章 1: STENCH OF DEATH

EARTH GENESIS,

KNIGHTS OF GENESIS SCHOOL FOR ORPHANS.

***

Caspian could smell the familiar odour of faeces hovering below him. With desperation, he tried to pull his head back but Trevor's relentless force kept it firmly pressed down.

"Damned church mice, eat shit already!"

Trevor gritted, his five fingers clasped onto Caspian's scalp, forcing it deeper into the open toilet. Caspian in turn, clutched onto the ceramic seat, tossing his head about in protest.

He couldn't see them, but from what he could tell, just behind Trevor were two similarly adolescent boys snorting and chuckling with vigour. One was fat and wheezing, the other rapid and frivolous.

Their hostility was certainly concerning, but what bothered Caspian the most was the harrowing spectre that lingered closely behind them, invisible to all but himself. It had been following him about for quite some time now and was getting increasingly hard to ignore.

"Would you two shut up and help me drown this cursed bat already."

Trevor yelled, mocking Caspian's lack of sight. Immediately the two boys shuffled into the bathroom stall with wicked grins stuck to their faces.

The boys pulled on Caspian's arms and the next moment he was submerged in sewage. The taste of which was unnatural and revolting, liken to rotten eggs baked in liquified, stinky cheese. It was so horrible that it could kill a child before it was born.

The disgust died down quickly as the horror of drowning in shit got to him. The longer he spent the more certain his death. Even the boys who had held his arms chickened out at some point, leaving Caspian to struggle with his arms.

Now receiving leeway, Caspian fought harder, tossing his lean arms around in search of Trevor. Sadly all he found was nothing but slippery wet walls.

'Am I going to die?'

He clutched onto the seat, trying to pry himself free from Trevor's grip but his feet kept sliding off the mucky tiles. Falling on hard tiles bruised his knees, but Caspian had to keep kicking for dear life.

The sewage bubbled as he screamed. His cries barely reached his own ears, hence there was little hope it left even the cramped stall.

As time stretched, the deathly presence of the dark spectre seemed to grow more intense, and so did the pressure Trevor exerted.

"Come on Trey this ain't looking good."

Even for Trevor, this was too much.

The dark-haired juvenile had an unnatural twisted smile spread across his face. His eyes were wide with sinister. The boys behind him tried to wrestle him off Caspian, but he was as sturdy as a knight on his steed.

Caspian's arms soon gave out. The bandages that bound his sight were soaked with sewage and tears. He stopped kicking then, letting his body sink deeper into the toilet.

"Holy knights!"

A young man exclaimed as he pushed the children away to pull Caspian out of the toilet.

Caspian's soaked gold hair clung to the back and sides of his face. The knight– Sir Julian, placed him on the tiles and resuscitated him as best he could. Soon, Caspian was throwing up dark-coloured liquid in buckets.

Sir Julian was stunned, staring at Caspian with a mix of worry and bewilderment. The boy got bullied regularly, but this was no bullying, it was attempted murder!

The knight barely spared the boy's present a good glance. He raised Caspian up and into his arms, and with the boy held firmly in his chest, he bolted for the infirmary.

Caspian was fading fast but he was still conscious enough to catch a whiff of vanilla and dandelions hovering by the bathroom door.

"Makima?"

He murmured dejectedly before falling unconscious in the knight's arms.

***

The pungent taste of raw sewage woke Caspian. It was faint but still repulsive enough to keep him from falling asleep anew.

He tossed the sheets to the side as he sat up, lifting his nose to take a whiff of the air around him. The sharp familiar scent of antiseptic and alcohol stung his nostrils but he didn't flinch.

"Again."

Caspian groaned almost mournfully.

He had almost died this time… a bit.

With a sigh, Caspian strained his ears.

Just based on the low groans and deafening howls that surrounded him, he could easily tell he was back in the orphanage infirmary.

He would have cried if he wasn't in one of his favourite rooms. Unfortunately, this time there were no guards to keep him company. They did a pretty decent job at making him forget he was blind.

'Is this really how my every day is going to be like.'

He sighed, noting that he had asked himself this question over a million times. Even at the age of ten, depression was apparent in most children especially kids like Cas. In these doomed years– As the adults often called them, depression was the norm.

Just then, before Caspian's thoughts could stray any further a lady in a white uniform walked in. Her blonde hair gleamed in the golden rays of dying daylight.

Of course, Caspian wasn't fortunate enough to behold this beauty, but he could at least smell her. So well in fact, he was aware of the extra seconds she spent behind the door, probably cursing her luck and trying to gain as much composure as her current task demanded.

'Not everyone could be naturally composed when dealing with a "Crisis ranked abomination" or whatever.'

She was soon beside Caspian, going through her usual checkups with his pulse monitor and the like. As she did, a forced smile lined her lips. Cas noticed this, he could even smell her nervousness.

Being a nurse made her moderately proficient at hiding it though. Unfortunately, for someone raised being feared, her efforts to hide those emotions were futile.

"You're all good to go... Of course, you can stay for as long as you please."

Caspian nodded to that and a few more questions were thrown at him. One question soon broke his train of thought though;

"Are you okay?"

He paused for a while, staring at the direction the cool wind had burst in from. The golden rays of the setting sun flooded the room but Caspian would never be able to see it. He was all too aware of his sad circumstances.

So, he turned to the nurse and let out a deep breath as he said;

"I never will be."

With that, he drew up the sheets to his shoulders and tried to get some rest.

Of course, all he could think of was Makima seeing him in such a pathetic state.

"Ughhh kill me already."

Trying not to think of her was difficult, so eventually his thoughts wandered instead to the deathly spectre.

It had been looming around the school for over a week and no one except for him seemed to notice. Even now he could feel its presence slowly growing closer to the infirmary.

He was used to it so he showed little panic. Besides how could he ever focus on that alone when the scent of vanilla and Dandelions was hastily approaching?

"What does she want from me again?!"

His heart quickened as he soon heard light footsteps approaching his bed.

Out of embarrassment, Caspian had crawled into a ball with his sheets over his head.

Makima watched him for a bit, her glimmering amethyst eyes cold and indifferent. She stared at him for a while, scrutinising every lump his body formed from beneath the sheets. Eventually, she spat out in a low tone;

"Disappointing."

With that, she walked away and so did her ever-fluorescent presence.

Caspian didn't know when a single tear leaked from his eyes. It was almost like everything he had endured so far had struck him all at once.

He sobbed for a good hour.

The rest of the night, Caspian spent wandering the lonesome hallways of the orphanage. Its walls were grand and eloquent, which was quite fitting for a project spearheaded by the government to produce as many able-bodied knights in training as possible.

Of course, there was a lot of politics at play when weaponizing orphans. Sadly, people couldn't care much these days, just a well-structured political sentence could quell "righteous" judgments.

The brainwashing for the students started with the paintings of famous knights with some of their mighty tales written beneath the portraits.

Caspian cared very little for them since he couldn't see a thing.

The kids at the orphanage cared even less, after all, they were smart enough to know that even after the deaths of these famous knights, their children wouldn't end up here with them as they had clans to fall back to.

Most of the kids here had parents who weren't high-ranking enough, hence they were forgotten. It wasn't like the kids here didn't get treated properly, in fact, they lived like royalty in these doomed years, but that alone meant very little to kids without parents.

Caspian liked to run his fingers through the written text beneath the portraits and imagine what they would look like.

He didn't care for that tonight though.

Caspian was very familiar with the mansion and could very easily make his way through it without any aid.

All he did was run his hands through the walls and eventually, he reached his destination—The mansion's roof.

The familiar breeze struck him as he had expected it to. He climbed here almost every other night. It was his other favourite place besides the infirmary.

Up here the space was different, there were so many different scents running through the air it almost felt like he was in another world.

He sat by the edge of the roof and swung his feet. It might have been risky to someone who had lost his sight but again Caspian didn't care much.

He sat there for a while, delighting himself with the scent of Oak trees and humid shrubs.

When the wind got stronger, he rose to his feet and stared blankly into the empty space below him. A fall from here would surely end in an ending.

He stared long and hard, then rose one foot forward, leaving it to dangle in the air with just his one leg planted on the roof.

"I probably wouldn't even know when I'd hit the ground... No one would know."

He chuckled darkly, paused, and then dropped the leg.

"Damn it!"

He cursed then closed his mouth with both hands, a bit stunned at his cursing.

"You coward."

He sighed. There was still much he could do with his life.

"Life is filled with possibilities, right?"

He said taking a half step back.

But just then a strange scent enveloped his surroundings. His eyes widened in shock as it settled behind him.

Before he could even react, he felt a light tap on his shoulder, just enough to rock him off balance.

The next second Caspain was falling head first. He had no screams, too stunned to strain his throat. Not long after he struck the cobblestone floor with a loud thud.