P R O L O G U E 

Her first baby steps towards the abyss.

The child’s first memories were not something she’d reminisce – she was a child adored by misery since birth. She remembered being enveloped by the cold snow, her whole body growing numb and her eyes lulling to sleep. She remembered the embrace of death that taunted her to hug it tighter – to never let go. Most of all, she remembered the vivid shadow that would stay next to her, humming a tune that she still hums to this day.

Her name was but a number that varied along with her owners, her first name was 06. The name had been as fleeting as her maidenhood, robbed from her forcefully by a man who sported a bear that smelled akin to the sewers. Another name she remembered was 135, where she had learned what bleeding felt and meant – that her skin and flesh was helpless to sharp metal. By this name she had also learned that as 06 what she experienced was – something that was frowned down upon if it were done to a noble but dismissed when done to a slave.  So the child learned that she, too, would dismiss the pain in the middle of her legs when the deed was done and go to sleep as she should.

Now her name was out of the ordinary; it wasn’t a number anymore. Her name was ‘sacrifice’; at least that was what she had deduced. When they came to her cage they would lift her chin and say “Drink up sacrifice,” or when there was a party and they circled her they would say “let us feed the sacrifice,” before they had her in turns. She would also be stripped off her clothes and they would doodle on her, the doodles were drawn by a metal that was first heated in the flames. She learned later that it was a fire poker that had been used as their doodle-tool.

Then her name changed from ‘sacrifice’ into ‘sacrifices’. There was another person with her now, he bled like she did, he screamed when the ‘party’ was being held like she did, and his eyes reflected her own. The two didn’t speak to each other, they would huddle close when the winter had come, and he learned to hum along with her. The more time passed the more they grew to be close, he spoke first “Does your brand hurt?” his voice was foreign to her ears albeit all the time they had spent being so close to each other “Brand?” Her own voice had sounded even more foreign to her own ears. Had she always sounded so raspy? His chapped lips moved once more but he clamped it shut and pointed to what he meant instead; the doodles.

“The party hurts more,” she tried to curve her lips upwards but decided against it as she was scared it would remind him of the faces that loomed above them when the ‘party’ was being held. He traced the brand with his fingers and clenched his teeth “Why us?” That question had more of an effect than she thought as she felt something warm run down her cheeks – the boy had said something that she deemed a taboo because she knew it would eventually break her. She felt clog up as she tried to bite down the tears and he saw that he, too, was struggling with his own tears. They were children – who didn’t know any better when they had first entered this cage – their hearts sporting a burden heavier than most ever would.

That night the two cried their hearts out being the children they were supposed to be. The two fell asleep in each other’s arms and the morning she woke up, he was nowhere to be found. Days had gone by and the cold air was hitting her harder than before, she realized how she had took his warmth for granted back when he was here. Bile rise up in as he ree day, his face bruised all over and his tattered shirt stained crimson. The man threw the boy in, not even blinking at the sound of the boys gasp from the impact. The girl picked up the boy and hugged his head to her chest while looking at the man – she felt a different kind of warmth surge her whole body. The warmth spread fiercely and warmer than before and she felt her eyes never leaving the back of the man.

One thought crossed her mind: She wanted to decorate that man’s face with bruises and stain his whole body crimson.

The boy’s grunt made her snap out of her thoughts and she pushed the boy’s head away from her chest gently – as if he’d break if she even put a bit more strength into the push. His right eye was blue and his eyelids bulged, his chapped lips were oozing out blood, and his forehead was dent in. She felt her tears stream down her cheeks but she wiped them as soon as they had come out. She placed his head on her thighs with his face facing her and she opened up her shirt without a second thought. Ripping it into shreds and dabbing the tiny fabrics to wipe his blood then the wiped spot before dabbing it with a cleaner shred of her clothes. She opened his shirt and felt as if she had took his punches to the gut along with him, she traced his ribs that were protruding out and wondered if that was how his body was supposed to look; she had, after all, never seen a proper healthy body.

He groaned as she his wounds on his torso “A bit more,” he groaned more in a playful manner and she scolded him, if this was what family felt like then he was her everything. He was both a mother and father to her, an overprotective brother, her husband that would shower her with affection, and her child that she’d hate to have even the tiniest scratch. After she was done, she tenderly dressed him back and finally let her tears escape her orbs “Don’t cry,” his voice betrayed his own words as she cried even more. The same weird warmth surged over her – the same warmth that took over her when that man had tossed the boy into the cage without a care – and she looked at the door the man would always enter from “I’ll pay them back one day.” And pay them back she did.

When his bruises had faded and his cuts had turned into scars, a man came and yanked the children out of the cage. Nudging them with the of his sword into a room that was warmer than where the room that held their cage was. There stood a woman, who had blonde hair tied up neatly and a white oversized coat that the child had never seen before. The boy had a scowl on his face and jerked the girl behind him, as if to shield her from the lady’s view. The girl had her hands crushed in his as he growled in front of the lady – alike to a wolf about to prance on whoever crossed its territory. She peeked from behind the boy to see the lady smile, which led the girl to ponder on whether her teeth were supposed to be as pearly white as the lady or if only the ones born with good blood were blessed by those pearly whites.

The boy stared up menacingly while the girl looked at the lady with immense curiosity. The people that she had seen lately were the masked people in the party, so it had been a long time since she had seen what a female was supposed to look like. The girl looked at her own bundle of hair and frowned at how dull her hair was compared to the lady’s pristine blonde hair. The lady laughed a laugh that was unlike hers too; her voice wasn’t ragged or raspy. It sounded pleasant to the girl’s ear unlike her laugh that would make her own ears cringe at how sickly she sounded.

 “Defending your little girlfriend are you?” The woman’s voice was as sweet as honey even if her words were dripping in mockery. The boy gripped the girl’s hands harder now and she could feel his nails digging into her skin as he did “Ouch!” The lady laughed again “Are you sure you’re defending her? Aren’t you the one hurting her?” The boy looked at the girl and released his grip, his eyes showing his apology. The lady clapped her hands “Well, anyways. Surely we have to dress you both up properly.” She looked at the man behind the two and he took it as his cue to yank the girl by pulling her hair, the boy growled and was about to claw the face of the man when the lady stopped him “Nu-uh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The woman held a knife to the boy’s neck and laughed when the boy grew limp and looked at the girl helplessly.

That would be the third to last time she’d see him breathing.

A/N

I contemplated a lot on this chapter. Pressed the backspace key more than i could count. I pondered on whether i should write the prologue in one go but i'd figure against it. So the next chapter will either be a continuation of the prologue or I might just fastforward into the story. Hope i didn't disappoint you with this chapter annnnddddddddddd I'll do my best to give you a speedy update hehe

Cheers.