"Hey… Kid!" The man hissed again, eyes narrowing a little since his first call-to-attention was ignored. Albel sniffled a little, eyes lifting from being mashed into his knees to try and suppress the endless crying. He made a small questioning noise, and the man grinned when he was finally being listened to. "I gotta hand it to your dad… when he died, the warden was so upset that he gave us one wish. Of course it wasn't freedom, but eventually we agreed on apples. We all got three apples instead of the usual hard bread and water. That was a good day." He snickered, eyes narrowing. Albel stared, unconsciously tightening his hand into a fist. "But look at you, Kid. You wouldn't even survive a day out in the wilderness, if you stay like that." He laughed a little, watching as Albel slowly rose to his feet. "And.. what's wrong with me?" Albel growled softly, a sort of wall starting to slowly build so he wouldn't dare pity anyone in the dungeons if this man turned and tried to kiss Albel's ass for freedom. "Well, look at you. You're missing an arm, you're all half-way bandaged up, and you probably can't fight for your life against even… even... a scumbag with a wooden dagger! You're a pretty crappy kid, letting your dad die like that." The man grinned, eyes narrowing.
"I bet he's lookin' up at you from Hell now... wondering why you were so damned useless. Oh, trust me. I heard the whole thing from the warden. You were just cryin' like a baby, and before your daddy had to go and save you, you damn near pissed your pants! What's a lizard to you, eh? All boys should love lizards, and you were terrified of it like some little girl." The man began to laugh, the chains rattling as he stood there. One of the more terrible forms of torture was simply to make a person stand for days upon days, so this man had his ankles shackled to the floor, and wrists held up towards the ceiling by more chains. There was even a collar around his neck, keeping the man to the wall several feet away in case the other chains failed. The man continued talking, talking on and on about how things had gone, how terrible Albel was for being useless and a weak child, and now so with the lack of a left arm. The man continued talking, not even watching as Albel tensed up, head hanging low with shadowed eyes. Why won't he stop talking? Make him stop! Make him stop! He howled out in his mind, and before he could get another thought through, Albel found his hand wrapped around the chain to the collar, pulling back as hard as he could.
The man instantly stopped talking, gasping for air and crying out as his wrists were bleeding. Those chains were too short, and Albel pulling the man against the cuffs forced the old iron shackles to cut in. Albel's jaws gritted together, enough that he almost felt like his teeth were going to crack. The man's face paled, and he began fighting against the collar, but Albel only pulled harder, his knuckles snow white. He then let go for a second just to regain his grip, and before the man could say anything further, Albel grabbed higher up on the chain and jerked back even harder, even using his own weight to become even more fatal. Finally, the man stopped moving, but to make sure the man was dead, Albel held onto the chain for even another three minutes after the man had ceased movement. His breath was heavy, face pale and covered in a little bit of sweat. Finally, when he realized that the man was dead, his fingers opened on an impulse, and Albel staggered back against the wall, staring at the limp body.
I killed a man… I killed someone. Whispered over and over in his mind, and he looked to his hands. But he didn't see any blood. His father, having killed men, mentioned his hands stained with blood. Albel had never seen any blood then whenever he looked over the rough and calloused, yet gentle hands. And even now, Albel saw no blood. In fact, he smiled. The man had stopped talking. Albel actually felt better now, having silenced one of two voices that nagged him. An external voice was gone… but now all that was left was an inner voice. But Albel tried to ignore that as best he could for now, as he relished in the delight of having silenced the man so easily. At first he was terrified, but he saw no blood. There was no blood on his hands, and there was no mess. In fact, he left the dungeons with a bit of a skip in his step, all too excited, and yet terrified at the same time. Excited at the thrill of being caught and scared all the same. He didn't want to get caught having killed a man, but there was a rush in that danger.
Was this why there was so much crime? Was it so fun to risk the danger? The boy could understand, but once he finally returned to the doctor's room since there was nowhere else for him, he calmed down, now that the moment had passed. The man's words returned, along with his own to pester him. It stabbed at his heart a thousand times over and more, but for once, there were no tears. Albel finally stopped that, gritting his teeth and glaring off at a crack in the wall, a similar wall being made up around his inner self. He wouldn't cry anymore. The more he cried, the more people would talk to him like the corpse. He would stop that. He would stop being weak. Well, he would try, of course. There was no guarantee it would happen right away, and there was bound to be times when he would cry a little now and then, but otherwise, he vowed to stop this nonsense once and for all. Everything that had once been his world had turned their back upon him, and now he was just some… some worm. That's right. A worm. Maggot. Fool. Scum. Useless. Weak. Inept. Coward. His eyes narrowed, and he stood up then, but just as he was about to storm out the door, a man opened the door. He had red hair and green eyes, wearing Aquarian armor. He looked down to the boy curiously, then looked up and saw the doctor was nowhere. A little girl, possibly around Albel's age, peeked at Albel from behind her father's leg.
Albel glared at her, and the girl shyly hid herself. That girl had someone to protect her.. and Albel had lost his. That girl wasn't grateful to her father... once she lost that man, she would understand just how much she truly needed him, just like Albel was feeling him. If Glou was around, he would've been with Albel now. They would've been at home, maybe fitting his Dragon Brigade armor. They would've been celebrating, drinking together. But it was all Albel's fault that Glou was gone, and if only that girl knew.. if only she knew! Then she would stop peeking at Albel from behind the man with fright! With fright, sickened by Albel's injuries! Albel felt a prickle run along his spine, hating that girl already. Oh, he hated her, simply because of the ignorant look she gave him, simply because she had a father. Simply because… because… She had no injuries upon herself. Albel wished she was the one who knew what this felt like. But before he could yell at her, the man nudged his daughter away and left to go look for whoever he was looking for. Albel left as well, following them. He was curious, wondering as to why these… these Aquarians were here. The girl constantly looked back at Albel, clinging to her father's hand as if Albel was some terrifying monster coming to devour her entire being. "Oh! There you are!" Cried out Woltar, who then laughed. The man laughed as well, and the two shook hands. Woltar looked down to the girl, who was looking back to Albel hiding behind the corner, a hateful stare in his eyes. "Oh? Miss?" The girl looked to Woltar, a sickening 'pleasant' and 'cheerful' look on her face, sucking up and being all 'cute' to Woltar. It made Albel sick. "Ignore him." Was all Woltar said before he turned back to the man. Albel's eyes went wide, shocked and angered at the fact that Woltar said he should be ignored, once again affirmed that the life he knew had turned its back on him. If Glou was alive, everyone but the King and a few others would've gotten down on their knees and kissed the very dirt Albel walked on. No one disrespected the Nox bloodline. But now, he was simply to be ignored? When the little red-haired girl looked back with curious blue eyes, the boy was missing. Her fingers entwined with her father's for comfort, a little bit of fear creeping in. Well, monsters hid in the shadows, didn't they? She was afraid that boy would sneak up on her from somewhere, so she kept close to her father.
Albel, meanwhile, hurried back to the doctor's room, only to find the man back there with a box of iron parts and playing around with them… or something. The doctor didn't look up to the boy, simply ordering him to get more rest as he would get a present in the morning. Curious as to what that was, he eyed the box one more time before he reluctantly went under the bed sheets and closed his eyes. It was a little early, but today's events left him a little dizzy, since he was still a little low on blood.
