Rulia felt numb.
His eyes are open but all he sees is endless darkness.
He felt and heard the gust of the wind against his body.
The cold soil against his back.
The numbing pain in his rear.
The sticky feeling of his body.
He felt it all, but he couldn't perceive what happened? or more on how it could happen?
He didn't know how many hours passed, how many hours he was staring at the starless endless sky. He didn't know what to do. He first felt fear, he begged, he cried, he then got tired to even utter a plea like a pig waiting to be slaughtered. How can a butcher stop his knife just because the pig cries?
Rulia didn't know how to release the overwhelming emotion inside him, he felt like crying but he couldn't, no tears were forming. He wanted to cry, to just cry, to release this overwhelming emptiness, so he did the only thing he knew, scratched his body. He felt a numbing pain as his nails pierced his thin body and scratched it until it bled. He mindlessly wears the ragged clothes and shorts as he leaves the forest. He keeps scratching himself as he enters the town and enters the house.
•
A week passed, Rulia never left the house. He couldn't pay attention to his father nor to himself. He felt like dying, he smelled like blood and dried body fluids, he felt he was going crazy. The emptiness couldn't be filled nor released, he didn't know what he should do to ease this feeling.
Then one time, he heard the mocking voice outside their house. It was the voice of his predator, laughing, arrogantly telling how he felt when he forced Rulia's small body.
"If I just had him when he was 5 it would be more fun. Do you remember him that time? I want to fuck him and his mother at the same time!"
Rulia felt sick as he trembled hearing their voices.
Shut up!
Shut up!
Shut up!
Rulia opens his eyes with deep anger and runs towards the kitchen. He gets the knife and runs outside the house. He then saw the shocked face of three monsters while the other one was pale and with a hint of pain. Someone immediately punched his face and kicked his stomach.
"This fucking bitch!"
"Hey are you okay?!" the other monster asked the other with a knife inserted in his stomach.
Then chaos descended in the whole town.
"Is he fucking crazy?"
"What a family of lunatics."
"Look at him, who did he sell his body to? Like mother like son, they don't stop seducing man like a woman in heat"
He received countless mocking gaze, insulting words, punches and kicks. He then saw that monster being treated, Rulia felt like looking at countless monsters. Everyone was like a monster, preying on him. He felt angry, why he was weak, why he didn't kill himself that time? Why couldn't he kill just a single monster? How can he live in a world full of monsters?
He couldn't
So, they needed to disappear. If monsters don't exist, how could he suffer?
Die
Die
Die
Die
.
.
.
.
.
Rulia slightly opened his eyes when the noises disappeared as the place was filled with deafening silence. He saw a huge black hole encompassing the whole village as it got smaller and smaller and went back to his shadow, what was left was a barren land.
•
Rulia runs as fast as he can away from that place. He felt happy that he killed all those monsters but he knew how the world would view him. He will be labeled as a monster that engulfed a whole village. So he needed to run away from that place.
He didn't know how many days he was running until his body rolled down the river.
•
"Arni! Is that a kid?" an old woman asks as she points to a seemingly body. The old man beside him squinted his eyes and looked, he enchanted a spell as the small body flew towards them. The old woman was filled with shock seeing the boy. He has pale skin and thin body, extremely pale lips, bruises, cut wound, scratched wound, blood and scars. How could a small young boy experience this much with its small body?
Using the wind magic, Arni places the young boy on the bed as Ami helps in healing and cleaning the boy. Ami's hand trembled the moment she saw dried body fluids in his body. She felt pure rage towards the preparator, as her eyes reddened.
"How cou- are they monsters?" Ami uttered with a cracked and heavy grasping voice. You didn't need compassion to know what was wrong, you just needed to be human. How could those people even do this to a young boy? Ami stops herself from crying as she heals the boy.
"They are." Arni answer heavily
After a few weeks, the young boy still didn't wake up, but the old husband and wife didn't feel any impatient in treating him. When Ami saw his innocent milky brown eyes open, Ami's heart immediately softened, she saw how his eyes that were full of innocence were filled with wariness and anxiety.
"Im Ami, call me Grandma Ami, my husband Arni and I found you in the river a month ago. How are you feeling now? Do you feel any pain?" She asked worriedly. the young boy didn't answer and just stared at her shadow.
"Is he awake?"
The young boy's eyes widened as breath deeply as if suffocated.
"Child!" Ami exclaimed and looked at Arni "Leave first!" She shouted and tended to Rulia.
"It's okay, I made him leave." Ami utters softly and activates her healing magic. She then saw him close his eyes.
•
Months passed by quickly, it's been 6 months and the young boy never utters a word. In the first week, he didn't eat anything, and ate afterwards. As days passed by, he began answering with a simple nod and shook head. The thin boy now has a slight meat in his hollowed face. Ami felt happy, money was never a problem in their case. When they are in their prime, Arni and her were in a one team of hunters that do various bounty around the town and forest. They were able to save a lot, and planned to build a happy family in the corner house of the Lotus Town but she couldn't conceive. Arni never leaves her, nor thinks about leaving her, but Ami knows how Arni wanted a child.
These past few months they saw how obedient the boy is but he never talked nor felt safe in the presence of Arni. It takes a year to let the young boy get used to the presence of Arni. One time they were silently eating around the table when the young boy first uttered his word.
"Rulia"
Ami's eyes widened in shock as it filled with tears.
"Rulia, what a beautiful name" Ami said
Rulia eyes widened as it redden, he bit his lips as he gasped for air.
"I killed those monsters." he uttered heavily, as the room was filled with silence. Ami covered her mouth as she understood his words.
"Are you the one who did that to the village?" Arni asked seriously
Rulia nodded his head.
"Did you ever tell anyone about it?" Arni further asked
"I didn't"
"That's good!" Arni exclaimed and looked softly to Ami who had reddened eyes. Ami felt heavy sadness, how cornered was a child needed to be to do that horrible thing?
Ami saw Rulia's eyes widen, she suddenly felt guilty for being scared for a few minutes. Everyone in that town was a monster. Ami suddenly remembers the deep scar in Rulia's body, it was a sign of long term physical abuse.
"Really?" Rulia asked with a hint of happiness as if it was the first time he was heard.
"Yes, they deserved it, but dont tell it to anyone and use that power again to anybody. Do you promise?" Arni said
"Yes, I promise." Rulia answers softly as Ami receives his gaze.
"As long as you're alright. The past is the past." Ami answers lightly with a light smile.
•
The moment Rulia went to his room, Ami sighed.
"We needed a new name for him," Arni said as he drank his water.
"Why?"
"I heard from the town that a group of knights was looking around for possible traces of the incident but they couldn't trace anything. The one who was looking for the trace was the Knight with the chief's son who was studying at the Argia Academy. He might be seen, we needed to change his appearance and name for his own good."
"Should we use that spell? The one book we got from one expedition?"
"That rare grimoire that changes gender?" Arni asked quite shocked, but it was feasible, if they change his hair color and eyes, he's still recognizable and the amount of money needed for every potion is quite costly even for them. If Rulia changes his gender even when he was suspected, they wouldn't think to reach the conclusion that it was him. The spell of changing one's gender is a literal myth, and only the two of them know about it.
"Yes, I'll talk about this to Rulia, if he agrees let's proceed with it. Just until he was strong."
"As I expected my wife understand me, Rulia, that child deserve to live freely and to live freely, he needed to be strong"
Ami softly smiles, how can you say a person is still kind even if he massacres numerous people? If he still feels guilty. Rulia, who engulfed a whole village, still looks anxious the moment he utters the truth. Ami saw his eyes full of anxiety and kind of begging, to not be thrown away it was a suffocating feeling for Ami. Yes, she felt scared, who wouldn't? But Arni and she live life as a hunter, they saw countless deaths and cruelty of the world. Even now as an adult they still felt overwhelmed to the world, how much more to Rulia? A child, who experienced those tragedies. In the end fear subsides, all she felt was pity and sense of responsibility as an adult. Rulia can still be saved, they wanted to shape him as kind but not weak, he needed to be strong to live freely.