Eyes of terror

"Are we there yet"

"No"

Are we there yet"

"No"

"Are we ther-"

"No, brother, we are not there yet and we won't be for another few hours."

I was deeply frustrated at Feng long, he was ruining the beautiful green surroundings that sped by.

Mother was carrying both of us in one arm to vast sea city, it was northward from our home and with mothers speed it would take a few hours at least to get there.

The sky blue ocean sparkled with light, just like the night sky. The grass blew about with the rolling winds. Trees, both light green and dark green passed by on either side of me. There was a path that had all of the trees cut, making a nice area to run through.

I had never got to experience this in my past life, I was a soldier on the front lines so seeing any nature was uncommon.

"Are we there yet"

I would be a lot better of Feng Long could be quiet. I never knew how to deal with kids, they were just so demanding, even when I didn't give them an inch they would take a mile.

I couldn't stay mad at him for long, the happy and friendly aura that emitted from him quickly cooled my frustration. His friend aura didn't seem to effect anyone else, maybe it was a candidate thing?

...

"I see it! I see it" Feng Long shouted as a large city came into view. The massive houses were mainly white with faded orange roofs. Trees were planted all throughout the city creating a nice environment. Running through the middle of the city, slowly winding back and forth was a gargantuan river with a few small boats traveling down its clear waters.

Behind the city, slightly in the ocean was a coliseum, waves were gently lapping its walls and two tall spires stood at either end of the coliseum.

There was only one word to describe vast sea city. Majestic!

Mother put us down and combed through her red spiky hair with her fingers. "Curses, why couldn't I just have normal hair that did what I want" mother growled. She had spent almost an hour trying to tame her hair but it always stayed spiky and wild.

Feng Long stared at her with his strawberry pink coloured eyes and ran his hand through his apricot coloured hair, trying to copy mother.

It still seemed like a Miracle to me, how we could have the same parent and look completely different. I decided to blame it on the strangely large amount of meridians that people on the Douluo continent possessed.

Feng Long held onto mothers hand while I held on to the back of her dark blue shirt. The city was right up ahead when I asked "why are we going to the city anyways?"

Mother looked back at me and smiled, showing her sharp teeth that I had already gotten used to. "Feng Hao, we are going to the city to get some medicine, Feng Lan is still sick." Mother had a strange hatred for more advanced medicines, she had always trusted herbal tea and other simple cures. When fathers sickness worsened, she finally decided to go to the city.

"Okay" I blankly say as we head into the city. There were tons of people on the streets, it was difficult to get through everyone.

The air was hot and salty, mother turned back and said "don't let go of me, or you're going to get lost."

Feng Long and I nodded, mother smiled again.

It didn't take long for me to feel something was off. I looked around to see that a few people had stopped and were looking at us with pity and disgust. It was as if they were looking for an object which had caused them great harm but it was now missing.

It took me a moment to realize that they were looking at the empty sleeve on the right side of mothers body. I could practically feel their disgust at her missing arm. I was confused, the Douluo continent is filled with dangerous spirit beasts, shouldn't missing limbs be common? I realized that it couldn't just be the missing limb that were angered by, it had to be my mother. What did she do to gain all that hatred? I could only wonder.

Wherever we went people wouldn't stop staring so I took up the habit of staring back. It didn't have any effect for a while. I was giving my best death stare to an old woman who looked offended at having to look at my mothers missing arm.

I suddenly felt a small intent flow out of me, the woman looked scared for a moment before leaving.

[killing intent statistic unlocked, current killing intent: 3]

'Useful' I thought. Mother led Feng Long and I to a building with a large park attached to it. "I need to drop you two off here while I do something else, behave okay."

"Mama, why can't we go too" Feng Long said. "The place where mama is going is dangerous for you so stay here"

"But wouldn't it be dangerous for mama to go there?" Feng Long asked. "Don't worry mama is strong, I will come back to get you in an hour."

With that, mother went up to a lady in front of the building and talked for a moment, handing over a few coins, then left.

That woman current ran the daycare. The woman who ran the place before her had been a close friend of mothers. It was a business that had been running well for years. The previous owner had suddenly died after being stabbed in an alleyway and this woman had taken over.

"Why don't you two follow me to the yard" the owner said, a small smile on her face, her smile was somewhat chilly and her eyes saw me as something precious, although not the same kind of preciousness that a child has, more like money.

I guessed that she didn't actually care for the kids and just saw them as profit, although it was slightly scummy of her to see children that way I didn't ask any questions and followed her. The yard had a barbed fence around it and there were four other kids inside.

I looked at the barbed fence, 'a bit extreme' I though.

As soon as Feng Long got into the yard, he ran up to three girls playing a game together. The oldest of them looked to be around four years old and the other two were probably around three.

"Hi, can I play too" Feng Long asked, "no, go away you stinky kid, we don't want any babies playing with us" the oldest of the girls said. She was blond and would probably grow up to be a beautiful woman but she was too snobby.

"I'm not a baby, mama said I'm a big boy!" Feng Long yelled. "You are a baby"

"I'm a big boy"

"You're a baby"

"I'm a big boy"

The two got into a rather loud argument. I decided to ignore them, if Feng Long needed any help he would come to me. It was sad that he couldn't break out of the illusion like I did, although I guess that it's a blessing in disguise, that illusion lets the candidates skip the first few years of their lives so that they don't have to experience that suffering of early childhood.

I looked towards a shady corner, a small kid that was around by age was sitting down with his head resting on his knees.

He was emitting a candidate aura, it seemed dangerous and aggressive exactly the same as when Feng Long began to emit the aura of a candidate. Although once I became more friendly with Feng Long, his aura switched to a much gentler one, maybe that could happen with this kid as well.

He had jet black hair that was far darker than mine and he looked sickly pale. I went up to him to ask if he was okay, he looked pretty beaten up and had bruises on his legs and face.

I walked towards the kid for a moment before he looked up. His eyes were like endless black holes, no light was let in.

I felt my surrounding go dark, I tried to move but I was stuck in place. Everything faded away except the kid. I felt extremely terrified, my chest felt constricted and the cold edge of a scythe was placed against my neck.

I was going to die, I couldn't call out for help, all I could do was wait for the scythe to slit my throat and kill me.

I wanted to call out to the kid "monster, hideous beast, go die." I wasn't sure why I wanted to yell at the kid like that, I just did.

I felt a skeletal hand on my head and I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.

The end never came, I waited for a few more moments before opening my eyes.

I was on the soft grassy ground, the sky was lit ablaze by the setting sun and the kid was gone.