“Mom…?” a small child spoke out into the darkness. He rubbed his eyes as he walked down the hallway. He had heard a loud noise coming from the other room, his parents’ bedroom, just a few minutes prior. Usually the only one who would be up this late at night would be his mother, but even this was quite late for her, and she was always quiet at night. So what then…?

            The boy frowned—well, more like pouted—as he came closer to the bedroom door, only to hear the sounds becoming louder and coming from different sources. Did his mother wake up his father or something? What were they doing…? In his confusion, he knocked on the door, waiting a few seconds without response before turning the doorknob and letting himself in.

            He couldn’t see much in the dark, with the only light of the room being the moonlight shining in from the window, and the light from two.. flashlights?

            “What…?” he murmured as his tired eyes tried to read the situation, but because it was too dark for him to see much at all, he tried to go by his ears, listening as he slowly stepped forward into the room.

            “, there’s a kid!” a husky male voice shout-whispered. The boy frowned. That voice didn’t sound familiar at all, and it especially wasn’t his mother or father’s.

            “Get rid of ‘im, we can’t have him seeing things and ratting us out,” another voice, female this time.

            “Oh, c’mon, boss,” the male voice spoke again, his voice now becoming louder, and suddenly, the flashlight was being shined in the young boy’s face. He flinched away from the sudden brightness, shutting his eyes and trying to cover his face with his hands. “Looks pretty young, not bad-lookin’ either. We could make a killing off ‘im on the market.”

            “Unnecessary baggage. Do away with ‘im, let him go with his precious little parents” the female retorted.

            There was some sort of grunt before the one holding the flashlight was walking to the young boy, making the latter fall back in surprise and fear. His hands sprawled to his sides as he tried to steady himself on the floor. It was then that the tips of his fingers on his right hand touched something, something wet, something sticky, something cold. He shakily raised his hand up to where the light was on him, his face paling as he realized it was red.

            Red… red…

            “Come ‘ere, kiddo…”

            Bedroom… parents…

            “Don’t be scared…”

            ‘Do away with’… ‘get rid of’….

            “Just close your eyes and wait…”

            Noises… red… red… r…ed…

            “This won’t hurt a bit…”

            No… no… no…

            A chuckle. “Well, for me.”

            No… no… no…

            “NO!”

----------

            The way Lay opened his eyes and simply sat up without reaction from his dream was a sign of how many times that one scene had repeated in his head, playing eternally in torturing recurrence. He wondered how many times he’d see the same scenes, over, and over, and over again, before they finally ended by the only true savior of the world: death.

            He shook his head to himself, trying to push the thoughts away, and looked to his side, both surprised and unsurprised to see Tao sitting in a chair by his bed,  fast asleep from most likely watching over Lay for hours on end. He rolled his eyes at the thought, both amused and revolted at how hard Tao was pushed to work. The boy was probably still recovering, and yet here he was, hovering over Lay’s bed, about to topple over from his position on the chair. He sighed and swung his feet over the side of the bed, so that he was sitting face-to-face with the guard, before resting his hand on Tao’s shoulder and gently shaking the boy to rouse him.

            “Tao, wake up… you’ll hurt yourself more if you sleep like that,” he half-teased, half-chastised, smiling slightly as the boy came to, his dazed eyes wandering a little but before resting on Lay.

            “Oh… you’ve finally awoken,” Tao said, his tone a mix of surprised, relieved, an