Not a MONSTER

High gray walls, white ceiling. A small but spacious room lit by the pale light of flashing LED lights. There are only four walls and no windows, and a massive iron door with bars is locked. However, in this gloomy prison cell, it is by no means a hardened recidivist, not a robber and not a rapist, not a cruel maniac-murderer, but just a little lonely boy. His hair is black and tousled, and it's hard to say something definite about the color of his eyes, because he changes all the time, you just have to look from a different angle. Only the look of these eyes is unchanged — completely indifferent and detached from this world.

There are many different toys scattered around — cars, robots, animal figurines... But to all this, a child with an extraordinary color of eyes does not show the slightest interest, as if all this is just rubbish. He just sits in the middle of the room on the cold, dusty floor, looking coldly and indifferently in front of him, not even at the wall, no... As if through it, somewhere into the void. But no, he is not at all bored and not at all lonely. He simply does not want anything and does not think about anything, feeling only a strange emptiness inside himself. Recently, a man came to him again, examined him, talked to him, asked about something. But what exactly, the boy does not remember. Exactly the same as he does not remember his face. He does not even know for sure whether the same person visits him all the time, or whether new, different people come to him every time. However, this is not important at all... He only remembers how they call him. Specimen Number Fifteen, 'fifteen'. Perhaps this is his name. But that doesn't matter either...

The boy suddenly blinks, as if falling out of his monotonous oblivion. The locked door suddenly attracts his attention. He does not remember what is there, behind her. However, he can always find out...

As if trying to fill his inner emptiness with something, Number Fifteen goes to the tightly locked door. It doesn't even require effort from him, the lock seems to lend itself to his small hands, opening with a quiet click. It remains only to push this heavy door to stop being a prisoner of this room.

Without thinking about anything, the boy confidently moves along the high gray walls of a wide and deserted corridor, passing doors one by one, ignoring the groans and screams that resound with a booming echo, as if not noticing anything around him at all. The emptiness that opens ahead beckons, but this is not at all the interest inherent in many of his peers. Rather, it's just a strange desire to go forward all the time, going farther and farther, where the eye falls, not thinking about the consequences and risking never going back at all... But he continues to go. Exactly as long as the obstacle does not force him to stop.

Until this moment, the dark corridor that seemed endless suddenly ends with another massive iron door, locked, of which Number Fifteen saw so many on his way. But... This door seems somehow different, different from all the others. It is located at the very end of the corridor, more massive, and is locked not at all with one, but with several locks at once, as if hiding something very unusual behind it. Or even dangerous...

Suddenly, the boy hears a sound coming from this room. Looks like someone is on the other side of that door. Uncharacteristic curiosity suddenly seizes him. He must find out what is behind that door...

Multiple locks for him are not a hindrance at all. They easily open one by one, as if they were not closed at all. Yielding to the effort of the child, the door slowly opens, finally letting him in...

His gaze opens up to a seemingly unusually dark, spacious room without windows, one in one similar to his own. The gray walls are flooded and stained with something crimson... Broken toys are scattered everywhere.

A low, plaintive sob grabs his attention. And throwing his gaze into a far and especially dark corner, Number Fifteen sees someone there... Someone small, just like himself. A fair-haired boy of his age, shackled and chained. The child sits motionless on the floor with his head in his knees, whimpers softly and seems so scared and alone, completely miserable. Interested again, the boy moves closer, intending to start a conversation.

The boy suddenly casts a haunted glance at him and fifteenth sees his green eyes, wet with tears, framed by long eyelashes, as blond as his hair.

"Help me..." He pleads softly. "Release me..."

Without thinking for a single extra second, Number Fifteen does it, easily relieving the boy of his iron bracelets, but... He does not have time to notice how a cunning and very unkind grin is stretched on the innocent and tearful child's face.

Having barely sensed freedom, briskly picking up something from the floor, the little monster rushes to the attack with lightning speed!...

Fifteen does not even have time to understand what kind of object is in his hand, and what this strange fair-haired boy intends to do with it. But his back meets the hard floor, a whistle is heard in the air... and only by some miracle, the hand clutching a dangerous bloody piece of glass suddenly stops a centimeter from his neck.

The boy stares down at him with his green eyes, and Number Fifteen also looks at him, noticing a very unusual appearance. He has sharp teeth and eyes like a cat. And from under the light strands sticking out in all directions, oblong pointed ears stick out.

"You!... Why don't you run away? Don't you scream and cry?" The pointy-eared one suddenly speaks to him. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Nope." Number Fifteen replies quite calmly, and, it seems, even slightly surprised that he should have been scared at all.

"But why?..." Pulling back, the boy bats his eyelashes in surprise. "I'm a monster. Can't you see?"

"Are you a monster?... But you don't look like a monster at all."

"What are you, an idiot?" The blond grins wickedly, as if mocking. "If I am not a monster, then what do you think I am?"

It becomes noticeable how his thin fingers squeeze the sharp fragment more tightly, betraying the growing anger in he. This strange black-haired boy with unusual eyes is definitely starting to annoy him. He either mocks him or is a complete fool, since he does not see and does not understand such obvious things...

"I think..." He says cautiously, rising up. "Maybe you're an elf?"

"Elf?..." The blond boy is surprised, or rather deeply dumbfounded, blinking several times. He certainly knows the meaning of this word, however, he simply does not fully understand whether he is serious...

"These are Santa's little helpers." Suddenly, quite seriously, the black-haired one decides to explain, noticing his confusion. "I think you look quite like one of them."

The blond-haired one is silent for a while, stubbornly not taking his eyes off that, carefully considering the situation... No, after all, this boy is hardly just pretending to be so narrow-minded. He does not at all seem to those who are able to play up so competently, even saving their miserable life. In addition, if he had even the slightest idea of WHO is in front of him, he would hardly have dared to free him from the shackles...

"You are interesting." The child finally lowers his improvised weapon with a chuckle. "What is your name?"

"The person who comes into my room calls me 'fifteen'. That must be my name."

"So, Jyugo?" After a little reflection, the blond clarifies. "Not the worst name."

"What about you?" Suddenly interested black-haired one. "Do you have a name?"

"I am..." But in response, blond only blushes a little, stammering, as if not expecting the same counter-question, but then, as if thinking again, he smiles lightly. "I am Elf."

"Oh really?" Fifteen smiles. "So that's your real name?"

"Yeah. Maybe..."

There is a short mute pause. Elf is definitely thinking about something again, looking somewhere to the side.

"Well, let's be friends?"

So unexpectedly outstretched in his direction, the hand makes the fair-haired one visibly flinch.

"Friends?..." He repeats quietly, as if taken aback.

Now the blond looks even more amazed and dumbfounded than when his sudden strange guest quite sincerely compared him to a magical fairy-tale creature. Every now and then he looks wildly at Jyugo, then at the hand he offered, as if not understanding this gesture or still not fully believing in his sincerity, hesitating, but soon hesitantly and slowly stretches out his hand in response...
However, the fair-haired one does not have time to touch his palm. Their short acquaintance is unceremoniously interrupted by the guards who flew in through the open door. Quickly talking among themselves, two of them rush to Jyugo, while the other four cling to Elf, who lost his vigilance so inopportunely, pulling the children in opposite directions from each other. A sharp shard of glass, which served as a weapon for the blond, so treacherously flies off somewhere to the side, getting lost under other people's boots. Elf resists, stubbornly tries to escape, fiercely fights with them, but it is not difficult for four adult men to twist an obstinate young child...

"Jyugo!" The boy screams in panic, convulsively stretching out his hand in the direction of a new, just appeared friend, whom they are trying to take away from him so soon and so cruelly.

But...

"See you later, Elf!" He yells back, as if it's just "bye-bye", as he is hurriedly dragged out the door into the corridor.

Instead of exactly the same panic, on his part, Elf meets only a very inappropriate and untimely calmness, being completely shocked with bewilderment. This boy seems to the blond absolutely stupid, abnormal and even cruel, because as soon as he had time to appear, he immediately leaves him... Why? Why does he let them do it? Why isn't he resisting!? But... for some reason, these words, such a simple and ordinary farewell, not expressing a bit of concern, inspire him with hope. It soothe... And the boy freezes, ceasing to show any resistance.

"I'll be waiting..." He says quietly, looking after his new friend as he leaves. So quietly, as if addressing not to him at all, but to himself...

The guards hold him tightly and hurriedly shackle him, clearly afraid and wary of his unpredictable reaction. But the boy, surprisingly, seems to be absolutely calm. He does not fight and does not resist, as before, he does not try to kill anyone... As if he had completely fallen out of reality. The shackles snap loudly on his limbs, and the chains from them rattle on the floor again, but Elf behaves unusually calm and meek, only silently smiles, looking somewhere in front of him.

Just think... This strange black-haired boy with an unusual color of eyes managed to get to him, broke open the door of his cell and removed his shackles from a suspicious and creepy fair-haired stranger, not even being afraid of being killed like the others... He did not even think about it , did not see a monster in his peer. He is not like everyone else, this boy. He is special. For him...
The blond boy will wait for him, and only him. After all, it is thanks to him that he is no longer a monster at all...

Thanks to him, now he is Elf...