Trend | √

Part I

Trend can be fun.

Trend can be addicting.

Trend can also be dangerous...

...and deathly.

What, you disagree on the dangerous and deathly part? Tsk, my child, how naivë you are. Must I clarify with a story? Really, you want to hear it out? Okay, okay, I'll tell you a story.

Now, the story goes like this...

Once, there was a boy named Lucas. It was always dark at the place he lived along with his parents and older brother. Well, no surprise at all since they live underground. Their clothes were smelly and dirty, and their hair haggard. Lucas had the skin of, albeit dirty, a newborn compared to the calloused and aged skin of his parents and his older brother, Ragnar. He never questioned why, but he knew it was because he was a lot more younger than them - just an innocent boy of seven.

He was never allowed to go out and he never knew why, but he did not question that either. "Lucas, I promise you, when you are older, we will let you go out," they had said. He held on to that promise, whih explained why he did not question his restriction from the outside world. He was an obedient little boy, much to his parents' liking, and they would always bring home some food for him, even if they were just some scraps of meat from dead animals. They were undeniably living in awful poverty, but they were happy as a family. Joy comes from love and not just from money anyway, bear that in mind.

Lucas often hear the heavy sound of boots marching against the roof of his home, the sharp sound of the "beast" - as his brother described - flying above them, and the strangled cries of someone being either tortured or captured somewhere above them. According to what he had accidentally heard from his parents, brother and the people who lived with them, the land above him was supposedly under attack and anyone found would either be taken captive or tortured. As a young boy, he understood the word "attack" as the act of destruction and the term "taken captive" as imprisoned or killed. The noises scared him sometimes, but he grew used to it and discarded the once fearful thought. After all, his parents did tell him that everything's going to be fine.

Or is it?

One day, his parents did not return home so there were no food on their table that night. Lucas was hungry, but he did not complain. He convinced himself that they would return soon with an abundance of food. Days passed, and yet they had not returned. Lucas waited patiently, his stomach brewing acidic storm with every passing minute, and the only source of food came from his brother. He waited every single day, and those days turned into months. But they never return.

One day, Lucas got tired of waiting. Anxiously, he asked his brother where their parents went. Shaking his head, Ragnar told him that he need not worry for they were somewhere far away gathering food for them to eat. Ragnar was grateful as Lucas nodded in acceptance, and never asked about them after that. "They will return one day, and I shall feast along with them," Lucas reminded himself, comforting himself at the same time.

What Ragnar had told little Lucas was a lie, obviously. Deep inside his heart, he wish he could tell little Lucas that their parents had been taken captive and enslaved to the higher ones above - the sky islanders. He hated them so much; every earth people does. Just because they live high above them, it does not mean that they can enslave or torture the earth people for mere entertainment and temporary satisfaction. Sky islanders are miserable and sick people. He wished he could tell Lucas about them and their torments, as his parents told him when he was 12. But Lucas was merely a child, how could he ever understand?

One night, Lucas was jolted awake by his nightmare. In his nightmare, he saw his parents being whipped and tortured by some people in shiny and silvery clothes, how his parents' blood ran down their sweaty backs and forehead. He wanted to save tbem, take the beatings if he could, as long as his family stayed with him. Lucas had always been taught to priortise his family. That's why he was so willing to save them if he could. But a nightmare is a mind's image, so he could not do anything. As an outcome from the nightmare, he was terrified, so he tried to shut out the thought and stare at his brother's sleeping form instead.

As the nights were usually hot and damp, the males would usually take off their upper garment before sleeping. As the small opening above them generously invited in some of the moonlight, Lucas could see his brother's back and he noticed that there were some sort of beautiful "picture" on his back. Not a tattoo for sure.

Out of curiosity, he reached out to touch the "picture" but was met instead with tiny, jagged edges and rough skin. The sensation tingled on his fingers, but he could not help but to stare in wonder. He wanted to explore those "pictures", but he did not want to wake Ragnar up so he continued to stare at them until he fell asleep again.

The moment he woke up in the morning, the first thing on his head was the "picture" he saw and curiously he walked towards his brother who was sitting on the table drinking god-knows-what. "Ragnar, I have a question," he said, and Ragnar grunted at him. "What is it?" He replied, taking another sip of whatever it was in the cup. "I saw pictures on your back last night. What were they, brother?" He asked, and at that very moment did Ragnar stiffened. "That's not for me to tell. Maybe once you're a little bit older, you'll know," he replied, patting Lucas' head. Not wanting to tire out and infuriate his brother, Lucas nodded understandingly.