《Rewind Into Ascension (DUE FOR A REWRITE)》 CHAPTER 1 - Ascension There was no hope. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The wheels of the wooden wagon jostled against the bits of rocks underneath, grating everywhere. The jarring cacophony of hell on Jasper''s ears. Jabs of numbness to his rump; jabs of consciousness against his blurring world, consisting of the wooden interior of the rundown wagon filled with despondent, tied-up slaves sitting with saggard heads with backs hugged to the walls. Their pinched, miserable faces, bleak eyes, ragged clothes and matted hair were homogenous to him. It smelt like rats running in and out of the sewage systems. Hope was destitute. Hope was confined within the drab rope bounding his wrists together. Except they weren''t tight. It was loose from the get-go. His parched throat couldn''t get drier. It was now or never. He wiggled his skinny wrists. The rope squirmed and inched off. One by one, and his heart rate accelerated. The beg for freedom threatened to explode out of his chest. Before long, the wagon bounced, and the rope came off. His frail wrists trembled uncontrollably, but his focus stood steadfast, and he immediately worked on his bounded feet. Knots done by his master became undone, and the rope restricting his pale ankles loosened. Emaciated fingers twitched, and they slipped halfway from undoing the rest of the knot as the wagon violently shook. He cried. It was good enough. He squirmed his feet out of the restraints, wiggling his toes to feel the slightest life in them. Pressed his palm against his vibrating wooden floor full of grime and dirt as he leaned forward, and chains of jolts danced on his spine. He looked up. "Help me, child," a bruised woman in front of him whispered as she extended her bound wrists to him. The other slaves looked up and stared at Jasper with groggy, red eyes from their rough slumber. The candle of desire burned in their eyes. The desire for freedom. Jasper nodded. He understood the feeling that substituted the void in his stomach. He was about to crawl towards her to undo her restraints when the wagon abruptly stopped. Someone''s soles slammed into the dirt pavement, presumably getting off horseback, crunches of dirt echoing through the boards of the wooden wagon. Jasper held his breath as he stared right into the woman''s eyes. Her pupils dilated, narrowly reflecting the horror-struck expression etched on his face. Then came the first step towards them. Then, the second. "I''m checking on them! Keep an eye out for darn bandits!" a man shouted, his voice circling the wagon from the exterior. Slow footsteps approached. Jasper turned towards the exit, blocked off by a sheet of dull curtains, bare sunlight filtering in between, sweat rolling down his cheeks. He swiftly crawled towards the exit and popped his head out of the curtains. Thin rays of sunlight stabbed into his retinas, singed across his exposed skin. He closed his eyes as he gently put himself down from the wagon. Bare feet landed on the burning dirt pavement. Eyes opened. Treelines to his right and left in his peripheral vision, the road ahead. Adrenaline coursed in his bloodstream. He scampered to his feet and kicked off towards the bushes. "Hey!" Jasper didn''t look back. He counted himself from one to three amid the flurry of breaths, like how his teacher taught him to calm himself down. One, two, three. "He''s runnin''! He''s runnin''!" "Shoot that boy!" Jasper stepped on the grass. Branches of thickets welcomed him. Waved at him. The smell of fresh air tinted with sunlight reassured his nostrils, permeating a wave of calmness to abate his throbbing temples. It took him back home. He closed his eyes. He took another step. Blades of grass tickled his bare foot. The sounds of laughter. The world around him slowed down to a beat. The distant giggles of his mama from tickling his toes tuned in and out of his ears. He heard a click. He inhaled deeply, slowly opening his eyelids to the gentle rustles of leaves. A gunshot tore through the ringing memories in his ears, and a bullet dug into his lower back. He yelped in pain, and his ankle twisted out of kilter. He fell to the ground. Why? This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Laughter. Laughter from the men who shot him. He lay motionless, profile eating the earth. Tears welled in his eyes and streaked down his cheeks. His fingers clawed at the dirt. Why? He swivelled his neck around so he only faced dead ahead. Barely lifted himself, his chin resting on the grass. He grabbed the handful of grass ahead of him and pulled himself forward. Crawling towards the bush to hide from the monsters. Another click reverberated in his ears. Almost there. An ear-deafening gunshot. His body jerked, the wind knocked out of his lungs. He gasped for air. It became harder to breathe. It hurts. If only he could turn back time. If he only knew why things had come to this. He dug his finger into the grass again and pulled its roots out. The banter of the men faded out into the distance. The noisy trotting of hooves left him alone. His world darkened... Blurred... Silence swallowed him whole. He rubbed and pinched his fingers but felt nothing. Something shiny in front of him. His misted eyes hovered over and focused on a scintillating golden lotus rapidly uncurling. It was pretty. Its petals reached out to him and grazed his shivering finger, cool to the touch. He pinched its petal and smiled. He wondered if flowers would taste as sweet as they smelt nice. And if they were yummy, he would bring the flowers back so his mama would bake a flower cake. Then they would eat it together... Jasper gagged as he held his puke, lacing through his throat. He ripped off the petal from the lotus before he stuffed it in his mouth and swallowed. The flower¡¯s bitter. He silently giggled as tears slowly ran down. The flower¡¯s very bitter. His eyes curved to himself as the petal slithered down his clogged, bloody throat. His eyelids slowly fell as the flower¡¯s radiance lost colour with every tick. I¡¯m tired. He rested his chin on the grass. Felt too sleepy. Too tired. Why? The world around him abruptly paused grey. Jasper opened his eyelids. No more gagging. No more tiredness. No more pain. His eyes darted around. He took a moment to sink in everything that just happened. The flower. The petal. The bitter taste. He pressed his revitalised palms on the ground and lifted himself to his knees. Stared at the lotus, strobing its iridescent, scintillating rays of light across his face and the dull bushes, plants and trees. The lotus relentlessly and spontaneously grew and shrunk in size. A calling. Cryptic whispers in his ears. He received an impulse to touch that flower. He extended a finger and reached slowly for its petal. "Why did you do that?" a gentle yet chiding voice asked in his mind. Jasper immediately withdrew his finger back. His lips parted to say something, but nothing came out. "You fool." "I..." Jasper croaked. The whispers grew louder and harshly cut him off. Tears welled in his eyes. He didn''t know what he did wrong. I... Vertigo crimped his stomach as a force surrounded his feet and tightly wrapped around his hips like shackles, lifting him into the air. His eyes widened. The world bent and distorted around him everywhere he looked. The noose of death returned to tightening around his throat taut as his legs dangled in the air, his neck being yanked upwards like a hook. His hands frantically felt for his Adam''s apple, and he hoarsely inhaled. ¡°Let me go!¡± Jasper yelled through gritted teeth. "It''s all your fault." "I''m sorry! I didn''t do anything!" "It''s all your fault." "I didn''t do anything!" He watched his surroundings flit and flash by in horror. He saw stars. The sun. The moon. His mama. His master. Memories. Some memories were inconceivable as they blurred instantaneously in between. Jasper groaned. His head hurt. He needed answers, not questions. Answers to the questions that lingered in his mind for a while. What happened to my papa? Where''s my mama? Why am I like this? He didn''t understand. His temples throbbed, and his heart roared in his ears. He closed his eyes. Tried to count from one to three but failed. Why? He felt the force holding him let go. He landed hard on the grass and rolled across the ground from the momentum until he lay flat, facing the sky. He remained closing his eyelids as tight as he could. Maybe all of this was a nightmare. Maybe the moment he opened his eyes, he would see his dear mama again. His eyelids twitched. Silence. If only he could turn back time. CHAPTER 2 - wakeup One... Two... Three... Jasper opened his eyes to the cerulean sky. Clouds sluggishly drifted by. Birds chirped. Leaves rustled from the branches extending towards the zenith in the right of his peripheral vision. The world didn''t wait but had gone ahead of him. Of course, it did. He had no one waiting for him. No one caring for him. Not even his master. He was always hungry. Famished, with a pit in his stomach. His master didn''t like him eating the berries he was meant to pick in his field. When he was caught, he was summoned to the courtyard. He was told to take off his shirt and turn around. The potent crackle of a whip shattered his trepidation. A twinge of numbness slammed into his back. Then, it registered. Pain. So much pain. So much pain he had to be sold off again, should he be thrown into the carriage. And when he was, he tried to run away. He didn''t know why he was shot. He thought he had done the right thing. He wanted to find and reunite with his mama with the few precious recollections he held of her. The longing for her warm embrace, her arms tightly wrapped around his back. His hands would find refuge wrapped around her shoulders, around her neck. Jasper sobbed. Just a nightmare... "Oh my, what''s a human child doing here near the wilderness?" The mellow voice of a woman said as a pair of footsteps slowly approached him. Jasper continued crying, hiccups clogging his throat. His vision blurred from all the tears, making it hard to identify the woman''s features, her face sticking in from above. He was frightened. No... no. "There, there..." A pair of arms wrapped around Jasper''s back before he could thrash and scream, and he was carried from being lifted into their bosom to viewing the forest over their shoulder. Frail, blanched barks encased the thin trunks of the countless trees interspersed everywhere he looked, the unerring silence calling for unfathomable horrors beyond the horizon. Jasper stopped crying. He held his breath. His arms, hanging lax over the woman''s shoulders, invigorated into treasuring the back of her neck. He felt warmth. Warmth clung to his clammy skin and inundated the gelid trails trickling down his cheeks. Mama? He felt the woman''s chin delicately rest on the crown of his head, the soothing clicks of her tongue and her gentle voice comforting and sentimental. "It''s OK. Everything is going to be OK." Jasper blankly stared ahead as the woman holding him paced around. His mind drifted around. His world swayed like a cradle. He felt sleepy. His eyes narrowed as his eyelids lowered. He thought of his master and his life wasting away in the fields. No. The nightmare had come to an end. No more lashings, no more suffering, no more hunger, hopefully. He was free. I¡¯m tired. "Let''s get you somewhere home, my strawberry mochi." Home. A place to call home. Jasper smiled. His arms tightened around her neck. And his world closed dark. _____________________ Black. Everything around Jasper was black. Sitting on his knees, he found himself staring at the floorless void. The void rolled its inconceivable eye back at him. One. T-Two. Shivers snarled on his spine. He yelped as he leapt backwards, his cry echoing off the walls of the intangible chamber. His heart frantically pounded in his ears as his palms felt around the rigid, substanceless floor. Dark, cold and scary. He took several deep breaths, curled himself into a foetal position and closed his eyes. O-One. Two¡­ Three. A monster didn''t eat him... yet. One by one, he lifted his eyelids cautiously. His breath became shallow. Amid the endless darkness and silence tuning in the background, his gaze regained focus only to discover his new outfit. It caught his breath. No longer was he wearing the unbearable rags tossed at him to shout that he was a worthless slave. His fingers lingered on the warm, soft texture of his white wool fabric shirt. His eyes carefully followed his fingers as they smoothly travelled down to his thighs and breeches, their snugness caressing his fingertips. Jasper blinked several times. He felt his eyes water for a second. Then he lifted a brow into his forehead, confused. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Where am I? He wiped his moist eyes with his warm sleeves and sniffled. He placed his palms on the floor to lift himself up. Sitting back, he caught a wisp of a golden glow as he raised his head, radiantly piercing through the darkness. He slowly traced it backwards towards the origin of the glow with dilated pupils, his gaze curving along the outline of a gigantic, lustrous yellow petal, faintly roving back and forth in place, albeit the petal befitting of a flower was a bit too enormous and... oddly familiar. Jasper shielded his eyes with his hand and assiduously pored around the petal. He found more of those petals next to it homogenous, with more on the other side all curling inwardly around a stamen, leaning in an angle of inclination, facing him. He scratched his head. It looked like the flower where he ate one of its petals in his nightmare. Um, it looked the same, actually. His taste buds salivated as he recalled the bitter taste of the petal and its feasibility in clambering down his throat. It felt nice. Soothing. Though he wasn''t hungry anymore, and besides, it was kind of disgusting. Jasper shrugged his shoulders. He propped himself up and approached the colossal, shiny lotus before standing there in awe. His nose tickled as a strong trail of fragrance softly brushed against his nostrils and beckoned him closer towards the flower. He sniffed before being bombarded by that fresh, sweet, sweet scent. He recalled the lulling voice of a flower. "Um, Mrs Flower?" he said. A black square abruptly appeared behind the stamen, engulfing it whole. "KNEEL." An implacable force wrapped Jasper from head to toe. Slammed his knees down and cranked his head and arms down to grovel. He tried to say something, but his lips opened to a long-winded drag of gibberish. The synapses in his head tirelessly fired off in a fruitless attempt to comprehend the distorted, staticky voice scraping against his eardrums. The endless chant of inscrutable whispers in his mind. The headaches and horrifying memories of his last dying breath struck him like a train. It was never a nightmare. All of it was real. Why? Drool dripped from his mouth and immediately frothed upon touching the ground. His pupils lagged behind uncontrollably as his eyes threatened to roll to their whites. "Jasper?" Mrs Flower said. Her voice had returned to that gentle tone when she scolded him for eating one of her petals. "I''m sowwy for w-witting you, I''m sowwy, I''m sowwy," Jasper said. He exasperatedly coughed out the gastric juices that clogged his throat and let out violent bursts of hiccups. The scary, mean force no longer constricted his limbs. The harsh, inscrutable whispers had abated, and his trembling pupils remained fixed, gazing beyond the abyssal below him. No more. He didn''t want to look at that thing anymore. He swore to never eat a petal of a flower ever again. "I-I''m sowwy for eating you, Mrs Flower¡­" Mrs Flower cackled. The layers of her voice combined conjured a jarring symphony of high and low pitches. "Sorry?" she said. "Don''t be. I should have waited a bit longer to feast on your blood." Jasper started crying. Mrs Flower harrumphed. "How amusing. If only you''d stayed motionless and succumbed to your mortal wounds," Mrs Flower paused a beat, "Only a path of suffering awaits you now." "I''m sowwy... I''m s-sowwy..." Jasper croaked as he clawed at nothing I want to wake up. Please wake up. I want to wake up. He clutched his hair, brought his knees together and cried to himself in a turtle position. Mrs Flower looked down at him. Looked down at him with pity, derision, and schadenfreude. Said, "I kNOW eveRYthing abOUT you, JASPer. But YOU don''t. FiND yourSELF IN the vestiges of TIME, and YOU shall be truly FREED." wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup _____________________ Jasper opened his eyes. He faced a dull, unfamiliar ceiling, shadows dancing at the corners as strips of sunlight weaved and dimmed in between. Sweat covered him from head to toe. He inhaled deeply through his nose to calm his boiling nerves. He sat up from a bed, letting the blanket fall to his lap. He looked at his drenched clothes and scanned his vicinity left and right to only find sparse furniture hugging the interior walls, the room clean and tidy. He sighed in relief. "J-Just a nightmare..." Knock, knock... knock. CHAPTER 3 - Mama Knock, knock... knock. A few soft knocks on a strange wall ripped him from his trance. Jasper swivelled his neck over. Dry eyes, unblinking gaze on the translucent paper-like wall, thin wooden frames compartmentalising the wall into even rectangles. His gaze focused on the faint shadow outlining a petite figure behind a section of the strange wall. An achoo and the shadow flusteredly jumped back. He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. Something was amiss. His eyes darted around. He scanned the room again, but this time methodically, as he mentally took note of the room''s peculiar design. He noted the design of the furniture. Then it dawned on him. Huh? He was oblivious to his surroundings and dumbfounded by the foreign architecture around him. There seemed to be no door. He was sleeping on the floor... that was a mat, with a blanket and another blanket as a mattress beneath him. His stomach knotted. His hands felt for his stomach, except when he looked down, he found himself in a strange robe. Instead, he tightly secured his grip on the hems of the blanket lying on his lap. He glanced up. No lights, no pendant. The section of the strange wall let out a shudder and a crackle. Jasper looked back in horror. The shadow of the petite figure had reached out an arm towards the side of the strange wall. He lifted the blanket to his chest to shield himself from whatever was trying to barge and break down the strange wall to get to him. And eat him. The section of the strange wall smoothly slid to the side. Jasper paused at the sight of a girl blankly staring at him, standing there. Breathless. Her flowing, platinum hair fell between her shoulders and cascaded over her strange robe. Small yet sharp golden eyes reflecting the bestial glint of a predator from the irises. He forced his gaze past her fair skin and strange face to the pair of arctic canine-like ears perched on top of her head. They perked as his jaw slowly dropped. The girl''s nose wrinkled, and she covered it with her sleeve as she sneezed and let out a quiet achoo. Jasper''s eyes widened. "What are you? You''re not..." "I''m... Yumi." The girl said in a hushed tone. "Yumi Hamiyashi." She folded her hands at her midsection. She took one elegant step at a time forward, entering the room as her eyes loosely glanced around. Jasper leaned back as he lifted the blanket higher to himself. "Y-You''re not gonna eat me, a-are you?" Jasper said. Yumi displayed no reaction on her face. She stopped beside Jasper. Jasper cringed further back. She slowly sat on her knees. Stared into his soul. "What. Is. Your..." Yumi''s lips quivered as her eyes narrowed, and she cocked her head. "Name?" "Huh?" Jasper lowered the blanket and cautiously leaned back in. He gulped, his heart wildly pounding in his ears, averting his eyes. "It''s Jasper... J-Jasper Brown." He nodded his head repeatedly, and Yumi pursed her lips. She lowered her eyes to the floor and quietly mouthed his name. Jasper furrowed his brows. He was confused about why Yumi was speaking like this, not to mention the difficulty in forming her words. Even her pronunciation was off, and her accent was.. different. "U-Um..." he stuttered. He prepared to say the big question with a deep breath. "Um... Are you the big, bad wolf?" His feet shifted under the blanket. Yumi fiercely raised her eyes at him, firmly maintaining eye contact. "Play," she said. "Eh?" "Play. Outside." Jasper noticed the tail slowly wagging behind her back. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. "Um... OK," he said, bitterly laughing. "Play..." Yumi softly exhaled as she fluttered her eyebrows. She stood up. Turned around and sluggishly paced towards the room''s exit. Jasper eyed her fluffy, wagging tail. His palms balled into fists. He had an urge to grab that white, moving tail. He snapped out of it when Yumi stopped, and he felt her piercing eyes glare at him over her shoulder. "Play," Jasper muttered as he briskly stood up. He dusted his strange robe as he caught up to her. "Yes. Play." Yumi nodded, and they continued. He didn''t know what he got himself into. They exited his room and walked down the empty hallway side by side. Jasper brought his fingers to his lips as he nervously looked around. More of that strange wall lined up on both sides of the hallway. He let go of his lips as he halted and pointed at one of the conjoined strange walls. "What is that?" "Shoji." Yumi didn''t even turn her head around nor spare a glance. Her eyes were glued ahead like a doll. She slowly continued walking ahead of him. Shoji... He nodded as he recalled the wall¨C shoji, sliding open. And it was a door. It made sense. Still, he had more questions. He pointed at himself and his strange robe. "What. Am. I. Wear?" Jasper said. Yumi stopped in her tracks. She glanced at him over her shoulder. No reaction. "Play." "OK... Play." Jasper glanced at his robe one last time before he caught up with her again. He shrugged his curiosity off¨C well, he still didn''t know where he was. No more questions, then. They turned after reaching a corner. Another strange hallway to venture into. Yumi stopped halfway to sneeze into her sleeve. Achoo. And another one. Jasper stopped thinking about the open, small interior of the rooms they passed by and worriedly looked at Yumi. "Are you OK?" "Yes. Thank you." Yumi''s eyes flitted to him. "...Still play?" "Yes." Jasper wryly smiled. He lowered his eyes. They reached the end of the hallway and turned to what extended to be the entry and exit of the house. Light filtered through the thin gaps in the wooden-framed panels, illuminating the specks of dust. Jasper stared at the scenery beyond the wide opening of the entryway leading to the outside. Just the dull facade of what seemed like another strange house. A passerby walked by in his strange clothes, strange backpack, strange ears... Jasper could go on. The fresh air brought in by the draft smelt strange, reminiscent of a mix of wet grass and mud. The strangeness churned away his stomach. This wasn''t the home he knew of. Where am I? Yumi firmly grabbed his wrist. Jasper''s heart skipped a beat. She yanked him forward as she ran, and he yelped as he staggered to balance his abrupt footing. They ran past an open room to their left and rapidly approached the entryway, the day of light. "Yumi!?" a familiar voice belonging to a woman echoed from the room they ran past. Yumi halted and exhaled deeply through her nose. She churlishly let go of Jasper''s wrist, and he brought it to his chest. He waved it off, and he stared at Yumi, bamboozled. Her ears were drooped. Her eyes were closed, her fists were clenched, and she shouted something inscrutable Jasper couldn''t understand. Strange words. Strange world. It only exacerbated his uncertainty about this new world around him and people, encroaching on his heart. But at least he could place that familiar voice. The familiar, loving, graceful voice of the woman who carried him and hugged him and shared her warmth when he had no one there for him as he lay motionless near the scary forest. Mama. Even though they had separate, distinct voices. Even though he didn''t even know what she looked like, only a recording of her distant voice while the other came with a blurry face. If anything, it would be this one who was now there for him. Not the absent one. Soft footsteps behind him beckoned his teary eyes. No, he turned around and ran into his Mama''s embrace. Buried his head into her strange yet warm robe and poured his heart out. "Mama... I m-miss you so much. I-I love you." He thought about the things that terrified him. His master. His dying breath. Mrs Flower. "S-scary. I''m s-scared, M-Mama." A slender hand reached out from above and caressed his hair. "Aw, Jasper, It''s OK, my strawberry mochi. Don''t be afraid. Everything is OK," said his Mama. Jasper looked up from her robe to her face. A pair of dimples had appeared beside her warm smile. Golden eyes like Yumi shaped into crescents and strands of her silvery, long hair reaching out to him. She had those pointy ears on the top of her head, too, but Jasper didn''t care anymore. She blinked and raised her head to face a deadpan Yumi. "Go back to your room, Yumi," Mama solemnly said. "You''re too ill to go and play outside. Now." She said something in the same tone and speaking duration that Jasper couldn''t quite understand. Yumi clenched her teeth. She shouted something back before flouncing away. Achoo. Jasper watched Yumi stride past him, sniffling. It seems he''d have to adjust to this new life. CHAPTER 4 - DO NOT BE AFRAID Mama carried Jasper around the house. They meticulously toured each room. They went through the kitchen, and Jasper was fascinated by the arrangement. A hearth dug into the floor. A pot of some sort suspended midair, attached to a strange hook dangling from the ceiling, close and just above the hearth of burnt ashes and withered cinders. The kitchen wasn''t very big like the other rooms. He would point out the strange utensils he''d see on the shelves. She would tell him the names. He hardly remembered the names but tuned into the unique sounds produced by her tongue when she said them. Nonetheless, he nodded mindlessly. These were chopsticks and... They didn''t use forks, spoons and knives to eat. They ate in small wooden bowls instead of plates. Mama grabbed a pair of chopsticks off a shelf and twiddled with it. "See?" She deftly snipped away at the air with the chopsticks. Everything was flummoxing to Jasper. He watched her fingers work the chopsticks with ease. "We eat our food served in our bowls with this. Here, you try." She handed the pair of chopsticks to Jasper. He slowly reached out to it with a hand and carefully wrapped his fingers around the chopsticks. He tried to copy and recall the positioning of Mama''s thumb, pointer, index finger... The chopsticks fell to the floor, rattling as it rolled away. Mama heartily laughed as she squatted to pick up the chopsticks to return them to their place. Jasper''s cheek burned red. Mama cuddled him and said she would teach him how to use them during dinner. She carried him out of the kitchen and paced around the hallway. They''d explored every room except one. Jasper figured it was Yumi''s room judging from a stifled achoo muffling behind the shoji. Mama started talking about the history of their family and her husband. That he had a Papa working away in the fields right now and would return by nightfall for dinner. How they were poor, but not the poorest and not hungry. That they were happy living together with him and Yumi. Jasper wondered if his Papa was a slave. Mama''s voice sounded forlorn as she trailed off. Jasper never learnt about his past Papa. He didn''t know if he was ever there in his life. His head hurt when he tried to remember him, but it was all the same with his past Mama. So he stopped thinking about them. He had his present Papa and Mama now to think of and fill in the blanks. Except he had one burning question. "Mama, where am I?" Mama froze as she stopped walking around. Jasper''s head cocked to the side. Her body trembled, and her arms squeezed around his back. Warm... Jasper''s eyes misted. His chin slumped, and his vision gradually slipped into turmoiling darkness. The void welcomed his presence. Cold and quiet. A small, growing, opaque golden bud appeared in the centre, rapidly uncurling and brandishing its bright petals and ripe stamen to him. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So pretty. He wanted to reach out to its heavenly radiance. "..." The black, censored face of an inconceivable being. Inconceivable voices. "-.. --- / -. --- - / -... . / .- ..-. .-. .- .. -.. .-.-.-" Jasper widened his eyes. The flower and void together had abruptly disappeared as his senses and vision jumped to their edges. His hair had stood to its end. His vision was heightened before he felt his frenzily pumping heart slow down a beat. He gleaned around his restored surroundings before hearing a sniffle, his spine shivering against his trembling Mama. He looked up to her tears welled eyes. "Oh, Jasper..." she said. "How could you forget?" A tear fell from her eyes and splattered on the bridge of Jasper''s nose. He cringed. She brought a finger to his nose and gently smudged the tear dry. "Your biological mommy and daddy were born in the neighbouring country to us, the Eagle Federation." She narrowed her eyes and meekly smiled. "We Berons and demi-humans were born in the outskirts of the Kingdom of Leonis Regia. We and your parents knew each other very..." Huh? Her voice trailed away as she put Jasper''s feet back on the floor. Jasper gasped as he stepped back and confusingly stared at his Mama. What she said didn''t click a single cog in his head. He placed a hand on his forehead and lowered his eyes. He tried to think about his homeland, the Eagle Federation, but nothing came out. He found it strange that his Mama said his name when he ran to hug her despite him not having told her at all as if she had known him from the start. Then what about when she called him a human child when she first saw him and picked him up near the woods? Did she pretend not to know him at all? No, no, no... why was he there in the first place? He clutched his forehead and frowned. His head hurt. Was this just another dream or a nightmare? Mama faintly shook her head from side to side, wiping her eyes with the ball of her hand. Said, "Please forget what I said. It''s best if you don''t know... yet." She kneeled and gently guided his hand away from his forehead to his side. She placed her hands on his shoulders and softly squeezed. Jasper stared at her weary, yellow eyes with rapt focus. Staring into the depths of her eyes, searching for answers, which said nothing. Her canine ears had drooped. "Go play with Yumi in the house." Mama''s hand slipped away from his shoulders, and she stood up. She folded her hands at her midsection and sighed. "I will allow it just this once. But please... don''t make a mess." She loosely directed her eyes to the closed shoji to her right. Jasper''s gaze followed along, and he held it there. Achoo. Mama spun around and began backtracking her steps. She stopped midway to glance over her shoulder at him. "When I need help making dinner, I will call you, and you will come to the kitchen, OK? Mama sweetly smiled as she tilted her head. "My strawberry mochi?" Jasper nodded. Mama closed her eyes and turned the corner around, and she left. He pursed his lips. Mrs Flower''s dark words rang in his mind. "Only a path of suffering awaits for you now." He clenched his fists and shook his head. Mrs Flower wasn''t real. Everything was just a nightmare. And now he was much more alive than before. An energetic smile crossed his face. Time to spend his youth. "Yumi?" he said. He looked and walked over to the now open shoji. His smile and limbs stiffened. When did it...? Someone crept up behind him. They slid their palms across his back, from tickling it to squeezing his biceps. The nerves in Jasper''s shoulder shrieked as a pair of teeth feebly clamped into them. "Nom." Jasper yelped as he explosively lurched forward and spun around. He faced Yumi in shock, who expressionlessly stood there and slightly opened her mouth to reveal her vampire teeth. She closed her mouth as he patted off the saliva left on his shoulder. "Play," she said. "Hide... And. Seek." Her tail wagged at an abnormal rate. Jasper wryly smiled. He didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. "OK... Play." CHAPTER 5 - The big, bad wolf Yumi faced the wall and shielded her eyes with her palms as she started counting down in her language. Jasper ran down the hallway, her voice towing behind. Tried to navigate his way as he recalled the walkthrough of the rooms his Mama provided. His feet scuttled. Hesitantly scooted as his neck swivelled back and forth to briefly glean the interior of the open rooms. There weren''t many hiding places to go by except a few blatant cabinets and low tables. He sharply exhaled in disbelief. Crap. Not a single, good hiding spot. He''d get caught on a whim. He stood on the spot indecisively, and the silence drew him in. Void of Yumi''s voice, and he realised. Yumi had stopped counting. How long has it been? He hurried into the room he was blankly staring at and ducked under a low table. He turned around so he could watch the entrance. Fingers pressed down on the mat, heel stretching out. Not a single noise or footstep came his way. He held his breath, and his brows knitted further. Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes felt like hours. Every tick, every slow, shallow breath demanded a sole pulse from his heart and nothing else, throbbing in his ears. He bit his lips. Foreboding was what clenched his heart. Foreboding was what made his premonition more obvious. His stomach crimped. Achoo. "OK, Yumi... You win," Jasper said, profusely sweating. He slowly looked to his left and found no one crouched beside him. What? He looked to his right and¨C "Woof!" Yumi clawed at the air as if her hands were paws, and Jasper shrieked. He sprung up, and his head bumped into the bottom of the table. Barrel rolled to his left, out of the table''s cover whilst clutching his head, his face contorted in pain. He faced the ceiling, groaning. "Y-Yumi..." Tears welled in his trembling eyes, and his vision grew blurry as he sniffed. "You scared me." Yumi crawled out of the table and walked over to him. She looked down at him, not a flit of remorse twitching in her eyes. Jasper''s eyelids twitched. "Sorry," she said. "Play..." Her tail wagged as her eyes narrowed, and she pointed at him. "You. Seek. I. Hide." Jasper stopped crying. He wiped his eyes with his sleeves and stood up, egg on his face. "OK..." He covered his eyes with his hands. Started counting. "One, two..." Light footsteps tapped away, and he brought his palms away from his eyes. He stopped counting and smiled as he saw the running away Yumi''s back turned to him. My turn. He surreptitiously tailed Yumi out of the room and towed behind her back. _____________________ "Boo!" Jasper lunged his palms at the air and took a half-step at Yumi. Yumi froze for the 72nd time, her lips parted, her golden eyes stiff and still like the rest of her body as they were about to face him. They were hiding in a cabinet, their feet standing on a pile of folded clothes. She tried to hide from him, but he kept just cheating every single time and never got caught for it. When he tried hiding from her, she somehow was right next to him every single time, so she had to be cheating, albeit he hadn''t caught her in the act... yet. And she wasn''t sorry when she scared him. So was he. For. Every. Single. Time. Jasper sighed as he scratched his head. He waved a palm in front of Yumi''s unresponsive eyes. No reaction; nothing. This is getting ridiculous. "Yumi?" he said. "Heeello?" Strange. She wouldn''t be frozen for that long. Unless... Jasper eyed her stiff tail, and the corners of his lips lifted in impish. His fingers twitched, and they mischievously curled. He was gonna grab it. He was gonna do it. Payback time for biting on his shoulder. Achoo. "Jasper!" His Mama yelled. "Come help make food in the kitchen!" Jasper and Yumi''s eyes lit up. They barged out of the cabinet and ran down the hallways and into the kitchen. Mama sat on her knees, smiling. In front of her was a chopping board and a knife, a daikon radish, a carrot, and an onion on the mat. Three small wooden bowls surrounded the chopping board. Flames from the hearth licked the bottom of a steaming pot supported by a metal stand. The crackles of burning wood. Wisps of burnt charcoal wafted into Jasper''s nostrils, and he inhaled. Exhaled as he quickly sat on his knees. Yumi followed. "Mama!" Jasper said. "Food!" Yumi excitedly said. "Oh my, it seems like everyone is here," Mama said as she clapped her hands. "Wonderful. Today''s dinner is miso soup. Yumi, take turns with Jasper cutting the vegetables." "Miso soup!" Yumi said. "Miso soup?" Jasper tilted his head. "Is that yummy?" "You''ll see for yourself soon," Mama said. "Now, now, get going. I should check with the rice..." She stood up and walked around the hearth, examining the pot. Yumi stood up and ran over to occupy the freed spot. She immediately grabbed the knife and started hazardously working on the vegetables. Jasper hovered around her as she deftly sliced the onions into thin strips and put them in a wooden bowl. She grabbed the carrot. "Hey, my turn," Jasper said. Yumi stopped before she could pulverise the carrot and passed him the knife as she huddled aside. Jasper took over. He stabilised the carrot on the chopping board with his hand before he carefully lowered the knife over its body. His trembling hand holding the knife, sweaty fingers latched onto the handle, became steadfast as the carrot was slowly cut in two. He hadn''t ever held a knife in his life. He narrowed his eyes. "Jasper?" The sweet voice of her past Mama. His breath quivered. "Gosh! Don''t swing your knife around like that!" Yumi blankly watched him clumsily cut the carrot. No thanks. "Here." Jasper gave her the knife and backed away, and Yumi took over again. She finished the job in a blur and moved on to the next. Jasper sat back, reflecting on the voice of his past Mama. He poignantly looked at his palm and flexed his fingers. The sentimental metallic grit of cutlery wrapped around the muscle memory of his thumb''s webbing. A knife he playfully swung around at home. It was slowly coming back together. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. No. He had his new home to only think about. He shook his head out of it. He curiously eyed his Mama remove the pot from the hearth and onto the mat using iron tongs. She placed another pot in its steed and let its content boil for a while before lowering the heat of the hearth for the broth to simmer by pushing the ashes with the iron tongs closer towards the burning coals. "Are the vegetables ready?" she asked. "Yes," Yumi said. "Wonderful. Come, you know what to do, children." Yumi enthusiastically nodded and grabbed the two wooden bowls of thinly sliced vegetables while Jasper grabbed the last one, and they headed to her in a single-file line. Mama received them one at a time as she dropped the sliced vegetables into the simmering cauldron and placed the wooden bowls on the floor. She gave Yumi and Jasper a bowl of miso paste to play around with and stir with chopsticks to wait. After a few minutes, using a wooden spoon, Mama added spoonfuls of miso paste to dissolve within the cauldron, whisking constantly to get its flavour interspersed. Before long, she would taste miso soup with a wooden spoon, lip-smacking as her tastebuds processed the rich flavour. Hm. A pinch of salt did the trick. Now, it was ready. A domineering wooden bowl containing freshly hot miso soup and brown rice served before Jasper, right in his eyes. His taste buds salivated. He hadn''t had a proper meal in a while since... everything. Anything else might as well be a once-of-a-lifetime opportunity gourmet to him. Mama had sat next to him with her own steaming bowl and pair of chopsticks for one for herself and him. Right. She was gonna teach him how to use them properly. Yumi sat on their adjacent side of the hearth, her eyes closed, her nostrils occasionally flaring to taste the soup through the meaty aroma as she waited. Waiting for Papa to arrive. A lone bowl sat on the opposite side of the hearth to him and Mama. In the meantime, Jasper watched the mesmerising flickers of the dying flames and pool of flaring embers scattered across the hearth, its feeble warmth nudging his skin through his clothes. It was nice. Mama stroked his hair while she hummed an old tune. They waited. And waited. "Oh dear..." Mama said. "The soup is getting cold." Yumi''s eyelids twitched as her hands felt the bottom of her bowl, chopsticks in her hand. The distant yet boisterous sound of a shoji sliding open woke Jasper from his trance. "I''m home." A standoffish voice, laden with the I-don''t-get-paid-enough-for-this-shit attitude, echoed throughout the household to the kitchen, following the sound of a shoji sliding again, presumably closing off the entrance. Heavy footsteps sunk into the mat and let out muffled cries, getting louder with every step as they approached the vicinity of the kitchen. Papa. Jasper watched the entrance in anticipation, and a man with broad shoulders and a scar etched across his eye shortly walked in. His black, bushy hair tied in a bun matched the void etched in his pupils and the vestiges beneath them fading away in his eyebags. He scratched his stubble with his finger, his dark, pointy canine ears perking. "Honey..." Mama worriedly said. "Huh. Look who it is," Papa said, amusingly staring at Jasper as he trailed off. Jasper averted his eyes from his intimidating gaze. He looked scary. "Reminds of a shithead of a certain old man." "Honey! Just..." "Jasper," He paused a beat, cocking his head. "Less food for everyone, then?" He walked over to the lone bowl and sat down cross legged, swooping the pair of chopsticks beside it. "Thank you for the food." He clapped his callused hands and closed his eyes. His hands grabbed his bowl off the floor, and he started devouring its contents. Yumi did the same, presumably from his voracious genes passing down to her. Jasper profusely sweated. He only had Mama''s hand gently guiding his, fingers feebly wrapped around his chopsticks while a fierce eating competition ensued in the background. He looked at his bowl. The miso soup reflected his pale face. It shouldn''t be like this. He tried to force a smile, but a twitch to the corners of his lips faltered it all. That sense of strangeness crept up to his gut again. He doesn''t even know how to use his chopsticks. He clenched his teeth. "Here comes the aeroplane," Mama said, and Jasper lifted his head. His lips automatically parted, and Mama''s chopstick pinched food in his mouth. The savoury, delicious taste of a carrot and some rice. Jasper chewed. Delicious. The voice of his past Mama saying the exact phrase rang in his mind. "Here comes the aeroplane¨C" Obnoxious slurping from both sides ripped him out of it. Jasper glanced at Yumi, who was chugging her bowl, before staring at Papa, who slammed his bowl onto the floor, gasping, his eyes directly holding eye contact with him. Jasper averted his eyes. He accepted the next batch of goods pinched in by his Mama''s chopsticks into his mouth. He slowly chewed with his mouth closed, careful to not produce lip smacks. He slowly looked at Papa again. Papa stared into his soul. "You know, Jasper," he said. "What happens when the prostitute wife of a magical, nut shootin'', crazy old man, gunslinger dies and... he''s left with his Alzheimer son?" "Honey. No," Mama snapped. "You will not go down that path¨C" Jasper stared into the voidness of Papa''s eyes. He heard his voice. The voice of his past Papa. "Son, ya see that young, lookin'' fellow right there? This is how ya shoot a gun." BANG! "What happened to your eye?" Jasper asked. Papa cracked a dry grin and laughter. His smile melted, and he leaned forward. Yumi''s eyes darted between the both of them as she slowly chewed. Papa continued. "They called him one of the Great Bastards of the West. We used to work together, nothing much, you know," Papa shrugged his shoulders. He narrowed his eyes and distantly stared at a wall to the side of him. "That bastard? Held us at gunpoint on a sunny day to take you in. Said he was gonna kill us all if we don''t, yeah, nothing much." He clenched his fists, white-knuckling. "Honey... That''s enough." Tears welled in Mama''s eyes, and her voice croaked. Jasper''s eyes became moist. His eyes lowered. His temples were throbbing. The voices of his past memories and his past Papa. It was slowly coming... all together. "This wound?" Papa pointed at his scary eye. "It''s¨C" "Please, stop, he''s just a kid¨C" "Shut the fuck up!" Jasper flinched. He alarmingly looked up at Papa. Mama sobbed while Papa stood up, looking down at her. Papa continued. "He''s gonna forget all of this damn shit anyway. Fucking cultivators, man! Fuck!" He paused a beat. Yumi growled at him, baring her teeth. "And you... You''re a lil piece of shit, too," He spun around and pointed at Yumi. Yumi''s ears drooped as her head lowered and her posture slouched. He shook his head from side to side and flounced out of the kitchen. Mama stood up and followed him. "Mama, no!" Jasper reached out to her, but it was too late. She had already left, and an argument of a different language and dialect ensued. Yumi''s body shuddered. She looked at Jasper. Jasper looked at her. They nodded and ran out of the kitchen, following the shouts around the corner. They turned to witness Mama being slapped in the face by Papa. Mama dropped to her rump on the floor and sobbed. Yumi screamed. Jasper watched in horror. This isn''t home. "Jasper!" The man roared. "After the mornin'' breakfast, you will accompany me to this damn village''s forest. There''s something I would like to show you. Got some treasure to dig. Sick and tired of this shit..." He turned their back on them and slowly walked forward, muttering to himself. He stopped halfway. He glanced over his shoulder to Jasper and said, "And one last fuckin'' rule, do not call me daddy. I am Hiro Hamiyashi. She''s Sakura. That is the golden rule here in the north." He beckoned his chin and lowered his eyes towards Mama. Mama continued sobbing to herself. Hiro clicked his tongue in disdain before he ventured further and disappeared around the corner. Yumi ran to Sakura and tightly embraced her from the front. Sakura hugged her back. Jasper gloomily walked over. His deadpan eyes and blurry vision wavered over the two. Wild memories of him and his father spending time together had rushed to his head, veins bulging from his forehead. A splitting headache hit him. Jasper groaned as he touched his temple. His eyes were narrowed and glued to the floor. "Jasper..." Sakura said. "I''m so sorry for everything that happened. Go to your room and have a well-night rest." She tried to fake a cheerful smile, but her transient bitterness faded to a sniffle. Yumi turned her head around to face Jasper. Tears flowed from her eyes and trickled down her cheeks to her pursed lips. "I''m sorry," Jasper said. I''m sorry for being alive. I''m sorry for being a mistake. "You did nothing wrong, Jasper. I promise," Sakura paused a beat. "When you wake up, just think as yesterday as a nightmare. O-Or forget about it." A nightmare¡­ Jasper nodded. "OK? M-my strawberry mochi?" Jasper nodded. He tried saying, "Yes, Mama," but couldn''t bring himself to say it. Not anymore. The cogs in his burning head arduously grounded to navigate and pull his dead limbs towards his room. He entered and closed the shoji. Fell back on his futon, blank eyes staring at the ceiling. I wanna go home. CHAPTER 6 - Father of the year "This is how ya shoot a gun." BANG! Jasper flinched, his breath shivering, pores drained of sweat. Numb fingers tremblingly wrapped around the handguard of a revolver, aching from the heft of recoil that had slammed them to his wrist. His sweaty fingertips repeatedly grazed against the cold, metallic slide of the trigger. Gunpowder choked his nostrils, intertwined with the fishy, inundating scent of death. Blood besmirched the wooden bar and beheld carnage everywhere, the countless corpses littered with gaping bullet wounds, lying next to the flipped-over tables, and... Everyone had died except him and his Papa. The warmth of Papa''s fingers guiding his aim left in half-assed solace as they slyly slithered away. A silent assassin he was. Papa had done all of the shooting except one. Jasper tried to smile. He wretchedly forced his teary gaze to the man he just put out of his misery, his unrecognisable head blown out like a popped watermelon. Insides percolating; brain matter, bits of bones, blood. Blood, blood, blood. Papa started laughing. Jasper didn''t find any of this funny. Not one single bit. Whimpers stuttered out of his lips. His fingers let go of the revolver and pressed against his lips, and his puke frenzily clambered through his parched throat. Lunch cascaded from his mouth, squelching between the gaps of his fingers as he doubled over, rushing to crash on the floor. Knees buckled. Tears fell. He desperately spun around to the exit and tried running away. He couldn''t wrap his head around the constant desensitisation in the past days of pure massacres after massacres. Ever since Mama slept forever. Ever since Papa took him in. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I c-can''t... Papa tripped him. Jasper''s chin caught the saloon door, its rusty hinges creaking before Papa grabbed his collar from the back and threw him to the floor. He cried out. He landed on the back of his head hard. His teeth seared. His vision swirled, and his head hurt. He hollowly stared at the ceiling, his tear-stained cheeks dry. He embraced the fleeting feeling of teetering on the border of unconsciousness. Embracing the metallic acrid fluid harassing his helpless tongue. Embracing the brutal shoot-downs endlessly replaying in his head, the image of mutilated corpses mirrored in his retinas. Papa entered his view, looking down at him with a widespread, toothy grin. Not a wound, not a scar, nothing. The past days... "Ready to meet Chloe, son?" he said. "Ready to move on?" Ghost towns after ghost towns. "I d-don''t..." Jasper whispered. Papa scratched his moustache and deeply exhaled. All because of him. A horrorstruck gasp pierced the silence from beyond the saloon door. Papa hunched. Cold, calculating, empty eyes steadfast. A flick of a wrist, a bullet fired akin to a clap of a thunder. Smoke billowed from the muzzle of his revolver, and a small swath of blood splattered diagonally across his cheeks. The echo of the gunshot faded away. "Whew." Then came the distant thud heralding the last of this town''s joy and laughter. Coldness chipped away Jasper''s cheeks. Reality or not, the blue, rotating minuscule magic circle before the revolver''s muzzle and subtle hue wrapped around Papa''s arm had gradually vanished into nihility. Jasper wasn''t sure if he was seeing things anymore. His lips formed a half-deranged smile. Tried laughing, but his throat gurgled on insanity. Laughing. "Round two, it is again. C''mon, son." CHAPTER 7 - nightmare A void. "Mama?" Jasper shook Mama''s motionless body, lying on her side, facing away from him. Her skin, no longer possessing its motherly warmth, returned with its pale coldness to the touch. "Mama, wake up. The sun is here!" Jasper excitedly spread his arms to the sky. The void. The darkness. Mama didn''t respond. "Eh?" He confusingly cocked his head, and his arms slowly returned to his sides. A sorrowful sigh swelled from the throat and soothed out of his lips. He lay down next to her and faced the abyssal, pouting. Closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He wasn''t tired. Frustration stacked within his eyelids as they closed more tightly. He counted from one to three. He reached to the side and hugged Mama''s cold body, trying to snuggle himself to sleep. Something is wrong. Jasper opened his eyes. His pupils misted as they remained staring at the borderless ceiling of the void. He let go of his Mama and propped himself to his knees. He turned to his Mama and leaned close to her ear, still motionless in the same position as before. Mama is still sleeping. "Mama!" he shouted. "Wake! Upppppp!" No response. "Waaaake. Upppppppp!" Silence. Jasper worriedly sat there, staring at his Mama, panting to ease his strained throat. He gently tucked her strands of dark hair behind her ear before clenching his teeth. He''d have to do this the hard way. One by one. He eyed her slumped arm and giggled with impish as he brought his fingers to pinch her skin. Whenever Mama pinched his ear to reprimand him, it would hurt a lot and made him cry every time. Or do I pinch her ear first? He would test the waters in case his Mama would wake up and not get angry at him. Jasper knitted his brow. He pinched the skin on her arm and stretched it. Nope. He grabbed her ear and lugged it. "Mamaaaa! Wakeeeee up!" Jasper fell to his butt as his Mama turned to face the ceiling. He cried out in joy. He scampered back to his knees and shook her body. "Mama!" Mama didn''t say anything. "Mama..." Mama didn''t move. Jasper''s smile remained as he gleaned her face. Dim, lifeless brown eyes loosely opened. The light in her eyes had faded. Her chapped cheeks were pale, and her lips were slightly parted open. Mama..? Tears welled in Jasper''s eyes. He didn''t know why he felt so lonely. His smile still remained. He slowly looked at her throat. A wide slit. Blood had spilled and cascaded from her neck, massing a pool of crimson fluid on her other side. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "..." Jasper slowly stared at the bloodied knife resting near her frail, slender hand. A bud sprouted beside it, rapidly blooming into a grey, dull lotus, feasting on her blood. Images quickly flitted by Jasper''s eyes as his smile widened. A man. A God being crucified. His face was censored by a black square. Then, strange people with long ears and solemn eyes as the crowd below. Strange memories. Papa''s empty eyes. The sight of mutilated corpses. The pile of brain matter spread outwards as Jasper looked down at the blown head of a man he killed for the first time, his numbing fingers on the clammy trigger, a myriad of tingles dancing on his palms. Papa... His expired Mama with a slit on her throat. The deafening silence mourned for her. A black square slowly appeared on the lotus to veil the face of the LORD. Jasper maintained eye contact with Him, and his head rapidly shook from side to side, exacerbating with every tick. Cryptic whispers lulled in his ears. His body uncontrollably quivered. Felt cold. Faint church bells tolled in his mind, and his temples throbbed. Jasper''s trembling fingers slid off his Mama. A chuckle or two. The tolling of church bells grew louder, swaying in and out of his ears like a swinging pendulum. His head hurt like hell. Insanity. Kill, kill, kill. Jasper clutched his hair and hysterically laughed. His throat hurt and strained more. He considered quenching his thirst on Mama''s blood to satiate his parched throat. The lotus''s inscrutable facade spoke to him, its cryptic whispers as soothing as the ringing church bells. "¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö ¡ö¡ö?" My lord, my lord, why have you forsaken me? Jasper eyed the bloodied knife. Lying there, still like his Mama. There was only one answer to this question. "Ready to meet Chloe, son?" Mama! Jasper excitedly nodded. Hysterical laughter after laughter. He lunged at the knife. The knife disappeared before he swooped it. He laughed and laughed. He rolled flat on the ground, covering himself in the puddle of blood. A game of hide and seek. The void glimmered as they merged with the pitch-black surroundings of his room, back to staring at the dull ceiling. He kicked to his feet and rolled out of his futon. Scuttled and pressed his numb fingers against the shoji before sliding it. He ran down the hallway in a frenzy, occasionally bumping against the wall, laughing and laughing. The endless symphony of church bells tolled in crescendo as he barged into the kitchen. He searched for the knife amid the darkness. He swiftly scoured across the shelves to buckets around the kitchen, the gait tickling his pores and exciting him even more. Found you. He grabbed the knife from the bucket. And slit his throat. Jasper laughed as he gurgled on his own blood, collapsing to his feet. An opaque bud appeared in the centre of his vision. It sprouted, grey petals blended with the night''s shadows lurking in the corners. The LORD Himself was watching him. From above the skies. From the stamen of the lotus, staring down at him, from the heavens. it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts "REWIND." Blood flowed back to Jasper''s neck, and a force lifted him back to his feet, explosively muffling the tolling church bells and his laughter. He was back to holding the knife again. He laughed and slit his throat. "REWIND." Again. "REWIND." And again. "REWIND." And... again. "REWIND." It hurts. Jasper hesitantly held the knife over his throat, his laughter losing impetus. Tears streamed down his cheek, and he slumped to his knees. The toll of church bells slowly faded with the lotus, the LORD abandoning him to his churning gut. He laughed and laughed. Loneliness. "¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö!" The voice of Hiro shouted at him from the entrance of the kitchen. Jasper''s grip on the knife tightened as he prepared to slit his throat again. He laughed. A hand reached out from behind and grabbed the knife''s handle. Jasper screamed as he tried to wrestle it back. He spun around and faced Yumi, who cried back. He stopped laughing, and his deranged smile slumped. His grip on the knife became loose. Yumi yanked it from his grip. She fell to her butt and stared into Jasper''s eyes, desperately holding onto the knife, sniffling. "¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö... ¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö..." ...leave me alone. Jasper''s eyes rolled to their whites, and he fainted. CHAPTER 8 Marshall Brown scanned the barren-dry canyon from atop a cliff. Dead bushes, dead grass, dead skeletons. Pores slicked perspiration on his skin, drenching his attire. The crevices doglegged across the cracked ground and gutted towards an empty hell. Nah. He perched his empty eyes on the precipice of the empty, blue horizon. Lost in the vast scenery, lost in the lumbering sensation. One hand holding the Himmelsfeuer magic revolver loosely aimed behind him, the other pinching the cigarette. He took a deep drag. Billowed smoke out of his lips before tossing the wrapper to its bottomless demise. The sweet smell of no man''s land tinted with tobacco wafted through the contorted air, and he deeply inhaled through his nose. "Darn." A shadow loomed over him as his vision ominously darkened, and his facade returned to their expressionless countenance. The low growls of thunder gently rumbled in his ears, and a grey mist resembling the head of a Dingo trailed into his view, its cerulean, glowing eyes illuminating its curiosity at him. Roving grey apparition-like strands of fur cut off at the neck. "Well, milord?" The dog said, its feminine layered voice transmitted through its bared teeth. The storm mired within its intangible oblong blanket obscuring the sun''s flare stirred. "The boy does not seem to possess any recollection of you, yes?" Marshall''s eyes flitted to the dog''s three eyes before they narrowed, and he doffed his hat at it with his free hand. "Nah." The dog''s eyes slyly beckoned its gaze ahead, and Marshall followed as he spun along. His arm aiming his revolver returned to its intrinsic torque. "Son?" he said. Jasper didn''t respond. His wavering eyes were deadpan, its reflection returning with a desolate shell of his former self. Didn''t matter if he was dead or not. He was already dead, just like him. Marshall lowered his Himmelsfeuer and tucked it in his holster, rubbing his fingers together to relish that sexy slide and touch of its handguard. It was one of the Dark Elves'' finest inventions, hell with their twisted ideology in the Oseanarith Empire, modernization, ironic technology, and fuck trees. They were considered Mother Nature''s biggest mistake, unlike their nature and magic, white, kind counterpart... This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ''Nuff of that, now. "Oh?" the dog said as it sniggered. "Thought you kill the boy then yourself?" "Yeah, nah, well... The hell happened to him?" "The overwhelming stress seems to get to him. He couldn''t handle the corpses, death and corpses. Poor child." Marshall sighed. Wasn''t that darn obvious. "Reckon that he''s just ain''t cut for it, then." Pa had let him down. Marshall stared down at his gloved palm and tightly clenched it into a fist. He had his share when he was a young chap, and his Pa gave him a fair taste of the Golden Ages of the Eagle Federation. At one point in his life, his Pa had isolated himself from his life when he grew up with his Ma till a bunch of funny-looking bastards showed up and kidnapped her. Then, Pa showed up, and they Yeehawed all over the place. Towns? Sacked. Government? Sacked. Bounty hunters? Dead. All. Fucking. Dead. Ma was never found. Long gone from the world, perhaps. Good, hell, since the world was now approaching a state of hell. Until Pa died to another gunslinger, Marshall would live on without him. Great Bastards of the West. A funny name for funny folks lookin'' to kill each other. Now, he wasn''t so sure if it was the Eagle Federation''s Golden Ages anymore. Following in his Pa''s footsteps, never being in his son''s life till now, taking him on a necessary adventure so they can live in the thrift of the gambles in life before they die together. As Papa and Son. Reuniting with the family in the afterlife. So, what the hell did he do wrong? His son... Chloe... Marshall mouthed the name of his beloved wife. Rage embellished his cheeks crimson as he thought of the bastard who made her severely depressed, so she put the knife to her throat and killed herself. Left the innocent Jasper to himself and in the dark. Now look at him. I oughta be the worst father in the West. "I''m a dead man, Coco, I''m a dead man." Marshall wiped his teary eyes with the ball of his hands. Sniffed out of it. Emptiness, devoid of any sympathy, replaced his pupils. Coco, the ghost Dingo, playfully flew around him overhead and stilled beside Jasper. Jasper only robotically stared ahead, not bothering to stroke its passthrough fur. The dog amusingly brushed its glance past him and yawned, the jarring, dissonant cry of a canine humming from its non-existent vocal cords piercing Summer''s silence and the sky. Its three eyes hungrily stared at Marshall''s delicious soul. "What shall you do now, milord?" Marshall snapped his fingers, hunching out of his hangdog spine. Dead ahead, it is. "Lend me your legs." "Oh?" Coco narrowed its eyes with an inimitable leer. "I''ll oughta find Jasper a new home." "Then?" "Head straight to the Dragon Horse Empire." Coco''s eyes paused at the top before rolling back at Marshall as crescents, sadistically smiling. "The cultivator who raped your wife?" "Yeah." Marshall coldly narrowed his eyes. "I''ll fuckin'' kill ''em all."