Scarlet Flames & Crimson Fury

Awake

It was a cold winter day. The winds howled inbound with the lanky, lush trees that flourished in these mountains.

In the darkness, artificial light pierced through, revealing a small, concrete structure that was more than out of place. Though what it lacked in looks, it made up for what horrors lay inside.

This place of unspeakable brutality is where this child's story begins, leading him down a path that will make him the greatest hero in the world.

The morning began like any other, filled with an aromatic veil of depression.

Zorn's empty white eyes peeled open to let in the light from inside his holding unit. Nothing had changed, just as expected.

Shifting his equally blank hair away from his irises view, he raised himself from the elevated mattress on which he once rested.

Patting down his black rags, he stretched his body of short stature, daydreaming of what it would be like to be taller.

The room itself was entirely made of concrete, from the floor to the ceiling. It came equipped with two identical beds, which consisted of a mattress laid upon a metal bar held up by chains. The place may have not been too comfortable, but to him it was home.

Everything was going as it usually did, though abnormalities began to show.

First, breakfast hadn't arrived from the sliding metal bar beneath the steel entrance, making him cringe for a moment before realizing another anomaly, that being the absence of his cellmate.

Breakfast had been delayed before sure, but never had his companion left the room before, nor woken up before him once. Although these points were significant in his mind, he brushed them off and prioritized something he felt was more important

For a number of minutes he sat before and stared at the metal slider, waiting for food to arrive. It was the only thing he knew how to do properly: wait.

And wait he did, for approximately 15 minutes, thinking to himself about all the possibilities that could be delaying his meal.

'It could be they're out of something that they planned or that what they were going to use is bad,' he thought, but that didn't make sense. Adults are supposed to be responsible, and a shipment was made to this place yesterday, so that couldn't be it.

'If not that, then they might be making something big.' No, that couldn't be it either. He naturally had a heightened sense of smell, so much so that he would often wake himself early upon smelling certain food items for breakfast. The reason it couldn't be this was the fact that the only thing he could smell was the thick layer of dust that plagued this space.

'What could it be? What's taking them so long?'

Zorn wanted, no needed to know. It was frustrating to the point that he began to itch, but that sensation didn't last much longer.

Footsteps echoed throughout the corridor, making its way to his containment room.

Zorn knew that rhythm of steps, knew it well, and it only came from one monster of a man: Doctor Ujiko. He could recognize him well just by the tapping of his toes, and the way he confidently carried himself.

The Doctor's body was large and pudgy, making him look like a peach colored marshmallow with a large, bushy mustache and glasses in the shape of cogs. In terms of height he was around a foot and a half taller than Zorn, and last he checked, Zorn was around 3'6. Though right now that didn't matter to him.

Zorn hustled away from the door, hiding underneath his mattress, hoping that by some chance Ujiko didn't see him, although hiding was now no longer a possibility.