The terrified Kagi takes a step back, stunned and in disbelief.
"Restrain him," he says, his voice now quivering.
Eight additional people enter the room, wearing heavy protective gear. Once again, two people hold down each leg and arm. The boy now glances over at the younger man and smiles as he is dragged away. For once, he is not to be tortured. Instead, he will be interrogated by Lord Desmund himself.
The boy, who is now strapped down to a metal sheet, is hanging from his arms and legs. While not exactly painful, it is uncomfortable. There is nothing inside the room, besides the boy. The walls are white and padded to avoid self-harm, and the lights are very bright. There are cameras in every corner of the room to observe the boy, so as not to miss even a single detail. They needed to see everything. They needed to understand the boys' power so they could effectively use them.
The large steel door, lined with black and yellow stripes, opens slowly to reveal an older-looking man. He wore an incredibly bold navy blue military dress uniform with epaulettes, which signified he was rather high in rank. The boy had gathered this much. The man had many wrinkles as well as rather pale skin, which was an indicator to his age. More than that, however, the way he had carried himself proved to show this more than any facial feature. He had experience in combat. The older gentleman was not particularly large - in fact, he was rather skinny with only his height, as he stood well over six feet tall.
"Who might you be? Here to beat me?" the boy asked, mockingly, as if trying to provoke the man into a fight.
"I am Desmund Parr Sath Nelanis. But you will address me as Lord, boy. "
A chair and table are brought into the room. Lord Desmund sits and faces the boy.
"What did the voice say to you?" Lord Desmund asks again.
This is clearly important to him.
"I want you to give me something in return," the boy replied.
Lord Desmund doesn't say or do anything for a while before saying, "What do you want?"
A grin appears on the boy's face as if he is proud of himself. Everyone notices this and wonders where he developed an ego. He was, after all, a scared child mere moments ago.
"Tell me," the boy says slowly and meticulously, "Tell me who you people are. Not individually, I mean the organisation. Who are you?"
Silence. Nobody speaks. They don't know if they can.
Lord Desmund hesitates for a moment before saying, "We are not affiliated with any nation. We are an organisation which consists of all of the highest-ranking members of society, and we mean to create a God that we can control. We do not have a name for we do not need to be known. However, if you wish to refer to one of our members, you may call them a Prophet."
The longer he spoke, the more arrogant and proud he sounded.
"And who am I?" the boy asked.
"You are our GOD!" he exclaimed, leaping up from his seat, arm stretched out as if to welcome him.
"Return"
…
"That is what it said."
Everybody was stunned. They didn't believe him. Lord Desmund, however, did believe him. He believed him because he himself knew that it was impossible to lie about that voice as he himself had tried - and suffered. Lord Desmund was ecstatic - like a little child - though he tried not to show it.
"Only one word?!"
"Absurd"
"He lies, kill him."
These were what people that did not understand had been saying in response to the boy's words.
"SILENCE!" Lord Desmund had screamed at the other men.
"What does it mean?" the boy had asked curiously.
"Boy, that is your ability."
He now storms out of the room in a hurry, overjoyed.
The boy stares down at the floor. He is not deep in thought; in fact, he is not thinking at all but simply relaxing. His overgrown hair covers his eyes. He finally had time to rest. He was not being experimented on or tortured. He was at peace.
His long white hair had now started to darken slowly at the roots. The calm and relaxed expression on the boy had now turned fearful. Panic arose seemingly out of nowhere, and not long after the boy's hair had completely blackened, the boy began to scream and violently shake himself. It was a complete change in behaviour. It was as if he were another person once again.
This confused the men watching him. They tried to calm him so that he would not injure himself too severely, but they dared not enter the room at this moment. They didn't succeed in calming the boy, so they activated a robotic arm hidden in the walls of the room and injected him with a sleeping drug.
The boy woke up, and he notices something bizarre. For the first time in his life, he was unrestrained with another person beside him. It was Kagi. In a bizarre attempt to earn the boy's trust, he had risked his very life.
"Should we go on a walk?" Kagi asked him, the nervousness in his voice was all too apparent.
The boy nodded - frightened though he was. So to everyone's surprise and all of their objections - as the highest ranked on the station aside from Lord Desmund, who had now left - he ignored them. He took the boy to see the planet they orbited. They sat on a bench in the cafeteria of the station, facing towards the window, looking down upon the planet.
"Do you see that large mass of land to the right? That's Ihmatus. Have you seen it before?" Kagi attempts to start the conversation.
The boy shook his head.
"I'll tell you about our planet then. To the left of that larger mass of land is a smaller one, Nelanis. That's where I am from," he says softly now, trusting the boy slightly more.
However, in the back of his mind, he could not forget what the boy had said to him about his family. He was still scared about revealing too much about himself in fear of the unthinkable. He knew, however, if he didn't reveal anything about himself, then he wouldn't be able to connect with the boy.
"Did you know Nelanis was the centre of both the Industrial Revolution and the Revolution of Intelligence?" Kagi asks him.
The boy nods.
"I l-learned about it i-in textbooks," the boy said timidly.
Another man cautiously approaches them. The boy flinches as he notices, which scares them both. He continues and hands Kagi a sandwich from the cafeteria. Kagi then gives this to the boy, who doesn't know what to do with it as it was still in packaging, which he was unfamiliar with, since all he knew was nutrient slush he had been fed most of his life. Only occasionally he would be given solid food.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot you don't know how to open this," he says, clearly feeling some level of guilt, "I tried to get them to feed you solid foods, but they said it wasn't a good idea."
The boy did not know why he got solid foods, but he was grateful he did because it was one of the only things in life he could look forward to. It was the only thing he could enjoy and the only thing he could taste. He was grateful even now for this solid food.
Kagi had opened the sandwich and gave it to the boy, and watched as the boy took a bite. The boy's fear slowly faded, and he seemed happy. Kagi wondered how one could be so happy for something everybody takes for granted. It made his own fears almost slip away. He thought to himself, Can this really be the same person from before? He didn't want to believe it because the boy looked so happy now. Around twenty minutes had passed, and the boy had only just finished the sandwich. This whole time, Kagi had tried to find an opportune moment to start a conversation, but he also did not want to interrupt the boy's only moment of rest, so the two remained silent until he finished.
"What did you mean when you said I was a god? What is a god anyway?" the boy had asked out of the blue.
"It's very complicated, but I can explain it to you on one condition, okay?" Kagi said to the boy, almost like a parent would to their child, "Do not hurt anybody here, okay?"
The boy nods hesitantly because he does not understand why he would or how he could.
"It's a long story, but essentially, a god is something stronger than everything else and can do whatever it wishes. Lord Desmund had said you were a god because you have a power that nobody else could fathom. He believes that you can alter, space, and or time. This would be a remarkable power indeed. I, on the other hand, think that that is not the case. I believe that the powers that people have are like roots that come from one mysterious source - and you have found a root nobody has discovered yet. But that is simply my opinion - do not tell anyone about it, okay?" Kagi says to him very softly and slowly to make sure he understood, and so nobody would overhear.
The boy takes another look at the planet and its surroundings. He is amazed by its vibrance. He sees many stars and many wonderful colours. Kagi signals to the boy that it is time to leave for now, but he says they will talk more and eat another time. The boy, upon hearing this, is slightly less terrified again. Kagi walks with the boy back to the room. When they arrive, a bed and a shelf have been installed in the room on behalf of Kagi. The boy, still timid and cautious, thanks Kagi. This was by far the kindest anyone has been to him.
Kagi cannot seem to rid himself of the deep guilt he has for doing such horrific things to the boy. He had never wanted to be a part of this, but was forced to do so due to personal issues. He had simply put on a face and went along with all this, bottling up all the guilt and pretending it was never there. He thought of the boy as sub-human, and it helped. But, after seeing today first-hand, how gentle he is, he could no longer pretend. He is more human than any of us, he thought.
A week later, Kagi had been informed that Lord Desmund would be arriving once again to check on his subject. Kagi was slightly nervous for the boy. He was unsure what they would do to him. It was on such short notice that he had no time to prepare; he did not even know what he was here to do specifically, but he could not help fear the worst. He did not want the organisation to use the boy as a tool of war. Moreover, he did not want the boy to suffer any longer.
He went to see the boy.
Kagi had noticed that the halls seemed more guarded than usual. He thought it strange that there were so many people in this area ,even though Lord Desmund was not yet here. He quickens his pace, unsure of what is happening, and as he approaches the boy's room, he finds Lord Desmund waiting around the corner for Kagi.
"There he is, sit him with the boy," he says, not angrily, not impatiently, without any emotion at all.
Kagi is now understanding why. He did something he shouldn't have - he felt sympathy for the boy.
"You were planning on letting the boy escape. For that, you and the boy will be severely punished," he says to Kagi.
Kagi understands why he will be punished, but he doesn't understand why the boy will be. After all, he never told the boy anything. He had simply thought of escape.
The boy and Kagi are now sitting on the floor side by side in the room the boy had stayed in until now. All the furniture Kagi had given to the boy was being taken away by large and heavily protected men. The boy was technically seated; however, his knees were nailed to the floor from the back of his knees, and his left arm was tied behind his back by massive chains. Once everyone besides the boy and Kagi had left the room, Lord Desmund entered. He did not enter alone, however. There was a younger woman and a child around 8 years old. The younger girl had an awfully striking resemblance to Kagi.
"What is going on here? Marissa? Emmy?" Kagi said, confused and scared, he was both scared and disgusted by Lord Desmund for bringing them here.
"You see, Kagi, here in this organisation we are a team. So when one person makes a mistake, we all need to pay for it. Of course, this is not easy on me, Kagi, I docked everyone's pay - including my own by 3%," he says, calmly and almost sarcastically.
"But, my dear Kagi, you need to pay the most for this immense failure. Punishment to redeem you would take far too long for this most unforgivable act. Therefore, I brought your family here to help speed things along. You can distribute the punishment together, as a family." Lord Desmund says, a smile once again appearing on his face.
It was clear he was enjoying this. Kagi was speechless. He pressed his head to the floor and begged for the lives of his family, but to no avail. Lord Desmund would not listen, nor did he want to, for he was enjoying this.
Lord Desmund had ordered that Marissa - Kagi's wife - be stripped of her clothes. This pained Kagi greatly. He then ordered a butter knife be brought into the room. He then handed the knife to the boy.
"I want you to take this knife and skin her with it," he coldly demanded.
The boy stopped. He couldn't. Not in front of the only person who had been nice to him.
I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't.
He thought this over and over.
"Do it or I'll have the girl skinned and dismembered instead."
This was too much for the boy. It was a different kind of pain. It was not physical like he had been accustomed to. He could not hurt the loved ones of the only friend he had.
"KILL THE BOY INSTEAD I BEG YOU!" Kagi had screamed.
The boy stared at Kagi as he had just crushed every hope the boy had clung to. The boy had known after they met up that it was Kagi who gave him the food he so loved. The boy had clung to that food as one of the only reasons to live. The man who gave him that hope had betrayed him.
For the first time, the boy had felt a bit of anger. He was also in shock by what he had heard. The boy felt true despair. He stopped staring at Kagi and looked down at the knife. He did not think any thoughts; he just simply felt his emotions course through him. Suddenly, he felt very sleepy. His hair began to turn white at the roots.
Kagi had noticed the change and began to frantically apologise to the boy, begging him not to do anything to his family. The boy's defeated look now bore a sinister smile. It was eerily similar to the one Kagi had seen before.
The boy's hair was now fully white. His smile faded, and the boy looked more serious now. He slowly turned to Kagi. At this moment, everybody had left the room. The boy looked Kagi dead in the eye and said very calmly,
"Do you think that I could borrow their skin, you see mine looks rather ugly, don't you think?"
After that spine-chilling question, the boy had broken the chains securing his left arm. He then pulled out the thick nails in his knees and stood above Marissa.
Then, he violently began to mutilate her, stabbing her over and over and over again. He made sure he did not kill her right away.
"Scream for your Kagi. SCREAM BITCH, SCREAM!" he barked, thrusting his knife into her.
Every few thrusts, he would turn to Kagi and ensure he was watching. Tears flowed down his face as he began to try to uncuff himself from the pole to save his wife. Just as Kagi's tears had ran down his face, blood ran down Marissa's. Their daughter, Emmy, could not stand to watch this and tried to look away. The three of them began to howl and scream, but the deafening screams became just that little bit quieter. Kagi knew that his wife was dead. He sobbed relentlessly, begging for his wife to come back to life. It was a futile attempt.
The boy had finished stabbing Marissa and slowly approached Kagi. He ran his hand down Kagi's face and gently and intimately pressed his palm against his cheek. He then slowly turned Kagi's face to the right so that he could see his daughter. Kagi tried to reassure his daughter, saying everything would be alright - blatant lies. Kagi knew that at least another person would die soon. The boy, who had been previously staring at Kagi, looks over to Emmy as well.
"Desmund, send someone to make him watch,h" the boy sai,d trying to hold back a laugh.
As the boy predicted, a man fully protected came into the room and held Kagi's head in place and forced his eyes open.
"I also need a sewing kit"
A moment later it was brought to him.
He walks over to Emmy, who cannot stop begging her mother to wake up and save her. The boy grabs her arm and begins to carefully peel the girls skin. She let out a high pitched scream as blood ran down her arm and she shook frantically. The person who was tasked with holding Kagi looked away to preserve his sanity. The boy now had a large amount of skin. He began to hastily sow that skin onto his own body. The sewing was not great, in fact it was terrible as the boy had never sown before but this made it look even more horrifying. By the time the boy had finished thread and flesh covered his entire body with blood leaking through the gaps in-between stitches. Lord Desmund was watching carefully through the one-way mirror. He was in awe of the boy's creativity so he let out an applause and ordered the others to do the same.
The boy smiled, proud of himself.
He then said he doesn't want to kill Kagi and that they can do it. He also demanded that he be given freedom and they will hire him as a contractor of sorts. Lord Desmund is hesitant, but agrees.
The boys hair is now darkening once more - turning black.
The boy lets out a terrifying scream and begins to throw up at the sight of all the blood and skinless bodies.
It was truly a repulsive sight.