Finding His Light

Prologue

Prologue

Spirit sat at the edge of his window, peering down at the world below him. His apartment sat at the top of a four story high building. A mixture of rain and sleet pattered lightly against his window, sliding down in dripping streaks. The street lights illuminated the water, causing a thin rainbow to appear before him. He watched as what seemed to be one hundred bobbing umbrellas filled the streets. Every single one of them was black. He could only make them out because of how brightly lit the street was by the overhead lamps guiding folks home. A sigh escaped his lips causing the window to fog slightly. This wasn't the kind of life he'd envisioned for himself. He imagined striking color painting his future in brilliant gold and red.

He longed to make a change in the lonely world; the lonely city he lived in. For as long as he could remember everything was always bleak. Well, everything except the orphanage he grew up in. That place; his home, was always a marvelous rainbow. Unfortunately, as he was quickly coming of age he could no longer rely on the orphanage to care for him. Times were tough and the struggle for funding was growing exponentially tough. The redhead closed his eyes and imagined the smile of his younger sister Hana.

His lips curved upward. She was his motivation and his muse; all of his confidence came from the bright light shining from within her. Just like she illuminated his soul, he longed to illuminate the gloomy world around him. He wanted to make it shine like the brilliance of a million diamonds bathed in sunlight. He lifted his hand to the glass. He missed his sister and despite always being welcomed at the orphanage, he couldn't face his former caretakers and siblings empty handed. His plan was to donate funds to his former home and lie a happy life with his sister. He secured himself somewhere to live easily enough.

It was a shabby place to be but the rent was cheap and the location was the closest he could get to the orphanage. His next order of business was to secure a job and save money to upgrade his living situation. After that he would take Hana and live a quiet, happy lifestyle. His ideal job would be something involving the music industry. He honed his vocal talents by singing at benefits and talent shows for the orphanage. His singing always cheered Hana and the other children up.

Spirit exhaled deeply, staring once again at his reflection in the window.

"Confidence is key, Spirit," he said, whispering the words quietly to himself.

The boy had always emitted confidence. However, his confidence was a facade; an act put on to protect his own fragile heart. His blue gems never saw how truly special he was.

In this way, Hakase Franken Stein was very similar. His confidence was a shallow opening to the true nature of his twisted soul. Twisted, but not condemned. Stein was an unfeeling boy, wrought by the upbringings of his past. He pondered many things and many things escaped total understanding in his mind. He was very intelligent, yet ignorant at the same time. Emotions were a foreign concept for the boy, though he had felt them at one point. He was always unable to accurately distinguish what he was feeling and what those feelings meant.

Stein's bare palms lay flatly against the metal bed beneath him; metal clasps held his wrists tightly in place. He was being punished. He had just attempted to escape his captors for the twenty-second time since arriving at the Institution of Psychoscience; IOP for short. His full eyes stared at the bleak white ceiling. It was as if his being was a lifeless doll in the hands of others. He didn't quite get why he wanted to escape so badly; he just felt an archaic desire to do so.

He felt as if something or someone was waiting for him beyond the walls confining him to doom. However, that wasn't of real interest to him, he simply wanted to explore and gain more knowledge. He let his eyes close, knowing full well that sleep would elude him for the tenth day in a row.

Neither boy knew what the world outside their "comfort" zones had in store for them, but something was definitely about to change for the both of them.