Chapter 1: The beginning of the road

The scars on his back still hurt. The bones jutted uglily out of his small frame, the bony shape of the spine could clearly be seen on his scarred back and his own collarbones poking out like broken sticks. When he closed his eyes, he could almost still see all the evil grins and the menacing faces, all looking down at him and they rained slaps after punches after kicks. Master, or what he was forced to call him, locked him in his basement for as long as he could remember. Parents were non-existent, and so was the word resistance. Love, fun, joy, laughter.. None of them existed to this caged animal. He rarely saw sunlight, or the outside world for that matter, only the dim lightbulb slightly illuminated the empty stale room, barely any furniture decorated the dirty basement. Darkness was always surrounding him, and sometimes Master would come down drunk and crazy just to take his anger out on the poor little boy; chains and whips were the only toys his Master had ever played with him. When Master was happier, he would too invite his friends to watch the torture, even letting them join the fun for a little bit of cash to fund his infinite need for alcohol.

Like a rag doll, Allen was tossed away so casually once the man decided he was finally done with him, the body too broken and too used for him to stand him any longer. Master had grown tired of him, and had decided to kick him out of his basement and buy a younger, fresher new meat to use and torture. Perhaps this was better, he thought to himself. Maybe he would finally be free of such pain and sorrow.. Dragging himself to the nearest alley, he rummaged through the bins and found a piece of ragged dirty cloth, using it to cover his trembling body as he tried to close his tired eyes to at least get some sleep.

But even this temporary safe haven wasn't something he was destined to keep.

With a sharp yank, the boy was jolted awake from the extremely rare moments of nightmare-less sleeps. Saucer-like silver grey eyes darted around fearfully, still not used to such bright light. He searched around for the object of his nightmares, but all he could see was fitter bigger men in black suits pulling him towards a van before throwing him in, and they too got in and drove away. What.. What did they want from him? Is this his punishment for taking a nap without permission, and now he's going to the very hell Master often told him to go? He had resigned to his fate for a long time, and he laid on the cold rough mat of the van and closed his eyes to dream of a life he could only imagine.

The next thing he knew, he was clad in a simple soft white dress, lying on something so soft it almost felt like he was dreaming. Am I dead? He slowly got up from his bed, looking around to see if he was really in the nether world. Instead, he only saw yet another empty room, the moist moss filled walls replaced by thick iron bars.

Of course, he smiled sadly. This was just a different kind of hell.

People in nice clean suits walked past everyday very often, inspecting the humans caged behind those iron bars, sometimes discussing about the price and the appearance. He heard them talk, and it seems like Allen was one of the lowest priced; after all his body was filled with scars, but the only thing that kept him from being slaughtered like a common pig was his exotic eyes. Still, it was hard finding a buyer who would want used goods.

He had lost count of how many days he had been here, all the other humans he could see that shared his fate were coming and going, being sold at high prices like some sort of priceless object without a fuss while he.. was just scorned upon.

No one wants him, he could hear them say everyday. Maybe we should kill him, sell his organs or something. At least he would be worth better.

The day finally came when the men decided his living body wasn't even worth as a whole, selling his organs would bring them some money at least.

He didn't resist. Nor cry, nor scream. Not even a single word was uttered.

He merely followed them, knowing full well this day was going to be the last. He just felt that it was such a pity, he never got to see what the outside world was really like. It sounded beautiful, at least that was what he heard from the humans that stayed and bothered to chat.

Beauty.. It was something the boy would never obtain.

On the way to the van to the slaughter house, the group of men had led him past a potential buyer, and he couldn't help but to look up at his face. Maybe he could find someone 'beautiful'.. The man however, instead of ignoring him like everyone else he continued to stare at him, suddenly grabbing his face and continued to look into his eyes. Allen was uncomfortable of course, but he was taught never to refuse. he merely stared back at him emotionlessly, hoping he would just let go of his face and he would finally, finally be free from everything.

"I want this boy."

He stood waiting beside the man's sleek black vehicle; he was bought by the strange orange hair man who was paying the dealers a wad of papers in exchange for him. He was bought, for the price less than an expensive meal.

Allen was made to sit at the back of the car, the man was driving and he was the only other passenger. Instead, he took the chance to look out the tinted window from this strange vehicle, watching the green leafy trees zoom past the moving car, the fluffy white clouds moving ever so slowly in the pale blue sky. It was something the boy had only wished to ever see, and now he was finally able to get a glimpse..! He thought he was extremely lucky, lucky that before his destined death he could finally see the bright sun in its full glory.

The man had drove them to a small little house located near the sea, he knew what 'sea' was when one night Master had forgotten to turn off the television upstairs, and he heard the television program talking about a huge body of clear sparkling blue water in the strong rays of sunlight, with the sound of crashing waves against soft brown sand and animals named seagulls.. He could barely hear the wind, but it was there all right. What were they doing here? Nevertheless, he followed him as quietly as always to meet another man who was coincidentally on his front yard relaxing in his lawn chair, but he didn't look up at him; he was afraid he would be punished and beaten if he looked at him without permission.

"There, your birthday present." The green eye orange hair man with a weird band around his head said nonchalantly, pushing the boy towards the bigger man who now stood up from his chair to greet his buyer. The birthday boy took a small look at the skinny boy before scrunching his face in disgust, looking away from the ugly sight of skin hanging on bones. What allure does a bag of bones bring? "But I don't want it," He scowled angrily, snarling as his teeth could be seen. "Why the fuck would I want something like that? Get me a nicer one, at least!" Said birthday boy roughly shoved the thin, broken body away again, angry and utterly insulted that he was given such a horrid, ugly thing as a 'present'.

He kept his head even lower, his eyes lowered to the ground and looked at his dirty bare feet. It was expected..

"Take it back, I don't want something like that." The man refused to even look at Allen, and turned away to go back into his house and slammed the door hard. His buyer sighed, mumbling something about being ungrateful, and too slammed the gates before went back to his car to drive away.

"..."

He didn't know what to do now. Was he supposed to stand here till his new Master comes out to get him? But he didn't even want him.. He couldn't exactly go anywhere either; the gates were locked and he wouldn't dare to escape or anything. He just had to wait, wait for a chance his master would come out to chase him away again instead of having him stand here to do absolutely nothing.. He went to where the metal gates were, too afraid to stand on the clean path. He would only taint the pure ground with his dirty feet.

Allen stood there waiting, waiting for his master to come throw him away.