Something Lost
xXx
Sasuke's POV
We were a freak show, essentially. A collection of misfit characters who had no business knowing each other, caged in by four walls and a roof. The barriers of this building acted not as a device of protection, but rather, a contraption used to separate those inside, from freedom beyond the walls. An asylum to keep us in, if you will. We each lived solitarily, but never alone. Fear drove us apart, choosing to let innocent others wrongly take beatings, rather than unite and rebel. Life was a game. A survival of the fittest. Those with the cleverest tongues and lowest morals were most likely to persist.
Our ringmaster was, of course Him, who would at no point hesitate to pit two of us together in a scrap to the death. Like raging bull dogs. The tile was composed from eggshells, and the walls had keen ears, knowledgeable to the slightest whisper of uprising. No one spoke. I would never know the eye colors of those who I'd lived with as long as I could remember.
I, however, was fortunate. I was his "pet" of sorts. Allowed semi-free range of the hunting grounds behind the manor, a privilege tasted by so few. In return, I was His trophy. An object of unwanted caresses and lurid innuendos. I lived in fear when the time would come for Him to come and take me.
Around October of my seventeenth year, a shift in the currents occurred to me, a vague sense of approaching disaster that had my senses horrifyingly alert.
I was out in the fields one afternoon, watching the crows make nest in the changing leaves of autumn. It was warm with a choppy breeze, the rims of the sky encircled by dark impending storm clouds. I was chewing on a long straw of wheat absentmindedly, watching the shadows elongated before the golden sunset. Just as the first stars unveiled themselves in the lavender sky, I pulled myself up to trek back to the manor. I walked briskly; if I was late, I would be punished. Just before a reaching the back door, I took in long, steady gulps of fresh air. I never knew when he would let me out again. I spat the straw out and attempted to wipe dirt and leaves from my feet and knees before entering.
I ate dinner with Him that night. It was tasteless and bland as always, but only because the entirety of my attention was focused on his every breath and movement. Every time he shifted in his chair, lifted the fork to his mouth, cleared his throat to speak, a flood of fear would overtake my being. Meals had become a battle within me- steady my fear and wait it out in silent, raging insanity, or succumb to violent panic.
He was wiping his mouth with his napkin now. Setting it down and pushing back his chair, he approached me. My body began to shake sporadically. The muscles in my legs twitched, telling me to rise and flee. I funneled my mind in, concentrating on even inhales and exhales. My heart was pumping so loudly, so hard, I thought it was going to come out my throat.
He stopped directly behind my chair. His hands came up to pet my hair, and I lurched forward slightly, gagging. He twirled my hair around his fingers gently, lowering his hand to stroke my right ear. He whispered something vial in his loathsome raspy voice. I couldn't place it over the sound of my heart. His fingers trailed down, toying with the collar of my shirt, then slipping underneath. The feeling of his cold thin digits against my chest awoke a sudden primal fear in me. I jerked back fiercely and stood, my feet in mid- flight to run. I couldn't. I was held in place by his hand harshly gripping my arm.
He grabbed my jaw and forced me to look at his face. It was then that all the fight left my body. I could feel tears prickle the corners of my eyes. He hit me once, hard, across the face. I slumped to the ground holding my left cheek. There were spots in my vision and a metallic taste in my mouth. There was a struggle. He was on top of me. It was surreal and nightmarish. My clothes were torn off and the room was spinning. Somehow He came to be inside me, pushing forcibly. I stared up at the ceiling, blurry through tears, as it moved back and forth. Acute, unbearable pain twisted up my spine repeatedly. I could hardly breath. A while later he finished and all was still and silent. He left me there.
A few weeks later, He let me out again, but only after forcing me to beg. I wandered around the grounds absentmindedly, gazing at the murders of crows as they flocked above in the skies. They were so free. The thought made my heart ache and long. My body was tired, aching, bruised, trapped.
I stayed out until the sun disappeared behind the mountain's silhouette. I started back reluctantly. At once a dark cloud cast a shadow upon the manor, chilling the air. I entered the house. It was quiet.
This was my first and only memory of complete silence through out the manor. No screams, no whispers. In the absence of sound waves, the air was stagnant, rotting. Something was very, very wrong. I ventured cautiously towards the hall. Peering around the corner, the normally immaculate meeting room was in utter disarray. Chairs were tipped over, glasses broken, pictures fallen from the walls.
My body stilled as I immediately suspected intruders. Where was everyone? Where was He? It was still eerily silent. I pressed back into the shadows on the walls. Small glittering specks on the tile caught my attention.
Marked from it's conception in the study, scattered shards of mirror and whiskey bottle, accompanied with droplets of amber bourbon and crimson blood, littered a path that I presumed to indicate His whereabouts. I followed the ominous trail. The hallways were looming and predatory. I rounded the corner that opened into the main corridor of the house. The enormous front doors were flung wide open, the right door off its hinge completely. Brown leaves decorated the tile, as a strong, cold wind pushed more through the open doorway.
Immediately aware of a presence hanging above my head, I glanced upwards.
There was a rope around His neck, fastened to the chandelier on the ceiling. His head was tilted lazily to one side, with a thin string of saliva trickling from his lips, as his feet dangled high above the floor. Instead of a frantic panic, a cold horror enveloped my body. I ascended the curved staircase overlooking a section of the house that offered a spectacular view of the chandelier.
The tinkering crystals swayed gently, an indication that his body had stopped swinging only a short time ago. The glass droplets were contrastingly vibrant to his dull, cloudy eyes, filmy and wide open. I could no longer determine their color. Upon closer inspection, I observed that the thick cord sustaining his body in the air, was much like the those straps that rested upon each of our beds, used to belt down the strong willed.
Who could have guessed that the circus would end such as this? With it's ringmaster displayed listlessly overhanging the manor, a sort of last act, conceived in it's own sick amusement. Had the others risen up against him and done this? For they were surely gone now. They had probably fled out the front door the moment his neck snapped.
A growing frenzy stirred up inside me. Not of fear nor happiness nor relief. It was a desperate need to leave the house as soon as possible, to be free with the others. To adventure into the unknown.
I sprinted to my room and grabbed what meager clothes I had been given, stuffing them into a bag. Grabbing a few coins I had managed to pilfer from Him, along with a few other treasures I had collected over the years- my name written down on a slip of paper from when I still remembered it, a small ratty stitched doll that had been a goodbye present from Karin, and silver locket- locked -that I had had as long as I could remember.
Out the doorway I fled, my heart pounding with overwhelming hope and excitement. I knew nothing of where the nearest town, road, anything would be, so I picked a direction and ran long into the night.
xXx
Hey! So this chapter is in first person and really dark- the rest of the story will not be so heavy- but I feel like its important for this story to set up Sasuke's confinement before anything else.
Please review and tell me what you think!