The darkness was overwhelming. It spread like a disease, infecting everything and everyone until there was nothing left. Nothing but darkness. The children who were playing in the park, the adults conversing in the cafe across the street. The birds in the trees and even the bugs on the pavement. All gone.
He stood alone in a vacant space, surrounded by darkness. The darkness let up, only enough for the silhouette of a street lamp to be distinguishable. Then another one, and another. The lamps emerged from nowhere one after another until they eventually formed two parallel rows. Between the two rows, a road and pavement formed as though pulled directly from the ground. The dark space was now a street.
The violent screech of tires came tearing down the road, as the street lights flickered erratically.
He could hear it all. The screams inside the car as it lost control, the brakes creaking under the pressure. It all converged into one chaotic loud, mass until suddenly it stopped.
The silence was deafening, broken only by painful sobs. The boy looked around for the source of the sound, but was met only by the darkness that had abruptly returned to swallow the scene whole.
The distressed cries turned to soft whimpers and the surroundings burst back to life. The never ending pitch black suddenly turned to flashes of bright blue and red as sirens bellowed in his ears.
The dark haired boy crouched low on the floor and clasped his head tightly within his hands in an attempt to block out the noise and lights. He felt the world shift around him as the floor gave out and he fell into the waiting abyss.
When he opened his eyes he was greeted with the sight of an empty room. The windows had nothing but the darkness outside and the door was lightly left ajar.
"Law?" A voice came from the supposed hallway. "You can't stay in here forever. You need to come out eventually, we promise that we'll look after you. The other kids can't wait to meet you and you'll have fun, I promise." The voice became more and more distorted until it was almost impossible to hear.
The sickening sweetness of the speech made him sick to his stomach. He hated that place. with all their smiles and their pitying gazes. He never wanted pity, he wanted revenge. and he would never have got it in that place.
"Law?" The voice came again. "We have someone here. They want to adopt you. Please come out." The voice was once again distorted and crackling like corrupted audio as another voice interrupted.
"Let me speak to him." It said. This time, the voice was clear and Law had no doubt who it belonged to. He screamed in protest and grabbed his head again as a familiar face entered the room. The boy backed away as far as possible until his back was against the wall. The room didn't even have any furniture to hide behind, so he was forced to watch through traumatized eyes as the figure approached with a kind and goofy smile.
The rooms quiet ambiance turned stony cold when the sound of a gunshot tore through the room, just as it tore through the tall man's chest as though in slow motion, with a sickening squelch. The blood splattered on the boys face and tinted his vision red as the sickening grin of a murderer appeared as though etched on to his own eyelids. and he could see his own miserable reflection in the red tinted glasses.
the face came closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and closer
and even closer until he was physically dragged into the red lenses and trapped once again in the darkness.
Law woke abruptly to the bitter chill of the winter air. The ten year old grabbed at the thread-bare blanket covering his form and attempted to cuddle up as much as possible to preserve heat. It didn't do much good.
The streets were a dangerous place to be this time of year and Law wasn't expecting to make it to summer quite honestly. It was probably 50/50 chances of starving or freezing to death-neither of which was a particularly pleasant thought- but let it be said that Trafalgar Law was NOT an optimist.
After weighing his options, which consisted of: sitting here and freezing to death prematurely or going out to look for food. He decided that there was no harm in trying to survive, no matter how futile it might be. The boy languidly climbed to his feet and rolled up his withering blanket and stored it under his fluffy, mushroom shaped hat. Due to its thin nature and the fact that its barely excusable as more that a scrap of cloth, the presence was hardly noticeable atop his filthy, tangled hair.
Law quickly scanned the alleyway before deciding on a route. He started his walk towards the entrance of the alley before he was distracted by a new whole which had appeared in his shirt, either mysteriously overnight or had manifested gradually but he never noticed. Law poked his finger through the whole in what could only be called a childlike compulsion and fiddled with the frayed edges as he walked.
In hindsight he really should have seen it coming, but embarrassingly he was too distracted by a simple whole in his shirt that he didn't register that he was about walk head first into another person before it was too late.
The result was a lot less dramatic than he imagined it being in his head: Both of them toppling over onto the cold, hard floor. Instead, the figure didn't even flinch at the force and law only stepped backwards in flustered surprise.
As he looked up, he was met with brown eyes, almost mistakable for black. The face was topped with a mop of unruly black hair and a ratty straw hat atop it all. The guy had a neat scar under one of his eyes and was wearing plain denim shorts with a yellow sash tied around it with an open red cardigan.
The man he had just bumped into slowly lowered his arms from where they were folded previously behind his head as he looked down to law with a curious expression.
Law didn't know how to handle this situation. Usually the person in question would have yelled abuse at him upon seeing his attire and storming off. This man however just looked at him blankly as though expecting something to happen.
"What?" He scowled at the man.
"I didn't say anything." He replied.
Law flushed red in embarrassment. "I know that, but I mean, Why are- Why wouldn't you- Why aren't you yelling at me or something?"
The man just tilted his head in what looked to be confusion. "Should I?" He questioned.
"Well no! But normally it's what tends to happen in these types of situations." Law crossed his arms awkwardly as he really didn't know what else to do with them as he looked away form the mans studious gaze.
"Well I don't really feel like yelling at you. So I won't." Law looked up in surprise to the answer and was greeted with a pearly white stupidly wide grin.
Law mumbled before pushing past the man and continuing his journey. He didn't get far before the man called out to him. "Hey!"
Law didn't stop, he could feel the raven's presence following him. He answered none-the-less.
"What?"
"you dropped something." He offered cheerfully, and Law turned around to see him holding his poor excuse of bedding. The younger boy panicked and reached for his hat which was luckily still on his head, although was noticeably displaced. The blanket must have fallen out when the two collided.
Law started sprinting towards the man with the straw hat in a desperate attempt to get his only owned item back in his possession. The man lifted it out of his reach at the last second though, before looking at law through one of the large holes in the material. "This seriously your only blanket for the winter?" He asked.
Law saw red. "So what if it is huh?! Just give it back!" When he charged again this time, The man spun around mockingly as though he was at a bullring. When Law was still recovering from launching himself forwards, the man grabbed him and hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Sputtering and bright red, Law started bashing his small fists into his kidnappers back. "What the HELL are you doing?! Let me go!"
"Shishishi. Come with me!" The man demanded as though he was being given a choice.
Roughly 10 minutes of struggling later, had Law and the straw-hatted man inside a warm and mouth-watering smelling restaurant. Law had by now taken to burying his face under the straw hat he yanked off the mans head in embarrassment. No matter how much he kicked or screamed, the man would not let him go, and he refused to face any of the people on the paths that they passed in such a way. Did they have to take the main streets?!
The kidnapped boy lifted the hat a little to see where they were, It was a busy, but fairly casual looking restaurant and surprisingly enough, the staff didn't even bat an eye as the man strolled right through the staff doors and into the kitchen, approaching a busy looking man with blonde hair and swirly eyebrows.
"Sanji!" He cried and the sound was right in Laws eardrums as he was still slung over the mans shoulder.
"What, Luffy?" the man groaned in reply without even looking up from his work where he was elegantly slicing a collection of vegetables.
"I need your help." The man now named 'Luffy' replied, manhandling law so he was now hanging limply under Luffy's other arm. His shoulder must have gotten tired-just as law was getting tired of this ridiculous situation.
The blonde sighed before placing his knife down and finally facing the pair. His eyes widened in shock before his eyebrow started twitching aggressively.
"Luffy?" He asked calmly, eyebrow still twitching.
"Uh-huh?"
"Did you by any chance abduct a child off the streets?" He asked, walking over to them.
"No! I told him to follow me, and he did!" He protested.
Sanji turned to look at Law and leveled him with a pitying gaze. "Did this guy abduct you off the streets?"
"YES!" Law yelled angrily and starting struggling again in his captors grasp.
Luffy Bent down at an awkward angle to send Law a betrayed expression. "I did too!" He insisted, and Law was sure he honestly didn't even understand that he had just abducted a child.
Law instead to turned to who would hopefully be his savior. and looked the man in his eyes, as hard as it was with the distracting eyebrows. "He stole my blanket and threw my over his shoulder before asking me to follow him so I physically didn't have a choice."
In one smooth, quick motion, Law found himself being slung over the blonde mans should as his other hand grabbed Luffy around the wrist and started dragging them both towards the back door behind the kitchen where there was a small hallway and a set of stairs.
"Come with me." Sanji ordered once again like either of them had a choice.
Pushing back a nauseating feeling of Deja-vu, Law quietly mumbled to himself.
"What is wrong with these people?"
Law didn't know whether Luffy had heard him or not, but when he lifted his head slightly, he was met with a cheesy, close eyed grin and a "Shishishi"
Law lowered his head once again in response and let out a long suffering sigh.
A/N I've had a lot of trouble trying to upload this, so hopefully it works this time? (not holding my breath though v.v)