Christine POV

I was standing outside one of the cages with my hands gripped tightly on the bars. As I looked into the cage, I saw a boy, no older than fourteen. He was in rags, covered in cuts and bruises. I could tell he was abused. My eyes began to widen as I noticed he had his face covered with a thin piece of cloth. I heard whispers passing through the crowd as they all stared at the cloth. A man stepped out from the shadows and gave out a mocking laugh as he kicked the boy in his ribs and shoved him to the darkest corner of the cage.

"Who wants to bet to see what lies underneath?!" the words spat out of his mouth. I could tell he was Persian from the way of his accent. Persians were known to be ruthless. He had rotted teeth, grungy hair, and a bloody whip in his left hand.

My heart began to race as I looked at the man and then back to the boy. I saw him shaking vigorously all over. Oh, how I wanted to reach in and take the boys hand. As I saw the man whip the backside of the boy, I screamed. Everyone in the crowd started to laugh mockingly at the boy. I watched him get beat repeatedly over and over again. The boy's back was now lashed several times. Tears began to fall from my eyes as I looked at the boy with pain in my eyes. I watched him get kicked and tossed around the cage. The tears kept falling as I begged for the man to stop. He couldn't hear me, only the roaring of laughter. I couldn't stand it any longer, I looked away painfully waiting for worse to come. My head slowly rose up as I heard the man shout to the crowd.

"We saved the best for last! Behold, The Deformity!" He belted, pulling off the cloth which covered the boy's face. As the man ripped it off, the boy cowered into the corner hiding his face. As the boy did so, the man grabbed him by his hair and lifted him up for the entire crowd to see.

My heart stopped completely. On the boy's right side of his face lied something truly deformed. His lip was pulled up and his eye blackened. He had red sores on his dented cheekbone. He had scars going up to the top right of his forehead where there was little hair. I gasped as I saw his face. What turned into complete shock then turned into pity. I looked at the poor boy's eyes. Tears were falling down my face as I covered my mouth and sobbed. The boy made eye contact with me and in his eyes was all the sadness of the world. Pain, rejection, and hurt filled his eyes as he stared deeply into mine. It almost felt like the boy was calling for help.

"What are you looking at?!" He screamed and pulled the boy by his hair once more. The boy had hit the right side of his face against the cold floor. Blood was now seeping from his deformed face. The crowd cheered and threw money into the cage as they turned away and left. I was still standing there as I watched the cold-hearted man greedily pick up the money. I then turned to face the boy who was whimpering in the corner. He saw me still standing there and notioned for me to run away. He now looked frantic as he was trying to signal for me to leave. I still stood there watching the man. Anger started to build up inside of me as I looked at the man happily counting his money.

"You've done well today." the man smirked as he shoved the boy to the side. In the corner of his eye, I could tell he saw me. He turned his head to look at me and gave a grim smile. "Watcha doing here little girl? Do you know what happens to little girls who stray from the group?" he politely, but viciously asked.

"Let the poor boy go!" I managed to squeak as I stared into the man's cold eyes.

"What did you just say? You're asking me to let this disgusting creature of hell go!" he was now yelling. "I think I should teach you a lesson about what happens when you meddle with disgusting creatures! Don't you agree?" He screamed turning to face the boy. The boy's eyes now looked worried as he looked at me.

"Go!" he whispered.

Being the foolish girl I was, I still stood there. As the man approached me, I took a small step back. Before I had enough time to escape, he grabbed my collar and pulled me tightly to the cage, hitting my face against the bars.

"Not so fast!" he screamed.

"Let me go!" I screamed, pushing with all my force to try and get away from him. He grinned and opened the cell door, still holding grip of me. He pulled me in forcefully and shoved me to the floor.

"Let's have some fun." he grinned, spitting words of the devil. He held the whip close to my face, snapping it as he came closer. He slowly wrapped it around my neck about to tighten, but before he could do so, he was pulled back with a sudden force. I saw the boy push the man to the ground, knocking him out as his head collapsed onto the cage floor. The boy's eyes were filled with anger and hatred. He then looked up at me.

"Y-you must get out of here." He nervously pointed to the bar door. I didn't move, instead I examined him. His eyes were filled with so many emotions. Shock being one of them. He pointed at it again and insisted I leave.

"Aren't you going to come with me?" I asked, his face changing as he interpreted my words.

"I can't. Freaks are meant to be caged." he stated so bluntly as though the words were pressed into his mind a million times.

"Don't be silly. You saved my life and you're coming with me whether you like it or not. You have no choice anyways. Once that man wakes up, you'll be done for." I reached for his hand as I started to guide him towards the door. Before I grabbed his hand, I noticed he placed a white mask over his face that he picked up from the corner of the cage.

His hand felt so limp in mine as I dragged him along. I pushed open the cage door and walked out, pulling him behind me.

"Do you know your way out of here." I turned to look towards him.

"I-I think so." he said nervously as his eyes darted all over the place look for an escape route. After finally noticing the horses tied up only twenty yards away, he looked towards me and motioned for me to follow him. "Keep quiet and do exactly what I do. There's mean men all around this campsite and the last thing we want is them finding us." his face started to go pale as he said the last few words.

I instantly knew what he was talking about. After the stunt with the Persian a few moments ago, I knew that people around here were ruthless. That was when I looked over to the boy and started to think about all the things he must've gone through his entire life. If what they did tonight was something that was done on a regular basis, then heavens knows how much he suffers. I could feel nothing more for him than pity. If only someone could've shown him mercy long ago. I almost wanted to hurt every single person who showed hurt towards him.

Then I began to think about his past, his family. Did he have a mother? Was he abandoned as a child? Does he even have family and if he does, why would they let him go to a place such as this? He obviously showed signs of abuse. The scars were easily visible all across his body. Many of them were not recent. I knew that the man in the cage was not the only person who abused him. Did he have an abusive father? I didn't know and probably would never know. All I knew is that this boy needed to be cared for. Someone needed to show him that there was still good in the world.

All these thoughts processed through my mind as he led us over to where the horses were tied up.

"Do you know how to ride?" he gestured while holding reins towards me.