Matthew was a pretty average seventeen year old boy. A nice build, not too tall, not too short, and like many other boys at his school, he loved hockey with a passion. But still, even with his normality, people seemed to not see him. The Canadian seemed to blend into the background. Despite a generally kind and caring personality, he didn't exactly have many friends. Most people didn't even seem to see Matthew, and quite frankly, it was starting to get on his nerves.
While hiking through the woods after a rough day at school, Matthew saw something strange. It was a young boy who looked like he could be no older than the age of six and appeared to have pale white skin. Raising an eyebrow, he tucked a bit of his strawberry blond hair back behind his ear and went to check it out.
Spotting the boy sitting on a tree branch, Matthew called out in his naturally soft voice, tugging the earbuds from his iPod out, "Little one? What are you doing up there?"
A cynical giggle came from the black haired boy before he said, a slightly odd tone in his voice, "Playing a game." He offered the other a wise smile, almost impossibly dark eyes seeming to suck the other in. 'Anything on your mind? Is there anything you wish?'
Matthew blinked at looked around when he swore he heard a whisper in the wind and mumbled out, "Don't get hurt kid..." Hearing it again play in his mind he said quietly, almost a faint whisper, "I just want to be seen... I want to make them see me."
This statement caused an almost demonic smile to play across the young boy's features when it reached his ears. Hopping down from the tree and landing neatly, he bowed a bit and said, his voice turning elegant in tone though the demonic tinge was still there, "I have an offer to strike up with you, Matthew."
The sound of the child, whom he had never met before in his life, saying his name made the violet eyed Canadian jump before he spun around stared at the dark haired child as if he had grown a second head. "H-How do you know my name, kid?"
The grin staying on his face, the child said, "I know many things, Mr. Williams. The name is Lucius, and lets just say, I can control certain things to my liking." Almost seeming to look over the other, Lucius moved around Matthew with a little skip in his step before stopping in front of him once more. "I could fairly easily make people see you; but with every action one makes, there is a reaction that has to occur, as everything you do has a reaction," he said in a sing-a-song voice almost, slyly leaving out the fact that the reaction was always three times as powerful as the action.
The child's voice then grew cold for a moment as he looked up at the other, "But, if you want to be seen, I can help you... for a price." He smirked a bit as gazed into Matthew's violet eyes with his own extremely dark ones; gazing straight into the other's soul.
Matthew was silently mulling it over when he heard the whispering in the wind once more, 'Do it.' The gentle nudge of the voice was all that was needed to tip the scales over into the favor of Lucius.
The reply came out faint and with a slight quiver at the beginning, "I-I'll... I'll take it. Name your price." Matthew met the other's gaze directly while he waited for the younger one to speak once more.
When he heard Matthew's words, one could say Lucius looked like a kid in a candy shop, the grin on his face was so large. His soulless eyes had twinkle in them before he said, "Great. We'll work out a deal right away, Mr. Williams."
They parted ways after the deal was made and all was fine for the next few days, it seemed like Lucius was keeping up with his word and making people notice him, and it seemed like even his best friend, Alfred, was getting a bit jealous.
Alfred was used to being the popular one and basically one of the Canadian's only friends. He found it strange when people all of the sudden seemed to start noticing his buddy and couldn't help but furrow his brows at it in confusion.
A few days later, Matthew was complaining about a headache, consoling in Alfred for the kindness that he had always received from the other. "Alfie... I don't know what's wrong.. my head just has been hurting for the past day... and I think I've been hearing things..."
Alfred frowned at his friend and pulled him into a hug, saying, "Don't worry, Mattie, I'll be right here next to you no matter what. How about we get out for a while? Go on a trip and stuff. How does that sound?" He smiled a bit before chuckling lightly and saying, "Maybe some pancakes will cheer you up. How does that sound? Some of your favorite food?"
Alfred and Matthew decided over pancakes that they would go on long trip and soon had left the small town. The farther and farther they got away from Maple Grove the worse it seemed that Matthew's headache got. After a while, Matthew felt like he was going to pass out.
Raising his head from where he was resting it against the head of the car seat, Matthew said softly, "Al... how much farther till the hotel?" He frowned slightly at his best friend and reached up to start rubbing his temples before blinking as the scent of a french fry reached him in his drowsy state. 'Ah, Alfred and his love of fast food.'
Opening his eyes, Matthew saw the french fry in front of him and said, "McDonalds, Alfie?" He looked around before spotting the bag and confirming his suspicions for himself.
A nod was earned from the wheat blond before he said, "Mhm, you know me, Mattie." He had a sing-a-song tone in his voice before he turned his attention back to the road. "Eat something though Matt, it might help your headache a bit..." Alfred frowned a bit before continuing, "I've kind of noticed that you haven't been really been eating as much lately..."
Matthew let out a small yawn before he reached out and grabbed a fry from the bag, slowly eating it and grimacing, "These don't really taste that good to me..." He frowned softly at Alfred before continuing to eat the food, his stomach grumbling slightly. A whisper reached the Canadian's ears, 'It's time... you're mine.' The Canadian soon was curling up into a ball in his seat with a whimper of pain. A cacophony of static was playing in his mind as he soon blacked out.
The dull sound of sirens were audible in the background when Matthew finally regained consciousness. He blinked before looking around for Alfred, getting worried when he did not spot his wheat blond friend. Looking around, he soon realized that there was nobody around at all. "Where... where is everybody?"
The sound of a dodgeball hitting pavement came from behind the confused teenager, causing him to jump a bit and turn in a complete circle, his violet eyes wide with fear.
Letting out a soft giggle, Lucius said, "My, my, I gave you a warning that it was time for you to become mine, yet you still look as frightened as a deer in headlights. Tsk, tsk, I thought my new toy would be less skittish than this."
Matthew froze a bit before saying, looking down at his feet, "I'm sorry, you startled me is all, master..." He looked down at his feet sheepishly before adding, "Sorry.." Shifting a bit on his feet, he carefully raising his eyes to look at the other.
"Good, good... You are now my pet and shall obey my orders, Matthew. When you wake up, you shall speak nothing of this event. No matter how much that idiot friend of your's pesters you or anything, you shall say nothing, just say the pain made you black out. You will be waking up in a few moments, choose your next moves wisely, pet."
A few moments later everything went black for a moment before Matthew regained sight once more, slowly opening his eyes to Alfred leaning over him worriedly.
"Mattie..? What just happened? You looked like you were in extreme pain then just... stopped moving completely..." Alfred said, his voice shaking a tiny bit out of worry.
Remembering what his 'master' said, Matthew brushed it off a bit before speaking in his normal soft voice, "No need to worry, Al, seems the pain just made me black out for a bit... it's all gone now though. My head doesn't hurt anymore."
They soon were back in Maple Grove a few days later and all was sound; except for Matthew having the occasional night terror. It stayed like this for a few months but then... people in town started to disappear and Matthew got more and more tired in the mornings.
Alfred frowned one morning as he tried to rouse his buddy out of bed. "Mattieeee... if you don't wake up, I'll throw out all your maple syrup!" No response. The lack of response actually worried the wheat blond a bit. Normally maple syrup threats woke him up. Frowning, Alfred decided he would let the other sleep a bit longer.
A few hours later, Matthew woke up and looked around, stretching with a slight groan. He felt like he had been put through a meat grinder and back and then had all the energy drained out of him afterwards; it was just that horrid. The tasks left him feeling heavy and though he knew his soul was gone, he could swear there was a heaviness growing in his chest every night. The Canadian knew that soon.. it would be all over. He would be able to do about as his master wishes without even flinching. He wouldn't care. Matthew would be emotionless; the perfect servant; the perfect slave.
That night Matthew crept out to do another task for Lucius and the following morning, yet another person came up missing. Most of the town were either dead or had left... this trend went on for a few more weeks, each disappearance the same. No evidence anywhere of where the person was taken or whether they were alive or not. It was like they hadn't even existed at all. It was like the perfect murder. No clues, nothing at all. Soon, there was only around five people left in the town. Martial law was in place, nobody was supposed to be outside at night in an attempt to keep the last few citizens from vanishing as well...
One night after a few rather quiet weeks, it had finally happened. Matthew was assigned another task. The task to bring in his own best friend to his doom. He really didn't want to do it, but if his master wished it, Matthew had to do it.
Slipping into Alfred's room, Matthew quietly closed the door before nudging his friend awake and saying, "Alfred... Al... Come on... I-I think I heard somebody calling out in the woods... I think they might be hurt or something."
Slowly rousing himself from his slumber upon hearing the words 'they might be hurt', Al sat up and saying, "M'kay, Mattie, lets go check it out then."
Grinning in the back of his mind, Matthew led the clueless wheat blond out of the back door and into the woods that were back behind the house.
The sound of screams and crying could be heard echoing through the forest that night coupled with the sound of a child laughing. Matthew and Alfred were never heard from or seen again.
Rumors spread among the remaining citizens of Maple Grove and those that had returned that they had fled in the middle of the night though occasionally as time went by, a rumor would pop up about them being seen wandering around the forest in the middle of the night, their eyes black and soulless.