It was known to those that one cannot live without a soul, one became nothing more than a hollow shell of one's self.
On a foretold night that was burned into the crevices of the innocent captive's minds, a horrendous scene occurred that they would remember throughout their existences and would look back to with mortification.
Captives were taken as those responsible would take every person the captives had cared about was brought before them and was tortured at an agonizingly slow pace. The least amount a time one of the sessions would take was about three days, which was usually due to blood loss from the wounds.
When that had happened once, the captors analyzed their mistake and made sure that each psychologically scarring event lasted up to a week.
There reasons for this was simple, to draw out what was already there, yet hidden. It was a tightly kept secret within the village that the captors had eradicated, that the children had a certain potential; but a certain process must take its course before that potential could be released.
A month had passed in the dusty area of what had been 15 children's home, each ranging from five to 15, and the group of 20 captors, which held them prisoner, had finally done something new.
A tent had been put up in the dead grasslands, one that was so tall the smallest children would mumble their curious thoughts on whether they could touch the clouds if they sat on top.
A little boy, around 7, looked around where he was kept to see any more changes. As usual, they were kept inside what looked to be a makeshift room inside of a tent. All 15 of them were bound around the ankles and their hands. It has been three days since anyone had received even a scrap of food, most had passed out due to the painful knowing feeling from their stomach. The boy was no exception, although he was without food for longer due to the difficulty to notice the poor little boy so it's been a week since he had any nutrients.
Today was the day in which they would finally receive their next meal. Most of the children here looked dead and their eyes held no spark to them; the boy, yet again, was no exception. He felt week from the immense hunger he harbored and there was nothing left for him to live for. His family, friends, and freedom were all taken away from him and killed and it was just him now, even with the 15 other children immense loneliness was a constant company.
Most of the children here haven't had a shower in the month they've stayed trapped, unless you got stuck in the rain. The boys light blue hair stuck to his head due to the oils and sweat and dust that matted it down and faded out the color to a grey. His pale skin was grey now due to the dust of the ash from what used to be his home. His clothes were tattered and all of the children had each lost their shoes long ago.
A sweet smell filed into the room that the children were stuck in and each child looked towards the entrance with the gaze of a starving wolf. Ten of their captors swaggered inside, drunk, and threw bread to those fortunate enough to grab some; after they deemed that everyone was fed, they stumbled out of the room and back into the grassy fields. The little boy had yet again missed the scarce meal.
"Hey."
The boy stared at the ground as he started to feel the tremendous hunger starting to numb.
"Your Kuroko right?"
At the sound of his name Kuroko was broken out of his trance and looked towards where the voice had come from.
"I'm guessing you didn't get any," the voice belonged to another little boy around his age. His hair was a shock of a bright red color in the dusty grey environment that Kuroko had gotten used to. Kuroko's eyes widened when he saw the boy's eyes, they were bright red along with his hair and his pupils were slightly pointed like a cat's eye. Like Kuroko, the boy was pale and around the same height as him as well; but unlike Kuroko, the boy emitted a strong presence that one couldn't ignore. Kuroko felt a twinge of fear in his gut from the thought.
"Here."
Kuroko had been too caught up in his thoughts to notice that his peer had handed him one of his two pieces of bread he seemed to have collected from their captors. His eyes widened at the generous offer of food and he looked back at the red headed boy. Deeming his offer innocent enough, Kuroko weakly took the offered food and began to stare at the meal in his hands.
His peer looked at him with a neutral and expectant gaze and Kuroko felt the urge to eat the gift; he easily complied. While tearing through his new meal, the male sat down next to him and began to carefully began to pick apart and eat his piece as well. They sat in a comfortable silence as everyone around them was too occupied with feeding themselves to speak even the slightest bit to one another.
Kuroko, for once, had finished his meager meal due to the intense feeling of starvation he had become accustomed to and thought over what to say to the person who had graciously given him the said meal. It seemed that he didn't have to figure out what to say.
"I'm Akashi." The red head looked at Kuroko as if waiting for a reply.
"Thank you." Kuroko's replied silently and felt relieved when Akashi had gifted him with a ghost of a smile.
"I had seen that you received nothing whenever they came here last time to give food, so I thought that you would like to have some this time around." Akashi looked up at the opening of the tent and narrowed his eyes in anger." They could at least be sober whenever they come to give us scraps so they don't miss anyone."
Kuroko had to agree with his statement, not once had the men ever appeared un-intoxicated whenever they decided to give out scraps.
"It would be nice…" Kuroko had decided to add, "if they would tell us why they're keeping us here…" he left the darkest of his words unspoken.
Akashi seemed to acknowledge his words but decided to remain silent for a few moments.
"I have a theory."
Kuroko had been busy staring off into space when Akashi had decided to speak again.
"I think that they came here because of the village myths."
The proposition was an eye-opener and Kuroko stomach went cold and he felt like puking his small meal. Kuroko remembers even since he was little on the terrifying stories of old that his grandparents would tell them.
The said that long ago, supernatural beings that easily had the potential to split the very earth apart roamed the Earth in hiding. They were not ones for displaying their powers for all to see because they had enough problems with holding their own around their own species and did not wish to alert their prey of their existence. Their prey was humans of course. Although these beings had all but seized to exist it was rumored that a ceremony be performed that could allow these beings to be revived.
But there was a slight complication, the only way for the monsters to be revived was with a human that could survive the transformation; but this was impossible. For one to go through the ritual, the only thing they could expect was death. The ceremony placed stress on the body that was far beyond what it can withstand and thus it tears itself apart in the process. Although, there were stories on how those who could survive it were born once every millennium.
But this was just a rumor of course so Kuroko wasn't one to believe in it, although if his captors did, this could mean the end for his peers around, including himself of course.
"I hope not." Kuroko muttered ad he managed to pull his chained legs to his chest and wrapped his cuffed arms around them. Laying his head on them, his mood seemed to plummet the more he thought about Akashi's theory.
"Don't think about it too much, It's only a theory after all, there could be other reasons as to why they're here." Akashi seemed to notice Kuroko's change in mood and tried to erase what he said.
"Besides, I've already devised a plan to get all of us out of here."
Kuroko looked back at Akashi curious and saw pure confidence gleam in his red eyes. He couldn't help but give him a small smile. Even if he had just met this person, he could already tell not to take him lightly, and it wasn't hard but to believe in what he said.
Fin