Living a quiet life in a small and peaceful village was all I asked for. I had a beautiful wife and a cute child. I was working the soil, sawing and harvesting as the seasons passed by. It was a simple life but I was happy. Who wouldn't be when they had lucked out at each important of their life?
But each lucky encounter has a price.
The balance never stays unbalance or it will break.
My son just turned 11 when it happened. A man, or was it a woman?, cloaked in black arrived in the village. Peace had been there for so long we had forgotten to be wary of strangers. We offered a roof for the night to cloaked traveller and they repaid us by setting fire to the entire village.
In the depth of the night, their men had come and they captured us all. I tried to fight them off, to protect my family but... What can a humble farmer do against people who've trained for years to make their sword a deadly weapon? My hoe never stood a chance. All it earned me was a hard hit on the head, making me black out.
When I opened my eyes, everything was dark. Though, the whispers of familiar voices told me I wasn't alone: the villagers were there with me, and my family was among them. My eyes eventually became accustomed to darkness and I could embrace my wife and my son while apologizing for not being able to protect them. For the first time in years, I shed tears of sorrow and anger.
Pressed on against the other, we were imprisoned behind bars. On the other side, it was too dark to see what there was. Though, I quickly learned there was a laboratory in which human experiments were conducted.
And we were the test subjects.
Lost in the darkness, the flow of time is messed up. It's difficult to say how much time has passed since we were locked in here, in the putrid smell of dejections. I only know we've been given 537 times food to eat. It only consisted in hard bread and water, sometimes a bit of meat or a soup but nothing extraordinary.
Regularly the lights came to life. It only meant a new moment in hell for us. The cloaked stranger always came when lights were on. One prisoner among us or among the other rooms was taken away by their men. The unlucky victim was laid down on a wooden table.
The first, you watch and you see them being strapped on table before our captor come and begin their experiment. Then you look away and you try to fight of the cries. And, finally, you never look again and pray not to be the next, nor you, nor your family.
They began with the elders. Most of them never returned. Those who did didn't last long, refusing to eat and drink, letting themselves go. Fortunately enough, their corpses weren't left there to decay but were taken away. They were examined before being thrown away somewhere else.
The women were the next, along with their babies if they had young children. No baby returned. I couldn't protect my wife when her turn had come. So I embraced my son tightly and we cried, our eyes closed as I tried to block his ears.
She returned to us. Partially. She was never the same again. Her hair had fallen end her face was ashen. One of her eyes was injected with blood and she was trembling, unable to speak due to the mental shock. She didn't want to be seen by us and just cried as she tried to turn away. It didn't matter for I held her tightly and kissed her neck to calm her until she felt confident enough I wouldn't run away seeing her like this.
I thought it would be okay for her after this. How wrong I was...
Day after day, I saw her becoming weaker and weaker. She was always sleepy but never hungry. Slowly she stopped crying as if she had no more tears to shed. My heart broke seeing her in such a state and I had to stop my tears from falling down each time I looked at her suffering. I didn't know what they did to her but they seemed to have sucked away her energy, her ability to move. It was strange but I couldn't understand how she would have fallen in such a disastrous state else.
Eventually, she moved. She was lying in my arms, cold and unmoving when she lifted a hand to my cheek. And she smiled. She smiled so beautifully it reminded me of the old days. I couldn't stop my tears for I understood what she meant.
"So...rry..." She whispered weakly before removing her hand, wet from my cries.
In a broken voice, I called our son over. He crawled to us over the soiled ground.
"Her time... has come..."
My son began to cry as he buried his face in her bloodied dress.
When he lifted his head again, her body was already limp in my arms. She stayed there, smiling in death, finally free from pain, until the guards came and took her away from me.
When all the women had gone and were dead or lying on the ground as if lifeless, men were took. My turn eventually came. When it did, I saw my son crying, I heard him calling my name, his hand reaching out to me in a vain hope of catching me behind the merciless guards. He was beaten while I could only fight in vain the guards. My muscles had already melted after so long in this cruel place. I had no strength left in me, only my will not to leave my young son alone in hell.
It didn't take long for me to be strapped down to the experiment table. The guards disappeared from view and a powerful fear overcame me: what will they do to me? What will happen to me? What if don't survive this? I feared the pain that was to came but, overall, I feared I'd leave my son alone if I were to die on the table.
The cloaked person approached and put a hand on me, feeling my whole body under the rags. I kept my eyes wide open, disgusted by what he was doing, where he was touching. Though, I finally caught a glimpse of our captor: a man going on his 50s with a creepy smile, an eery aura and a mad spark in his golden eyes. That man was supposed to be a priest of Libra, a servant of the Goddess, blessed with great powers coming with golden eyes and the understanding of the balance of the World. And yet, here that man was, conducting human experiment in a dark underground.
A despair even greater than the one I felt coming here overcame me: the Goddess had forsaken me, had forsaken us. I was blessed with a lucky life until that fateful day where she threw me in hell. Was it so the balance could be maintained? I didn't know. There was nothing I could believe in anymore. But I had to survive this. I had to live. If not for me, for my son.
"A powerful male." Whispered darkly the priest. "One with fertile seed and fighting spirit."
I shivered under his gaze.
"I should be able to get loads of Yang energy from him..."
Yang energy? I didn't know what it was but I didn't like the sound of it.
"Everything's ready, sir." A deep male voice echoed not far away.
"Let's begin then."
Without missing a beat, he violently pressed his palm on my thorax, sending all the air out of my lungs with a painful cry. Trying to regain my breath, I felt sharp and cold objects piercing my skin, making me grit my teeth. I didn't feel much pain, only something that wasn't right inside of me, as if something couldn't flow freely anymore.
The pain only came after.
I didn't lose consciousness but I wasn't aware of what happened either. I just felt immense pain as something was forcefully taken away from me. A flow I never felt before was being sucked into the needles, leaving emptiness behind.
Though, nothing can stay empty for long.
A cold, rampant sensation crept from inside and took the place. Where everything was warm and fuzzy, everything became cold and dull. I felt blood pouring form my ears and my nose as cries kept on pouring out of me.
And I blacked out.
When I came to, I was still on the table but the pain was gone. My insides were cold and felt foreign. I wondered if I just died but when I saw the priest's golden eyes, shivers told me I wasn't dead yet. With a sigh of relief, I though I haven't left my son alone. But this relief was short when I noticed the priest seemed to have gotten younger. Why exactly did it felt like a bad omen, I didn't know but my instincts didn't like it.
The guards untied me before carrying me to the jail where they threw me on the ground without mercy. I couldn't lift a muscle as I didn't feel like myself. Though, thought my semi-closed eyelids, I saw my son crawling to me. He took my hand in his and squeezed tightly. A small and sad smile came to me as I closed my eyes, tiredness taking over.
When I opened my eyes again, my son was still there, his hand in mine. His face had ashen and seemed older, scarred by sadness and malnutrition. Did I truly looked at my son's face the day's prior? I wasn't sure anymore.
He brought me water so I could stay hydrated. In the middle of the next victim's cries, I saw my reflection in the bowl: my face was ashen and wrinkled, the beard that had grown had fallen, my hair had grown long but was grey, and one of my eye was veiled. That's the moment I understood my right eye was blind now and why my vision field seemed narrower. All in all, I got the feeling I had age and took over a decade in a day of experiment. Did that evil priest stole my youth? That thought made my stomach churned.
I don't really know how many days passed since then. I've slept most of the time and forced myself to eat just so I could stay by my son's side. But... my will is slowly dying. I've begun to wonder if seeing me in such a state isn't worse for my dear child, if it wouldn't be better for me to let go... For him. And for me.
I'm sick of sleeping. I'm sick of being cold. I'm sick of this tasteless food. I'm sick of those endless cries. I'm... sick of living...
This realisation get a tear from me, a tear I know would be the last for I don't think I can go on.
Doubt is still here: should my son be left alone... But this horrible feeling of losing balance is eating me away little by little. I think... I should let him know I will be going...
As I'm about to call for him in this weak voice that has become mine, I hear strong voices outside, over the dying cries of the current test subject. There are voices I've never heard before. Footsteps come closer and the experiment stops. The priest stand tall, on guard, ready to welcome his uninvited guests. In a feat of curiosity, I try to sit to see what's going on. My arm fails me but my dear son is here to catch me and help me up so I can watch the scene unfolding.
A party of five enters the underground lab. Leading the way, a man wearing a shining armour brandishes a sword with a big ruby on its hilt. Behind him, two women and two other other men stand, each in their own attire.
"Surrender! Or meet your death!"
The priest laughs and his guards attack. The group reacts immediately, fighting in perfect synch. Even I, who don't known a damn thing about fighting knew who would win: the guards didn't stand a chance.
An arrow shoots through the falling guards to pierce the priest's shoulder. However, the cry of pain do not come from his mouth but from a woman behind me. Her shoulder is bleeding whereas the priest is in perfect health.
"How?!" Exclaims the archer.
In guise of answer, the priest begins to chant.
"Fall down Emi. I believe he's a master of Energy." Replies the second woman.
"Like you, you mean?" Ponders the guy in armour.
"Yes." She answers, parrying the attack with a shield of white energy.
The group keeps on attacking and parrying but all their attacks hit one of us, prisoners and victims of the experiments.
"Lia! How do we do?!" Finally asks the armoured man.
"I... Maybe if I could restore the balance in him..." She wonders out loud while healing the guy wearing black and fighting with daggers.
"What do you mean?" Emi presses, letting her bow down to chant, short of arrows.
"I believe the experiments he did destroyed the balance between Yin and Yang inside them all. He must have took all the Yang from them, leaving them only with Yin..."
"But they shouldn't be able to live like this!" Cuts the short man with an axe. "It's against the Goddess' will!"
"I know. But the universe hates unbalance and will do everything in its power to restore it. It must have linked their lives together as if they were one entity so that the dynamic balance is maintained." He voice's pace is quick as she exposes her theory.
I haven't understood much, only that we now live only to take the blows for the priest so that he can live forever.
"So... if we want to stop him, they will have to die?" The voice of the man in armour trembles ans I close my eyes: I knew what was coming.
"I... am not strong enough to inject part of my yang in him to restore enough of his balance to cut their ties..." Her voice is weak, but honest.
No one answered and the next moment, I feel a strong pain in my chest. Did they target me? Or did I took the blow for our captor? I will never know as I already feel myself losing ground, losing consciousness.
Goodbye my son. May we meet again in a better place. For no, I'll be leaving first, to join my dear wife again.
Thank you, unknown heroes for giving me the chance to leave without making the choice to give up.
Thank you, my son, for staying strong in this horrible situation, for staying with 'till the end.
Thank you. And goodbye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Topic: The balance of Yin and Yang
This story too ended up 2nd! :D