Who was to say that every person in the world was their own individual? In our world so full of evil, there is little light and yet, most of the time, it still balances the immense darkness. There cannot be darkness without light…
So why is that all that's around me… Darkness. Why is there so much darkness… Where is the light?
He closed his eyes and opened them again, to note no difference as he felt his body continue its plummeting fall into the void abyss. He lifted his hand to his face and noted it was dully glowing white.
'I'm the light…?'
The boy's body shone brilliantly until his feet touched ground, it was soft, furry, under his toes and was an off blue colour. He ignored the sense of familiarity and padded into the darkness, lighting the way as he travelled. Further and further he travelled passing old toys that rested broken on the floor until he eventually saw a desk with an ancient, but still working, desk light on top of it. There also lay a rusting metal container with dusty pieces of cardboard resting in it. Reaching out, he picked up the topmost card and looked at the faded surface. A fragmented memory invaded his mind as his eyes widened.
'D-dark magician?'
Suddenly the floor shook and the desk squeaked violently before falling apart and spilling the pictured cards over the floor. Purple light flooded the sides of his vision and lit up a large ominous door with a golden eye embossed upon it.
"My friends! You cannot do that!" Bellowed a baritone voice throughout the place.
The door tinged red in colour as other voices and sickening sounds were heard.
"No… Please… Don't kill them…" The background noises faded away until only the baritone one remained, panting.
"I need strength… Please… Puzzle… Let me save them, my friends… I need to… save them."
The eyed door slammed open and darkness consumed him. He was now panting, there was an unaccountable presence of pain all over his body and odd feelings were coursing through his head.
He opened his eyes and blinked slowly at the new sensation. There were noises in the distance that his little memory could not identify. He tuned into them, attempting to pinpoint their location, he looked around.
Oddly, he could see far. He was standing among ruined buildings and under a dark overcast sky that lit up in splotches on the horizon every few seconds, the noises chasing them shortly after. He felt himself compelled to walk but as he tried to obey, his legs gave out and he fell down quickly. He realised his right leg was at an odd angle and blood was oozing from a large gash in his side. Subconsciously, he straigtened his hair and dropped a hand to touch his side where it glowed brilliantly. The wound closed over.
Urgency coursed throughout his person and he stood abruptly and tried to walk again.
He heard screams in the distance and picked up the pace. He stumbled through an alleyway and emerged into a square where he counted seven muscled men with guns on their backs mutilating two unconscious persons.
'Why do I feel more darkness when I can see clearly?' He shook his head, thought patterns converging.
He limped towards the men with an unknown purpose in mind. One of the men at the outside of the group, upon hearing the noise, turned his head to face him and then quickly his body, eyes widening. The rest of the gang turned and sneered as they recognised figure in front of them.
The smallest of the group sniggered maliciously, "Not quite had enough yet, Atemu?"
"I have what you want here" He replied, holding up a worn knapsack, "I will let you have it if you play a game with me." These words flowed freely from his mouth, seperate of his control, and surprised the group of men, "If you win you can have it, but if I win then you let them leave with me unharmed."
The largest stepped forward, chuckling "And why cant we just take it off you now?"
"Because then you wont get the code to the combination lock on it."
The man's face scrunched up into a sneer before relaxing to smile again after looking him up and down. "Sounds like sun, runt, what do we do?"
"The rules are simple: you only have to take this bag off me off me without the help of your guns or any other inanimate objects you may find. But you have to do this within 3 minutes" he explained as he took out a miniature hour glass and placed it on a rock. "But I must warn you, this is a… special game. If you do not follow the rules there will be consequences."
"Yeah, yeah let's get on with this."
"As you wish. Ready?" He grasped the hour glass, "Go." He said quickly as he flipped the hour glass.
The seven men closed in on him. The first one went to snatch the bag but he quickly twisted it out of his reach and another who had tried the same thing. Frustrated they swung their fists at him to no avail. He ducked to avoid the blows and delivered powerful counter-attacks to the guts of his attackers. The largest man motioned to fall back.
The group took several short steps away, in awe of the new strength. He straightened up to regard them but stumbled as his broken leg gave out again. The men laughed at the weakness and two moved to strike at it. When he dodged to avoid the hits, he had unwittingly moved into the range of another of his assailants, who lashed out at his mangled limb, drawing a sharp hiss of pain from his throat at the overwhelming sensation. He recovered and planted his hands on the ground to bring down his good leg on the back of the mans head. Who with a look of shock plastered on his ugly face, fell to the ground while he flipped a safe distance away from the other foes.
The others went into a fury and launched themselves at him with a cry.
"Die, asshole!"
As the fight wore on, the gang's threats and jeers continued, gradually deteriorating into strange animalistic cries, as did their blows lessen in strength and frequency. All the while, their target was keeping a close eye on the small timer.
"Time is up" He announced, finally.
"I think I've had enough of this!" The large man growled with an insane grin on his face, "Lets force the info' out of him, boys!"
The men cheered and took out their guns.
"Lets see if his blood is pretty boss" Said one and they all opened fire.
The bullets tore up his body as it convulsed under the force until eventually the shooting stopped and the smell of gunpowder and blood permeated the air, he fell to the ground, body limp.
The thugs lowered their weapons, one moved to inspect his lifeless form. He turned and flashed his comerades a thumbs up. They threw their heads back in hoots of wild laughter.
Their laughter was silenced suddenly as the presumed deceased's head snapped up to reveal eyes ominously changing to a shade of amethyst with another purple eye appearing on his forehead, all the while his body glowed white.
"Your blood-lust was the end for you, the light within is so small now" He held his head in his hands but never broke eye contact. "Nnn, Too much darkness! This darkness must be erased!"
The six remaining men looked terrified as the boy shone brighter still. Their faces contorted in pain and they screamed as something within themselves was bursting out. The light, the light was too much. It consumed the scene, and their darkness was eliminated and after that blinding burst, destroying their light in the process. They crumpled to the ground, dead; their souls reduced to burnt out husks.
"Even at the expense of light," he whispered, "the darkness must be cleansed."
His body slowly healed under the comforting glow, providing welcome relief and he raised his head to set his amethyst eyes on the sky. Another feeling coursed through the his mind all of a sudden. He jerked his head back to the scene and walked over to the mutilated victims of the gang, still on the ground in a heap. They were still alive, but only barely. He placed a hand on each forehead and with a familiar glow their lesions were clotted, so they no longer bled.
'This is all I can do.' He paused, 'Something is stirring within me...' His hands reached to his heart but brushed over a thick chain around his neck instead, he looked down and saw a large golden pyramid hanging by the chain. Exhausted, his fingers shook slightly as he took hold of it. His body suddenly jolted and his eyes widened as a single word invaded his mind.
"A-Atemu…" He whispered as a tear fell down his face and his consciousness left to return to that dark room of broken and aging things.
His body sagged and he fell to his knees before shivering and bringing now crimson red eyes up fearfully before registering the two sleeping persons in front of him. Gaping, he placed a shaking hand on the chest of the other male that had puffy blond hair, and found it rising and falling slowly. He sighed in relief and checked the other as well before moving to lie down between them. He scanned the opressive sky in thought, before he lifted up the golden pyramid, his treasure.
"Thank you." he whispered before kissing it and letting his eyelids fall shut as he slipped into the embraces of sleep.