(Irori's POV)
I crouched low in the pig stable at the edge of the village, half-buried in straw and filth. My body was shaking — from fear, from cold, from everything. The smell of mud, old hay, and animal waste clung to me like guilt. Blood from the wound on my head had dried into a dark crust. Every breath hurt, every heartbeat felt loud enough to give me away.
I hugged my knees tighter, trying to disappear.
Then her voice echoed in my mind. Cold. Certain.
"Once you see color… there is no freedom for you."
Her voice echoed again in my mind. That noble girl. That...Girl. I thought she was cruel, twisted. I thought she was wrong.
But now?
My father had nearly killed me. My village had turned on me. My name — once spoken with pride — now spat like a curse.
And all because I could see what they couldn't.
Color.
I thought it would be beautiful. A gift. A miracle.
Instead, it destroyed me.
Tears welled up again, but I forced them down. Crying didn't help. Not anymore.
Then I heard them.
"Irori!"
"Hey! Where are you?!"
"We just want to talk! Come out!"
Familiar voices.
Kenny. Jack. Lisa.
My heart jumped. My chest ached. My friends. My only friends.
I stood up too fast, legs stumbling beneath me. I pushed open the crooked stable door, slipping out into the open. They stood just beyond the trees, calling my name. Their faces were clearer now than I'd ever seen before.
I froze.
I could see them.
All of them. In color.
Kenny's wild red hair. Jack's forest-green tunic. Lisa — in a soft blue dress with yellow flowers stitched at the hem. Her honey-blonde hair shone in the fading light. Her skin, flushed with life and warmth, looked nothing like I remembered in grayscale.
They were beautiful.
They were real.
I smiled weakly, raising a trembling hand. "Lisa! Kenny! I—I'm here!"
They turned toward me.
And something in their eyes shifted.
Lisa took a slow step back. "Wait. That's him. That's the one, he is here."
"What?" I blinked. "Lisa…?"
Kenny's arm shot up, pointing. "Over here! Elder! He's here!"
Lisa's expression twisted in disgust. "You stink of pigs and death. Curse child."
My smile broke.
No. No, this wasn't happening.
"Jack?" I turned to him, pleading. "Come on… You know me—"
But Jack couldn't even look me in the eye.
"Don't come near us."
Then their voices rose together:
"Demon! Cursed bastard! Someone catch him!"
Something cracked inside me.
The people I grew up with. The ones I trusted most. The girl I… the girl I cared for, I like her now, she cold towards me.
They turned.
They ran toward the village, shouting my name like a warning, not a memory.
And I ran in the opposite direction.
Into the woods.
My legs burned. My lungs felt ready to collapse. Behind me, the village roared again — this time like a mob of fire and steel. I didn't stop. Couldn't stop.
The sun dipped low. Trees swallowed the path. My steps grew weaker, slower, until I could barely walk.
By the time silence returned… I didn't know how far I'd gone. Only that I was alone.
Utterly alone.
I fell to my knees by a dry streambed, hands shaking. My mouth was cracked with thirst. My vision spun.
I looked around — and even in this moment, I saw it.
The colors.
The pale orange sky fading into lavender. The green leaves glowing in the dimming light. The cool blue shadows creeping over bark and stone.
The world was still beautiful.
But for the first time…
I hated it for being so.
"I didn't want this," I whispered to no one. "I just wanted to be seen. Not like this."
I curled into myself, trying to become small. Trying to disappear.
And the forest, in all its color, said nothing back.
My stomach growled so loud it hurt. My lips were cracked. My throat was dry as dust. My legs barely moved under me, like dragging stone. I stumbled through the thinning trees, breathing in sharp, shallow gasps. Every step was heavier than the last.
My feet moved on instinct now — dragging me forward through a world that no longer wanted me. My breath came in shallow gasps, every inhale like swallowing needles. My legs ached, knees scraped raw from the number of times I'd fallen.
But I kept walking.
If I stopped now, I wouldn't get up again.
Then... my legs gave out.
I collapsed, face-first into a patch of overgrown grass and mud. I didn't even try to catch myself. My body just shut down.
I lay there.
Cold. Trembling. Broken.
Tears welled in my eyes, blurring the colors around me. I didn't wipe them away.
They weren't just tears. They were pieces of me. Falling, dripping into the soil, as if the earth was eating who I used to be.
Everything felt far away now. The village. My home. My father.
His words echoed in my skull, louder than they had any right to be.
"You're cursed trash. You should've never been born."
My chest tightened.
"My wife bore a demon-child!"
I dug my fingers into the dirt, gripping it like I could anchor myself to anything.
And then I remembered her.
That noble girl with white hair and red eyes.
"Once you see color… there is no freedom for you."
I didn't understand it then.
Now, I did.
She wasn't threatening me.
She was warning me.
Everything I had—my family, my friends, my home—had turned to ash the moment I saw this so-called gift. The world wasn't brighter because I could see color. It was crueler.
Because I no longer belonged in it.
I sobbed into the dirt. Ugly, shaking sobs that tore from my chest. My whole body quivered. I had nothing left. Nothing.
I wanted to close my eyes and never wake up again.
Then I heard it.
A soft, wet cry. Guttural. Unearthly.
I lifted my head, slowly, heart already pounding before I could even see them.
Red eyes.
Dozens of them. Glowing in the forest's edge, peering out from behind trees, under rocks, between the shadows.
I knew what they were.
Shadebeasts.
Creatures of darkness and spite. Mindless, but not stupid. They hunted with cruelty. Lived in the tunnels beneath the forest during the day. Came out only when the light died.
Like now.
The sky had turned deep purple. The sun had disappeared behind the hills. Twilight was fading.
Night had begun.
And I was still in the woods.
Exposed.
Alone.
I scrambled to my knees, my body screaming in protest. My limbs shook, barely able to keep me upright.
They didn't rush me.
They just watched.
Eighteen of them. Huge, twisted forms with arms that dangled too long and claws that scraped the dirt. Their heads tilted to the side like they were curious.
I backed away slowly.
My hands fumbled for a stick — anything dry. I grabbed a thick branch and slammed it against the ground to strip it. Then I dropped to my knees, pulling a rock from the earth, and began scraping it, desperate to spark fire.
Please… please work.
The shadows crept closer, their grins growing wider, mouths stretched too far across their faces. No lips. No teeth. Just darkness.
I struck again.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
They laughed — or something like it. That hollow, awful cry.
I rubbed faster, putting every ounce of energy I had left into the motion.
And then—
Spark.
Flame.
A tiny fire bloomed on the stick, barely bigger than a candle's breath, but it was enough. The moment it came alive, the creatures recoiled. Hissing. Melting back into the deeper shadows, clinging to the trees like insects.
I stood, holding the flame out in front of me, and limped forward.
I couldn't run.
If I ran, the wind might snuff out the flame.
So I walked. Slowly. Carefully. Every breath trembling.
They followed.
Circling.
Stalking.
Waiting.
The flame began to die. The wind picked up.
I cupped the fire with both hands, but it was already too late.
A gust.
The light died.
Darkness rushed back in.
My breath froze in my throat.
And then, one of them lunged.
Its claws gripped my leg and hurled me like a doll. My body crashed into a tree with a sound like snapping branches — but it wasn't the tree.
It was my leg.
Pain exploded through my entire body. I couldn't even scream. My voice caught in my throat as I writhed on the ground.
I looked up.
They stood above me.
Eighteen monsters.
Grinning.
And in their eyes, I didn't see hunger.
I saw amusement.
They weren't just going to kill me.
They were going to break me.
Tear me apart, piece by piece, and enjoy it.
And the worst part?
They looked just like my father.
Not in face. But in how they saw me.
A burden.
A mistake.
Trash.
Why?
Why was I hated?
Why was being weak a sin?
Why was seeing beauty… a curse?
My lips trembled. Blood ran from my forehead. My heart pounded.
I wasn't even sure I wanted to live anymore.
And yet…
Something deep inside me refused to die.
They laughed.
The monsters — all of them — just laughed.
That horrible, guttural sound filled the forest like a twisted lullaby. Their red eyes gleamed with amusement, not hunger. Their claws dragged in the dirt like they had time to spare.
Time to play with me.
I could barely move. My leg burned like fire. My ribs throbbed. My vision swam with pain and dirt and blood. But I could still hear it.
Laughter.
Not the kind that made you feel safe.
The kind that made you feel like less than a person. Like a toy. A joke.
My lips trembled. My throat felt raw.
"Don't laugh…"
No one stopped.
They kept laughing. Pointing. Mocking. Moving closer like shadows made of nightmare.
I gritted my teeth, tears streaming down my face.
"Don't… laugh at me…"
I saw them.
My father.
My mother's silence.
Kenny.
Jack.
Lisa… her eyes filled with disgust.
They all laughed too. In my head, their faces blurred with the monsters'. Everyone I loved — everyone I trusted — they all became one twisted reflection, one ugly truth:
The world would rather break me than understand me.
"Stop laughing…"
The monsters howled louder now, inches away, their claws raised like they were ready to rip the last thread of me apart.
"I said STOP LAUGHING!!"
And then —
The world shattered.
It didn't feel like casting magic.
It felt like breaking.
Like something inside me cracked wide open — a dam bursting, a scream tearing through not just my throat but my soul.
A golden light exploded from my chest.
No — not just light. It was rage. Fire. Grief. Color.
Everything I had held in. Everything I was never allowed to be.
BOOM.
The blast tore through the forest like the wrath of the gods.
The ground split open.
Trees were vaporized into splinters.
The night sky turned gold.
A deafening roar swallowed the monsters' laughter in a single instant — and then silence.
Where once stood creatures ready to rip me apart…
Now there was nothing.
Only a crater. A massive scar across the forest. Smoke. Fire. Silence.
I stood at the center. My body broken. My spirit drained. My clothes scorched.
The golden glow faded from my skin.
My knees buckled.
And as I collapsed, face down in the dirt I had just torn apart, I whispered one last thought before everything went dark—
"So this… is what it means to be cursed."
Darkness took me again.
To be continue...