Burdened

**Graphic Violence Warning** When I was a little girl, a legend scared the entire world. It said that a great evil was coming. The Evil would turn the world to rubble, fire, and desolate. Evil would cause so much chaos and murder in its wake. No matter where you went, the legend was the same. They may have different names or different entities, such as faeries, dragons, or some sort of mythical creature. However, it all ended the same way. The story from start to finish was always the same. In the region I grew up in, the legend was about a human who grew to be so evil and powerful. This legend had parents fearful for their children and trying to raise them correctly. However, our world isn’t perfect—drugs, prostitution, gangs, and murders. Most parents could keep their children away from the horrors. However, some weren’t so lucky. This legend states that a powerful group is supposed to bring down this child and save the world. It is a military group called The Black Stars. The Black Stars had been around for centuries until about four hundred years ago. Nobody knows what happened to them. They were supposed to protect the world from the violence witnessed. It’s rumored that they went underground because they got too tired of cleaning up the world’s mess. As time went on, everyone doubted the legend and even believed that the Black Stars were real. Little did anyone know; we were all wrong, and we were about to be in a world of hurt.    ************************************************************************ *Present Day* “Ivory Williams? Do we know her location yet?” “Yes, Commander. She’s at the FairLyn Hotel,” “Good. Let’s pack up and head out, soldiers. It's time to bring Ms. Williams home,”   ************************************************************************   *Past*  When I was a child, I felt cursed. When I was just four years old, both my parents passed away. It seemed that no matter who I lived with, they would just pass away. Many people would tell me it was because they were just ill, and there was nothing I could have done to change a thing. My last living relative was my Aunt Samantha. For a long time, things were going smoothly, and I figured that maybe everyone was right. However, just in case anything happened to Aunt Samantha, she had a guardian for me in place. I was nine years old when I first Mrs. Jamie Highland and her husband, Jeffra Highland. About a year later, my Aunt Samantha became very ill. Cancer had riddled her entire body. And with a blink of an eye, my Aunt Samantha was gone. I lived with her for the longest three years. My tiny ten-year-old heart shattered. I was alone once more. Mrs. and Mr. Highland were total strangers to me, and I knew the death pattern by this point. My first month living in the Highlands was weird for me. They kept insisting that I call them by their first names. That wasn’t how I was raised, and I didn’t feel comfortable calling them by their first names. Soon after, Mr. Highland was reinstated into the military to serve in a different country. Little did we know that this would be the last time we would see him. Then not even a week into living there, Mrs. Highland threw me into a building called “School.” I had taught myself everything I knew. Reading, writing, mathematics, science, and even history. This was when I met my first friend Lucian Lefay. He was a few inches taller than me, with jet black hair. However, what was eye-catching was his two-colored eyes; they looked bright emerald green and bright aquamarine blue. His skin was sun-kissed to perfection. Lucian was a timid child; however, when he spoke his mind and stood up for what was right, most seemed to be enchanted by what he had to say. For some reason, Lucian was very attached to me to the hip. I hadn’t even spoken a word to him in fear of making friends just to leave again. One day when I was walking home from school, I realized that he was following me. It wasn’t until I got home did I notice that he was my next-door neighbor. Mrs. Highland urged me to make friends; however, I had a hard time believing that I would still be there. I was just waiting for the pattern again to kick in. However, one Saturday morning, Mrs. Highland woke me up and told me to get dressed. Curious, I hurried to get dressed and hair brushed. When I came out of my room and headed toward the kitchen, I heard a familiar voice. Lucian. I started to turn around when Mrs. Highland saw me down the hall and beckoned me to come to the kitchen. That entire morning, he showed me around the Nightengale Village. When it was time for lunch, we headed back to the Highland’s house. Mrs. Highland had made lunch for us, and my very first sentence to Lucian was, “Please pass the pepper.” Things came a bit easier after that. Lucian and I became friends, no, best friends in a short amount of time. He was the smarter one out of both of us. His father was a famous scientist, and his mother was a nurse at the local hospital. For someone so young, he knew so much. Lucian would tell me that his father would push hard on him on his studies, and his father would have Lucian help in the laboratory on the weekends when there weren’t school assignments due. His mother would teach him how to take care of wounds and tell him what was or wasn’t safe to use depending on the situation. Having Lucian was like having a walking dictionary around. It was always valuable, however. I took pride in our friendship. Whenever he would get bullied for his eyes, I would get into a physical altercation with the bully. Poor Lucian would have to patch me up most times before going home just to get grounded by Mrs. Highland. One thing about Mrs. Highland that was amazing was she was a witch. She was teaching me some of the basics, cleansing and protection spells. She wanted to have an apprentice and decided to choose me. I’ll admit, I was no magic user. However, she taught me how to control magic and helped me. Life before magic was so ordinary. I soon started learning on my own and practicing on Lucian for certain spells and potions. I even turned Lucian into a mushroom at one point (I had misspoken during a spell, and thankfully Mrs. Highland was there to help me transform him back into a human!). It was a little bit after I turned eleven when I met the love of my life. Nightengale Village was a small village where everyone knew everyone. When Lucian and I were walking home from school, we overheard a commotion in an alleyway. About three adults were standing over a child who looked to be about my age. This child was curled up in a defensive position to protect his head and any vital areas. Something told me to jump in that day to go and help this poor kid out. Lucian begged me to wait and to grab Mrs. Highland. I knew if we had left and come back, the kid would have been dead. I finally broke free of Lucian’s grip and made it into the circle. I got on top of him as a body shield to protect him. The three adults were drunk yelling slurs at me and kept telling me to get off. When I didn’t budge, they just beat on me instead. Meanwhile, Lucian had run to find Mrs. Highland like the smart kid he is. By the time they got to us, the three adults had dispersed, and I had fallen to the side, trying hard not to move. Never in my entire life had I ever received a beating like I had that day. Mrs. Highland checked out the mysterious kid and asked if he could understand her and if he could walk. I don’t know if he ever said anything because everything went dark as he started to speak. When I finally woke, it was morning, and I felt horrible. I still couldn’t move, and everything in my body just hurt. A few minutes went by when I saw something in the corner of my eye. It was the mysterious boy. He had a chair pulled up to my bed and had his arms folded across each other and his head resting on top of his arms. He was asleep. What felt like an eternity later, Mrs. Highland showed up. She asked how I felt and asked if I remembered what had happened. She proceeded to tell me that I had been asleep for almost three days and that the mysterious boy was by my side, day and night. When I started talking, it was like an alarm for the mysterious boy, and he woke up instantly. He had begun sobbing and just kept saying, “I am nothing but a burden, I am so sorry.”; I. Highland consoled him and promised that those who did this weren’t getting away with it and that he’d be staying with us for protection until we could find his parents. It was at that moment the mysterious boy told us everything. He was enslaved person from a young age. His parents sold him to have money to buy drugs. Then his Master trained him to fight. The mysterious boy also told us his name. His name was Burden. The poor kid thought his name was Burden because of what he had gone through in life. The three adults were his new “owners,” and he was being punished for trying to run away. I thought I had it worse when my relatives had all passed. Burden had it way worse than I ever did. I never took things with a grain of salt from that day on. The next few days flew by. Detectives were in and out, taking statements and checking in on Burden and mine’s healing process. Burden, however, stayed with me during the entire process too. He would bring me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every waking moment he had, he was with me. When I was finally able to relax from the day’s interrogation activities, and the entire Village stopped by to pass off casseroles or other food dishes, I was finally able to get a good look at Burden. He was pale, like a ghost. He had dark brown hair (almost looked black) and eyes. They were like Lucians, just with opposite eyes. It was rare to have that condition. Yet, I knew two people with the same eye colors. I had so many questions, but I was already healed and was shipped off back to school when I had the courage to ask him. Throughout the entire school day, all I could think about was him. I had so many questions. Would he be staying with us if he had nowhere to go? What is his favorite game to play? What is his favorite color? Food? Drink? There were so many things I didn’t know, and I had no idea at the time why I was so interested in him. I dashed out the door when school got out, Lucian in tow. “Slow down!” He would say, trying to keep up with me. My feet felt like they had wings on them, and I was soaring quickly. “Ivory Williams! You’re going to get us killed!” It was the last thing I heard from Lucian. I had so many thoughts and questions that I blocked Lucian out.   I saw that Mrs. Highland and the mystery boy had just gotten home themselves and went inside. I had butterflies in my stomach. I finally had stopped running to stare at the house—so many questions. I could barely keep up with myself. Lucian finally caught up and started scolding me for running around like that. Of course, I didn’t listen as I took off running again. I was excited to be home not only to learn about the mysterious boy, but it was the weekend, so I could ask him any sort of question that I wanted—finally, reaching the house and looking at the front door from the walkway. Lucian was able to keep up this time and was still scolding me for being a crazy lunatic. This was the moment of truth. We walked up to the front of the door, and as I extended my hand to touch the doorknob, it suddenly opened. On the other side, it was Mrs. Highland, and she had jumped about two feet. “Ivory Williams! You know better than to scare me!!” She said while fanning her face with her hand and taking a few breaths of air. “Why don’t you two come inside? We have much to discuss with Burden, and you two, have homework! There are cookies on the kitchen table. Burden and I will bring them out to you with some milk. Go sit in the study, and we’ll be there in an instant!” She turned around and headed for the kitchen. Once we entered, we kicked our shoes off by the door and headed toward the study.  “Do you think he’s going to be staying with you?” Lucian asked. “Do you think he’ll be going to school with us?” “I don’t know, Lucian. You know as much as I do,” I replied and opened the door to the study. The study room walls were lined fully with books like a mini-library. When Mrs. Highland adopted me, she made space to do my studies and homework. She had always wanted a study room but never had any real reason to do so. Not until I came anyway. Lucian and I sat down and dug through our bags for our homework while we waited. Things were moving so fast now that we got home. Not too long after, Mrs. Highland and Burden had come to the study with the milk and cookies. Once they placed everything on the table, they sat down opposite Lucian and me. “Burden, this is Ivory and Lucian. You two, this is Burden,” Mrs. Highland started introducing us. “Lucian lives next door. You’ll probably be seeing him often as he comes over after school to do homework with Ivory. They study and do homework together,” she said as she picked up her glass of milk and took a small sip from it. “I am hoping that these two will show you around this weekend and introduce you to some of the kids from school so we can get you started on your education!” She said with excitement. “He’s going to be staying here with us while we try to locate his parents,” Mrs. Highland looked at me and smiled. “I want you two on your best behavior, and I do not want you to teach him bad things, ya hear?” I was studying the boy who was sitting in front of me. He seemed timid and very not sure about himself. Mrs. Highland always said that Lucian and I were very good at bringing out the best in people and making them feel better. Lucian had started talking to Burden; however, he didn’t speak. He sat there with a blank expression, and he didn’t seem interested in him at all. His eyes were focused on one person. It was like time had stopped moving as our eyes locked onto each other. I wasn’t sure what was going on or how to even proceed to talk to him. I wanted to speak, but nothing escaped from my mouth. Now that Burden had washed off all the dirt and old blood, I could finally see his face. Meanwhile, Mrs. Highland had been working her magic in small bits here and there on the both of us because we still had bruises. But with her help, our bruises were starting to disappear. With all the mess gone, Burden’s face revealed a beautiful and handsome face. I couldn’t stop staring. I felt awkward and wished that they would get up and leave to breathe again. It was like Mrs. Highland could read my mind. “Well, I’ll let you two get back to homework. We’ll talk more over dinner tonight. By the way, we have Tacos!” sang Mrs. Highland. With that, Burden and Mrs. Highland left. There was a sense of awkwardness in the air. Lucian and I sat in silence.  “Burden? What kind of name is that?” Lucian asked, breaking the silence. ****************************************************************************** Present Day “Soldiers, time is of the essence. Go and get Ivory now! For those who capture her will receive a massive reward from the Emperor himself!”  “As General Thompson said, find that wretch of a girl!” ****************************************************************************** *Past* Several weeks had gone by, and still, no sign or word of who Burden’s parents were, and child services concluded that Burden could stay with Mrs. Highland. After school, Lucian and I would rush back to my house to help school Burden. When he had first come, he couldn’t even read or write his name. Now, he was able to read and write his first name. It had occurred to Mrs. Highland that he did not have a last name. With the way he had been courageous, she had hoped he’d even change his first name. However, he kept the name Burden; after all, it was the only thing he had that was familiar. Burden did choose Valor as his last name. He had fought so hard for so long that he finally saw victory.  Once Burden was caught up with us in school (a quick learner), we introduced him to our other friends. Soon, we were all very close and protected one another from the school’s bullies. Yes, we were the school’s weirdo group. However, that never stopped us. In our group were the Ortiz Twins, Michael and Lilith, who were the group’s brains. Jerome Black was our muscle. Stark Morgan, Ashley Thompson, May Punche, and Jeremy “Jem” Lockheart were the guts of the group. Lucian and I were the group’s “head.” However, soon enough, it was all about what Burden wanted to do. He had always come up with the most exciting things to do when we were bored. However, it also helped keep us safe. He told us that he was initially bought to be a fighting slave. He was taught different fighting styles for whatever the fight’s style was in. That way, he had more than just one purpose for his Master. Before we knew it, middle school was over, and we entered high school. In the small-time Burden was with us, he had grown so handsomely. No matter what grade they were in, almost every girl in the school would ask him out. Burden would politely decline every single time. The feelings that I had felt in the library that day had grown over time, but never once did I think about asking him to be my boyfriend because he turned every girl down. When it came to the homecoming dance, we all decided to go as a group. However, someone else had other plans. With the help of our group, Burden asked me to go to the dance with him. Every day until the last week of homecoming, I would get a “secret admirer” note either left in my locker or on my desk during certain classes. I was oblivious.  Our puppy love grew through high school. Lucian was Burden’s best friend and right-hand man for everything. During Graduation, Burden proposed to me in front of the entire school and what felt like the entire world. Of course, I said yes. We were so excited to start the next chapter in our life. Soon to be wed, and soon to start a family of our own. My entire life, I had never thought I would be married. Especially to someone, I loved. We set the date for our wedding to be September 15th. When it was our wedding day, tragedy struck. That morning there was a horrific scream. Everyone had rushed toward the sound, however, Burden and I were the last ones to get there. Once we were able to get through the massive crowd, that’s when we saw Mrs. Highland on the floor covered in blood. Someone had killed the only person who had been our only mother. We were devastated. The wedding was then put off. As days went by, the angrier Burden got. They still hadn’t found the murderer, and we both wanted answers. Burden tried to look at the evidence himself to figure it out, however, it only drove him into the darkness. Every day that passed, his anger grew and he started to take things out on me. It got to the point where I couldn’t even leave the house. We argued a lot about the transgressions between us. As a result of us fighting about it one night, he strapped me down onto a chair. Burden then ripped my shirt off down the middle to expose my chest. He took out a knife and then proceeded to carve into my chest “BURDENED”. The man I loved was no longer there. He was a stranger, an abuser. I had to leave. I was able to get a message out to Lucian about what had happened. Lucian was able to get Burden out of the house and then I was able to make my escape. That is when everything turned for the worse… ****************************************************************************** *Present Day*          Ah, FairLyn Hotel. Once upon a time ago, this hotel was one of the high-end hotels that only the rich could afford. Now that the world is in pure chaos and there are non-stop bandit raids and people setting buildings on fire, it was a dump. Thankfully, it was still a good spot to stop and rest for a weary traveler like me. In the state of how the world, you’d expect no electricity and no running water. Thankfully this “emperor” kept only the utility plants working. Nobody likes a dirty, smelly tyrant. Only certain places near the “Emperor’s” palace had any kind of running utilities unless you were one of the self-efficient cities such as Atlantica, Ava City, and Thurid. When the Emperor had taken over, these cities struck a deal with him to keep the peace. These three cities were the most advanced in any kind of technology around the world. If he were to need new weapons or new machinery, that is where he would go to get such a thing. The FairLyn hotel was close enough to Nightengale Village where the Emperor ruled, so it was able to keep its utilities on in case of the Emperor ever came to visit.  I started getting ready for the day, knowing that I would be heading out soon. I opened up my backpack and started getting dressed. My shirt was a homemade black cropped tank top since clothing stores were in major cities and were usually more of a high-end price. For pants, I had my cargo pants on with a belt and started loading up my knives in my cargo pants. I then grabbed my sword and slung it over my shoulder and put my gun in its holster on my belt. In this world, it was every man or woman for themselves. I was very naive when I was younger in this new chaotic world.  Outside my room on either side, in the hallway, and outside the window. In this new world, we had entered chaos ruled and there was only peace at night when the raiders were done raiding. It was one of the only times I knew peace. Throughout the yelling, I could hear gunfire. When it fell silent, I grew worried. I peeked my head out of my room to see the Emperor’s army had entered the building and started killing those around. They were looking for something, or more like looking for someone. They were looking for me. I wasn’t paying attention when I heard someone yell “I found her! She’s on the second floor, she’s looking out the door!” Ah, crud. I should have just stayed inside and waited for them to find me. They would only send in a few soldiers at once, and I had the upper hand. In the room, there was a small hallway that then opened into the room, and I was luckily able to hide alongside the wall where the hallway had opened into said room. I could hear them a few doors down on each side of the second floor, kicking the doors in and yelling that the rooms were clear. I was basically a sitting duck however, there wasn’t anything I could do. As they grew closer, the grip on my sword got tighter. When they finally reached my door, they kicked it in and started slowly walking in. Once I saw the tip of the nose, I lunged my sword forward and sliced the first soldier's neck. Blood squirted out of his neck as he fell to the floor.          “Tell your generals that I am not coming willingly and that their soldiers will die, one by one. I can hold my ground here,” I said. However, my warning did not deter them from still coming. I stepped out from the side with a small sigh and started to attack. I was trained when I was younger to fight with a sword, however, I never really liked the thought of using it. The soldiers had bayonets on their rifles and was trying to use them against me and my sword. However, their skill compared to mine was playing a child’s game. I had noticed one of the soldiers had stepped out of line and run off somewhere else. Probably to let the generals know that I wasn’t coming willingly. One by one the soldiers who had entered the room was stacking up on a pile on the floor. “Well. There goes my deposit,” I joked to myself. However, it got to the point where soldiers refused to enter the room. A familiar voice called out.          “Ivory Williams. Playtime is over. Come on out and we will not harm you. The Emperor would like you to be alive when we bring you back,” Said a female voice. It had been ages since I heard it. “Just do us a favor and come on out with your hands up in the air. Drop both your weapons and leave them in the hotel room, you are surrounded not only in the hotel but outside as well,” She called out. General Ashley Thompson was one of the top generals in the Emperor’s Army. Over the years, Ashley grew to be more psychotic and enjoyed torturing anyone who was in the Emperor’s way. “Come on out pretty girl. We won’t hurt you,” Ashley said with a malicious giggle. I knew there was no way out and I was running out of time before the soldiers stormed the room again, but with more than just one at a time. Ashley did not like waiting and I was just prolonging the outcome. I sheathed my sword and sighed. I was supposed to meet up with a group to get to safety. However, Ashley had gotten to me first. Things would be okay, and we just had to go along with a different plan. I had a knife in my jacket and with it, I took it out to carve a signal of where I was going on the wall so that way I could be found later. I put the knife on the dresser and started walking out of the hotel room with my hands up.          Once I left the room, two soldiers got ahold of me and put my arms behind my back to cuff me. Ashley rolled her eyes and turned around. “Make sure you take her weapons. I don’t want her to be able to escape. If she escapes because you didn’t check her thoroughly, it’ll be your head on the platter to the Emperor,” Ashley threatened before heading down the stairs to head outside. The soldiers then searched me from head to toe, removing my sword, gun, knife, and whatever else they had deemed “dangerous” for me to have. They then started pushing me towards the stairs to go outside to start the trek back to Nightengale Village. It was about a two-day ride on horseback. However, since there were soldiers walking, it was going to take a lot longer. A two-day trip would turn into a four-day trip. So much for hygiene.