Miracles in a Lifetime

I • FREE

Tenshi's P.O.V.

     Whip!

     Smack!

     Crack!

     Snap!

     Whack!

     The sounds of Ryouko-san beating me while I'm being restrained by the heaviest shackles in the world resonate off of the dark and dirty walls.

No emotion. No pain.

     I've become used to this routine — training until my legs didn't work anymore, and then being chained in this musty room, getting tortured for hours on end.

     I haven't felt pain for a while now. My body became accustomed to this torment after the first few years. The fear of my parents abandoning me at birth kept me awake, haunting me at night. My harbored loneliness didn't help with my lack of sleep.

     "Come on! Show a little something," Ryouko-san taunts with a wicked smile. "It's not fun when the person you're torturing isn't screaming and begging you to spare them!" Her witch-like cackle echoes in the cell, making me grimace with distaste. The repulsive stench of the mysterious puddles don't alleviate my discomfort.

     Ryouko-san is the woman who took me in after I was foresaken by my parents. She is a targeted SSS-class assassin who cared for me like a real mother would've, but when I turned four, she lost her mind. Her insanity led to my torture and feeding of poison. It was excrutiating. This extended until I was the age of nine, when she was just about done with tormenting me. It got "boring" for her when I gave up screaming and begging for her to stop.

     After that, my life ended up coming to eating poison, training to kill, and getting tortured a little more. Now, even the deadliest poisons have no effect on me — my body's become numb. It's strange and abnormal, not being able to feel anything, but bearable nonetheless.

     I stare back blankly at the woman I once called my mother as she laughed maniacally. I have no idea what is so funny to her. Maybe it's because she's a complete lunatic, laughing at everything, whereas I have never experienced anything humorous nor laughed before. Or at least, not that I can recall.

     Her cackles come to an abrupt stop as she resumes her whipping. Despite the weapon having poison-coated spikes, I am predictably unaffected, my expression remaining stoic. I've come to stop caring for an unknown reason.

     After a couple more minutes of Ryouko-san's torture, I get quite irritated and break the shackles with ease. Getting up on my feet, my injuries heal almost instantly.

     "I'm tired of this," I mumble impassively. I walk past Ryouko-san, taking advantage of her startled state and head towards the basement — or, my room. Once I get inside, I immediately start packing up the clothes that I shoplifted from a nearby store and other necessities.

     Finally, I'm running away, I think to myself. The treatment from my so-called mother was getting old, having been going on for years. I need to get out and experience something new.

     After getting everything I needed, I leave the house and set out for the city located a few miles away. My steps feel heavy as I tread into the crowded city. After a while of dragging my feet throughout the town, my shoulders feel as if large weights have been lifted. I feel free.

     With a sudden rush of adrenaline, my pace quickens to a quarter of my running speed. Thanks (but also no thanks) to my training, I'm able to get past several people, surpassing the following eyes of normal people. The wind blowing through my hair and behind me feels so nice.

     As the wind relaxes the tension residing in me, I only think of one thing: I'm free!

EDITED ON: Friday, October 4th, 2019