Fall Is Beautiful

S2 chapter 1: The escape

*Warning: this chapter does contain self-h@rm, along with attempted suicide

4 years. 4 cold, uneasy years. I'm surprised I'm still alive at this point. Drakon too. The PSI workers like to beat the both of us more than others. I think it's because I accidentally (purposely) broke that one girls leg. I could handle the beatings. No matter how many times my bones were broken, my spirit was shattered, and my confidence boiled to nothing, I still decided to live. Not because I was forced to, there were many of times that I was at deaths door. But because I was scared, scared that I'd see my brother in the afterlife, that he'd hate me, that he'd wish I'd suffered longer. I didn't want to face him.

Most nights I stayed awake, listening to Drakon snores or his ragged breathing from the beating just earlier of that day. I wanted to scream, to shout, to cry. To do anything for the workers to enter our room and decide whether we live or not.

I had wanted to become stronger, to protect my remaining family, and I had failed. I had let Jafar slip from me and now he was dead. I knew he was, I could feel it in my heart. My baby brother... he's gone.

I've come to that conclusion a long time ago.

Now, I just lay here. I wonder, I ponder. I think of nothing and yet think of everything. My thoughts are blank but I have so many. Anytime I'm beaten now, I feel happy. I think that god is finally looking down at me and saying, "you can rest now." But I always end up waking up later on that day, a bruised and broken Drakon next to me.

Damn.

Time really passed by.

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was sitting at home, my mother forcing me to do my homework, my father yelling at the TV when the Longhorns started loosing, and my brother laying on the floor working with some puzzles. I no longer wish to return to those days. I've come to peace with myself that those days are over, I can't get them back. There's no use in crying over the memories.

...
Drakon and I were put on field duty today, as of now it was apart of our daily schedule. What we did, really, was look after the other kids. It made my stomach sick. I started to look like a PSI worker more now than a child. Some kids were afraid of me, when I looked over at them. Some kid, younger than 10 but older than 5, had actually bowed to me, sobbing.

"Please, I have nothing to give... I don't want to be beat again..."

Those were the words every child said to me. They all said the same thing. That they had nothing, that they didn't want to get hurt. It made my heart ache. If there is a god, he's the devil for making these children suffer.

No one had came to save us, like Drakon had said. He told me stories of the group he was with before being caught again. He made them seem like real life heroes.

"And they even used their powers to save me! They weren't afraid to use them. In fact, they embraced the fact that they had them! Isn't that cool?!" The smile he gave me made me smile back, although it hurt to do so. Those heroes... What did they call themselves again? Drakon said they were called something along the lines of "the fog troupe."

What a weird name. Although, Drakie did say that they mostly hid in the darkness, and they used the opportunity of fog anytime they got. Apparently, even their base was located near a place where fog was frequent.

"You said the fog troupe was led by this boy... Alibaba? How old did you say he was?" I asked, doing the children's laundry. It was a task that I actually enjoyed doing.

"Well, he was 12 last time I saw him, which was 4 years ago... so he should be 16." Drakon explained, making some food for lunch. Although, there wasn't a lot of food to go around. Sadly, some kids would have no lunch, and those kids were usually us.