How long has it been? I don't know. Even though I still partially remember my mother, the cold stone walls are all I know. I stand up from my small cot shoved in the corner of the small room. I can't remember the last time I looked around this room. Green stuff covered the walls and the cold iron bars of the window grew rusty. I have not seen sunlight in ages. I look out the window and see snow everywhere. There is nobody there but the people in the towers on the wall. I wonder why they are all the way up there. I suddenly see someone standing in the snow staring at the wall that surrounds the stone room. I call to him and ask what he is doing there in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised to hear my voice after so long. It sounded hoarse and dry. When I look back at the boy, he is no longer there. I go back to my cot and lay down, thinking. I eventually fall asleep in my thoughts and have dreams of blood and death. And the boy. Who was he? I wake up hearing a soft jingling and a lound clang.


I look up at the man who walked in. Another person? I have never seen another person before. He spoke my name. "Aleron?" He pronounced it wrong. "It's Aleron." He walks over to me and shows his massive height. He punches my face and grabs my wrist. "Come with me. You are going to meet the others. Maybe you will make some friends who are fucked up like you." More people? He takes me down a hallway past many more stone rooms. He takes me to the last one which is larger than the rest. I see two people inside. One of them is a girl with bright red hair and beautiful green eyes. Beautiful... I hove not seen anything that can be described as beautiful in the longest time. But here I am using that word. The man pulls out a golden rod with a little peice sticking out of it and puts it in the hole in the door and opens it. "Get in there" he says as he knocks me over on the ground and closes the door. The girl walks over and helps me up. "Are you okay?" she asks. She looks at my face and gasps. "You're bleeding! The cuts are pretty deep." I looked at her, confused. "I'm what? What is deep?" I touch my face and look at the blood on my hand. I have only seen blood in my dreams. This is the first time I have seen my blood when i'm awake. I instantly scream.


The boy runs over to a bucket and pulls out a damp peice of cloth. When he comes back I am no longer screaming and have started breathing hard. He gently rubs the cloth on my face which washes away the blood. I hear a voice from the corner of the room. When I look, I see a pair of blue eyes staring at me. "What's wrong, boy? Never seen blood before?" I whimper and look down and I hear the girl speak. "Leave him alone, Ace. The poor boy is scared to death." She turns to me "I'm Akilina. This is Jacob" She points to the boy who had the cloth. "What is your name?" Her voice is beautiful, too. So gentle and kind. The only voices I have known are the evil ones in my head. I try to speak but words refuse to come out. Ace approaches from the corner. "You reckon he's stupid?" He asks. Akilina glares at him "Be quiet. He is probably just nervous." She turns to me again. I am staring at the moss in the cracks. "We just want to know your name." I look up at her and finally manage to get my voice back "My name is Aleron."


She smile at me. "That's a nice name." I shuffle my feet nervously. "Are you alright?" she asks me. I look up and attempt a smile. "I-I'm fine..." Ace speaks up from his corner. "He's not fine. Look at 'im. He cant even handle being near other human beings." I get mad, knowing it's true. Why is Ace so mean? I reach for my necklace and don't feel it. I start to panic and look around for it. I see the chain sticking out of Ace's pocket and I start to shake. "G-give me back m-my necklce." I manage. He smirks "So he can talk." He pulls the necklace out of his pocket and holds it just out of my reach and I desperatly try to get it. I suddenly feel something wet run down my face. Is it more blood? I touch my face and look at the clear liquid on my finger. "Oh look." Says Ace and Akilina looks over. "The little baby is crying" he says. Akilina comes over and takes the necklace from him. I rub my eyes and see more clear liquid. "Why is there water coming from my eyes?" I ask. "Those are tears. They come out when you are very sad or scared." She answers as she puts the necklace around my neck and dries my tears.


I had never cried before. It made my head hurt. "How long have you been here?" She asks. "As long as I can remember." I reply. "I don't even know what I look like anymore..." She looks at me. "Do you want to?" I look up at her "Yes..." She goes over to a bag and pulls out a small hand mirror with intrecate design around the reflective part. I look in it and am surprised at what I see. I have clean, long white hair, blue eyes, and my face is not messed up, save three diagonal scars on my cheek like someone had clawed my face. I look up at her and she smiles. "See? Thats what you look like." She smiles. I love her smile. Her white teeth teeth shine in the low light. She always giggles when she smiles. When she smiles , I have to smile.

Flashback
When I smile back, she giggles. "So why are you here?" She asks. I was confused. "What?" I ask. "Well you have to be here for some reason. Like me, I have demons that follow me around." She replies. "Well... I-" I suddenly black out and collapse. I have another dream. I am in a snowy forest with a small stone cabin near me. There is a little boy and girl playing in the snow when a young woman steps out and calls them in for supper. I look around and recognize a small cave. I walk in and look around seeing a few holes in the walls with little child's treasures: Lucky pennies, small bits of limestone, and pieces of obsidian. I walk deeper into the cave into a small chamber with a small altar with satanistic drawings and symbols around it. I wake up in a small cot, breathing heavily and sweating with Akilina standing over me with a worried look in her eyes. Are you alright, Aleron?

I look around, remembering where I am. "I- I'm fine. I just had another dream." "Why did you pass out?" she asks "It happens all the time." I reply "It's fine." She keeps staring at me with those green eyes. "Are you sure?" She asks. I nod and yawn. Sleep starts to claim me again. She smiles, seeing me falling asleep. She wishes me a goodnight and heads to her own cot only three feet from mine. "Good night, Akilina." I say drowsily as I fall into my usual deep sleep. I instantly start dreaming. I am back in the cave and i see a child walk up to the altar and look at it curiously. He runs his hand down the spikes stained with dried blood and turns around to see a man with black robes with a jagged knife in his hand. "My lord requires blood" he says.


As I watch the jagged knife come down on the boy and see his crimson blood spill on the cave floor and the evil altar, I see another boy crouched in the tunnel to the cave, his eyes filled with fear, an emotion I know very well. The man sees the other boy and he runs out of the cave with tears in his eyes. I follow him into the small stone cottage where he cries in a woman's arms. I follow the boy around for what seems like days, watching him. He slowly changes from an innocent boy, to a boy who sits in the corner of his room talking to nobody. A doctor comes and tells the woman (who I learned was the boy's mother) that her son must go somewhere. I follow him the whole way to a large building, where he is thrown into the room with the safe stone walls that I miss. I come out of my sleep in the cold snow that I always saw outside of the bars.