Chapter 2: Loss of Innocence (Skyra)

~Stop asking if I'm okay because I'm tired of lying. I failed. Everything was lost and I was now alone. Everyone was gone. My hope and my reason for living were gone. Torn away, I was left abandoned. Struggling to find a way back. I'm tired of crying. I'm sick of smiling when truthfully I'm dying. But there was still one light left, one thing that kept me going through all the pain and heartache. I won't give up. Not when there is still so much I have to do. So here I am. Are you proud?~

Days had passed sense father had left and we had fallen into a rhythm. During the day I would go to school while mother watched Warren. When getting home I'd make mom dinner before she went to work, if I could even call it that. Her 'work' consisted of entertaining higher-ups in the town, people who were richer, who had influence. Father hadn't sheltered me from the darkness of this world. I knew exactly what she did. He never thought of me as a child. He freely cussed around me and he never let up in anything he did. Showing me the 'sights' of the town in which we lived. I wasn't saved from any of it. From the moment I was born, father had already planned everything. Though he didn't know what his leaving would do. What it would cost my mother myself and Warren...

Though one thing he never did was introduce me to true battle. Yes we would fight each other and I was always in life threating conditions but I hadn't face anyone other than my father. When I came of age I had begun to go to school. So father trained me at night. I hated it both his training and school the reason being is because I was treated unfairly. Both the teacher and students hated me both for different reasons. The adult hated me because of who my parents were and the kids were following their parents had told them.

If not for mother's orders then I would be getting a job along with her but I had to watch Warren while she was gone in case 'they came'. So I did. I watched silently as my mother would come back with a new bruise or cut yet she said nothing as I gently patched her up. As she did so many times for me in the past, I asked no questions either. She didn't need to go through it more than she already did. Once was more than enough.

More then once I begged her not to do this. Never telling her of the places father had brought me years before. The things are hidden underneath the façade of happiness and light, gang members with dark eyes gazing out as they lurked in the shadows, hidden from view to all who were unaware of their concealed malevolence. Hookers lining the streets flashing skin at unsuspecting males, looking for an extra dime or two, children with sunken eyes and skinny bodies scurrying away like rats when a stranger came near, hunger and poverty for all those who couldn't afford to pay. Who lost everything in this messed up world in which we lived. There was no such thing as peace... no such thing as safety. For those who lived. We had to claw till our nails bled. Scream till our throats were raw. Cry till our tears ran out and all that was left... an echoing emptiness just to keep the little things we had. Till the day comes that our lives end and our existence is forgotten like the fallen leaves.

She didn't need to know that. I wish I told her because by now it was already too late. The wheels had turned and the cord forever snipped changing our destiny as we spiraled down an abyss futile to escape.

Almost a year had passed without any trouble, and sadly our world ended all too soon. I watched as my reality came crumbling around me unable to stop the path I had chosen. The person or monster I had chosen to become. This was something I would never forgive my self for. That fateful day I turned into something that I'll never be able to take back. I had become the thing that my father had wished for but the price was too much to pay.

I had walked to my mothers work while Warren was sleeping. Some kids at school who believed I was an easy picking for them to bully had held me up. I left them running home with a few bruises and maybe a broken nose. I could have done much worse. Besides they insulted my mother nobody insults my mother while I'm around. Mother had left by the time I had gotten back to the house. So I was bringing her dinner.

It was already late afternoon so the streets were mostly empty. It was at this time that the shadows of the town came out. Covered in the darkness they thrived. I kept walking ignoring the darken alleys filled with dreadful whispers. Even though I had been here before I couldn't help but look around. The buildings weren't anything special but they were built to last. Ruins of civilization long past reached up, like broken echoes of what humanity once was. What we were and how we destroyed our world. Looking past the town, in the distance was the outline of a wall. I snorted lightly.

The ones who were in charge the town said it was meant to protect us. A wall...nothing special about it or at least they hadn't given us any detail of what it was made out of. Still, how could that protect us from the surges...?

As I traveled farther the town became dirty. A foul stench hung in the air and the feeling of being watched. I quickened my pace. There were too many memories here that I'd give anything to forget. Soon the brothel where my mother worked came to in view. Slipping in quickly and ignoring the stares of the customers I went to one of the women named Lea. She was a friend of my mothers and quite beautiful. Currently, her brown hair was tied up in a bun and her face covered with makeup. Long lashes making her chocolate eyes seem huge. I had met her on few occasions so we were on slight talking terms plus she was a little better than the others that worked here.

Setting down my mother's dinner I walked over to her. She was to the side with a ...customer. Great but I still had to know. "Hey, Lea is my mom here?" I lifted the small brown bag I had. "I brought her dinner but I don't see her anywhere," I said over the noise and the smell of sweat and lust. A chill went down my spine when a heard a lengthy moan coming from the Lea.

Lea turned to me, the man next to her that was once attached to her neck glared at me for interrupting there fun. Giving me a small apologetic smile Lea nodded before pointing to the back exit. "She went out there to get some air. She just finished with a customer. You know how she is." Lea knew that my mother was only here to feed Warren and I. with the reputation my father had most places turned her away. This was the only way she could feed us. I hated it. My mother forced to become this. Lea understood that my mom was fragile yet also so strong. I nodded. Suddenly the man chuckled drunkenly. He was older a balding head yet the clothes he wore showed his status. Probably a well-off merchant, clothes and other accessions found in the ruins of our once proud civilization going by the condition he was in.

"Oh... you mean that little blond women hehe... I was planning on having her next. Such a nice treat, that one." He grinned at me showing me the gaps where his teeth had fallen out. Anger filled me as my hand twitched. My head bowed slightly as I glared at the man. Lea saw the look on my face and quickly turned the attention of the man back to her.

Growling lowly I turned quickly leaving Lea. Setting my mothers dinner in the back where her normal clothes were and went out the door to the alley to get away. I just wanted to see my mother before I returned home to Warren and also shower.... And not kill the man who dares touch my mother... Whenever this line of work becomes too much I would find her out here. Sometimes with a man or another woman... but usually, she was alone.

I still wonder if checking on my mother was the right choice. Maybe it would have been better if I had just left not that I would know cause by then it was already far too late.

Exiting the building I breathed a deep breath of cleaner air then the air in there. It was truly suffocating, with all the bodies and lack of moving room, plus the fact of no open windows to circulate the odor left.

Shaking my head I went down into the alley. I looked around. "Weird. Mom usually stays in this area... its bad if she wanders off and she gets called back." Shrugging I turned to go out of the alley. I would see her when she got off her shift. Besides Lea would tell her I brought her dinner.

That's when I heard it. The sound of shuffling and a pain filled groan broke the silence, sadly I knew who voice it belonged to. I froze for an instant then race further down, deeper into the darkness of that alleyway. Finally, I turned the corner only to see hell. "M...Mom...?"

Blood splattered the walls. My mother was there. Her body was in shambles, clothing that already barely covered her body before were now in tatters that hung loosely, allowing me to see the damage that had been done. She had cuts all over her body and stab wounds located on her shoulders and arms. She had been tortured. Her once beautiful long blond hair was cut and was scattered around her. Bruises on her face blood dripping from her lips and a black eye stood out.

Three men stood surrounding her. The biggest and most scarred one held my mother by her head. Two men one in grey the other in brown stood to either side of the scarred one. I let out a choked gasp in seeing it. The men turned giving my mother a good view of me. Seeing me her eyes pleaded for me to run. "S...Skyra?" She whispered weakly. The man who held her snorted.

"Oh, and who is this?" He asked slowly looking at my mother. "Don't tell me that Darren had a kid with you Aurora." He laughed before he let her go. Her body fell as if in slow motion, slumping to the ground with an echoing thud.