The stairs were a bit long, we were going downstairs and it wasn't ending.
When we finally reached downstairs and I was utterly shocked, it was built almost the same as it was on the surface but it was... Alive, buildings were lit and people were going around, and also children around with each other and the shops, they were open, though the place did have a bad reputation, it was... Lively, that was my very first impression.
"Follow me." Archer took the lead and we followed, getting inside the somehow crowd, a few children passed In Front of me, greeting me with hellos and such kind things, I walked further and girls with kimono like dresses were blushing at me, talking to each other, they immediately looked around when our eyes met, Was I that good looking? I wondered, rubbing my hand on my shaved face, "Don't flatter yourself, moron." Jun said with contempt.
"I smell something burning." I said, "What? For real? Where?" Archer started asking nervously, it was almost funny, "It's Jun's ass." I started laughing hysterically, "Shut up!" Jun said in anger but he still tried to remain calm, Archer started laughing too but was interrupted, "What are you laughing at, pipsqueak?" Jun started looking at him from his side, twitching with murderous intent, "S-sorry!" Archer apologized covering his mouth, which made me laugh even harder.
I was laughing so hard that it got to the point that tears were coming out of my eyes and I was coughing hard, "Alright, shut up now, before I take a finger or two from your body out of your control." I stopped laughing slowly. "Sorry, sorry, let us move." I suggested and they agreed.
Without realizing, everyone was staring at me, which sort of made me feel embarrassed but I still kept my head up, but still, the people staring had no ill thoughts surprisingly, in fact, some of them were smiling or laughing with me, which made things feel significantly better.
We were walking, we passed an ally, but I heard a voice of a woman screaming, which was hard to hear already inside this crowd, Jun and Archer didn't notice but I did, I obviously decided to do what any real gentleman or just a decent human being would do, "Y'all keep going, I'll catch up in a bit!" I walked backwards as I told them that, and turned around right after to start sprinting towards the place the sound came from.
Since last time, I was very skeptical about going into such alleys, everything that happened... Was still fresh to me since my long nap, or something along the line anyway.
The further I walked inwards, the longer the end of the place looked, where I saw a man forcing himself on a woman that kept telling him to stop, I kept walking regardless, even though I wasn't making any progress walking there, and the further I walked, the more my vision got hazy, blurred, and distorted, I tried running forward as fast as I can but it felt as though I couldn't make any progress at all, the sound of my footsteps were muffled, I could barely hear anything at all, it was rather annoying, an annoyance on the level that I used to avoid all the time, it pissed me off, the feeling of helplessness, yeah, I hated that, ever since that day, that miserable and wretched day, everytime something like that happened, those memories would just ache like a deep wound.
A few words rang in my mind, Enough, enough... Stop!
"Stop!" My eyes opened in shock, as if I had awoken from a terrible dream, I was sitting on a dinner table, my eyes had been set on a plate with a spoon and a kitchen knife by each side, and in the plate, was rice, alongside of eggs cooked with vegetables, quickly one thought came in mind, Mother, my eyes shifted quickly to towards the stove.
There stood my mother, her long silky turquoise hair waving by the wind coming from the window, her eyes on me in wonder, I turned my head forward and there was my father, with the same expression on his face as well, and my brother on his lap, pulling his white hair that resembled ours, "What's the matter?" He asked in concern, I didn't know what was going on, but the sight of my father surged an incredible amount of rage in me, I felt like throwing up, Guess I still haven't moved on... I thought to myself, I bit my lip to calm myself down and replied, "It's... It's nothing." I said turning my face on the ground, while rubbing my right elbow with my left hand.
"Ah, I see, good to hear." He said, focusing back on my brother who was pulling his hair roughly, my focus shifted to my mother, before I knew it, she was standing right beside me, both her hands touched my left cheek from each side of my head, both forward and backward, she pulled my head closer, hugging me, her head sideways on top of mine now.
"I may not know what you're going through but, know that your mother will always be there for you, so smile, even if your heart is dripping blood, so that it may shine brightly upon those struggling in the dark." She said so gently and so nicely, before I knew it, tears were flushing down my eyes, with no expression on my face whatsoever, perhaps it was my heart that was genuinely crying and not me altogether.
My father and brother were still playing, tears were still raining down my eyes, father started tickling my brother, his laugh as innocent as it could get, "Father, stop!" He screamed in laughter continuously, which then my hearing slowly muffled again, still hearing my little brother asking him to stop, "Father stop..." The sound faded away quickly and my vision darkened, I couldn't see anything, but here distant voices, still muffled, but getting closer now.
"Father stop!" The sounds got clear once again, and my brother screamed in agony, fear and shock now. And as I regained my vision, I heard a gunshot, Boom! Right before my eyes, I saw my father, shoot the woman I respected and loved the most, my mother fell on the ground, as a bullet went through the back of her head and left from the front, her beautiful turquoise hair now stained with the red color of blood, the room dark and eerie.
My brother in complete shock, last expression on his face was nothing but shock, fear had left him, and only left him with trauma, perhaps one that he could not have overcome too, my father turned his head towards us, drops of blood splashed on his face and white hair, looking at us with a sad expression, a single tear falling from his eyes.
Without any control, I rushed towards him, when he was just standing there, the gun fell off of his hand, I tackled him, hard enough that he fell on the ground, I got on top of him, and just starting to punch him more and more, once wouldn't have been enough, and 2 wouldn't satisfy me, so I just kept punching him in his face until I was completely satisfied, creepy little chuckles coming out, I had gone insane from rage, I couldn't tell what the feeling was but I was feeling good while feeling bad and the same otherwise.
Enough, a voice in my mind said, but rivaled by one other that was telling me to keep going, I could feel as though my mother was telling me to stop but consumed by rage, I couldn't hold myself.
I kept punching and punching, my fists covered red in blood, blood splashing on my face more and more after each hit, and the voice of my mother telling me to keep smiling even if my heart was dripping blood was ringing in my head, I was genuinely smiling, but the thing that was bleeding wasn't my heart, it was that bastard's ugly face, but I didn't care what happened to him, this was the guy who killed my mother after all, he wasn't my father anymore.
I stopped, I left enough life in him to live another day, I couldn't let him die yet, he had to suffer in a worse way than death, my hands felt sore from all that beating, I could barely open up my fingers to shake the blood off my hand entirely, I wiped my face with my hand that was cleaner and pulled myself back up slightly while still on top of him.
"Hey, brother, what happened to mommy?" My brother asked me lifelessly, shaking me by my left arm, "She's dead." Words came out of my mouth harshly but he had to know the truth, "Ah, I see." He said, no sanity in his eyes, and with a slight smile on his face, my eyes widened as I looked at my go and pick up my dead mother's body, and put it on his small lap, "It's okay now, you don't have to suffer anymore, mommy, please wait for us in the afterlife with a big smile, okay?" He talked to my mom's lifeless body.
At that moment, I realized the gap of maturity between me and my little brother. I acted immaturely out of rage, beating my father almost to death, meanwhile my brother tried to comfort himself and mom's soul.
I felt terrible, my father's face was almost unrecognizable, breathing heavily, I could see the tears coming out of his eyes even from his bloody face as he laid on the ground, making himself completely vulnerable, I looked to my right again and my brother was still going, "Sleep well, mommy, until we're all together again. And you, Alan and daddy, wait until that day comes, Kay?" He asked, with a heartwarming innocent smile on his face.
My heart ached, all I could do was smile back at him, even if it was fake, while I was suffocating from deep sorrow.
My body started being shaken, hardly by both of my shoulders, I couldn't see anyone or anything doing so, the only thing I heard was a muffled and distorted voice that kept asking me to wake up, "Wake up, dumbass!" An insanely hard punch hit my face, my eyes closing by the impact, and when I opened my eyes, they started to unblur and I saw a figure breathing heavily wearing clothes that had a combination of white, red and black, and the most familiar feature was the glasses, Jun! A thought crossed my mind as I noticed my friend panting for some reason.
I looked down and saw a person with dirty brown hair on the ground, face beaten to a pulp, I looked at my hands and they were covered in blood, "So this is reality? Heh." I muttered when I slightly chuckled, I looked to my right and saw a girl with turquoise hair leaning on the concrete wall with a huge white cloth covering her body from above her feet to her neck, only her feet were open, her face was dirty, and a look of fear was apparent on her face.
My eyes widened as I saw her, she really resembled my mother, but that was an expression that I had never seen on her face.
"What a mess, you psycho piece of shit." Jun said looking at me with annoyance, "He's alive." I said getting up, wiping my face with my sleeve, "I'd be surprised." He replied in hurry, he got down on one knee, and checked the person's neck and wrist for pulses.
"Insane, he's actually alive, you're sick Alan." My four eyed friend was utterly shocked, "That's some assassin level beating." He continued while I remained silent, I turned around and started walking towards the scared girl, and every step, her fear grew "Don't worry." Was all that came out of my mouth, "I was never the one who was good with comforts so that'll have to do." I said getting 10 steps closer to her, I took off my white shirt and threw it at her, "Wear this, your clothes don't seem to be in the best condition right now. Sorry but that's all I can do for you for now, oh and here's some cash." her must have been ripped or something, the way she was gripping onto an old blanket covering herself up to her neck.
"Th-thank you! But why are you helping me...?" She asked, her expression changing, a little comfort was visible now. "Let's say you look like someone I knew." She looked at me in wonder, I started walking away, "Let's go, Jun." I said, signaling him to pick up the guy laying on the ground, "We're handing him to the authorities for assault." I said seriously.
"Hey, he needs a doctor more for now, let's go with that, idiot." Jun replied, he picked him up on his back, and Archer was waiting for us at the entrance of the valley, his face turned in surprise as he saw the state the person and I were in.
We walked slowly till we got there and Jun was asking Archer if there was a hospital nearby or some medic at least, and that was when 3 figures came out from the shadows, we were alerted, "The Skia..." Archer muttered, his eyes widened, I turned my head back and found my hands cuffed with dark unrecognizable matter, "What is this?!" I couldn't move my hands an inch, nor could I feel it, it was as though my soul was cut off from that part of my body, probably why I didn't notice it instantly.
"Our Vasilis requests an audience with this troublemaker, I'm afraid." A calm and strong voice chimed in, walking a bit forward where the light hit their face and it was seeable, there stood a fairly built man, looked like he was in his 30s, his black outfit looking similar to that of Archer, but one thing that differentiated it was that Archer had a brown outfit under his cloak and this one had dark red, with 2 brown belts hanging on his waist, his black hair pulled back, a few strings peeking out.
"If it isn't Archer, always hanging around with people such as himself, nuisances." Another voice came in, a woman stepped out of the shadows, long, open black hair that reached her back and two separate portions on the front side, till below her chest, her outfit the same as the others, just that her clothes were dark purple instead.
"It's better to do your job then talk trash about someone who's worth more than you, Artemis." I heard a tired and annoyed voice that was most likely talking to the female one of them, wearing the same outfit as the woman, he stepped out, his wavy black hair almost covering his tired eyes, The woman scoffed angrily.
"What are you guys doing here?" Archer asked nervously, "I'm afraid this handsome brat right here has committed something unimaginable." The woman replied looking at me with an expression that made me feel uneasy, but I still stared at her with no expression for some reason, "The Vasilis has asked us to bring him along, and you too." The man with the strong voice chimed in. "So just come along nicely, oh young one." All three of them stood there, their presence intimidating, the only thing I wondered was how strong they looked. Fascinating, I said, my eyes wandering from one of them to the other.
I stood there without moving, just feeling their intimidating aura that continued to excite me more and more, and then my random chain of thoughts were interrupted as the strongest man among them spoke up, "Now, if you may."