Red Strings & Broken Cages ー juuzou, s.

iii

edited; April 27, 2016 ; 4:46PM

[warning: this chapter contains triggering themes, please read at your own risk.] 

     Mama. I won't do it again.

     Faces of wary tight-lipped smiles and locked scarred arms appeared, as a dark and large hand reached out to a boy's opened mouth, clasping it shut with brute and merciless strength. A muffled scream echoed its way throughout the candle-lit hallway and into an endless void, where it dispersed to thin air, into nothing but the once memory of a cry for help.

     Mama. Please.

     Crimson shrunken eyes bore heavy and stained tears, as they came rolling down on a pale canvas. His fragile limbs were bounded by rusty chains and never-ending consequences of torture. Stories behind the large chunks of red rash blisters, fallen sheds of broken skin, and deep indented lines lie hidden beneath his worn-out clothes, too big for his child-like form.

     Mama. I'm sorry.

     Pain shot throughout his body at the slightest movements he made. The dim room was forever condemned with cruelty towards a child, a human. His shattered body shook in a violent way as the heel of his foot pressed down on the ground, cowering away from the woman before him as if she was the devil herself. A deep and resounding laugh escaped from her red lips, her eyes concealed by the black round glasses she wore, which reflected the flickers of the candles.

     Rei-chan, what you did was wrong. You know what happens now, right?

     His sank his teeth down at the inside of his cheek, scars of tissue and torn pink walls revealed from biting on them too hard. The smell of metal and the foul scent of decaying bodies invaded his senses, much like the iron taste inside his mouth. His ghost messy hair shone against the grim light, as the crescent moons under his eyes became more prominent with each passing second. He flinched at the small clinking sound, his gaze traveling around the enclosed space but the source of the shuddering tone.

     Mama, don't you love me?

     Clink. Clink. Clink. The sound was more menacing than the noise of his grinding teeth. He raised both his trembling hands and brought it up to his ears, squeezing it tight in an attempt to silence the whispers of the promising persecution. He envisioned his dying screams of pure torment, the eventual broken bloody nose, and the ripping of flesh. And so, he sealed his eyes shut, creating lines and furrowed brows, as his lower lip quivered. Her heels clicked and resonated against the dirt below her, taking easy steps towards the cornered boy.

     It'll be all over before you know it.

     He shook his head as a looming presence made its way to him, the dark shadow towering his scrawny figure, with his skeletal legs curled up in front of him. The remaining pieces of his heart pounded inside his chest as his breathing became ragged and uneven, letting out restricted gasps. A faint ring reverberated within the depths of his mind, throbbing with pain as it grew louder and louder.

     Too much. Too much.

     It hurts.

     The ringing increased until it went violent and noticeable as time passed by, along with a few images of a child and flashes of red, red, there was so much red. Louder . . . and louder. The laughter of the woman repeated over and over again and again. Stop. No more.

     Now stay still and be a good boy.

     Juuzou opened his eyes. His grip on the silver railings tightened as he stared ahead at the various yellow and white shades before him, seemingly out of reach. His lids were lowered, half opened and deprived of sleep, the curved lines under deepened against the approaching sunrise.