Disclaimer: This is actually one of several stories I've written with the same opening (covering various different fandoms in the process)- Just a sidenote of sorts, in case I decide to upload another one :)

I think this might have originally been written for an English assessment task- hence the length (exactly 400 words)- not my best work, but I like it.

He shouldn't be like this.

But he was.

He shouldn't have been brought up like he was.

But he had.

He shouldn't have been encouraged, even forced to inflict pain and suffering upon other people.

But he had.

He shouldn't have been taught to hide his emotions away, never to be revealed to anyone, should they make him appear weak.

But he was.

He was a man of many problems, who was forced to grow up well before his age. He was a man of conflicting emotions, of troubled thoughts, of long-suffered pain. But if there was one thing that he had been taught not do, it was show it.

~#~#~#~

He hadn't always been like this. He began life any other children would; young, carefree and ignorant. He was one of 6 young apprentices to one of the greatest scientists of their time. Together, they would conduct experiments with increasingly deadly consequences, on their quest to discover the nature of the heart- and of the darkness that lay within everyone.

He was one of their greatest weapons. Though he rarely spoke, he had something about his childish features that allowed him to manipulate even the strongest minds, bending them to his will, becoming part of his schemes. He was a cloaked schemer, hidden behind his illusions that he so skilfully wove into the minds of others. To the outside world, he remained a mere innocent child, masking the power that lay within.

Eventually, their mentor sensed the experiments had gone too far and commanded they discontinue any further experiments. But they were, caught, seduced by the desire for knowledge; pure, attainable knowledge, lured in by an everlasting greed for power. The experiments continued, countless innocent lives were taken to their expansive lab, and sacrificed in the name of science. They were determined to find answers, no matter what the price.

He should have known. Everything- his sense of purpose within that group, his feeling of belonging, of accomplishment, of a family he never had; his hopes were nothing. Nothing but a mere illusion.

~#~#~#~

Some things in life shouldn't be meddled with.

Slowly, the darkness spread into each of the six, invading their hearts, and converting them into darkness. They had gone too far, it was too late.

They say that light resides within all children- but not this child. Within this child, nothing but darkness lurks in his cold heart.