The Haunted - Husk of Innocence

Prologue

{3rd Person POV}

In a dense jungle, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, was a very run-down house. Several windows were broken, vines were coating the walls, both inside and out. The surrounding environment was slowly, but surely, creeping its way into the building. The remains of a porch stood outside the front door, the wood of the ceiling and floor were wet and deteriorating, matching the rest of the wear and tear on the old home.

Without any form of warning or reason, a young boy seemingly came into existence in front of the ruins of the house. His clothes were monochromatic, a full set of black and white. A long-sleeved black shirt under a white jacket, with fur on a black hood. Two white straps that were over his jacket were connected to some sort of hold on his back. A white belt stretched across his abdomen with two additional straps forming an X on his left side. The belt held up a pair of black shorts with white X's on the legs. His white shoes were covered too by white X's, and a large black and white scarf was placed on his back.

The boy's eyes fluttered open, and he began to rise from the ground. Groggy and unbalanced, the boy looked upon his surroundings but found no signs of recent life, the only thing of seemingly any sort of possible life was the ruined house. Hearing the distant boom of thunder, he looked to the sky and was greeted with a drop of rain. More and more drops began to fall and the young lad quickly walked under the porch to take cover from the rain. Unsure of when the storm would end, he began to enter the house and took in the sight of the room that greeted him.

While the interior showed recent activity, the room itself was devoid of human life. Ashes on the floor signaled signs of a campfire, and the shelves looked as though they were rummaged through in a hurry. The counter had a thin layer of dust, as did the two chairs facing it. A large ice box sat behind the counter, although the boy wondered why it would need to be made of steel. The stairs led up to a decently sized loft, although from where the boy was standing, there was nothing up there worth investigating.

Shifting his focus towards the wall in the back, there lay an open door. Stumbling towards the opening, he entered a small room with a bed and a quaint window. Shuffling towards the window, he peered outside, only to be greeted with obscuring vines growing on the outside of the glass. Turning around, the boy saw another door, into a different room. Entering this room, however, brought a sense of familiarity and homecoming.

"This place...", he said, taking in the well-kept room, the softness of the carpet, the scattered organization of the bookshelf. Just then, he felt a sharp pain in his head as a migraine struck his skull. He clutched his forehead in pain as he saw what seemed like a ghost of a child, sleeping soundly in the small bed in the corner. Just as quickly as the headache came, it left, as did the apparition, leaving the boy in white puzzled as to what he just bore witness to.

Leaving both bedrooms behind, his exploration led him to a doorway underneath the staircase. Unlike the room he had just left, this door gave him great trepidation, an unwelcome feeling in his gut. Braving the strange depths of the stairs below revealed a peculiar sight, however, as he was welcomed by a large circle of arcane runes arranged in a circle with a gold sigil in its center, the entire basement was carved from the earth. Two hastily fixed torches provided light, and while the magic circle on the ground was confusing, one corner of the basement seemed to be calling to him.

The corner he was drawn to didn't seem like anything special at first, just a couple planks of wood to patch a hole in the dirt floor. "Probably just something to prevent vermin.", the boy thought, before another sharp headache struck him, this one worse than the last. In his mind's eye, he was subject to blurry visions of two boys venturing down this basement. He watched helplessly as they broke past some of the planks and ventured deep into a cave, as they were blocked by flames erupting from behind them and smoke started clouding the small tunnel.

"What is... no, stop-", he cried out as the migraine grew worse with each passing second.

He fell to his knees in pain, clutching his head as they ventured further and further into the earth and further away from salvation.

"Get out... get out of there...", he grunted, unable to get through to them, or to anyone.

His fingernails clung to the fabric of his hood as he reared his head back, the pain from his head feeling as if it would burst his cranium. All he saw was the two boys scramble about a dark chamber, panicking as a dark force was slowly pinning them.

And then he watched as the younger of the two fell into a deep black pit, and fell into a never-ending nightmare.

A new vision came, of that same boy but as he turned to face the boy in white, the latter had to resist a scream as his head turned all the way around to face him. With a wicked grin plastered below his glowing, pale white eyes.

"Get away... GET AWAY FROM ME!!", he yelled as he blacked out.

The boy awoke under the foliage of a pine tree, to a few butterflies clinging to the fabric of his clothes. They began to fly away as he slowly sat back up, feeling the crisp air on his hands, as well as the leftover dew on the late morning grass. Coming out from under the brush revealed the bright sunlight and clear blue sky. Accompanying the changed scenery were the sounds of civilization: the ring of a hammer striking iron at a blacksmith, the innocent laughter of small children, and the general ramble of common folk going about their day-to-day business, bartering goods and exchanging the latest gossip.

While a welcome sight to be sure, the boy in white still had a lingering question or two in his mind. "What was that place? And how did I get here?"

Before braving the machinations of civilized society, he shifted his gaze to a small pond just outside the boundaries of the village. The water was a nice, clear blue, perfectly reflecting the midday sky above. As the boy approached the water's edge, he lowered his hood to gaze at his reflection. His hair was as black as his shirt and messy to boot. His facial features caught his eye the most, though, ironically enough. His eyes were two different colors; his left eye was a pale blue, with the last vestiges of color lingering on his iris, and in contrast, his right eye was a peculiar shade of crimson. And even more confusing than that was a scar on his right cheek, just on his cheekbone: a red bolt-shaped scar that almost seemed to glow faintly, although he couldn't tell if that was an effect from the daylight illuminating his features.

Before he could trace the scar on his face, a feminine voice from behind him startled him out of his trance.

"Excuse me, are you new around here?"