the other, Theo felt his heart and soul gradually die out.
Luckily, the crawl was rather uneventful as the adults were too busy chatting cruelty to care about Theo.
Now that he was close to the doorway, Theo made a dash for it and there himself into the room, the girl closing the door immediately after his entry. As he had expected from a household as poor as the adults here were abusive, the bedroom's general state was horrible.
From peeling wallpaper to holes that looked like someone made it themself, it was nothing short of the poverty that Theo had seen in documentaries and Youtube videos.
But, in the midst of his gawking, the girl put her hand on Theo's should and pointed to the window of the room, motioning him to barf out all the excess blood inside his mouth.
After a bloody spitting session with the window, Theo exhaustingly sat against the wall as the girl crept in front of him, "Alex sent you here, didn't he?"
"Wha---!" Theo half-way exclaimed, but quickly stopped himself once realizing the current state of his mouth as of right now.
"First of all, shut up. I wouldn't want those shit-excuses for adults to come in here. Second of all, who the hell are you? Did you get reincarnated from earth?"
"Theo... Theo Rukuos, and I dun know, huw I got here." Theo spoke in segments of his sentence, wincing in the pain of his now-porous tongue and mouth.
"Oh, the hell, you? And you don't know how you got here? Is that correct?"
"Y-yes...?"
"Aw, shit! I should've known that bastard would do a street stabbing! Ugh, anyways, it doesn't matter anymore. Open your your and I'll treat your injuries."
"W-Whut? Whut du you mean---" Theo quickly questioned the act considering there was no medical equipment around, but stopped talking after a foreign substance was put inside his mouth.
"Ptui---" Carmina spit inside Theo's mouth, causing him to almost immediately try to spit it back out before she slammed his jaw shut with both her hands and rattled it like a kid trying to guess what their Christmas gift was."
"Mmm! MMMMMMM!!!"
"One... two... three... four... five... alright, that's enough time."
"Pfft! Blegh, kek! What the---" A moment of realization kicked in as Theo began probing around the inside of his mouth, "---hell...? What kind of weird ass dream is this? What???"
"Look, it's complicated stuff, and normal guys like you shouldn't try to understand it. It's better that way, since I'd rather not fuck up everything that you have going for you in life. Just accept that your mouth is healed and move on." Carmina spoke as she stuck hand her hand inside Theo's mouth, flapping it up and down to ensure that there wasn't any missed injuries.
Theo took Carmina's hand out, "...so what do we do now?"
"You mean to say what will I do, since this mission I was set out to do is more of a Manifestor thing to do."
"What's a Manifestor?"
"Don't pry into it. What's more important is what we need to do, which is to find some special-looking fella that's nice enough to hop on the suicide train back to Earth."
"Woah, alright, suicide?"
"Reincarnation showbizz, same way you got your civilian-ass over here. But don't go hopping down a flight of stairs, because Alex is the only one who can control who and where we reincarnate to. Otherwise, we could be eldritch frogs or demon mosquitos without a lick of what we knew in our previous life."
"Wha---"
"Alright, seriously, don't pry into it. Take my word that it's better you not knowing. God forbid me drag a normal guy into this hellhole of supernatural shit."
"Uh, alright then. So how do we... y'know, find this magical guy?"
"Oh, classical magic stuff. If you see a person levitating in the air or speaking in a language that isn't Russian, report back to me."
"We're in Russia?"
"Oh my God! That bastard really did just do a street shanking! I thought he'd at least lure you into his church before executing you! Didn't really give you a chance to talk, did he?"
"I mean, well, I did walk into his church, but he didn't talk about anything as he did an 'oh, you saw this murder I just did! I gotta kill you now!' thingamajig before everything cut to black."
"That's even worse! Ugh, you know what? That's just his thing. When you've known him as long as I do, you'll see how much bullshit he can tell you on why you don't need to know anything going into the gruesome maws of death."
"He sounds like an asshole. Anything else I need to know?"
"Yea. Get some sleep cause we got a big day tomorrow. I gotta give you a rundown of how we're gonna live from now on; hell, I might even treat you to some good Russian cuisine."
"Sleep? On that one-person bed?" Theo pointed to the only available bed in the room, "There's no way we're both fitting on that bed. Plus, I'm a boy and you're a girl."
"Dude, who gives a shit? Either accept the grace of my bed or cuddle with the cockroaches on the floor. Plus, we're built like toothpicks; I'm willing to share a bed so long as you don't make this weird.
"...yea, sure."
"Oh, and also, find something to muffle your ears because the people in this household are nasty at night."
Theo gave a mortified stare at Carmina before moans and creaks leaked through the thin walls.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The chilly morning air gave Theo a sharp awakening from his already-short sleep, finding that the only blanket he had was taken by Carmina, who peacefully snored with her own blanket.
With a couple twists and turns to find some sort of warmth, Theo found himself incapable of going back to sleep and moved off the bed.
The house, having not one person being awake before Theo, was without a sound. Instead of some chirping birds or people doing some busy talk, there was only the freezing wind that whistled its morning tunes.
Despite the evident silence in the house that proved there was no one walking around, Theo still felt the need to scope out for any threats. But it didn't take even two looks down to the room that the skeletal woman and piggish man slept in that it was known they were fast asleep.
With that reassurance, Theo maneuvered the house with sneaky feet as he made a trot over to the fridge.
Of course, as poor as a household this was, there was next to nothing inside the fridge, lest you consider crawling bugs to be your breakfast of the day. Theo's stomach growled to no avail, but a quick glance on over to the small stain of dried blood next to the front door removed some of the appetite for food.
Although the two-seated table the adults sat at had chewed chicken bones on it, Theo's dignity didn't allow him to eat such disgusting leftovers, especially since it was covered in ants and bugs.
Turning around towards the living room didn't show any promising food either, leaving only a greasy armchair and CRT TV to be seen.
In a quick sigh, Theo returned to the bedroom before any real threat came up before him, only finding Carmina to be awake and sitting upright in her bed, rubbing her eyes as though she had just awoke from a good dream.
"Mmm... g'morning, you hungry? Let's grab some breakfast."
"First, how do you even get sleep in temperatures this cold? Second, there is no food in the house. What the hell are we going to eat?"
"For the former, I'm just adaptable to my situation. For the latter, we're gonna visit one of the charities run by a Russian gang and grab some grub there."
"Adaptable? That's hella convenient, I'm shivering my bottom off over here. Maybe I wouldn't be so damn cold if you didn't steal the blankets."
Carmina looked down on her two layers of blankets, "Oh, haha, sucks to suck. Here, I have a jacket in the closet if you want."
"What the hell? Why didn't you tell me about them before we went to sleep? I could've worn them to sleep, or at the very least, use it as another blanket!"
"Don't you raise your voice against me. You're here living in the most comfortable place this house can offer, and it is only by my grace you can have that. Hell, I'm offering my only jacket to you as compensation. Let bygones be bygones, would you? We have more important stuff to do."
Theo subtly huffed as he felt slightly annoyed, but quickly let it go, "Yea, sure, I'll let it go. Where's this charity place?"
"Just follow me, and we'll be there in no time, yawn~"
Stretching her string-like muscles, Carmina hopped out of bed and began layering the little clothing she had on her body.
"You want some extra layers too?"
"Uh, nah, no thanks. You already gave me your jacket. Now I kinda feel bad for taking your jacket."
"Yea, well, whatever. I'm used to the cold anyways." Carmina said as she slapped the rest of her clothes onto her body, opening the bedroom window. "C'mon, I'd rather not get a whooping because I didn't leave the house fast enough and still be kicked out."
"Isn't there an entire front door for this?"
"Yea, well, that shit creaks loud as hell. I've gotten an ass beating with a fly swatter because of how loud that old-ass door creaked."
"...? You have a lot of experience and knowledge about where we are despite having, like, a one minute delay between our deaths."
"Really? It's been two days since I got here. Also, what do you mean a one minute delay? Were you stalking me? You're weird." Carmina spoke in an exaggerated voice, mimicking a sense of disgust."
"One hell of a person you are to be spitting into someone's mouth."
"That was for medicinal purposes! And that still doesn't explain your one-minute time difference in death."
"I just think it's natural for anyone to investigate what business the mysterious transfer student has with a rundown church, especially for any world hoppers that may or may not have healing spit."
Carmina's eyebrow twitched and she pulled out a dagger from what seemed like thin air, "Would you prefer a mouthful of my blood? Or would you like a blade stuffed deep inside your throat?"
"Woah! You don't just pull out a knife on someone! I was just joking around! Lightening up the room a bit, yea? Wait, where did you even get a---"
"None of your business, just call us even for our weirdness and end it here. I'm getting hungry."
"Let bygones be bygones, yea?"
"Oi, don't quote me on that."
"Haha!"
The two hopped outside the bedroom window, avoiding the red snow below them like a plague. In the midst of their escape, Theo kept his eye trained on the dagger that Carmina held in her hand, disappearing just as subtly as it came to into existence.
And so, the two walked down the snowy roads, utterly absent of, well, anything really. Despite being a road, there were no cars that loitered around nor were there anyone idling on the road.
It wouldn't take a few more blocks to travel down from and a couple more turns to make that Theo actually saw the starved populace that was poverty in Russia.
Grimy stains of exotic colors painted the canvas-white snow, men and woman of all sorts of body types walked hungry and sick, Russian gang members that had tattoos running from neck to toe supervised the area with malicious glints in their eyes---the red flags had no end to them.
"This place seems... really sketchy. I mean, it's not like I don't trust you, but you can understand my doubts, right?" Theo exclaimed in a whispering voice, careful not to be heard by the other people as though they understood English.
"Trust me, you'll be fine; after all, you need a certain amount of wit to do this kind of work. There aren't gonna be any murderers or rapists who do their nasties around here since it's gang territory, and that's going without saying how weird all the sins are."
"The... sins? I could guess that doing your line of work would make someone go cuckoo, but never to the sense of developing 8th grade syndrome."
Carmina flicked Theo on the side of his head, "First, I do not have 8th grade syndrome. Second, that's their literal names in the world of Manifestors."
"Ow! Look at it from my perspective, would you? Like you said, I'm a perfectly normal U.S. citizen, and there's no way I could even understand what 'Manifestor' jumble you talk about. Also, I don't think we're close enough for that kind of 'comfortable' near each other."
"Oh, uh, alright...?" Carmina spoke in a kind of awkward that gave the feeling she was more alien to socializing than how she actually speaks.
"It's just that we're moving a bit too fast for physical contact, especially when I've only met you, like, yesterday, you know? And I kinda want to keep my life normal and away from... weird stuff, with the promise I made with my guardian."
"...okay."
Carmina held a shaky breath and paced her walking slightly faster than Theo's, understanding the implication inside his words.
At this point, trying to cut off future trouble had made Theo feel more like an asshole than not. It was a struggle between the morals he had promised to follow and the common sense of not being a jackass.
'Ugghhh! Missus, what the hell?!' Theo internally groaned before attempting to catch up to Carmina.
"Alright, I understand the implication in what I just said, and that doesn't mean we can't be friends! Just... keep me out of trouble, would you?"
"Wha, really---!" Carmina coughed in the middle of her sentence, "I mean, yea, of course. When did you ever say anything that could've implied that we weren't friends? Cough!"
"You just said cough! out loud."
"No, I didn't."
A sigh escaped from Theo's mouth as he began to think, 'Oh hell, I already got two weirdos as my friends, what's another? Plus, what if she's the coolest person I ever know?'
Theo rationalized the making of a friend that had a life utterly incomprehensible to him.
Although there might have been an awkward silence that followed after, Theo began to make some small talk to ease the tension, "So, uh, you super duper sure these parts are safe?"
"Huh? Oh, yea, these charities are run by one of the friendliest gangs out there, except to the authorities. Sure, they might not have a clean background, but they can empathize with what we feel. Oh, in here."
Carmina made a short turn into the alleyway and, despite its eerie environment, the end of that alleyway was something much cheery compared to the sad sight that were the snowy streets outside.
Instead of the many red flags that would've killed a man if ignored, a talkative collective of people were seated all around the open expanse that opened in front of Theo.
With men whose murderous glares were accompanied lethal weapons and threatening attire supervising the area, it gave a sense of safety and security in an era that felt far from so.
That being said, Theo and Carmina made their way to the nearest and shortest food stand there was, patiently waiting for their breakfast. Although there were line cutters, just one death stare from a gang member got them to shuffle back into place.
When they finally got their turn for food, a middle-aged woman serving the food made a face akin to every other parent looking at their newborn for the first time.
"Lyubov! Hi! How are you doing? Oh, would you look at that, you brought a friend too! Since you look extra hungry today, you can have some more porridge and a little chunk of meat."
"Oh, thank you very much Ms. Popova."
"And what about you, little boy? Are you hungry too?" Ms. Popova asked in a cutesy voice, to in which Theo had no clue on what the hell she was saying.
"I'm sorry Ms. Popova, Theo has very big hard times speaking because his parents are bad."
"Oh no! I hope you're okay, little boy. So long as you persevere, you can make it out of this dump of a town and be very successful. For now, why don't you have some extra porridge, yea?"
"Thank you very much Ms. Popova," Carmina bowed down while nudging Theo to do the same.
Taking the plastic bowls of hot rice porridge away to a place they can eat on beneath a roof that can shield the snow from getting into their food, the two sat side-to-side beneath an unused bench.
"...are you sure I can speak English here? Wouldn't it be really suspicious if a poor kid in Russia, let alone two, could just speak in fluent English? They'd think of us as British spies!"
"Oh, come on, spies? The chance of someone coming here while knowing English is hella slim. The only other possible chance would be gang members, but those with the literacy to do so are often not doing charity services."
Carmina took a slurp at her porridge and Theo took a bite out of a piece of meat, a sudden uncomfortable air was created between the two.
Theo quickly realized that, as he had expected, it was because there wasn't anything to talk about. The two were so impossibly distant in their experiences that they practically shared nothing in common.
It was already tense enough about whatever squabble they just had before breakfast, but now? Theo felt like suffocating himself in the snow.
'And so, the first step to bridging the gap between two people is to get to know each other!'
Theo dug his bum comfortably into the snow, took a big spoonful of porridge before setting it down and said, "Alright, so let's talk about something other than the mission."
"Huh? What do you mean."
"Well, I'm just used to talking while eating, so let's make some conversation that isn't about whatever this mission is. What's your life as, I don't know, a supernatural superhero?"
Carmina sighed, "I can't talk about that, I signed an entire lease because Alex wanted complete confidentiality on our business."
"You know damn straight that kind of confidentiality was broken the moment I got the guillotine to my neck. Hell, I even broke my family morals for you."
"Well, I guess you're right, but once you gain a perspective into the world of Manifestors, you can't go back. Alex always warned me that telling anyone about this would always have a 'pull' on them to the world of Manifestors."
"Oh no! A mysterious luring to a supernatural society once I've heard their secrets? What could I ever do? But seriously, what the hell is that going to do if I just decide to plop my ass down on my bed?"
"Pfftahaha! Yea, you're right, what kind of bullshit have I been fed my entire life? Also, what's up with your family morals?"
"Eh, my guardian is reeealllyy religious and protective of me, so they set up strict rules for me to follow so that I don't get screwed by some paranormal thingamabob later in life."
"That's... weird."
"I know, right? I keep myself moderate on those rules. So what about you?"
"...can we stay friends? I mean, with how different we are." Carmina spoke with unease, not properly meeting Theo's eyes.
"Oh, for God's sake, who cares? We'll be friends cause we're friends. I don't turn turbo-racist just because I meet someone ethnically different, do I? You're a drop in the bucket compared to the things I've seen Colin and Yuki do."
"Colin and Yuki?"
"People I know, I'll introduce you to them after we leave this hellscape that is Russia."
A sparkle was lit in Carmina's eyes, her lips curving into a grin that well exceeded her capacity to smile, "Alright then, shithead! Let's get going!"
"Woah! Hey! Finish our damn porridge first!"
"Oh, yea, okay."
The two of them drank the last of their porridge before they stood back up again.
"Alright, shithead! Let's get going!"
"Oi, you just said that!"
Carmina wrapped her right arm around Theo before swaying left and right like drunkards, childishly giggling as though a life-long trouble had been solved in that very moment.
"...would you look at that, boss! Two kids? Speaking English? In Russia?! Impossible! What do ya say I do, boss?"
"Oh, hell if I know. Why don't you do a good ol' stalking of those two? Try to understand the situation a bit more?
"Hehehe, you got it boss!"
A seven foot muscle giant stepped menacingly through the alleyway to follow the two kids his boss had ordered him to follow, profusely apologizing to any children that were scared to death by him.