Alister's eyes shot open, staring at the ceiling. He had awoken with a start.
He thought he'd heard the high pitched scream of... who was she again? His mother? Yes. The same one as when the tanks had took her. No, as when the soldiers had killed her in front of him. He should stop inventing these lies to himself.
The scream was deafening. No, it had been deafening.
Was that her even screaming? It can't have been him...
The world around him simmered as light crept in through the drawn curtains. He slowly lifted his head up from the pillow.
The world didn't cease to spin.
It hadn't stopped since he met Dartz.
He put his feet on the floor.
A shadow passed his window, forcing his head to turn back.
Ah!
He looked down at his wrist, as several drops of blood fell from a scratch. No, a cut. He lifted it to his mouth and sucked on the blood as he made his way towards the door.
It tasted sweet. As his plan had. His plan to escape the hurt.
The abuse.
That's why his world span.
The wind was high outside, blowing loose strands of his hair across his face. As he stood on the pavement, he heard the ominous howl of a wolf. No, no. It's only a dog.
Dartz would know he'd escaped. And he'd come after him.
A drop of sweat ran down his face and crept in at the edge of his lips. He licked it away.
Salty.
Like fear.
He couldn't afford to be afraid.
But it tasted good. He had had nothing to drink since the water last night. The water Dartz told him would make him forget. The water he had had every night since his last attempt at escape.
He started moving away.
He started running.
He had no choice.
He had to get to the edge.
The houses and buildings blurred past him as he escaped, he ran through the town. What had they seen him as? When he'd told Valon what Master Dartz did to him. Valon shrugged. No way to help him. But he was so young! The youngest of the three men the obeyed Dartz's every order. Every order...
Alister closed his eyes and ran harder, his heart clamping up his throat. Trying to breathe through suppressed tears.
What he could have done with his life...
But Master Dartz had helped him, he had. He'd saved him from the war zone. He was helping him get Mikey back...
Was this selfish? Running from the only chance his brother might have.
Your brother's dead, Alister.
Shut up, Raphael. He knew nothing.
He hated them all. And he had to get free.
Dartz's lips turned at the corners. He wasn't getting anywhere.
Alister stopped. Out of breath. At a crossroads. He spun round, lost, confused.
He had no time to be wandering round. He needed an out.
A shadow moved across the bushes.
Alister clutched his head. His house was... burning... No. He had been five when that happened. Then why was it right there? In front of him.
Had he burnt his home?
The screams filled his head again, forcing him to his knees. His mother's scream.
When he managed to open his eyes the edges of the sun being lifted from the horizon filled his eyes, pressing him, yet again, backwards.
No one had told him it was morning.
Who could?
But morning... meant light.
Was it too much to ask for Valon and Raphael to help him? All they had to do was drive him to the edge and then go back. But...
Where was the edge?
They would have forgiven him anything, but to escape? To him this was greatness, but to them it was cowardice.
As the fear, the pains, the hate, the pride, the love, the screams washed over him, he tried to call to them, but only a thin creaky whisper escaped his lips.
His stomach was throbbing. His heart too. But he had to run. Anyway.
To the edge.
Dartz saw Alister as a young man who would serve him well. He had his whole destiny ahead of him. He could make him. Alister also believed in him. He believed Mikey would return. Even though his hate for KaibaCorp would wash away any feeling of love he'd ever had. To some extent, his hate for Dartz. Dartz had lied, but Alister could not go free.
Not yet.
He had his whole fate ahead of him.
He wasn't done with him yet.
Alister dragged his feet through thick mud and tangled weeds. They slowed his progress, and made him sleepy. The sun made him tired. It begged him to rest. The mud was turning to sand. It would be soft for him to lie his face against. Soft like skin.
Alister shook himself awake again. Skin. He had to keep going. He had to make it.
To.
The.
Edge.
But a few seconds rest wouldn't hurt... would it?
His eyes shot open again. It was dark. The moon was high in the sky.
Alister tried to pull himself up and out of the weeds. He reached round to pull one out of his hair. He looked at his hand, stained red.
He sniffed it.
Blood.
His hair was in matted clumps of it. He clutched his head again. He felt his master's hands on his waist.
His master's? No. Not this time. This was someone who wanted him dead. The hands that weren't there smeared blood up him, over his crop top and on to his face.
Alister ran again. Out of the grip. Towards freedom.
And there it was. The edge.
I've made it.
Alister ran in to the air. Over the edge.
Off the cliff.
The figure seemed to pause before it's decent.
"That's Alister?"
"Don't worry, Valon." Dartz smiled. "We'll see him very soon. Sooner than he thinks."
Alister fell, first feet first, but then spinning to be head first. The wind rushed around him, snatching at his last breaths. The falling seemed to take eternity. He was lying on his back now.
He looked at his hands.
There was no blood.
Nor was there any on his body.
He closed his eyes. This was the first time in his life he was free.
He plummeted down towards the ocean at the bottom.
The cold hand of a wave snatched him from the air, and folded him up inside it.
He'd heard that drowning was the easiest death.
Alister would never find out if that was true.