Madness: REMINISCENCE

Billy followed his own track, trying to find any sign of civilization, in the way, there were some things he found. First, he was very short, maybe a kid, he didn't knew his exact age, but it was around 7 or 8.

Second, he didn't had any injury, but he felt a phantom pain in his chest, where his heart should be.

Third, on top of his head, there was a slightly familiar floating halo, but unlike an angel's halo, this one was fractured, it clearly missed some pieces, but it was still forming a perfect circle on his head. It was coloured dark red and emitted a black ominous glow.

Billy tried to grab it, before black lightning came out from the halo and shocked Billy, however, even if his body was clearly twitching from the shock he is getting, it didn't hurt in the slightest…

Soon, the lightning stopped and Billy felt a connection with the halo, so he just placed it back where it was, and it continued to float over his head.

Suddenly, images entered in his head, and then, a crack appeared under his feet.

The crack was getting longer, until it was some meters away from Billy, then the crack made a distorted circle, and the ground inside that distorted circle turned black… From that fissure, a grey bone hand came out and grabbed the edge of the fissure.

However, Billy wasn't scared and kept looking at it, the bone hand seemed as if was pulling the edge, before a second bone hand came out and grabbed the edge, finally, a dark grey skeleton came out from the fissure, and just stood there.

Billy: ...Madness Combat…

He remembered that show… If there was a gory animation that could capture people's attention, it's Madness Combat, unfortunately, he died before the 12th part could come out.

Billy gave the skeleton some commands through his mind, and the skeleton turned towards him, it walked towards him and lifted Billy up, before carrying him at the same direction he was going before.

Soon, the two of them reached a village, it was emitting smoke everywhere due to the fire turned off from the rain. Billy looked around and just saw half-destroyed buildings, the ground was full of ashes and blood, corpses were decorating the road with their flesh and bones…

But the sight didn't disgusted Billy in the slightest, he just looked at them with an indifferent look on his face, this was negligible compared to "T҉̴҉h̡̀͟a̧͘͟͞t̴́ ̷̢́͜͜t͡h̶̵͘ì̶̡n̛͘g͟" that he heard for centuries...

They were just bodies of people he didn't knew… With an order, the skeleton let down Billy and vanished in another fissure that came from his feet.

Billy looked around and walked in the biggest house that was visible, it was even the one less damaged…

Billy passed through the destroyed door, and entered what looked like the living room, he searched around, but there was nothing, so he got upstairs, the first thing he checked was a bedroom of a child, he looked around, and found a ruined picture.

He observed the picture, and saw only the image of a kid around his age smiling at him, however, the other people beside the kids were unrecognizable because the cracks of the glass that protected the picture covered them.

So he let the picture on the bed and left, then he got to the next bed, and found 3 corpses… One was that of what he could call the "Man of the family", he had long black hair and a beard, his body was muscular, he looked to be strong, but he ended with a large gash on his chest.

His eyes trembled as he looked at the man, then his gaze turned towards right, and found two women, one was beheaded, with her head rolling in the ground, she had blond long hair and amber eyes, she looked like the wife of the man.

And finally, his gaze settled on the naked woman in the floor, she was smelling of sex, her body was filled with bruises and had a dagger injury on the neck and an arrow on her leg, the ground under her was covered in red and white…

Tears came down from Billy's red eyes, as he looked at the lifeless people in front of him… He didn't know why he was crying, but everything was clear when he blacked out…

[7 years and 3 months ago / ? Village]

The sky was bright, same for the sun that was illuminating everything, in the village, there was a great noise due to everyone being grouped around a big house, inside the house, there were three people.

Two of them were the man and the woman that Billy saw before, just slightly younger, the man was holding the woman's hand while the woman was laying down on a bed with her legs open as she was breathing hastily.

Man: You can do it, honey…

Woman: I'll fucking rip off your dick if you want another child!!

Man: Oof…

The third man, however, was a doctor, he was currently trying to take out the baby from the woman safely, and he slowly did it.

Woman: AAAARRRGHHHHH!!!! FUCK!!

*Pop*

The child came out, some minutes later, the Doctor gave the woman her child covered in a white cloth.

Doctor: Congratulations, it's a boy, m'lady, Chief!

Man: Did you hear that, honey? It's our first son!

Woman: Thanks god he's born safely… Can I see the child?

Doctor: Certainly, m'lady.

Then the doctor gave the child to the woman, the woman looked at her child with a smile on her face as tears of joy came out from her eyes.

Man: Alright, since he's a boy, we'll call him… Ezekiel.

Woman: Mn, Ezekiel… A good name for him…

Ezekiel: Hehehe…

Man: He seemed to like it, honey, it's time to rest now.

Woman: You are right…

The woman gave Ezekiel to her husband and slowly closed her eyes. The man looked at the child on his arms and grinned.

Man: You will be a good Chief when you will grow up, I will protect you until I die…

Then the Chief got out from his house, and everyone called him.

Villagers: It's the Chief! / Hey man, is it a boy or a girl?! / Is your wife alright?

Man: Calm down guys! My wife Amanda is alright! And here is my new son, Ezekiel!

Villagers: Woooooo!! / He's so cute! / Can I caress him? / Haha! Let's hope he won't be a lazy ass like his father!

The man smiled at everyone as he glanced at the child on his arms, who was sleeping even though there was a big mess outside.

[1 year later]

Ezekiel was 1 year old now, he developed his hair on the head, which was black colored, his eyes were blue sapphire, and he was wearing only a cloth on his waist, to cover his lower body.

He was being carried from a girl around 13 years who had blonde hair and blue eyes just like Ezekiel.

?: Hey brother, do you want to see dad training?

Ezekiel: Wah!

He smiled and made random gestures, making the girl smile, then she carried Ezekiel to the backyard, where there was their father training with a sword that was really thick, the width was around 40 centimeters, while its length was around 2 meters.

The blade was made of compressed carbon, making it extremely strong and a bit light at the same time, their father was holding the heavy sword with both of his hands as he made movements that were completely unlike one could expect from a heavy sword user, it seemed as if he was holding a light sword.

Each one of his slash released a blade of wind capable of cutting rocks, sweat was flying in the air as his muscles looked big enough to kill a kid if he was squeezed between them.

Ezekiel: Woah!

Apparently, their father heard that, and he stopped swinging his heavy sword around and looked at his right, then he smiled.

Father: Hehe, hey Sarah, did you decide to train?

Sarah: No! I don't want to be a brute full of muscles like you, I want to be like mom!

Father: Oof…

The father seemed to lose his strength when the heavy sword fell down and cause a slight shockwave in the backyard, surprising Sarah. Then the father glanced at Ezekiel and said.

Father: At least do you know how is useful training, Ezekiel?

Ezekiel: ...Papa?

Ezekiel started to talk a week ago, even if being called "Papa" from him, made the father, Bora, happy, knowing that Ezekiel couldn't even answer properly made him a bit sad.

Father: Am I the only one who knows that training is important…?