The Rising King

Chapter VI: The disgust

Danny couldn't help but stare. He examined every corner, every crevice on the ceiling, and all of that in an unchanging position, right on his bed. There were stars painted above, as it was his bedroom which his surrogate mother made for him. And it soothed the young king, who may have given up on hopes of reaching for them in real life, but still found solace in his imagination, in the replica of what the unsuccessful astronaut wanted to achieve. Perhaps, there was something beneath just that, it was always a sign of freedom, freedom from everything he experienced in his day-to-day life. Ignorance, neglect at home were changing into bullying at school, only to then make a full circle in the evening. And yet, the stars were there every night, pure, untainted, shining as if only for the boy. Perhaps that's why a star was now his symbol, ever since he was subjected to ceaseless torture by those he loved. Only the stars remained as clean as they were before.

It was ironic, Danny guessed. In the times of greatest need, he saw them in his dreams. During his captivity, they graced him while the teen was being given a short rest that lasted for three hours at the most, a mockery, if nothing else. Now, however, they were the very things that prevented him from sleeping. Danny could just close his neon green eyes, dive deeper into soft pillows and sleep to his heart's content, but...there was something inside of him that stopped him each and every night. Therein lay a deep fear of all of this being merely a dream. Each time he was afraid to close his eyes so as not to wake up in the wretched place, to wake up as a prisoner of fate, forgotten or hated. Danny knew how irrational it was. No dream lasted that long, never was so real, and yet...it took him a lot of time to accept that and finally drift to sleep.

Until that moment comes, his mind is left to wander. To his guests, to his life...to the hunters outside the city walls. Danny hated himself. He hated the pangs in his core that came when thinking of them. They were the vilest beings he had encountered so far. He should not have felt that because they had to sleep outside like dogs. They had done far worse. They had to pay in full. But, full of enthusiasm as he might have been, Danny realised that, with all his planning, the end of the path was a mystery even to him. He was uncertain. He didn't know what to do with them in the end. And if his heart that wasn't beating reacted here and in such a manner, he was unsure of the lengths he was willing to go to.

A wind blew into the window. Its coldness helped to ease his concerns just a bit, but even so, it unintentionally awakened some others. Danny hit the pillow nearby. He despised his very being at this very moment, for what he was about to do. He got up, pulled on the simplest of clothes from a chair, and then opened one of the wardrobes. Several minutes later, he was where he wanted, getting there by air, invisible. Or, rather, it was the place in which his heart desired to be. Sitting on a rock, Danny dropped his invisibility. The changing of the guard was happening at the moment. Perfect for being unnoticed.

For some time, he stared down at the subjects of his torment. There they were, slumped closer together for greater warmth on this cold night. Tucker had been and still was a terrible person for being on the lookout, so none of them were awake. Here he sat, slouched, with a blaster in his hands. Danny's fists balled. If he hadn't known, he would have assumed that nothing had changed between them. For all intents and purposes, he was the same guy. Sam was the same. Then why? Why did it have to turn out like this? His own destructive future was set in stone with the condition of their untimely deaths. Why did becoming their saviour only lead to such an outcome? Then, Danny made a quiet laugh. His own future self would have flipped if he had learned what was in store for him if they hadn't died in his timeline. Perhaps, it would have saved Dan some grief of his own, for there was nothing to actually mourn, except for the loving sister and the thoughtful teacher. Another laugh. To think that everything was supposed to start because of it! Now it probably would not have worked as effectively. The laughs. Everyone before him could just die on that day! They were nothing but his enemies now, enemies that would threaten him, his sister, this world, and, most importantly, his daughter.