Chapter Text
His footsteps buried themselves playfully in the snow as he jumped from hole to hole, following the steps he'd left before him. He looked like a little boy despite his maturity and years of living in that environment. He had no control over himself when he was happy to have been helping a couple of children in the village.
He saw the wooden house with its broken tiled roof and stones in the distance, so he stopped playing and kicking the snow to walk to the house.
His sister smiled when she saw him arrive.
She was standing on the porch of the house. Several children greeted him. He did the same, placing his hand on the heads of almost all of them in greeting. The two brothers entered the house once the girl had left one of the children from the orphanage where they lived on the ground.
“Did you manage to sell everything?”
"Not all of it, unfortunately," he shook his head. "We'll use the remaining wood to light the fire tonight."
“Kenny.” He raised his head towards his mother, a rag on his head that gathered his reddish hair only revealed a couple of reddish strands on the sides of his face. “How was the trip back?”
“Not bad, there were no problems at all.” he smiled, unloading the wood from the bamboo box he had hanging on his back. “We'll use the little wood I didn't sell for cooking tonight... Right?”
She nodded and bent down to check the remaining wood and the money he had made from selling it.
“With this we have enough for two months…” she smiled.
The two brothers sighed with relief.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!” The three of them turned to the children who were running back inside the house, some hid behind the apron and legs of the adult woman, others behind the golden blonde, the other three hid under a blanket they used to keep warm in harsh winters like the one they were living through. “The man as always... H-He's coming…”
The woman gradually paled, and even more so when she heard two or three knocks on the wooden door frame. She looked at her kids and the young orphan children. She asked them to hide, and at the same time, she approached the door, removing the cloth from her head and arranging the sweaty locks of hair that had stuck to her forehead, but the cold sweat produced by the fear she felt at the man's visits.
She slid the sliding door open just enough and greeted him politely, hiding her fear in the best way possible: by suppressing her emotions . In front of her stood a very well-dressed man from a city near the capital, his gaze fixed on her.
He held out his hand to her.
“Pay.”
Carol remained silent, pressed her lips together helplessly, and lowered her eyes.
“Right away…” he nodded with a certain submission in his voice. “Do you want some tea?”
“Don't waste our time, you dirty bitch.”
Carol preferred to remain silent and return inside the house. She searched the bamboo box and took out most of the money they had managed to get for food and survival. Her eyes were glazed over from under the bundle and ball of sheets. The children avoided looking at the scene, but the blond's blue eyes and his teeth ground helplessly as he hugged his sister with one arm and a pair of children with the other.
“Here you go.” He handed over an exaggerated amount of bills, the man looked them over, flipping the bills and counting them so fast that it didn't seem like he was counting them.
“Fifty-three are missing.” He looked at her incriminatingly.
“I-I need a little more time. I don't have any more…”
The man pushed her almost to the ground and entered the house without taking off his shoes. The warm wood was covered in snow, roots, and mud. The intruder crossed the living room to the bamboo box and grabbed all the money from the bag. He threw the rest of the wood to the ground with his abrupt actions, scattering all the logs left inside onto the poor, cracked, and dirty floor.
“You see, you did have the money you needed?”
“W-We won't be able to eat anything for the whole month... I beg you... Please give it back…”
“Shut up, woman!” He spanked her and threw her to the floor, then kicked her. “I'll be back next week, and if you don't give me the rest of your husband's stupid debt, I'll have to collect it another way…” Lust appeared in his eyes with a sadistic smile.
Kenneth's eyes flashed purple, and his sister shuddered from head to toe at the flash of his eyes.
He lunged at the man without thinking, dropping her sister and the young children and lifting the blanket that covered them. He slammed his right leg into his side with a violent blow. The man barely reacted and ended up spitting saliva, dropping the money, and losing his balance, falling to his knees. The golden-haired stood between his mother and the man.
“Get out right now!” he ordered.
The man clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and squinted, wiping his mouth. He whistled loudly, a sort of squeak, like a whistle.
"Take them!" he pointed at them both. "We'll collect the debt with their organs!"
Carol paled. Kenneth clicked his tongue and frowned.
He fought fiercely against the three men armed with sharp daggers who confronted him. His purple eyes flashed with helplessness and rage, his teeth clenched so tightly they seemed as if they might shatter at any moment from a powerful force. The cuts on his body barely stinged. The ringing in his ear prevented him from hearing his mother pleading with him to stop.
And it wasn't until he felt the pain of the gates of hell, having a dagger buried in his gut, that he was able to return from the frenzy of rage he'd been immersed in up until that moment.
He screamed in pain. His sister stood up and made a move to come closer, but Kenneth yelled at her to flee with the children and Mom.
The two remaining men slammed the adult woman to the ground when she tried to get up, and the third grabbed his sister by her straight brown hair. She screamed in pain. The children began to cry, or perhaps they had been crying for some time.
The stake in his abdomen was driven in again and again.
His eyes had returned to blue, completely calming down from the anger he felt. Losing strength and consciousness slowly.
He hoped they were illusions from the loss of blood or hallucinations from the exaggerated smell of blood in the room. But it was all as real as the last rays of the sun entering the house through the open door, which was a deep red.
Blood…
Then… a howl from the night beasts that were followed by painful screams from their victims.
Finally… silence…
A terrifying and long silence…