Author's Note:

I know my story has it's own share of curses but this chapter has somewhat more of them as it is a very dark one. If you hate such stuff, I'm sorry about it but it had to be done. You can skip this as it will have little effect on the main story but it does explain a lot about Ace's personality and why he has a streak of cruelty in himself.

WARNING: Strong Language ahead

Characters

Titles and Abilites

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It was dark outside. The rain was falling in rapid torrents, thunder rumbling somewhere in the background.

Kirin was sitting next to the window, watching grey overtake the world when lightning flashed. It lit the sky, returning the daytime for a moment. But soon it was gone and the boy was back in the familiar darkness.

He liked it actually, it was his best friend alongside Sam. If there ever was a time for him to choose one, he would have a very hard time in doing so. Sam was a living being, one who it was fun to spend time with but darkness was what kept him company all the time.

When he was alone at home, he rarely turned the light on. Parents had been saving money in earlier times, cutting on the cost of electricity and he got used to the dark. Light hadn’t become an enemy for that but he preferred its absence.

There was just something magical about pure blackness, having to navigate by sound alone.

And it was especially amazing on afternoons like this. The rain was so heavy it made day into night and the inside was close to darkness. Kirin stayed in it, enjoying his solitude when another thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance.

Light streaked, colouring the world yellow before disappearing. The boy watched it in wonder when a thought struck him. How did the lightning look over the sea? Here it was blocked by all these buildings and large trees but there nothing would interrupt it. And Kirin could see it in its full glory.

The boy smiled and rushed down from the windowsill, to the bottom floor and out through the door. Rain soaked his meagre attire in moments but he didn’t really mind. It wasn’t that cold yet, a summer storm.

He moved through the streets like a grey mouse; small and invisible to everyone’s eyes. Thunder flashed and he dashed to hide under a tree. Hopefully, it would prevent anyone from seeing him.

Only after doing it a couple more times did he remember that adults said that it was dangerous. Yet being unnoticed weighted more in his mind. If anyone took as much as a glimpse of his figure in this rain, he would be brought to someone’s home and would have to think of some excuse.

Adults didn’t let him do anything interesting, especially after the announcement of his sickness.

For some reason they thought it was something horrible, that he would need help understanding what it meant. In his mind, it was all very stupid. He had stopped ageing. So what?

Yes, it had shocked him a bit at first. He had thought about all the cars he won’t get to drive and that he won’t get to become the hero he so wished to be. But now he could be a child forever! When everyone grew up, he would still get to play around and wouldn’t have to do anything.

What wasn’t awesome about that?

His parents had to work from morning to night to get enough money for them to survive. It was something horrible but they were getting better at it and soon were going to earn enough to live off for years to come.

Then because he was a kid and didn’t have to go to school, they could all travel together. He could already imagine going to all the places he’d seen on TV; grandiose castles, majestic ruins and mesmerising views of preserved nature.

It was all going to be so great. He couldn’t wait for it!

That’s why he had to act good now and wait till they were done. It wasn’t even that hard actually. All everyone expected of him was to smile and say something about being sad once in a while to make them happy. And he succeeded most of the time.

But this time he didn’t want to do as told. Aunt had left telling him to go and take an afternoon nap but he liked the dark too much to waste such an opportunity.

He was at the edge of the village when he encountered the first person. The face was down and the figure hidden beneath a rain cloak so Kirin simply stopped and crouched on the ground.

There was nothing to hide him but the rain itself.

The person was obviously in a hurry and passed him without a look, not expecting anything, or anyone, to be there. Kirin stayed in his position for a while longer, not wanting to attract attention by moving. Only when the person was out of his sight did he stand up and rush away.

His boots made soft thuds on the paved ground. But it soon ended and he had to run over the wet ground. Flashes of lightning showed him the path from time to time but he still slipped and fell often.

The grass was just too slick from the rain. And then it got worse. He was going straight, ignoring all paths that winded for a more picturesque views. That resulted in him moving through mud which caught his boot.

Kirin managed to keep his balance but it was annoying. He looked at his submerged footwear and decided it wasn’t worth it.

The other boot left his foot too and now barefooted he ran over the fields, to the sea. Mud, slippery grass was still there yet no longer such a challenge.

In some ten minutes he was there.

The cliff looked much more dangerous in the little light that passed through the rain clouds. For the first time Kirin understood why not everyone dared to come over here.

Waves the size of an adult crashed against the rocky coast, wind howled in inhumane tones and he was standing there like a little leaf to be picked.

Fear took the better of him as his body swung forward from a gust and he fell to the ground. It didn’t prevent him from crawling to the edge and looking into the horizon but this was still a lot.

Lightning came.

Kirin’s mouth opened wide at the sight. Wide streaks of orange yellow littered the sky. There were dozens and dozens of them. He would have counted them, had they lasted for a longer but he knew no one would believe him anyway.

From their places safe at home, no one could see this many. The best they got was two or three unhidden by the other houses and trees, not that anyone was looking.

For some strange reason most people were afraid of thunder storms. He couldn’t really see why as they were so beautiful but people were.

He watched for a bit longer when a strange sound reached his ears. It resembled one of shouting men but it couldn’t be true. Who would be out in a storm like this?

Moments passed with nothing but the rain falling and Kirin heard it again. He was sure there was someone below him. No way his imagination could have produced that.

Without standing up he started to move north where he knew there was a place to go to the rocks below. He had been there a few times but not often. To stand on the cliffs was much more interesting than below and if he wanted to swim, there was a beach east of here.

His clothes got dirty in moments but for investigating it was the price to pay. It was bad, he knew, but they were drenched anyway. There was no chance he was escaping a scolding so it was better to have done something to deserve it.

He crawled for some good fifteen minutes until he got to the path leading downwards. It was mud and he could see footprints there. They were large, of men full grown.

Interested, he carefully went down. He kept to the rocks and when a man passed he took no notice of him. The rain was still going at it, masking any sounds Kirin made and hiding his tracks.

However, his path was soon blocked by a large boulder and he noticed he was in some kind of a natural tunnel. Rocks had fallen here in a way that left a small space between themselves and the wall of the cliff.

This made a perfect spying place though not for anyone else but Kirin himself. The rocks weren’t high and mostly anyone would have been noticed. Not him though. He was small. Small by the standards of kids and even smaller by those his age.

He put some mud on his head and face to cover himself as he’d seen spies do in films. It was fun actually. He got so caught in it that he only noticed two people mere two meters from him when they started shouting in loud voices.

“What happened to the shipment? Where is the guy?”

“That shitty bastard. I knew we couldn’t leave it to him.”

“Damn well you did. And now we’re going to be punished, you moth-”

“Shut it. Go and find that damned bastard! Who’s seen him last?”

The second guy grumbled loudly at that but answered. “Brute said he saw him leave with one of the girls.”

“Shipment?” the first guy asked in outrage, his eyes bulging up. Kirin noticed his hands folding into fists and unconsciously pushed against the wall behind.

Only now did he notice he was hidden only if he was lying on the ground and from the side. Not from eyes above.

And the man were big. They were the largest people he’d ever seen and he’d thought Kevin’s father was huge, towering over everyone in the village. Yet he had nothing on these two. They were giants with muscles bulging under wet shirts and scarred faces.

That wasn’t good news. Kirin might have been a kid but he knew people didn’t get scars doing office work. And these were unknown people doing something in the dark.

A shiver ran down his back and he quickly turned his head towards the way he’d come from. He thought about trying to go there but his hands shook and fear froze him on the spot.

One of the man had left but the other was still standing nearby. What would happen if he heard him moving? The answer was something the boy didn’t want to find out.

He prayed the man would move but no god listened to him as hours, or so it felt like, passed until the man walked forward. In the direction Kirin had come from.

And more people were coming from there.

Three giants dragging a fourth and another bringing something over his shoulder which had the familiar shape of a human being. “Son of a whore,” cursed the closest man and slammed his fist into the dragged guy’s face. “Do you fucking know what you did?”

There was no answer from the punched guy and the leader cursed in the foulest language Kirin had ever heard. Truth be told, this was more curses than he had heard in his whole life. It made him wonder if people actually talked like this when he wasn’t around.

However, his attention was soon brought back to what was happening before his eyes.

The carried person, as it was clearly one, started to struggle, mutter something incomprehensible and the leader waved one of the guys to bring it away. His whole attention was on the guy brought to his knees before him.

The three giants had dropped him and were standing a few steps back, watching and making sure he wasn’t planning on escaping. “Do you know what happens for foiling our merchandise? Do you? Fu----- bastard.”

His voice had turned icy cold then, no longer angry. It made Kirin shiver again, stop breathing almost, frozen in place in a vain hope that it would hide him better. He would be impossible to see if he stayed still, right? Right?

The man took out a large knife. It was nothing like the delicate daggers he admired of old assassins but a meat cutting one, something his mother used. Her only being much smaller.

Kirin had a feeling something horrible was going to happen before his eyes but there was nowhere to go, no place to run. All he could do was stay quiet and hope that by some miracle he won’t be noticed.

The knife was raised, rushing like a snake and Kirin closed his eyes. He even put his hands before them to block the view but there was nothing to do against the sound. And that made his eyes look through the spaces between his fingers.

There was something about the grotesque that captivated one beyond his will. Kirin knew he shouldn’t see it, didn’t even want to but his fingers separated against his will and the eyes were too wide open to be closed.

He saw how the knife plunged into flesh and left with crimson trailing behind. And again. And again.

Each plunge brought a scream, a heart-wrenching one but the leader man didn’t care. His knife went in and out, in and out.

Kirin watched it with morbid fascination, his body growing deathly still.

Bile rose in his throat, urges to throw up racked his body but freezing cold fear kept him in place, soundless. It was obvious even to his numb mind what would be his fate if he was noticed.

But numbness was good. It helped him. Soon he was watching the scene with the barest minimum of emotions, screams having turned into background noise. The knife’s cruel efficiency a song of cruelty and blood-thirst. Disgust. Anger.

In and out, in and out. It was maddening in it’s simplicity yet so easy to follow. The man was turning into a bloody pulp before Kirin. His young, once innocent eyes.

Aeons later the strike to the heart came and the screams ended. The absence of them leaving something worse behind. It was crazy how the world could go on as if nothing happened after what Kirin had seen.

The rain was still showering him and thunder rumbling in the distance. He was sure Sam was still playing with her dog while the rest of the class was immersed in that new game that had just come out. Blind. Unknowing. Happy.

Things happened then. Like in a dream he saw people walking around, moving cargo and carrying to a small barge that had come. In time the body was removed too and sand shuffled to hide the bloodstains.

Soon everyone was gone but him. In time even the rain stopped, the sky clearing out. It was late evening so there was still some light left.

Kirin sat there, unmoving. He watched the place where everything had transpired, unable to look away. Darkness came and he shivered. Fearful.

Ages later sounds came and people rushed to his place. They talked, cried but their voices were nothing but a buzz in the background. Had he forgotten human language?

They picked him up and carried him back, but his eyes were still on the pile of sand that hid a dark secret.

It was red.

The colour of human blood.