Shattered

Although he saw the state of the other districts, never had he been in the stations due to their ability to create a claustrophobic environment with the salty bodies of flesh bumping to leave.

The same type of people were seen everywhere but it was just more of them. Too many of them.

Kage, now lost, waded through the sea until hopping over the rail to tax all who bought tickets and memberships to use the trains. Ascending from the green haze he stood before a rundown street clogged with hobbling cars and trucks. Buildings etched each side either boarded or falling to ruin only inhabited by stand-up teenagers equipped with bandanas and sleeveless shirts. The mugs of these aforementioned teenagers caked in grime as well as sweat from their laborious jobs in the smokestacks or burning the mound of piling dead. It was told that the average age in the lower district remained in the teens. Among the living in the lower districts few lasted after their 30th year of age; an ever-encompassing fact that hung over each occupant's head.

Little could make Kage feel sympathy for such people. After all, they were not the most pleasant kind to arrange a conversation. The reasoning for this low life expectancy stemmed from the growing deadly crime sinking its teeth in the shape of gangs and other powerful crime syndicates. However, none too organized which brought with it common gang wars near weekly. Yet, the larger ones never experienced turmoil when such violence went rampant.

The occupants were thrown no sympathy having in turn directed that anger at themselves for survival. In Kage's mind, only pity would remain for these people. With the chips down, all they could do was search for weaker prey to mutilate.

"It's just as I told you. We live in squalor for mighty ol' Sam to suck out what we got. Even then we not smart enough to go after Sam. We eat our own body due to stupidity."

To his left, William's bobbing bush of a head flopped about as the both of them sprinted in the direction of Daniel's home.

'Always good to see a friend again.'

The very hue brought with it drudged up memories belonging to a forgotten Autumn Day where he camouflaged in the collage of drifting leaves showering them. The final showing of the season and they wasted it hopping foot to foot on a hopscotch created by the two blondes.

Just as he had been there to cheer him onward, William vanished, astounding Kage with a gentle smile to wave him goodbye. Retaining vigilance in front of him, Kage discovered the reason for his departure. Time must have bent somewhere on the way making the simple minute long dash come across as twenty instead. Due to the conversation, the day scampered away basking the street in moonlight just as he spied the front door to Daniel's basement loft.

Suffocated by the massive weight atop its back, the basement was stuffed out of the way with a pair of stairs, fifteen steps in total, leading to its front door. A door which was no better than the rest he had seen. Dented by a fist or two while being scratched due to a welder's mistake, a single shutter, which had to be removed from the inside, allowed for sunlight while nothing ever snuck in without warning the occupant.

That very room birthed more than contempt. Lacquered sewage rose in the rainy seasons drifting among the violent streams while drainage no longer worked in the lower district. On such days, inhabitants would board up to hide away from the potential drowning. A drowning which could not be escaped by the sole survivor fighting for his life inside that loft. The water flowed through the boarded window and door; cracks too thick to completely stop the inevitable. Cries unheard or ignored, whichever it may be the child soon came to his own self-actualization of what it was outside those walls forced on him.

Earth was a sickly green planet. It had been layered in rot after rot to choke the aspiring young into submission then toe the line that others have paved for them all.

'This must be what Daniel thinks of this.' Kage theorized. But he was mistaken. The flooding never wracked his mind for an escape or reasoning for the circumstances. Instead, all this flooding provoked inside of Daniel was the urge to go out and brace that rain, calling for any lost soul still trapped in the open.

Plotting almost alluded to Kage waiting outside until Daniel returned, an endeavor in which no one would ever truly know when it would end. However, the door to the basement was not how he remembered it remaining. The hatch was grounded by the waves but more so than that it was a tad loose.

The hinges were torn away from the door and in a haphazard attempt to put them back into place, so as not to cause worry, the door simply adjusted to appear as if it was standing, resulting in the bottom resting on the floor rather than rising a few centimeters. Kage peaked the gap between the door and its frame discovering that a chair decorated by candy cane patterned cushioning was responsible for the situation. A hearty kick sent the door to the corner of the room while the chair flung off into the kitchen screaming with a 'bang'.

Stumbling into the room Kage wrung his own neck at the decrepit whispers that continued in the melodic tone of a familiar voice. This voice eventually left as Kage worried over what Daniel's reaction would be over the door and blown apart chair. The boy liked it quite considerably since the time he found it at the dump. Yet, Kage then stopped.

Not in footsteps alone but everything.

His brain no longer worked, refusing to process the mistake.

It was as if several error codes popped up in his vision like they would in a low budget video game. Nothing made sense the moment he looked up from his polished shoes. Their brown surface dusted over by the smog of this area, but Kage seemingly discussed the idea of just cleaning them himself when he got home.

Ah, that's right. Home. A place where he enjoyed the amenities to life without stressing over the finer things. That's what a home should be. Comfort and warmth bestowed by the memories made past then present furthered by prospects for future ones as well.

When thinking of that apartment he and Lisa shared he realized no warmth had encompassed that place since the day they stole it. Selfishly and maliciously. A takeover ruining the good work the past occupants put toward keeping a balance. Shattered glass, shattered hopes, and shattered people.

Two opposites, one deathly afraid of the other and the other responsible, unable to take accountability. Wonderment was possible, perhaps a slight edge of annoyance at this man. But mainly hate, self-loathing hate so great it could tear apart a nation or two.

'Crack'

Masks were fitted and then glued to preserve the beauty underneath. A beauty so glaringly garish that no one should be subject to its cruelty.

In the end, many were. Those forgotten in the cracks.

'Crack!'

Faces, doctors? Family? Friends? Now simply strangers that had an ill encounter with the touch of a child.

Transported from then on to a ward to recuperate then return good as partially new. Though for how long could a lie, so great, be upheld? Experiences make a man and with all the whispers from the dead prepared to release a wave of grievances, who could tell when it may all come crumbling down.

To subside these whispers, he grew strong. No longer was the child a child but instead a teenager able to stand up to the strongest in the world if need be. If not in physical strength, then intellect, and not even then there was still the resolve held intact over these years.

What was last to break in the human soul? The physical awareness possessed by the subject wielding it, or the subject's autonomy to keep it safe.

As the soul/resolve grew and grew so did the headspace to adapt along with it. Childish wonders became lofty dreams barely seen from the low ground of a city peppered by advertisements to clog the senses. Drive those dreamers to sacks of flesh that walk and walk then sit and sit only to watch and watch while the time passed onward.

Escaping from this abrupt ending, the teenager made friends, or were they? Mainly like-minded individuals suffering from histories unknown. As time went, so did the initial excitement in their greetings at the school yard resulting in a cold day with the cherry blossoms swept by only for the teenager to meet a child again. The roles were now reversed within those shrunken sockets an inspiration was founded.

An inspiration cultivated, groomed, subsequently cared for, and then loved. A friend. The first he acknowledged was there for him awaiting his beck and call.

'CRACK'

So, when did he become complacent?

Possums, rats, pigeons, blue jays, crows, ravens, and whatever other kind of bird were littered in the room. Kage nudged a single one with his foot pronouncing the rest of them dead. The walls plastered in their blood as the windows darkened creating a red glow by the moon.

Those tiny corpses were a misdirection it seemed. Just a thing to brighten the mood, relax it if you will, for the surprise to come.

The kitchen's sink, usually stacked to the brim with plates, was home to a pool of critters waving their hands at a friend's return. A new accessory had been constructed to the granite counter, a handle of some sort but oddly enough it was in the shape of a human cranium. Weird.

Finally, making his way from the kitchen directly to the bedroom, a whole five feet away, did he see what he was meant to be witnessing. What he could have witnessed if he had arrived sooner.

In the sheets was a strange liquid the same color as the petals to a rose. Which color of rose? That's the weird thing, to Kage it no longer looked disgusting, or abnormal. To him the color soaked into a mixture of things developing to a gray paste.

Glancing back over to the animals he came to the conclusion that all of their initial red was a gray. A mistake he would be sure not to forget again. It had always been gray. Their faces were always infested by maggots.

He was fine.

Fine was he and he was fine. Fretting would be dumb. As a smart person he couldn't just-

*CRACK!*

'Oh… The mask.'

It had fallen. Slowly, very slowly. The straps which held it in place to the back of his head must have snapped apart. Shards splintering off reflecting a hideous smile back at himself. Then, staring at these shards the picture enlightened him to his own expression, a smile plain as day with toothy punctuation of glee. So, of course he must laugh.

Laughing was the best medicine of course.

Laughing continued for minutes… maybe hours. Did it really matter though? What else did he have to do?

That was until he saw the mask just about smack the ground.

'Wait, no! I can't let it break! If it breaks, I can't be with her. I can't let her see me like this. I won't become that Monster again!'

Too late. The mask exploded into bits sending the pieces whizzing past, slicing new openings that bled hotly.

Kage fell to the floor, head between his legs. In this submissive position, his throat choked on the laughs now howling from the regions of his diaphragm. The day was hilarious. His first girlfriend, his declaration of love, his sister for once looking relieved in the morning to see her older brother, and then the call, then this. Days changed more quickly than a damn bellwether. All the time spent on this boy was shot to Hell. Shot straight down with no clear end in sight for him to chase after.

Even more so, he was just deluding himself. It wasn't the time. He had not wasted it, but was stolen by someone. His friend was gone… The light similar to the sun unknowingly gave Kage a hope to strive forward.

It couldn't be lost forever.

Then, picking himself back up wiping the dust from his eyes, he heard the ringer on his phone. Flipping it open was not a call from anyone he knew but instead a series of numbers he attempted to decipher over in his head to see if he remembered its I.D. anywhere before.

Answering it he heard a familiar voice from the other end. It was Lisa's friend. "Is this Kage… Kage Tesler?" she asked with sobs off to the side accompanied by screaming prancing all around. However, off in the distance the unmistakable roar of a fire was audible. A blazing one, one so large it could eat up an entire home or two.