Josiah
The world spun around him, his vision blurry and unfocused. It seemed as though the only thing he could see was…
“Kara?” He asked before he could stop himself.
In front of the red head was the boy in question. The Kaz look-alike appeared to be unconscious, his dark hair falling like a curtain in front of his face. Even without that the room was much too dark to actually see much. He was on his knees, seemingly only being held up by a long chain that wrapped around his pale wrists and pinned above his head. Without it Josiah was sure he’d collapse. As he observed the boy he noticed something dripping from his face. His breaths were shallow and he appeared to have difficulty breathing, which Josiah had decided to blame on the tight looking metal collar around his neck.
Josiah tried to reach out to him only to hear the rattle of chains followed by something cold and heavy around his wrists. Looking down the teen realized that he too was chained. The cuffs around his wrists were connected to chains about half a foot in length, preventing any helpful movement.
“Well well well look who decided to wake up.” A scarily familiar voice said
The young boy stiffened at the sound. At first he tried looking anywhere but where the voice came from. This quickly failed as he felt a rough hand grab his face, forcing his head up.
“How many times do I have to tell you to look at me when I’m speaking to you brat?” His father growled
“I’m sorry father.” Josiah responded out of instinct, hating how small and weak his voice sounded.
“Oh you're going to be. Do you know how worried I was about you and your sister? Convincing her to run off like that. You both could have been hurt,” Pekka told him, his voice dripping with mocking sympathy, “Sadly your sister wasn’t with you. Although the person who was might be much better then what I would have hoped.”
Pekka released Josiah from his grip and made his way over to Kara.
“What did you do to him?” Josiah asked, not liking how his worry crept into his voice.
His father simply laughed in response, gripping the other boys hair so tightly it was a wonder none was pulled out. As he pulled Kara's head up Josiah thought he might vomit. Kara’s face had a long cut from the corner of his mouth to his ear. His beautiful eyes were no longer present, instead replaced with black pits dripping with blood.
A scream escaped Josiah's lips as pekka laughed.
“He put up one hell of a fight. It’s a shame it wasn’t enough.” Pekka said with a cruel smile, picking up a butchers knife
“He doesn’t need his hands does he?” His father asked
Before the words could even begin to sink in pekka brought the knife down on kara’s wrists. The pale boy’s form jerked as a deafening scream came from him.
“Well would you look at that he’s awake. It’s so difficult to tell without his eyes in.” Pekka said, swinging the knife again.
Thick sticky blood splattered from Kara's wrists. It took a few more hits to get past the bone. Kara let out painful screams each time the knife made contact with him. Josiah screwed his eyes shut trying his best to block out the screams of pain and terror and the psychotic laughter coming from his father each time he struck with the knife.
Eventually the sound of the knife hitting bone stopped, being replaced by the dry sobs of Kara.
“Aw the poor thing.” Pekka mocked causing Josiah to look up.
The sight before him was horrifying. Kara was sobbing and trembling, the pain evident on his once beautiful face. His hands hung by a small sliver of skin, untouched by the knife
“I think he should be put out of his misery. Don’t you Josiah?” Pekka asked, walking over to a darker corner of the room.
When he returned he was holding a large sharp axe, like the ones used in executions from the olden days.
“Father please don't-” Josiah tried to plead through his sobs and panicked voice, although he was sure he wasn’t understandable.
Kara seemed to understand what was happening and began thrashing around and sobbing harder than before. Although that didn’t matter as Pekka raised the axe and brought it down on the sobbing boys neck
"You shouldn't have left josiah. This wouldn't have happened if you would have just stayed here. Now you'll just have to be my captive until I decide to let you go or show you mercy."
Josiah’s body shook with sobs and he jerked back as Kara's severed head rolled to his feet.
“Aw, poor thing. You must be terrified.” Pekka said mockingly, tilting his son's chin up with his blood covered hand
“Please…” Josiah managed to force out through the sobs, “Please just kill me…” His voice quickly
“Death huh? Is that what you want?” Pekka asked the terrified boy who nodded rapidly in response “Your pathetic Josiah.”
And with that Pekka stood out and left, shutting the door and leaving the boy in complete darkness.
Josiah woke up sobbing. He closed his eyes not wanting to see Kara beside him. But something felt different. When he gathered the courage to, he opened his eyes and looked around the room. He found that he wasn’t kidnapped. His father wasn’t there, he was in his room at Mr. Brekkers place. He could still hear Kara’s screams and was terrified. He wanted to see if it was really just a dream but. He just couldn’t get that image of him out of his head. He knew if he saw Kara he’d just break down in sobs, seeing his damaged face and his screams and pleading for him to stop. He couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t see kara no matter how much he wanted to. Josiah curled into a ball and quietly cried to himself. He wanted to make sure Kara was alive and well but he couldn’t. He didn’t bother trying to sleep. He knew he’d only see his face. He could feel the hours pass by as it slowly turned to morning. He had locked his door not wanting anyone to see him. He also didn’t want Kara to come in. He heard someone twist the door handle trying to get in only to realize that it was locked. The person then knocked on the door. He heard a soft and gentle female voice say “can I come in kiddo?” It must have been Kara’s caring mother, Inej.
Josiah mustered as much strength as he could to stand up and get towards the door. He took a quick glance at himself in a mirror and god did he look like a disaster. There were dark bags under his eyes and his eyes themselves were red and puffy. His clothes were all crumpled and messed up. Tear stains were very obvious on his face and he was having second thoughts about getting up.
‘It’s too late to go back now’ He thought unlocking the door
“Yes Mrs. Brekker?” The boy asked, his voice small and worn from his crying.
“Oh honey are you ok? You look terrible.” Inej asked, her voice filled with worry and concern
Josiah shook his head in response, not trusting himself to speak
“Did you have a nightmare?”
Josiah nodded his head deciding if he wanted to hug her for comfort
“I see. Would you like to talk about it?” She asked gently
Josiah shook his head
“Alright kiddo. Are you hungry?”
“No, I'm good mrs. Inej.” Josiah responded, knowing that if he ate anything he would probably just get sick.
“Alright. If you're hungry, let me know ok?”
“Ok.”
With that Inej left the room, gently shutting the door behind her. Not even five minutes later there came another soft knock on the door. It was a wonder Josiah could even hear it.
“Who is it?” Josiah asked curiously wondering if the person would be able to hear him
“Hey Josiah It’s me.” The beautiful voice said through the closed door, “Mom said you had a nightmare and I think I have something to make you feel better.”
“Ok. Just give me a second.” Josiah responded needing to clear his thoughts before he could face Kara
“Alright.” Kara said and Josiah could swear he heard a squawk.
After a few minutes he finally mustered enough courage to go to the door. He pulled the door open but instead of being met with kara’s beautiful eyes he saw the dark pits flowing with blood. Josiah squeezed his eyes shut, panic flowing through him he knew it wasn’t real or else Kara wouldn’t be this happy but he just couldn’t get it out of his head.
“Josiah are you ok?” Kara asked reaching out to take his hand
Josiah shook his head frantically. He knew he shouldn’t have opened the door.
“What’s wrong? Was it the nightmare you had?”
“I-im sorry Kara I-i just can’t deal with T-this right now.” Josiah said gently pushing Kara out.
Kara looked a bit disappointed but nodded and said “This is for you.” As he handed him a cage with a hawk
“T-thank you.” Josiah said taking the hawk then he shut the door
As Josiah heard footsteps receding down the hallway he slowly slid down the door he was leaning against. He tried to get the horrific image out of his head but he just couldn’t seem to shake it.
‘It’s because you left’ His fathers voice echoed in his mind, ‘You wouldn’t be having these nightmares if you didn’t leave. You should go back. Come back to your home.’
Josiah shook his head trying to get those thoughts out of his head. He didn’t want those thoughts while he was remembering Kara. He didn’t want to go back there. He's finally happy here. But is he really? Kara's father threatens him with his life if he does something. But he’s not being hurt, the threat is always there however… maybe running away from here would be better. Then again he has no idea how it is in other places and he knows what it’s like in Ketterdam. Why is he thinking about this? He couldn’t just leave Kara. That would be unfair to him, especially considering he just gave him a hawk. Maybe he should just stay here. Wait and see how it goes.