A lullaby, humming from inside an abandoned sewer system, emotionless as it can be. Life goes on as rats walk by the blocked entrance. There was not much light, but the child was not in a position to complain; at least he was not under the cold rain outside. At the beginning, he was afraid of the dark, like every other kid would be, but there are two ways to defeat a fear. One is through courage, and the other is to find something far worse. Sadly, for him, it was the latter. Sunny once thought that there was nothing worse than being alone, but reality taught him otherwise. The true monsters are not in the darkness but in each soul that populates this city. The NQSC was a devil's nest where everyone wore a mask.
The melody was stopped for a second, just enough for him to eat a piece of his portion. Times were always hard on the outskirts, but they were now worse than before. The area in itself didn't change much, but a Nightmare Gate had opened in one of the biggest factories responsible for the production of the ration given here. Which means that food was now even rarer than before. They said that it was only temporary, but the repercussions were already here. The gangs around got far more extreme in their demeanor, turning from simple thieves to groups of murderers. The war gang had also grown in intensity; it looked more like guerrilla warfare than something else.
Their prime goal was to take all the remaining rations in this sector for themselves, pushing their opponent to either join them or die fighting them. So in this environment, one needs to join a gang to have a hope to survive, and yet, Sunny chose to stay alone. He had thought of moving to another spot, but even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to do so.
Every gang had people to watch who enters and who leaves.
It was safe if you were part of them, but it was just not his case. Not that he didn't want to eat or to be protected, but after two years in there, he had learned a lot of things. He saw and heard things, and he knew that joining a gang would be like selling his soul. You just need to put one step in there to be stuck without any chance to leave it behind you. It will follow you, chase you, and break any hope to be free. And then, when you don't have any hope left inside you, they use you until you fall apart. He doesn't want to be used; he is a human being, and he has a will and a soul. He can't allow himself to be owned until he gets to save his sister. Rain was without him, in a family who surely didn't love her and wanted to have a child just for the image of it.
The humming resumed as he touched his reserve in a world without light. He had stacked quite a lot for himself; if he was careful enough, he would be able to wait until the Nightmare Gate was closed or until another factory was assigned to his zone.
The only drawback from his situation was that he needed to stay in this place all day, leaving it only to keep his "heaven" a little sanitary. So his perception of time was quite disturbed, but he couldn't care more; he had all that he needed. All he had left to do was to not attract attention to himself.
To survive, one needs to be forgotten, to be unseen... To be one with the world around him. Every breath would be lost in the wind. Every step needs to be submerged in a myriad of thousands of others. No presence, no will shall not be hidden.
He always loved to be in his world, where nothing could touch him, harm him, or just see him. Closing his eyes, he wanted to preserve his strength by sleeping whenever he could. But this time, something was off; the noise outside his hideout was unusually loud. As he tried to concentrate on this sound, he heard a voice. Not one, but a group of voices. Then the realization hit him like a truck: this sound... It was the rats; they were squeaking like there was no tomorrow. He had heard a rumor, but...
Did they really tame the rats to follow the smell of the ration? Normally, he wouldn't be in any problem; the heavy rain and the sewer itself had a strong smell. But with his reserve, in a close space...the scent could build up and be strong enough for the noses of those little starving, walking garbage.
Without wasting any time, he took all his food in a ragged bag and slammed open the small door. He didn't wait to see the men around him; he was already running with all his might. He knew the surrounding area; maybe he could find a way to run away. The sounds of steps behind him were haunting him; now that he was found, he couldn't just hide in the first hole he could find.
Behind him, voices were screaming with too much animosity to be considered human.
-"GET BACK HERE, YOU DEEPSHIT!"
A shooting pain came from his chest; he felt like every breath was pushing his heart against a cage made of thorns. He cursed his weak stamina, but he kept pushing. Does he have any other choice to begin with?
Maybe if he dropped some of his food... No, there was no new round of rations coming back until the next two months. He needed this, or he'll just die from starvation...or from sickness after taking a bite of a dead rodent. His mind was racing faster than his legs; he needed to leave the sewer now, or he'd be quickly trapped in the next dead end. Screams of hatred and death threats were all he could hear between the heartbeats in his ears.
-"I SWEAR! I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE! YOU SON OF A DEAD BITCH!"
People were looking at him, and the next second, they joined the hunt. He had a treasure in his bag; everyone wanted a piece of it. Swearing like a sailor while losing his foot, he was finally about to get outside. Only to find another group waiting for him.
He was trapped.
A quick look around, no good option was available. Those behind were getting closer. In a desperate attempt, he tried to run toward the closest wall and climb it. He will survive; he needs to get out of here. Rain was waiting for him...he... Then, his whole world was drowned in pain.
He couldn't remember what happened next; his mind was too light to grasp any thought. The world used to be faded, lacking color...but now it was red. Only red. The coldness of the rain falling on him was taking more and more of his strength. The taste of iron was one of the things that kept him awake. The other one was the sensation of his body breaking apart.
His body was hurting so much...
His ribs were on fire, his view was blurred, and his lips and eyebrow were split open. Every ounce of flesh in him was screaming in pain. His right forearm was bent in a place and a way that should not be possible. He wanted to cry but just couldn't; he was like in a trance. And yet, his battered figure started to move like a puppet whose string was pulled. He couldn't die here. That's the only thing that matters. He can lose his legs, arms, and eyes; that wouldn't matter.
He needed to save her, his only family. He had promised it to his mother on her last breath.
The world around him was only darkness; all sense was long asleep from his injury. Yet, he could still somehow listen to what happened around him.
-"Hey, this kid wants to leave; shouldn't we...like...be stopping him?"
-"No need, he's just a walking corpse."
Then comes the sound of life, not the one from the outskirts but the easy life. Laughter and song. Some PTV moved past him; people looked at him but didn't dare to say anything. It wasn't fair. Why him of all people? What did he do to have a life like this? In what part was he different from those who couldn't care less about him? Rage started to build up but faded away as quickly as it appeared. He did not have enough strength to be sentimental. In this state, he wouldn't be able to describe it with words; he didn't sense nor feel anything. But he still knew then when someone was walking in front of him. What was the color of their shirt, their facial traits... He saw them but couldn't register those informations.
Slowly moving his left arm, the sensation of the raindrop suddenly dulled. His hood was on his head. Still no voice, no sound from him... Fewer and fewer people were noticing him, returning to his natural state.
Being one with the world, being forgotten, to not being seen.
Then, he climbed the stairs, far too many for his liking. All that effort just to reach a door, and with not enough strength left, he just pushed it with his shoulder. No, everything was dizzy; he wanted to puke more than anything else; a sharp sensation was tearing his head apart. No sound was made as he moved finally to the reception desk. His head looking at the floor, it took a moment for the man to notice him. But without any time to ask anything, a broken voice was already speaking.
-"Please...could you call...my grandma...I'm lost..."
The policeman looked at him with suspicion as he tried to get a better view of his face. His clothes were betraying that he was from the outskirts. In those cases, generally, he would just call for the child services to take care of him, but it seemed like he had a family. So he didn't jump to his conclusion.
-"Yeah, sure, kid. Did you have a number for me to call her?"
His voice was doubtful. Those times a lot of kids tried to flee from this hell, but the system was already full, so... They would usually lie, and the "call my family, please" tactic was well known. But to his surprise, the kid answered him without hesitation, like he was singing a part of a lullaby. It was no different than when you try to teach a toddler his alphabet with a song-like melody.
Now that was curious. As he tapped the number, he finally was able to have a look at the kid's face and was disgusted. Not by the fact that this kid really came from the outskirts, but by his injury. He wasn't fool enough to think that the rest of his body had been left unscathed. He wanted to ask a few questions, but suddenly, a voice was speaking. The tone was not of someone happy.
-"..."
-"Sorry, Ma'am, for the trouble, Police Station n°7 of the NQSC on the line. I have in front of me a child that claimed to be your grandson."
-"..."
-"Yes, Ma'am, he's around... hmmm... 8 or 9 years old. Black hair and onyx eyes, from what I can see... The poor boy looked like he was run over by a truck..."
As he was saying this, his hand moved to get the attention of his colleague. He couldn't just leave this kid in this state. Even he had a heart and knew that his colleague was the same.
-"..."
-"I understand... Boy, what's your name?"
This time, his gaze was able to meet the man's as his head raised a little. He looked feverish, but his eyes were...
-"Sunless..."
The policeman didn't have the time to repeat the answer when the sound from his communicator suddenly erupted. The voice that was once inaudible for the kid was now nice and clear... It's pure panic and precipitation.
-"I'm coming immediately. Dana, prepa—"
Sunny didn't have the time to listen to everything as his consciousness was fading again. And still, he could somehow feel his body moving on its own, like the last straw preventing him from completely falling apart just refused to surrender. Sadly, this time, he couldn't hear anything; the fog around his mind was growing thicker and thicker as time passed. This feeling was like being pulled deep into the ocean with an anvil linked to your feet.
Then again, his consciousness emerged. Everything was blurred; he couldn't think clearly, but the only thing that was certain was that fear was filling his body. The bruised, bloodied, and broken body of his was on survival mode. He was not in his hideout; he needed to go... But someone opened the door before he could do anything.
Looking at him was a slender, red-haired woman with ruby-colored eyes. Her somewhat relaxed expression suddenly turned bleak as she saw his ragged face. Bleak turned to horrified when she noticed what his arm was like. It looked like she wanted to go and take him quickly, but the look in his eyes was one you shouldn't have when you want to welcome someone. The kid wasn't able to think right, no...he wasn't thinking at all. He was like a wounded wild animal, ready to fight anything in this unknown place. She couldn't just go like that to take him. Not that the child would harm her in any way, but he would just hurt himself more than he already was.
-"Milady, you need to come here. He's half-conscious, but... I'm not good enough to ensure that he wouldn't try anything if I came closer to him. I'm not good with kids..."
She was talking to no one, and yet, she nodded a moment later and waited in front of the door. The policemen were questioning her about why this kid wasn't already in an ambulance. The reason was simple: they received the order to do so. An order coming from the higher sphere. Sunny was barely able to stay awake, moving from his chair to get in the corner opposite the door. He wanted to go to sleep, but everyone was...
Then, as the door opened again, he moved. Trying to go through the little space there was and escape, but as he wanted to do so, a warm feeling got the best of him. An arm moved slowly around his neck to form a hug. For the first time in those two years, he felt at peace, in security. And as he was doing his best to not fall from exhaustion, a warm, gentle, and yet hypnotic voice came to hush in his ear.
-"You did well, my child... You did so well... You deserve to rest now. Grandma is taking care of everything..."
And just like that, the last straw snapped as he fell unconscious on the floor. The fall was controlled, just to prevent his injury from worsening. The elderly woman had followed his body, accompanying him just to take him in her arms. The policemen around looked with incomprehension, but an order was an order. No question would be answered, as this kid was taken by the two women. No one was able to identify the individuals that came to take him, and the footage of the camera system had crashed because of the rain.
Outside, in front of a car, one of the two silhouettes asked.
-"Who would have imagined that he would call one day...?"
-"I sadly did. This kid will go far, not because of any Aspect...but only thanks to his willpower. I'll pay my debt to him as much as he allows me to. Now, Dana, please call Jeanne and tell her to prepare the guest room. And can you ask her to explain to Nephis the situation, and if she still has any questions..."
-"You will answer them the best you can, I know, Milady. I'll make the call, so now please, make sure that the ride is not too uncomfortable for him."
And on that, the rain stopped as the kid was already asleep in the arm of his "grandma." The PTV moved away, leaving this humanized hell of a place. And for the first time in two years, Sunny got a chance to sleep in a bed that is not made of trash.