Two Encounters

My head was clouded with confusion as I exhausted all the strength my now-small body had to offer.

Unfortunately, that wasn't much.

But I continued to push myself until Yellow and everyone else on that Main Street were behind me.

I bent over my knees as I gasped for breath.

I had never ran that hard in my life.

No... that's not right. This used to be my daily life, long long ago.

I would steal bread or pocket change from random people on the main street. But all of that had changed. Even though it was perhaps only 9 years ago...

'It feels like another lifetime.'

For the last 9 years, rather than running around stealing, I had been working and studying until my nose bled and my vision blurred.

'Both options are crap.'

After my lungs had somewhat recovered and my heartbeat had quieted a bit, I began to look around.

I had just ran here without paying any attention to my surroundings.

'Did I turn the corner once or twice?'

Before I knew it, I had just been running with the single intention of getting as far away as possible.

I was now in another side street like the one I had gained consciousness in. However, even if this alley was foul smelling and full of waste like that one, this one had very few humans in it. The openness of the alley let me see the rats scurrying around even in the daytime.

'Although these alleys are so dark and narrow, one can hardly tell the time of day.'

My vision stopped when I saw a few large men blatantly staring at me. They started walking towards me.

I later realized that I had forgotten major points of survival for living on the streets in this town.

I realized how careless I had been, and how I had forgotten much more about my previous life that I had thought.

I suppose...it really has been a long time since this had been my life.

It turns out, 9 years is a long time.

I had just lost consciousness and reawakened in this strange but familiar place.

But with the movement of one of the man's large hands and a damp rag pressed against my face, I found myself losing consciousness yet again. I felt the second man catching my body as my vision turned darker than the dim alley where we stood.

'Crap... how could I forget... how dangerous foreign territory is...especially for children...'

There were many reasons that kids living on the street had no way to escape or make a better life for themselves.

One of course, was that they could barely manage to survive from one day to the next. They had various problems such as finding food and older children and adults stealing from them and beating them.

But not only that, in this city, the different sectors of the city were ruled by various small gangs. That street was where some thugs from one of those gangs would hang out during the day. Back when Aurora had lived on the streets as 'Blue' she had known that this area was somewhere to avoid no matter what. It was only a few streets, but they were under the control of a small gang that had ties to human trafficking. Kidnapping children and selling them to a middleman was their primary source of profit. They kidnapped children who looked valuable but at the same time, like they wouldn't be missed. This was how this gang continued to stay under the radar. The only victims of their crimes were those without a voice in this city. Rather, they had patrons in a few lofty positions that had no intentions of obstructing them or convicting them of their crimes. Slavery was, on paper illegal, however, that didn't stop these people from operating around the law.

I reopened my eyes to see a place darker than the last. I felt my side dampened from the moist ground I was passed out on. My eyes began to wander. There was light coming from a few torches and candles outside.

Right...outside.. this cell.

I felt a throbbing pain in my head.

'Those guys..made me pass out.'

I sat up and held my head.

'I wouldn't normally be caught by guys like that but...my body was in such bad condition and I... to totally had let my guard down.'

Perhaps my pride was a bit hurt that I was caught by some random thugs so easily, as I started trying to justify my predicament.

*clink*

My head snapped in the direction of the sound. It sounded as if it were in the same cell as me.

They must have thought this cell was enough to contain me seeing as neither my hands nor feet were bound. That's why I was able to move freely within the cell as I inched towards the sound, even if my body throbbed as I did so.

The sound had come from the dark corner of the cell where no torchlight reached.

First I tell off Yellow, then get captured while being careless, now I'm approaching something in complete darkness without having any idea of what it is.

'Did I lose my sense of fear after I woke up again? No...I think I'm still scared, I just... have become a bit more bold... or perhaps I should say reckless.'

*grrr*

I heard a growling as well as an even louder clinking noise. It was right in front of me now, but I still count see anything.

I looked behind me towards the front of the cell to make sure no one was watching before I activated my magic to slightly illuminate the corner. If they captured me even without knowing about my ability, I'm sure it would become even more dangerous for me if they knew I had something that would 'increase my value' even farther.

My magic encased my eyes and hands, I held my hands out in front of me to cast light over the mysterious sounds' origin.

There...I saw a boy perhaps a bit older than me... wrapped up in a ridiculous amount of chains. My eyes followed the chains we was bound by which led to hooks in the wall. He was chained so tightly that he couldn't move his arms and the chains were so short that he couldn't even stand up, let alone walk around the small cell.

...Seriously, what is this? They didn't even use a rope to bind me, but this boy is excessively restrained. Isn't there too big of a difference in our treatment? Not that I wanted to be chained up...

The boy's fiery red eyes glared at me, I could see only a tint of surprise in them when I began to use magic. It seems his wariness is stronger than his curiosity.

"...How long have you been here?"

"..."

The boy with red eyes stared at me with distrust.

"Where are we? Is there an exit?"

"..."

The boy continued to be silent but his eyes focused on my hands producing light with my Holy Magic.

"Ah, are you curious about this? I could light up the whole cell and even the space beyond that if I wanted to but... let's keep that our little secret, okay?"

I tried to smile gently at him after which he finally gave me a response.

"It feels... danger...ous."

The boy mumbled as he continued to fixate on my hands.

"Hm? This light? Don't worry. This magic can't hurt people beyond blinding someone's eyes temporarily. I'm not trying to hurt you either."

"...blind?"

"Ah, seriously. Don't worry. I'm using the smallest possible output of power right now so that isn't very bright. That way it won't hurt you and it shouldn't catch anyone's attention from outside."

"...out- outside?."

Seriously... how long has this kid been here? He seems really out of it and he has some trouble speaking. His voice cracks like he isn't used to talking.

"Yeah, outside. Hey. Don't you want to go there too? Outside."

His eyes turned upwards to meet my own but they shifted to the ground after less than even a second.

"Ca- can't"

"Really?"

I poked at the chains around his chest.

He grimaced and I quickly pulled my hand back.

He then looked up at my eyes wearily.

"...you."

"Me?"

I blinked a few times as I looked directly into his eyes.

"...Everyone else is always crying. Why ar- aren't you scared?"

I wonder who he means by 'everyone'.

But...yeah it's true. Right now I'm a little kid probably about 5 years old. Wouldn't it be normal for a kid of that age to be scared and probably bawling their eyes out right about now?

I mean I was made to pass out and thrown in a dark, damp cell with a strange boy in chains.

Even adults would find this situation scary.

"Hm? Maybe I just got tired of everything? I can't muster the energy to panic right now."

I let out a sigh as I released my light magic.

As the light dimmed I could see the boy's eyes widening slightly.

The last thing I saw was him returning to his look of dejection before the corner was pitch-black again.

As we both sat in the darkness, I spoke to him again.

"I don't know what's happening right now. I don't know if I'm alive or if this is a dream. But no matter which one it is, I've already decided to do whatever I want."

"..."

"Right now I want to get out of here with you."