Time passed quickly as John enjoyed his time at the surface, with the girl just curiously following him.
He looked up. The sky was growing cloudy, "It's gonna rain soon." The girl said from behind him.
He nodded and began retracing their steps toward the elevator. But soon, he slowed down, eyes narrowing, confused as he felt his surroundings to be different. "This doesn't look right." He muttered. He tried to juggle his mind to remember their path.
The girl just looked at him in disbelief and confidently said, "Follow me."
"You know the way?" John asked her, still confused.
"Nope. But I've been lucky since I was a kid. We'll probably make it before it rains." The girl confidently answered.
It was John's turn to stare at her in disbelief as he deliberated in his mind whether to follow her or go his own way, but seeing her move farther, he quickly ran up to her.
"There's no way this would work, we're gonna get lost even more." He tried to make her stop and go back to the path.
"Trust me, I've never been lost in my whole life."
"But have you gone to unfamiliar places before?"
"No."
As the two bickered moving forward, a shadow appeared behind them.
"Miss Iris." A calm voice sounded from behind them.
The girl turned around while smiling. "Yesss?" She tried to sound as cute as possible.
"The master explicitly told you to not wander off." The man calmly explained before reaching out and gently holding her hands. "Let's go back, the master must be searching for you now."
Iris just nodded and walked with the man in suit. "Alright, bring me back."
John watched their exchange and calmly followed their steps. "Miss Iris huh." He muttered under his breath. The man's eyebrows raised.
"Miss, how did you end up here? The others were frantically searching down there. They almost tore down everything searching for you." The man softly asked her.
"He brought me up here." Iris pointed at John, this made the man frown. John was oblivious and just shrugged it off.
After some walking, they were now at the elevator. "You go first miss, I have something to do up here." The man softly pushed her onto the elevator.
"What about you?" She asked, confused
"I'll be right behind you, miss." He smiled as the door closed before she could respond.
This made John's eyes narrow. He smelled danger and tried to jump on to the elevator before it closed, but he was pulled back by the man who smiled eerily at him.
That smile made his skin crawl, the hairs on his neck stood upright. His nerves were shouting at him to run. But he couldn't, he couldn't move, he couldn't scream, he couldn't even blink. That smile that almost wasn't a smile was a nightmare that John would never forget in his entire life.
Everything in his being was telling him to run or he would die, the air almost felt solid, like it could cut deep into his bones, the area suddenly went silent, even though it was raining outside.
"So… you're the bastard that kidnapped our pretty princess." The man held him up by his clothes and brought him face to face with him. John couldn't reply, his throat tightened up, his mouth started drooling, no words came out to answer the question, even so he tried his best to shake his head.
"Never… Get… Close… To… The… Princess… Ever… Again…" Each word was followed by a slap that made John's face almost unrecognizable.
Thud! John's body caved backwards from the punch that went straight for his guts. His body hung limp but it wasn't over, as another punch was rushing for his sides.
'Accept it, it was your fault anyway.' A voice spoke to him from the inside. 'Everything is your fault.'
He was spitting blood and his ribs were broken. The man slapped his face and threw him outside under the rain.
"Why?" His voice was hoarse and weak.
'It's all your fault.' The voice was the last thing he heard before everything slowly turned black.
***
When he opened his eyes, the surroundings were different. The light was too bright, stinging his eyes. He tried to cover it with his hands but he noticed that his hands were smaller than normal. He noticed that he was being carried by a man, and when he saw his hands, he realized it… he was a baby.
He looked around. To his left, fanatics bowed to the man, to his right was the man, and behind him were two bodies. Skinned. Beheaded. Seeing this, he wanted to vomit his insides out. He started crying, and he wanted to run, but he couldn't control his body well enough.
***
"Blood Goddess, please protect us from evil. Here is the sinner that killed an entire town." He devoutly raised the baby he was holding.
"His cursed eye attracted monsters that rampaged through the town. He killed your families, your loved ones" The man addressed the people kowtowing towards him.
He dipped the baby in the basin filled with red liquid, blood. "Goddess, please accept this sacrifice." He continued dipping the baby, the baby cried, choking on the blood.
'It's all your fault, I told you.' The voice kept whispering in John's ears. He couldn't breathe, as he was submerged deep in the red liquid, he didn't know what it was but it smelled familiar.
'You killed the town, you killed your parents.' The voice drove John crazy, he wanted to scream, he wanted to rampage, but his body wouldn't let him, and that fact drove him even further.
Crack! The basin where he was submerged cracked, the red liquid started pouring out. The light entered his eyes once again. When he opened his eyes, he was now back at the surface. Still wet from the rain. The last thing he heard before opening his eyes was a familiar voice, "Tsk, that's not how you carry a baby you crazies."
***
His body was heavy, after taking all the beating, but somehow he felt strength come up from within him. He tried to stand up but his leg gave up. He crawled towards the shade to escape from the rain and sat by the elevator, waiting for it to come up.
He looked around. His blood by the door was still drying up, it looked vibrant for reasons he didn't know. He stared at it, then the surroundings, he looked at the rain, it felt slow for some reason. He could see each individual rain drop, and how they splashed on the ground.
He was so focused that he didn't notice the elevator arriving, it closed again before going back down.
He tried to catch it but he was too slow and he couldn't move fast enough due to his injuries. He stayed still for a while and focused on recovering enough energy to stand up.
He went back to watching the rain fall, that was when he remembered something. He wasn't supposed to see this well with his left eye.
He quickly brought out the phone in his pocket, and checked the camera to see himself.
His eyes were no longer cloudy white, but is now a normal eye, save for what seemed to be a hollow circle in the middle of his eye that had two rays coming out of it.
"Hah! I can see." He tried to laugh in joy but the pain once again reminded him of his situation.
He remembered the vision he saw while he was unconscious. He didn't recognize the place, nor the people there, but he had a suspicion that that was his history. Remembering the bodies made his stomach act up again. John lived a relatively peaceful life, he'd seen his fair share of corpses and atrocities committed by those in the slums. When you're hungry, everything feels like it was allowed.
"Damn, cults are ruthless. I wonder who…" He slowly realized as the words left his mouth. His eyes started tearing up, soon he was ugly crying by the side of the elevator.
He always thought that he was abandoned, that his parents no longer loved him, and so they gave him away. He never imagined that they would die in such an inhumane way. He felt disgusted with himself, he knew that the red liquid was their blood, and even if he didn't want to, he still ingested it.
He wanted to claw his insides out, he wanted to remove the memories, the guilt of it all. He sobbed, crying himself to sleep.
***
John woke up, it was already dark outside. His face ugly, and his eyes were swollen from crying. Remembering that scene made him tear up again, but he shook his head and tried to get it out of his mind. He now had the strength to stand up, albeit weak.
He rang the elevator once again, this time, focused so that it didn't leave him behind. He waited for some time before it arrived. He entered as fast as he could.
As the elevator travelled down, he stared at his reflection in the door. His injuries and bruises were clearly visible. His once clouded eye now stared back at him. He had no excuses nor answers for his siblings.
When the elevator reached the underground, he slowly walked out. Seeing the familiar underground helped calm his emotions down. He slowly moved towards his house, worrying about his cat that he hadn't fed yet.
His pace quickened. Each step made him grimace in pain and reminded him of the beating he received. Remembering that smile, his body froze, the fear rooted him in place. He gritted his teeth and pressed on forward, vowing to pay him back tenfold.
When he reached his house, he opened the door to see Ash jumping towards him. Meowing wildly as if telling him to feed him. He looked inside to see everything was a mess, "Did you do this?" He asked the cat. The cat shook his head as if he understood John's words.
He remembered the man's words earlier. '...they almost tore down everything, looking for you.'
"Who was that damned girl that they even ransacked my place like this?" He was bubbling with anger.
"Oh, me?" He heard a voice inside, a voice that he never wanted to hear again, even in his nightmare. He grabbed Ash and started dashing away ignoring his pain.
"Don't run so fast. You'll hurt yourself." The voice was filled with concern, but this voice was the reason he almost died. He continued running as fast as he could. 'Fuck Fuck Fuck' ran through his mind.
"Tsk, Fleur, get him."
John felt like he was running on air, he felt weightless. That's because Fleur held him by his shirt, he WAS running on air, just not moving.
He blinked, and the next moment, he was inside his house, sitting on Lucan's chair. On his chair was Iris. "Why did you run as soon as you heard me?"
John was befuddled by the situation, he looked around to find if the man was in the house.
"He's not here, he's already returned to my father's side. I apologize for whatever the man did to you." She bowed her head, before handing John a flask. "Drink this and your injuries should recover faster."
John didn't take it, he just stared at it with suspicion and didn't bother to respond. This irritated Iris, so she took the flask and poured some of it in her mouth before handing it back.
John still didn't take it, "I know you people are immune to normal poison."
This drove Iris even further. "If I wanted to kill you, Fleur here, can do it in an instant. I could probably kill you in an instant. I'm only doing this because I feel bad for what that man did to you. I wanted to go up again but they wouldn't allow me to go to the surface." She tried to calmly explain.
"If you were strong enough, I wouldn't mind if you kill that person, but since you're not, keep your damn head down and drink this."
John agreed with everything she said, but felt like if he drank this potion, he'd accept his defeat, but Iris' last words broke the last of his pride. He finally took it and drank it in one go. The bitter liquid travelled down his throat with difficulty.
The potion helped his physical injuries, but the trauma and the damage deep inside seemed to laugh in the face of that potion, as if healing his injuries only made the trauma even worse.
"Good, so where were we? You were asking who I am?" Iris put her hands on the table and cupped her face. "Well, I'm Iris Elaina Avaroa from Avaroa Clan, and I'm the only daughter of the clan head." She smiled sweetly.
John didn't return the smile. Despite the presence of a noble in front of him, all he could think of was the smile that haunted him every time he closed his eyes. The smile of the man he swore to find. 'One day, I'll wipe that smirk off that face.'
"Do you want to work for me?" Iris offered her hand.