Confined Skies

Chapter 1

The artificial amber glow of the streetlights illuminated the seemingly abandoned city, the only life around at this hour being that of a rat, or potentially an urban fox. Despite initial assumptions one might make, there was in fact one more life form roaming around, his pace indicating that he had somewhere to be, but in his mind he was ultimately aimless. 

The small boy shivered as he took each step, not from the cold but rather a side effect of his adrenaline wearing away. A thin layer of sweat glistened as it caught the light, and droplets carried fragments of the blood that had dried on his face with it. His thin legs eventually gave out, and he found himself slumped against a wall, a thick curtain of wavy brown hair masking his face. Faint echos of screams rang in his ears, yet he had little memory of why he was hearing them.

"W-What....did...did I do?" He pondered, looking upon his red hands, covered in the blood of what he assumed was from another person. The realisation eventually hit him, causing him to throw these hands to his face, sharply clasping around his mouth. "O-oh...no...no, no...." 

~

"Stop it...get off of me...!" Ahren begged, his back firmly pressed against the wall in his room, his legs attempting to kick a man away from him. He had grabbed the side of his head, pulling sharply on his hair and then laughing as the boy winced in pain. Ahren glanced over the shoulder of the man, eyes falling on the other person in the room, a cloud of smoke and a deep cough erupting from her mouth. 

"Jesus, can you be quiet?" She croaked, mostly oblivious to the situation. 

"Stop fighting it, kid~" The man added, his voice deep and sickening, the scent of alcohol clinging to his words. He grabbed at Ahren's shorts with his free hand, making an attempt to yank them off but being counteracted by the boy kicking him sharply in the chest. The man's disgusting smirk faded into a scowl as his fingers traced where the foot had hit him. He lunged forward, a foul chuckle escaping his throat as he did so.

Everything hurts...

The boy continued to struggle but to no avail.

I just want him to stop.

He felt a cold sensation run from his head through to his arms, and his shivering stopped momentarily. 

Leave me alone...

With that thought, a pain shot through his skull and he fell into a darkness. 

~

He thought that he finally had some luck and that he had died. Perhaps his body couldn't handle it anymore, or maybe something had been thrown at his head and given the final blow he needed to be removed from the situation. 

Ahren eventually regained his vision, though it was blurred to start off with, and he began to move his own limbs. To his surprise, he was standing. He couldn't see or hear his captors with what little senses he had, and soon he found himself running towards the door. He stumbled over what felt like the torso of the man into the cold and bolted into the night.

~

"Hey." A deep voice interrupted the small boy's thoughts, his head slowly arching to look up at who was speaking to him. Ahren couldn't bring himself to make a sound, and instead tried to stagger to his feet despite his legs still feeling wobbly. The man who owned the voice went to catch Ahren as he stumbled back down, but was pushed away. 

"It's okay, It's okay," He repeated, softly. "I'm not here to hurt you. You've come from that house on Crescent Road, right?" 

"I...I...I didn't-" Ahren stuttered out. "I didn't do...anything wrong..." The brunette watched as the man stepped into the light, allowing him to study his appearance. He was relatively short in stature, but still much taller than Ahren, and wasn't very muscular. He had a shaven face and looked rather young despite his tired blue eyes and slight wrinkles around his sockets. His light brown, almost ginger hair engulfed his forehead with a fringe but didn't extend past his ears.