Chapter 7: 6. [Back] Lucas and The Sword Part 1

[WARNING: This chapter contains content that readers may find disturbing or uncomfortable.]

6. [Back] Lucas and The Sword Part 1

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Info About The Back Chapters:

The Back Chapters will provide a glimpse of the characters’ pasts introduced at the beginning of the story (in chapter 2) and serve readers a more understanding of the world the characters live in.

The Back Chapters may be skipped as they won’t play a big part in the main story but, at the same time, gives a background of how the main story had taken place (which is why they’re not considered as “extra” chapters).

The Back Chapters will be long and fast-paced, but breaks were placed in between for readers to rest and come back and continue reading. The word "Break" between two lines will indicate that it is a break - just a clarification so that readers won't misinterpret single lines as a break. They're just time skips.

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[The story of Lucas’s past]

- Year 1145 -

- Righteous League / Eastern Land / 103rd District -

Lucas was a bright and curious boy who turned nine not long ago. His interest in stories told by books brought his mind to a world of imagination and wonders, leading him to be more explorative and out front as a child.

Living in a small-compacted house, usually the most common type of house around, he grew up with his mother and father providing him with whatever he needed. His mother occasionally collected or bought books around the marketplace roughly five miles away while his father solo-ventured down the SHT.

The parents raised him in their separate ways - the father leaning on the physical type, the mother inclining on the more educational type. But both permitted Lucas to play outside of his own will.

Lucas went out running around with excitement every day, though it was mostly near his home.

"Hey, mom, look, a bug!"

At times he brought rocks or nothing, but at other times he brought any bugs he could find in the corner of his eyes and showed it to his mother. He was captivated by the life of animals and bugs and desired to share such liveliness with others.

"L-Lucas!" His mother quickly snatched the bug away from him and brought it outside, slammed it on the ground with a strong force, and stomped on it, emitting a loud banging noise around them.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't bring any bugs inside our house!" Mother shouted in frustration.

"Hehe, okay!" Lucas chuckled while running back out.

"Jeez, what am I going to do with that child?"

Pausing his idle reading time, the father looked up at the conflicted mother while sitting on a chair in the corner of their house and said, "Don't worry too much. I'm sure you love seeing him smile like that.

"Of course- That shouldn’t be a question, but at least bring the bug in when we’re not about to eat…"

"Haha! He will have a bright future ahead of him. He said so with his mouth," the father laughed while glancing back down at his book.

"What did he say?" The mother questioned wonderingly.

"Well..."

A week ago, Lucas made a promise to his father during his training in self-defense out in their backyard. Their backyard, bordered by a bricked fence that provided privacy, was composed of various potted plants and a vast space of nothing but flat land.

“Dad, when I grow up, I promise I will protect you and mom! I will grow strong, stronger than you!”

The father looked at him with a heartwarming smile while stroking his head with his callus hands which he used to wield his sword around. 

"That's my boy."

After trading grins with each other, they resumed their training.

 

 

The next day, Lucas walked along a dirt road away from his home and deeper into the near-empty town that seemed bare of any life. But with curiosity, he kept walking to see the identical houses placed side by side for as far as he could see.

Everything was deserted. All around, Lucas saw detached roofs of houses and chunks of hardened clay scattered on the ground. Some even reached the middle of the road, providing some pressuring sense to his sheltered feet that wore plain and ripped shoes.

But then he saw a boy in the distance, slightly younger in looks leaning against a wall of an abandoned house. He had bruises all over his body and a patch of missing hair on the side of his head. His dirt-stained clothes were torn with spots of red leaking through his outfit and cut marks as if a knife ran across his skin. He stood still, slanting his position while looking down on the floor with sweat shimmering on his face.

Lucas, seeing the utter state the boy was in, walked up to him.

"Hey, um," Lucas said, and the boy looked up to see him walking closer.

"What, do you also want money?" The boy asked with a neutral tone.

"Eh?" Lucas responded with confusion. "I just… Um… You okay?"

The boy looked down once more. But then tears were seen from him that trickled down his face.

"It's too late," the boy then walked away with his hand grabbing tightly on his other arm. His legs twitched from his wimpy walking as if the bones were about to snap in half.

"Is there something wrong?" Lucas called out while waving his arms high in the air. "Why are you like that? If you want, we can play together somewhere! Wait! Where are you-"

“Hey there," a voice called out from behind Lucas. A hand larger than Lucas’s rested on his shoulders, causing him to stop speaking but slowly turn around to see who it was.

But while turning, a figure nearly a foot taller than him gazed down at him with a large grin as the sun above cast a shadow on their face. A boy who seemed to be about four years older than Lucas asserted dominance by being exceedingly close to him. There were three boys behind who conveyed the same looks. They seemed to follow the bigger boy - the leader, who took his time staring at Lucas and fear-provoking him to fall silent.

"I was wondering what all that talking was about. Ha, glad we were right around the corner!" The leader began to laugh, and then the boys behind did the same, trying their best to hide their silly faces when looking at Lucas, who seemed lost.

"Um," Lucas said with a nervous look. "Who are you guys?"

"'Who are we?' Well, we're just people who go around asking politely for money, that's all. And speaking of which, you got some with you? We're a little hungry."

"But my parents said that the money only belongs to themselves, so I can’t carry any money," he said truthfully.

Suddenly, the leader grabbed Lucas’s collar firmly and pulled him closer to his face. The feeling of the tight grasp of his strength made Lucas’s heart race faster while his eyes dilated in fear. The leader then looked around his body as if he was searching for something.

"I see," the leader responded. "So you're saying that you don't have any money with you?"

He gestured with his other hand, raising two fingers and pointing them at Lucas. The three boys behind suddenly surrounded the boy while lowering themselves, placing their hands all over him, and tucking their arms in his pockets.

Lucas wanted to run away, seeing the boys larger than his own body encircling him and searching all over his clothes. But the leader grabbed onto his shirt and couldn’t muster the strength to free himself. And when looking closer at the boy's hands and legs, there were red smears all over. He had bruises, but not as much as that boy younger than him who walked away not very long ago.

“Um,” Lucas hesitated. “Just what are you guys doing?”

The boys refused to answer him and continued digging through his clothes.

“You see,” the leader who grabbed onto his shirt spoke. “I’m quite a talker - a negotiator - my parents would say. When someone says that they don’t have money, I let them go and have them give it to me the next time we meet. When they still don’t give me what I want, we talk it out somewhere private and settle things with a promise…

“However, there is something that I absolutely hate.”

“Hate?” Lucas said while trying to push himself away from the leader. But he kept tugging him, gazing into his eyes without looking away while bringing his face even closer to his.

“People think we’re scary. But aren’t we nice people? They think they’re so tough when they lie to us. And I hate people who lie. They are absolute scum, but also hilarious. It just makes us have more fun punishing them!”

The boys then backed off while shaking their heads at their leader. He then pushed Lucas away with force, causing him to fall to the ground and grunt from the landing.

“And you, kid,” the leader continued. “You seem to speak up to your words. How kind of you. We’re already friends then! I love people like you!”

He squatted down to meet their faces on the same level.

“So, how about this? Since we’re friends now, I will let you go back to your family without any unnecessary talk. Tell them that your friends need money, so that the next time we meet again, you can give it to us. Simple, right?”

Despite their ages not being too far apart, Lucas can’t seem to brush away his anxiety and uneasiness when confronted like this. His eyes were wide, facing the boys with his frail body. He just stared at them with questions filling his head.

Who are these guys? Why are they like this? They sound nice, but why do they give that scary feeling? If I get them mad, are they going to yell at me and hit me like how my mom does when I do something bad?

But after a moment of silence, the leader of the boy's smile faded and darted at Lucas with a stern expression. He grabbed Lucas’s hair and pulled it up, but just enough for his entire body to lift from the ground. Lucas felt the stinging pain and quickly grasped the boy’s hand, asking to let go in desperation.

“Hey, did you not understand what I said?” The boy asked. “If you understand, say ‘yes.’ If not, then say ‘no.’ How hard is that?”

In fear, Lucas yelled while nodding frantically. “Yes! Yes, I understand!”

Instantly, the boy let him go, resting his entire body weight from the pull of his hair down to the ground. Lucas pressed his hands on top of his head while sliding himself away from the group of boys.

“Good,” the boy reverted to his smile. “Then I will see you later!”

As the leader in front of him turned to walk away, the three boys on the side glanced at Lucas a little longer until they followed behind. And seeing them walk away, Lucas could only watch in sheer weakness, observing their bodies becoming smaller as they distanced themselves apart. Their bodies slowly became wavy by the blazing heat of the atmosphere until they vanished from Lucas's sight.

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Break

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Weeks have passed since the incident between Lucas and the four older boys. And ever since that day, he had no courage to step back out to the dirt road and explore like he always did.

His parents looked at him with concern seeing that he did not once behave like this. They've blamed themselves for neglecting the dangers of roaming outside and leaving their child running around without supervision. And knowing the harsh conditions that the outside world had, they now kept him under close watch and gave him the utmost attention to make him be how he usually was.

It was then that the parents understood Lucas’s strengths and flaws. 

As the mother tried her best to educate him about the world of flames, she learned that Lucas cannot control fire. As a past excuse for him being still young, they didn’t think much about it until he began to grow out of his childhood.

But one thing that Lucas was decent at was hand-to-hand combat. Usually held in the backfield of their house which had quite forgiving space despite their small home, his father taught Lucas ways of defending against people. When he discovered he couldn't cast fire, he had driven himself to be more committed in physical combat.

And surprisingly, he learned relatively quickly. Just under a few days, Lucas could manage to keep his bearings against people larger than him, like his father.

One self-defense that the father taught him was in a scenario where he wrapped his arm around Lucas’s neck while grabbing onto his hair as if he was a hostage. The father believed that teaching him about self-defenses would protect and possibly save his life one day, but so did Lucas, believing that it would save their family.

From this, they thought it would encourage him, just a little, to go back out and enjoy what was out there. However, nothing worked. Despite his training and moderate experience with defense, he believed that something worse would happen if he met the boys again.

And Lucas couldn’t speak the truth about the situation because he believed it may cause his parents trouble. And to keep them from being worried, he spent his time in the back of their home to release the bottled-up child-like curiosity he'd always used for exploring. But as he kept seeing a brick fence reaching roughly three meters high surrounding him for days, it was nothing like exploring; rather, it was confining him to a corner.

At this point, he wondered if he could go on any longer, glancing over to the house in the direction of the path he'd always run across. With an anxious mind, he went back inside in hopes that he would have the nerve to step outside again.

 

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One day, he saw a little girl about the same age as him walking across his home while holding a basket on its arch. Gazing through the small window, he watched her walk by, head covered by a round braided hat until she went out of his view.

That is until she returned, walking in the opposite direction and returning to where she came. However, this time around, she had water bottles and food in her basket. 

Lucas thought this was a one-day occurrence, so he never thought anything serious. However, something about her looks - that light caramel hair and that small-frilled dress with her lower legs bare - caught his utmost attention. But as soon as she disappeared, a feeling of desperation rose in his heart in eagerness for her return.

A couple of days went by, and she always appeared at random intervals in the afternoon when the sun above had passed over its highest peak. She continued to wear different clothes every time he encountered her, but she kept wearing that loosely braided hat. And that hat alone gave him a difficult time trying to uncover the face underneath.

She didn’t give out any dangerous aura and her adorable appearance made him watch her every day during her usual passing. But with so many questions built up in his head, he lost patience and decided to do something he never thought he would do.

The next time she walked by, Lucas didn’t hesitate to call out to her, stepping out of the small box of his home and back out to the outside world. 

“Hey!” Lucas opened the door hastily while shouting at the girl, causing her to turn around in surprise. "You, who are you?! You've been walking a lot! Can you tell me what you are doing?"

But as Lucas continued to run towards her, she looked at him with her face in full view. And immediately upon seeing her front, Lucas stopped running and gradually came to a stop just a few feet away from the girl.

Her soft-skinned face, delicate pink lips, and lustrous blue eyes shaded from the sun by her hat - everything came at Lucas like a gust of a mighty wind. With so much revealment, he took a step back and tried to catch his breath.

"Um, yo..." Lucas mixed up his words and began to feel nervous. As the girl looked at him with confusion, with a slight fluster, he kept talking. “Why do you keep walking back and forth? It's just that- um, a little curious.”

After a slight pause, the girl let out a small grin and responded. “I’m getting water and food!”

His heart started to race from seeing her warm and kind smile. What Lucas knew about children at his age was that they usually weren’t as open as he was. Before encountering the four fearsome boys, he always ran around hoping to see people like him. When there was a chance of seeing someone, they would run away, leaving Lucas bewildered and lost from their sudden departure.

However, this was the first time someone remained standing, let alone smiled at him with a genuine answer. Lucas couldn’t help but feel joyed and also interested in the girl.

“Oh, I see,” Lucas looked away from her while placing his hand behind his head in embarrassment. “Well, if you want, can I help you?”

"No, it's okay. I don't want to trouble you," the girl replied as she turned her body around slightly.

"Oh, alright. Then I'll see you-"

Suddenly, he remembered when he encountered the four boys, cutting off his sentence and looking back up with widened eyes. Nonetheless, the girl nodded toward Lucas and faced away to begin walking again.

Lucas recalled his time wandering around the area and meeting up with the boys that gave him the fright of his life. It was in the direction from where the girl came from, but he didn't seem to remember how far he walked until he met the boys.

Out of worry, he ran past the girl and turned around to face her with a serious look. The girl stopped walking in utter confusion while looking back with a nervous glare.

“Ehm,” the girl murmured. “W-What’s wrong?”

“Let me help,” Lucas answered without hesitation.

The girl stepped back as Lucas leaned close with a straight face.

“Huh?” The girl said. “But it’s just getting water. I’ve been doing this for a bit, and I don't want to-”

“No,” Lucas interrupted. “Let me help.”

With the earnest looks that Lucas gave off, the girl backed even more with her face gradually turning red from the sudden reaction.

“Ehm- You sure? Ah…” The girl looked away.

“Yes. There are dangerous people out there, so I want to protect you.” Hopefully, she doesn't come across those boys. If they pick a fight with another person, then it won’t turn out good again. She didn't run away like other people, so let me do this much.

There was a long pause with a gust of wind passing by the two. Lucas still awaited her decision and had no clue about what he said. He kept looking at the girl with an upfront look that caused her face to suddenly flush red.

“Oh dear,” a womanly voice sounded from behind Lucas. When he turned around, he saw his mother and father peeking through the door Lucas had left open. The mother's hand covered her mouth while the father lay on the ground with a grinning face, head resting on his arm.

“To think my son is doing this, the first thing he does when going back out in a long time,” the father said with a smirk. “I’m very proud!”

“Father, mother,” Lucas called at them with loss. But after a moment of thinking, he began to realize what he had said was different from what he thought.

Turning back around with a blushed expression, he saw the girl look back the same. When they made eye contact, the girl sharply turned her head around as her long brown hair waved in the same direction.

“Wait,” Lucas shouted while backing off. “You’re misunderstanding! I just want to prot- Um, there are bad people out there, and I just don’t want you to get hurt!”

The more Lucas tried to explain, the more the girl’s face turned red. It was hard for him to explain his full reasoning, so the words that came out of his mouth were his summed version of his past.

“It’s not like that way! After all, we just met each other! So, you know…”

While Lucas tried to unscramble his words, he saw the girl walk away like usual. But after taking a few steps forward, she turned around to look at Lucas with a grin peeking over her shoulders.

“What are you waiting for? I’m trusting in you to protect me from now on, so hurry up! Also, you remind me of someone that also looks trustworthy, so I know you’re honest.”

"What do you mean," Lucas asked bewilderingly.

After a moment of chuckle, she said, “That’s something you don’t need to know about. But come on, hurry up!"

 

---

 

Four years had passed since their first interaction.

During this time frame, Lucas learned a lot about the girl during their walks. The girl’s name was Christine who just turned 13 while Lucas turned the same age roughly a month ago. 

Lucas learned that Christine had a sick mother on the verge of collapsing from a weak body. Both moved near to where his home was for unknown reasons, and they said her father had left the family when she was still in her mother’s womb. He asked where they originally came from if they had moved, but they wouldn’t speak a word about it. However, he accepted their circumstance and let them keep it hidden, which Christine thought to be endearing of him.

Christine, on the other hand, listened to Lucas about various stories and wonders of the world that he could someday find. Lucas was thrilled by the possibility of crossing over from this land to the land of tall buildings that soared hundreds of meters high. He envisioned living in the city far in the distance where they could give adequate water, food, and shelter, and he was delighted to share his dreams with someone else.

Both also learned their weaknesses and strengths while growing up.

Lucas often visited Christine's mother to keep her company and bring out laughter at some points. Her mother learned Lucas couldn’t wield fire like the rest of her household - her and Christine. Nonetheless, she took him in without reluctance as soon as she saw his earnest personality and honesty.

“Oh dear,” the mother said as she weakly shifted her head to the side to get a good look at Lucas with her daughter next to him.

“It’s the boy! Welcome ba-”

“Mom! It’s someone different.” Christine called out which silenced the mother. Both laughed after a little moment of silence.

“Then, who is this cute boy?”

“It’s Lucas, your daughter’s friend.” Lucas said with a warm smile.

“Oh, dear!” The mother raised her voice which caused her to cough profusely. "My girl has a boy. What am I supposed to do?”

“It's not like that. But I promise everything will be alright. I will work hard for her safety and your long life!”

“I wonder where my son is! He should come and welcome you someday too!”

Puzzled, Lucas turned to look at Christine and asked, “Son? Christine, you have a brother?”

“Ah…” She looked lost. “Yeah. I do have a brother. But he’s…”

“Oh,” After realizing, he instantly regretted asking the question. “I’m sorry…”

“Oh, no no! It’s okay!” She clarified. “It’s just that… Um...”

“Ah. Alright.” Seeing the conversation being more down than expected, they quickly moved on to different subjects and continued their day with her mother.

Christine grew to be an attractive girl - large expressive blue eyes, a charming figure, and a beautiful smile. Her wavy but also moderately messy hair reached down to her lower back. Lucas had “standard” brown eyes and messy black hair reaching down to his mid-neck region.

She usually made small crafts such as baskets and shoes for themselves using a small lighter and tools she brought from the market. She always left the lighter on the counter near the entrance door because it was the most effortless place to remember where she would leave her items.

Christine visited his parent's house to help cook food which she shared with her mother at her home. She always talked with his mother for a short period before leaving, and during this time, the mother learned that Christine couldn’t comprehend basic academics as quickly as Lucas or their parents.

“That’s no good,” Lucas’s mother called out to Christine, who was cutting vegetables on the counter. “Cooking food is important, but education is just as important! You better pick up the speed before having a child!”

“I-It's not like that!” Christine exclaimed with a large volume of redness covering her entire face. She began to cut the vegetables even quicker.

Over time, Lucas and Christine came closer together and eventually fell in love. Their relationship was bright, and their parents supported them with no reluctance. Each side had their share of happiness from being on the receiving end of their children. Lucas's parents would have more food to eat while Christine's mom would have company.

Lucas and Christine saw a bright future ahead of them, filled with fruitful outcomes and a dream that someday would bring them closer to the city they dreamed of living in.

But both never realized the horrible nature of the world and that one small mistake would cost them everything.

 

---

 

A week later, Lucas and Christine walked to the marketplace - the same place as usual to gather water and necessary food. Though today, they were planning to purchase flowers for an event.

But as they came back from the market, they found Christine’s mother incredibly ill, and she began to become unresponsive. Consequently, they had to go back and grab food and water. They went through a shorter route to gather stuff quickly before anything worse would happen to her mother.

But in the middle of the deserted dirt road, a place they were unfamiliar with, footsteps were heard behind them growing louder each second, and there were many. As both noticed the sounds of the sudden approach, Lucas peaked slightly to his back to see six men hastily walking up to them.

The men dressed in dark clothes - their tops mostly having a dark gray filling while their pants were cut short with a brown filling.

As Lucas and Christine picked up their pace, so did the men. He pulled her closer to him to assure her protection, who appeared very worried; however, even he feared what was about to come.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lucas ran while pulling Christine with him as she held her hat firmly around her chest so that it wouldn't fly away. Seeing their sudden sprinting, the men ran at top speed while leaving a trail of dust rising into the air. Christine murmured small words of worry as Lucas kept holding her by his side.

Lucas lowered himself and used his hands to grab hold of the dried soil on the ground, picking a handful of sandy dirt and swinging it behind him towards the incoming men.

Half of them coughed while tightening their eyes from the amount of dirt that had collected inside their eyelids and mouth, but it wasn't very effective, as the rest kept running and eventually caught the two.

They pinned them on the ground, forcefully holding their arms, legs, torso, and neck. Their push strength was so immense that they began to choke with barely any air coming into their lungs. Christine’s hat got shot away from her harsh fall and lay still.

Lucas and Christine could hear the men chuckling while cheering with moderate energy.

“Finally,” one of the men said. “We got some kids that actually have stuff in them. There was a pesky one that kept running from us, but these kids are beyond hopeless!”

“Indeed, and it appears that one of them has more than just money,” another man replied as he glared at Christine's body. The other men laughed in support of what he said.

Lucas saw that these men were older than him but were different from the boys he encountered four years ago. They were much bulkier, and their muscular build gave off a threatening aura that not only raised fear in Lucas but also anger.

“Don…” Lucas desperately spoke through the hand that blocked his throat. “Don’t you dare… touch her…”

“Or what,” one of the men said. “What are you gonna do, cry for us to stop?”

The group of men laughed again with their ill-intending jokes.

Despite Lucas’s ongoing training with his father, he couldn’t deal with six men at once. He could fend off one man for a short time, but he needed to find a way to protect others instead of himself, such as Christine, but that was something that his father never taught him to do. Everything that he learned up until now was just self-defense. And those four years were nothing but a long stream of happiness that blinded him to think everything would be alright.

“Now, why won’t you two come with us as obedient as possible so that you won’t interrupt the people around- Oh, my bad. It seems like no one is around!”

“That’s right, and while we’re at it, why not hand us what you’ve got? We will guarantee that everything will turn out better than-”

Suddenly, a large bottle of glass with incredible thickness swung right on top of one of the men’s heads with the utmost force, shattering it and sending shards of glass everywhere. The man struck by the glass grunted as he collapsed to the ground head first.

In shock, the rest of the men turned around. But suddenly, a sheet of metal spinning like a disc targeted one of the men. The metal sheet struck a man’s head, emitting a loud thud noise as he also fell unconscious.

Lucas and Christine’s restraints came loose, and both stood back up.

Immediately, Lucas focused on his side where Christine was and shoved the men away. He brought her and kept her behind his back while confronting the men. Then as he turned his head to the people who threw those objects, he saw two familiar figures.

His mother and father stood side by side. The mother held a shattered bottle glass while the father held a metal sheet.

“Lucas, Christine! Hurry, get out of there!” The father shouted while focusing on the men who looked back enraged.

Lucas nodded while grabbing onto Christine, who was too frightened to move. But as he tried to run away, two men ran up and snatched their arms. They locked the two in place and prevented them from escaping. The person who grabbed onto Christine began to move his hands around her body, causing her to weep in fear.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Lucas shouted. “Get your hands off of her!”

“Be more convincing, kid.” The man who held him up responded.

Lucas remembered something similar to this scenario, but his memory was foggy and gave him no thought on how to fight back or practically do anything in this situation.

He violently swung his legs around while trying to be set free; however, his struggles were ineffective. The man's strength was far greater than his, making him powerless in this situation.

Why? Why can’t I do anything?! I can’t even react whenever a man approaches us! This is beyond frustrating! Why can't I help her?!

Two men were on the floor unconscious, two men were holding Lucas and Christine as hostages, and two men were facing Lucas’s parents.

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One walked up to Lucas’s father, cracking his knuckles while appearing ready for combat. The father looked at the scar on the man's face. He hesitated for a second before blindly striking the man using the metal sheet.

But then the guy forcefully punched the metal sheet on the side, causing the father to lose his grip. The metal flung across the field and landed just over a meter away.

The father brought up his fists, but before he could react, the man grabbed onto his head and vigorously pulled his head down. The man's knee struck the front of his face with incredible force. Stunned by the powerful impact, the father backed off while keeping his balance. Suddenly, the man jabbed on the side of his face and then a hook on the other side. The consecutive punches brought the father down without any resistance.

On the other hand, Lucas’s mother got tackled to the floor by another man, snatched the broken glass bottle, and threw it far from her reach.

“That belt,” the man said while spitting at Lucas’s father, who twitched on the dirt ground. “You must be a venturer just like us - that same belt we use to carry our swords around. But holy fuck, what a lame guy you are. By that strength, you could barely deal with level 5 monsters! You don't even have a goddamn sword with you!”

Lucas’s parents were on the ground grunting with incredible pain and he and Christine were held captive and could only watch the scene unfold. Christine wept in distress while Lucas couldn’t muster a word from what he saw in front of him.

“Hey,” the man continued. “Just for your information, we go down to level 13. That alone should let you know your place!”

He then kicked the father on the side of his face, violently swinging his head to the side while gagging out blood that shot out of his mouth and splattered on the ground like a squashed bug.

“You piece of shit! Get your hands off of my dad and mom!” Lucas yelled as he frantically swayed his body back and forth in an attempt to escape. The men turned around to see Lucas tearing up while showing absolute disgust towards them. He had nothing but intentions of killing the men before him, which fogged his vision with darkness and red.

One of the men walked up and punched him in the stomach with brutal force, pushing all the air out of his lungs and making him fall unconscious. His body lost the energy to lift itself, leaving the man holding him to carry his entire body weight.

"This was more annoying than we thought. Where the hell did those two grown-ups come from?"

"I've had enough. Just look at my head! It's a fucking mess!" The man who got hit by a glass bottle exclaimed.

“That’s it, we’re getting this job done the next morning. For now, let's rest up and have some relaxation before sending them off to the boundary line,” one of the men who appeared to be the leader ordered. The men nodded as they gathered the father, the mother, Lucas, and Christine. They pulled them off into the distance until the sun had set as they left the round hat behind, remaining idly on the ground.

 

---

 

Lucas didn’t remember much after what happened and only slept in exhaustion ever since he got knocked out cold. Two hours have passed since the men attacked Lucas and Christine, leading to an entire capture of his family.

He woke up on the cold ground feeling the small pebbles and dirt piercing through the side of his face. His eyes began to widen, and in front of him was a small campfire that burned brightly, letting out a strong smell of burning wood and coal to the point where he began to wake up completely.

Shaking him off the ground, he realized his hands got restrained behind him with a rope. While struggling in an attempt to break free, he pushed his head down to the ground, using it as leverage to pull his upper body up from slumber.

Now that he was in a sitting position - a quite discomforting position - he looked at his whereabouts to find similar settings to the area surrounding his home: houses placed in rows all completely dark and lifeless.

And as he focused on the campfire, he saw a noticeable figure next to it fiddling with the burning wood using a stick. It was one of the men who attacked them, specifically the leader with a large scar on his face.

“You’re awake, kid,” he said while gazing at the luminous flames.

Instantly, chills ran down his body. With the feeling of dread and hate, Lucas hissed while jumping at the man until he fell once more to the ground from his tight restraints.

“You seem energetic. Why not pipe down a bit…?”

“Who the hell are you guys?!” Lucas shouted in frustration.

“Relax. I will answer your questions, so take a breather and sit back up.”

With how neutral the man was, Lucas was in complete disbelief and continued to stare knives at him. The man himself looked down at Lucas with hopelessness.

“Help! Can anyone hear me! We need help! Someone out there, if you can hear me, help us!” Lucas shouted in desperation to the houses that were devoid of life. However, there was no response. It’s as if no one was around but only them.

“Look, kid, your parents are over there. If you love your family that much, then I suggest you shut your mouth for your own good, including your parents.”

The man pointed his stick in the opposite direction of where Lucas was. As he directed his focus on the other side of the campfire, Lucas noticed two figures leaning against each other while sitting motionless. Lucas suddenly fell silent to see his mother and father being unresponsive, eyes closed but still breathing.

He saw his father covered in dirt with a mixture of blood covering his torn clothes, bruises on his arms and face, and cut marks. His mother was less severe but had mud all over her at which her body condition seemed unknown.

“Mom, dad!” He screamed, but they didn't respond.

“Hush up, they’re just resting,” the man responded while going back to playing with the campfire.

Lucas looked up at him with a ghostly stare.

“Just why? Why are you guys like this? We’ve done nothing wrong. Why are we treated this way?”

A small gust of wind passed them, and a moment of silence filled the atmosphere until the man spoke.

“Kids like you don’t know the reality of this world. We are not like the ones living in the city. We are born to be treated as criminals. So let’s just be true to our name and be who we are in this ‘righteous’ land. Are there any moral rules in this land? No.”

Lucas, hearing his words, bit his lower lip hard enough to pierce through his flesh and mildly bleed.

“For generations, people in this land have been exiled and hated. Even if we do things that seem despicable to the people living in the city, nothing is there to stop us. No one cares about shit of who we are.

“Hate us all you want, kid, but in the end, we are all meaningless. We can survive all we can, but nothing will amount to anything in the end.

“But there is something that is meaningful. Before I die, I want to see things that I want to see. I have read the tale of a boy who will come into this world, and he is still yet to arrive. Just maybe, if I see him for a second, then maybe everything that we’re doing right now won't be meaningless after all...”

Not knowing what the man said, Lucas sat on the ground with a grim look and gritted his teeth with anger as he looked away from the man to the side.

I don’t believe in him. He’s done horrible things to us and now he’s saying things that don't make sense. I have dreams too, and he took them away from me. I won’t forgive him… I… Won’t…

Suddenly, as he gazed to his side, a layer of clothing was torn on the ground as if it got forcefully ripped. The light wear, light gray shorts, and the cotton shirt, he couldn’t think of anyone who would wear this except for one.

He looked up at the man with a blank look and said, “Where’s Christine?”

“Who? Oh, that girl,” he looked at the pile of clothing next to Lucas. “She’s with my men. They’ve taken her to one of the houses.”

In hopes that he misheard, Lucas asked once more, “Where’s… Christine…?”

“We’re talking about the same girl, are we not? I’m not into those things, but like I said, she’s with my men so they could vent out their emotions or whatever.”

Lucas’s heart grew cold, and a wave of pain flowed through his body. His mind became empty and his muscles seemed to give up on holding himself. He looked at the ground with a cold gesture, and like an inanimate object he tipped over on his side until his shoulders came in contact with the floor and stopped his fall.

He saw no hope in himself, and without the courage to sit back up, he remained in the same position for minutes as it gradually became hours.

I’m so useless… Why can’t I do anything…? What have I been doing for all these years…? Why am I so weak…? I promised that I would protect her from people like them… I swore to keep her safe… Ah... I want to die… I just want to kill myself… It hurts… It. hurts…

Lucas remained there motionless as he wept in silence. With the dead of night slowly engulfing his waking consciousness, he finally closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

==========

Break

==========

“Hey… Wake up…”

Lucas heard a cloudy voice in the darkness. The voice kept calling out to him like a parent calling their child. But as seconds passed, his consciousness regained its focus, and the voices became clear. Immediately, Lucas jolted from his sleep and widened his eyes.

The smell of charcoal and wood was gone as they got replaced by the stale air and wind passing by him. He saw a bright silvery sky, and ahead he saw nothing but a gaping void of land.

He witnessed something he had never seen before. As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but plain land stretching miles into the abyss. The morning sun radiated white light with a reminiscence of silver and gold surrounding it. The atmosphere had a ghostly feeling as his senses began to feel exhausted from the complete desertedness of the land before him.

Behind him was his usual setting of a dozen rows of houses placed side by side with dirt roads and paths in between, occupying life at which he saw it. But what he observed in front of him was nothing of sort; in fact, it was quite the opposite.

Suddenly, he felt a rapid shaking all around his body, and it felt like his teeth were rattling from it.

“Wake up!” One of the men shouted to Lucas, who looked up in shock. Some of his dried tears remained on the side of his face. As soon as he saw him awake, filled with fear and uncertainty, he lifted him, causing Lucas to stand to his feet.

“W-What’s going on?” He asked, but there was no response.

But then more figures were seen walking up to him from behind, passing by and eventually being in front. He saw the rest of the men dressed in dark clothing holding three figures by their side.

On his right, he saw his parents standing alongside each other, sweating profusely and breathing abnormally fast. On his left, he saw a girl who wore torn clothes revealing spots of her bare skin below.

“Honey!” Lucas’s mother shouted as she turned her head to her child behind. Two men held each of her shoulders with her hand wrapped around her back with a rope just like Lucas. The same went with the father, who kept looking ahead away from his son’s face.

“M-Mother,” Lucas cried out. He tried to push himself toward her mother, but the man behind tugged his hands back, which were still wrapped up in a tight rope.

“Remain still, kid,” the man behind said. “If you walk up two meters more, you will die.”

Lucas halted and looked ahead to see what the man was talking about.

He couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary other than the vast plain land in front of him. But on the ground roughly two meters away was a thin line scraped like someone had used a stick, piercing the ground a foot deep and dragging it across. It was very subtle, making it almost impossible to notice its presence if one doesn’t look close enough.

Lucas then looked to his left and right to see the continual line that stretched almost infinitely until the fog clouded its entire length.

“That’s the boundary line if you’re wondering, kid,” the man said. “Whoever walks over the line will suddenly turn soulless. Once someone walks over that line, they won’t hear you, they won’t speak, and they won’t turn back. All that they do is just walk straight ahead without doing anything else. They will keep on walking and walking until they disappear. If you are wondering where they go, then be my guest and walk over it yourself.”

Lucas remained silent as he kept looking ahead of the empty land. He felt dizzy from the thought of crossing over the pretentious line that the man had made it to be.

But then, as he turned to his left, he saw Christine. She was held hostage by one man. Lucas tried to muster a word towards her but didn’t know what to say. He felt remorse and a feeling of sickness from seeing her in such a state.

“Chri… Christine…” Lucas spoke depressingly while thinking about the promise he made with her when they first talked with each other. “Christine… I'm...”

As he could hear her mother shake and yell in eagerness to be free, Lucas could only focus on Christine in front of him but a little to the side, who didn’t respond. She kept facing forward without revealing her face to him.

The men looked at each other and nodded. They then proceeded to push Christine forward step by step, approaching closer to the boundary line until she was less than a foot away. The men around her distanced from the line but continued to push her.

But at the last second, before the men gave the final shove, Christine looked at Lucas with a tearful and saddened expression. She revealed her teeth gritting on each other while speaking her last words.

“I trusted you.”

As she went across the boundary line, her facial expression immediately vanished.

Within a split second, her pupils constricted until there was only a white filling to her eyes. Her tears stopped creeping down her face, her mouth stood still, and her entire body remained like a statue. After a few seconds of a standstill, her head turned back around at an abnormally slow pace, and her body began to walk forward with lifeless movement. For each moderate step, a couple of seconds would pass.

And just like that, Lucas watched her drift off into the abyss. He called out to her ever so louder, but she never looked back and only walked without doing anything else. She was gone.

“Was she your lover,” the man behind asked. Lucas didn’t respond. But from seeing his lifeless face, he could only conclude what the answer was.

“I see. My condolences, kid.”

Suddenly, the men looked at each other and nodded once more. Now, it was Lucas’s parents that were getting shoved closer to the boundary line. When they were roughly a meter away from the line, the men then backed off to avoid crossing over it.

But before they could, Lucas’s father lowered his body and turned around to the men at high speed, pushing them to the ground and distancing him from everyone.

The men looked at the father with hopelessness, calling out to him with laughter.

"Hey, your arms are tied around your back. Just give it up, you piece of shit."

But while a man walked up to snatch Lucas firmly, the leader grabbing onto Lucas saw something that the others didn't. Just around the corner, he saw the father's arms shaking rapidly. And just like that, something clicked in his mind, and he began to shout at the men.

"Quickly, grab onto him!"

The man who walked up to Lucas stopped and turned around in confusion.

"W-," the leader shouted with confliction. "What the hell are you doing?! Don't just stand there! Hurry and grab hi-"

But before the man could do what he was told, a fist landed on his face and sent him hurling in the air and back to the ground. He landed just a couple of inches away from crossing the boundary line.

In shock, the other man tried to swarm the father and push him over the line, but with how violently he swayed his arms and body along with how close they were to the line, he was afraid he would cross it and potentially die from its unknown phenomenon. The man on the ground cautiously got back up while weeping about how close he was to the line.

The father raised his freed arms and began to land punches on the men.

“This guy, when did his hands become free?!” One of the men shouted in confusion.

That movement, it's as if he was doing something with his arms... The leader thought. And as he looked behind the father, he saw a glossy object glowing by the sun. It was a broken glass fragment covered in a small patch of blood and liquid.

"This guy... He held onto a shard when that woman hit us with a glass bottle the previous day," the leader answered.

“What do we do!?” Another cried out in fear.

“Just go grab him for fuck’s sake-”

However, before they could react, the father jumped at one of them, gripped and pulled their shirt toward him while dropping to the ground. The man suddenly lost balance from the onward pull, and with the father lying on the ground, he tripped against his body and fell forward.

The man’s upper body landed over the boundary line, and quickly but steadily, he stood back up and drifted away like a soulless being.

Everyone backed off, and Lucas watched his father put up a strong front, raising his fists while staring back with bruises all over his face.

“Five left,” he said while laughing maniacally. "You piece of shits, now who's the one that's laughing?"

“You bitch!” Two men - one who previously held him and the other who restrained Christine - then charged at him with swords and fists of their own.

One man slashed his sword at the father, cutting deep into his arms and stopping right on the surface of his bone. But the father continued to run at the man, sliding the blade across his penetrated wound and punching directly in his face. The man then jumped back and pressed his hands against his face in agony from the forceful strike. He dropped the sword to the ground, and the father began to feel numbness on his arm as if he couldn't control it anymore.

Then without a second wasted, the second man used the handle of his sword and swung it on the father’s backside which caused him to gasp for air and fall to the ground. The man then raised his knee to kick him over the line, but as the leg came in contact, the father grabbed hold of it and refused to move from his spot.

“What the- Let go, you motherf-” Before the man could finish his sentence, the father slid across the floor using the leg he grabbed onto as leverage and used both his feet to kick the man’s back.

The man hurtled towards the line, but he regained his balance before stepping over it. However, his arm that rose to keep his balance up straight was just over the boundary line. And just like that, under a second, the man lowered his arms and relaxed his tense body. He became the next victim of the strange phenomenon of the boundary line.

“Dave!” The man that the father punched cried out as he reached his hand to the drifting body ahead.

But without thinking, the tip of the man’s finger crossed the boundary line, leading him to become the next victim of the strange line.

“Idiot, don’t put any part of your body over the line!” One of the men yelled, frightened as the men, including the guy who held onto Lucas, stepped back.

“Three left to go,” the father gurgled as he began to choke up blood from his damaged organs. “By the way… I go down to level 19.”

But while the men were distracted from the father, the mother hastily pulled back from the men’s grasp. Right when the man next to her looked down to see the mother, he was greeted with an incoming head launch. She jumped from the ground and aimed her head directly at the man’s face, knocking him down to the ground along with herself.

Immediately, the mother scavenged the area in search of the shard to cut her ropes loose. And discovering the one the father used, she pushed herself to the fragment and picked up one by her hands on her back, then proceeded to cut each strand of the thick rope one by one.

Suddenly, the mother immediately came to a stop as one of the men standing pounced on her back and stepped right on top of her hands. The shard began piercing her skin and slicing her flesh like cloth tearing open. The mother began to scream in pain, crying while trying to nudge the glass away from her hands, but it dug deeper into her skin.

"Ma'am, just stay there and don't make any trouble!" The man said while pressing his entire weight onto the mother's tied hands.

Seeing what was taking place, the leader who continued to hold onto Lucas shouted to warn the man. "Hey! Watch out for-"

But before he could finish, the father rushed towards the man unnoticed, grabbing onto his hair and back. He pulled the man’s hair with immense strength, causing the man to heave into the air but just enough for his entire body to be lifted from the ground. He felt the stinging pain and quickly grabbed onto his hand, shouting to let go in desperation.

But then the man - knocked to the ground by the mother - stood back up and began to charge at the father. Suddenly, he got kicked by the mother, who got back up with hands unrestrained - at last - from their captivation and used her running legs to charge at the man on the side with feet first.

The man then fell to his side from the mother’s forceful kick, bringing his falling body to stretch out its arms to get a comfortable landing. However, his hand met the boundary line, and as a result, he became the next target to the line as he stood up and walked away in silence.

Next, the father pushed the man over the line while pulling a few parts of his hair off, leaving some spots on his head hairless. The man became soulless and walked away into the land beyond the boundary line.

The father was panting uncontrollably, and his balance became more fragile. But without falling, he persisted, turning around at the last man remaining with a dark-enveloped face and baggy eyes. “One left to-”

“That’s enough!”

As the air rose in tension, the mother and the father saw the leader holding a small hand knife around their child’s throat. His other hand grabbed onto Lucas’s hair, keeping him on hold, who squealed in fear. Its gleaming silver metal was shined by the white sun above and left everyone silent from it being uncomfortably close to Lucas’s skin.

“This is as far as you go!” The man shouted in anguish. “Do not interfere with my dreams! I will see the boy who will free us all! Just be obedient and follow our words and feed yourself to the wall!”

Without knowing what the man said, the parents had words of their own to speak with.

“You men got too drunk while playing with his girl last night. It’s no wonder you people are far weaker than the last time we fought each other,” the mother bitterly said, hoping her son would not be hurt any further.

“I will never forgive you for taking her away from us.” The father spoke next with his chopped voice. “If you lay your knife on our son, I will kill you differently from what I did with your men.”

“In your dreams, tough guy. You have broken ribs, a deeply cut arm, bruises, wounded left eye, and deformed fingers. You will be the first to die, you half-ass fucker."

"And you'll be the one rotting in hell."

The leader let out a disgusted sound, biting his lips with frustration and wrath.

"This is for the greater ends of us all! We are just mere souls to paint the greater scheme of things! We can settle this in a calmer manner if you just listen to what I say!”

The parents refused to speak, leaving the man to stiffen up, bringing the blade up to Lucas’s neck. Lucas tried to push the man’s arms away using his arms but was futile.

“This is not where I want to end my life, you hear me!? I want to see the revelation being unfolded in front of my eyes, and I will not have lowly animals stop me! I WILL see the wall come crumbling down!”

Lucas, for some reason, knew the scenario that took place in front of him. The grip of his hair and the arm wrapped around his neck. It’s as if he was back to training when he fought against his father in their house.

Quickly, he turned to face his father, who also traded contacts. Both the father and son widened their eyes as if they knew exactly what each other was thinking.

“Son, do it! Now’s your chance!” The father yelled at the top of his lungs, sending a wave of adrenaline to Lucas. His heart began to race faster than ever. His eyes started to see things around him more sharply and clearly, and his body became numb but fully controllable.

Lucas pushed his lightweight body forward using his legs with the support of his head being stationary. While lifting his body and enduring the stinging pain of his hair getting pulled, he lifted his legs and struck the man’s groin region as soon as his legs came back.

The man suddenly leaned forward from the sudden wave of pain that was undertaking a gradual rise of excruciating suffering. And his forward lean made Lucas touch the bottom once more.

Lucas then placed his legs on the ground and jumped up with all his might, catching the man off guard and hitting the man’s lowered chin with his head. The man backed off while grunting in agony. However, this was only effective for a few seconds as the man proceeded to slide the knife across Lucas’s neck.

“You fucking asked for it-”

However, the father quickly ran from where he initially was and dove his head right on the man's arm, biting deep into his flesh. His jaws grabbed a large portion of his arm, making him let go of the knife while shouting with immeasurable pain.

Both of them - the father and the man - started to grab each other at random places, trying their best to take each other down. They wrestled while grunting and yelling with all their strength and utilizing what energy they had left in them to take the other person down.

The man steadily walked up to the boundary line while dragging the father and Lucas who was underneath them.

“Let go of our son!” The mother swiftly ran to them and leaned down to grab Lucas, who was still locked in place from the man’s grasp.

The four slowly came closer to the boundary line until the father nearly touched it.

“If this is how I die, I will be beyond upset,” the father softly spoke as he grabbed the man’s shoulders with both his hands.

“But if it’s to keep my son alive, then I won’t hesitate,” the father suddenly leaned back towards the line as he pulled the man with him.

“What are you doing-” The man, knowing what was happening, suddenly tried to step back, but it was too late as his death flag slowly crept up his body. “Let go of me, you bitch!”

As the man began to tilt, Lucas from below slowly revealed himself as he was being pulled closer to the boundary line. He tried to move back away from the line, but his body was already leaning far beyond saving, inevitably waiting for one of his bodies to cross over the line. He turned around back to where the houses were but then saw his mother standing right there almost arm-length from each other.

“Lucas, give me your arm!” The mother reached out her hand as Lucas followed her words, who did the same.

She grabbed hold of his arm firmly and tried pulling him away from the man; however, from the sheer strength that the man had, she couldn’t free Lucas. As a last resort, she sacrificed her entire body weight, tugging Lucas away from the man’s grasp but falling forward from her powerful force.

And as a result, the mother, the father, and the last remaining man fell over the boundary line and to the ground below them.

Lucas fell the opposite way and landed on his bottom. He shook himself and quickly glared in front of him to see what unfolded before him.

His mother and father looked back at him with a smile while trying to say something. But without any spoken words, their pupils faded into white and remained still. And after a moment, the three figures stood up from their fall and walked away into the abyss ahead as the fog waited for their bodies to come close.

Silence filled the air as everything came to an end. There was no more shouting, no more fighting, no more blood spewing everywhere, and no more crying.

Lucas’s body lost the strength to speak but could only whisper small sounds of disbelief. Sitting on the ground, he reached out his arms at the drifting bodies. But he then quickly pulled his arms back as he saw the line in front of him just a couple of feet away.

And again, he looked back up and spoke in hopelessness.

“Mom…? Dad…?” He said in a hollow voice. “Where are you guys going…? Come back…”

In the distance, he saw Christine, two men behind her, another two men behind them, and then his parents along with the last man trailing behind the rest. Lucas couldn’t process what had happened, but all he knew was that he was the only survivor. Everyone was gone.

Suddenly, a wave of emotions filled his head as he remembered the promise he made to his parents. It felt like rays of the sun were burning through his skull and scorching his brain, leaving a strong feeling of disgust and hate - the emotions that gave him a notion and knowledge of the promise he just broke.

 

---

 

The sun settled over the horizon as the last inch of its radiating light disappeared into the darkness. Lucas walked back home while dragging one of his injured feet along the dirt road. He shivered in the gloomy cold night where he could see his breath when passing over a lit house. Despite his agonizing state, he kept walking while remaining silent and staring at the ground with dead and baggy eyes.

He didn’t know where he was going, but all he did was just keep walking like he had no meaning in his life but to just walk.

For hours, he kept searching for his home, walking by vacant houses and empty roads. He walked past bugs crawling on the ground in the corner of his eyes, ignoring them, and continued walking.

He then walked past a marketplace which he found in the distance by closed shops dimmed with lights still gleaming from the fires of torches. Every district had a map on them, and he walked up to a board to see his whereabouts. And after close inspection, he continued his way into the abyss, leaving the district and entering the complete darkness once more.

After another countless hours of walking - passing by more houses, markets, and towers, he then entered the familiar pathway where he always went with Christine to gather materials and water for her mother.

Soon, he walked over to the road where the attack took place. And by the time he looked at the same spot where her hat lay, it was gone.

Just around the corner was his and Christine’s home. Passing by his empty house, he walked over to Christine’s where her mother was. He opened the door, revealing nothing but absolute darkness enveloping the entire interior. 

“Mom,” Lucas called out soullessly with a dried throat. He had close connections with Christine’s mother to the point where he called her his mother, but with his attempts to hear a response, there was nothing.

“Mom, Lucas is here,” he said once more - but no response.

Lucas then remembered the lighter Christine always left on the counter near the entrance. He blindly reached his hand to his right until he grabbed hold of a firm object. And using his cold and stiff fingers, he flicked the switch and lit the place with the diminutive and feeble fire. He looked around the surroundings until he saw a figure on his side lying motionless.

“Mom, wake up.”

He walked up to Christine’s mother, who was still asleep. She was sleeping too quietly for his comfort but continued to call out with more desperation.

“Mom, sorry for coming home late. Christine… She won’t be here with us anymore.”

With no words coming out of her mouth, Lucas slowly dug deeper into accepting the truth he couldn’t put forth. He let go of the lighter as the fire instantly vanished, and darkness returned to cover the house in shadows. He then lowered himself and fell onto his knees while facing Christine’s mother straight on.

“Mom… Wake up, please. My mom and dad will not be here either… If you can, can I live with you from now on-”

But then his eyes widened abnormally. Large flashes of light ran past him like lasers coming from the scorching sun, and behind those hurtful beams were faces of known identities. There were four faces ingrained in his mind that looked like ghosts who possessed the faces of his mother, father, Christine, and her mother. The ghostly pale faces looked back at him with no eyes but just a gaping black hole, mouths shut, and in utter silence.

They just looked at Lucas seemingly with no emotions for a good minute until they said in disturbing unison:

[Liar] [Liar] [Liar] [Liar]

And instantly, Lucas came back to his senses; however, he returned to reality with no sense of purpose.

Sin, guilt, misery, depression, torment, distress, and hate pervaded his heart, callusing his mind and soul until he became dead inside. Like a thread of a yarn being cut in half, his spirit - his life - felt like it got mowed, ripped into pieces.

He stood back up, slowly turning back around to the entrance door, and walked out. Without saying a word, he closed the door shut behind him. And stepping back outside, he walked the opposite way from where his own home was and went down the cold dark road in the middle of the night.

[To Be Continued]

 

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