What does it mean too live a fullfilling life in a world where power meant everything
Was it something as great as ruling over the world?
Abusing one's power for personal gain?
Or was it as something as holy as helping the weak
Better question, what is the meaning of life as a whole?
Was it living stress free without having too work for a high standing, is it helping others in the time of need?
Or was it something greater as in sacrificing yourself too make the world a better place.
Well thoughts like that wouldn't mean much too a person who felt like they were going too die with every passing day.
*cough*
A ragged cough echoed across a hollow infested and dirty cell that looked like the bars rusted over from years of neglect.
A young boy who looked no older than 13 was chained against a wall facing the bars of the cell, he looked horrible, dried up blood on his arms, legs, chest, and face.
His wrists had marks of tight cuffed restrains on them and the boy looked deeply in need of care and a shower.
He had deep black hair with length that made it too half his eyes, pale skin that looked like it was devoid of any natural sunlight, his lips were cracked and dry and he looked deeply dehydrated, he was skin and bones with barely any fat on his body, if one didn't look close enough you would have assumed he was dead.
But if you looked closer you could see light and shallow inconsist breathing from the boy.
Just as the boy was about to go back deep into his thoughts about life, it was interrupted by heavy footsteps coming from the right side of his cell, leisurely walking closer and closer.
*Step*
Each footstep sounded closer to his cell.
*Step*
A pair of feet stopped in front of his cell, the boy too weak too look up to get a look at the person's face could only watch his feet.
But it wasn't needed, after all the mans face was deeply ingrained in his mind as he was the cause of all his pain and suffering the last six months.
-Six months ago-
The same boy was currently running down an empty alley way in the middle of the night as fast as he could.
In his hands was three pieces of hard bread that he had stole a black market in a desperate need for food .
It seemed his luck had run out, as he stole the bread he was caught by three men who looked like they had no good intentions too the boy.
As the young boy laid his eyes on the three man he immediately weaved past them in the direction of an dark alley way that he knew like the back of his head.
"Stop!"
One of the three men yelled as he suddenly saw the boy run past them towards an alleyway that they had no idea of the ins and out of it.
Immediately after the man said that all three of them started too chase the boy down the dark alleyway with intentions too capture him.
The boy with his bad stamina knew he couldn't run for a long period of time, quickly tried to find the most confusing path down the alleyway to try too shake the three men off his tail.
During these thoughts the boy noticed a path he never went down as he didn't have any business going down that way
"tch"
The young boy made an audible annoyed sound as he thought if he should test his luck
He immediately stopped in his tracks and was looking forward and to his right back and forth determining if he should go down the right path as he thought this would be the best choice as he knew going down straight he would eventually be caught by the men.
"What other choice do I have, might as well test my luck"
Quickly looking behind him noticing the men were steadily making their way towards him at a fast past, because the alleyway was narrow they couldn't run as fast as they could as too not bump into eachother, deeply annoyed by this predicament each man looked as if they wanted too ripe the little boy apart as soon as they caught him.
Noticing their faces the boy quickly turned again to his right and sprinted towards the part of the alley that seemed even darker and eerie that the regular passage way of the alley.
As he started too run he noticed a stack of plastic boxes stacked on top of eachother almost as tall as him, knowing that trying to forcefully knock the boxes down would waste too much time and cause too much noise he quickly thought of jumping over them.
He prepared his legs in the middle of the run to jump off one leg to get over the boxes.
Just as it seemed like he was going to crash into the stack of boxes he leaped
*Hup*
He made a noise as he pushed off his right leg using almost all the leg strength he could muster up for the act.
As he landed he stumbled almost dropping the bread that was in his hands that he gravely needed too survive another day.
-Three men pov-
As they were chasing the young boy down the hallway noticing that the gap between them and the boy was getting wider and wider as the allway was to small too fit all three of them spread out, they occasionally stepped on eachothers back heel making the person stumble for a second.
"Shit!"
One of the men in the front yelled out as he was annoyed the boy stole food from their merchant carriege.
"How could you not have seen the boy sneak up before he grabbed them?"
The same man yelled as he looked back at the man that was supposed to be watching the surrounding of the carriege, as him and the last man was busy advertising their so called 'high quality bread' that was as soft as a cloud, and as warm as it was just took out of an oven.
The man that was getting yelled out made an obvious scrunched face as he said-
"You got some nerve yelling at me dipshit, after all he had to get past the two of you before me to even get to the carriege".
The first man quickly wanted to retort back but inside he knew that he was right, how could he he so blind as too not see a little kid sneak past them like that?
The second man in the front running on the right, annoyed by their rantics said-
"Enough arguing, use that energy to chase him, point is it was a slip of senses, a mistake."
The two other men looked at him with annoyance but knew any other disagreements would be pointless so they quickly focused on running and sped up.
A few seconds later they noticed the kid made a sudden stop looking in directions like he didn't know where to go.
The first man, being the one too notice this first said-
"Hehe, it looks like the kid finally ran out of stamina and is quickly trying too find a solution."
The man thought the kids thoughts would be pointless, after all there was no way a kid would be able too outrun three full grown men in an alleyway so he quickly made a cocky smile speeding up his pace.
Suddenly he saw the kid make a quick and sharp right turn sprinting down the right side of the alleyway.
"Damn it!"
The third man yelled in the back knowing that if this pace kept going they would lose the boy.
As they made their way down the alleyway to the point of the right turn too see if they could still visibly see the boy
Unfortunately, the boy was long gone and an oddly large amount of stacked boxes blocking their vision wasn't making it any better
Just as the first man was about too talk in annoyance, the second man said-
"Forget it, I doubt the boy will even make it out of that alleyway alive, afterall, the path leading down this part leads to the territory of that damned psychotic bastard."
The two other man realizing this relaxed their faces a few seconds after and huffed in a last bit of struggle and the second man spoke again-
"Lets turn back, we may have lost a few pieces of bread, but it isn't enough too risk our lives over."
The two man knowing this willingly turned back and started walking back to the streets of the black market.
-Young boy pov-
As he kept running after jumping over the boxes, a few seconds later he realized he stopped hearing the multiply quick sounds of footsteps chasing after him.
Sighing in relief the boy said-
"It looks like my luck today isn't all the way bad"
He sat down on the dirty uneven pavement on the ground infested with rats and mice and other liquids he didn't even want too wonder what it was too catch his breath.
—
ten minutes after sitting down he finally recovered enough energy too keep walking as he wasn't totally sure he was safe from the men
As he was making this way down the alley munching on one of the loaf of breads, he looked straight ahead and thought 'Just where does this alley leads too, I never been down this path'
Quickly disregarding these thoughts, distracted by the sound of his belly growling, he started to eat the bread even faster to satisfy his self even if it wouldn't fill his stomach.
After awhile he realized he made quite some distance away from the main path, he looked behind him and noticed he couldn't even see the boxes anymore, and he was on his last bread but decided too save it for breakfast the next morning.
Just as he made a couple more steps he stepped on a pin that was facing upwards
*Pchk*
The needle pierced right through the bottom of his foot and the boy audibly made a hurtful noise.
*hckk"
He tried too stay as quiet as possible as he didn't know if there was any dangers anywhere near this alley.
His face scrunched and he quickly fell down on the floor while holding his left foot in pain, he turned his leg too see the bottom of his foot and noticed a black pin in his foot.
Just as he was about too pull it out he noticed there was an odd light greenish color substance drizzling from the pin.
As he was focused on his foot he suddenly heard a ragged voice say-
"Haven't your parents even told you too stay out of creepy looking alleyways kid?"
As soon as he heard that his head shot up too look at the source of the voice.
He saw a man in an all black trench old looking cloth covering his whole body neck all the way down too his feet, he had no shoes on signifying he wasn't all the way right in the head.
His face, with a scar going across his nose, he looked quite burly underneath the thin piece of clothing and one of his eyes was looking in the other direction while one was looking straight at him
"w-what?" the boy said disturbed by the sudden appearance of the man quickly tried sliding back too make distance but suddenly, his arms started too feel like noodles and his vision started too blur like he was drugged with some sort of substance.
Taking a last look at the man a few meters before him and said
"Whats happening to me?" with a scared tone.
He remembered the green ooze that protruded out the pin on the floor and thought-
"Was it that?"
Before he could make any other thought, his vision completely darkened and he passed out on the floor with no signs of a struggle.