A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry for making you wait. I told Jet I wasn't going to post this chapter until she read all of the last chapter...she still didn't but by then I had already written the chapter. I hope you enjoy it! But I'm afriad I'm, yet again, losing more and more interest in this story, espeically since Jet keeps critising Grumble's name (though I personally like it!) and refuses to read the parts with him in it. Darn it! Those parts become important later! Oh well, enough of my ranting! Enjoy~

It had been a month. I had grown extremely attached to me 'Grand-mère' and enjoyed the fact that my parents haven't realized that the lock to the front door was broken yet. At home, all of the toys were fixed and pushed into a corner to collect dust. Even the broken toys weren't being played with. Most of the house items, including the windows, had magically been fixed. Nothing else had broken since then. The TV in the neighbor's house was minus one audience member and the cabinets were no longer ransacked by a hungry 5-year-old for food.

Without my dad finding anything to get angry at me for he didn't hurt me as often and my hand was able to heal. It seemed like things were looking up. Of course, good things never last.

I really liked the old woman and we talked about a lot of things. When I visited her I learned a lot from her, a lot about life, because she had so much of the life experience I was lacking from being locked up in a rundown, one-bedroom house. This one day she seemed to be acting strangely.

"Grand-mère, what's wrong?" I asked with concern.

"Oh it is nothing, my dear," she petted my really short, sticking up, spiky hair, "I'm just thinking…"

"You do a lot of that!" I pointed out the way she usually stares off in space.

Grand-mère chuckled, "You do a lot of thinking when you get older…"

I shrugged, "Kinda seems like a waste of time to me."

She smiled kindly at me, "Yes…time is something that you should not waste. Your time on earth is precious thing but…there are times for thought and times for action."

The sunset that day seemed strangely beautiful as I walked back home. In the distance a flock of startled birds rose up into the red-pink sky, like a bunch of black dots beside the black skeleton of the Eiffel Tower.

I went the day after, hungry for food and companionship, when I saw that the lady wasn't sitting on her usual bench. The pigeons, though, had come expecting food at this time. I looked around to see if she was on any of the other benches, not that she's ever sat on them before, I was just trying to rule out the possibilities before I got worried. She was nowhere in the park.

I sat on my usual spot, the spot that was always next to the old woman, and looked down at my feet and the hungry birds below them, the birds Grand- mère loved so much. I sat like that for an hour, not knowing what to do. Was she unable to come because she was sick? That's likely because she's an old person, she did say that her health was not what it used to be. Or she could've just slept in…she's the only old person I know but I'm sure that it happens sometimes…I'm sure it's completely normal for someone to sleep in at 2 o'clock…I sure hoped that was the case.

Not much later a man in a pin-striped suit approached me. "Ummm…evening…sir…" you could tell he felt akward about addressing a child as 'sir' but it looked like he had something important to do. Something with money, probably. "Are you Riven Macbeth?" he asked in an all-buisness tone.

I looked at him with a surprised face.

"So…I assume you know Ms. Willas?"

Ms. Willas? Oh, that was Grand-mère's name! "Sure," I said nonchalantly. I wonder what kind of business this man in a fancy suit had with Grand-mère…

The man audibly gulped, "I'm here…to inform you that…Ms. Willas has passed away in her sleep."

"Passed away?" by now I was only 6 so I didn't understand the term.

The man paled slightly, "Dead…Ms. Willas is dead."

I sat still. I felt like I had become a statue, frozen in time. I felt small. Right then I was in my small house again, curled up in fetal position and all the windows were breaking. The windows were broken, the toys were broken, the house was broken, and I was broken.

I slowly looked over the business man, he flinched at my expression, though I don't know what expression I was wearing at the time. Probably a cold and dark one. All of a sudden the glass from the light post shattered and rained down around me, but never cutting me. It was fitting as I lived in a Broken World. (A/N: Lol, name of the last chapter…)

"Ummm, but there is some good news!" the man in a suit seemed scared.

I looked at him in the corner of my narrowed eyes, "What?"

"She had no living relatives left so…she left everything to you, including the deed to her house." He mumbled.

I instantly perked up. A house? All at once the pictures I had seen with my mom were brought up to my mind. The white, square box with a neat white, picket fence and flower beds nuzzled up to the bottom of the house. A tan beach house that glow golden in the light of the sunset. A house that would be all mine. It was like a dream come true.

"Of course, a child cannot legally possess such money so it goes to your parents…" he flashed me a nervous smile

The dream had turned into a nightmare. My parents would, no doubt, misuse the money that was supposed to be mine. Many times they had discussed the financial plans that would go in place whenever they received a windfall, like saving money for a new house or paying off their credit card debt, but whenever that did get a large amount of on one sitting mom spend it on expensive designer clothing that really looked no better than her normal clothes and dad would always drink and gamble away money and come home drunk…which was never a good thing for his hated son. It's just a good thing that drunks are more likely to miss when hitting at a small target.

In the end, there was nothing I could do. When I went back home, hungry and in shock, I quietly sat in a stained arm chair and stared at the ceiling. 'You have such old eyes,' I heard her voice in my head, I remembered every wrinkle on her face and what she was wearing on exactly that day, 'you look at nothing yet see everything'. When she first said that I thought she was crazy but now I knew what she meant. There was no pain, no emotion. There was just emptiness. If I showed emotion in front of my dad, he would take advantage of my weakness. The only thing I could do was lock them inside myself. I would pretend as if nothing happened. And so many images of Ms. Willas passed through my mind…with no emotions attached. It had all become another old picture pushed to the back of my mind, like the pictures of those houses, just some dusty old photos with lost meaning.

In the middle of the tower there were the sleeping place of the higher ranked priests, the lower ranked priests slept closer to the bottom, or in the surrounding buildings. Grumble's mother, though women were not allowed to become priests, lived in the middle of the tower, on the same floor as their father, The Highest Priest of the land. The very top levels of the tower were used for prayer and rituals because the sky belonged to the gods and the closer you were to the sky, the closer to the gods you became.

Grumble's mother had been labeled harshly by their society. At best she was a strange character, at worst she was a horrible freak of nature. Many people, including most of the priests, thought she was unholy and shunned her.

She sat up in her bed as she saw Grumble enter the room. Her sickly appearance pulled at Grumble's heartstrings. She was pale…snow white pale. Something that was explained away to everyone as a symptom of the rare disease she had. Of course, only the Highest Priest truly knew why she was the way she was. Her pure black hair made an amazing and beautiful contrast against her other-worldly skin. She smiled at Grumble when he knelt down by her bed-side. For as long as Grumble could remember his mother had always been bed-ridden, leaving the responsibility of raising them to the Highest Priest, who really didn't have enough time to care about a couple of little kids, the village must have been much more important than the raising of his own children. Hallen and Grumble had to learn how to take care of themselves at a very early age.

"I have missed you." She placed a weak, caring hand on top of Grumble's matching, midnight black hair, "You have grown a couple of inches since I last saw you. You just seem to get bigger and bigger every time you come to visit." she coughed.

"And you just seem to get smaller and smaller, mother," Grumble said in a concerned tone as he held up his mother's frail arm, "Maybe when I come tomorrow your arms will already be as skinny as the kindling Hallen is now forced to collect for the Healer's Hut…"

His mother looked at him, her mouth forming an 'O' in shock, "…what?"

"Mother, you must stop Father! He has disowned Hallen so that I would become the eldest and heir to the position of Hightest Priest! My brother is devastated, it's not fair!" Grumble blurted out.

His mother thoughtfully looked out the window, "Maybe it is for the best…"

Grumble stared at her wide eyed. How could his mother say that about her own son?

She recognized Grumble's agony, "Grumble…this may be better for both Hallen and the Village. Hallen is much too fragile for the job of Highest Priest…"

"But that doesn't mean he has to get kicked out of his home! Why can't he just be given an equal chance as me and it be decided on skill?"

"Because that's not how it works…only the eldest can take to position of the father. I'm sorry…Grumble."

Grumble didn't want to hear about 'how things worked' he was going to rid this world of all the injustice he knew. He knew Hallen deserved the same chance as him. He knew that the 'gods' were really just demons who ask for humans to eat instead of hunting them. He knew that from the voice in his head…

"The kid got us a house!" My father stared at the will in surprise when he saw that everything was entitled to me. "We don't even know this woman!" he quickly glanced at me but I remained sitting on the armchair, unresponsive, staring at the ceiling. Staring at nothing but seeing everything.

"Maybe it's a sign of good luck." Mother smiled at me. Why was she so nice to me now? If she really loved me then she wouldn't be afraid to tell my dad to take Ms. Willas's will and shove it up his-

"Good luck! That boy has been nothing but trouble for us!" He walked up to me, "Oi! Are you listening? If you don't move I'm going to assume that you're dead." A sick smile appeared on his face, "And if you're dead I have to burry you."

"Then have fun at my funeral." I mattered, not even looking at him.

"There must be a misspelling or something, there's no way someone would give all this to that brat!" My father exclaimed as he scanned the sheet of paper once more.

"It's not like he could've met someone. No one knows that we secretly keep a kid in our house." Mother concluded.

"You!" Father pushed the piece of paper in front of my emotionless face, "Explain this!"

I scanned the contents. I was only 5 yet I had taught myself to read. Not only did she give me her house but all the money under her name and all personal items. "It is a will…" I said blankly.

"Yes, I know it's a will, smart guy!" He back-handed me but I didn't even yelp.

"Robert…there's no expression on his face…honestly, it's scary…" My mother's face was pale. So this was what it was like to have someone fear you.

"Riven! Explain this! Now!" His face turned red as he pointed at the sheet. But…it was the first name he ever said my name…

"I sabotaged the lock so that I could go outside without either of you realizing it…it wasn't that hard, actually…" I admitted. It was satisfying to see that shocked look on his face.

"I told you he was dangerously smart…" Mother piped up. Wow…now she decides to talk and stick up for me, now they I've scored them a house and good amount of money, probably more money than they've ever seen in the lifetimes.

Father sighed, "Are you even paying attention, moron?"

I paid him no mind, I just continued to look up at the ceiling. I realized that if I had not gotten out of the house I would've have forgotten there was such a thing as a sky. It was hard to think that a bright blue sky was right behind this dirty-white ceiling. If the roof suddenly collapsed what would the sky look like? Would there be birds in the sky to cruelly remind me of my loss? Would it be cloudy, overcast, or clear? If only the ceiling wasn't there I could see it.

I was brought back from my hazy day-dreaming when I saw a crack appear on the ceiling followed by an ugly crunching noise. My dad started freaking out when another huge crack broke through. But nothing really happened after that. My dad took one more look around the filthy thing they called a 'house' and spoke his first words of wisdom, "…we're moving into Ms. Willas's house…"

"What the heck is this?" Hallen grunted at the large text book in his lap with displeasure.

"It's our history course." Grumble explained calmly.

"History course? This probably has the record of every human who ever lived!" Hallen exclaimed.

"Not really…it just has every single little achievement made by the gods…" Grumble spat out the last word in clear hatred.

Hallen looked nervous about his brother's poorly hidden inner rebellion but said nothing of it, instead he just opened the text book to the very beginning. What met with his eyes surprised him more than his brother's outright hatred. "Wait…so there was a time when there were neither gods nor demons?" Hallen asked his brother with wide eyes.

"Shhhh, it's supposed to be a secret among priests and those in training. The rest of the village is not allowed to know." Grumble hushed his shocked brother, he couldn't have the entire Healer's Hut listen in on his secret lesson with Hallen.

Their father still thought that Grumble had just went out to play with the other children whenever he disappeared. It would all be over if someone went and told the Highest Priest that Grumble was actually meeting up with his disowned brother, in some ways it would seem scandalous and would ruin the reputation of the Highest Priest for not being able to control his own children. Luckily no one in the hospital, not even the Healer herself seemed interested with 'tattling on' the lonely brothers, the tragic twins.

"But…shouldn't the elders have already told the villagers? It's their duty to share their wisdom with all of the village." Hallen protested.

"Yes but the elders have been sworn into secrecy by the gods themselves." Grumble explained.

"So…the entire village is being scammed into thinking that the gods had always been here and that the demon invasion only brought the demons to earth." Hallen tried to wrap his mind around the truth when he had accepted the lie long, long ago.

A cynical air instantly took over Grumble, he stood up tall and brought his chin up in an exaggerated version of his father's overly-proud stature, "'We are not scamming the village, Grumble, ignorance is bliss, and we are simply letting the village be satisfied with the knowledge they already have.'"

Hallen looked down, "…father said that?"

"He sure did," Grumble's face was almost as red as his eyes. His face returned to its regular bronze as he sighed, "I know that it may not be my place to say this, but…I feel that you are the lucky one." His eyes scanned the ground with a bloodthirsty tint, "I hate having to see his ugly mug everyday…" He looked up at his brother, his eyes now full of longing, "I wish I could just learn to be a healer so I could help people in a practical way, instead of claiming to be their leader and keeping secrets from them…"

"But brother, once you become highest priest you'll be able to change things in the village and lead people the way you want…" Hallen tried to comfort his stressed brother.

"But I'm not becoming the highest priest." Grumble said with a scary amount of certainly.

"What…do you mean?"

"I already told you! I don't want to sit high and mighty above everyone just because I happen to be born differently from them, I…" Grumble trailed off, suddenly becoming very interested in the cracks along the mud wall of the hut.

"Born differently?" Hallen tilted his one head to the said. He knew that his brother most likely meant to be born of the high priest himself but Hallen could've sworn there was a little more to Grumble's words than it seemed on the surface…he always seemed to know things others didn't while never directly reviling it…it was terribly frustrating.

Ms. Wllas's house was much, much bigger than was the one-bedroom, one-story house in the poorer part of the city, better yet her upper floor had a great view. The very first thing I did when I first entered the house was run up the stairs and stare out the window into the city street. It reminded me too much of the apartment I had shared with my real mother.

"Ooof! Hey, kid! Are you going to help me with these or what?" my noisy father barked from the top of the stairs.

I paid him no mind.

"Oh, Robert, give him a break! He's only six!" Mother came up the stairs behind him, also carrying a stack of boxes and being just as loud as him. "Plus, I have the last boxes right here."

We had left our furniture at the old…'house', because the new house was already fully furnished from being left behind. So we didn't have that much stuff to bring. I looked around the room I had run in to look out the window. It was like no other room I had seen before. Cartoon-looking animals were painted on the walls with pleasant combinations of bright and soft colors. There was multiple strange pieces of furniture throughout the room. Against the wall there was something that looked like a low table with cushions on it with what looked like cage railing around it but unlike a cage it didn't have a top.

After they had set the boxes down they both walked into the strangely decorated room.

"Well, it's a two bedroom house. There's just the master bedroom and the nursery. So where does the kid sleep?" Mother murmured thinking that I wouldn't be able to hear her.

"But there also the option of the couch," Father commented with a sick smile, "Actually, let's just stick him in the crib, then we'll know he won't be able to get out again."

I tilted my head to the side, what's a crib? But 'sticking me inside' something didn't sound very fun so I tried to bolt out the door. Unfortunately I was scooped up by my father before I even had the chance. He threw me onto the low table with the cushion on top, which I then assumed was a crib, then pulled the bars up. I looked out the window. It was already growing dark, and I was exhausted from the excitement of today. If they wanted me to sleep here tonight, then so be it but they'll find a nasty surprise when they wake up.

But sleep didn't come as naturally as I thought it would. The crib was much better than sleeping under a couch with dust bunnies as stuff animals but it was still uncomfortable. Being in the crib brought back strange memories from long ago and replayed in my mind over and over, I almost felt like I was going to go mad. They were memories of my birth mother. She had me until I was three and we only had one bedroom in the small but clean apartment. So of course she had put me in a crib. It was only when I was in one did I realize that this wasn;t my first time, that I still remembered having some happiness.

Before the bars on the crib represented security, I would peek through at my sleeping mother on the bed right next to the crib. The bars separated me from her but they also brought the promise that she would always come for me in the morning and that she would pick me up and hug me. But now the bars represented imprisonment with the promise that my prison master would greet me with his ugly, sneering face in the morning. I looked again at the animals on the walls. They were exotic animals that you'd only find in Africa or in a zoo. Is this how they felt? Is this what it feels like to be a caged creature? Just an animal.

I held up my hand in the darkness and stared at it. It looked pale from the moonlight flooding in through the window but it looked like a human hand nonetheless. As long as my hand looked like that then I was human…and I was going to find some way to make my father pay for all that he had done. Just you wait…