Jaune arc The Human's Shadow

Alone at the bottom

Jaune pov

I remebered where things started to go bad, I was kicked out of the academy for submitting fake transcripts and "other" things. I was disowned by my own family when they found out, they took my swodd and shield. All my friends that I thought that I could trust abandoned me to the point that I was a ghost to them, as if I never existed.

I rembered laying againist a wall of some building in the slums of vale. Where all the hopes of hundreds of people just like me go waste away before dying. I remeber myself decaying away because dehydrated and starvation just like everyone else on the dirty streets of the slums or the "INSIDE" as they called it. I survived living there for about 2 months.
People in these slums were fighting and fighting over food and water. Sometimes people would kill each other people to eat each other or to wear the rags that were on the bodies. I was just like them, scavenging off the dead off dead people or stealing food made by the factories or sneaking into the storage area of restaurants. I never killed anyone but I only knocked people or make them back off thanks to pyrrha's training. I never picked fights with anyone unless it was self defense. I minded my own business.

Every day was hell in that place, I blacked in and out every day because my body was struggling to keep up. Every time I woke up, I had to fight for my life every day. Every fight was a fight to the death every single time. I tried to talk it out, I tried to spare people and let them live for another day, I tried to be "honorable." However I learn the hard way that "honor" is bulltshit. Honor doesn't keep you alive, honor does not get you fed and warm in these cold dark slums. Honor will not get you anywhere. I still remeber my first person that I "killed" and also how I got taken to that "place."

It was one day in the blinding hot sun, I was scavenging in the garbage yards that stores trash from Beacon and found a can of tomatoes and a half eaten chicken leg, I turned to look at the labels and checked the date of the canned tomatoes. It was expired but it was better then starving a entire day again. I heard something moving behind me, something stepping on the trash bags. I looked around to see a guy, same age as me looking for food.

Scavenger: Hey this is my trash yard, go find your FUCKING OWN!

Look man, I don't want any trouble and I am passing by.

Scavenger: NAH I seen you here before! You been taking from my spot!

You must've mistaken me for somone else? I never been here before, so my bad I be leaving. You won't see here again.

Scavenger: Yeah you're right, you won't be coming here again!

The guy in front of me charged at me with his knife, he tried to stab me in the neck but I tripped him over and punched him hard in the gut, the guy slumped over in pain. When he tried to get up, I poked him in the eyes before kicking him in the dick and used the can to smash it into the right side of his head. He grabbed my left leg and pulled me down. He got on top of me and trying to press his knife into my chest. I twisted and turned, I managed to redirect his hands so the knife would point right back at him. I flipped him downwards so his head would crash into one of the trash bags and he let go of the knife and the knife was in my hands. I don't know what came over me at the time but I just started stabbing the guy over and over until he stopped moving and screaming. I looked down and I didn't think and realize that I..... I killed him! I didn't mean...... I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted him to get off me but....

I got off the dead guy's body to throw up on some trash bags, I started crying and looked at my hands stained with blood. I threw away the knife and looked at the dead guy. What have I done? I just killed him like a grimm! I just killed that with zero heistation as if he wasn't a person! No no I didn't do anything wrong! I was just defending..... defending myself! Yeah that's what I did.... no no I shouldn't justify killing somone just because of self defense! What is wrong with me?

I heard voices of people coming from behind me, I picked up the can of tomatoes and just ran away without looking back. I got to my hideout that I was staying at the time. A small dirty abandoned apartment with puddles on the floor with a couch, I got inside and quietly closed the door. I walked to the bathroom to wash off the blood with muddy water. I got out of the bathroom to sit on the couch. I sat down and put the can on the floor and laid down on the couch to try to eat the tomatoes. I opened the can and the smell was disgusting, the smell reminded me too much of blood, I couldn't bring myself to eat. Just not after what happened today. So I put the lid back on the can and decided to eat it later. I tried to go to sleep but I can see the image of how I killed that guy over and over in my dreams that I couldn't sleep. I dreamed about how I could've prevented or avoid what I did if it was possible.

I just got off the couch and sat againist the wall and decided to walk out of the apartment and into the streets to get some fresh air or something. I got out of the building and got to the street to see people smoking drugs, prostitution, people managing stall that were selling illegal things like banned weapons, stimulants and other "stuff" . I looked around to see if anyone is looking at me. Somone can call me paranoid but young guys like me that failed at being huntsman are targeted to be harvested for our organs or worse kidnapped for experiments. I heard screaming down the street, I ignored that because it was probably somone being jumped by people and getting beat up. However I noticed that people were running away from their stall and I saw why. A group of people wearing some kind of grey military vests and skull masks were dragging people close to 7 vans. I watched as they rounded people up, I tried to run away but they noticed me and threaten to shoot me if I ran for it. They forced me to go to a group with other people and had us sit down the ground with our hands under our thighs. They told us a waring that if we tried to run away then we be shot down. While the skull mask people were talking. One girl somehow got up and sneaked through the crowd and started to run away, I watched as one of the skull mask people quickly pulled out a pistol and shot the girl's left leg. The rest pulled out their guns and started to fire on the girl at she was falling into the ground. I watched as she was being filled with hot lead and collapsed into the ground making a puddle of blood when she was laying on the ground, dead.

The skull mask people took us into the van's backseats. They had syringes and started people to sleep. I tried to struggle to not be injected but they got the needle into my neck and I felt sleepy. As I closed my eyes, I can hear the engines being turned on and wheels screeching.