Chapter 26

Harrelson Territory

Three Years Ago

“Mhm.” Ethan let out a small mumble as he stirred awake. As he slowly opened his eyelids, the small amount of sunlight which entered through the peephole illuminated the room just enough for him to make out Melissa’s figure sitting against the other wall.

“Finally, you woke up,” she said with a slightly annoyed voice. It was clear that she had been waiting for him to awaken, presumably because sitting in a dark silent room was boring beyond belief. Ethan found it relaxing, however, from his interaction with her, he knew that she did not share in that opinion.

“Were you waiting for me to?” he asked teasingly, since he already knew the answer.

“N-not really.” She tried to deny it, but she was a terrible liar.

“Anyways, what’s the time?”

She looked at him as if he were crazy. “How the hell should I know? Does it look like there’s a clock in here?”

“Fine, I’ll rephrase,” he said with a sigh. “How long have you been awake?”

“Again, does it look like there’s a clock in…”

“You can’t even tell how long you’ve been awake,” he groaned. “How useless. Just forget I asked.”

His attitude annoyed her further but before she could begin chastising him for it, he turned to the peephole and asked the same question as yesterday.

“Hey, guard. Time?”

“15:30”

“Thanks.”

He slept for 16 hours. Again, because of his injuries, his body had him sleep for far longer than normal. Recognizing this fact, he turned his attention towards said injuries, checking for pain and stiffness.

The chain connecting him to the wall was just long enough to allow him to stand, and thus, he did so, twisting and stretching his body in his ways which made him wince from pain. Doing so allowed him to estimate how well the healing process was coming along.

Even though his Geinta had been sealed by the Giovantine cuffs, that hadn't meant it disappeared from his body entirely. Since that was the case, he was healing far faster than most people. Despite his severe injuries, he would likely recover within the next two weeks. In fact, the lacerations which he received on his first day were almost fully healed and soon, only scar tissue would remain.

“How can you move like that with those injuries? It hurts just watching you.”

Ethan turned his head to face Melissa, who had said that. “Huh? It’s not that painful. It hurts way less than receiving the laceration.”

“T-that’s not the point. Shouldn’t you try to not move and … you know … not suffer.”

“I would rather be in pain than stiff and listless. I don’t know what will happen to me today, but I would prefer to not have my muscles cramp on me if shit goes south.”

“Doesn’t moving around make the injury worse?”

“Probably.”

“O-oh.”

Just like the day before, only now he had company, he decided to pass the time with light exercise. Since his injuries felt better, he decided to increase the intensity compared to yesterday.

While working out, he carried on his conversations with Melissa. Though the topics were nothing special or interesting, the company of someone else allowed the time to pass rather quickly.

They bickered back and forth, keeping the guard listening outside entertained. His job was to always guard the black box, and since the box was usually empty or contained those who were silently suffering from heat stroke, their witty conversations were a nice change of pace for him.

Though he couldn’t be real happy since he knew the fate of the young man contained inside would not be a pleasant one. Still, he tried to shut those thoughts away.

***

After dusk, with the hallway and black box now pitch dark, Ethan and Melissa sat quietly, having run out of things to talk about. As stated before, Ethan was not bothered by this silence, but she still was. However, since they had nothing to talk about, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything and therefore suffered quietly.

Around 10 pm, with all three of them, including the guard, on the verge of falling asleep, the hallway lights suddenly turned on, shocking them awake.

Knowing it was probably the leashers here to collect Ethan, Melissa looked across to the other wall where he was chained. He stared at the light coming through the peephole while listening to the encroaching footsteps, which sounded powerful and threatening.

She thought he looked far too composed given the situation, as it was anyone's guess as to what might be done to him once taken. Hell, she was more nervous for him than he was for himself.

The command to open the black box door was issued to the guard, and with a nod of confirmation, he did so. A group of three leashers quickly filed through the doorway with the keys to his cuffs in hand.

“Do not make any sudden or threatening moves,” the one in front said to Ethan with a stern expression.

Ethan’s first inclination was to disobey such an order and attack them immediately, but, with the Giovantine collar limiting his strength, he would be subdued before he could severely injure any of them. That fact in of itself made the notion of lashing out meaningless. Still, he despised being ordered around and therefore refused to be completely passive.

“Fuck off,” he growled back before spitting onto the leasher’s shoe, giving a satisfied smirk as he did so.

The leasher immediately responded with a hard right hook to Ethan’s jaw, drawing blood to his mouth. However, Ethan then spat this blood onto the other shoe of the leasher without hesitation, as if the action were the natural thing to do.

“Tch. I can see why the head leasher hates you.”

“I have that effect on people.”

Deciding not to get caught up in Ethan’s rhythm, the leasher cut the conversation short and proceeded to unchain him from the wall. He then forcefully pulled Ethan to his feat and used the key to take the cuffs off his wrists.

Ethan looked down at his once again unbound wrists and rubbed his fingers on them, as they were slightly sour from being chained for over a day.

He had intended to then walk out of the black box on his own accord, but before he could do so, the leashers hand aggressively shoved him forward.

“Move, slave!” the leasher yelled as Ethan stumbled out of the doorway. The fact that he didn’t keel over from such an action was incredible. Two days ago, he could barely stand on his own two feet, but now he could be forcefully thrusted forward without tripping and succumbing to gravity.

The three leashers quickly surrounded Ethan and escorted him down the hallway. The guard and Melissa watched him disappear around the corner.

“Will he be … no, he definitely won’t,” she muttered to herself as the guard once again closed the door. She hung her head at the thought of being alone as the light disappeared from the box.

***

Ethan was escorted to the North wing of the building. There, they entered a small, brightly lit room with mirrors and white lights decorating the walls. Inside, a handful of female slaves in maid outfits stood ready.

He was pushed into the center of the room while the three leasher who escorted him chose to stand next to the door.

“What the fuck is all this?”

However, the leashers did not answer him and instead instructed the maids. “Get him ready for the night.”

“What does that …?”

Before he could ask, the maids diligently began their work and brought Ethan into a side room, which, upon entering, he learned was a washroom. Still confused, he turned and demandingly glared at the maids filing into the room with him.

None of them acknowledged his confusion. They just kept their heads down and worked without speaking. Ethan wondered if they were given a gag order on any information pertaining to himself. However, it felt like more than that, as even with a gag order in place, there was no reason to avoid his eye contact.

Why does it seem like everyone knows more about what will happen than I do?

Though, judging by the attitude of the workers, his current circumstances and by what he saw/felt in Harrelson’s office, he was confident he could guess what was about to happen. Despite this, he couldn’t do much, as he was powerless with the Giovantine collar around his neck. Only once he was absolutely certain that his hunch was correct would he begin to fight.

He couldn’t afford to be as gung-ho with his rebellious actions like he was against Darrel. Not with the Giovantine oppressing him 24 hours a day.

The maid-dressed slaves began stripping him of his ragged clothing, which startled him at first but he did not show any sign of discomfort. The experience of being dragged out on stage while naked during the slave auction had already rid him of any embarrassment he might have felt. Since they were so close while doing so, he thought about subtly threatening one of them to extract some information but the leasher, who Ethan spat on, entered the washroom just as that thought occurred.

Ethan, turning his head to see him barge in, smirked. “What, don’t trust me to not harm these house slaves?”

“Silence, slave. I don’t know how much the head leasher engaged in conversation with you, but I won’t do the same.”

“Ugh. So you're one of those. At least … Darius’s (getting the name wrong) chattiness passed the time.”

Despite being worried for his future, he maintained his cocky and defiant attitude regardless of the situation.

Ethan was then placed in the tub by the maids. To clean him, he was gently scrubbed to avoid inflaming or reponing any wounds he had, and he had plenty of them so this task was quite difficult. In all honesty, he felt that it would have gone faster if he had just cleaned himself, but the maids couldn’t disobey their orders. Especially with a leasher in the room.

Under most circumstances, a man might feel a tinge of excitement to have a handful of female maids clean him, and this goes double for a hormonal kid of sixteen years like Ethan. However, he was not in a position to enjoy it. Not with aching lacerations all over him due to them being scrubbed and the fact that his imminent future was likely not a pleasant one.

The entire time, he felt like lashing out, but he managed to hold himself back. The fact that he sat there obediently gnawed at him but he pushed his frustration to the back of his mind and kept cool for the time being.

After he was cleaned, he stepped out of the tub, was dried and then instructed to stand in the middle of the washroom. There, the maids applied a kind of translucent cream over all of his wounds. It was cold and soothing, instantly eliminating much of the discomfort the wounds caused. The cream was originally designed to treat inflammation, though no one explained this to Ethan despite the question being written all over his face.

He was then brought out into the brightly lit room, expecting to be given clothes. However, that did not happen. Instead, the two leasher who had been standing by the door suddenly reached out and gripped each of his arms.

“What the …”

“Let’s go.”

That settled it in his mind. Why he was brought to the mansion. Why he was given such treatments. Given a bath, inflammatory cream for his wounds and now deprived of clothes. Hell, it explains the behavior and mannerisms of Harrleson and everyone else.

He was brought in for Harrelson’s sexual pleasure. It seemed the Master had an attraction to the same sex. Add to that a sadistic, possessive personality and a sick preference for young boys, suddenly it became clear why Ethan was chosen for a bed mate.

Even if he was quite muscular, he was what one would describe as petite, not to mention his rather boyish good looks and a rebellious spirit which Harrelson would enjoy breaking.

Now understanding what was waiting for him that night, his adrenaline spiked and his palms became sweaty. His body shivered in disgust and he found his eyes drawn towards the pistol holstered on the right leashers hip.

Since the holsters were actually quite tricky to unstrap if untrained, they didn’t think much of allowing it within Ethan’s reach while they dragged his arms. However, he had actually used holsters such as those in the past, a fact they couldn’t have predicted.

In one swift motion, he unbuckled the tricky strap on the holster and smoothly pulled the pistol out by its grip. The leasher tried to stop his hand from doing so, but couldn’t react fast enough. With the gun having been drawn, it was still pointed towards. Not wanting to waste a single opportunity to cause harm, Ethan pulled the trigger, firing a bullet down into the leashers foot.

The leasher released Ethan’s arm and fell to the ground, clutching his foot. The sudden sound of a gunshot greatly startled the poor house slaves who were still in the room.

Now with one down, Ethan tried to lift his arm and aim the pistol at the leasher, who had supervised him in the washroom, walking in front. However, before he could fire off another shot, the leasher to the left of him had already drawn his weapon and pressed the barrel against Ethan’s head.

His eyes widened, not having expected them to react that fast. In fact, not a half second later, the leasher in front spun around and swiped the gun from Ethan’s hand. Neither of these two had been startled by his sudden actions, which left him flabbergasted as none of the other leashers he had dealt with thus far possessed the same level of cool-headedness.

“You are a troublesome son of a bitch, aren’t you. The head leasher was right to assign us to you.”

“What?” Ethan asked.

Ethan realised that these guys must not be the ordinary leashers, not just because they’re imperturbable, but because the head leasher had specifically chosen them to deal with a pain in the ass like Ethan.

“Hey,” the front leasher yelled. “You alright?”

Then, only serving to surprise Ethan even more, the leasher whom he had shot slowly sat up and proceeded to pull the bullet from his foot.

“Yeah, the wound’s not that deep,” he said with a nonchalant face as he dropped the bloodied bullet onto the floor. He then staggered to his feet with a pained expression.

“Sorry about this. I was careless.” He apologized to his colleagues as he rolled his foot, acting as if he tweaked an ankle instead of having taken a bullet. “Hey, house slaves, clean up this wound for me. And pick up that bullet while you're at it.”

Ethan stared at this sight, and it clicked. These three were Awakened. That’s why their reaction times were so fast and why they were seemingly unafraid of a drawn weapon. While it could hurt them, a pistol didn’t pose the same threat as it did to a regular person.

Stunned, Ethan couldn't react before the other two injured leashers painfully wrenched his arms behind his back and quickly escorted him down the hallway. This snapped him awake from his shock, and thus he began struggling to break free once again, but with the Giovantine collar on, he couldn’t fight the strength of two Awakened gripping his arms.

Eventually, they arrived at the Master’s bedroom.

***

Ethan, still trying to overpower the two leashers, was then cuffed to the headboard of a bed. Without his usual strength, he was unable to rip through the solid oak wood this headboard was made of.

However, that didn’t stop him from trying. Even after the leashers left him, he continued to pull as hard as he possibly could, his wrist quickly growing soar from such actions. He didn't care in the slightest though as, compared to his pre existing wounds, bruised wrists were insignificant.

As he fought to break free, over ten minutes passed before another entered the room. Upon seeing the man enter, Ethan’s stomach sank.

The Master, and the owner of the bedroom, Samuel Harrelson, walked in wearing only a rob and sported wet hair. He had also just finished bathing, much like Ethan.

“Ah … Ethan. Have I kept you waiting long?”

This small attempt at small talk felt so alien in the tense situation that it caused Ethan to shiver. For him to be so lax meant he had performed this act more than a few times.

“I guess it’s expected for you to have reservations about this.” he said, noticing Ethan’s expression.

“‘Reservations’ is the fucking understatement of the century,” Ethan snarled back. “You touch me, and I’ll make sure you die an excruciating death.”

“That’s an impressive threat coming from someone so young. But you should refrain from acting tough when you're strapped to my bed naked. It only serves to entice me more.”

Harrelson reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a small key. “Now, let’s take those off you. They’re not necessary.”

He walked to the bed and leaned over Ethan, casually invading his personal space. Since Ethan was naked, he was exposed and acutely aware of how close Harrelson was to him.

Almost reflexively, with his hands still cuffed to the headframe, he aimed a kick at Harrelson’s chest, putting his entire strength behind it. But unfortunately, Harrelson was also a fairly strong Awakened and easily swatted his foot away, as if he were attacked by a toddler. He then put the key into the cuffs and rotated it.

Click.

Hearing this sound, Ethan yanked his hands out of the cuffs and pounced at Harrelson’s face in an attempt to poke his eyes out, thinking it to be the only way to effectively attack someone stronger than himself.

However, Harrelson made use of his reach advantage by grabbing Ethan’s neck above the collar, stopping the latter’s hands mere centimeters before they could make contact with his face. He then used his other hand to easily restrain Ethan’s arms by the wrists.

“Gahh!”

Harrelson began squeezing Ethan’s neck, cutting off his airway just enough to sap his strength. His face began turning bright red as he gasped for air to no avail. He found it difficult to continue resisting.

Eventually, Harrelson released his grip on the neck while keeping a hold of Ethan’s arms. He lifted and pinned them behind Ethan’s own head, leaving him lying defenseless and exposed on his back.

“You are a little older than what I prefer, but you're small enough that it doesn’t matter. And at least with you, I can be a little ... rough.”

Now with a free hand, Harrleson reached back and removed the rope from his shoulders, dropping it onto the floor. With it gone, his own naked body laid bare and he began to inch closer.

“Now stop struggling and accept this. Or don’t. I’ll have fun either way.”

“I will kill you motherucker! I will fucking kill you!” Ethan continued to yell, but his hostility and anger were quickly turning into panic, fear, and disgust. His screams were like the barks of a small dog; loud, but ultimately lacked any bite to back them up.

“I know. I know,” Harrelson whispered as if consoling a child. “Just shhh and become mine.” He flipped Ethan over onto his stomach and tightly covered his mouth with his free hand. He squirmed while in Harrelson’s embrace.

Ethan began praying that someone would rescue him from the situation, but not a single soul entered the room the entire time. He suffered quietly as he was violated in a perverse and sickening fashion.

***

Melissa, who had long since fallen asleep, woke to the sound of the black box door opening. Just as she peaked her eyelids open, she saw a young man thrown into the box with exceptional force. He crashed down to the metal floor, but strangely, he didn’t make so much as a sound despite that it most likely hurt.

As surprised as this made her, she was then utterly flabbergasted when a certain man walked through the doorway and stared down at Ethan.

It was the Master. Her eyes widened in shock and she subconsciously tried back away from him, despite already being chained against a wall. Her legs curled up against her body and she stayed absolutely still, holding her breath while she watched Harrelson’s every move intently.

Her fear of him was cemented on the first day, when just his presence gave her goosebumps. This was only enhanced when she broke an expensive vase in front of him yesterday.

“I see you're a lot less rambunctious then you were before,” Harrelson said, staring down at Ethan. “I thought you would’ve been harder to break since Darrel complained about you so much.”

Ethan slowly pushed himself off the ground and glared back at Harrelson. Only, this time, there wasn’t nearly as much fight in his eyes.

“Well, at least you won’t be as much of a pain from now on.”

“Samuel.”

It was at that moment that someone said Harrelson’s name. He lifted his head and turned around to see who had entered the black box, only to find a blond woman in her early thirties. She was in a nightgown and appeared as if she was ready to fall asleep. She didn’t seem to mind the presence of two slaves, nor the idea of stepping into the black box wear they were kept.

“Rina? What do you want?” he said in a blunt voice. His tone wasn’t cold or anything, but to Melissa, it still seemed like a crude way to speak to your wife. Though, not that she cared much about the relationships of her dreaded Master.

“I was just wondering if you had finished your business. I was waiting for you to come to bed.”

“You don’t have to wait up for me.”

“I’m your wife. I worry when you stay up too late. Some people drop dead from overworking themselves.”

“I doubt you're worried about me rather than my money. Whatever, do what you want.”

Harrelson turned back towards Ethan, only to see his eyes widen with shock. His limbs were twitching and his face had a look of confusion plastered across it.

“Y-your married?” Ethan asked.

“Wha … oh … yes I am. What, did you think that just because I have that hobby that I wasn’t a married man? Well, don’t get too jealous. Haha!”

Harrelson laughed at his own joke before turning back towards his wife. “Alright, let’s go.” He motioned with his head for them to step out of the black box and head for bed. However, just then, he noticed a presence chained to the other wall. As he turned his head, he saw a young blond girl staring at him while quivering in fear. As his gaze landed on her, she jumped with fright.

“Aren’t you the girl from yesterday?” he said, walking towards her. She tried pushing herself backward every time he took a step, but it only resulted in her flattening herself against a wall.

“You … look strangely like my wife. Especially with that blond hair. You remind me of a younger version of her.”

‘Please stop noticing me,’ she thought, but it was too late. He had already taken note of her. She felt like a large snake was slowly constricting around her as his perverse gaze leered up and down her body.

Then, unceremoniously, he just walked away out of the black box and the door slammed shut behind him. The room was left in an uncomfortable silence. Neither Ethan nor her felt like saying anything.

A minute later, the door reopened. The kind guard which Ethan and her had grown to appreciate walked in with a key in hand. He walked over to her and gently uncuffed her hands from the wall.

“The Master said you're free to go.”

Though she was glad, she also felt very apprehensive about leaving, knowing that her release came on Harrelson’s orders. Still, she slowly stepped out of the black box and was escorted by a leasher to the slave barracks. Before she left, she turned her head to look at Ethan. She wanted to say something. To console him or even, at the very least, ask what happened, but she kept her mouth shut.

As she walked away, the guard gazed at Ethan, who wore a ghastly expression on his face. He stared at the boy for a while with a sorrowful look in his eye. After a minute, he shut the door, leaving Ethan alone with his thoughts.

***

Ethan sat there, thinking to himself about what he just went through. When he remembered, in vivid detail, the repulsive acts Harrelson performed with him, it made his skin crawl. He looked down at his hand, which was still shaking intensely. He couldn’t tell if it was from fear, anger, or adrenaline wearing off.

Either way, what he felt was definitely shame, embarrassment, worthlessness and definitely disgust. So much so that he threw up the small amount of food in his stomach all over the floor in the front of him. After he calmed himself with some deep breaths, he decided to move to a corner, since they hadn't bothered to chain him up.

He stared at the other side of the room, which he couldn’t see since it was dark but he had nothing else to look at. He couldn’t take him mind of what had just happened. Not once, in the eight days of torture he endured, was he left in a state like this. Even after the first day of whippings, he just felt rage from letting them break his spirit.

This was different. His spirit wasn’t broken, but rather it felt like it had left his body. He honestly couldn’t rap his head around it, but everything he experienced felt like it happened to another person. As if his ego couldn’t come to grips being raped.

After a while, his thoughts began to linger on something he learned. Something which managed to defy even his cynical outlook on humans.

Harrelson had a wife. A wife which, from the look of it, cared for him very much. One which seemed to have knowledge of his rather sick sense of pleasure.

How could she … marry someone like that. Out of love? For the money? For protection? For power?

In all honesty, it was probably an amalgamation of all of those. She knew about who he really was, and didn’t care. Surrounded by slaves in her daily life, and yet, she treated such a fact like it was normal. Despite him raping and and beating kids (he beat Ethan as well), she can still sleep in the same bed as him.

How could she? How could anyone?

That’s when Ethan remembered the lesson he had been taught for the last eight years of his life, and especially in the last two weeks.

All people are fucking scum. Evil parasites living on for themselves. They’ll step over and kill anyone for their own safety and prosperity. And those at the top commit atrocities far beyond human imagination with no one around to hold them accountable for their evil actions.

If everyone is evil, then can anyone be called evil at all? Is this just normal and the spoiled naive do-gooders like Michelle and Melissa are the abnormal ones?

The world surrounding him suddenly turned grey and a great sense of apathy overtook the very core of his being.

“Bring it on. I’ll take anything you got.”

He said these words out loud, but not as a declaration or to hype himself up. They didn’t hold the same meaning as they would’ve yesterday.

Instead of words of defiance and willpower, they were words of resignation. He tried to keep his fighting spirit alive, but as ashamed and disgusted as he was with himself, he couldn’t bring himself to find any willpower.

***

From then on, Ethan was called to Harrelson’s bed chambers quite frequently. He continued to resist, but not with the same vigor as before. After a while, he just stopped caring.

How many times was he raped? Ten times. Twenty. Fourty. Honestly, after four months of it, it just all blended together as one big nightmare.

In those four months, his body had grown weak from starvation. With the Giovantine collar one, his muscles were constantly without the support of Geinta and quickly lost their athletic shape. This only served to make him smaller, which pleased Harrelson quite a bit.

Over the four months, Melissa was put in the black box with him quite a few times, as she was far more clumsy than most. Though others slaves were occasionally chained in there with him, none were frequent visitors like her.

Nearing the end of the fourth month, the summer had passed and it was mid autumn. During the rainy or cloudy days, the black box became rather cold since it was made of metal. This started to become a problem for Ethan as he grew thinner and thinner by the passing days.

Apparently, during Ethan’s stay there, Harrelson’s wife became pregnant.

He had accidentally heard the news while he was being washed by the crew of female house slaves who always bathed him. Never once did they speak a word to him, but they had grown comfortable enough to speak amongst themselves.

After a particularly rough session with Harrelson, like always, he escorted Ethan back to the black box with the leashers. Since he did this every time, Ethan assumed he enjoyed watching his pained expressions, almost as a way to admire his work.

As he did every time, he asked Ethan a question.

“So? Do you acknowledge you’re mine?”

He had become very fixated on this point when, one day, he asked this question and Ethan had resolutely answered no, despite growing more impassive by the day.

Since then, he has continued to give the same answer, as it would never change. He still wanted to escape and would never give his existence to another.

As the days passed, his answers grew more meek, and today, his answer was non-existent. Harrelson starred attentively, waiting, and eventually grew impatient.

He decided to probe Ethan a little. “So, can I take your silence as a yes?”

Ethan’s face perked up a little at this porvacation, but instead of ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he said something which Harrelson had not expected.

“J-just kill me. Just end it. You're never going to get me to answer ‘yes’ and I’m never going to escape from you. This will go on forever. Just kill me.”

“Ha~” Harrelson’s laugh trailed off. “I never expect you to say that. Well, I guess I can say I’ve thoroughly broken you.”

Harrelson began to walk towards the door. “Guess that means I win, Ethan. But no, I won't kill you. I just …”

Harrelson's voice disappeared as Ethan unconsciously shut him out. Before him was a vivid flashback of his past. One which he could never forget.

“I win, Ethan,” echoed in his mind as the face of an old friend flashed before him. This old friend was someone dear to him. Someone whom he had a brotherhood with. Someone who he considered his friendly rival. Someone whom he trusted and would’ve given his life for.

He was someone who betrayed him and left him for dead, grinning while he did so.

Harrelson’s words, reminding him of his vow for revenge on not only his friend but on Harrelson as well, spurred a fighting spirit he hadn’t felt in him in months. Strength returned to his eyes as he lifted his head to look at Harrelson.

“You’ve … won?” he asked with a crazed look in his eye. “I have a moment of weakness and you get cocky? Don’t give me that shit. ”

Harrelson, confused at this sudden change, turned around to face Ethan. “What the hell happ …”

“I take back what I said, Harrelson. I won’t just fucking kill you painfully. I’ll slowly rip you to fucking pieces and force your wife to watch. I’ll free every slave in this place and will throw her to that angry mob as they crave to eat you alive. So, yeah, you’d better kill me, or I will wipe you from the face of the earth!”

Harrelson stood there, visible shaken up, baffled as to what brought about this change in him. But his shock turned to rage as he realised that things weren’t going his way. He sent a kick into Ethan’s abdomen, lifting him off the ground and sending him crashing into the black box wall.

“Guhh!”

After impact, he fell to the ground with a harsh thump. Harrelson stared at him with a look that could kill, while Ethan lied still on the floor, unable to recover from being kicked by an Awakened.

“Don’t threaten me, slave. You thought tonight was bad, just fucking wait.”

Harrelson stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him. Ethan slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and leaned against the wall, trying to regain his breath. He could tell that a few of his ribs were cracked.

Because of that, he was in quite a bit of pain, but honestly, he didn’t care. He had regained his former fighting spirit and actually felt better than he had in months.

***

As he sat in silence, Ethan, for the first time in months, began seriously thinking of a way to escape. He had, for the most part, given up on the concept, but with a newly invigorated will, he thought it was a better time than ever to once again contemplate it.

He still didn’t have any ideas as to how. With the collar around his neck at every waking moment, the options available to him were non-existent. He was never trained in how to escape a prison-like environment, nor was he intelligent enough to figure out how to on his own.

The most realistic option he had was to convince the guard, but he wasn’t confident in his manipulatory abilities. After all, his personality was highly standoffish and not at all machiavellian. He was merely an Awakened teen with an above average talent in martial arts and an insane pain tolerance.

Ethan began pacing around the black box while thinking. However, his thought process was interrupted by the sound of sniffling coming from outside his cell. Curious, he approached the door and tried looking out the peephole, but realised that his range of sight was too limited and gave up. Instead, he decided to just simply ask.

“Who’s out there?”

When he asked that question, the sniffling increased, as if they were trying to wipe away their snot and tears.

“The same guard as always,” a meek voice answered back. Indeed, it was the same guard which Ethan had grown to like over the past few months. Ironically, despite this, he hadn’t even had a true conversation with the man.

“It’s not often that you hear a leasher cry. Wait, you are a leasher, right?”

Ethan honestly didn’t know. He just knew him as ‘the guard.’

“Y-yeah. I’m a leasher,” the guard said with regret in his voice. “Oh fuck, I hate being called that.” It sounded like he began crying again.

Ethan frowned in confusion, finding the guards behavior extremely odd. It was like when a passing acquaintance started oversharing about their problems. It was bewildering. Like, how could they share that with me? I don’t even know them that well.

Currently, he was extremely emotional. Ethan could smell alcohol radiating off him, which probably caused this emotional outburst in the first place. As someone who is terrible with emotion, Ethan sat there quietly, racking his brain for what to say. This moment was the only time he wished for Melissa’s presence. ‘She would probably handle this better,’ he thought to himself.

“Why are you crying?” Right out of the gate, he knew he wasn’t doing so well. Such a blunt question was probably thought to be invasive.

“So you heard that. None of your concern, son.”

“You don’t want to tell me?”

“It’s not your problem. You’ve got other things to worry about.”

Ethan’s gut reflex was to answer “Tch, do what you want” and leave the issue at that, but he didn’t feel like doing that.

“It’s because I’ve got other things to worry about that I want to hear about other people’s problems.”

“Still …”

“You … you always call me, son. The other leashers call me slave, boy, grunt, and all kinds of other different insults. But you have treated me respectfully since day one. Why?”

Silence enveloped the black box. The only sound Ethan could hear was the breaths of the guard as he struggled to inhale through his nose which had become snotty from crying. He waited for the guards answer, and after a minute or so, it finally came.

“I … uh … you remind me of my son.”

“Your son? How so?”

“Well, to be honest, you're nothing like him. He was a brunette with a kind face and blue eyes. Not to mention, he was overly innocent. You two are polar opposites.”

True. Ethan possesses black hair, red eyes and a sharp, cold looking face. To say he looked vampirish was an understatement. He was also, in no way, innocent. The two could be considered night and day from each other.

“But you're about his age. He would’ve been fifteen this year.”

“Hm? Would’ve? Did he die?”

Once again, a blunt question, but the guard was already sharing so Ethan didn’t seem to think this would affect the conversation much.

“Yes. About four years ago. Harrelson killed him.”

Ethan’s eyes widen. Though he wasn’t overly surprised, considering it was Harrelson they were talking about, he still couldn’t help but be taken aback when given an answer like that.

“Did he suffer the same way I have?” Ethan asked.

The guard hesitated before answering. “Yes, but unlike you, he couldn’t take it. After a while, Harrelson became more violent and accidentally killed him. He was only eleven.”

“Then why do you work for him?”

“Because my wife and child were enslaved and brought here. I got this job so I could see them. But when I arrived, my son was already broken. Only a few weeks after that, he was killed. After that, my wife killed herself. The only reason I stay is because I have nowhere else to go.”

Ethan stared down at the floor, contemplating this poor guards scenario. He never let his past show in his day to day attitude, so Ethan was slightly surprised to hear something so tragic happened to him. In contrast, Ethan had also been through hell and back as well, but his personality was warped beyond repair.

“You see your family in the slaves?”

“Yes. I see the same looks on all your faces that I saw on my wife and child. So, if only a little, I want to ease your suffering in any way possible. Even if it's just simple gestures of human decency.”

“That’s a fucked up story, you know?”

“I told you it was your problem.”

“No, I’m glad I heard it. I understand why you're different from the other leashers.”

The guard shook his head, though Ethan could not see him do so. “No, that’s not true. Most of the leashers are just like me. Ordinary men who have nowhere else to go. Before, most of them were just bandits from Sucker’s road, or maybe they were homeless. Some are ex-mercenaries and some are just angry men who are looking for permission to hurt others.”

Ethan listened intently. He thought that most of the leashers originated within the Territory, taught over the course of their life to look down upon slaves. But it turns out that a large majority came from the outside.

But that only proves his beliefs. If they weren’t systemically brainwashed by the Territory to lord over slaves, but instead were just normal men looking to get ahead in life, then it proves that people are just the vile and disgusting creatures he thought them to be.

“So they step on others to live a happy life. Makes sense. That’s what people do, I guess.”

“I don’t think so,” the guard said in a stern tone. “They’re still bad men no matter how you look at it. I don’t know what kind of life you’ve led, son, but don’t go assuming everyone is as self-centered as they are. There are good people in this world.”

“Spare me the lecture. Even if people want to be good, they won’t stick their necks out for others. It would be asinine to do so.”

Ethan waited for the guards response, but one never came. In its place came a loud clanking sound as the guard unlocked the door to the black box and pushed it open. Ethan stared at him questioningly.

“Did what I say piss you off so much that you have to take your anger out on me?”

He didn’t respond to Ethan’s question. Instead, he slowly closed the distance between the two. Ethan thought he was attacking him, but his body language suggested otherwise. He unclenched his fists and allowed the guard to do what he wanted.

Click.

The sound of a key turning reverberated inside the metal box. Ethan’s eyes widened as he reached for his neck, and felt that the collar was loose. Without hesitation, he removed it from his neck and dropped it on the floor.

Clank. It hit the metal floor, producing a sound which was deafening in the quiet of the night. Hoping that it wouldn’t attract any guards, he rubbed his neck in disbelief.

A shiver ran down his spine and power started welling up in the core of his being. His pulse was racing and his heart beat so hard and so loud that it felt like it would burst from his chest.

His Geinta, which had been sealed for the past four months, slowly began overtaking his body once more. His muscles ached as their previous strength returned to them and he could physically feel his skin growing tougher. His lung capacity expanded and the veins on his face began showing themselves from under his skin. It felt like he was experiencing his Awakening all over again, but to a much harsher degree.

The guard looked flustered at such a sight and tried to lend him a hand, but Ethan waved him off, telling him it was alright. Eventually, the torrent of power overtaking Ethan’s body settled. He squeezed his hand with a smile on his face, enjoying the almost-forgotten sensation of having superhuman strength.

He then looked back at the guard, frowning with confusion.

“Why?” he asked. “Why would you do such a thing for me? You could be killed for this.”

“I have nothing else to live for. Honestly, I’ve been ... contemplating suicide for a while and this seems like the best way to go. Helping someone young with their whole life ahead of them.”

Tears had welled up in his eyes and started streaming down his cheeks, but his voice was strong. At first, Ethan thought that this might have been just a drunken whim, but he saw that this was a decision he would hold firm by.

“Why free me now after all this time?”

“You incurred Harrelson’s wrath. Things would’ve gotten worse for you, and I didn’t want to see you suffer the same fate that my son did.”

He stared in disbelief. For another person to do this for him defied what he believed was human nature. And unlike Michelle and Melissa, this man had not experienced a pampered life. Yet, he stood firm in his morals enough to free Ethan from this place.

“I see.” Ethan said, trying to hide his shock. He reached out and shook the guards hand. “Um … what’s your name?”

“Hilbert.”

“T-thank you, Hilbert. And as a favor I’ll … try to keep your words in mind.” He tried his best to express gratitude, but he wasn’t very good at it. He couldn’t even convincingly crack a smile or a kind gaze.

That didn’t matter to Hilbert. Upon receiving Ethan’s appreciation, he let out a smile that was genuine.

“Live your life, son. Don’t ever come back.”

In an attempt to keep himself from crying, he acknowledged Hilbert’s strong words with a simple nod of the head before he exited the black box. He ran down the hallways and rounded the corner. Two halls ahead, there was a window which was located on the back west side of the mansion, a place which almost no one guarded. A perfect route to escape.

The first hall before his destination was a large one which ran towards the center of the mansion and is the route one would take to exit the west wing. As he began running, reappearing from that hallway was Harrelson, who had not been able to extinguish his anger and was on his way back to beat on Ethan some more.

With freedom so near, Ethan did not tempt fate and try to take revenge. Instead, he simply cocked his fist back and proceeded to punch Harrelson under the left eye. At the speed which he was running down the hallway, the force behind his punch was tremendous and resulted in the skin being split on Harrelson's cheek. This wound would later leave a permanent scar.

As Harrelson slammed backwards through the wooden walls of his mansion, Ethan spotted a handful of leashers staring at the scene in disbelief. He was instantly glad that he had not decided to take revenge as they would have surely put a stop to it.

Ethan ran down the hall and jumped through the window at full strength, sending himself flying much farther than he had intended. Managing to land softly, he looked back at the distance covered during the jump and his eyes filled with excitement.

He had grown stronger. Despite being unable to use his Geinta, it still grew under the immense amount of stress he had endured over the past fourth months.

He took off running and within a few seconds, reached the front mansion gates. He whizzed by the guards who were sleeping at the time and leaped into the air over the ten foot gates with ease.

He ran. Ran as fast as he could through the capital. As fast as he could past the guards at the city walls. As fast as he could down the road away from the city. He had so much pent up energy that he ran for over 14 hours. Eventually, though, he grew tired and was forced to sleep on the side of the road.

He didn’t care. Freedom was best. He made a hut out of wood and leaves. He easily hunted down a wild animal and cooked it for food.

Days later, he reached Border Town and stayed there for nearly two weeks, enjoying everything the town had to offer as he tried to take his mind off the past four months. He left after he caught word that Harrelson put out a bounty on him saying “Only Alive.”

From there, he travelled along Sucker’s road, fighting his way through bandit gangs trying to rip him off or recruit him. Either way, he killed them mercilessly.

After many more weeks of travelling, and after passing through many other small Territories, he found a small village at the base of Yeti Mountain. There he met the man who would later become his mentor, Genku.

Nearly three years later, he would descend from the mountain, having trained with Genku, and would travel to Arbhar where he would meet Chris Sheffer.