Slave Side Effects (On Hiatus)

Chapter 2

   Michael glanced at the three people that were now all looking at him. This made him super uneasy, because when you were a slave, the safest way to be was good yet never looked at. If people looked at you, then that meant they were giving you attention, and that could be bad. Very bad... But to try and calm the others, Michael spoke. "Y-yeah! I'm... I'm fine!" he laughed. "This is nothing! Just last time I was actually attacked with a lightsaber was so long ago that I guess I'm out of practice! Owner used to attack me all the time... ha... I...." Michael decided to stop talking before he started saying stuff that made him think too much of those times. But the damage had already been done.

Mario stepped forward. "What do you mean by that? How..." Mario stopped, not sure on how to phrase it.

But Ritchie, being the blunt man he was, voiced the question they all shared. "How bad was it? Is that why you are afraid of us and the sabers?" Austin nodded, and Mario just blinked, both showing how they also wished to hear the answer. Michael fidgeted with the edges of his sleeves and looked down, not wanting to answer. After a full minute went by, Ritchie once again spoke, this time more forcefully and also punching Michael with a medium weight behind it. "Tell us dammit! We're the ones that saved you! Want us to bring you back?"

Michael, startled, started stammering out as much as he could. "N-no! P-p-pl-please don't! Owner... lightsabers... uhhh... hospital... beating... strict... family..." All Michael could do to stop himself from crying was to stop talking, for those memories... he feared them. The anxiety that had settled over his life was now taking the reins, and Michael feebly tried to buck it off, yet it wouldn't budge. Tears started to glisten at the edges of Michael's eyes, but the others were now facing each other, and it was not until the tears started to fall through the air that they looked back at the former captive. As the tears slid down his cheek and fell onto the ground, light from the glowstone made them glisten with an eerie, yellow-orange glow, causing Michael's face to glimmer in the dim light.

Mario stepped forward, placing his hand on Michael's shoulder. "Hey... You don't really have to tell us.... But you... probably should so we could try to help. Keeping secrets has not been the way of our team, and we shouldn't start now if we want to continue working for the grand army."

Austin piped up. "And I'm not giving up on my dream... or... my team." He glanced at the others as they stared at him. Everything was still and Michael counted ten seconds before Ritchie quickly rushed forward, giving Austin a nuggie and saying how, for once, Austin seemed to care. Mario lifted both of his hands up to face and let out an innocent laugh full of humor and letting go of the short man, he started to wrestle with the other two.

All Michael could do was watch in complete and utter silence as this scene played out before him. These three threatening men, that he was slightly afraid of, were truly all just as human as he was, and they... could actually depend on each other. Michael had longed for someone he could trust all his life, and here were three people who seemed to not even understand how special their bond was. The three boys' laughter filled the corridors of the grand army building and spilled out into the empty night. Michael felt himself do something that he had only experienced a few times in those years before he became a slave, and never done since. The sensation was almost as foreign to him as a snowman was to Death Valley. It filled him with a feeling that had been forced from his childhood just as he was forced from his mother's' arms. He... Smiled.

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