This Black And White World

Prologue (Part 1)

Through the dark of what had felt like an endless night, a small maroon haired boy heard a sound around him. The dark shadows from the large trees around him obstructing his ability to see his surroundings. Into the darkness, he heard the compelling sound of voices. He'd been alone for much too long now to resist the sounds of people. He began moving quicker into the darkness, his breath quickening as he was quickly running through the dark forest.

He couldn't help but let out a hopeful gasp when the darkness of the forest was broken by a light. He was desperate to, finally, not be alone with only himself and the darkness to keep him sane. He pushed through the bushes. His eyes stung at first. Because they were no longer used to light, let alone the light from a campfire. He rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at the campsite in front of him. It was so intricately assembled.. He walked over to one of the tents, but just before he could even touch the fabric of the tent, he was met with some strange people wearing odd white cloaks. They were yelling something, but at the time his mind couldn't process what they were yelling about. His mind was in a different place while the chaos went on around him. He felt someone's hands grab his shoulders.

"Looks about eight." The cloaked figure that had a grip on his shoulders said.

The other let out a slight chuckle in response to the other.

"Not old enough to make much of a good meal." He said.

The same man pointed to the boy's arms. "Looks cursed too!" He called out.

There were only three men from what the boy could see. "But four tents? Someone must be missing then.." The boy thought to himself. "Wait..Cursed..?" He repeated in his mind. He could remember a time before being lost in the woods, back when he was still in school.. He'd read in a book that, at the time, he really shouldn't have had and he knew it.. That only a human could be cursed. Being cursed was considered as being similar to turning into a monster yourself. Cursed humans were usually killed before the monsters could get their hands on them. The concept seemed too brutal for him.. "Why hurt your friends?" Was always the question that echoed in his head since the day he read that book.

"Another cursed one, ey? We can make up for the one you lost, Xander!" One of the cloaked figures called out to the third.

The third had moved over to the campfire and was just kneeling down by it, staring into the flame. He stood up and pulled down his cloak hood. His hair was a beautiful shade of black. Or was it midnight blue? The boy couldn't tell, he just thought it was pretty. The man's long hair was tied into a loose ponytail.

"You have pretty hair, sir!" The boy yelled without thinking. Then he smiled at the dark haired man.

The dark haired man turned to the other cloaked men and the boy. He slowly advanced closer to them without saying a word.

"So your name is Xander? That's a pretty cool name! I heard the other man say-" The boy paused when in a flash, all he saw were two beautifully colored blue eyes.. One sapphire blue.. The other navy..

The next thing he knew, he awoke in what looked like a city in ruin. The sound of guns firing, and swords clashing together was all he could hear in the distance. He looked around him and saw other children.. Maybe four others. He reached his right hand out to one of them. Then he paused and stood there blankly. Not knowing how to respond to what he saw. His arm now corrupted with a pitch black fade all the way up until it slowly faded into a flesh toned at his elbow area. His nails like claws, a black that blended into his corrupted skin.

He looked like an animal.. Perhaps that's what they had meant in those books when they said being cursed was like turning into a monster. Through the gunshots and swords clashing he heard people approaching. He knew he was not going to stick around and see what they were planning to do. He began running away. He refused to ever find out what would have happened to him if he hadn't run away from there. He heard them yelling about all kinds of things. Mostly about his escape.

After running for what felt like forever, he found a dark empty alleyway and ran inside. It looked just as abandoned as everything else, maybe more.. He crawled into the corner and tightly tucked his knees to his chest.

This whole city looked like it had been used by humans and monsters for fighting for decades, possibly centuries. His mind raced with hopes and prayers that no monster would find him. Sometimes it even simply hoped no one would find him at all.

It felt like hours to him that he was aimlessly alone in this alleyway. With nothing to do except listen to all of the fighting around him. The loud guns firing and the metals of sword blades clashing together. But, he knew for this time this was normal.. He'd heard these sounds all of the time growing up. But never this loud or close to them.

Despite all of that, he felt kind of at peace. Probably because at least he was close to other people and not wandering in a dark forest alone.

He felt someone's presence entering the alley and approaching him. He felt their shadow loom over his frightened body. He slowly shifted his gaze to look up at whoever was looming over him. He felt sort of relieved when the person standing above him looked no older than seventeen years old. The person kneeled down in front of the boy. His hair was odd..Black on one side and white on the other.. It reminded him of a cartoon character. The man's hair was short and messy, maybe a little fluffy.

"Hey buddy.. Are you okay?" The man gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder as he spoke.

The boy shook his head.

"Yeah..I wouldn't be either if I was in a place like this at your age.." The man's eyes drifted to one side while he spoke and he cleared his throat. He then turned his gaze to the boy again.

"My name is Xylo. What's your name kiddo?" He said with a smile. His face was full of freckles all over it.

"Xylo? What a weird name.." The boy thought to himself, repeating the man's name in his head a few times.

"..My name is Hitoryia.." The boy responded after breaking out of his thoughts to respond to Xylo.

Xylo kept smiling at Hitoryia. It was a much calmer way of talking to him than the other people he'd seen used.

"Why don't you come with me, Buddy? I'll get you out of here." Xylo said while offering his hand to Hitoryia.

Hitoryia offered his right hand to Xylo without thinking. The hand covered in the corrupted fade. He quickly pulled his hand back down, hoping, praying, that Xylo hadn't seen what was going on with his hand. Xylo let out an unusually calm sigh, and a small chuckle as well.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't worry about it!" Xylo assured Hitoryia. Xylo carefully lifted his shirt, the lower part of his stomach has a line of the same corrupted fade that goes on his back and front

"See? I'm cursed too! There's nothing to be scared of! My friend Luscious can give you his glove. No one will know but you and me, okay?" Xylo calmly assured Hitoryia more, yet, at the end still asked a question in a way. Xylo put his shirt back down and set it back in place and smiled at Hitoryia again.

Hitoryia nodded and let out a worried breath he wasn't aware he was holding in. Xylo helped Hitoryia to stand up. Causing Hitoryia to really realize just how much his legs were shaking. While he was adjusting himself to standing up he had a hold of Xylo's hand. Then, he heard footsteps again and quickly turned his head to the entrance to the alley. If someone with intentions to hurt people were to enter then they would have nowhere to run to get away, and Xylo didn't seem like much of the fighting type.


Authors Note: Yes, having a prologue as long as mine in the first part of the book is probably a terrible plan, do I care? No, not really. The prologue for this story is something important to me and I chose to keep it in the final draft. I'm open to comments and such, though if they're negative I most likely won't care! This story is just a project I work on in my spare time! So I can't guarantee any frequent updates despite how many pages I have finished in it's original document. If you enjoy it so far be sure to let me know! It gets much less serious after the prologue I promise! So stick around for that at least! Or don't. I don't care either way. (If anyone actually reads this, thank you, and comment "Blep" in the comments so I know someone actually read all the way through. Or at least skimmed.)