Five

"Ahh... She's from the warehouse, isn't she?" The man inquired while they stayed silent. As the quietness only grew deeper Silla could hear her own steady rhythm from within. The silence of the room and the anticipation made her blood as cold as the winter wind crept in from outside. Even with the ruckus outside there was no yelling or noise of any kind rustling in the room. It was as if everyone had conspired to keep her in the dark, not daring to whisper the reassurance she craved; especially from Phanes.

The slightest movement from man with tattoos brought her heart racing. Her head snapped in an instant from gazing down at the floor with unfocused eyes to him in front of her when he started speaking again. "You know... She could fetch a high price in the upper ring." The man suggested in contemplation as Phanes remained all the same. He was too indifferent to even notice how distressed she was at this comment. The prospect of selling her was of no interest to him as he had other things in mind. With his high breeding and prominent background, she would be deemed rather fitting for him in the future.

Slowly Silla clenched her fists as she felt panic begin like a cluster of spark plugs in her abdomen. Tension, growing in her face and limbs, her mind replaying the events leading up to this. Her breathing became more rapid, and shallow preparing to go into a full-fledged panic attack. What was Phanes going to do?

"I could just take her and sell her for you... But she's yours- you bought her, and it's up to you what you do with her. Even if you are a prole," the short man slightly insulted the boy snapping Silla out of her thoughts. He unknowingly angered her as he spoke as if she was an object rather than a real, breathing, human being and the short man simply waved them off in an uncaring motion. She was furious and yet it also scared her. The entire time the boy in front of her said nothing. She felt that he understood her. That he too knew what it was like to be alone, now she knew she was just foolish. While he did understand her more than anyone else and take care of her, he only cared for his own desires not her own.

"Is she chipped?" This one questioned made her mind blank. She had no idea what it meant besides that it was for slaves and probably wasn't good.

"Come here," the man demanded of her as she stood stock still. He glared at her as she was unresponsive.

"I said get over here now!" He violently yelled causing her to shake. He didn't like the fact that she had disobeyed a direct order. Somehow she managed to move her legs close enough to be within arms distance of the man and he wasted no time grabbing her by the neck causing a strangled cry to escape her throat. She knew she wouldn't be able to free herself, so she stayed still; it was best not to anger him further.

Not even waiting a second, he pulled out what seemed to be some sort of gun but it held a long sharp needle at the end. Realizing what it was her eyes widened. It was an impact gun. A popular method for deploying a microchip from a needle into a living being. The chip at the end was used to track slaves in case they ran away.

Despite knowing what was about to happen, Silla stood still. She had put her trust in Phanes, and she would stick to her gut. Even though she barely knew him and only met him a month ago, she still owed him her life.

Silla closed her eyes as he pulled the trigger and a sharp unbearable pain in her neck made a silent scream escape from her mouth. Blood ran down her neck from the small yet painfully deep wound. She couldn't will herself to look at Phanes afterwards. As awful as it was perhaps this would be a small step in repaying him."She isn't very tame is she?" The heavily tattooed man spoke as his laughing seemed to echo in her head. Thankfully, just as she felt angry hot tears threaten to run down her face, Phanes practically dragged her out of the room.

As they walked out, she could practically feel Phanes gaze burning holes into her soul, so to lessen the awkwardness she turned around and pretended to be immensely pre-occupied with zipping her jacket. It was silent as they walked so she decided to ask him the question that had been bugging her. "Why are we here?" She asked Phanes for an answer and looking for a reason as to why he let that brute do such things to her.

"...."

Seeming, to be deep in thought, he stared at her with his unusual blank lifeless eyes. "I... V'ork for him... He lets me stay in the warehouse and watch the workers. If I rejected he probably v'ould have stole you and sold you v'ithout my consent anyway," Phanes spoke under his breath like he was ashamed. Although he was smart and fast, it seemed he too had weaknesses. With his help she almost completely forgot how he too was helpless and weak to this city.

Opening her lips, she felt a bit of courage shoot through her. Perhaps due to the fact that she was blindingly pissed as adrenaline shot through her veins. That psycho had just shot her in the neck and microchipped her like a dog. "Then... Why the fuck would you even take us here in the first place?" She asked him confused. Why would he work for someone so dangerous?

Looking a bit surprised at her sudden colorful language he felt his chest stir a bit from warmth as his cheeks heated up. Maybe he was a bit of a masochist. Scratching the back of his head, he felt the need to explain and spoke."Because I need him- or more specifically I need his protection due to some unfortunate... Z'ings in my... Past." He eventually drawled out being annoyingly vague.

He had this strange need to hide, and Silla could only wonder from who?

Looking at him to further explain he continues with a sigh. Explaining these types of things to someone relatively young who hadn't been around these types of places and how the people here worked would prove to be difficult. "...V'hen someone like him sees someone else has a v'eakness he exploits it and he v'ould love to have a grip on me." He spoke dimly.

Deep in though Silla knew what he said made sense however she still knew nothing about his past. She only recently found out that he was from the upper ring. Most of the people living in poverty in the lower ring knew of the viciousness aristocrats in the upper ring. While they were poor and had violence in certain parts of the lower ring, the upper ring was a social bloodbath. One slight wrong move or slip up and you're dead.

It only enhanced the saying 'more money more problems.' The kind of people in the upper ring were the most cutthroat and dangerous you could find; though they never got their hands dirty themselves.

The reality of it was that they lived in a world ruled by aristocrats; a kind of upper class compared to the rest of them. They were extremely powerful people who ruled with pride, power, and prestige. In the city of bones they only cared about themselves and themselves alone, unless you had any worth to be looked at. Apart from that they were merciless even within themselves and their own children.

They carried on through generations of their large families. There were only about one hundred aristocratic families in the entire city. Aside from them the rest of the upper ring was only the richest of the rich, not necessarily aristocratic. She didn't know much about them, but she knew they were the kind of people you didn't mess with unless you wanted to end up with your throat slit in a ditch. Phanes was born, raised, and spent most of his life there. It was likely he shared a lot of their aspects. It worried her what might happen if he suddenly decides he doesn't want her company anymore. Would it be her with her throat slit?

Though it did bring to question what he was doing down here with a bunch of plebeians.

While Phanes was distracted by the two men fighting in the ring, Silla silently slipped through the crowd. Quickly, losing him into the horde of people. She had to find a way to get the chip out of her neck. She knew that removing the chip would be painful, but it had to be done. Hopefully, she could find some sort of object to help her if she looked around.

Looking around she spotted a back room hidden behind cloth. Entering she came upon an old cracked mirror and gazed at her appearance. The blood from her wound on her neck had dried. Using her small fingers to part the skin, she grunted in pain as more blood gushed out. Through the red fluids she couldn't see well into her wound so she scavenged them room for some sort of light source. Down in the frame of the mirror she came upon a small paper box stuffed into the broken glass. Grabbing it, she opened it to see multiple matches. Instead of wood they seemed to be made of some sort of expendable metal. Lighting one in her fingers, the flame seemed to come out a blue artificial fire instead of a red and orange natural one. It also seemed to never run out of fuel, and the match never went out on its own.

Finally able to see into the wound she gulped as she jammed her fingers under the skin and flesh to try and reach for the chip. Light tears gathered around her eyes but thankfully her nails were able to get ahold of the small thing and slowly pry it out of her skin eventually causing even more blood to gush. She firmly held pressure onto the wound, but it was too deep for her to stop the flow. Closing her eyes once again she had to cover her mouth to muffle her screams as she pushed the fiery match into the pulpy wound, burning it shut with a hiss. The sound and smell of burning flesh apparent in the small room.

Steadily coming out of her hiding spot she reached the tunnel that led to the exit and turned back to see Phanes in the midst of the crowd looking around frantically. The more he looked for her the more panicked he became. The image of his frantic face made her chest throb strangely. She had to find a way to conceal her wound or else he would be enraged.

Turning to the entrance of the tunnel her small form was spotted by Phanes. Almost instantaneously relief flooded his features, and confusion came afterwards.

What now? The plan was to find something to cover her wound while he wasn't watching, but could she follow through if he was desperately calling her name and painfully chasing after her? No doubt if he thought she was leaving him, he would freak out.

Slowly turning she clenched her fists as she hesitantly took small steps in the opposite direction ignoring his worried and confused face. At the end of the tunnel was a light that she hoped could soothe her and help her find some sort of cloth to cover her neck. She ran down the pitch black tunnel occasionally tripped in the dark but nonetheless regaining herself as his voice echoed down the path. All she had to do was grab some of the cloth that covered the entrance, and she would have what she needed.

"Silla, please stop running from me," he desperately called from behind her only urging her to go faster further infuriating him. She couldn't leave him. He wouldn't let her. Dark thoughts in his mind were letting out blood curdling screams and telling him to do horrific things to keep her from leaving. He couldn't go back how it was before. He would rather die than go back to the solitude.

"DON'T RUN!"

His sharp eyes stared her down through the cavern and he yells in anger as she scrambles into the wall. His furious face and dark tone made cold shivers go down her back, she had never heard him yell like that before and in such fury directed at her. It scared her. She was his strange yet dear friend that drove him to come out of his dormancy and he had become undeniably attached.

"HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME?!"

She felt the sweat drench her skin, the throbbing of her own eyes, the ringing of her own screams vibrating in her ears and the thumping of her heart against her chest.

"YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME?!"

"I WON'T LET YOU?!"

Silla's fingers curled into a fist, nails digging into her palm. She couldn't hear her rapid breathing, but she could feel the oxygen flooding in and out of her lungs. Everything she heard was a blur and she only heard a muffled voice yell now. The tunnels echoed as he practically ran toward her at inhuman speed. All she did was blink but in the matter of seconds he was just a foot away from catching her.

When her legs scrambling for more traction she clumsily managed to slip and fall canceling all of her plans of escape and before she could get up he grabbed her by her ankles pinning her legs down. Hesitantly, looking up at the face of the boy before her, his bright animalistic green eyes stared back at her.

"You dare... TRY TO ESCAPE FROM ME?!"

The tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. She felt the muscles of her chin tremble like how any small childs would. She hadn't cried like this I'm years and Silla could hear her own sounds, a distressed child, raw from the inside; echoing and reverberating along the tunnel walls. Fear tortured her gut, churning her stomach in tense cramps. What was wrong with him? He was acting like a rabid animal... Like he was... insane.

It was times like these that she was reminded of what he was.

A trans-human.

A dark animalistic creature that called itself a human. He was nothing like her. His hot breath seethed on her face and just as he was about nose to nose with her, his canines seemingly elongated sharper than ever, prepared to tear out her jugular. He painfully pinned her to the ground as his large form stared down at her. The boys crazed glowing green eyes seemed to have slitted pupils like that of a snake. The look on his face was just a recent example of what it looked like to genuinely insane with murderous rage.

Seeing his face, her hands immediately reached for her pockets. Fear engulfed her entire conscience, knocking all other thoughts aside. All she could thing about was getting the steel matches. He was acting crazy and more furious than she had ever seen. These types of situations often frightened her the most because she felt a sense of familiarity with them. Hopefully, the sight of fire would scare him off.

Flicking a match a large spark of blue flames flashed blinding the feral boy. The light reverberated a deep blue glow throughout the tunnel causing him to shrink back into the darkest corners. Though she had already used it so many times that it was dimmer than before and she wasn't sure how long it would last. With each glow it emitted it became softer and Phanes let out a low hiss at the flames seemingly irritated as he slowly came to her small form, the darkness of the room approaching as the flame was steadily going out.

"W-why? Why m-me? Why are you doing this to me?" She squirmed and questioned him lips quivering. The blue of her irises was magnified by the blue flame in front of her, reflecting in her glassy eyes. Phanes grabbed the metallic box of matches and crushed the metal under his hand and it was crushed beyond recognition.

Her tears slid down her face as pure fear was shown in her large doll like eyes unknowingly causing his own to widen. He seemed to suddenly pause his reached out arm that was seconds way from clawing at her neck and his eyes suddenly reverted to their normal green as his pupil became rounded once again. Phanes seemed to stare at his hands his brows scrunching back together in self-reflection. He didn't mean to lose control, but the damage was already done.

Silla flinched and looked away when large boney fingers reached out towards her face. Thinking he was going to claw it off she was prepared for the pain as she closed her eyes but was surprised when his touch came gently. His black razor sharp nails akin to claws softly wiped the excess tears from under her eye. Her face was abruptly squished into his chest, and he held her still with one hand while he calmly brushed her hair with the other. "Please just... don't go," he begs his voice softening making it so she wasn't shaking anymore. Why was he begging her? He could just do whatever he wanted. A few minutes earlier he was ready to rip her head off.

"Stay here v'ith me." His childlike begging surprised her, especially after having him be so hostile. Even if she tried again at this exact moment to persuade him into letting her leave... She didn't think he would.

"V'hy...? V'hy did you run from me in first place?" He started to ask. He wanted to know why she dared to leave.

"I- the chip..." She incoherently mumbled as his gaze went down to her bloodied neck. The blood had already dried and now what was left was a hole and charred skin.

"Did you do z'at?" He questioned moving her long hair with his sharp nails and prodding at the burn. She nodded.

"Did you z'ink you could hide it from me?"

Another nod.

Silla could only wonder if he was truly being sincere. He did chase after her however; he could easily lie. As a young child she felt she had no other choice but to trust him. No one had even looked at her so kindly in her entire life, so what else was she to do. The boy had even given up his prized old-world collection just to escape with her.

Wiping the blood on her shoulder with his fingers, Phanes sighed. He was relieved that it was for these reasons and not something else. He shook his head, this girl really went as far to dig out the tracking chip- though he supposed it was for the better. He recognizes that he got a bit, too caught up in his emotions and ended up making even less progress than before. This was a set back he had not predicted. Of course he planned for external dangers but what about him? He was the ultimate cause for worry. Having not got control of himself and his steadfast emotions he didn't know what he might've done. These thoughts and feelings of his were getting out of hand.

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To be continued...