Chapter Text
Break!
Break!!
Please!
Break!!!
The rock above started to crack just a little, but it wasn’t enough. The boy tumbled down the mountain of rocks that he tried so hard to build. He groaned when he hit the stone floor, scratched and bruises all over his body. He got up, determined to get to the top of the self-made mountain and try once more. His hands were full of cuts that were starting to sting, but he didn’t care. He climbed up, rocks digging into his feet. He picked up a rock from the mountain and started hitting the same spot again.
He wanted to just use shinsu to destroy the ceiling, like when he used it to kill those monsters that were after him. But if he did that then the ceiling would just collapse on him again like it did the last time he did it. The ceiling had collapsed so hard, the floor had opened up beneath him from the weight of the rocks, and he fell down lower than before, with no way out. And in this level, there were no monsters either. He had killed all of the ones above, so he was kind of sad to find none on this one. Not because he liked to kill them, but because with them at least there was someone around. So even if he was glad he wasn’t about to be eaten anymore, he missed the company.
After about rolling down three more times, he finally got a small hole to appear in the ceiling. Happy to finally make some progress, he hit the ceiling with renewed energy. The ceiling soon gave way, the rocks falling down on him and making him fall backwards back to where he started. He looked up through the hole of the ceiling and saw another ceiling, but this one looking very far away and dark blue, almost black. He would think it was almost worse than the ceiling he had seen his whole life. If it weren’t for what was in the middle.
Through the hole, he could see that there was a circle shining. The circle was bright, shining down light onto him and into the cave. He climbed up the mountain again to go closer, and when he reached the top, he just sat on his legs, mesmerized by the sight. He was snapped out of his daze when the light was blocked by something. His eyes widened when the first thing he saw was blue hair. The light of the circle was being reflected on shiny hair, neck length flowing in the wind like silk. The next thing he noticed were blue eyes. Darker than his hair, but lighter than the second ceiling, but no less beautiful.
The boy just stared wide eyed, jaw relaxed at the new sight, dazed.
“What are you doing down there?” The new person’s voice was like silk, smooth and soft. Soothing.
The boy got up and reached out a hand, but forgot that he was currently sitting on a very unstable mountain. He slipped on a rock and fell backwards, tumbling down the rocky slope for the nth time.
“Ah, hey!” He heard from above. The boy looked up and saw the newcomer jump down the hole, and onto the rocky mountain with grace. The rocks slipped, but he jumped down before he could slip with them. He landed on the floor right before the groaning boy who was rubbing his arm. The boys looked at each other taking in their appearances.
The blue haired boy was wearing a white shirt and grey pants, black shoes and a black strip of cloth tied around his neck with a weird looking knot. Pale skin made the light blue hair even more beautiful. He had two matching things dangling from one of his ears, same pretty color as his eyes.
He saw that the other boy was looking his appearance as well, taking in the one piece of cloth on him, a dirty robe that must’ve been white at one point. Bare skin scratched and bruised, dried up blood and dirt sticking all over him. Long brownish black hair tangled, sticky and oily. The only clear part of him being his golden eyes, staring up in wonder.
“What’s your name?” The blue haired one asked.
The boy blinked. Name? No one had ever called his name before. Though there was a monster who had told him he had a name, but the monster usually just called him ‘Boy’, and the boy just called the monster ‘Mister’. What did Mister say his name was again? Oh, right.
Jue Viole Grace.
The boy opened his mouth to reply but was surprised to hear nothing come out. He didn’t know how long he had been stuck in this cave, but even when he had the company of the monsters, he never spoke with anyone. Most of the monsters couldn’t talk, only growling and roaring, and the few that did found no need to converse with dinner before eating it. And Mister had died a long time ago, so he had no one to talk to. He had sobbed when he was hurt, and growled back at the monsters when they did it first. But with no monster present, he didn’t need to growl, and he had learned a long time ago that crying wasn’t going to make it hurt any less so he stopped doing that too.
When was the last time he had used his voice?
Bam touched his throat in response.
“No voice?” The blue haired one said. “Hm, well, I’ll have to call you something.” The boy mumbled, “Tonight’s our first time meeting, it’s the twenty fifth night of the month…white robe…golden eyes…hmm…twenty fifth night…Alright, I’ll call you Bam! It means night. Or chestnut. Whichever. Do you have a problem with it?”
Bam…Bam sounds nice. Bam shook his head and smiled. Bam. He was Bam!
Bam pointed at the other boy in question. Blue guy blinked for a second, like he had something in his eye. “Uh, right. I’m Khun. Khun Aguero Agnis.”
Bam smiled and Khun rapidly blinked his eyes again for some reason. Bam reached his hand out to check if Khun was okay. But then he saw his hand, saw how dirty and bloodied it was, and how Khun was so clean, and he withdrew his hand. He had manners drilled into his head by Mister so he remembered them all no matter how much time had passed.
Khun looked up and cleared his throat. He took out something from his pocket and put it back before Bam could see what it was. “I don’t have long; I’ll have to go back soon.”
Bam looked down not wanting his disappointment show. His first time talking with someone else in so, so long and he already had to go. He couldn’t force someone to stay against their will.
“It’s okay!” Khun said, suddenly flustered for some reason. “I’ll come back tomorrow night! But for the time I do have for today, let’s get to know each other better.”
Khun sat down on the ground and Bam followed. Khun looked around the cave, “Is this whole place like this? Dark and cold?”
Bam nodded.
“Is there anyone else here?”
Bam shook his head.
“Do you remember being anywhere else?”
Another shake.
“So you’ve been here, alone, in this dark and cold place your whole life?”
Bam nodded.
Khun seemed to tremble for a second, but Bam probably imagined it because then he looked at Bam with a soft smile. “I see. I’m sorry, but I can’t really do anything about taking you out of here. The ground above is a no-man’s land. If you go out during the day, you’ll be killed by humans. If you go out at night, you’ll be killed by monsters. It’s not really safe to leave.”
Bam pointed at Khun waved his hands around, his expression full of horror. Trying to ask him what he was doing outside then.
“Oh, I’m fine. I teleported here; I was outside for less than 30 seconds before I saw you. I came here using an artifact I stole from my father’s treasury, but I have to go back to where I came from within a certain period of time or the artifact will lose the coordinates on it. Hence why I have to go back before dawn.”
Bam had no idea what he just said, but he said he was fine so that was good enough. Bam then looked up and stared at the circle. He looked at Khun to see if he had his attention and then pointed at the circle, trying to ask him what it was.
Khun looked up, “No, like I said, you can’t go outside.”
Bam shook his head, then looked at the ground trying to find a way to convey his message. He saw a rock that looked a bit sharper than the others and picked it up. He went to the remains of a wall that looked like a big rock, just smoother. He used the rock to draw a circle on it as best he could. Once he was done, he pointed to the circle and then the hole in the ceiling again.
“Oh, are you asking about the moon? The shiny circle thing?”
Bam nodded a few times.
“That’s called the moon. You see the dark blue area around it? That looks like a big ceiling? That’s called a sky. When the sky is dark like right now, you’ll see the moon. It’s actually an imitation made by shinsu by what is said to be the actual sky. It’s also said to have stars.”
Bam tilted his head in confusion at the last part.
“The stars are said to be seen at night when the moon is out.” Khun took the rock from Bam and drew a shape with six points multiple times. “They’re said to look like this, spreading out in the sky, shining at night, like glitter. But they’re just a legend. No one actually thinks they’re real. On some floors, you can see lightbulbs in the sky, held by shinsu. They’re meant to give off the feeling that stars are real, but they’re just fakes.”
Bam looked up at the sky and smiled. Fake or not, it looks beautiful.
“Ah, I have to go now.”
Bam looked back at Khun. Already? But Bam nodded.
Khun exhaled a breath with a small smile, “Don’t worry, Bam. I’ll be back tomorrow night. And I’ll stay for longer tomorrow.”
Bam nodded again. His eyes followed Khun as he climbed up the mountain with ease, turning back and waving his hand at Bam before jumping up and out of the hole. There was some shuffling around, then a flash of light and then it was silent again.
Bam went to the patch of light on the ground provided by the circ—the moon. He laid down spread out, staring at the moon; the first new sight he had seen in who knows how long. He remembered the boy who came and left as if a dream; a figment of his imagination.
Bam thought that Khun was like the moon, brightening up the dark night.
For the first time in forever, Bam slept with a smile on his face, dreaming of blue hair shining in the moonlight.