PaperFresh Shots

Far Sights

The drumming of feet grew louder and louder behind him, the shouts growing fainter and fainter,  the fear of being hurt only becoming harder to ignore.

He knew he couldn't run forever, he knew he wouldn't be recused by his parents nor his neighbors... They were good at lying... They made everyone believe they were just playing with him, playing cowboys and bandits...

Damn, did he wish he could scream and beg for mercy and help! Oh, how he wishes he could just cry and cling to his mother! But he couldn't...

No, the boy wasn't prideful, the opposite in fact, but he knew that he had to learn... He had to learn to defend himself against monsters like them...

"No where to run now, Cut." The leader growled in a gleeful tone.

The darkness of his bones faded to an ash grey. He ran into a dead end.

The boy whimpered to himself, silently waiting for all of the pain to end... Of course they delivered hell by storm, never once letting him fight back.

"See ya, freak!" The leader shouted, tossing something at him. The item struck his head, making him whine in more pain, he didn't even have to look at it to know what it was; a rock.

They always threw one at him after one of their "games", and they always hit where they wanted to.

Soft tears rolled down the young creature's face, sobs threatening to spring out. Of course he forced it down and just crawled to his bookbag. He was always prepared for this...

"Paperjam! I was beginning to worry about you!" A small white skeleton with changing eyes exclaimed, worry lacing every word.

The dark boned boy simply smiled, his hand lightly twitching.

"Oh! Me and a few boys from school were playing Cowboys and Bandits. I guess we lost track of time!"

The motherly monster sighed with relief, smiling much more calmly at her little boy.

"Good, I'm glad that you're making friends." Taking a deep breath the nice monster brought her only child close to her, giving him a gentle squeeze, one that caused him to wince.

After a few minutes of hugging, the boy's dark boned father walked out of his parents room, wearing his uniform for his work.

"Ready to go?" He called out, his voice deep and gruff, and a bit glitchy.

"We're ready!" The mother called, letting her baby go.

"We're?" The young one held a confused look, but of course it didn't take too long for him to understand what they were saying. "Wait, I'm going with you guys to the lab!"

Both the proud parents smiled happily, glad to see that age old excitement that had vanished for a while. For a moment they thought he grew up on them!

"Yes, yes! Now lets go before we're all late!" The petite skeleton called out, lightly pushing her son towards the door once more.

He giggled almost cheerfully, grabbing his bookbag before racing to his father's old jeep.

The drive there was just the rules and the expectations that the little one was to expect. Of course, most of it went over his head, but he nod and say he understood at certain areas, he really wanted to be there!

Happily, the two adults started to show their little son the place. Plenty of times they were stopped and asked a series of questions, all of them pertaining towards something called Project Parasitus.

PJ didn't really pay much attention to it.

"Mama, can I go to the break room?" He tilted his head up some, one hand over the area his stomach should've been.