54. Caged Fate -2

Upon opening his eyes, Severus woke up in familiar darkness. It felt home yet so different. It was an empty void filled with darkness and sorrow. Surrounded by nothing but agony, pain, and hatred. These emotions, this pain, this hatred, wasn't Severus's.

Upon looking down at his hand, he found them in a plasmatic state. In an almost transparent, almost Translucent state. This was the first time that Severus ever found himself out of his body, at least partially, since he can still feel himself being tied down to his body. Whenever he read someone's mind, it was from that person's perspective, he never had a physical form inside another person's mind. It was just viewing a memory from another person's point of view. While it seems simple. Legilimency was far more than just mind-reading. It has many complex functions. Severus, like many highly skilled wizards, can telepathically communicate telepathically with other witches and wizards, even when the target was at a considerable distance. He is able to do this by projecting his thoughts, emotions, and memories into the mind of an intended recipient without directly accessing it, thereby creating visual impressions in their mind.

When he used Legilimency on all of his targets for recruits, he targeted emotions of greed, interest, and desire. These emotions led him to the memory and wishes that his recruits desired. Though he tried to be as to be evasive as possible about their private life, he had to go through their memories to check if they are worth it.

Using legilimency, Severus trained others in the arts of Occlumency. His methods were brutal but effective. Constant invasion allowed them to get familiarized with Legilimency and build walls around their thought, emotions, and memories.

Severus didn't mention what he saw in Benjy's memories to him, as he wanted to wait for Benjy to tell him - but every single day, Benjy's body continued to kill him little by little. The dark parasite continued to grow stronger and overrule its counterpart.

While Benjy's memory of his condition was located, Noelle's mind wasn't protected to stop Severus from accessing their conversations.

From Noelle's mind, Severus gathered some puzzle pieces that solved the mystery around the two forces inhabiting Benjy's body, but the information wasn't enough. Benjy was careful in what he shared. He only shared this information because Noelle brew him potions and he had a very soft corner for her in his heart.

There was the last piece of the puzzle that was left to complete this puzzle.

Closing his eyes, Severus concentrated on the earliest emotion of pain in Benjy's life.

Soon the darkness around crumbled down, breaking through the empty space, a street filled came into view.

Looking down at his hand, instead of his usually pale skin, he found dark skin. Understanding that he was in Benjy's memory, he simply watched.

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With bruised all around his body, a 7-year-old Benjy walked around the night street of Rustenburg.

He begged, and stole around the capital of crime. Each day he had to fight for a piece of bread. He bled every week, with no one to care for him. Even the money he begged for, was taken by gangsters on the streets.

Even during these darkest times, Benjy was happy. Happy that he had friends. On the street, they neither had names nor an identity. They learned to talk from whispers of wanders. They made the pavement their playground, house, and everything they ever wished.

Looking at the night sky, with a wide smile, Benjy proclaimed, " I wish, we reach the place I feel no cold, no food lack, and a big-big cardboard above we. I like to be like the big scary black cats spirit people talk about." in a broken speech.

Turning to his side, a boy no bigger than Benjy, says in excitement, " Tomorrow, the big money guy will take we, said Ekwensi. And it's not a cat, it's big, scary panther, they say."

"No, big cat."

"No, Panther."

"No, cat."

"Panther."

Exhausted they fell asleep, with a bit of hope for a better tomorrow.

The next day, Benjy and his friends waited excitedly for the people who were about to pick them up from this street and give them life.

"You excited," asked his friend.

"Very" replied Benjy with the biggest smile as he saw people with weird cloaks walk towards them. Though they were suspicious of strangers, they believed in Ekwensi.

Kneeling near the children, the leader of the group that arrived, removed his cloak. He had a very striking white beard and a bald head.

"Are you ready for your home?" he asked, with a pleasant smile but that smile didn't reach his eye. Severus sighed, knowing what was about to happen.

"Yessssss" shout the kids at the top of their lungs, oblivious to malice hidden behind the smile and comfort.

The leader looked at Ekwensi one last time before taking the children away.

Severus fast-forwarded the memories not wanting to witness the cruelty the children had to face.

The group of dark wizards tortured the children both mentally and physically. Severus knew the method they used. He studied them from the books he found in merlin's vault. He was disgusted by the actions of wizards, who proclaimed they did it in the name of knowledge, truth, and immortality.

Severus watched, as each day a child died. Benjy was locked in a cage like a savage. He cried, screamed, and pleaded for the lives of his friends- only to be left with corpses.

Each day, he was burned, cut, and hit to test out their creepy experiments. One day, Benjy was able to escape the facility, only to be hunted down.

They were kept on the island and locked in enchanted cages. They were even stopped from killing themselves.

"Please no! Please, please no, please, don't take him. Take me instead. Please leave him alone." begged Benjy as the guards in dark cloaks dragged away his last friend.

"For me, please live." shouts the boy, as his skin was being torn apart due to the friction with the ground.

Benjy banged his head against the cage in a desperate attempt to save his friend. No matter what he tried, the cage remained strong.

After three years, Benjy lost all his friends. Left with a broken soul and parasite, he wished for death. Even then his suffering wasn't over, an ancient ritual was being done to test mixing a hoo-hoo, and phoenix spirit into an Obscurial.

Just as the memory was about play, Severus felt begin pushed out from memory. He quickly found himself in a dark space again. This time not alone.

In front, an ectoplasmic shape of a woman, stood, glaring at Severus. She moved her arm up, almost as if she was choking him. The next second, Severus felt like being choked and lifted up into the empty void.

"No one shall harm my child!" screamed the woman, releasing a powerful wave of energy.

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I know this chapter is short, but I tried. Some might consider it a waste of time for me to work on Benjy's story but his story is important for the future plot.

Consider commenting your thoughts on Benjy's story and guess who is holding him captive.