DragonMaster2010
Don't Let the Fall of America be Your Fall
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In such times of darkness and peril, your eyes fully open upon what has transpired among the living. We know full well of how we take situations and how we try and rationalize our pain and agony, but all is for not. Darkness is everywhere. In the most unsuspecting places at the most unsuspecting times.From a high corporal business company
To a small orphanage
It was here in this old and secluded home that we truly witness the coming of darkness. But bathed within this darkness brings forth a new wave. Something that, while immersed with in the ever gathering darkness, becomes a unique element to the dull world;
Light.
Deep within a pathway that was gathered within deceased leave-less trees, sat a single large building crafted from old wooden planks and windows that have either been broken by a miss-thrown object, or residue of blood, dried and hardened. The skies only created a depressing scene upon such a dainty home, signaling a terrible coming of lightning and rain coming right behind that.
Within a single window on the top floor of this two story home, a young boy sat quietly upon his bed, and his head, resting on his arms, which were on the window sill. The young boy, no older than eight years old, carried unkempt short black hair and beautiful light blue eyes. He donned simple clothes of a tank top and black jeans. However, around his neck was that of a red jewel, dangling by the strings around his neck. His skin was dull preached and was riddled with scars on his arms and even on his back. His eyes carried no happiness from that of a happy little boy, but in fact, the ever growing anger of a grown adult. And it was all focused on that city.
looking out into the decimated forest that seemed miles away from the lively city of Limbo, and it’s opportunities it had to offer to those who were fortunate enough to arrive there. Most of the other boys and girls would talk amongst themselves about the joys it would be to actually go to such a place and how they would find both freedom and the love they were never given growing up.
But he knew better…
He knew that nothing was there waiting for him. No joy, no happiness, no opportunities to withhold. All that waited for him was a lifelong road of pain and suffering that he would have no escape from. After all, he, first hand, witnessed the trials and tribulations that came with the real world. No mistake was to be missed, no error could go uncorrected, and keep all ties to others at the minimum. That was the code in the city of Limbo for him, and that was the code he had to follow here, in this home of complete and undeniable darkness.
“Dante…?”
The boy didn’t bother to turn to, or acknowledge the young little girl’s voice. He could even picture the very unkempt clothes she wore today. A pink dress over a white blouse with a few cuts and left over blood stained on it, and her hair; dark, short, and quite mussed. This had been the fifth time she had come to him in a week, and frankly, he was already annoyed by her earlier attempts.
“What, Caroline?” He rudely replied.
“W-Well…I saw that you didn’t eat…so I sneaked you this.”
From the tone of her voice, Dante could tell Caroline was desperate in offering a trivial gift to him. He turned slowly to find that his guess was indeed on point in relation to the young girl’s attire. Even her hair was just the same as he remembered yesterday. Dante looked to Caroline’s hands and could see a single muffin, cupped in both her hands, presented to him.
He turned back to the window. “I’m not hungry.”
“B-But…You just…” She tried to get the words to speak out of her mouth, but she found this rather difficult to do. Last thing this Caroline wanted to cause was this young boy to do things…horrible things. She had heard rumors about a special containment box within the orphanage building that held bad kids or psychopathic young boys and girls to be evaluated by the nurse, or worse…eternal solitude. The methods of this home seemed barbaric at times, and even to the point of savagery to the young children who asked too much of questions. “I-I mean…” She paused. “Can’t you…well…”
“Either talk right, or get out.”
The time the boy sounded forceful. Dante wanted nothing more but loneliness in his small quarters, and anyone who entered would meet the same treatment of the cold shoulder.
“O-Okay…” Her eyes scanned the room, looking for the smallest thing to focus on. From a small nail hanging out of the floorboard, to a fly buzzing its way out of the hell hole. Anything she would like to focus on, so long as it wasn’t him. Or worse, his eyes…those piercing blue eyes that felt he was looking within her soul and trying to take it out. Caroline never did like being alone in a room with dangerous people. No one does. But in her perspective, she’d rather share a room with a pit-bull all day then stand in the same room with this anger-filled boy for more than a minute.
“I just thought that…since you hardly eat and all…you’d want something to--”
“I said no.”
“B-But…! You’re so skinny and--”
“I SAID NO!”
She quickly looked up at him as his very anger made her fearfully stare into death’s ever-looming demise. He had trapped her. His piercing blue eyes seemed as though they were glowing within his sockets, staring right into Caroline’s pure brown orbs. Caroline was completely stricken with fear in her heart from such dangerous eyes, staring at her with ferocious anger and blood thirsty rage.
“I-I’m sorry!” She blurted out.
“JUST GET OUT!-!”
She jumped when he swung his arm at her. She quickly dropped the single muffin to the ground, and did what she was ordered. She ran out of the darkening room, eyes watering down her soft cheeks and sniffing up the snot that threatened to come out of her nose. Down the stairs she ran, and finally, she had appeared within her own girl’s dorm, where she ran right for her bed and jumped into it, letting the raggedy comfort cover her face and soaked up her tears.
Other girls only sat around in their own beds, wondering what could be the reason for this girl to want to cry within her bed. Gossip flows quickly within the home, even within the tongues of younger children. The rumor had been spread amongst the kids that Caroline was indeed infatuated with the wild boy, known as Dante, and that she was a monster just like him.
Ever since he first appeared within the orphanage about a week ago, he has shown displays of arsines, anarchy, and physical along with mental violence. Much of the children avoided him and kept a very far distance from his very presence, lest they receive twenty lashes upon their arms and back for consulting with him or even being within the same room as him. As a result of her recent comings and goings to the young boy, Caroline has been gossiped upon about being in related to that monster of a boy, or maybe she and he were romantically together. Though it seemed rather silly for a seven year old girl and an eight year old boy to form a relationship, amongst children, it was more of a prince and a princess within a castle.
Caroline, however, paid it no mind to the accusations, nor did the thought of any romance fill her thoughts while in the presence of Dante. No, fear was the only emotion that was present within her.
This boy was indeed dangerous to even be within the same room with. The pit-bull would have at least been able to have been defeated by out smarting it or subduing it with a book or stick of some sorts. But Dante was no pit-bull. He was no mere house pet or domestic animal of any kind that had a weakness for snacks or trick to make him sit and be nice.
Dante was a predator.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“Caroline Martins! Stand!”
Caroline quickly complied with the order and stood straight in the presence of the one ordering. She had never denied the request and orders of her caretaker. The woman was tall and wrinkled from face to hands. Her black and white long dress and hair done in a very tight bun made her seem to have quite the split ins. Her eyes were threatening through her rectangle shaped glasses, making Caroline want to just disappear from her current destination.
“Y-Yes, Ms. Jovis?” Caroline muttered.
“I noticed you did not say your morning ritual. Please state them. What are the two rules we follow here in St.Romia Orphanage?”
She tried to recall the rules that had been told to them every morning before breakfast. If a child did not remember, he or she would be sent to corporal punishment and that child was never seen or heard from again. There were at least twenty kids who have done so, and they were never seen ever again after they went down to the lower level of the home. The only person who was able to not receive the same treatment was Dante. He was instead sent to his room and was not seen for an entire day. The next day, however, he would return with a black eye and brutal bruises. His arm would be riddled with healed cuts and a finger or two would be bent irregularly.
“U-Um…Rule 1: Never talk unless spoken to…and Rule 2…u-um …”
“Yeees? We are waiting.” Jovis pestered. Caroline looked around briefly at the other girls around her. All kept their eyes upon her and didn’t waver at all. They truly wanted to know the result of all this and some desperately wanted to see what would happen if she couldn’t get it.
“R-Rule 2…Don’t interact with strangers…?” She squinted her eyes, hoping that the strike that comes across her face would not be as hard as it was the last time she was punished. She had hit her foot against the wall and accidently said damn, unfortunately within Ms. Jovis’s hearing. She took her small foot and slammed it into the wall repeatedly, forcing her to say that “dirty word” again, ordering her to repeat it. She complied. She could still feel the pain of her foot, and the pain slowly returning within her dirty shoes.
“Hmmm…Accepted.”
A breath of relief came out of Caroline as Jovis turned on her heel--hands behind her back, and walk slowly out of the room. She was relieved that she was able to survive the torment of being brutalized by her more than stricken nurse and caretaker.
“Hmmm…Wait a minute.”
Caroline’s fears suddenly came pouring back in. She straightened herself with her arms to the side. She started to sweat profusely and her spine felt a cold chill slipping through her entire body down to the last hair strain. There were three things Caroline feared the most in the orphanage; Jovis, spiders…and Dante. However, Dante never did anything to physically hurt her, like Ms. Jovis would usually do. It sometimes made her wonder who truly was the dangerous person here.
“Y-Yes, Ms. Jovis?”
“If I’m not mistaken, I have gathered from a reliable source that you were seen a few minutes ago within a certain room. Where might that have been?” She turned back to Caroline, eyes filled with a malice intention and her grueling smile was enough to make the devil himself grow cold. “And unless my memory serves…that same room was where we sent a certain boy into.”
Caroline tensed up now. Who could have found her out? Everyone was within the dining room, reading or others were within their dorm rooms. Who could have seen her? And how did they tell Jovis so fast? Suddenly as if answering her inner thinkings, there was the slight sound of wiring being sneaked into her ears. She peeked to the corner of the room’s wall, only to almost gasp and scream at the grotesque scene. She tried to ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there. And throw it out of her mind, but that was impossible. The very eye didn’t waver it’s stare at the young girl and snarled at her with appetizing growls. The CCTV camera of a creature was too distracting for her to virtually think straight, let alone answer Ms. Jovis’s question.
“Well?” Jovis irritation rising. “How do you explain yourself?”
“I-I…”
“INCORRECT!-!”
An excruciating pain had befallen the poor young girl’s ribcage, as she could feel the every rib break within her fragile small body. It felt as though she was stabbed in the gut by a knife, but luckily this was not the case. It was simply her side that was punctured. She fell straight to the ground, gasping for air with the wind knocked out of her pipes, grasping her wounded side in pain and crying.
“What’s this?-! Tears?-! Well next time, you will learn from this mistake!-!” Jovis yelled as she began to use a long ruler she had held within her hand, probably punishing another past child for an inconvenient wrong. Ms. Jovis proceeded to senselessly beating the poor Caroline with the ruler, making sure she not miss one visible part of skin, from her arms to her legs. She did not stop, not even at the sound of the shrieking of Caroline or the draw of blood from her head.
In the mist of this brutal torture she had been receiving…she had seen at the door’s opening someone…Here eyes were to squinted to see who it truly was. However she could make out a white shirt, black long pants, and dark hair. Even though she was not 100% sure who this boy was at all, she could only mutter one name for a helping hand. Though she herself never thought she’d utter such a name now of all times, she if fact did so…she muttered his name;
“D…Da…Dan…te…Dante…”
…
Her eyes slowly awakened to a strange, but not unfamiliar sight.
Darkness.
She had known the darkness once before. It was not new to her at all. In fact, Darkness was a best friend that she would always see even in the sun light. Ah, the sunlight. What she wouldn’t give to feel its warm embrace once again. The freedom of life with her family, taking those summer drives up to the beach, and eating hot dogs and drinking cool refreshments. That was the life she had always wanted for herself again…However, such times were lost within the hands of those…creatures. They came so fast and striked so quickly that Caroline had absolutely no time to react or even run. She was forced to sit there and watch as her mother, her father, her dear family…was just a rad colored illusion within her memories…
She had finally taken heed of her surroundings, discovering that she was lying on a very grimy floor that felt like pavement beneath her body. Not to be confused with smooth pavement but rocky, dug up pavement that hasn’t been pressed down on for years. She slowly stood up, but quickly got one knee hissing painfully from the damned injuries she felt upon her legs. They were bruised and bloodied up beyond mere band-aid care could fix up. Though she felt such pain all over her body, it wasn’t anything new. She had been use to pain. She faced it every day and dealt with the injuries at night, trying to cope with the agony she was going through.
She couldn’t recognize the dirty walls or the half Illuminated light that flickered over her. However she did notice that this room only had one way out…and that door was barricaded. Beyond those bars was a hall way that seemed to go down quite a feat along with other doors that were stationed right by the walls that lead there to the entrance of this dark and gloomy dungeon of a cell. Scared, tired, and hungry, Caroline was confused and weak in her position. She didn’t know what to do or who to call…She was alone. Lonely wasn’t something she was still use to. Not since her parents left her…or better yet were taken from her by those beast.
She felt all hope was lost within her. No hope to escape and no one to care for her. She slowly put herself at the corner of the disgusting dirty walls, letting her hair get dirtied as well, and curled herself up into a ball. She had nothing to comfort her, and no one to save her…Just the thought was enough to bring tears to her eyes…this truly was her personal hell.
“I…I hate this…” She mumbled while sobbing, “I don’t…I don’t wanna be here anymore…I hate the beatings..I hate the blood…I Hate it…I just…I just wanna get out…I just wanna get out…I just wanna…go home…”
…
…
…
“Then get up.”
She couldn’t believe her very ears. To hear such a voice in a place like this was unimaginable. Suddenly she could feel all her sadness and anger subside within her gut and her hope slowly crept into her in the form of his name;
“D-Dante…? Is that you?”
Soon she heard trodden footsteps approach her jail cell with small crunching on the sand ground outside her cell. She looked up to finally see that she was correct with her guess. She had gotten a glimpse of the eight year old black haired boy once again. However, he was now wearing a black unzipped regular hoodie and was seemingly injured by the looks of his shirt being ripped slightly and his jeans and shoes having cuts on them. But what quickly grabbed her attention was what had been clenched within Dante’s hand. It looked the size of a small bolder. He grasped it by, what looks like, grey hair that sprouted from the top of its head. Upon further inspection, she was horrified to discover that it was not a rock or some kind of bag…but instead it was a bleeding head…but not of human origin. No, it was like that of a beast that had experienced anguish and pain.
“Wh-What…? What is…that?-!”
“Oh this?” Dante smirked with malice in his smile. “Ms. Jovis.”
This was actually the first time Caroline had actually seen him smile any kind of smile at all. He was usually to himself and very mean hearted with his coldness and icy stares. But now, he was actually smiling…however it wasn’t the type of smile she had thought she’d see on him.
“Anyway, let’s get going.” Dante suggested. “I was able to kill off these guards, but we gotta move fast. The sun will rise soon.”
“The sun?”
“Duh! The freakin’ sun will come up in about two hours. More people will wake up by that time. Now unless you really wanna get out of here, then say somethin’ now, or stay in this place forever.”
Caroline looked at him in frighten emotions. She had never thought this eight year old boy had such an older way with how he was talking to her. It was like he was a grown man in a boy’s body and his very aura said that he was indeed ahead of his time. She had to really think if this was what she wanted to do. Of course she wanted to escape no matter what the cost, however she also worried that she would end up being caught and dragged back. Plus she worried about how she was going to survive out there in that wild world. It scared her to think that she might even die out there if she stepped foot out of the orphanage…What was she to do.
“Oh yeah. I should tell you this too.” Dante noted, getting Caroline’s immediate attention. “If you really do plan on coming with me out of here, you gotta realize that once we’re out, don’t expect anyone to take care of us. We’re just tigers in the wild. And as tigers…we fight to survive. Okay?”
Caroline had to really think about this decision. Her life out there wouldn’t be any better out there. In fact she was sure she would face much hardship in the city and on their journey to save their skins. It was almost inevitable that they might even die as well…but…she didn’t want to be secluded in such a place as this, nor did she want to be alone anymore. She had seen too much darkness and had been splattered with too much bloodshed, that she couldn’t properly find her bearing on the world.
She had made her decision and nodded on it with a bit of determination.
“…Y-Yes.”
Dante smiled. Not a smile that was of malice or evil intent…but of kindness. A smile she never thought she’d see of him...a smile that she never thought she’d blush at either. Could she truly be feeling something for this boy? Could all those times she tried to help him and feed him…be because she was actually in love with him? Or was it because of the fact that she was probably the first one in a long time to see him smile…and it was for her.
“Good answer.”
Dante had used the key of the guard he killed before and opened her jail cell. Caroline struggled to stand up but she found that impossible to do no he own. The bruises she had received were so severe that she couldn’t even stand on her own two feet. She felt embarrassed that she was such a burden to their plan of escape. She even gave the disembodied head of Ms. Jovis an icy glare that rivaled that of Dante’s even.
“What’s the hold up?”
“I-I’m sorry…” Caroline muttered with shame. “I-I can’t...”
A deep annoyed sigh came from Dante’s lips as he said, “Whatever then…come ‘ere.”
Caroline then felt her body be lifted right off the ground and felt herself be carried all of a sudden. She could feel one of Dante’s cold hand placed on her back, while the other one under her legs, carrying her as a groom would carry her bride, or a better phrase; bridal style. She could feel her face burning red at his touch, and felt even more uncomfortable at how she was even being carried in such a way too…however she didn't care. Because within those moments of silence within Dante’s hands…she felt happy. She felt a happiness she hadn't felt in such a long time. She rested her head to his chest, smiling that she had finally been able to feel the happiness she thought was once lost.
Within her darkness…
She found light.