Chapter Twenty-Seven: Memories Forgotten - Theft

WARNING: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS HIGHLY DISTURBING CONTENT. PLEASE SKIP IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE IT. 

THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING

'My head hurts…' The boy thought desperately as he flew from side to side. He kept himself quiet to prevent any other noises. Luckily, he managed to hold onto the side of the carriage.

He was blocked by a cloth, hiding his figure. 

Soon, the carriage was lifted upwards with the person in charge of holding it shaking it roughly while laughing.

"Hahaha, it seems that there are still rats hiding in here!" A burly man had said.

Several of the other kids fell out because they had nothing else to hold onto. He gripped harder, with his fingers burning.

More screams came out as the other children fell. Sounds of crunching came one after the other, as if a watermelon was bashed. 

He could not care about others right now. He had to care for himself, and himself only. There was no selfishness in survival after all. 

'These… weird noises are coming from my body.' The boy thought as he heard an audible crunch. The searing pain made tears run down his cheeks, and yet he still didn't make any noise. 

The shaking soon stopped as the people who were doing it for their amusement no longer cared. 

"Let's go boys, we got the bounty! We are partying tonight!" A wild voice shouted out.

The sounds of rumbling came alongside more crunching and splattering. They left as quickly as they had arrived. Leaving only the boy behind. 

Blood began to drip from his forehead, yet he still couldn't cry out. He didn't want to die–he didn't want to have his life, his fate, and his future end here. He wanted to dream, 

He grabbed one of the silk clothes before tying it around his head, preventing any more blood from spilling. 

He had survived. He couldn't just die from something so minor as this. After waiting for an unknown amount of time, he poked his head out of the carriage.

He was greeted by the sounds of wildlife, birds and insects. He couldn't be sure if anyone else was here, but he had to survive. It was his goal, nothing else mattered to him. 

'SURVIVE.'

He scoured around the site of the disaster, seeing only broken carriages and… 

He puked. He saw… them. He saw the face–no what remained of the kid's face. He couldn't handle it. 

'Whathaveidonewhatisthishowwhatwhy' The boy thought as his mind began to spiral to no end, leaving his sanity barely preserved. He fell onto his own puke as more tears began bursting from him. 

Guilt was building inside of him… but some part of him did not care at all. It was filled with apathy… 

It scared him. 

He didn't want to be like this. But he had to survive. 

What did he need to do to survive? 

He had nothing, no name, no self, and… nevermind, that part did not matter to him anymore. It was something he had already cut-off.

He assessed his situation, seeing that some of the carriages were left behind, though none of them really mattered in his current situation. 

He didn't know where he was. His home was– no, that did not matter either. 

'Where can I find food?' He thought to himself as he desperately searched each broken carriage. There was, however, a source of food… He puked upon thinking of it. 

Yet. There was nothing else. 

…

It has been a day since he was the only survivor. The bandits never came back. There was nothing but him. 

He began to wander around in desperation. His supplies were now running low and there were no more–

He removed himself from that thought as he continued walking. He made no noise as he didn't want to die. 

…

'It's so cold.' Chills pierced the boy's body as he huddled in with the branches and bark in a small burrow he had made earlier in the day. 

He didn't want to sleep anymore… He didn't want to see THEM again. 'Not again… please.' 

He huddled himself closer to his chest with no area exposed. 

…

'I finally found a lake…' The boy thought to himself as he tried to cry, but he couldn't anymore as his own body no longer had the liquid to. 

It had been another day, and his own body was betraying him. Any action took significant effort and his mouth was beyond dry. 

The boy came down to the lake's bottom after inspecting its surroundings, seeing that there were none around. He used a makeshift container to grab some of the water. 

'There's… no one around. Not even an animal.' 

He carried the water to an area with gravel and was completely dry before making a campfire. 

They had already made a few of these before that incident… It was the only fond memory he had left. 

'I miss you…'

Soon he filtered the water using nearby gravel and rocks in order to clean it. It was not efficient, but it was the best he could do. 

After a few minutes the water began boiling and he relaxed his shoulders for the first time in days. His own body had already built up plenty of fatigue that his vision was beginning to turn blurry.

But he had to survive. So he couldn't close it, otherwise it would get him. 

After waiting for the water to cool down, he took the first sip of water in a long time. 

He couldn't stop drinking. It didn't matter if it was too hot or seared his mouth. It was something that he could drink without remorse. It was finally something that didn't pain him. 

The water in the bowl soon disappeared as he had drunk all of it. He wanted more, and so he would get more. It was as simple as that. 

This time, he used the water to rinse his mouth. Over and over again. He continued to wash his mouth until it began to hurt. He continued to do so with tears finally streaming down his face once more. 

He would continue to wash his mouth to atone for his actions. 

*Growl*

As nightfall came, a noise came from the boy's stomach as he looked upwards from his sitting position. His legs covered much of his body as they stood upright. 

'I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't. I shouldn't have been the one who survived.' Voices inside the boy repeated over and over.

"Shut up!" A sudden noise came from the boy himself before he continued once more, "...It wasn't my fault. I just had to survive."

He tried to sleep naturally by putting his head down on the cold hard stone. He could have grabbed leaves or used gravel to make it softer, but he had to atone.

"YOU KILLED ME!" A girl's face appeared as they stared the boy in the face. Her face was disfigured, burned, and most importantly of all, her body was mostly gone. 

The girl slowly walked towards the boy, trembling with each and every step. Accompanied with piercing screeches, as the boy kicked her down. 

"You… dare. You killed us. You got all of us killed and you want to still live? What right do you have to LIVE?" The voices became louder as it didn't come from the girl alone. 

"Stay away from me, stay away!" A panicked voice came from the boy as he desperately tried to run away. 

He soon tripped… on another head. It turned around and looked at him, "YOu dID this." It spoke in a disfigured tone, with the boy barely able to make out the language. 

Shock, pain, and insanity filled him as he desperately screamed. "STAY BACK! STAY BACK PLEASE!"

This did not demotivate the crowd as they began crawling to him one by one. With each one getting closer. They eventually made it to his body.

*CRUNCH*

A bite was taken. The boy screamed in agony.

*CRUNCH*

Another bite was taken. Pain filled his body as he screamed more and more.

*CRUNCH*

The bites did not stop as it continued to rip him a part. He wanted to run, he wanted to survive, but a part of him did not let him move. His body was still as it endured all of it. 

It was his sin. 

For surviving instead of them. 

*CRUNCH* 

As one final bite bit off his head, he no longer thought of what would happen. He wished that he could just– 

His thoughts ended.

Yet this was not the end of the nightmare. 

The scene of the bandits arriving replayed in his mind. Over and over again, with him unable to change his own actions as he saw himself push the girl down again and again… The action of pushing others down so he could live. 

It was hell. 

There was no light as it kept being warped, again and again. Each and every part of it turned disgusting. The sounds sounded like banshees and ghouls. 

Then a voice suddenly woke him up, "Hey!" with the unknown person slapping him on the cheeks from left to right repeatedly. 

The boy's eyes snapped open as he saw the light once more. Tears filled his eyes as he broke down. 'I'm out of that hell… but do I deserve to be out of it?' He thought to himself. 

"Are you alright kid? I heard you screaming for dear life over here." A young man in white robes and a plaque on his chest. His voice was soothing, but not completely so as he maintained his arrogant look.