I OWN NOTHING

Chapter 2

He curled up in a foetal position. The dim light from the small light bulb hung by a chain in the room did little to illuminate the room – the shadows creeping up the four walls, enclosing him in their dark embrace slowly welcomed him. He had lived his life in the shadows, and that was where he was most protected. It kept out the rest of his family – if they could even be called family. Their violent behaviour and the way they treated him made them seem more like a dictator.

He rubbed his bruised skin, already darkening amidst his pale skin while his long black locks covered his face. As he thought back to the beating he just received, he felt nothing but despair at his life and a crimson tear slid down his face.

The loneliness and despair gnawed at him, before it was broken by a loud 'BANG' and a stream of harsh light flowing into his room. A hulking figure of a man, clad in layers of fat he wore like a shirt entered the room with a furious expression on his face. He grabbed the rag that covered the boy's body and lifted him up by the collar, the material clutched in his clenched meaty fist.

"What are you doing here crying like a little bitch boy!" He snarled, staring at the boy who was trying to turn his face away from his oppressor. "Your aunt told you to trim the garden, didn't she? Seems like you need a beating again!"

With that said, he dropped the boy onto the ground and before the boy could react, he felt a blinding pain across his temple. A rain of blows fell upon him, and to his frail body, it felt like an avalanche of heavy rocks crushing his body. He curled up in a natural defensive position to try to protect as much of his vulnerable points as possible. As slick, slightly sticky blood fell from his head, he desperately closed his eyes and prayed for his torture to end.

Suddenly, a presence descended, making itself known in his mind's eye.

A veritable flood of knowledge and power entered his body and mind in a rush, crushing every impurity within it – including a weak little shard of a soul that was desperately clinging on to the boy's soul. The boy's eyes flashed open suddenly, only one of them could be seen since the other was covered by his long matted hair.

A crimson eye with a black indecipherable symbol within it.

He whispered a barely discernible word.

"Amaterasu."

And the world bathed in black flames.