The bell for home room rang. Everyone sat down and prepared for class as I stood next to my desk and stared at it. Slurs were written all over it. I could hear their laughs from the back of the class. They silently giggled amongst themselves while watching me. The others didn't do anything, in fact, they pretended it wasn't happening, including the teacher.
At first I didn't care much about it, but that feeling went away when they took things too far. I must've not been reacting the way they hoped for.
On a snowy day, classes ended early. I was planning to go to my part time work when some classmates invited me for a game of snowball fight. They didn't give me an option so I had to go with them.
The game had one rule, if you're the target, there's no fighting back. Guess who they were referring to. They all lined up to prepare then started throwing them at me. To be honest, I always thought their ways were too childish.
I didn't expect that the first snowball to hit me was that tough. Snow isn't supposed to make people bleed when hit with it in the head. Unless...
For about five minutes, they continued. With each hit, I felt more pain. More blood came from me. The more obvious it had become that they were stoning me. It was an early afternoon on a weekday, so not many people were around. That was the day they began taking things too far.
They'd burn me with hot iron, put rat poison in my food, beat me up for every night we came across each other, take the money I earn from my part time jobs, rob my things, force me to drink strong alcoholic drinks, steal my school work, frame me every time they did something wrong and got me punished for it. Again... and again... and again... and again.
I wanted to fight back. Every time, I thought of ways to get back at them. Maybe I could tell the teachers. No. I could ask for help from other students. No. I could go to the police. No. The teachers did nothing, all of the students never batted an eye, one of them had a parent that was a police officer.
I could do nothing. I had no one. So it continued for months. I was such a fool.
"Yes you were."
Knives, rocks, seats and chairs... Even the keys in my pocket. The whole time, I always had weapons I could use to fight back. I thought of how I could bash their heads, slice their limbs, break their bones, stab their eyes, cut their tongues. But I never did.
"And where did that get you?"
The one person in the world who actually cared about me. We weren't even blood related, but she cared about me. Because of not reacting, because of not fighting back. She must've had a painful death. All that blood, all those wounds. Because of me.
"What will you do now?"
What will I do? Somewhere, a place far away from where I am. She's there, in this world. Across the vast oceans that glimmer with sunlight. Passed the big tower in its center. She's there. I have to get to her.
"Is that it? What about the lesson you learnt?"
The lesson? Oh. That's right. I'm the one who caused this. Even though, in the end, I gave them what they deserved, but it was too late. I won't let something like that happen again. Anyone and everyone who tries to make my life difficult, put those close to me in danger or anyone that I see as deserving. I will make sure they suffer. Every single one of them.
"Good."
My stomach was hurting. I tightly squeezed it while I was on the ground and groaned in pain. But it suddenly stopped. Then I snapped back to reality and wasted no time to check my legs. They were there. There was no injury or anything like that. I had no idea what happened.
I hastily looked at my surroundings to make sure I was safe. Then I noticed that my back felt like it was burning again and that its been that way for a while, but it came to an abrupt end.
I sat there for a while, thinking about how I was normal even though my body got split in half. That's when I noticed the big dead tree I was sitting under. It looked old and as if it was about to collapse.
I suddenly had the screams even though it was daytime. They were much louder than before. Loud painful screams of a child filled the area. It was too much to ignore, especially the fact that it sounded like it came from right next to me.
The thought of running away crossed my mind but my curiosity got me. I got up and started walking around the tree to where I heard the screams most. What I saw was too difficult to ignore.
Bones held together by dead rotten skin was hanging on a rope from a branch of the tree. It looked like it belonged to a girl younger than 10 years old. Its mouth was wide open, traces of long black hair could be seen. The wind going against it made it sway from left to right. That was where the screams came from.
I didn't understand how screams were coming from a dead body. When I examined it some more, I noticed a small pair of horns on the skull. Then I had laughter together with the screams. It sounded like many people were around there laughing.
I quietly listened to the noises then, after a while, I could tell what was going on. A hanging demon, laughter of others, she was clearly hanged there. But why would they laugh? Because it was humans. The picture was too obvious to not see it. How long has she been there for?
For a while, I didn't know what to do. Then I decided to let her down. I used an aura blade to cut the old rope and a floating skill to slowly bring down the corpse until it was in my hands. At that time, I could definitely tell the screams were coming from it. I used a gravity skill to move the soil and rocks on the ground and make a hole where I could burry her.
After I finished, I sat beside it sympathizing with it. For some reason, it felt like we were related, in a way of sort. Then the screams stopped.
Behind me, there was something, which I originally thought was a tree, moving. It looked like a long leg who's body was too high to see. It slowly and quietly walked towards me. But I didn't sense it because it didn't have any mana nor was it making any sound as it moved.
It came close to me then stood there for a few seconds. Then it crouched. Its body was thin and kind of human like. It then brought its head down close to mine. It had no eyes, its mouth was wide open as if trying to yell something, and its skin was rotten.
I felt its breath on my shoulder and flinched. I was about to jump when I heard a voice. It was trying to talk to me. Its mouth made cracking noises as it moved.
"A...a...are y...you lik...ke t...hem?" Its voice was that of a little girl. I had a theory of what it could be. A phantom. The ghost of the demon. The demon that was hanging. The demon killed by humans. By 'them', it must mean the humans who killed her. She's probably asked me that because I'm a human. I wondered what kind of torture it went through.
"No. I'm not like them... I'm like you." There was some silence after I said this. Then a loud voice shouted from far.
"LIES!" It was a man's voice. "Don't listen to him, Uzzaran. He's lying to you!" It was the man I met before I arrived at the sector. His eyes were pure black and he looked at me angrily. "He's just like the rest of them! Remember how they made your life miserable. Show them that you're no longer weak!"
I couldn't understand what he was doing but it was clearly not good. The phantom didn't move, however. It stayed crouched looking at the ground where I buried its body.
The man noticed this and called for the others who were with him to attack me. I got up and prepared for a fight when they suddenly stopped moving.
"What's going on? What are you doing?!" The man asked.
They struggled but got nowhere. It wasn't me that was doing that. Which means...
"No. No no no no NO! He did not lie to me. You did!" She angrily said as she stood up. It seemed that her height reduced to about 8 feet when she crouched. Her body was little but her limbs were longs.
"You've got it wrong, Uzzaran. I'm doing this for your own good."
"You deceived me." Her voice was softer. "A punishment is in order."
"Don't do th..." He was cut short by the hands that appeared from the ground. All of them were caught by one then quickly dragged into the ground. There was probably something down there but I didn't want to think about it because of the screams I had.
I looked at the phantom and called out her name. "Uzzaran, was it. Who was that?"
"Take me with you."
"Huh?"
My back burned again. This time, it was a lot more painful. My clothes caught fire and a hole was left behind. There was something written on my back. A character. But I didn't know. When I looked up, the phantom wasn't there. "Uzzaran?"
"I'm here." Her voice loudly echoed in my head.
"What did you do? What's on my back"
"I possessed you. The mark on your back states that you're possessed. I want to go with you. Take me with you."
"Why?"
"We are the same."
"Huh?"
"I saw... You are the same as me. They made your life painful. Now you fight back. I want to do so too. They no longer come to me... So I'll go to them. We'll help each other. We'll destroy them together. So take me with you."
I thought about it for a while. Its not a bad idea. She seems strong and we have goals that are kind off the same.
"Are you sure about this."
"Yes."
"Huh. Fine. But I still need to find the lord of this sector. I need to talk about relations with other monsters."
"I agree to what you want to say. The phantoms will maintain peace with monsters. I allow the unification with other sectors. We'll fight together with you any time you need."
"You're the... Wait did you just read my mind?"
"Just go. I haven't gotten out of here in twenty years."
"Fine. Let's head back to Lenora. I'm sure they have stories to tell."
I was about to prepare a teleportation skill but the anti magic barrier prevented it from activating. Maybe its one of the reasons why people can't get out of here. It turns out, the barrier is naturally there and can't be removed. So I had to walk out.
This gave me ample time to think about it. Who or what was that man. What did he want to do? It seemed that he wanted to use Uzzaran for something. But what for?
At this time, the girl with purple hair was lying on a couch with her eyes closed. Her earring dangled from her left ear.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the room she was in. Initially, she was quiet. but she started laughing hysterically. She continued laughing for a while then stopped.
"That must be him. I finally saw him. And to make things better, she met with sister." She laughed again then continued. "What will you do next that'll shock the world, Heaven's Favored."