October 30th, 2024
Huff...Huff...
A young child ran through an old and rancid alleyway. Panting while tears streamed down his naive, innocent face.
He looked to be running from something he didn't want to confront nor think about for the rest of his life.
Thoughts ran rampant inside of his mind. A wry feeling of emptiness followed him, as the shadows behind him surged.
Luckily, the child managed to get out of the alleyway before whatever was chasing him was able to catch up; instead, he was now in a busy street with a sea of people constantly passing him.
It had been a couple of hours since he had escaped from home. When his parents constantly abused him, they vented their frustrations on their child instead of dealing with them like a mature adult, leading to the poor child's mind becoming fractured.
Although he never knew what a good parent was, he knew his parents were bad ones; call it a genetic intuition. So he ran from home at the first chance he got.
He lived in a rather run-down shack, and because his parents were alcoholics, it was rather easy to slip away once they were hammered.
Although he was very studious and worked extremely hard in school, his parents treated him like a slave.
The child groggily slumped through the busy streets of modern China, searching for something. He asked around, repeating the same question in a tired voice. "Do you know where the Flower Garden apartment complex is?" Eventually, he received help from a kind passerby who helped search for the place and gave him directions; she even accompanied the "lost" child and helped them find the apartment.
They trudged along for a long time, so long that the sun had set and the moon had risen. Before finally reaching it. It was a tall building made out of bright red bricks; it had a bright atmosphere, amidst the night.
He looked around to thank the woman who had led him here, just for her to have disappeared entirely, leaving him alone in the dark, only illuminated by the stray rays of light from a local lamp.
'Where did she go?' He thought to himself, however, it was already dark out, and he didn't want to risk getting into danger, so he silently prayed for her well-being and headed up the building.
On the third floor of this apartment complex, one of the child's friends from school resided. They were rather close, and so he inquired about their address in case they wanted to hang out, or in this case, for protection.
He shakily walked up the stairs, each step echoing through the dark and void-filled floors of the building.
'Can't they afford lights?'
Each step he took only increased the strange sensation he felt. It was as if something was watching him. He tried to shake off the feeling, telling himself that in the extremely unlikely case that there was someone, or something out there, that they weren't out to harm him, or they would have done it already, this belief carried him all the way up to the third floor of the building.
Upon reaching it, his shaking fist knocked on the door, sending a loud noise reverberating throughout the interior of the building.
He knocked and knocked, the eerie feeling of something watching him in the darkness growing stronger, as if it was getting closer.
He began to knock faster and faster, as he felt it approaching.
Eventually, the door would open, and a tired-looking young girl about the same age as him greeted him groggily. She had light brown hair and thin, hazel eyes that were full of bright annoyance. It seemed she had tried to experiment with makeup for the first time, as some messy, pale coloured lipstick was applied to her lips.
"Hey...Is it late, you know? You woke me up..." She complained.
The child apologized profusely before entering the apartment. Once the door closed, the feeling of eyes in the darkness dissipated. Heaving a huge sigh of relief, he focused back on the main issue.
"Jingjing, I really appreciate you helping me out...My parents were especially harsh today." The child thanked her.
She simply turned her head away and crossed her arms in annoyance.
"Hmph...Well, if you say so...My parents aren't home tonight, wanna play some games?" She grinned.
"Sure!" The child nodded happily.
The two of them joyfully headed to the girls' room, she booted up her personal computer and opened up a video game that both of them both enjoyed. The main premise of the game was catch creatures with special abilities and build a home base where you could survive, and it took place on a mainly uninhabited island. It was a pretty comfy game to enjoy with friends.
When she opened up her computer, he saw her screen background. It was a family photo, it was her parents, her elder brother, and her. Though with how the frame was positioned, she was pushed to the furthest edge of the frame. He decided not to speak on it, though, not wanting to bring up a potentially sensitive topic.
She happened to have an old laptop computer lying around, so she offered it to him and let him play with it. He happily obliged.
They ended playing the game together for a couple of hours into the night. They bickered,
"Hey! Those are my resources! Give them back!" The boy pleaded.
"Nah uh!" Jingjing grinned sheepishly.
fought,
"I'm getting my stuff back, whether you give them willingly or not..."
reconciled,
"Fine...I'm sorry for taking them..."
worked together,
"Quick! Flank them from the side while I draw their attention!"
and overall had a very nice time together. They chatted about their life experiences, including how their 14th birthdays were approaching soon, and how they were lucky to have been born in the same month.
The two of them blushed simultaneously at each other at times; they were very good friends.
1:44 A.M. October 31st, 2024.
Whilst the two slept cozily next to each other after a long night of gaming, a hard knock would come from the door.
A sharp wind would cut through the air from out the window, waking up the young girl, but not the boy. She rubbed her eyes groggily, clearly upset at having been woken up twice in a single night.
She looked at the childish boy who had fallen asleep next to her, and a cheeky idea came to her mind. So she leaned in silently towards his right cheek and.....
chuu
In her pink, flowery pajamas, she'd put on her slippers leisurely, casually walking towards the front door of her house, and she opened it with an angry expression.
"Hey! Wha-
She didn't get to finish that statement, as a dark cloth enveloped her body, and a mask was placed over her face, preventing her from speaking. She squirmed and struggled; however, it was to no avail, as a mysterious figure grabbed her and departed.
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6:03 A.M. October 31st.
The child woke up tiredly, he definitely hadn't gotten the right amount of sleep last night. He looked around the morning room after his eyes adjusted to the light, just to see his "friend" had disappeared.
At first, he thought she was just playing hide and seek and wanted to surprise him. So he played the fool and sleepily exited the room, pretending to act oblivious so she'd be able to get the scare off...but that scare never camed.
In fact, it never would.
He spent the next half an hour searching the apartment for her, an ever increasing sense of dread filling his mind. His eyes locked on to the door, which was unlocked for some reason. His eyes widened, and he started to hyperventilate in a panic, he ran outside of the apartment and began to search everywhere he could for her. He waited for an hour or so at the doorstep, even heading up to the apartment multiple times just to make sure that she wasn't just out to grab groceries.
With a heavy heart, he called the police and explained the situation. They listened attentively and began searching for him.
Thanks to the Chinese surveillance systems across the country, they managed to locate him in under an hour and brought him in.
The man was a thirty-two year old convenience store worker, who owed the girl's parents, who were bankers, an enormous amount of money that they had lost on gambling in Macao. As a way to take revenge, or be the revenger of his own misfortune, he kidnapped their child and imparted all of his rage and pain onto her instead.
He confessed that he originally intended to hold her hostage for ransom, but after several unresponded voice mails and texts left on read, his anger and despair got the better of him.
The man was physically fine, but sentenced to life in jail, a punishment that was deserved given the crimes he had committed.
However, to the child's dismay, his friend had already long passed before the man was caught.
When the police brought her into the station, they refused to let anyone see her corpse, but the child squirmed and fought with everything he had, if only for just a glimpse of her.
The body that was laid on a stretcher was cold and lifeless, her clothes showed no signs of damage thankfully, but they were dirty and filled with stains of dried blood, evidently caused by physical trauma.
Her body showed signs of torture, abuse, and other gruesome acts too heinous to be repeated to a thirteen year old child who pestered them with questions repeatedly with tears in his eyes.
The child's mind was shattered, the friend he had known for years, his best friend, and the only person he loved in this world, was gone.
With an empty mind, heart, and soul, he gradually walked up the stairs to the apartment one last time. His mind was simultaneously the most empty and active it had been in his entire life. He could barely think.
Subconsciously, he had walked into the bathroom, and saw his face in the mirror. There was a light lipstick imprint on the his right cheek, and it wasn't hard to figure out how it had gotten there.
The realization hit him like a truck. His vision became blurry and his mind was dizzy, he used the sink as an anchor, as he vomited straight onto the floor out of a hazy confusion. He knew what was going to come next. He knew he'd have to return to his awful parents and suffer through the pain of loneliness. He knew that this era of his life was coming to a close, for good. And he knew that he'd never be able to forget, or forgive himself, over what had transpired here.
He started bawling uncontrollably, clawing at his skin like he wanted to tear it off. He cried and cried for hours on end, until his eyes were blood-shot red. His body shook violently, as if the weight of his sins had come back to haunt him.
"W-why..." He wondered aloud.
From then on, he vowed to never leave someone he cared about be taken away from him(Unless it was of their own volition of course), and to protect them with everything he had, he had always wanted to be a hero, especially with her by his side.
"I won't leave them behind again. I swear upon this love-forsaken world. I'll be the hero for the people who don't have one to save them." He declared.
Then, suddenly words began to appear in his mind. As the strange presence that was watching him before enveloped his mind, assualting him with information. However, even in his broken state, he managed to understand it.
'You've truly proven yourself as someone worthy of this. If you truly are willing to put down your life to save those you care about. I can ensure that you will save them. All you have to do is accept my offer.'
Even though he couldn't see whatever was speaking to him, nor could he understand what in the world was happening to him right now, he stared at the mirror with cold, hard, determination.
"It's a deal."
Instantly, he felt a surging flow of information envelop his mind. Power that was unheard of.
'Oh right, what was your name child?' The voice inquired.
The child paused for a second, before speaking.
"Sang Pianyi."