Blood

"Yeah. That's blood, kid. We all have it."

With a sarcastic response, Alex finished cleaning up the hospital pen, leaving the mother and newborn be at peace.

"But… My blood's not that color…"

I muttered out my confusion, not realizing I was speaking out loud.

"What did you say? Your blood isn't red? What color is it then?"

Turning to me, Alex's face was in an angry scowl, his hands no longer using the rag between them to clean off the remaining blood.

"Tell me. What color is your blood?"

**

The earliest I can remember was about 2 years ago.

It was my first time not being able to find any food in the dumpster next to my house for so long. I had to do something. The hunger was becoming unbearable.

Donning a cloak, I walked out into the street, barely able to focus from the hunger pangs and dizziness.

Desperate, I was even considering eating stolen food directly in front of someone and taking a beating to alleviate my hunger.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a street lined with food stands and many passersby. This was the perfect place to steal food unnoticed.

As I walked up and down the street, a chance finally appeared in front of me.

"Carsten, do you have any more Dark Mushrooms?"

"Let me check my stock."

Turning his back, the old man groaned and muttered complaints about his joints as he bent down to look inside some boxes for what the customer asked. His stand was especially busy today and he hadn't been able to restock some of his products.

As Carsten checked his stock, I slowly hobbled over to his stand, walking in front of the customer's legs as I reached up to grab whatever I could off the counter.

Luckily for me, I was able to swipe three Stony Mushrooms off of the food stand and into my waiting arms, hurriedly moving with the crowd to get lost in the mass of people.

"Hey!"

The customer in front of the stand shouted after me, but by then I was already gone.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up slipping on my way back home, even being trampled by other people walking.

When I returned home and sated my hunger, I inspected my wounds, seeing my first drop of blood.

It was pure black. Even blacker than the color found inside of my eyelids.

**

Alex was scaring me. I hadn't known him for long, but after how he had treated the birthing cow and her calf, I thought I knew what type of person he was.

But seeing him like this, I wasn't so sure. He was approaching me with a furious look on his face; his domineering stature appearing even more intimidating now.

"I-It's black!"

Trying to back away, I collided with one of the half-walls of the pens behind me, scaring the animals farther back into their enclosure.

The palpable anger Alex was releasing slowly faded after I replied. His face relaxed finally as he stopped approaching me.

"Black blood…"