A child, 5 years old awakens in a cold sweat, panting as if he had a nightmare. The smell of ash and smoke fill his nostrils as his heart beat like a drum, but there's the odor of something else, blood. He peers outside of his window, his heart beating faster, his eyes shaking more and more. His expression transforms from innocent confusion to pure terror. An entity, sporting elongated arms and legs wreaking havoc on the once peaceful village that the child once resided.
Immediately he jumps out of his bed, running down the wooden stairs as they creaked behind him. Just as he is about to exit the house, he is lifted off of his seat by someone, their mouth covering his mouth before he could scream, however he immediately calms down once he realized who it was, his older sister.
Her breath was sporadic and rapid, her face was just as terrified as that of her younger brother. She silently hoped that the creature, the Shade didn't find them. However, fate was not on their side, the Shade demolished the house as the girl leapt out from the now destroyed house, just as a chunk of the roof was about to fall onto them. Clutching her brother tightly, she ran into the forest, muffling her brother's cries as she ran as fast as she could, the Shade immediately going after them on all fours.
Panting heavily, the older sister ran, holding onto her brother as she rushed through the dense bushes, trying to lose the shade, but it rushed at the siblings, literally ramming through the trees as it tried to get to them.
The sister looked behind her, the Shade was getting closer and closer, she knew that she wouldn't be unable to save both herself and her brother, so, as a last resort, she threw her brother as far as she could into the shrubs as she slowly turned around around, tears running down her face as she took one last look at her brother, as he looked up, only to watch his sister get brutally murdered right in front of him by the Shade. Tears run down his face like a waterfall as he watches his now lifeless sister's body being mutilated by the Shade as she was devoured, her blood splattering on the bushes and on the Shade's body. He hid, his eyes shaking, red from the tears.
The creature sniffs around, roaming the area, appearing as if it was looking for the child, he stays hidden, trying his best to make sure that the Shade didn't see him. A few minutes pass before it finally darts off, running into the deep forest as it fades from view. The boy comes out of hiding a few minutes later, his hair wet, his eyes were dark, the light of innocence that was once there now non-existent. He stood there for a moment, contemplating his own life and why this had happened to him.
He slowly limps away trying to find anything, a path, a road, anything that could give him some sort of solace. His body was bruised, his legs were visibly bleeding, it hurt, everything hurt. However, despite the excruciating pain that he was experiencing, he kept moving, desperately trying to find someone or something to help him. Luckily, fate was on his side for this moment. The sound of military trucks echoed through out the forest, now was his chance.
He ran as fast as his injured legs could bear, the grass bending under his stubby feet, trying to make it in time before the trucks passed. He saw a dirt path that most likely lead towards the remains of the village he once called home. Before he could get there, his legs, no longer able to bear the pressure, finally gave out as he collapsed then and there on the edge of the path. The trucks whirred on as they approached him. He silently hoped that they would see him and luckily, they did, stopping near his location a group of four stepped out, two women, two men, each of them wearing high tech suits covered most of their bodies, except their heads.
They rushed towards the boy, picking him up as they brought him into one of the trucks' cargo beds, trying their best to clean him up and try to get some information out of the child. One of the people that came out of the truck, the younger woman begins to talk with him, "Hey....My name is Kanzaki Neru. May I know yours kid?" She spoke softly, doing her best to make sure he was as comfortable as possible, especially after what he had just experienced. He stared at her, his expression cold as ice, a peculiar expression unlike any other five year old Neru had spoken with, though eventually he finally mustered up the will to speak his voice quiet but shaky, "Kami-minari.. R-Ryu... Kaminari Ryu..." He managed to actually tell her something which initially surprised her but she kept going tryin to learn about he saw... "And do you want to tell me anything about what happened back there?"
Ryu's expression turned from one of ice to one of sadness, his voice shaky as if he was on the verge of bursting out crying as he spoke, "I-I woke up a-and I looked out-out side and I saw this b-big scary-y monster... and m-my sister c-came and r-ran with me-" He swallowed as the tears trickled down his face his mouth shaking before continuing, his stutter increasing, "B-But the m-monster chased u-us, a-and she c-couldn't g-et far enough.. s-so she threw me b-but the m-monster g-got her and t-the-there was b-blood e-everywhere" He silently cried, his tears running down his face. However, Neru's face showed horror and empathy, feeling sorry for what he had to go through especially at that age, "It's alright now, you're safe with us alright, no scary monsters are gonna hurt you alright Ryu?" Neru speaks in her soft tone to reassure the child.
Soon after the trucks arrive at the remnants of Ryu's village. The older woman begins speaking her voice firm, "This is squad leader Shikimori Nara, giving everyone the order to go out and look for survivors and bring them back to the trucks." The other squad members including Neru, ran off in different directions, navigating the rubble and debris. Thirty minutes pass, then an hour, then an hour and a half, the squad members returned, their bodies covered in ash as soot, their expression looking defeated. Nara, looks at her squad members, reading their expressions, "What's the report?" She asks, a slight hitch in her voice, preparing for the worst. The older man of the two spoke, his voice rough but calm "There were no survivors. Men, women and children were either crushed in the debris or their remains were eaten by the Shade."
Nara, rubbing her temples, seemed disheartened by the news, "We only got to save this one kid, shit." She sighed, before continuing, "Alright, everyone fall back, we're heading back to Arcaea. We'll put the kid in government housing, all the shelters are full and can't take anymore refugees so this is the best we can do." Neru looked disheartened by this, she didn't want to leave Ryu to fend on his own, but she knew that there weren't any better options so, she begrudgingly agreed to the conditions.
The squad members came back into the trucks, as they drove back to where they came, Arcaea, the capital of the country Inixia. Rain began to pour as they entered the city and after a few hours of negotiation was able to secure a residence for the five year old. They dropped him off at the building, making sure he was fed and cleaned, leaving him to his own devices, in the house. He looked around, taking in the white walls, the simple couch and kitchen, the small bathroom parallel to the kitchen and the singular bedroom where he would be sleeping.
Going to bed, he silently cried himself to sleep, the trauma of the experience staying with him until his teenage years.