(A/n: Trigger Warning: Child Abuse
Please enjoy)
Chapter 34: Illusion From A Haunting Past
"W-where the hell...-"
A pale colored ceiling that was originally a healthy white is the first thing that greets Chris when he opens his eyes, pupils round like a humans. Next came an overwhelming foul stench, traveling into his nostrils causing his stomach to churn uncontrollably. Slapping his hands over his nose and mouth, he turns over on his side swallowing twice to keep the upcoming bile down. He takes a couple of minutes to recuperate before slowly sitting up into a sitting position, keeping his nose and mouth covered as he scans around his surroundings. Despair heavily setting in instantly.
"No, t-this is..."
He glances down to see himself not only sitting on a grungy looking mattress lacking a bedstead, but his body size aged down more than a few years and his clothing nothing but a blood and dirt stained grey tank top and black sweatpants in a similar condition, his feet bare and also dirty. Daylight gleamed through a window with a thin beige colored curtain behind Chris' left side, underneath it sat a dresser with nothing but a lamp on top of it's surface. Seeing the wooden floors smudged with splotches of dried blood, a big mass of the darkened fluid splattered along the spine of the wall in the corner near the door - that's positioned in the middle of the room, elicits a muffled gagging sound out of him.
If it weren't for this dreadfully familiar place, Chris wouldn't be so repulsed by neither the smell or blood in here. In fact, this room 'helped' him become immune to such revolting things prior to becoming a vampire, later becoming a hunter that predates them. He never would've thought..that being tortured would've developed into a beneficial outcome for him in the future.
Which leads him to question,
"Why am I..back in this hellhole...?"
Regardless of how he ended up here, Chris dared not move from his spot, wanting nothing more than to wake up from this nightmare before it progresses any further.
"Oh, so this is the lifestyle you've been living before as a mortal," a voice abruptly says, echoing around the soundless room. "Absolutely pitiful."
Startled confusion first floods Chris' senses. "Who..-" Then realization hits him hardly even two seconds later, and he narrows his eyes angrily. "This is that Japanese bastard's doing! I'm under his illusion!" Fear no longer hinders Chris from getting up on his feet, ignoring the fetor as he curls his hands into fists at his sides.
Kurai chuckles at his newfound, or rather returning confidence. "I wouldn't look so courageous if I were you, wouldn't want your mother coming in thinking that you've suddenly grown some balls, now do we?"
Chris' eyes widen and his pupils shrink at the mention of his mother, his temper disappearing without a trace left on his face. He can feel himself going numb in the legs when footsteps sound as if they're approaching his way.
"Christopher? Are you awake honey?" The tender voice belonging to a woman asks as she nears.
Chris remains silent and motionless in place, sucking in a breath when the doorknob rattles then turns. Slowly, the door opens with a creak, and a disheveled head with grey hair overtaking black strands peeks in, their clouded over blue eyes widening with joy when they land on Chris. She opens the door all of the way entering the room, wearing a black dress with spaghetti straps that went past her kneecaps and matching colored flats.
The moment Chris tries to move one of his legs back, both give out and he drops down onto his knees, fear sucking him dry of energy.
"Christopher?!" His mother rushes over to his side, placing a cold hand on his shoulder. He flinches at the realistic contact. "What's wrong, are you feeling unwell?" Numbly, the boy shakes his head no. "Are you sure? You look pale."
Chris strains a small smile on his lips. "I-it's nothing mom, j-just happy to see you i-is all," he stutters, heart ready to burst out of his chest due to how fast it's beating.
There is a seconds long silence, and it quickly becomes eerie, escalating when the words, "Do not lie to me," are uttered in a low, threatening tone. Chris loses his smile with a whimper, his mother's nails digging into his skin. "I am going to ask you one more time. What. Is. The. Matter?"
Tears swell up within in Chris' eyes. "Y-you're hurting me, please stop..."
His mother grits her teeth in anger. "Tch, don't tell me what to do brat!" She hisses, retracting her hand away to slap him across his cheek. He cries out falling onto the floor on his side, skin red with tiny bubbles of blood in the spots where the woman's sharp nails were. Said female stares at him blankly, the anger lingering in her eyes, just not on her face. "Look what you made me do," she says emotionlessly. "You know I hate it when you lie to me Christopher, you've done it far too many times now." She cocks her head to the side slightly with a blink. "Unless you like getting beaten."
Tears begin to slide down the boy's cheeks as he shakily curls his right hand into a fist. "I'm s-sorry..."
The older noirette maintains her empty expression, disregarding his meek apology. "Sit up and let's start over." Hesitating for a moment, Chris pushes himself up back on his knees, his cheek turning a bright red. "Tell me what's wrong."
Chris purses his lips nervously, black bangs covering his tear-leaking eyes. "I'm fine, really. I wasn't lying to you," he says in a whisper.
All of a sudden, a rough hand grabs his chin and forces his head around in his mother's direction. "Look me in the eyes and say that again," she orders, glaring into her son's fear-stricken orbs.
"T-there's nothing wrong with me, please let go!"
She glares at him silently for a couple of seconds, then releases him. Afterwards, she walks out of the room.
Chris sits there crying inaudibly, weakly going to sooth the persistent sting in his shoulder. He can't help but question why he has to relive the life he had so desperately erased from his memory decades ago. Up until this point, he'd forgotten he even had a mother. Or if he should've even referred to her as such anymore. His father passed away three years after he was born, and he can't remember not a single thing about the man. Except that he left a mother and baby all alone. It didn't even take his mother long to fall into ruin after her boyfriend's death, thus began the abuse. Once Chris had turned 5 years old.
Chris clenches both his shoulder and teeth. "D-damn it..."
"I warned you didn't I?" There was no ounce of sympathy in Kurai's voice. "Your egotistical behavior is the one to blame for landing you into this predicament."
Chris' body goes rigid, eyes narrowing behind the bangs of his hair in reappearing yet increasing rage. "Fuck you." He grits his teeth tightly, pain combining with fury. "I will fucking kill you when I get outta here."
"You're all bark and no bite human," Kurai scoffs. Footsteps sound once more, coming back to Chris' room. "Try not to die by you know whose hands first, tough guy."
"I didn't want to have to resort to this," Chris' mother's gentle tone mutters. "But you've left me no other choice." She reenters her terrified son's room, this time wielding a brown and red leather belt in her hands, the red being leftover days old blood. She stops by Chris' feet, staring down at him with hollow sadness in her eyes. "I care about you Christopher, so much that I'm willing to beat the answers out of you if you refuse to be honest with me."
Pushing the piercing twinge in his shoulder past him, Chris snaps his head upwards to gape at her, wide eyes pleading her not to hurt him again. Seeing the look of absolute hopelessness on his face sparks a sick sense of pleasure throughout her entire body, and she smiles creepily at the boy.
"I'll give you one last chance to answer me truthfully, otherwise..." She lets the intimidating thwack of the belt finish the statement for her.
"B-but I wasn't lying to you in the first place! Why won't you believe me?!"
The woman's fake smile morphs into scowl. "How dare you raise your voice at me."
Without any second thoughts, she raises then brings the belt down with one hand, striking Chris' thigh forcefully. He screams out in agony with fresh tears streaming down his pale cheeks, but his mother doesn't stop after just one hit; she continues to whack every part of his body as the sadistic grin resurfaces and grows with each strike.
All Chris can do is endure the beating until his mother tires herself out, as he always had in the past; laying curled into a trembling fetal position, his screams dwindling down to whimpers though the tear's flow is ongoing.
When he hears giggling amid the loud, painful smacks, he curls in on himself as tight as his body will allow him to. Vowing with steely determination that he will surely kill the vampire who did this to him.
...
"Utterly disgusting."
Those were the only words Kurai could think of as he watches the scene through the whiteboard of a classroom in the school, his katana resting on top of the podium behind him. Although he still despises the vampire hunter, seeing him getting abused by his own mother is simply...inhumane. What could possibly posses a child's parent to beat them as if they were some kind of animal? No reason will ever justify this sort of mistreatment.
"But maybe this will teach Christopher a lesson," Kurai then thinks, getting a complacent glint in his eyes with an identical smirk broadening across his lips. "No matter how many vampires he'd faced prior to encountering me, it's apparent that he still needs to learn not to take his opponents so lightly. Irregardless of whether they're weak or not." Crossing his arms, Kurai shakes his head with a short chuckle. "Even though I always complain killing these kinds of people is a waste of energy, I never get tired of putting them in their place." However the more he observes the pure enjoyment on Chris' mother's face as she continues to whip the child with no remorse, empathy slowly but unfortunately settles itself within Kurai. He frowns at the feeling. "If he actually dies, then this really would've been a waste of both my time 'and' energy."
(A/n: Wanted to keep this short cuz..ya know. The next chapter will be up soon and no others will ever miss another month unless the reason is plausible)
