The boy looked all around him, dazed and confused as his arm untied the knot that strained his neck.
'Wh—How? This is not how I remember it.'
'I feel my control slipping away, it seems that it didn't take kindly to the way I forced the switch.'
'That may not be the worst thing to happen. I doubt either of us could deal with this on their own.'
'Yes, but together...'
'As one.'
Their body movements and thoughts instantly got in sync as they hastened to patch their battered state.
The boy ground his teeth to dust as he ripped away the shirt covering his arm. Pressed for time, he didn't slow down even as the fabric-fused scabs peeled away with it, releasing a mix of pus and blood.
He was weary that even though his will to live prevailed, death still had his foot lodged through the door.
So he ignored the hurt it caused him, a hurt made worse as his wounds got exposed to the chill of the morning wind. To the boy, it all felt like another drop in a bucket that was full to the point of spilling. And yet he endured it, because he knew full well that he does not shoulder it alone.
The boy then bit down on the shirt, gulping as his own sweat and blood dripped down his throat. And set himself to the task of cutting it into pieces, an effort made more difficult given how drenched the fabric was.
All the while, the boy kept trying to clench his fist and wiggle his toes. But his limbs simply stared back at him, unmoving. At a loss from their stubbornness, the boy thought he was somehow doing it wrong, and so he tried it on his healthy limbs.
When that worked, the boy attempted to move them again. But try as hard as he might, they refused to budge, a faint tingle was the best he could manage.
It was as though the order to move got stuck in his brain, stranded and unrelayed.
'Damn bastards, they will get what's coming for them.'
The boy's head then twisted to one side as he pulled the shirt away to the other, and the sound of ripping cloth followed.
'Forget about that for now. Here, this should be enough' he said as he gathered the long scraps of cloth together on his lap.
The boy passed one under his wing and wrapped it around his frail arm. Then, using his mouth to hold it in place, he tied it as tightly as he could to stop the blood from flowing.
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Having mostly stopped the bleeding, the boy tried to stand himself up. But struggled to find his footing on numb, wobbly legs that started to tingle as though nested in by a swarm of ants.
As his effort neared fruition, he felt control shifting all of a sudden, and it almost sent him crashing down. But by now, the two were working together in tandem. And it was only thanks to this newfound harmony that he managed to maintain his balance.
'Wait! This is—this doesn't feel right.'
'Don't panic...keep your breathing steady, the bleeding...it has to—'
'What is happening? Talk to me!'
'I don't know...the switch, it—I feel exhausted, like I am going to sleep for a long time.'
'No, please! Do not leave me. I don't want to be alone, not again...'
'Don't worry...I will be back, I promise you. The next time I open my eyes...let it be under a roof of our own.'
The words slurred as they vanished into nothing, and the boy felt deafened by the silence that took hold in their place.
As he clenched a heart that grew heavier with each passing moment, a feeling of longing took over him.
'Always dreaming big, huh? That is our way...'
For the first time since forever, a wide grin reached the boy's eyes as he giggled. He felt warm and fuzzy, and with a renewed vigor he started walking, one-leg hopping, forward. His mind was clear and focused on only one goal: To meet his friend's expectations.
He leaned against the wall, using it as a crutch as the end of the alley neared in sight. Unbothered by its moist touch and desensitized to the smell of urine that clogged his nose, the signature scent of Vagren.
In fact, air never smelled so good as the boy sensed the aroma of roses cuddling his nostrils, and he floated in its trail. A smell so mesmerizing that he almost got pricked by the thorns that lay in his path.
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The boy quickly hid at the tail end of the alley and inspected the group blocking his path. If it wasn't for the pile of junk he was stuck trying to hop over, the boy would have walked straight into this ambush.
They numbered four in total, rough and unruly and with more mud on their heads than hair. They gripped their wooden clubs with menacing intent as they closed in. But the boy did not scramble to escape, It was clear to him that he wasn't their intended target.
The girl that stood in their midst looked so out of place with her clean white boots and unblemished face. A pointy hat sat on her head rivaling its length, and from it hung a little fur ball that jiggled in the breeze. Her purple dress stopped short of her knees and on its back sewn in glittery white was the sigil of a candle flipped upwards.
The boy glanced all around trying to find a way to slip past unnoticed, but found every route of escape blocked. With no hope to outrun a pursuit, he had no choice but to wait for this matter to settle.
That's when he noticed a figure hiding in the shadows. His fluffy long-sleeved robes and the way the scarf wrapped around his head felt familiar. It reminded him of a man he once saw riding atop a giant beast guiding people through the land.
The boy then circled back and scanned the faces of the four, and felt relieved when he didn't recognize any of them. In order to survive in this hellish place, the boy had to familiarize himself with his surroundings.
Even though he mostly lived isolated, he strove to know the people he seldom interacted with. And so every time he ran into someone who was either willing or able to do him harm, he made sure to carve their face into memory.
He held no interest in their names,, without one of his own it meant little to him. And with the rate people around him were perishing, he found it impossible to keep up.
His solution was to give everyone who mattered a number. With the intent to both trivialize them in his mind and perhaps a hint of jealousy for what he lacked. As the list grew further, the boy started rearranging its members, ranking them by order of how dangerous he deemed them.
To the many others who would vanish out of mind as quickly as they did out of sight, he called by their traits.
The four didn't seem like much to him, Vagren was already crawling with nameless vagrants up to no good. He noticed their varying sizes and took to calling them small, medium, big, and bigger. Next was the guide, with his mustache that looked like a bug crawling into his nose and the way his hair shone in the sun. The word sleazy quickly popped into the boy's mind.
But the girl was different, the way she stood tall and confident despite the gravity of the situation vexed him.
'205, for now at least...'
That's when Bigger grabbed his attention as he turned to sleazy and said
"You weren't lying, huh? She does look a rich cunt.
Don't worry little girl, you will see mommy and daddy soon; once they cough up our pay.
That's if they don't mind having you back a little broken into, hehehe."
"It's about time the hairy bunch saw some action. I already know what to do with my share"
Big said as he swirled his tongue around, revealing a row of teeth that belonged on a decaying corpse.
"Big surprise, you will spend it like you always do. Shooting that white piss and buying whores." Small snickered as he replied.
"No! Well, yes. But this time it's different..."
"Oh yeah, how?"
"Haven't you heard? The Red Shack is gonna reopen soon. And with this is money I am gonna get the best woman they have. She will be clean and have good teeth, and hair! I am done with the bald skanks of that bitch Marha. Why, the last one I had almost looked like you, hahahahaha!"
The boy saw Small's face turn orange then red before a wheezing laughter burst out from within him.
"That's because it was. Pfft!"
"Huh?"
"Enough fucking around, grab that bitch before she makes a racket"
Bigger barked an order as he pointed forward, and Medium was the one to answer it.
"Say, you are a virgin, right? You are aren't you?"
Medium spoke with a stammer and kept shaking his head around as he reached forward with long nails filled with dirt.
"I am not like them, I am saving myself for someone—someone special. You believe me, don't you?"
But the boy's attention was still focused on Big as he grabbed Small by the collar and kept shaking him around like a dirty rug.
"You bastard! What do you mean it was you?"
"What do you want me to say? You were blind drunk that night, so I took the girl's place and got your money. It was back-breaking work! But then I had enough to get me two women at once."
Small answered while tapping his head with his index.
By then big was frothing at the mouth as he shouted
"You fuck! Is that why I had bite marks all over my co—"
BOOM!
A loud bang took even the boy by surprise as he saw the virgin Medium smash into the wall between the two. He let out a gasp trading blood for air as he slid down to the floor.