Pledis Central - Courthouse
"Case #409 in session," A loud hammer came down, snapping Minghao into reality, was he alive? The white walls, dead looking people and shackles on his arms made him unsure.
His eyes focused on a judge, thin and frail on a tall stand before him, various other officiaries stood around the room in orderly rows, "Attempted suicide by a certain Xu Minghao..." The judge seemed to linger on his name for a second before looking up at the boy with straight eyes, "You have committed an act that goes against Healina and it's laws, by all accounts you're an attempted murderer, in any other situation this would've resulted in execution as authorised by the state but since you're not of age I'm burdened with a heavy decision - what to do with you." The words were sharp and harsh, Minghao's thoughts running wild.
The judge let out a soft 'hmm' tapping his pen irritatingly on the side of a sheet of paper, "Excuse me do I have a lawyer?" Minghao piped up, receiving a one eyed glare, "Filthy criminals don't get lawyers young man." He stated simply and returned to his paper, Minghao was definitely sure they did.
'This is purgatory, isn't it?' He thought, the bland grey tones of absolutely everything starting to numb his mind, the agonising silence only being broken by that awful pen.
After a painful few minutes the judge began to speak again, "Under section seventeen I believe it is appropriate to issue you with a second life as it were, this one we're going to make sure is more... controlled and if you don't like it? Well, you'll just have to do a slightly better job than last time." The judge grinned a foul grin that made Minghao want to go up there and kick it off.
"You'll be fitted with a tracker, one that records audio so if you ever speak of this meeting we will have no choice but to execute you and any of your new street rat friends you attempt to make. You'll be situated in Odera, clearly you're not cut out for the ranks of a Healinan and I therefore believe homeless on the streets is a far more fitting path, don't you think?" The room was silent, Minghao not daring to utter a word. The judge was quick and to the point, never missing a beat on any of his rhetorical questions.
"That's good, thank you so much for your cooperation Xu, trust in the system and have your leave." The judge finished, sarcasm lacing his voice like deadly poison.
With that, Minghao's shackles were unlocked and he was pulled by another unknown figure to a transport cart that connected Pledis to the two kingdoms. He just let himself be dragged like a ghost, he still wasn't fully certain he wasn't one.
It was only then he realised his clothing had been replaced with deep grey robes, he felt like he was being sent to his own funeral, solidified by the hand that roughly grabbed him by his shoulder. His face was met with a cold looking man holding a gun, was that all an act?
Minghao winced expecting the worst and let out a bloody scream when he felt pain shoot through his entire body but the point of contact wasn't his head or his heart, it was his arm. The tracer. A bandage was quickly placed over the new wound as he was then forcefully pushed into the cart for Odera.
The man spat at his feet with a deathly glare before closing the compartment door. Minghao felt dirty and unwanted, crimson red already seeping through the thin bandage.
The whole experience felt like a nightmare.
Would the world never give him any ounce of compassion? Apparently not as the train kicked into action and began to chug forward, wasn't this what he wanted? Definitely not anymore.
It felt like deja vu, there he was again, weeping and alone with no hope in sight.
'Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.'
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Double update! Sorry these chapters took a while but it's been a rough week and I've got a job interview tomorrow so I'm a bit nervous - writing fanfic at 2am is definitely good preparation though.