The Ashes of What Remains

"...Jeez, What a Story!"

"Aha.." Nemi awkwardly laughed, not expecting to hear all that. "But, uh, me?"

...I never grew up with a family. I was raised in an orphanage, a boys' orphanage. I guess for some reason they thought I was a boy, but I don't think I ever was one. But the actual boys there were ruthless. Constantly trying to wrestle around with me, it wasn't too great in there.

They also didn't like me much. They were all buddy-buddy with each other but they never did anything with me. They liked calling me a monster because of my eyes, horns and tail. I didn't really understand why they had to be such jerks about it though. Sometimes they'd dunk my head into the sink, they said it was to "wash the ash out of my eyes."

Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

I was at a similar age, in my teens, my roommates practically ripped me out of my bed that morning. On Tuesdays we were allowed to have more free time, they usually took that up to mess with me.

Later in the day, our caretakers were making us lunch when somebody came to the door and loudly started banging on it. One of the caretakers went to open it up, and we heard screaming.

I tried blocking most of it out, but it's all still there, crystal clear in my mind. The blood, the screaming, all of it. I didn't care for most of the people there, but I still have nightmares about it sometimes.

I ended up having to sneak out of there, a cardboard box as my only form of protection. But I ran and ran! Never looked back.

I actually ran into one of the boys from the orphanage a few days ago. I was sticking with him for a bit, but he's dead now. At least...I think he is. He went off to find more materials one day and never came back. I hope he's doing okay.

"...Buuuuut, yeah! That's me for y'a!" Nemi didn't even look like a boy anymore, they had a black, cropped leather jacket with a fishnet shirt underneath. They had a completely clear jacket on top, one of the sleeves slumped down to their elbow. They also had a black pleated skirt and platform boots. Other than that, they were pale and thin with short, grey-ish purple hair, their bangs covering their left eye. Their eye whites were completely black, their irises the only white part. They had curled horns and a demon tail. They didn't look human, probably why they were harassed.