Act 3.3: Son of the Morning (1)

Perchance upon the tarnished relic. A doll crafted perfectly by the finest of craftsmanship yet was free in all rights. It was Kage's doll that he would protect from the heinous carnivores inside that house. He who slammed chairs and shed blood for no reason other than greed. It was his duty, his honor. A duty lost as somewhere along the way he became misguided to what target he should aim toward. Whether selfish treats truly bore the desire he sought or familial connection swayed at the edge of all existence.

Absently, he chose wrong.

Weeks could not entail time correct enough for which he sat by his dear sister's side. Those who entered, left at the brooding back of a brother in what they believed to be mourning. Well, not all were intimidated to the point of leaving without a word.

As with all humans, Kage was forced to relieve himself in the restroom granting the period for which a boy, speckled by freckles and glistening hair akin to a tree's sap, entered. Even he knew not to disturb their moment. Only when the boy finished the prayer shutting the door did Kage speak.

"You're not like us." The usual spin to face the speaker did not come, it was like the child expected Kage from the beginning.

Sizing him, Kage deduced he was no older than fifteen with a build completely devoid of any substantial muscle. Height a centimeter or two below his own speckled with a pair of glasses perched on the bridge to his flattened nose. An ordinary individual had arrived, it had been a while since Kage had seen such a person walking in broad daylight. Nowadays all who were left were decrepit and Evolved trying to make their way in society.

The fire, having harmed a prospective student of Petell Academy incidentally being caused by an unknown assailant, roused the police to do their job. But, this occasion alone still would have kept them from moving, only did the kidnapping provoke a response.

The military police instated harsher curfews, blocked checkpoints, and employed testing kits to identify Evolved with the potential to hide their aura through the use of suppressant drugs. Sooner or later someone would be found leaving the blame laid to rest. But, in the end, they'll never find the true culprit.

'The police haven't even contacted me nor Tami. It's all happening like the-'

Ringing pulses beat in Kage's head causing him to wince at the dull pain which fuzzed up his vision. These events occurred much more often recently. They reminded him of his days in the ward, the medicine fogging their judgment sending many over their breaking points which instilled a violent regimen in them all. A survival of the craziest.

In this compromising position, he was worried that the boy would see him, would wonder, would question his sanity. Kage checked but saw no difference in the boy's posture. Studying the beige coat he wore, Kage understood the purpose that the child bore.

"Running?" He asked with no clear expectation.

The other shook from head to toe giving credence to the thought of his sister's abandonment; however, the child turned, taking Kage head on with no cowardice. "I'm not gonna do that! Not me, I won't abandon her." The child could not stare into Kage's eyes due to the rebound experienced by the miniscule energy seeping from a barely formed aura.

Unsuspecting of such an answer, all he wished for was the boy to remain by his word. Someone needed to protect her, and he had failed. Failure after failure cost him the last of what could be salvaged from their relationship.

The night he burst through those sterilized doors collapsing to the floor at the sight of his sister, her scalp enraged with not a follicle behind. The same infliction which embraced him years ago took hold of her entire body. There was not a patch of natural skin left. The blind beauty shaved away at the morning's discretion. From then he still maintained some composure, enough so that he could be removed from the operating room stuffed into a chair.

Maintaining a calm sense of mind was what became needed for everyone. Tami bounced from phone to phone on the wall where the cords fed into calling for some other girl who had been at the scene. It would be nearly a day later before they discovered she had skipped town with some guy after killing their parents.

'Although she had killed her parents she found it in herself to save her friend. That phone call she gave saved Lisa's life.'

Arriving at the scene, Kage had seen Tami huddled over Lisa's twitching body, undergoing intense seizures as a pool of yellow slop formulated underneath the hastily applied bandage dressing. The emergency ambulances found themselves unable to get through the back up on a highway resulting in them stuck miles from the apartment. Apparently the roads most commonly traveled for emergency use were under construction, causing the truck to take a detour only to be stuck behind traffic.

Out of stamina and having lost the rest of her wits in the blaze, Tami spoke gibberish about taking her to the hospital. Yet, all she saw when facing Lisa was an empty wet spot on the sidewalk. The water which was used to cool her body long stolen while Kage wrapped his sister in a mismatched pair of rags stretching far enough to cover her torso and legs. Originally he thought someone could provide a car then drive them. However at the sound of drivers discussing the major backup which started from Cromwell all the way to Polun, not even the backways were viable.

Thus he sprinted for the finish line.

Kage implemented all the lessons he could recount throughout the training in his supplemental classes. A steady breathing technique minimizing the breath exhaled to ensure a rhythm took hold in his pathing. Next was to increase the distance crossed with each leap in his feet. Kage surmised that running was the only aspect that crossed his mind but unbeknownst to him, his index and thumb gently drifted across the rough skin to Lisa's forehead. Her eyes shot open and inside the seas of red was another girl. One clawing for a way out beckoning someone to save her from the Hell taken over this world. This was not Lisa, her face taut making her appear gaunt although she accompanied a stomach, eyes stone cold and light dampened…

In fact, there was no light. Decades ago maybe centuries lay the last time anyone saw a tinge of glee in her.

'Who are you?'

Returning to the hospital waiting room, Kage winced again. For a second there, he thought terrible thoughts that congested the mind into a flurry of madness. There could be no reason for such outstanding lies to plague him in this period.

Suddenly, a snap held his attention as a stuttering female nurse explained to him the situation. Doctors stood a distance away, shaking foot to foot unwilling to take the woman's side if the Evolved boy grew violent.

Kage only heard the words, "Permanent", "Needed", "Save", and "Decide". There was little left to hold calm over. He gave his permission then the doctors rushed off to work. An act only ceased by a rough cough that caught their attention.

The brother spied their backs only then analyzing their faces once they turned to greet him. "I now know all of your faces… do your job." With a lingering promise floated above them, the surgeons rushed as fear took hold of their stable hands.

Alone in that room Kage looked internally for an idea to focus on, anything but his sister. Anything but those scars she would live with because of him. For, everything was now his fault. Daniel's kidnapping and the attack on Lisa were connected as it could only be through those damn gangsters they used as punching bags.

This would have been avoided if he never did anything… if he simply rotted away in some ill-forgotten cellar.

"Why can't I just be satisfied?" As he put thought to reality, he denied the truth. Stuffing it down, it couldn't surface. If the truth was let free then what could Kage call his own? Those faces he could see would toss him far into the gutter of Hell as his skin flaked away into the burn of the Devil's flames.

'What is the point… to my existence? Everyone is harmed by my hand.' His mind returned to the scene of the present as seeping tears flowed before him.

The boy that came to visit Lisa sniffled back tears but it wasn't due to the one he liked having been hospitalized but because of her brother. He wished to stop but the tears flowed with greater purpose expressing an anguishing puddle.

Throughout his life the child was able to recount the variety of auras which permeated the world, manifested to those of Heroes who risked saving the lives of others. However, this one was different from all the others. They were comforting which mellowed away the cruelty of the world, but before him was not such a thing. It was the reconciliation with that very Horror that spurred his unbidden, petrified body. Noises which sounded like devils whispering for death, sinners begging for forgiveness, as the proven dragged along with the rest for no good reason.

Days spent alongside Lisa in their boating club got him used to her citrus fragrance. After some months he appreciated it growing enamored with the scent. At one point, during winter, she hadn't shown up to school for weeks. Every day he spent reminiscing about her smell wishing to be given it once more. Finally, the day came when she returned, the same day he confessed to the girl that gifted him with the scent. Therefore, allowing him to be granted a promise.

Her citrus aura was not similar in the slightest to her brother. Only presented by the harsh terrifying find of Kage's cursed aura did the child discover a new side of the world.

This brother was not human. He was an overture of desolation tearing through each layer of mental protection wasting away a person to their petulant self. Just a sobbing mess of wobbly bones flapping to get away from the maniac.

Seeing the state the boy devolved into, Kage offered his condolences stating that, "I hope you stay close." Then returned to Lisa's side as the door shut once again.