Unfeeling

Before | The Boy and the Girl

A girl, and a boy, still toddlers, were like willows and wind. They were synced in every way except one, the power they would be burdened with as they grew into the darkness of adulthood.

Even with her smart mouth and undeniable urge for chaos and adventure, the girl, was going to be a queen. She knew her daddy was like a fire, if you stayed a distance away you would be warmed and comforted but if you got to close...you were burned. He was king after all, so the girl became fireproof.

The boy was nothing but a soldiers son, destined for a fate already written for him since he knew the word future. The boy's father was like the girl's except his fire wanted to consume. You could stay away from him but it chased your heels, nipping them with a wicked humor.

The girl and boy's fathers were close friends, and they often consulted in each other when other countries dared whisper a three letter word that ended with blood. While their father's were away, the boy was oblivious to his fathers motives. He knew nothing of power except that he knew he had the power of friendship locked in the heart of the girl.

So as the boy's father schemed and negotiated with hell to overthrow the king and take what was his, the boy and girl wandered a world full of possibilities and secrets. Eyes wide and gentle hearts open and vulnerable, the two snuck around the castle causing mishap.

Years flew by like leaves on a river and the boy and girl turned nine and eight. The girl was growing into the formidable queen that Adana, her land, had whispered excitedly about for years. Her hair was raven's feathers and her eyes were a bottled ocean, the boy noticed for the first time, that he was nothing more that a soldier's son.

The cold of winter came like a wave of death. The boy's father, had formed a plan using the cold as his muse. Take the soldiers feelings away, and feelings would never be a barrier between victory and loss, he thought. The king was a scientist, often perplexed at why the human body reacted the way it did.

He had done many dark experiments in the past so his fingers tingled at the thought of this new project. So he spent months in his chambers, creating a serum that would take the feelings away from a human just as the winter had solidified the water in the river.

Once he was finished, the king felt powerful beyond any human being on earth. My unfeeling army, he had called it. The boy's father felt powerful as well, but for a whole other reason. It was his unfeeling army.

Just as the first sprouts of spring came sprouting through the snow, the boy and girl played for the last time. The girl sang him a lullaby she had heard her servants whispering while they groomed her. The tone was haunting like dark of night and the boy felt sorrowful at the words. A single tear ran down his tanned face and he tugged a piece is the girl's dark hair, marveling at the obsidian color like he had done many times before.

The girl stopped singing and looked at the boy in a new light just as he had just weeks before. Do you not like my hair? She has asked him. The boy smiled a boyish smile but the girl noticed a hint of sadness behind the grin. She had become quite well at reading people during her unusually frequent time at court. I quite like it actually, the boy had answered shyly.

Their meeting was cut short and the boy's father came bounding up to them. The boy didn't notice the glare he shot the girl and his wild eyes churning dangerously. Come boy, it's time to go, he had demanded. The girl and boy looked at each other until the girls eyes were nothing but a ocean the boy remembered behind his eyelids.

If the girl would have known this was the last time she would see the boy, she would have admitted that she liked his hair too, that it reminded her of a lion's mane. The next few weeks were spent in the bunker underneath the castle. The unfeeling army had attacked. But my father held, pushing them out of Adana and unleashing them onto the rest of the world.

Adana was forgotten as the boy's father and his army sent poison into country after country until the only one that has survived the attack was the girl's father and Adana. The girl had a deep sadness running through her during the times in the bunker. She missed the boy and how the sunlight used to light his eyes and hair on fire, turning it into molten gold.

The girl's father had taken a turn for worse. The betrayal of his closest friend and the fact that Adana would soon be a pile of dust and embers under the Unfeeling armies wrath had made him taut like a wire. He snapped and drowned himself in spirits as if it would give him the answers he sought. The royal advisors were scared as they watched their beloved king go mad. Find an outlet to release your worries, sir, they had told him.

The girl's father had come to her room that night. She smiled at him, thankful to see a warm face to help burn the intense feeling that came with the boys absence. But the king wasn't in the mood for condolences. He had closed his eyes the first time he hit the girl. But after the second and third, he had opened them, a darkness churning behind them as he beat the girl. He enjoyed watching her suffer and found pleasure in hearing her scream. He had found his outlet.

The boy grew two years older, suddenly finding himself not just a soldiers son. His family, had conquered nearly every country in three thousand miles and had pinned themselves as the Iniquitous. The boy was the heir to all of this power his father had accumulated. After a few more years, he wasn't sad about the girl. When his mind did wander to her, he remembered that she was his enemy, a ghost of his past.

Just as the boy turned ten, a deep ache took over his body. A enticing feeling ran through his veins and he turned to his tutor, about to ask to be excused. The tutor had only glared at him and slapped her ruler on his hand for interrupting. The boy had silently wished her dead. The tutor did just that, falling to the floor with a thud.

The boy had found himself with a whole knew power. He was an Altru, a race of humans who had special powers and abilities. His father had a dark resentment for the Altru's and had been killing me them in groups for years. Their only asylum was an underground bunker ran by Joshua Ryan called Clandestine. The boy's father had been searching for the bunker for years with no avail.

Once the boy's father had found out about the boys powers, he had only smiled and sent him into a small city besides the Iniquitous headquarters with instructions to destroy it. When the boy had asked what he was to destroy, his father had only assured he would know once he was there. The boy was scared and suddenly missed the girl and her ocean filled eyes. He was all alone for the first time in his life.

A duo of grey-clad people came rushing up to him. Come, you're safe now, they had said. The boy had remembered his father saying all the Altrus in Clandestine wore grey and realization dawned in the boy's heart. His father had sent him on a mission. To go into Clandestine and take it down from within. The boy followed the duo into a large hole in the ground where he was engulfed by Clandestine, where he would stay for the next eight years.

The girl was just as scared. Her father had outputted his stress and anger on her daily for eight years. Whip marks and bruises littered her body and her fiery spirt was stomped into ashes. Death was the only outlet for her, but her father kept a tight lock on her and whenever she came to close her her rooms balcony, guards ripped her away from it.

Eight years later, the boy had found himself surrounded by power in the Altru asylum but the girl, bruised and broken, wished the power that had taken over her father would shrivel up and die.