1 The Boy

The boy wakes up from his sleep and opens his eyes. The boy is greeted with the sight of a dark, brown colored roof, riddled with water stains and broken wallpaper. He hears the noises of water dripping onto a body of water, almost rhythmically.

"Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick".

The boy sits up from his bed, making a slight creaking noise from the bed as he moves his body. With his half opened eyes, he sees a bucket he placed the other day, almost full to the brim with water. The boy sighs and looks around his room. He sees that the walls are in the same condition of his roof. Brown, broken, riddle with water stains. Various furniture and decorations can be seen around his room. Including, but not limited to, his desk, chair, clothes rack and various posters of fictional characters he looks up to from animes and mangas alike. Mostly posters of powerful characters, including Maruto, Jogo, and Rufy. He sees a light bulb dangling off the roof with another piece of string hanging right next to it, though considerably longer, allowing it to be reached to anyone tall enough. The boy switches his focus towards the window, though covered with blinds, a ray of light shines into his dark room. The boy continues to stare at the window until he hears the bucket start to overflow with water. He looks at the bucket and starts to stand up from his bed.

The boy stops midway and sits beside the bed with his feet on the ground looking down on the hard wooden planked floor, only held down by pieces of rusty nails and gravity. He looks at his legs and feet. Dirty, unpolished, and bruised as a result of walking on the harsh wooden floor. The boy stands up from the bed and starts to walk towards the blinded window and stops his tracks in front of the window. The boy starts to open the blinds, and a big ray of light shines enters his room, lighting it up, allowing the boy to clearly see his surroundings. Unlike before, where he was only able to partially see the room due to only part of the sunlight illuminating the room. He looks outside the window, into the morning sky and sees the sun, with its presence that dominates over anything present in the world. As he continues to look out his window, the sound of the bucket overflowing is heard in the background, though the boy still doesn't give it attention. The boy keeps staring blankly at the sky and his focus breaks as the water from the overflowing bucket touches his feet. He then starts to walk over to the bucket and picks it up using his hands, similar to his feet, scarred, bruised and dirty. The boy picks the bucket up and walks over to the light. The boy throws the water outside, dropping it in an alleyway where nobody goes through. He closes the window and continues to put the bucket in its previous place, to catch more of the leaking water. The boy ignores the water soaked floor and starts to walk to his clothes rack.

The boy sees 3 possible outfit options he could wear. A dirty school uniform, home clothing - though dirty and riddled with holes everywhere -, and a clean outfit he recently bought using the savings he had from collecting coins from the street. The boy looked at his new clothes with a bright and proud smile. Since today was a day where everyone in school is allowed to wear anything they'd like, he chose to wear his nice outfit to show off to his classmates. The boy cleaned himself up as best as he could and was ready to go to school after he finished packing his items. He opened his room door and walked out as quietly as he could, tip-toeing, as if he was avoiding the attention of something or someone. He walks down the stairs as fast and as quietly as he could and he finally reached the front door. He twisted the handle and opened the door and he stepped out of his house, believing he finally escaped the devil that lives with him, though he could not be more wrong. As he was stepping out, an arm suddenly comes out of the dark house left behind by the boy and the hand proceeds to grab the boy's hair and pulls him back into the house. As he was dragged back in, his face of joy suddenly turned to a face terror and fear. The boy falls down on the floor of the house as he was suddenly pulled from his back and hits the back of his head on the hard wooden floor. The boy curls his body up in pain and has his hands covering the back of his head to ease his pain. But then, the hand grabbed the boy's hair again and pulls him up to a kneeling position.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING HUUUH?!?!"

The boy looks around and sees a large figure standing above him, pulling on his hair on one hand and holding what seems to be an alcohol bottle on the other. The boy replies:

"I-I'm g-going to school"

"Oh really? Then what's that outfit you're wearing huh? It doesn't look like you're going to school? Are you leaving me? ARE YOU?"

"I-I'm not leaving you. I'm g-going to school. It's f-free cl-clothes day."

"Oooh, then where did you get these nice clothes? You steal them? ARE YOU STEALING?"

"N-no, I b-bought it from the money I got coll-collecting c-coins from the st-street"

The woman begins to punch the boy repeatedly with her other hand whilst holding the bottle, having it spill all over the boy's clothes and making it more painful for his wounds.

"THEN WHY"

*punch*

"DIDN'T YOU GIVE IT"

*Punch*

"TO ME?"

*PUNCH*

"I could've used that money to BUY MORE BEER!"

*punch*

"THIS is why nobody likes you."

"Because you're such"

*punch*

"an idiotic"

*Punch

"LOSER"

*PUNCH*

The boy's face, now bruised, and his clothes, now soaked with alcohol and dirty from the broken wooden floor.

"Hmph. Go away, useless child"

The boy stays silent. He starts to stand up, though in difficulty due to the beating. The boy walks up back to his room to change his clothes.

A few minutes later…

The boy walks out of his room, wearing his dirty school uniform and a bruised face. He quietly walks down the stairs and opens the door. On his way out,

"Grab me some bear while you're at it. At least then, you'll be somewhat useful"

The boy stops in his tracks and pauses. Then continues to walk out, not saying a thing. After that, he continued to go through his usual route to school, thinking it would be another normal day.

To Be Continued… in the next chapter