The Temporary Gift : Only the living get to experience death.

"Kill the beast!"

"Don't let him run!"

"Use the spears!"

Thousands of villagers ran after a small boy with modern-looking clothes. A white t-shirt and grey pants, he wore. And he was standing at a height of 150 cm. Frightened, he tried to escape from the raging men who were hunting him down.

He cursed his luck. In no way did he deserve this but he was sure of surviving since that's his specialty.

He put his left hand on his chest and smiled.

It all started two weeks ago.

Vita, the shortest man in 11th grade, returned from school after a long day of exams. He thanked God for it is finally the holidays and slept for about 12 hours straight waking up at 5 in the morning. His parents were asleep so he went to the kitchen and made a breakfast consisting of oatmeal, milk, peanut butter, and bananas because he heard it was the best meal for growth.

He had an inferiority complex due to his small stature but his contagious laugh made him pretty popular nevertheless. After all, a cheerful man is attractive.

Having finished his meal, he went and started reading books on combat, since he always loved to fight. Fighting was running in his blood since he could win even against pretty big people. 

When he changed schools in 9th grade, some kids tried to bully him because he seemed like an easy target only to be met with the fastest pen-to-thigh hit ever. 

Vita knew that hand-to-hand combat was too difficult for him being as small as he was, but a pen and sharpened toothbrush were all that he needed to inflict enough pain to establish himself as a hard target.

Screaming in pain, the bullies cried in pain as they saw blood from their thighs.

He obviously ran as no sane man would fight multiple people and wait for their recovery. The following days were him fighting a couple more bullies before they gave up and concluded that bullying him wasn't worth it.

He always wanted to learn how to fight better and always survive in the case of a robbery, he was obsessed even as he hated his short figure. 

After finishing the daily 20 pages worth of reading, he went back to his room and started punching and kicking the wall as hard as it could get. It was something he had done since 6th grade to stop feeling the pain from his bones, he micro-fractured his bones daily leading to strong limbs that can withstand the punches of someone double his weight if they're untrained.

He was rigorous and disciplined, after all, that was his way of being grateful to God for being alive and thus doing his best to maintain that gift.

At 5:30 in the morning, he went for a run.

After a few minutes, a dark figure was lurking in the shadows. The figure was too slim to be called a human but too humanlike to be something else.

He screamed to scare the figure off. But then the figure started laughing like there was no tomorrow and started running around like a maniac 30 meters away from Vita.

And then... it was in front of Vita instantly. The face of the figure swallowed light making it impossible to see. Vita tried to hit it with his sharpened brush but it broke. That's when he knew that he would die.

Scared, he punched, kicked, and bit the monster in hopes of seeing even the smallest reactions of pain. Because feeling pain is the ultimate indicator that the opponent isn't invincible. But his efforts were in vain as the figure stood silently waiting for the boy to get fatigued. 

The helplessness made Vita's mind work 2 times as fast. With that, he saw his attacks in slow motion causing him to become frantic. 

A dark humanlike creature that knows no pain, instantly teleports and acts like a psychopath at times and becomes deafening silent at others. The personification of horror.

On that day, Vita fought for 7 minutes 37 seconds straight against that horror until his hands and feet broke.

His grin was getting wider and wider as he punched knowing that he didn't run but actually fought "that".

The dark one spoke breaking the silence: sed parva forti. Vita felt a sudden warmth in his heart as if he understood that the dark figure acknowledged him as worthy. The dark figure ripped Vita's heart out and disappeared leaving the young boy's corpse in the street.