"Moommy!" cried the voice of a startled 6 year old.. 

An extremely terrified woman bolted out of the house in her pajamas barely donning her gown in time, looking for her son. 

"What happened!? Where are you!?" she cried out in alarm, as she glanced around frantically.. 

Then as she searched, her eyes landed on a little boy's trembling back. 

She frowned as she walked towards him "What is your problem Hunter? Why are you yelling?!" she snapped. 

Then she roughly grabbed his shoulders and forced him to turn around. 

"Ah, mommy! What ish thish!" The little boy blubbered as he extended his arm to his mother.

"Aah.. H..how. How did.. Who.. How..!?" She was so revolted that she couldn't form a coherent sentence. 

In the end her legs gave way and she flopped onto the floor holding her son's face. 

"How did this happen..?" She whispered, stricken with disbelief.. 

She couldn't understand whether she was crazy or her son was. And she wondered whether her son just simply couldn't feel pain.

"I was wunning aftew a budderflu, den I washn't looking ath where I was wunning anth I twipped ober a stick.."  he paused thinking.

"Den.. Den.. oh yah when I fwell cauth of deh stick, my arm flew outh in fwon of me.." his eyes widened as he remembered.

"Buth dere wash a big wock anth den my arm shmackth on it.. It shmackth sho hard thad my arm made a cwack noith.." he scrunched his face in disgust.

"Den when I goth back ub an wooked at my arm ith wash dangwing weirdly.." he cocked his head to the side.

Then he took in a blubbering breath "An dere ish thish weird shwap white thing shticking outh..! Mommy ith doeshen't hurth buth ith's scawy!" 

After finishing his explanation he started bawling as if the whole thing just hit him.

But like he had said, it was because he was scared, not because it hurt. 

"Haha.. Haha..ha!? We should go to hospital shouldn't we?" As she came to terms with what was happening, his mother too, began to bawl.. 

He felt bad for making her cry so he got up and tapped her shoulder. 

Then when she looked at him he blushed and gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek. "Down't cwy mommy! Wets go to da hoshpithal okay..?" he said sweetly through his own tears. 

"Ye-yes let's go to the hospital" she mumbled in reply, although she was still utterly shaken.

...

An hour later, as they were waiting in the emergency room, Hunter heard a deep and dangerous voice call out to him.

'Hunter.. Can you hear me..' 

He felt fear grip him in an agonizing hold, a hold so strong that he couldn't move or make a sound.. 

Again the voice spoke but it had become more menacing..

'Listen and remember..' 

Instantly Hunter felt an agonizing pain erupt inside his head. Almost as if something or someone was scrapping and tearing at his mind trying to get inside it.. 

And when it finally did the pain only got worse and worse.. 

...

Hunter was falling in and out of consciousness and trembling. His face became ashen and his skin turned clammy. 

It was then, in that horrifying and painful state that the voice began to whisper..

'Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$.. 

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&..' 

It went on and on without a stop and each time the voice called him by that name his body jerked and he would forget it..

Hunter felt his mum panicking at his state and calling emergency, but Hunter could not think about anything except the voice in his head.. 

That endless mantra.. 

As he slipped in and out of consciousness he vaguely remembered having an operation and being prescribed a whole list of medicines. 

Then suddenly he couldn't remember anything at all. 

All except the voice inside his head. Whispering it's evil rant. And it continued to ring in his head, in a way that made even a 6 year old question his life.. 

Then it abruptly stopped.. And he could open his eyes again.. 

When he did, he realised he was far from the hospital and laying in his mother's arms, "Mommy? How lwong wash I in dere?" he asked groggily. 

But his mother didn't even spare him a glance, she had a strange, faraway look in her eyes. It was as if she hadn't heard him, or as if she didn't want to.

So he used his uninjured arm and reached up to tentatively touch her face.

The moment his little hand touched her face she jerked and pulled away, as if she was burned. Hunter immediately pulled his hand back and began to cry. 

He didn't want his mom to be afraid of him he wanted his mom to love him..! 

For a moment his mother just looked at the crying bundle in her arms with a small smile, thinking; 

He does feel pain.. He is human, he has emotions like me, he gets hurt..! 

The moment she realised this she hugged her child, apologizing for not replying and telling him that she did love him.. 

Hunter sniffed and repeated his question "So how lwong..?" 

His mom began pulling away but then thought better of it and hugged him tighter..

"Two weeks. You were in there.. For two whole weeks.. Going in and out of consciousness.. Mumbling.. Screaming.. Crying.. Constantly feverish.." she shuddered.

"Then suddenly you cried out to me saying 'take me home! Take me HOME!'" She stopped and swallowed.

"I was scared so I didn't listen.. You hadn't even completed surgery, you kept waking up through it" she frowned down at him.

"No matter how much sleep medication they forced you to swallow..." she seemed to scowl in indignant fury.

"And then, it was after a whole two weeks that they told me to take you home.. And well, here we are.." she quietly completed.. 

She had stopped frowning by then.. 

Hunter looked at his mom with a look of pure confusion, he hadn't understood everything, but he'd gotten his answer.. 

He'd been going through that torture, that agonizing mental torture, for two weeks.. 

By then Hunter was scared to close his eyes, scared that if he did he'd hear the voice again. Then after staying awake for another half an hour, they finally reached home. 

His mom looked at him and hesitantly reached for his hand, taking it in hers and nodding as if telling, or agreeing with herself that it was fine. 

Hunter didn't smile back when his mom took his hand, he had an empty look in his eyes. As if his energy and life had been taken out, and all that was left was an empty vessel. 

Once the two of them were inside the house Hunter again began thinking back to what the voice was saying.. 

'Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&.. Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&..' 

Even if he unintentionally tried to grasp the word that the voice had called him by, a wave of pain crushed his mind causing him to stumble and use his mom as a support.

"Hunter, honey you're exhausted, go lay down in your room.. Okay? I'll call you down when it's time for lunch okay?" His worried mom said as she reached out to hug him. 

Hunter didn't even acknowledge her caring gesture, instead he turned and walked away, leaving his mother to hug an empty space. 

"O-Okay.. Haha you're probably just tired.." she said dismissively before adding a weak "right..?" 

But Hunter just kept walking till he reached his room, then when he was inside he closed the door, leaned on it and slid onto the floor. 

Every time he closed his eyes, his head would fill with the evil voice.. 

Whispering its evil into his sensitive and developing mind..

Each time it repeated he would cry out in pain but would try and muffle the sound. He just didn't want his mom to be afraid of him.. 

To think that he too was a monster.. Just like the ones he saw in books and movies.

Slowly he crawled to his bed and laid his head on its soft mattress. Staying awake for as long as his eyes allowed, then when fatigue took over he finally fell into a dreamless slumber. 

...

When Hunter woke up he realised that his face was sticky and wet with tears. 

He got up from his spot on the floor and went to wash his face in his bathroom. Then he went back and laid down properly on top of his bed.

But just as he was about to close his eyes.. 

The voice came back. 

Crowding his mind. 

Filling his mouth with a taste so vile and full of poison. The flavor of evil was so immense that he sat up and retched as if about to throw up.. 

And it was at that moment that his mom walked into the room.

"Hon—" she began as she walked in but the moment she saw Hunter dry heaving she bolted to his side.

"Hunter! Hunter honey are you okay!? Oh my god.. My baby.. Are you okay?!" she whispered shakily into his hair while rubbing her hand on his trembling back.

"I'm akay mommy" he whispered back, his voice hoarse from both the strain of his heaving and from dis-use.

"O-okay if you say so.." she sighed reluctantly but continued to rub his back, then she suddenly stopped as if remembering something and said, "It's time for dinner lets go.." 

It had not been a request. It was a command.

...

Hunter only vaguely remembered walking out to the dining room and sitting down.

But what he did remember was the stolen glances that his mother directed at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention. 

But he was. 

He always was. 

He watched her face as it morphed into remorse and sadness with such ease. Flitting shamelessly from disgusted pity to motherly remorse in the time it took to blink. 

...

Hunter had always been smarter than all the kids his age, and he was well aware of that.

He'd also always been distinctly different to all the kids in his grade— While the other little boys his age played with toy cars and action figures.. 

He would be sitting alone and visualizing everybody dead.. Every child and teacher, just a bloody mess on the floor. 

He yearned to see it actually happen, yet he knew it was wrong, so he suppressed that part of his mind.. 

As a result he soon forgot about that certain psychotic section of his brain— Or if not forgot, he had put a lid on it at least.. 

Rather he began to mimic the actions and behaviors of all the other boys his age.. 

Soon that too became normal.

Hunter had the ability to read people and understand them as well as see through them. And it had shown from when he was just four years old..

It was so accurate that sometimes his mother wouldn't look at him when she was saying something private. 

When he realised that this made his mom uncomfortable, he tried to suppress that too.. 

What he didn't realize was that he couldn't suppress an ability, since that wasn't something he imagined in his mind. 

Reading people was like breathing, and trying to suppress the ability was like trying to hold his breath. 

Even now, as he unintentionally observed his mom he couldn't help but try and hold it back.. 

But again he couldn't do it. 

So instead he resorted to short glances, yet he wished he hadn't. His mom looked at him with such masked disgust that it hurt his little heart. 

She didn't know that he knew how she looked at him and so he kept it buried inside.

"Honey, eat your food..!" she said somewhat irritably.

Hunter didn't even look at her as she spoke; he just mumbled that he was no longer hungry and left the table. 

The voice was slithering back into his mind strong and smooth like liquid evil, forcing him to drop to his knees and hold his head in pain. 

Now that Hunter had seen the look on his moms face, her disgust, he knew he had to hide this too.. 

Or if not hide it, then the least he could do was keep it to himself. 

Locked deep inside his childish mind..

~~

8 years later..

Hunter had become exceptionally good at hiding his unstable mind at both home— in front of his mom at least— and school. 

And after so long, he had finally managed to rid his mind of the poisonous tendrils of evil that was the voice.. 

He was finally as normal as he could be, given the circumstances.. 

Until of course, he had to go ahead and hurt himself again..

"AARGH!! No! GOD fracking DAMNIT" he yelped as he barreled off his dirt-bike. And a loud snap resonated through the empty clearing, its impact ringing in his ears. 

He whimpered quietly as his bike careened into a cluster of small trees, but that whimper slowly got larger in size as the pain began to blossom. 

By the end, it was an all out, teeth-clenched howling. 

But he forced himself to shut-up and strained himself to see if he could catch the noise or voice of his mother. 

Thankfully it was still only him and his pain at the moment, allowing him to relax— as much as he could with a broken leg of course. 

Hunter began to groan as the pain started getting worse.. 

And worse.. 

And worse.. 

But he had to avoid any chances of going to the hospital, even if it meant hiding his pain.. 

Although, when he looked down at his leg his breath shot out of his lungs leaving him winded and gasping for air. 

He may as well have put a red flag on his head at that point.

His leg was normal until it reached a few centimeters below his knee, which is where it went bad.

Really really bad. As in leg bent at a twenty-five-degree angle.. Kinda bad.

"How the frick am I gonna hide this shat!?" He hissed in agitation.

"Hunter? Where are you?" her exasperated voice called out.

He tried to figure out something to do. Anything to avoid the hospital. But no matter what he tried to think off, he kept hitting a blank.

"Hunter Sen answer me!" his mom cried out shrilly.

..He had to think of something.. Fast...

Really... Fast..

Hunter looked around frantically for something to hide his leg but, there was nothing. Plus his bike was stuck in trees so that was out of the question.. 

There was no avoiding it. 

He was positively screwed. And also definitely going to the hospital, because his mom seemed to have found him.. 

...

With his tear streaked face and shortness of breath. She didn't have to think, let alone ask, she knew he needed the hospital.

But she sighed and asked the question anyways, "What have you done this time?"

He instinctively shied away from her disgusted undertone of voice but swallowed his guilt. It hurt him so much whenever his mom looked at him like that.. 

It hurt hurt hurt.. 

It made him feel like getting injured was something he did on purpose, like he wanted to give her a hard time. 

But that was so so wrong. If that'd been the case he wouldn't have hidden all his fractures and sprains.

No.

He would have told her that he'd sprained his wrist when she told him to carry her heavy bags that day. 

He wouldn't have apologized for his shortness of breath or when she yelled at him for stopping to swallow his tears of ringing pain.. 

But she wouldn't have cared anyways. So even now he just looked away as his eyes brimmed with new tears..

But these tears were different, these were the tears of shame and guilt. Not tears born of physical pains but those of mental ones.

"..Leg.. I.. I.. Bro.. Broke.. my leg...!" he breathed out through the blinding pain, "I.. am... s-so... sorry..! Urgh....!" he cried out as the pain got worse. 

"I'm sorry... Please..? it was... an... an accident... I.. I'm sorry.." he groaned tensing himself for her harsh words. 

They came.

"Jesus Hunter! I work so hard day and night twenty-four hours seven days a week, scraping up enough money to put food on your pathetic self's plate.." she shook her head.

"As well as to send you to school every year!" Taking in a breath filled with rage she continued.

"YET here you are on the floor, with a useless broken leg! 'So sorry'? You should be! But either way, starting next week, you are going into a 24 hour job.." She thought for a moment..

"As a body-guard.! That way you can earn money and I won't have to work.." She had been yelling so now her breathing was heavy and her nostrils were flared. 

"What are you waiting for!? GET. UP." she hissed.

"Sorry.. I'm... so sorry..... it.. hurts s.. so... much..! I... I can't... get... up on... my own.... please..?" he tentatively reached out for help. "P... Please.. m..mom...?" he whimpered in defeat.

She scoffed in disgust at the thought of touching him.

"You are pathetic! You're lucky I love you.. No other sane person would love someone like you. Now. Hurry up! And get. Up!" she barked.

By the end she'd hauled him up, careless of the pain it would cause her injured son, who howled in agony..

"Pick up your bike and get to the car." Then with a growl she turned and began to walk away. "I am not going to wait for you. You have exactly 10 minutes to get to the car."

"W.. Wait... What...!? I... I can... Can't..! It.. It HURTS!... HELP ME!...." he all but howled in both anger and pain. 

But he would regret it, yelling at that women gets you nothing at all.

"Excuse. Me! How.. Dare you raise your voice at me like that!!" she screeched in fury, then she whirled around and smacked him across the face. 

"Respect. Your. Elders." she spat at her son's devastated face. Then, she turned and left. "10 minutes."

"..I'm.. sorry..!" he cried as a wave of tears so sudden poured out his eyes.. 

It was as if each drop was tearing out a strip of his soul. Each drop feeling like fire in his eyes and down his face. 

"Th.. Thank you.. for... loving me... that m..makes me so.. so.. so happy...." he cried quietly.

Then he began to limp, drag and force his leg into motion in order to get his bike out of the trees.. He then further proceeded to get to the car.. 

...

9 minutes later, he had only just made it in time.

"Hurry, UP! stupid boy!" his mom growled as he fumbled through his pain to get his bike into the boot.

"S..sorry.." he whispered as he sat in the car. 

"Can.. we.. Not..... go to the.... Hospital..?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Yeah right." his mother bit out sarcastically "Just be a darling and be quiet."

"..okay.."

20 minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of the hospitals emergency section. In an instant, Hunter's mom became a different person. 

In the blink of an eye Hunter watched as she turned her look of disgust into a false look of pure devastation.. 

And she quickly made a show of helping Hunter out of the car and letting him lean on her for support.

"Tha.. Thank... Thank you......" he huffed out through the white hot pain.

"Shut up" she snapped, stomping on Hunter's small sliver of joy.

Hunter was about to say something when a crushing force shocked him. Squeezing the air out of his lungs..

"ngh...!" the sound was all he could make as the pain grew worse and worse, making the pulsing throb of his leg seem like pleasure next to it. 

His mum barely glanced at him as he began to stumble.

It was as if the force was alive. Traveling through his body like a stream of cracking, poisonous electricity. The voice! his mind all but howled in his head..

"Nngh........gggh...!" was the only thing he could force out of his tight throat.. 

He knew exactly what was going to happen to him. And it had already begun, he felt the evil thing reach his head.. 

He felt it tear apart his mind— which was already weak and breaking— the pain causing his vision to go hazy.. 

Then when it finally got through. The pain that that aroused caused his vision to go black.

'Can you hear me Hunter..? Do you remember me..?' It purred viciously, 'Listen and remember.' It continued in his head. 

Hunter could feel his breathing becoming sporadic and weak, like a trickling stream of water. He knew what was next. 

But knowing made no difference. It would still kill him..

..Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&.. 

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&..

Hunter thought that after six years he would have become stronger and that the voice was just a thing that his childish six year old mind'd conjured..

But even now, at the age of twelve, he was crushed under the relentless weight of pure evil and pure despair. 

A feeling so strong that he began to question his life. More than he had ever before.

Hunter began to fall in and out of consciousness and only vaguely came to realize that him and his mom were sitting at the emergency waiting area.. 

But again his vision blacked and he was dominated by the poisonous depths of the voice. It was around then that hunters mom realized what had been happening right under her nose.

"Oh.. God Hunter! This again!? What is your problem!?" she groaned in annoyance.

Hunter didn't even notice that his mom was talking to him— he was barely conscious as it was— rather he was consumed by the infinite evil hymn of the voice..

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&.. 

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&.. 

...

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&.. 

Thou wast born to suffer.. Thy life is but a lie.. Listen to me @^#%$&..

Every time it repeated it's sardonic rant Hunter felt himself fall further into the hands of his deeply buried grief.. 

And every single time he tried even accidentally, to grasp that wretched name— which he did every time it came in the chant— his body would jerk and he would forget it.. 

And it hurt. It hurt so much. 

Again Hunter went through his hospital phase in a half conscious awareness. 

And again, as he went into the operation room, his mind was completely dissolved into the sound of the voice.

And it's evil whispers..

.

.

.

.

Beep....Beep.....Beep.....Beep.....Beep....

.

.

.

.

"...waking.... high..... pressure.....Needs attention.... Hurry..!" a flurry of movement and voices broke the seal of Hunters toxic memories..

His mind flooded with a pain so sharp and piercing that his eyes flew open.

"Unnngh..!" he groaned through the noise of the ventilator as the voice began to retake its hold on his mind. 

"ghhhk..!" he was unable to form words, only noise.

"H-He's awake.. Call the--the doctor!.. Hurry!" the urgent voices sounded muffled in Hunters throbbing ears. 

"Where. Is. The. Doctor!?.. The boy is having an arrest! A CARDIAC ARREST HURRY!"

The stress in Hunter's body, that was caused by trying to fight the voice, resulted in the inflammation of his blood pressure.. 

Since he was already weak from medication and healing.. It further led to a sudden cardiac arrest.. 

The pain from the arrest caused him to convulse and moan.. His eyes screwed shut but still moving under the lids.

Then suddenly he couldn't feel anything and his vision went blank, soon so did his mind. 

But his blank mind? Was like a blank canvas for the voice.. A vast terrain of emptiness at its corrupt expanse.. 

He was falling again.. Falling into an endless yet comforting abyss and the further he fell, the quieter the voice became.. So he kept falling..

And falling..

And falling..

And falling..

Then he hit a solid wall.. And the steady realization that he was dying slapped his mind. Then his eyes flew open again.

...

"D-Doctor..? Is, is something wrong with his, with his eyes..?!" A startled voice stammered as he stared in shock at Hunter's strange eyes.. 

The man and the Doctor watched in silent awe as Hunter's contacts began to slowly yet definitely dissolve.. 

Revealing the beautifully inhuman orbs beneath. 

The two men saw it only for a heartbeat. 

Then the voice resumed its torture and those eyes with their dangerous yet haunting beauty, were hidden once again, behind a face of pure pain and suffering..

Yet Hunter was not one to give up.. 

So he dragged himself away from the calm grip of death and hurled himself back to the black-hearted clutch of the voice..

He wouldn't let it win just yet..

...

Would he..?

Or has he tried too much already..?

After all these years. 

He's just been falling further and further into a pit of undeniable darkness.. 

Yet hiding that pain behind a mask of tranquility, with the gruesome ease of a person doing it since they were young.. 

Which happened to be dangerously accurate..

..Because in the end.. All he is.. Is a lost and shattered boy..